RUMC
5/24 and 5/27 (WOW)
Ascension Sunday
When you think of Christ, how do you think of Him? As the babe lying in the manger? Do you think of Him in terms of His ministry on earth and His mighty words and works? Or perhaps you think of Him as the one who died and rose again. There are many ways we can (and should) think about Jesus Christ
I hope you have enjoyed the service of readings and song. I designed it to help us think especially of the ascension of Jesus Christ. We want to be able to answer our Lord’s very provocative question from the Gospel of John , “What then if you should see the Son of Man ascending where He was before?” In other words, what does the ascension mean to us? What differences should it make in our belief and behavior?
Look at all the passages we read that refer to the ascension. That is only the tip of the iceberg. The ascension is a central biblical doctrine, but sometimes it is forgotten because of our focus on the incarnation and the resurrection- his birth and return from the dead.
We can’t afford to forget the ascension though, the truth is that the Christ of the prophets is an unrealized hope. The Christ in the manger is a romantic memory. The Christ of the gospel is the Christ of the distant past, the resurrected Christ is a man who cheated death. It is only after the ascension- Christ’s leaving the earth and all that the self imposed limits of the incarnation in order the return to sit in glory at God’s right hand, that we have the savior we have come to know and love. The ascension is required if we are to have a complete picture of a savior who came, lived, died, lives again and walks with us and talks with us and reigns in our lives and over his kingdom at the right hand of the almighty and eternal God- the creator.
You heard the story from Luke. Now I would like to read the story of the ascension the way Luke tells it in Acts.
Acts 1:6-11 And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth. “ 9 And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was departing, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them; 11 and they also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”
What are the important lessons for our lives and discipleship from this story?
The very first thing I hope you noticed about the songs today is they are about the lordship or kingship of Christ. The ascension is the period on the end of the incarnation. It is the end of the self imposed limits of being in human flesh and blood. We believe that God was fully human in Jesus Christ. Humans are limited. There were, therefore limits to what God could do in Jesus Christ. Self imposed limits, albeit, but limits all the same. In the ascension, Christ shed those self-imposed, earthly limits and took his rightful place at the right hand of God from where The Apostles creed says, “he shall come to judge the living and the dead.” The ascension was necessary in order for Jesus to return to his place as the king, the judge and the ruler of all hearts that turn to him.
Second we need to hold up the ascension as part of our fundamental understanding of Jesus Christ because it, along with Pentecost marks the beginning of the age of he church. Christ is no longer locked into the limitations of the flesh, but that does not mean that he does not have a body. The body is you and me. Notice in Acts Jesus directly commands the disciples to be his witnesses to the remotest parts of the earth. In other words he commands them to have the first “be the church Sunday,” and Monday and Tuesday. In fact he just charges them to be the church in every day and every way. By extension we receive the same command. To be the hands and feet and mouth of Jesus every day of our lives.
So first, the ascension is the beginning of Christ’s reign over the promised kingdom. Second it is out of necessity the beginning of the age of the church and our mission for Christ. And finally the ascension of Jesus Christ celebrates that we will never do his work alone. If Jesus would have continued to live on the earth in his resurrected body, how could be here with us today? Because if he was with us today, how could he be with anyone else? In the ascension, our Jesus moved out of the self imposed limits of time and space to become the Lord of time and space who walks with me and talks with me, while he is crying with you, and laughing with you, and healing someone in the hospital, and grieving with a mother who’s child was just stillborn, while he is working to change the hearts of people all over the world. The Ascension of Jesus Christ does not take Christ out of this world, but by makes him even more widely present by the power of his Holy Spirit working in our lives. It means that Jesus is real and present whenever and wherever you need him, day and night..
To take a shortcut past the ascension is the miss Jesus ascending to be King
To take a shortcut past the ascension is the miss Jesus ascending to be the head of his body the church.
To take a shortcut past the ascension is the miss Jesus ascending to be lord of your life and mine.
It is a hard doctrine to grasp. It is a hard doctrine to swallow. But listen to Jesus own words on that matter.
53Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever." 59He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
60On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"
61Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? 62What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit[a] and they are life.
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