Luke 24 44-53 2008
ASCENSION
Luke 24:44-53
Forty days after Christ's glorious resurrection from the dead. He ascended into heaven. The eternal Son of God returned to His glory in heaven. He returned to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Unfortunately this day has almost become one of the forgotten days of the Church calendar. Why, well maybe it hasn’t been connected to the culture of our day. After all, you can celebrate Christmas and Easter without believing in Jesus Christ. What I mean is, people are happy to recognize anything that can give them a day off of work, or give them a time to party with family and friends. Well, Ascension holds no special days off. And as of yet, nobody I knows gets together with family and friends to celebrate Ascension Day. And yet, what an important day it is! What great significance it holds! What comfort, strength and joy we can derive from the glorious ascension of our blessed Savior!
The scriptures say, “He led them out as far as Bethany and He lifted up His hands and blessed them.” And it came to pass while He blessed them, He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.”
One might ask: Why did the disciples rejoice when Jesus departed from them and ascended into heaven? Do we not, as a rule, mourn the departure of dear friends? Of course we do. For us it is usually a tearful and difficult experience. This was not the case with the disciples of our Lord. They rejoiced when Jesus departed from them, praising and blessing God.
Why did they rejoice…and why do we celebrate this day?
The first reason is that Christ's ascension reminds us the scriptures were once again fulfilled. Even as our Savior's birth, His suffering, His death, burial and resurrection were foretold centuries in advance, so we also have references to His ascension foretold in the Old Testament. Think of it, the blessed incident that took place forty days after Easter was foretold hundreds of years in advance! For example, in the 68th Psalm the writer sings of Christ's glorious ascension in these words: “Thou hast ascended on high.” In the 47th Psalm we read: “God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.".”
In the ascension of our Lord we have another proof that God's Word does not fail It is dependable and trustworthy. All the prophesies concerning Jesus Christ with the exception of His return on the Last Day, have been fulfilled. With this knowledge we can rest assured the words of the angels at our blessed Savior's ascension will also come to pass: “This same Jesus Who is taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven.” There is no question about it, Christ's glorious ascension into heaven is added proof that God's Word is, indeed, true.
The second reason we celebrate this day is because with Christ’s ascension we know that His Work Here on Earth was Completed by Him. Jesus came into this world for a definite purpose. That purpose was to redeem lost mankind; to pay the price for man's sin; to bring about a reconciliation between God and man, “ to seek and to save that which was lost,” and as you know, this He fully accomplished through His suffering and death on the cross!
To be sure, it was a most difficult and costly task that our Lord was called upon to perform, but He never wavered. He never flinched. On and on He went doing the work assigned to Him by the heavenly Father. Christ's glorious ascension -His return to heaven -proves that He completed salvation for us. From the cross He announced, “It is finished!” In His great prayer to the heavenly Father Jesus declared, “I have accomplished the work which You gave Me to do.” And so we can rejoice over Christ's ascension for it assures us that we have been fully redeemed by the blood of Jesus. He “paid in full” the price for our sins. Nothing remains for us to do in order that we might be saved. He has done it all.
The third reason we celebrate this day is because we know that the Jesus Christ we worship was both fully human and true God at the same time. As He has ascended into heaven we are sure that He can and is with us always even as He promised. In the last chapter of Matthew we are told that on a mountain in Galilee, before His ascension, Jesus promised His disciples, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” For a mere man to speak these words would be foolishness. But as the eternal Son of the Father, as the eternal God He can be in the glory of heaven, worshiped by angels, and yet be with us in right now. Even as He lives and reigns to all eternity in the throne room of heaven, He can also be present in bread and wine, His very body and blood, given and shed for us on the cross. We can hear His voice in the Gospel. This is the truth that the disciples beld and gave them great joy as the watched their friend and Savior, ascend into heaven with the glory of God. They firmly believed that even though He withdrew His visible presence from them, He would, nevertheless, be with them always; that He would remain with each one of them until they would be taken from earth to heaven. This is also our comfort.
This leads us to the next thought that gives us comfort on this day. Jesus Christ promised to go to prepare a place for us. The King James Version states in regal terms, “In My Fathers house are many mansions, I go to prepare a place for you.” “I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may be also.” At first the disciples did not understand the meaning of Christ’s promise. Thomas, for example, asked: “Lord, we know not where You go; and how can we know the way?” However, on the day of Christ's ascension into heaven it became clear to them that the place He would go to prepare for them was in heaven. For to us, too, the Savior says: “I go to prepare a place for you...and I will come again and receive you unto Myself.” When our earthly course is done, we know that there will not only be a departure, but there will also be a wonderful, glorious arrival!. I don’t know about you, but I look forward to being in the place that the Lord has prepared for me. It’s got to be better than anything I could prepare for myself with my own two hands. Oh, the glories that await us. IT will be a true miracle home.
Finally we come to the one unfinished promise of Jesus Christ, that He will come again. What comfort and joy the disciples must have found in the words of the two angels who said to them after Jesus had ascended: “You men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up into heaven? This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven.” This, my dear friends is something that we may see. We always complain in that light hearted way, that we never saw any of the things that Jesus did. Well, we may see something that the disciples never saw. We may see the coming of the king. We believe this don’t we? And yet we often take it for granted. We may believe that it won’t happen during our time. We may think that there is too much gospel work yet to be done, that surely He won’t come yet. Yet we may see His coming with our very eyes, at this very moment, tomorrow, or perhaps the next day. Let me tell you, soon and very soon we are going to see the king Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! So why do we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ? It is because it gives us comfort, strength and joy -for it assures us that, Scripture is fulfilled. Christ's Work is completed. Christ's Divine Presence is With Us. Christ Prepares a Place for Us. Christ is coming again! For these reasons we have every reason to pray and praise our glorious ascended Lord. Amen!