Word of Salvation – Vol.50 No.19 – May 2005

 

Jesus our Ascended Saviour Reigns as Lord and King!

 

An Ascension Sermon by Rev J Joubert on Luke 24:50-53

 Scripture Readings: Luke 24:50-53; 2 Peter 3:1-18; Colossians 3:1-4

 

Brothers and sisters...

If you had to give a definition of faith, how would you describe the Christian faith? Traditionally Reformed people are quick to say that our faith is an Easter faith. And this is absolutely true. This means that we believe we cannot describe our faith outside the context of the events of Easter. This was exactly the argument of the early Church.

Paul, for instance, reminds us time and again that the Easter events reveal that God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the Son he loves. In him, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, new life. In short, we can say that Easter faith teaches that Christ has paid for our sins on the Cross and that we can go free.

This has caused our people to be quick to ask: 'What can be more important than the Cross?', implying that nothing can be. To this I wish to answer this morning that we need to keep in mind that a focus on the Cross without the Resurrection and a focus on the Resurrection without the Ascension will produce a completely distorted picture of the Christian faith. All these events are of equal importance.

Yet, when you think about it, so many Protestants neglect Jesus' Ascension. Some see it as a mere appendix to the life of Christ, not worthy of special celebration like Christmas and Easter. They might even base their argument on the fact that the actual event is described only twice in the New Testament. But contrary to such ideas, I am convinced that no single event in the life of Jesus is more important than the Ascension - no, not even the Cross or the Resurrection. They might be of equal importance, but not more important. I know it is dangerous business to allot relative values to the episodes of Christ's life and ministry, but friends, if we undervalue the meaning of the Ascension, we sail in risky waters.

You might ask: 'But Johann [insert reader's name], what could be more important than the Cross? Without it we have no atonement, no redemption.' You can even say to me: 'Johann [reader], don't you know that Paul decided to preach only Christ and him crucified?' And my answer would be: 'Indeed!' Yet, I would remind you that the very same Paul also emphasised that without the Resurrection we would be left with a dead Saviour; and without the Ascension we would not have a mediator at the right hand of the Father or the other Paraclete to guide, instruct, teach and comfort us daily.

Friends, I would like to remind you again, today, that the Cross, Resurrection and Ascension go together, each borrowing some of its value from the other, each meaningless without the other. For this very reason we cannot focus on the one or the other. We have to place equal emphasis on all three events.

Today, as we are commemorating the Ascension, we are being reminded that the Easter story does not end with the empty tomb. The Ascension as such features only in Luke's story of Jesus' life. It is unclear whether Luke 24:50-53 tells of it, for in some ancient manuscripts the crucial words 'and was taken up into heaven' are missing. But Luke certainly documents it in more detail in Acts 1:6-11. This story marks the point at which the regular resurrection appearances of Jesus ceased.

Friends, to write 'finis' there is to miss a climactic moment of redemptive history, a moment toward which both Old and New Testaments move with unstoppable determination. I am declaring to you today, that the Ascension is the climax of Christ's exaltation so far. Yes, it is the pinnacle of redemptive history to this point. I want you to understand that this is the long-awaited moment of Christ's crowning as King. I want you to understand that without it the Resurrection ends in disappointment and Pentecost would not be possible. So in my book the Ascension is part and parcel of Easter faith, and we should not underrate it.

How should we understand the Ascension? Friends, I am proposing to you today that the Ascension of Jesus was the ultimate 'political' event of world history and I have chosen the word 'political' deliberately. Jesus was crucified as a political outcast, a rebel, and the self-appointed king of the Jews. He said that his kingdom is not from this world, but they didn't even try to understand what he meant. Therefore, I wish to remind you that Jesus' Ascension not so much to a place, to heaven, as to an office, to rule from the right hand of the Father. With his Ascension he departed from the arena of humiliation and suffering to enter into his glory, the glory of the King of kings.

He, in one moment, leapfrogged from the status of despised Galilean teacher to the cosmic King of the universe, jumping over the heads of Pilate, Herod, and Caesar Augustus. The Ascension catapulted Jesus to the right hand of God, where he was enthroned as King of kings and Lord of lords. Here the political 'appropriateness' of his departure stands out in bold relief.

