Sermon for
Ascension, May14, 2026
Grace to you and peace from him who is, who was, and who is coming. Amen.
Acts 1:4-11 4Once,
when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not depart from Jerusalem,
but wait for what the Father promised, which you heard from me. 5For John baptized with water, but
you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6So when they were together with
him, they asked, “Lord, is this the time when you are going to restore the
kingdom to Israel?” 7He said
to them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has
set by his own authority. 8But
you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be
my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth.” 9After he said these
things, he was taken up while they were watching, and a cloud took him out of
their sight. 10They were
looking intently into the sky as he went away.
Suddenly, two men in white clothes stood beside them. 11They said, “Men of Galilee, why
are you standing here looking up into the sky?
This same Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come
back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (EHV)
Jesus
ascended to give us life and salvation.
Dear beloved of the Lord,
“He ascended into heaven.” King David prophesied about this great day
when he wrote, “You ascended on high.
You led captivity captive. You
received gifts among men, so that even among the rebellious the Lord God might
dwell.” (Psalm 68:18) We confess this truth every Sunday in our Creeds, but
many a sceptic might wonder why we celebrate Jesus’ ascension. Perhaps, they ask, with all the trouble in
the world and the attacks of so many enemies of our faith, wouldn’t it have
been better if Jesus had stayed right here with us? Couldn’t He be helping protect and preserve
us still today? In other words, their
desire for a Savior is just like the people who wanted to make Jesus their king
after He miraculously fed the five thousand.
Whenever
we begin to question God’s plans, it is certain that we are missing something,
lack faith or are simply missing God’s Good News. Though some may expect that the Church would
remember Jesus’ ascension with sorrow and fear, the Christian Church has always
celebrated the Ascension of our Lord with great joy. The reason is that without Jesus ascending to
His Father’s side in heaven, you and I and all people would remain lost in sin
and condemnation. However, so that
saving faith might be worked in us, Jesus ascended to give us life and
salvation.
The first thing we must
understand is that faith, forgiveness, and salvation come to us only by
faith. There is nothing we can do on our
own to reach God or to deserve His reward of a place in heaven. The Holy Spirit moved Paul to write,
“Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through the word
of Christ.” (Romans 10:17) On the
first Pentecost after Jesus’ ascension, Peter
declared to the crowds, “Jesus
is the stone that was rejected by you builders, which has become the
cornerstone. There is salvation in no
one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we
must be saved.” (Acts
4:11-12) Paul also wrote in his letter
to the Ephesians, “God, because he is rich in mercy, because of the great
love with which he loved us, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead
in trespasses. It is by grace you have
been saved!” (Ephesians 2:4-5)
Okay, so what does all
this have to do with Christ’s ascension to heaven? We go back to what Jesus told His disciples
shortly before His arrest: “Now
I am going away to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you
going?’ Yet because I have told you
these things, sorrow has filled your heart.
Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth: It is good for you that I go
away. For if I do not go away, the
Counselor will not come to you. But if I
go, I will send him to you.”
(John 16:5-7)
Jesus’ work as the true
God-Man was to redeem and save. His work
on earth was now accomplished. It was
time for the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, to take up His work of bringing
forgiveness and salvation to a world of sinners. This was God’s plan from the beginning. It is why we rejoice for Jesus’ return to His
Father’s side in heaven. Jesus also
confided, “When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all
truth. For he will not speak on his own,
but whatever he hears he will speak. He
will also declare to you what is to come.
He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare
it to you. Everything the Father has is
mine.” (John 16:13-15)
This brings us back to our
text this evening. As Jesus finished His
final preparations before His ascension, He told the disciples, “Do not
depart from Jerusalem, but wait for what the Father promised, which you heard
from me. For John baptized with water,
but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Now, there are people who mix this word of
the Lord with His command to baptize to give faith. John’s baptism was and is valid for cleansing
our souls and granting rebirth into a life of faith and salvation. However, the baptism Jesus promises here was
a pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon those chosen disciples giving them information
and understanding of all that God had been promising from the beginning, as
well as courage for the road ahead. The
assignment to those chosen apostles was that they would take Jesus’ message to
the world for people like you and me.
