His mission accomplished, Jesus returns to His Father.

 

Sermon for Ascension, May 29, 2025

Grace to you and peace from God our Father; “this same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven."  Alleluia! 

Luke 24:44-53  ⁴⁴He said to them, “These are my words, which I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”  ⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.  ⁴⁶He said to them, “This is what is written and so it must be: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things.  ⁴⁹Look, I am sending you what my Father promised.  But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”  ⁵⁰He led them out as far as the vicinity of Bethany.  He lifted up his hands and blessed them.  ⁵¹And while he was blessing them, he parted from them and was taken up into heaven.  ⁵²So they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.  ⁵³They were continually in the temple courts, praising and blessing God.  Amen. (EHV)

His mission accomplished, Jesus returns to His Father.

Dear friends in Christ,

            It is not uncommon for people to wish that Jesus would still be walking among us.  They often speculate that life would be easier for Christians if Jesus was still on earth helping, healing, feeding, and protecting us.  That wish is misguided.  We must remember the world’s reaction when Jesus first walked among His people.  For a while He drew great interest and support, but later, He was rejected by nearly everyone in the land, both enemy and friend alike.  Therefore, let it be understood that there is good reason for Jesus’ followers to celebrate His ascension, for with His mission accomplished, Jesus returns to His Father.

In one of His first public sermons recorded by Luke, Jesus read from the prophet, Isaiah, and He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21)  In our Gospel lesson last Sunday, Jesus said, “‘In a little while you are not going to see me, and again in a little while you will see me.’  Amen, Amen, I tell you: You will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice.  You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy.” (John 16:19-20) 

When Jesus’ disciples where troubled and afraid as He was telling them of His upcoming suffering and death, Jesus told them, “If you love me, hold on to my commands.  I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.  He is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him.  You know him because he stays with you and will be in you.” (John 14:15-17)  Here, in our text, we receive an explanation for all these statements and really every passage of God’s Word; He said to them, “These are my words, which I spoke to you while I was still with you: ‘Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.’”  So, with His mission accomplished, Jesus returns to His Father.

For all of these reasons, we can understand why Jesus had to return to His Father in heaven rather than stay with us here on earth.  On the night He was betrayed, Jesus told His disciples, “I want the world to know that I love the Father and that I am doing exactly what the Father has instructed me.” (John 14:31)  For our eternal rescue from sin, Satan, and death, everything had to be done exactly according to God’s plan.  God so loved you, that He left nothing to chance, nor any requirement for us to do something to go to God.  Jesus so loved you, that He was doing everything according to His Father’s perfect will so that you and I and so many others might someday believe in Jesus, and by faith in Him be welcomed into peace, glory, and eternal life in the paradise of heaven.  Anything less than perfect wouldn’t get us there.

Jesus came into this world to win our rescue.  By His holy life and innocent death, Jesus then accomplished reconciliation with God for us.  Yet, the world has, since the fall into sin, been in rebellion against God, and there is only one way in which people can be brought out of that rebellion that leads to death, and that is by faith in Jesus Christ worked in us by the Holy Spirit.  We would, of course, expect that a risen Jesus would draw people to faith.  Yet, the evidence is against that idea. 

In Jesus’ parable, when the rich man pleaded with Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers to convince them to trust God and avoid his eternal condemnation, “Abraham replied to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” (Luke 16:31)  Jesus rose from the dead and the general public still refused to believe in Him.  However, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the rebellious soul and stone-dead heart is conquered and people begin to believe.

Here with His disciples, Jesus “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.  He said to them, ‘This is what is written and so it must be: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.  Look, I am sending you what my Father promised.  But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.’”  Jesus opened their minds so that they could finally understand everything Jesus and the Old Testament scriptures taught them, but the power to share that message was still to come.  Not too many days in the future, Jesus was sending to them the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of truth,” who would empower their testimony and accomplish faith in the Gospel.

Doing everything according to His Father’s will and plan, Jesus was getting everything in place so that you and I nearly two thousand years later may be rescued from the suffering and death our sins have deserved.  It is the same for all people who have believed in Jesus in the last two thousand years.  We have been saved by the power of the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus and His Father to work saving faith in our hearts.  We celebrate Jesus’ Ascension to heaven, because it is the culmination of Jesus doing everything we need to be saved.  It is by His Spirit of truth that we are granted faith in Him and through that faith, a new life, forgiveness, and peace.

“He led them out as far as the vicinity of Bethany.  He lifted up his hands and blessed them.  And while he was blessing them, he parted from them and was taken up into heaven.  The previous time Jesus had been taken away from them, the disciples were truly terrified and dismayed.  When Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, put on trial, tortured, nailed to a cross to die; when a spear to His side proved without a doubt He was dead, then buried in a borrowed grave, the disciples were bereft of any hope.  They didn’t know where to turn for comfort or peace.  All they could see was the One in Whom they had so much confidence seemingly defeated by His enemies.

Oh, but now we know that was no defeat.  Though the devil maybe laughed and cheered in the moment Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) Satan’s seeming triumph was actually his destruction for by His death on the cross for the sins of the world, Jesus has won freedom from the devil’s control for all people.  On Easter morning, when Jesus rose from the grave alive, the devil and hell and the grave lay shattered.  The gaping jaws of devil and grave alike will never again be able to hold God’s people.  Never again will the devil accuse us before God’s throne.  Never again dare anyone accuse Jesus of blaspheming God, because Jesus proved He is true God as well as true Man, and in that combination is life and peace and hope and joy and forgiveness and cleansing.  Through faith in Jesus granted by the power of the Holy Spirit through the means of the Gospel, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, you and I and millions more have been brought into His everlasting Kingdom of heaven.

That day, the people, who once had been so devastated to see Jesus go away, rejoiced to see Him rise up toward the heavens unaided, because His ascension proves that Jesus has accomplished everything needed to save us.  Every word of Scripture has been confirmed as true and reliable.  “So they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.  They were continually in the temple courts, praising and blessing God.  Amen.”  From the depths of sorrow and gloom as Jesus lay dead in the grave to His moment of glorious triumph, the disciples had been put through the wringer you might say, but no longer would they be afraid.  No longer would they grieve Jesus’ death.  No longer would they wonder about the future, because Jesus was sending His Spirit to make their eternal future, and ours, a sure never-ending joy.  Amen—this is most certainly true.

Dear friends, all that is why we celebrate tonight.  We celebrate for the creation of the world, for the rescue of Noah and family in the great flood, for Israel’s rescue from Egypt, for all the messages of promise given by all the prophets, but especially, we celebrate Jesus’ birth, life, sacrifice, His suffering and death on our behalf, and even more so His resurrection on Easter morning.  All these things are confirmed as accomplished when Jesus returned to His Father’s side in victory. 

Those disciples, and we with them, celebrate because Jesus’ victory and our sure salvation are promised in His Word.  Likewise, we know for sure that Jesus is ruling all things for our eternal good.  We know with certainty that every word of our Lord is sure and reliable, so we know that Jesus will return to judge the world and to take home to His Father’s mansions in heaven all those who have walked by faith in Him. 

So, now we rejoice.  Because Jesus accomplished everything needed here on earth, we are assured that He will continue to do everything needed to bring us through this troubled world and safely into His eternal glory.  His word is truth.  Therefore, His mission accomplished, Jesus returns to His Father.  To Him be praise and glory forever.  Amen.

Now may the God of all grace, bless you and strengthen your faith with the peace of His Son, Jesus Christ, through the comfort and assurance of His Holy Spirit unto everlasting life.  Amen.