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You Can Count On The Ascended Lord

            During an election year we often hear about a politician who comes to town with a great deal of fanfare.  In his speeches he makes quite a few promises and then leaves town.  Most people realize that once he’s gone, he probably won’t be able to keep his promises, and he won’t be back unless Wisconsin is a swing state.

            Jesus was not earthly politician.  He was and is the eternal Son of God.  He visited the different towns of Palestine with very little fanfare.  Although at times great crowds followed him, it was not because he spoke to them about urban renewal or no new taxes.  Rather, Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom(Matthew 9:35).  Yet, when it came time for him to leave and return to his heavenly throne, he did give his disciples some promises, and he did say he’d be back.

            This is what the account of Christ’s ascension is all about.  In these paragraphs at the beginning of the book of Acts, the Bible writer, Luke, illustrates how Jesus ascension makes all the blessings of Easter permanent and unending.  He makes it clear that You Can Count On The Ascended Lord.

To give power                

            After his suffering, death, and resurrection Jesus showed himself to his followers and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.  He appeared to them over a period of forty days.  Why did Jesus make these appearances?  One reason is that he wanted to confirm in their hearts the fact of his resurrection.  When he appeared, the disciples could see him, touch him, and hear him.  He wanted them to be sure he was no ghost, no phantom.

            Luke tells us that Jesus appeared to them for another reason.  He spoke to them about the kingdom of God.  Even after three years of instruction by the Savior himself, they still had their minds fixed on earthly matters and an earthly king.  He had said that he would have to die in order to set up his kingdom.  Well, they had seen him die, and they had seen him alive again.  They were thinking, “Maybe now he would lead the nation of Israel back to world prominence.”  They asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”  So, Jesus appeared to them to straighten out their misunderstandings.  The kingdom of an earthly ruler can be identified as a place.  If someone took his land away, he would have no kingdom.  But God’s kingdom is not a place.  His kingdom is his saving activity created and caused by the message of God’s love for sinners.  That message gets out not by angels, not by lightning bolts, but through people.  Jesus made it clear, “You will be my witnesses”.  Notice – He does not say, “You must be my witnesses,” not “You should be my witnesses,” not “You have to be my witnesses,” by “You will be … actually, you are my witnesses.”  This was not a command but a promise and a statement of fact.

            I wonder what was going through his followers’ minds when they heard that.  “We’re going to be witnesses for him?  We’re going to carry his message to Jerusalem, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth?  How can we do that in Jerusalem?  The people there wanted Jesus dead!  What will they do to us?  We’re supposed to be his witnesses in Samaria?  They’re not our kind of people.  We’re supposed to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth?  We’ve never traveled more than eighty miles from home.  Where are the maps?  Not even one of us is a member of Triple A.  No one has invented Mapquest yet.  What about language barriers?  What about travel safety and the threat of terrorists in Asia Minor or North Africa?  Jesus, you might as well have said we will be your witnesses on Mars.  Here we are, Lord.  Send someone else!”  Those guys were confused and scared.  They felt helpless, weak, and inadequate.

            Jesus gave them what they needed – power.  “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 … You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you”.  Within ten days the Holy Spirit did come to them and vacuumed out all their misunderstanding.  Then they were able to say, “Oh!  Now we get it!”  Beyond that, they received power to perform miracles to back up their message.  In addition, the Holy Spirit gave them two more gifts, the boldness to speak those words of Jesus’ love and forgiveness before the fiercest foes and in the most perilous places and also the ability to speak in foreign languages without having to spend years in school to learn them.

