The
Church Season of Easter,
The
Ascension of Our Lord, One Year Series
Our
Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (May 17, 2012)
Readings: Psalm
110
2 Kings 2:5-15Acts 1:1-11
Luke 24:44-53
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Grace,
mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and
the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen
The text for today’s message will be from the Gospel lesson as recorded in the 24th chapter of St. Luke, especially the following verses:
Luke
24:44-53 (ESV)
44 Then he said to them, “These are my words
that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about
me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on
the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of
sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my
Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on
high.” 50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and
lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51 While he blessed them, he parted from them
and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to
Jerusalem with great joy, 3 and were continually in the temple
blessing God.
In the Name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Alleluia!
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He
is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
The Paschal
candle is lit for services through the Easter season, but today it is
extinguished for the rest of the year except for baptisms, funerals and the
time of Christmas.
And today
we celebrate Jesus Christ’s Ascension into heaven. Jesus returns to His heavenly home. On this day, the day of Ascension, Christ led
His apostles to Bethany, He blessed them and then He ascended into heaven. We can only imagine what the apostles were
thinking. We know that good byes are
always hard when the person you love is going away. We have all shed
tears when we say farewell to someone we won't be seeing for a while.
Christ was leaving, but He was not leaving as the apostle’s understood
it. As an analogy, He left sort of like
the Paschal candle left this room during the Holy Gospel. You’re right, it did not leave merely the
light representing Christ was extinguished and you watched as the smoke rose
from the candle and slowly vanished. But
the candle is still here. Jesus is not
gone He is here with us still.
When those same apostles saw Jesus alive, their faith was restored.
Scripture tells us that Jesus, "showed himself to these men and gave
many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a
period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God." (Acts
1:3) During all these appearances the apostles put their trust in Jesus again
and He forgave all their doubts and unbelief.
Our text says "(Jesus) opened their minds so they could
understand the Holy Scriptures" (Luke 24:45). Jesus gave the apostles
the ability to understand the Bible, and that He had fulfilled all that was
written about the Messiah. Nothing more
needed to be accomplished. Salvation for the world was complete.
From then on, any person who asked God for forgiveness in the Name of Jesus
would get it. Nothing more can be added to what Jesus had done.
And while Jesus' work was finished, the disciples work was just about to
begin. They were to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came to
them. Then they were called upon to preach the message of repentance and
forgiveness in his Name to all nations.
And
Christ's commission to his disciples continues today. The disciples, the
learning ones, were now apostles, the sent ones. We continue to proclaim repentance and the
forgiveness of sins as John the Baptist did and as Jesus did too. as we receive
it from the printed page.
Jesus has ascended to heaven, but He is not distant from us. He
sends us the Holy Spirit through the church's preaching and administering His
sacraments. We ask Jesus to open our minds to understand the Holy
Scriptures as He did for the first disciples. In them we find the meaning
we need to guide our lives as servants of God.
At
the Ascension of Jesus, the church said goodbye to the face to face contact
with Jesus. Now, through the preaching and the sacraments which He instituted,
the Holy Spirit brings Christ to us in means that are hidden, yet
powerful. We are to use this time God has given us to prepare for Jesus'
return. There are so many souls to be reached, and there is so little
time. While we may weep that Jesus has ascended, His incarnation has won
for us joy beyond all understanding.
While we are here we bask in the joy of salvation won, yet that does not
mean we should rest and do nothing. Christ
has won salvation for all and graciously we are called to proclaim that
salvation to the ends of the earth.
There are no sad goodbyes today.
Yet we still may ask, ‘what of those tears we shed for those family and
friends who have gone before us in the faith?’
The answer is that when we join Jesus Christ in His heavenly home He, “will
wipe away every tear from [your] eyes.”(Rev 21:4) No pain of loss or separation will
remain. In fact, there is no separation,
for even in Christ’s Ascension, He has told us that He will still be “with
us even to the end of the ages.”(Mt. 28:20)
So when you see the unlit Christ candle here at the altar, remember the
candle is still here. Remember that
Jesus has indeed ascended to heaven, and there Jesus our heavenly high priest
brings our prayers to the Father, and He rules over His church with grace and
forgiveness. That knowledge of Christ, that faith and belief given to you
is the delivery of His promise of salvation.
And the means for this delivery is His Word and Sacraments. From His house to your house, from His body
to your body, free, no postage due, no strings attached just the pure sweetness
of the Gospel for you in the promise of eternal life. Amen.
Alleluia!
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
He
is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of
God
and the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit be with you all.
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