Sermon for Ascension Day
Acts 1:1-11 + Mark 16:14-20
By the 40th day after His resurrection, the earthly work of Jesus was 100% complete. He had lived the life every man was supposed to live, a life of perfect obedience to God’s Law. He had died the once-for-all death that atones for the sins of the world. He had defeated death and the devil and risen to life again. He had appeared alive to His disciples on several occasions, leaving behind over five hundred witnesses of His resurrection. He had taught them everything He needed to teach them in person.
The earthly work of Jesus was done, but that doesn’t mean that His work was done. Far from it! A good while before His crucifixion, Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Today, on Ascension Day, we celebrate the ongoing fulfillment of that promise. Today marks the day when Jesus began His reign at the right hand of God, where the ascended Lord works for no other purpose than to build His Church, as Paul writes to the Ephesians, God seated Christ at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
How does Jesus work? By sending out His apostles, prophets, pastors and teachers, by giving them to His Church as His ambassadors—“ambassadors for Christ” Paul called himself and his fellow ministers. That “sending” began with the eleven apostles, to whom He said: You shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Like a man going away on a journey, He left His stewards in charge of His house, His Church, both to care for those who were already members of it and to do the work that would bring others into it. Their principal assignment: to preach the Gospel. Preach it everywhere. Preach it to everyone. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
What is the Gospel? It’s really the whole message of the Old and New Testaments, which centered around Christ; the “good word” or “good news” that points sinners to Christ Jesus as the Savior of the world. It has been summarized in various ways. At the end of Luke, Jesus summarizes it with these words: Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in Christ’s name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Repentance and remission of sins, for all have sinned and earned eternal condemnation for themselves. But instead of proclaiming that there’s no hope for sinners, the Gospel, the “good news,” is that God has sacrificed His Son for us, and that He is holding out to all people a way out of the devil’s kingdom, a way out of condemnation, a way into His grace and favor. That way is Jesus Christ. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
That’s a beautiful summary of the Gospel. But remember, it’s a summary, not the whole of Christ’s teaching. Don’t be fooled by all the people out there who want to reduce the Gospel to “as long as you believe in Jesus, it doesn’t matter what else you do, what else you believe, what else you confess.” In the last chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus was very clear about what His ministers are to preach and teach and what His Christians throughout the world are to do with that teaching: Make disciples of (that is, teach!) all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Notice, Jesus says He is with His Church always. And yet, only days after He said this, He was taken up into heaven. So what does His ascension mean?
It simply means that Christ is no longer present with us visibly. It means He has a different way of being with us. It means He’s here, working, building His Church through the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments that He Himself instituted—Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. It means He’s still present with the preachers He sends, and with the saints who hear them, support them, pray for them, and lead holy lives in the world, spreading the Gospel by their example and by their own words.
It means that, although He sits at the right hand of God and reigns over all things, Jesus is right here in our midst, too, hearing our prayers, receiving our worship, sending His Holy Spirit into our midst, and building His Church right here, right now, according to His own plan, according to His own purpose.
We all need to remember this in our little church, in our little diocese. It’s so tempting to look around and ask, what are we doing wrong? Where are all the people? Why aren’t we growing? What will the future hold for us here? But the future isn’t in our hands. It’s in the hands of the One who reigns at God’s right hand, our Savior, our Brother. And He hasn’t revealed His plans or purposes to us, except for this: Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
As for growing and expanding, all of us here would love to see more people in these chairs and throughout our diocese, hearing God’s Word, confessing Christ together with us. But we have to be careful that we don’t let our wishes begin to compete with Christ’s purposes. If He, seated at the right hand of God, chooses to show mercy and grace to our community and to our country by bringing more people to hear His truth purely taught, then He will turn the events of their lives to bring them into contact with us, and the Spirit of truth, through the preaching of the truth, will convince them of the truth. If He, seated at the right hand of God, chooses to harden the hearts of the impenitent, to punish those who cling to their idols, to test our faith, or to glorify His grace and to highlight His strength through our weakness, then we may remain small. But if we believe that Christ ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, then let us also believe that He is Lord of the Church, and that all He does among us is perfect and right and just exactly what He wants to do.
It’s not for us to worry about what happens to Christ’s Church. That job belongs to the One who ascended into heaven and sits at God’s right hand. All that remains for us is to do the very thing He commanded His disciples before He ascended: Preach the Gospel to every creature. Teach. Baptize. Do “this” (celebrate the Sacrament of the Altar) in remembrance of Him. Pray. Support the ministry with your offerings, and support one another with works of love and service. We have our work to do. Let’s do it zealously, trusting in the Lord Jesus to do His own work, and to do it perfectly, until He comes back from heaven in the same way they once watched Him go up into heaven! Until then, the ascended Lord will build His Church. May we, by grace, ever be found within her walls! Amen.
