When we think of our Lord’s ascension into heaven we tend to think of it as a well-deserved rest at the end of a long day of work. Jesus did what he needed to do for our salvation and so he went back to heaven to take it easy until it is time to judge the world. But that really is a misunderstanding of the event we remember and celebrate today.
From everlasting to everlasting our Lord has been working for our salvation. From before the creation of the world he knew us and loved us and chose us to be his own. He worked out his plan of salvation throughout history. He entered into human history himself and died and rose again.
And EVEN NOW that he has ascended into heaven and resumed his place at the Father’s right hand, he continues to work for us so that we would live with him in heaven.
As we reflect on God’s Word tonight we are going to see that our Lord is busy and active in accomplishing his saving will in our lives and in the church and the world. The bible says:
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
If the ascension WAS about the Lord taking a much-needed break—who could blame him? His entire life was dedicated to our salvation—7 days a week, 24 hours a day throughout his entire life—every thought, word, and deed done for us so that we can have a life with God.
His words and deeds are written down in the bible so that we can believe in him and have life in his name. John said at the end of his Gospel that these things are written so that we might believe in Jesus. And of course that is true of the whole Bible—including the two books that Luke wrote.
The story of our Lord’s work of salvation is not like the story of the Greek and Roman gods or the pagan myths of the ancient world. It is a story that is grounded in history—real places and times and people. There were multitudes of people who saw Jesus’ miracles and heard his teachings. His death and resurrection are facts of history that people just like you and me witnessed.
Luke interviewed these eyewitnesses and gathered reports and traveled to the places of our Lord’s life so that he could write an accurate history of our Lord’s saving work.
And not only did he write a human history—he wrote the very words of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit and empowered by the Holy Spirit so that those who read his words could come to faith in Jesus.
Theophilus was one who did. Luke’s Gospel was the means by which God brought him to faith and with the Book of Acts Luke tells him the rest of the story—the story of the church and the mission of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, all of which Jesus accomplished AFTER his ascension into heaven.
Our Lord continued to work for the salvation of the world even after his return to the Father. He had a specific plan for the EVENTS of salvation-- but also for how that salvation would go forth into the world, empowered by the Holy Spirit whom he would send. The Bible says:
While staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
One of the questions that I will be asking our catechumens during the public examination is: For what three-fold office was Christ anointed? And they will answer: prophet, priest, and king. And then I will ask them: what did Christ do in each of these roles? And they will answer: as a prophet he preached and taught the people—as priest he sacrificed himself on the cross—and as king he rules the church and the world for the sake of our salvation.
These questions and answers are not just something that little Lutheran children have to learn to be confirmed—they are the teaching of the Bible!
In the first verses of our text we hear that Jesus taught his disciples about the kingdom of God and that he suffered and died and rose from the dead. His work as prophet and priest are recorded in the Bible.
But it is here in these verses that begin to see more clearly his work as king and his wise and gracious rule over the church and the world so that his mission could go forth.
Even though he would ascend into heaven, Jesus was by no means abandoning the church or leaving his disciples to their own devices. He commissioned them to tell the world about all that he had said and done and he had a plan -and the provisions for that plan- to see it accomplished.
His plan to save the world would begin were they were right then—in Jerusalem—close to home. And he would provide them what they needed—the gift of the Holy Spirit that he would pour out on them in just a few short days.
As we read the story of the church in Acts -and as we study history to see how the church moved forward—going from an oppressed, persecuted group of a few hundred to thousands and today to billions—the wisdom and work of our ascended King is on full display.
Jesus has not been napping over these two thousand years since his ascension, he has graciously and wisely been ordering the affairs of the church- and providing for us spiritually- and ruling the world -so that his people can come to faith and be saved.
In every place and time where the Good News about Jesus is preached and given in the Sacraments, there the Holy Spirit is given to his people so that we can come to faith and then take our place and do our part in his mission.
Before his ascension, Jesus told his disciples that it was for their own good that he was ascending to his Father—and we see in what follows how true that is. The Bible says that:
When they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
We know how difficult it was for the disciples to really understand what Jesus had come to do. Even when they confessed him as the Christ and the Son of God they were still so painfully mistaken about what that meant that Jesus told Peter: get behind me Satan.
Jesus came to die—to give his life as a ransom to set us free from sin. He came to destroy death by rising from the dead. He came to make us a part of God’s kingdom and restore us to God’s family.
He did not come to heal every sick person. He did not come to raise every person form the dead only to see them die again. And he certainly did not come to re-establish an earthly Israel filled with material blessings for a select few.
So long as Jesus was right there beside them, the disciples would always be tempted to long for these kinds of things and it is only after his ascension and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we really begin to see them grasp the greatness of our Lord’s mission—that it wasn’t really about an obscure little country or one particular group of people—but that it encompassed the universe and all people-- and his saving purpose was nothing less than a new heaven and anew earth where mankind would live with God just as they had in the beginning.
This is what he had come to do and the disciples needed to turn their eyes away from their own narrow interests and take their place in his mission to make known the greatness of our Savior’s love for all people.
The same is true for us. We too are tempted to see our relationship with Jesus as having a “genie in a bottle” who will give us what we want and serve our narrow vision of what’s important.
But Jesus’ concern is for the world and for all people and he calls us to look beyond ourselves to the interests of others and their salvation. And so Jesus blesses his people with the gift of the Holy Spirit to empower our witness to the world. Jesus told them:
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
Jesus kept his promise. Ten days after these words were spoken, he poured out the Holy Spirit on his disciples and immediately they began to tell those around them the mighty things that Jesus had accomplished in their life.
Jesus has also given us the Holy Spirit for the same purpose. That we believe in him and trust in him is a sure sign that we have the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that: no one can say: Jesus is Lord EXCEPT by the Holy Spirit.
But that we know and believe in Jesus (as wonderful as that is!) is not the end of his saving purpose in our lives. Just like with the disciples then, so with the disciples here tonight, Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit because he intends that we would take our place and fulfill our purpose in his mission to save all people before the day of judgment when it will be too late. The Bible says that:
While they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Jesus ascended into heaven with power and glory and in Revelation we read that he was welcomed as a mighty, conquering king who is to be worshiped and adored and glorified forever.
He will return in exactly the same way—in power and glory for the final deliverance of his people-- but also for the final destruction of his enemies. Between his ascension day and his judgment day he has called us and equipped us by the Holy Spirit to do all within our power to make sure the number of his enemies is as small as possible-- for the Lord does not desire the death of the wicked but that they would turn from their sins and receive him as Lord and Savior. He wants us to have a part in that!
And so our eyes are not directed to the clouds --but to our fellow man and to the mission that our Lord has entrusted to our hands, confident that our ascended King will accomplish his saving purpose through us. May God grant it for Jesus’ sake! Amen.