What are the consequences of the Ascension? Brothers and sisters, because of his Resurrection and Ascension, Christ has reconciled us to God. Because of his Ascension, Jesus Christ has given us the pattern and the power to grow spiritually to maturity. This event enables our faith to become a future-focus faith, building our lives here and now on the solid foundation of the past and the promises entailed in Jesus' presence at the right hand of the Father.

The implications of this event for the church are staggering. It means that though we suffer persecution and the ridicule of hostile power structures - though we groan under the demeaning status of an unwelcome minority - our candidate sits in the seat of sovereign authority. Today we are reminded that the kingdom of God is not an unrealised dream or religious fantasy. The inauguration of our king is a fait accompli. His reign is neither mythical nor illusory. It corresponds to a real state of affairs.

At this very moment the Lord God, all-powerful, invincible and unstoppable, reigns with his Son at his right hand, in the seat of majestic authority. To be sure, the Kingdom is yet to be completed - that is future. It has, however, been inaugurated. That is past. He reigns in power, possessing all authority in heaven and on earth. That is present. His Kingdom is invisible, but no less real. It is left to us, his church, to make his invisible kingship visible.

How do we do that? Friends, we are making his kingship visible in and through the way we grow spiritually into mature followers of Jesus, following obediently in his footsteps because we have a future-focussed faith.

But how can we develop a future-focussed faith built on the foundation of the past? And what is the past foundation that we're building on? The apostle Peter gives us the answer when he wrote, 'Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles.'

Peter reminds us that we can live today focussing on the future when we consistently recall the message spoken in the past about Jesus. We develop a future-focussed faith built on the past by making Scripture the main source of our spiritual diet. Our faith is founded on the revelation of God's grace made known in Christ as explained in God's Word. We are being challenged to read what was written, to ponder what is explained, and to allow what is shared to stimulate our thinking.

Paul had this in mind as well when he reminded the Christians in Colossae that they were raised with Christ and since they have the ascended Christ with the Father they should live life focussing on the future glory now hidden with Christ in God.

How must we understand this? Brothers and sisters, Paul argues that Christ is the exact likeness of God. When we learn what he is like, what he has done, why he has done it, and what the consequences are of all of these, we will know what we need to become. He did not only change the past, he is also our future.

I believe this explains the disciples' joy when Jesus disappeared in the cloud. Once they understood who Jesus was, where Jesus was going and why he was going there, the only appropriate response was celebration. They danced back to Jerusalem. Yes, his physical presence was gone, but his spiritual presence was enhanced, giving rise to the creedal affirmation: 'With regards to his humanity, Jesus is no longer present with us; with regards to his deity, he is never absent from us.' And they worshipped the King!

The Resurrection of Jesus means more than that we shall live after we die. The Resurrection insists that in union with Christ, through faith, now we have already died with him to a life of endless death. Thanks to Christ, our destiny is not bound to the powers of this world. We are not pawns of the elemental spirits of the universe. Our lives are not captive to the facts of this life any more than our fate is sealed by the laws of nature or the genetic sequence of our DNA.

Martin Luther once said: In his life, Christ is an example, showing us how to live; in his death, he is a sacrifice, satisfying our sins; in his Resurrection, a conqueror; in his Ascension, a king; in his Intercession, a high priest.

Christ died for us that we might rise with him, and rising with him, we enter into the freedom of life in God. In God, life is no longer defined by who our parents were, how much money we have, what we do for a living, where we work, who we know, how we dress, when or where or into what socio-economic niche we were born. All that died for us with Christ on Good Friday, so that since Easter Sunday we can rise with Christ to a new life, where all that matters is that Christ is ours and we are his. We are his flock, his fold, and the 'people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand.'

But brothers and sisters, the apostles did not set out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth just to tell the world that something wonderful happened to Jesus. Because of the Ascension their Easter faith was future-focussed, focussed on the second coming, focussed on the wedding banquet of the Lamb. Therefore, they braved fire, flood, and storm, jailer's bars and executioner's blade. They proclaimed the gospel because something wonderful happened to them on account of Jesus - their future was changed. They came to a true understanding of eternity and eternal life. They were serving the eternal King!

The first Christians described their service as dying and rising with Christ. Think about this: Dying with Christ, a whole way of life or mode of existence came to an end for them. Where the law once dominated their life and God was experienced as over and against, above and beyond, outside and external, they now soared on wings of grace and God was revealed as more than hanging judge and wrathful parent. In Christ and through Christ they entered into a new relationship with God that made it seem like they had died already and gone to heaven.

