The King now sits on His throne

Sermon for the Festival of the Ascension of Our Lord

Acts 1:1-11  +  Mark 16:14-20

Ascension Day couldn’t have come at a better time. It brings with it a much-needed sigh of relief. In the midst of this world’s chaos and violence and senseless killing of children, both in and out of the womb, we celebrate today the fact that a good and righteous King has gone up out of this world in order to reign over this world and to prepare a place for us, a King who reigns, not by ridding the world of evil in this age, but by controlling all things, both good and evil, so that it all must serve His purpose of building His Church and preserving His people so that we make it safely to the coming age. In the midst of this world’s death-spiral, St. Luke’s words in the Book of Acts still ring out today in churches around the world, The former account I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day on which he was taken up.

 Did you hear what St. Luke said? “All that Jesus began to do and to teach until He was taken up.” Luke’s Gospel is the “former account” of that beginning. You know what Luke’s Gospel proclaims. How the God who made this world sent His Son into it, descended from Adam and Abraham and David, born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary. Why? For what purpose? To make it a nicer place to live? To set up an earthly kingdom where justice and decency prevail? Not at all. This world was doomed from the first sin of Adam and is destined for fire and destruction. The history of mankind is not one of evolution or progression upward toward a better and brighter world. On the contrary, the whole history of mankind is a history of violence and immorality, of regression and decay. Oh, there is a memory of righteousness inherent in our race, a conscience that speaks from within. You can sometimes see people striving for what is good and right. But in the end, sin and death are the defining qualities of mankind, not justice and righteousness and peace.

No, the things that Jesus began to do and to teach during His days on earth were not the establishment of an earthly kingdom. He came into this world to reveal God to us in person. The real God. Not a God who fixes man’s sin or ignores man’s sin. But a God who suffers for it Himself, who pays for it with His own blood, who makes atonement for it by His own death and offers sinners a refuge against the judgment and condemnation that their sins have earned for them. That refuge is Christ Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, crucified, dead, buried, descended into hell, and risen again on the third day, now ascended into heaven and seated at the right hand of God. Faith in Christ and the blood He shed for us is what reconciles sinners to God, brings us back together with Him, places us in His good graces and guarantees us a future life in the coming age that is far better than this present one. That’s what St. Luke’s Gospel account was all about. It was the beginning of the account of Jesus’ doing and teaching, but only the beginning.

The whole earthly life of Jesus, which St. Luke chronicles for us in his Gospel, from His birth all the way up to His ascension, was just the beginning, what He began both to do and to teach. The ascended Lord Jesus continues both to do and to teach. The Book of the Acts of the Apostles is the record of the continued doing and teaching of Jesus after His ascension into heaven. It was Christ who sent out the apostles and has been sending out their successors ever since. It was Christ who first sent His Spirit on Pentecost and who worked through the preaching of His apostles to spread His word and to build up His Holy Church. As He promised His Apostles, “On this rock I will build My Church.” And as you heard Mark record at the end of his Gospel, they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them.

The ascended Lord Jesus continues both to do and teach. Only now He does and teaches from His throne at the right hand of God from where He reigns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Everything that happens in the world, everything that happens in the Church is under the supervision and control of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Paul wrote this to the Ephesians, I pray that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him 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. The kingdom of God isn’t stagnant, isn’t dead, isn’t failing. It’s conquering the devil and the world, even now, with Christ as the King sitting on His throne.

But you don’t see that, not really. The reign of Christ at God’s right hand is a matter of faith, not sight. You don’t see how Christ is governing the affairs of this world or know the reasons behind what He does. You can’t see the Holy Spirit’s plans or predict when Christ will come back in glory on a cloud.

His disciples wanted to see, they wanted to know. “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” There’s so much they still didn’t understand. They wondered if, now that He had risen from the dead, Jesus might sit on an earthly throne in Jerusalem and reign over an earthly kingdom. They wondered if He might overthrow the Roman empire and make the nation of Israel independent and sovereign again, which shows they hadn’t been listening. Jesus had told them over and over, I am going away. I am going to the Father. My kingdom is not of this world. The kingdom of heaven is within you.

So He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has established in His own authority. God has reserved for Himself the knowledge of when He will finally come and crush the kingdoms of this earth under His feet and remove His Church from this dying world. That time was not yet at the time of the apostles—they had much to do, and much to suffer first. And it has not yet come for us, either, though it’s much closer now than it was. God knows the work He still has to do with this world. That’s the very reason Christ ascended, to do that work for as long as it takes, according to the times and seasons known to the Father, until His whole Church is completely built and the world has had the opportunity to hear the Gospel.

For now, the ascended Lord Jesus continues both to do and to teach. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Here we are, at the end of the earth from where Jesus spoke those words, gathered together 2,000 years later in the name of Him whom we have not seen, and yet have believed, gathered together—preacher and hearers, baptized in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, hearing and honoring His Word, ready to receive His Sacrament of the New Testament, committed to living lives of love according to God’s commandments, committed to confessing the name of Christ Jesus in Las Cruces, in all Dona Ana county and New Mexico, and to the ends of the earth, as the ascended Lord Jesus gives us strength and opportunity. Where did we Christians come from? Where did our faith and our eagerness to confess it come from? It came from Christ Jesus, sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, as He has continued to send forth His Spirit in Word and Sacrament, as He has continued to give pastors and teachers to His Holy Church, as He has seen to it that the Gospel has been preached and continues to be preached among us.

No matter what the world does around us, no matter how it rages against Christ and His Church and continues to degenerate, no matter how much lawlessness abounds and the love of many grows cold, Christ Jesus has ascended into heaven. The King now sits on His throne at the right hand of God, which is not far away from us, but very close to us, hidden, but real, where all things are being placed under His feet, where He continues both to do and teach through His Holy Spirit, in His Holy Church, preaching sin and grace, repentance and the forgiveness of sins until He comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead.

Rejoice in the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord Jesus, all you Christians! Turn to Him, all you ends of the earth, and be saved! Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. Whoever does not believe will be condemned. Amen.