            Jesus’ ascension promise is for you and me.  He says to us, “You will be, you are, my witnesses.”  But we hear that and no matter how long we have been a Christian, the excuses start rolling in as fast as they did for his first followers.  “I don’t know what to say.”  “I might say something wrong.”  “People will reject me or make fun of me.”  “That’s the pastors’ job.”  “They’re not my kind of people.”  “To the ends of the earth?  How can I do that?”  But there’s an answer to all the excuses.  You Can Count On The Ascended Lord to give you power, power from the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit works through God’s Word.  So, the more you read and study the message of God’s plan for you and for the world in Holy Scripture, the more you will know what to say.  The more you’re in the Word of God, the more you will see possibilities not problems, opportunities not obstacles.  Jesus doesn’t say you have to be his witnesses.  You are his witnesses, and you are his witnesses when you announce God’s mercy to people in trouble, when you live for your Lord in spite of people putting you down for making behavioral choices different than theirs, when you give freely and generously as the Lord has blessed you, when you serve willingly because Jesus willingly paid your debt to God!  Even if you are approaching the end of life, even if you are in a hospital bed, even if you are busy with a hectic schedule, Jesus gives you power, power to demolish strongholds … For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  On the contrary, they have divine power … We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ(2 Corinthians 10:4-5).  You Can Count On The Ascended Lord to give you power.

To return in glory

            But Jesus not only promised to send the Holy Spirit.  He promised that he himself would be present.  Before he died he told his disciples, “I will come to you … In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me”(John 16:19).  He kept that promise.  Just three days after his death he appeared to them.  Each time he appeared his disciples wanted him to stay longer.  But each time he also disappeared, indicating that he might visit again, but soon would no longer be with them visibly.

            Forty days after his resurrection he stood with them on the Mount of Olives.  They had heard his instructions and promises.  They must have been thinking, “Will he stay with us longer this time?”  But after he had said this, he was taken up before their eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.  The cloud is significant.  Instead of conveying the idea that he is now absent, the cloud signifies his presence.  God’s presence among his people of the Old Testament was often signified by a cloud.  He led the Israelites through the wilderness from Egypt to the promised land with a pillar of cloud by day and pillar fire by night.  The cloud appeared over the portable worship facility God directed them to build, indicating, “God is here!”  His cloud appeared at the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem, indicating, “God is here!”  The ascension cloud, therefore, was not a way for Jesus to pull out of the scene or to go far away so that he could sit on a golden throne on some distant galaxy with his arms crossed watching this planet and its people with as much interest as a late night TV viewer flicking through boring show after boring show and info-mercial after info-mercial.  No!  The ascension cloud says, “Jesus is still here among his people!”  He is still present with us through his Word and through baptism and his special supper.

            But the disciples learned more as they watched that cloud.  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”.  The same Jesus who walked with them and talked with them, the same Jesus who had died to forgive them, the same Jesus who had risen so gloriously – this same Jesus would return to take them to heaven.

            In the meantime we confess that we have sometimes lost patience with the Lord.  We hear about little Jasmine Owens getting shot, we hear about the suffering and killing in Darfur and Iraq, we hear about all the evidence of deteriorating morals in our land, and we sometimes can’t understand why the Lord continues to postpone his return.  Thank God that through Jesus we have forgiveness for our lack of patience and every other sin!  Thank God for his patience with us and others!  He is patient not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).  And thank God that at the same time he is invisibly with us now, he is also preparing our mansions in heaven and will come back to take us to be with himself.

            Saint Sophia, a stately Christian church in Constantinople in 537 A.D., was transformed into a Moslem mosque in 1453 A.D., and the city was renamed – Istanbul.  All the Christian inscriptions and symbols were painted over.  Years later a tourist was standing under the great dome and looking up.  He saw that the figure of Christ with outstretched hands was coming back through the wearing off of the covering paint.  Turning to the person next to him, he said, “He is coming back.  You can’t blot him.  Through all the daubs of paint and dust of centuries he is coming back again.  He will reign.  The future belongs to him.”  You Can Count On The Ascended Lord to return in glory.

            Some politicians keep their promises.  Some don’t.  But Jesus is no earthly politician.  He is our God.  He is our Savior.  You can count on him to keep his promises.  You Can Count On The Ascended Lord.  Amen.

Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (http://www.gracedowntown.org/) on May 17, 2007

Services

Sundays 7:45, 9:00 & 10:30 am

Mondays 6:30 pm

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church | 1209 North Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202 | (414) 271-3006

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