Friends, the same Christ who raised them to new heights, is still alive and he lives to raise us to new heights daily. Unbound from time and space, death and decay, Jesus Christ lives to cancel our sin, free us from the past's mistakes and open the door to life without limit. In him even death, life's ultimate horizon, is lifted to reveal the glory of the only God to all who will but trust in him. Easter faith, Cross, Resurrection and Ascension combined, opens the future - the future ruled by the King of kings.

As long as we stride this earth and live in these mortal bodies, the world, of course, continues to pull us back and hold us down. We trip, we fall, we stumble and we sin. Yes, our vision sometimes gets cloudy and our hearts become heavy. For each day we live has the stamp of Good Friday, so that each day can have the possibility of Easter Sunday, because we know he is interceding for us at the Father's throne. Every day we die and rise with Christ, until that day 'When Christ who is our life is revealed, then we also will be revealed with him in glory' (Col 3:4).

So, because of the Ascension of Christ Jesus, until that day of his glorious return, we trust, we believe, and we hope. We 'seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God' (Col 3:1). Daily dying and daily rising, we put behind us the works of darkness, focussing on the works of his grace. We refuse to see others and ourselves any longer in the light of this world's categories, because we know there is a new day dawning. We are awaiting the final coming of the King. We no longer reckon our worth by the standards of wealth or worldly position. We have died and have arisen anew. Our life, our eternal future, is now hidden with the ascended and exalted Christ in God. What a glorious thought!

Friends, now I have to ask you: Don't you think that in the modern church we make too little of the Ascension of Christ? How much thought do you yourself give it? Does the Ascension explicitly impact your life? Is your religious attention usually focussed on the resurrected, pre-ascended Christ?

Allow me to remind you that the early Christians were post-Resurrection and post-Ascension Christians. They knew the gospel story: a Jesus who had once been a baby in a mother's arms - but he was not that now; a Jesus who had been a carpenter, a teacher, a companion, a friend - but he was not that now; a healing lover who mercifully blessed all he could touch, all he could see and hear and speak to - but he was not limited by time and space now; a self-giving suffering servant who hung on a Cross, pouring out his life-blood and blood-love on our behalf - but he was not hanging there now.

God had raised him from the dead, but not only so; this Jesus had ascended and the curtain had gone up on a new act of the drama. Pentecost had happened. The Spirit of this Ascended One had been poured out on his followers and the church was born. The Ascended One had been given lordship over all 'principality and power and might and dominion.' His name was to be exalted over 'every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come' (vs 21). Everything has been put 'under his feet.'

Against the theological backdrop of Jesus' divinity, death and Resurrection, we can ask what our faith should mean to all believers. The message of the Ascension story is: 'Jesus the Saviour reigns as Lord and King!' Friends, true Christian faith acknowledges Christ as Saviour, Lord and King. From this perspective our faith welcomes Christ the King's leadership in all we do or think. No person, no group, no government can receive any loyalty greater than our loyalty to Christ.

Because of the Ascension, our faith is a future-focussed faith. Christians with a vibrant faith know their real home is where Christ is. This truth gives a different perspective to our lives on earth. Now we can set our minds on the things above. We can look at life from God's perspective. We can seek what God desires. We can regard the world around us as God does. We can live in harmony with him. Because our lives are hidden in the ascended Christ, we know that our future is safe. And because our future is safe, we can focus each day on living for Christ.

Let me conclude this message with Question 49 from the Heidelberg Catechism:

'How does Christ's Ascension to heaven benefit us?'

And the answer is, of course:

'First, he pleads our cause in heaven in the presence of his Father. Second, we have our own flesh in heaven - a guarantee that Christ our head will take us, his members to himself in heaven. Third, he sends his Spirit to us on earth as a further guarantee. By the Spirit's power we make the goal of our lives, not earthly things, but the things above where Christ is, sitting at God's right hand.'

Dear friends, because of Christ's Ascension our faith tells the story of man set free to live each day for Christ the King. Dear friend, is this true about you? Do you live each day totally committed to your risen Saviour who rules as King unto eternity?

I urge you today to take heart in the fact that your salvation is sure, and to live each day for the rest of your life under the reign of Christ our King till the day of our Lord's return.

Amen.