Still, some insist that
this Spirit baptism is what saves. What
they don’t understand is that what saves is the message of God’s Word handed
down to us through those apostles and recorded for us in the Scriptures. Yes, there were some miraculous powers that
came along with this washing of the Holy Spirit, but Paul warns that those miraculous
signs would fade away, just as the glory of God faded from Moses’ face after he
left his meeting with God fourteen hundred years earlier.
The point for us is that
Jesus’ ascension is His return to His Father’s side as the conquering King who
had won the eternal victory on our behalf.
What we could never do to conquer sin and death, Jesus had accomplished
for all. In the Revelation, Jesus was
again revealed to John as “The Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of
David”—the Lamb who was slain and yet lives in victory, power, and
knowledge of the future things. (Revelation 5:5) About Jesus, the apostle Paul wrote, “God
also placed all things under his feet and made him head over everything for the
church.” (Ephesians 1:22)
As the Head of the Church,
Jesus sees all things, knows all things, and directs all things for the good of
His Church. (Romans 8:28) Therefore,
with all the power of God, Jesus, also according to His human nature, is
reigning over the heavens and the earth.
Again, some may ask, then why do bad things still happen to His
people? The answer, of course, is that
God desires that people be reconciled with Him and enter His heaven through
faith. If Jesus made this world to be
without sin and glorious, it would be a false paradise with no believers and no
one ever entering His heavenly kingdom. Being
precise, this would be submission to Satan’s schemes when he tempted Jesus in
the wilderness.
Therefore, while the Lord
allows us to experience hardships, pain, suffering, loss, and even death in
this world, Jesus, through the Spirit in Word and Sacrament, is building up our
faith in Him as our Savior so that we may live and reign with Him in the
mansions of His heavenly Father.
As the Head of the Church,
Jesus had to return to His Father’s side because where the Head goes, so the
body will follow. Though we may not
always understand the plan, Jesus is working all things for our eternal welfare. Furthermore, His promise remains true that no
matter where we are on earth, or what conditions we must face here, He is with
us, and not just in wishful thinking, but through the power of His Word and His
Holy Spirit. Though we no longer see Him
physically, He is with us in worship, in danger, in good times, and in trials
and pains. Just as the Lord led Israel out
of Egypt and though the wilderness after delivering them from slavery, so He
leads us through the wilderness of this troubled world, so that trusting in
Jesus by faith, He may lead us into eternal Paradise in heaven.
On that last day Jesus
spent with His disciples in person, they asked about His kingdom, and Jesus
enlightened us with His answer, “It is not for you to know the times or
seasons that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy
Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all
Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” It is not given for us to know how
our times will end, or when Jesus will return.
Yet, the power of His Spirit in the Word allows us to see Jesus as He
is—the Son of God who gave His life on a cross to redeem and save us from sin
and condemnation. Furthermore, God has
not left us without hope.
“After he said these
things, he was taken up while they were watching, and a cloud took him out of
their sight. They were looking intently
into the sky as he went away. Suddenly,
two men in white clothes stood beside them.
They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking up into
the sky? This same Jesus, who has been
taken up from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him
go into heaven.’” We are not left hopeless, because Jesus never
fails to keep His promises, and He has promised to return and take us to be
with Him where He dwells. (John 14:3)
There are warnings in the
Scriptures concerning Judgment Day against those who do not believe. As He was led to the cross to be crucified,
Jesus quoted the prophet Hosea in warning those who grieved His sacrifice, “Then they will begin to say to the
mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’” (Luke 23:30) Concerning His return on the final day, Jesus
had already instructed His disciples just as the angels promised the people on
the mountain as He rose to His Father’s heaven, “They will see the Son of Man coming in
a cloud with power and great glory. But
when these things begin to happen, stand up and lift up your heads, because
your redemption is near.”
(Luke 21:27-28) On Ascension, we rejoice
because now our redemption and ascension to Jesus’ side is near. This is the Lord’s promise to you and me and
all who believe in Him as their Savior and Redeemer. We have a secure future and an everlasting
home in heaven, because Jesus ascended to give us life and salvation. Amen.
May the Lord of peace
himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with you all.
Amen.
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