This sermon was preached at St Peter’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am
Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
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.
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Tonight we are celebrating the wonderful event of the Lord’s Ascension into heaven, as we say in the creed, He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God. Tonight in our sermon, we’re going to consider what this event is and what it is all about.
First of all, let’s talk about heaven. First of all, to Christians, to those who believe in Christ as their Lord and Saviour, whose sins have been forgiven by the blood and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, heaven is promised to them. In John 3:16, we read: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Heaven is the goal of our life. It is not death which is the goal of our life, or wealth, or earthly happiness, or worldly achievement, or worldly honour and glory, but heaven. We are called as Christians to direct our eyes to heaven. We can’t get there because of achievements and good works, because we are sinners, and everything we do is tainted by sin. The commandments that God gave to us, we have broken, and so we have no right to enter heaven on that basis. However, Jesus entered into this world, he took on our human flesh, he suffered and died for us. He has paid the price that we owed because of our sin with his precious blood and his death. God not only forgives us, but he does so on a legal basis, because what was required of us has been paid for by Jesus Christ. When we trust in him and in his blood and in his sacrifice and in his atonement, that faith is accounted to us as righteousness. We trust in Christ—what he has done has been charged to our account, so that what we owe has been paid in full by Him. Christ is now our righteousness, and our sins are forgiven, as Psalm 32: Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Through Jesus, our transgression is forgiven, our sin is covered, our iniquity is not counted against us, and because of this, there is no deceit in our spirit. We cannot pretend to be perfect in God’s eyes, but we acknowledge our sin, and we look to Christ alone as our righteousness and as our salvation. He has risen from the dead, and has entered into heaven ahead of us, in such a way that he waits to receive those who trust in him.
So, when we prepare for death, we must realise that death is our wages. Romans 6:23 says: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Death is the payment and the judgment that we rightly deserve and will all receive because of our sin. And people are right to be scared and frightened of it – even Jesus, we read, had a tremendous dread of death himself. He said to his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane: My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me. For Jesus, since he was not a sinner, death was not his wages, but it was his sacrifice, which he willingly and freely took on our behalf. But then, because of Jesus, and because of his death and sacrifice, we have nothing to fear in death, because through faith in Jesus, we receive eternal life as a free gift. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
For example, there are many ways in which the Holy Scripture speaks about heaven and entering into eternal life. For example, when Joseph and Mary brought the baby Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem, they met the old man Simeon. And about Simeon, we read that the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Also, for us, every person who lives in this world needs to wake up, open their eyes, and make sure that before they see death they see the Lord’s Christ first. Of course, in this life, we do not see him with our own physical eyes, but we meet him and receive him through the hearing of the Word and the receiving of the Sacraments. We must see Jesus first, before we see death, because to see death without Jesus is a frightful and terrifying thing. Hebrews says: It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. To die without Christ is to walk into God’s holy presence with nothing but your sin, and this can only mean that you can stand guilty before him, deserving of hell and eternal damnation and punishment. But when we receive Christ, we enter into heaven with Him, and clothed in Him. And so, Simeon takes the baby Jesus in his arms and says: Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word. Because of Jesus, and only because of Jesus, Simeon can now look to death as that wonderful time when he can depart not full of worries and anxieties about how things might go with him, but in peace.
St Paul also says: My desire is to depart and to be with Christ. Simeon departs in peace, Paul departs to be with Christ. They are the same thing. Our only peace is with Jesus. Jesus made peace by his blood on the cross. The angels said at Christ’s birth: Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth among those with whom he is pleased.
The thief on the cross said to Jesus: Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus said to him: Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise. This man will die with Jesus, but Jesus promises that he will also enter Paradise with him. Remember Lazarus and the rich man: that when Lazarus dies, it says that the angels carried him to Abraham’s bosom. The angels carry the souls of those who leave this life with faith in Christ to Paradise, to be with Christ, to depart in peace. Why to Abraham’s bosom? Because Abraham believed the Lord, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Our whole teaching about salvation by faith, all goes back to Abraham. Abraham is the father of those who have faith, and so to die and enter heaven and Paradise, is to come there together with Abraham and all those who have been saved in only one way, through faith, and through faith in Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Now, it’s one thing to talk about heaven, but it’s another thing to talk about Jesus, and his ascension into heaven. I once heard it, I think by one of my children, that a teacher at school had once spoken about Jesus having died and gone to heaven. Now, this is true. He did die and go to heaven. But this is quite a different thing than if we said that Grandma died and went to heaven, which would also be true, but in quite a different way. With Jesus, he also rose from the dead, and didn’t just enter into heaven, like Abraham, Simeon, St Paul, and Lazarus and the thief on the cross, as we were just talking about. We read about Jesus, that he ascended or taken up into heaven and sits at the right hand of God.
Even in the Old Testament, we read that Elijah was taken up into heaven with a chariot and horses of fire. But he did not sit at the right hand of God.
So, when we talk about Jesus and his ascension, we are talking about these two things together: He ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of the throne of God.
So, unlike Abraham, he did not believe in the Lord, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Rather, Jesus is the Lord, and faith in him is counted to us as righteousness. Unlike, Simeon, Jesus did not simply depart in peace, but Jesus is the peace Himself, in which we depart from this life. St Paul wanted to depart and be with Christ. Jesus is the one who receives his people, he is not just going there to join in. Unlike Lazarus, Jesus was not carried by angels to Abraham’s bosom, but rather Abraham is carried to Christ’s bosom, as one of his faithful followers. Unlike the thief on the cross, Jesus did not simply enter Paradise, but Jesus is the one who receive the thief into Paradise, and who promises him Paradise.
