Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Text: (Mark 16:14-20)
So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.
Mëë ci Kuäär ni Yecu rac kɛ kɛ inɔ, cua jɛ naŋ nhial, kä cuɛ wä nuur kui̱c cuëëc Kuɔth.
Prayer: Sanctify us with the truth, Lord. Your word is truth. Amen.
Often at Christmas time, Christians often complain about the commercialisation of Christmas. Christians sometimes complain about how shopping centres take over Christmas and make into something about presents, materialism and money.
And the same thing happens at Easter with Easter eggs, and all that sort of thing.
But on the other hand, even though the shopping centres hijack these festivals and even organise Christmas pageants on Sunday mornings marching right past the Catholic Church in Traralgon during their Advent season Sunday morning mass, God still uses this commercialisation for his good. Many people attend Easter and Christmas services in churches, since the church festival has been brought to their mind. With all the commercialisation, with all the money, and spending, Christmas and Easter are still on the consciousness of many people – and with that then comes a window into the truth about Jesus Christ being born of the Virgin Mary, suffering under Pontius Pilate, dying, and rising from the dead.
But could you imagine if people made the same fuss about Ascension? Many Christians don’t celebrate it. Many Christians don’t know about it. But also many Christians don’t know what the point of it is either.
What’s so special about the fact that Jesus went into heaven?
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The strange thing is that only two of the Gospels actually mention the Ascension. If we want to read about the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, we will find it in the last chapter of Mark, the last chapter of Luke and the first chapter of Acts.
The end of the Gospel of Matthew though is one of the most interesting passages. In Matthew we read that Jesus said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
And that’s the end. It doesn’t say anything about Jesus going into heaven. Of course, we know that that’s exactly what happened, though. He did in fact ascend into heaven, but Matthew doesn’t tell us. Matthew reports that JEsus said, “I am with you always to the end of the age.”
If we’re going to understand the Ascension, we have to understand this. When Jesus leaves his disciples, he is not leaving his disciples. When Jesus goes away, he’s not going away.
Many people say, that Jesus went into heaven, and then he leaves us with the Holy Spirit. Yes, he does send us the Holy Spirit, but that doesn’t mean that he himself, Jesus, is somewhere else. Jesus is always there in the place where he gives the Holy Spirit. Any spirit that is not breathed from the mouth of Jesus is not the Holy Spirit, but a demon, an unclean spirit.
Jesus doesn’t say, the Holy Spirit will be with you always. He says, I am with you always. There is nowhere in the bible where when Jesus says, “I”, he actually means “The Holy Spirit”. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, but there are not three Gods but one God.
The whole point of having a church is that Jesus is actually there in it. When we say that Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and the true pastor, the true leader and head of the Church, he’s not a CEO, in an office somewhere, organising the church from far-away Melbourne or Sydney or even Rome! He’s here in the church, organising his church, as he’s part of it. He prays for Christians in the church, he actually comes in through closed doors and stands among us, and he speaks to us his Holy Word through the ministry, and through the forgiveness of sins, he joins himself to you, and makes you him, and he makes himself you. And he feeds you with his body and blood, so that you’re life will be hidden with him in God. As St Paul says: “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Christ is not stuck up in the clouds somewhere. Churches that don’t believe that the body and blood of Christ is actually here in the Lord’s Supper also don’t believe that Jesus is in the church. What they believe is that Jesus has gone up into heaven, and he’s stuck at the right hand of God, so he can’t actually be in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus is not with us, but the Holy Spirit is with us. So when Jesus said, “I am with you”, what they really mean is that, “The Holy Spirit is with you.” Now that’s not what Jesus said. Jesus is not stuck up in heaven. Yes, he is seated at the right hand of God, but the right hand of God is not a place stuck somewhere. God the Father is everywhere: heaven and earth are full of his glory. And his right hand is also not confined to some physical space somewhere. God is continually looking after the world, and his right hand is everywhere. So Jesus, true man and true God, one person, can also be everywhere, wherever he promises to be.
That’s the great joy of the Ascension: Christ is seated at the right hand of God, he is worshipped by all the angels and saints in heaven, and we here on earth in the church join in. The Ascension is the festival which celebrates the liturgy, it celebrates the Divine Service. It’s the day of the year when we say, Yes! The Ascension of Christ into heaven is what makes our worship and our divine services here in these little churches possible. The Ascension is where we celebrate that Christ our risen Lord has won the victory not only over death, but also over time and space. And so he comes to gather us together with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, so that he can also win the victory for us over our temptations with the devil, victory over our struggles in the world, and the victory over our sin.
