Ascension Sunday Service

Acts 1:1-11

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day He was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles He had chosen. After His suffering, He showed Himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while He was eating with them, He gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift My Father promised, which you have heard Me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

So when they met together, they asked Him, “Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After He said this, He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight.

They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.”

This is the Sunday on which we observe Jesus’ ascension. We referred to it when we confessed the Creed last Sunday. We said, [Jesus] ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From there He shall come to judge the living and the dead. We’re going to be looking quite a bit at the hymn we’ve just sung—#388. You might be interested in having that open during this time.

Hail the day that sees him rise to his throne above the skies!—our hymn begins. The disciples were looking intently up into the sky as He was going because it was a very unusual sight! Three of the disciples had seen the Transfiguration—that had demonstrated to them Christ’s glory (the same clearly present here). But forgive them if they needed to pause and take in this most unexpected moment. The angel’s question: Why do you stand here looking into the sky?—isn’t to say they shouldn’t have been surprised by it as much as to say, What’s the point of laboring over this thing you’ve seen? You’ve seen Him do other amazing things, too. It’s time to get on with the mission for which the Lord has trained you these three years.

The mission is to proclaim this King of Heaven Who has now ascended to His throne above the skies. His kingly entrance on Palm Sunday had been a foreshadowing of a sort. He wasn’t to be what many in the crowd thought Him to be. He wasn’t going to ascend to a throne in a worldly kingdom (My kingdom is not of this world, He would tell Pilate—John 18:36). He would ascend to a throne above the skies.

And the hymn writer reminds us in this first verse what a dramatic rise this has been. This heavenly king is the Lamb for sinners giv’n. John the Baptist had called Him the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). He is the one native to heaven, Who became by choice the sacrificial Lamb paying the price for all sinners (sent because God so loved the world—John 3:16). He stands in their place, convicted of their crimes, taking their punishment—taking your punishment, too.

The hymn writer quotes Psalm 24 in the beginning of the 2nd verse: Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in (Psalm 24:7). The disciples might have wondered for a moment just what they were seeing, with Jesus ascending up beyond the clouds. What they were seeing was the return of the King to His throne on high.

He had laid aside His godly glory for a time, using it only in certain moments out of compassion, and to demonstrate who He was. He had reclaimed His glory after rising from the dead. But still, for forty days He was appearing and disappearing from the disciples’ presence. He was preparing them to receive the Spirit—the gift My Father promised, which you have heard Me speak about, as He says in our text. He wasn’t yet fully exalted. His ascension to the Father’s right hand in the kingdom is that. That’s the glorious triumph that awaits. The heavenly kingdom takes this King of glory in, now that He has conquered death and sin. He has conquered it by living a life of complete obedience, and then by taking that flawless life, and offering it up as the payment for all other peoples’ flawed lives. His rising from death has been a defeating of death for all. So, He returns now to heaven, with His work accomplished.

But these disciples who witness this sight shouldn’t see it as their Lord abandoning them. When the hymn writer says, Yet He loves the earth He leaves, and, Still He calls mankind His own, he refers, probably, to Jesus’ glorious words, I go to prepare a place for you, and, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also (John 14:3). That word harbinger that comes up in the hymn, in verse 5 means that Jesus appears in His kingdom first, to be followed by all believers—by you and me. Those words about preparing a place for his disciples aren’t the words of someone who’s abandoning them. Those words are spoken by the most faithful of friends. His ascending from this world into His kingdom is for their eternal good.

Our Catechism talks about what Jesus does at the right hand of God in His kingdom. You might have wondered about that (what is He doing up there?). It says that He–also according to His human nature–rules in divine glory over all things for the benefit of His Church.

Included in that is that He is interceding for us, Paul writes (Romans 8:34). It’s hard to even imagine the significance of that, isn’t it? He’s pleading our case before the Father—His prevailing death He pleads—the hymn writer says. He’s reminding the Father that all sins are atoned for in His blood. That’s why Paul says, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). See, He shows the prints of love—prints, like scars from where the nails pierced His hands as He died for our sins, I think is what the hymn writer means by that statement.

When the hymn writer talks about us remaining with Him there, partners of [His] endless reign, we’re certainly reminded about Paul referring to believers as heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). There Thy face unclouded see—St. John said something in his first letter that these words certainly refer to: Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2).

If you imagine yourself among the disciples who were present on that day on which Jesus ascended into heaven, it should occur to you what Jesus would be wanting you to take away from that sight. In the text, when Jesus and His disciples have met together here for this last time, they ask Him, “Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Now, this at least seems to indicate an ongoing misunderstanding on their part as to what Jesus’ plan all along has been (even though He has told them several times that He is going to the Father). Their looking intently up into the sky could be explained by this confusion. It’s a reminder of the need that we have as ones who have inherited our parents’ sinful nature. Jesus had described the people of Jerusalem as harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36). It describes us too, according to that nature. We needed Jesus to be (in the hymn writer’s words) harbinger of human race. We needed Him to prepare our way, and to lead us to God’s eternal kingdom, because reaching it was impossible for us otherwise. We need Him still for us to intercede, pleading His prevailing death—making His righteousness to be what God sees in us rather than our sinfulness.

It is what He sees, you know. The sins that bother you; they have been removed in Christ. You’re forgiven for them. You need not dwell on them anymore. If you imagine yourself among the disciples who were present on that day, you don’t look intently up into the sky in confusion or uncertainty; you look there in anticipation of what you are to inherit on whatever day God has in mind. It is yours because your Savior is there, and has prepared it for you. He is working there continually for you, as the One Who calls you His own.

Let us pray [from Laache, p.148]: O Lord, You are seated at the right hand of majesty in heaven, to save us forever and to make us happy in Your kingdom. Be mindful of this even when we are not mindful of ourselves. Save us powerfully by Your might, and give us heavenly bliss, not for our sakes, but for your own sake. For the kingdom we are to inherit is Yours. Yours is the power to lead us into it. And Yours shall forever be all honor and glory, when we, Your redeemed, shall be happy in Your kingdom. Amen. Hear us, for the sake of Your eternal love and mercy. Amen.

Another Lesson This Week:

St. Mark 16:14-20

Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; He rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven and took His seat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed His word by the signs that accompanied it.