So when Jesus ascends into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, it is a completely different thing. In fact, it is so amazing, so tremendous, so incredible, so wonderful a divine mystery, that words can almost not really give justice to what takes place and happens at the ascension. It is such a wonderful, incredible, divine mystery!
Let’s think for a bit about God and his right hand of power, and how the Scripture talks about it. In Psalm 16, it says: You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fulness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. So, first of all, when we read about Christ’s ascension, we see that this is an occasion of great and tremendous joy. It is an occasion of joy above joy, beyond joy, or immeasurable joy, the fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore!
But also, when Jesus ascends into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, this means that when Jesus enters into heaven on this occasion that he did not simply become equal to the angels and those who had departed from this life as God’s faithful people. Rather, unlike all of them, Jesus had defeated death, won the victory over death, he had destroyed death. And so, he enters into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, as God’s equal. Many times in the Scripture, we read that Jesus is true God. In John’s Gospel, we read, where he says: I and the Father are one. Before Abraham was, I AM. John says at the beginning of his Gospel: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Thomas says to him after the resurrection: My Lord and my God! St Paul says in Philippians that he did not count equality with God a thing to grasped. In saying this, St Paul confesses that Jesus really did have equality with God.
Now, if Jesus was always equal with God, why is he seated at God’s right hand on this special occasion? In John’s Gospel, Jesus says: No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. When Jesus ascends into heaven here, something has now changed since that time when he descended from heaven. When he descended from heaven, he took upon himself a human body, true human flesh, true human bones and muscles and skin and blood and organs, and all that kind of thing. He also took upon himself a human soul, just like we all have. At Christmas time, we celebrate the wonderful birth of Jesus, but also his incarnation. His incarnation means the fact that he took on human body and human flesh.
So, before he entered into the womb of the Virgin Mary, he did not have a human body. He was like the Father and the Holy Spirit, who have a spiritual, divine essence and being. But when he entered into this world, he took on a human body. Now, when he ascends into heaven, he also takes this human body with him, because it is Him. Jesus is both true God and true man. He doesn’t get rid of his human body, but rather his human body is totally and completely and magnificently glorified.
We see little glimpses of this beforehand. We see where his face and clothes were changed and became bright with his own divine light when he stood on the mountain at his Transfiguration. We see him enter into the room with his disciples, even though the doors were shut. This also points to the fact that when he rose from the dead, he also must have exited the tomb through closed doors, because the stone was rolled away to show that he wasn’t there. We see how he walked on water, and healed the sick by his touch and his word.
But when he sits at the right hand of God, this is a wonderful transfiguration, a wonderful glorification, a wonderful exaltation of his human body and his human flesh. When Adam and Eve sinned, God said to them: For you are dust and to dust you shall return. But Jesus is not a sinner, but is true God, and so he cannot simply return to dust like the rest of us. Instead, His body in unity with his divine nature returns now to the throne of God. His body came from the womb of his mother, and is now glorified at God’s right hand.
This means that in the church, in our life, in our homes, Jesus actually dwells with us, and walks with us in life. For example, when Jesus commanded us to baptise and teach, he said: Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Jesus promises to be with us, not just in a spiritual way, but with his glorified body, which sits at God’s right hand.
When we hear his Word spoken in the church—his words of law and Gospel, the absolution, the forgiveness of sins—this is Jesus speaking it to us. When we receive the Lord’s Supper, we believe that it is not impossible for Jesus to feed us with body and blood because his body and blood are now in heaven. No, not at all. This is the transfigured, glorified, exalted body and blood of Christ, seated at the right hand of God. Even at the last Supper, with the disciples in the upper room, before the ascension, Jesus being true God and true man in the one person, already gave his body and blood to the disciples to eat and drink, even though he was sitting there in front of them. Such is the power of Christ’s Word to create and perform such wonderful things, even though it is completely beyond our comprehension and imagination. So, because of Christ’s Words, This is my body, this is my blood, we believe that Christ truly enters into our midst with these gifts to feed us, both in body and soul, both with our mouths and in faith, and that this is the glorified body of our Lord and God, and the glorified blood of our Lord and God.
It is like the way in which a piece of charcoal burns red and hot when it is put in the fire. Jesus’ human body is a like a charcoal burning with the red hot glow of his divinity, his divine nature. Everything that Jesus does, is the action of both man and God. Everything that the charcoal touches is touched with fire, and everything that the fire touches is touched by the charcoal. As the Athanasian Creed says: Although he is God and man, he is not two Christ’s but one Christ: one, that is to say, not by changing the Godhead into flesh, but by taking on the humanity into God, one indeed, not by confusion of substance but by unity in one person. What I’m saying is that when Jesus ascends into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, his human body and human flesh is exalted and glorified and transfigured in a wonderful way, which we can only receive by faith in the way that the Scripture describes it.
Even at the beginning of Revelation, we see a picture of this glorified humanity of Christ. We read: Then I turned and see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe, and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore…”
This is our Lord Jesus Christ, who has died, risen and ascended into heaven. It is the same Lord who baptises us for the forgiveness of our sins, who fills us with the Holy Spirit, who is the object of our faith and our trust. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and nobody comes to the Father except through Him. He forgives our sin and feeds us with his holy and precious body and blood. He is the one who will receive you when you die and enter into heaven, because he has gone ahead of us in a wonderful and tremendous way, who has ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God. Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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