Hebrews says: Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who for the joy that was set before him (the joy of ascending into heaven), endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
When it says “look to Jesus” it doesn’t mean look to Jesus in the past, or look to Jesus in the future, or even look to Jesus up there, but look to Jesus as he carries you in all your struggles, and all your sufferings, and all your crosses. Look to Jesus where he has promised to be, in the church, in your crosses, in the font, on the altar, in the pulpit.
There’s an old German hymn which calls Jesus “der Beistand deiner Kreuzgemeine”, “the helper of your cross-congregation”. He signs us with the cross, he makes us a church of the cross, a church which bears the cross, and one that rejoices in the cross, rejoices of being counted worthy to suffer for the name of the Lord Jesus. Because for the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross, despised the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
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In our Gospel reading tonight, we read from the Gospel of Mark about the ascension of Jesus into heaven.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.
So we see that before Jesus ascends into heaven, he gives them some instructions. He gives them a charge, he tells them what should happen in the church. “Proclaim the gospel”. Wherever the word of God is preached in its truth and purity, where the precious, sweet words of the Gospel are proclaimed, there is the church.
“Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Wherever the sacraments are rightly administered according to Christ’s institution, there is the church. That’s what makes a church. Word and sacrament. The Word of God: and the message that Christ died for the sins of the world and rose from the dead. That’s the word of God. Small Catechism: “The Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel.” But we don’t become Christians by making a “decision for Jesus”: He says: “Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved.” That’s how Christians are made, through baptism. And when we believe that “baptism now saves you” as St Peter says, when we believe that baptism is the place where all of Jesus gifts are poured out on you, when we trust in baptism to do what Jesus promised about it, then we will be saved.
Jesus is not telling us to be saved by works. Baptism is not your good work. Baptism is God’s work on you. You can take no credit for it. And when we are baptised as babies, there is even more reason to take no credit for it, because we had to be carried there.
But also faith is not your work either. You don’t say, “I’m so good, because I believe.” Faith says, “Jesus is my righteousness, Jesus is my Saviour, I am baptised and the devil can’t touch me.” If we think baptism is a good work that we do to be saved, or if we think that baptism is nothing, then we obviously don’t believe in it. That’s why Jesus says: “Whoever does believe will be condemned.” Baptism is God’s work, and faith also is God’s work in us, which trusts that Baptism is God’s work.
Baptism and faith are not prerequisites for salvation. Baptism and faith are not the things that you have to have to be saved. Baptism and faith are salvation, and God gives them both to you. They are not things that you give to God. If you think that baptism and faith are your gifts to God, then you’ve missed the point. Baptism and faith are you salvation, and they are God’s gifts to you. And if you baptised, you can be sure, that there is nothing that belongs to Jesus that doesn’t belong to you. You can be sure that the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation belong to you. You can be sure that the Holy Spirit belongs to you. You can be sure that Jesus lives in you. But you can also be sure that everything in you belongs to Jesus. You can be sure that every sin, every struggle of yours, every single disappointment in your life was in actual fact died for on the cross, and nailed into Jesus’ hands. God made Jesus to be sin for us, who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God.
And so as Jesus ascends into heaven, he says, “I’m going to be hidden from now on. But if you want to find me, look for me where the gospel is proclaimed and where people are baptised.” I will be with you always to the end of the age.
And when Jesus had ascended, it says “they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them.” He worked with the apostles, he worked many signs, many miracles, and gave them much encouragement.
And even today, Jesus is still working with the church. He’s still here in his word and sacrament, working with us, as we preach everywhere. Everywhere throughout the world where these things happen, Jesus works with them.
The only thing is, we might think “what happened to the miracles?” Well these miracles of the apostles are not just for the encouragement of the people back then, but also for us. They bring us joy too. And when people are faithful to the word of God, and proclaim the gospel, there are always many miracles, demons are always being cast out, the sick are always being healed, people are always being protected from extraordinary harm and danger, people are being upheld in their faith under the weight of extraordinary crosses through Jesus Christ himself – not to mention the miracle that the Holy Spirit still comes to people in baptism, and Jesus still gives us his body to eat and blood to drink in the bread of wine. The miracles do not show us where the church is, the miracles protect the church and make sure that it continues. And surely we know that there are many times when the church could have easily been taken away from us through people’s silly fights and arguments, through sin, or pressure from the world, and all sorts of schemes of the devil, but in actual fact the church has been preserved, and continues to be preserved, throughout the world, throughout Australia, throughout Victoria, and even here in Gippsland by a special miraculous work and intervention of our risen, ascended Lord Jesus, who is seated at the right hand of God.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he, Blessed is our ascended Lord Jesus Christ, who comes and stands among us in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!
Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus.
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