By Rev. Michael Carl
Introduction
What’s the most important event in all of human history?
Now, what’s the most important event in the life of Jesus?
Whole books have been written on both subjects. In the academy, there are plenty of opinions on which events are the most important and the backers of each can present pretty convincing cases for their opinions.
Yet, in the Christian Year, today is an important day in the development of the church and in the realm of redemptive history. Today is the Sunday After the Ascension, or Ascension Sunday. This is the day when the church from the earliest times celebrated Christ’s Ascension into heaven.
The Accounts…
There are two accounts of this same event, the prequel in the Gospel of Luke and Luke’s continuing version in Acts 1.7-11.
Let’s look at Luke’s account in Luke 24.44-53 first…
44. Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”
45. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,
46. and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day,
47. and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
48. You are witnesses of these things.
49. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
50. Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them.
51. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.
52. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy;
53. and they were continually in the temple blessing God.
Here Jesus gives them the instructions on the message they’re to take and how they’re to take it to the world. The message they’re to take is crucial; and let’s take note of the message content. We’re to take the message of Christ crucified and of repentance. So, the Cross is central to the message of Christianity.
Here are two realities we need to let penetrate deeply into our minds and hearts: First, there is no salvation outside of the Church and two, there is no salvation without the Cross.
Maybe here’s a third: A church that doesn’t preach the Cross of Christ is not preaching the Gospel! Without the Cross, there is no salvation!
Here Jesus is carried out of their sight into heaven. Then the writer says they were rejoicing and worshipping in the Temple daily.
Why would they be worshipping full of joy if they had just had their Master taken up into heaven? You would think they might be bummed out because Jesus was leaving them. Sure He told them He was going to send them the ‘Promise of My Father’ which would give them power, but there is something else.
We’ll see the reason in the second version.
Here’s a note of explanation. Have you ever read a book where there is a sequel to it? The ending of part one is a wide brushstroke full of general details to close the book.
Then at the beginning of part two, they go back and fill in the details from the end of part one. That’s what Luke is doing here.
So, let’s look at the sequel in Acts 1.4-11…
4. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me;
5. for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
6. So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7. He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
8. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9. When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
10. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them.
11. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
They finally get it. They had finally seen the major event in the cosmic history of our world. Jesus was taken up into heaven in glory. The angels said that Jesus will return one day in the same way they saw Him go up.
How will He return? He will return in the fullness of His glory. He will return in all of His power. This means that when He went up, the heavens opened and the fullness of the Shekinah glory was present to show the disciple/Apostles that their Lord with whom they had spent over three years was indeed the reigning King!
This is the significance of the Ascension. Jesus ascended into heaven and took His rightful place on the Throne of heaven, and He’s reigning there as the eternal king, the One who will sit on the Throne of David forever.
He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the triumphant and victorious One!
Furthermore
Paul tells us also that it is because He is King forever that every knee shall bow to Him. He will be worshipped.
He is worthy to be worshipped and He will receive worship, either from us willingly or by compulsion. Why? He’s sitting up there on His throne with the whole world in His hands—He’s holding all things together! Paul tells us that in Colossians chapter one. So what this means is that His Kingdom exists right now!
Worship
The book of Revelation tells us in Revelation 7.9-12 that in front of the throne in heaven are millions of saints who have gone before. At the foot of King Jesus’ throne, right now, those saints are singing a magnificent and never ending chorus of praise to our victorious Lord and King.
The Lord Jesus is receiving worship. The throngs of heaven continuously sing praises.
Take a tour through the book of Revelation and if we were to do this now, we would see that from chapter four through chapter eleven, there is a series of praise chorus being sung right now! All of heaven sings the praises of our glorious King! And they’re singing them in unison—together!
The book of Revelation tells us that those praises are a sweet, fragrant aroma to the Lord. Jesus is listening with great pleasure and joy as His redeemed family sings eternally of His glory!
And every Sunday when we gather together and we say together those entrance phrases from the Book of Common Prayer or the standard liturgies, we’re joining in on that heavenly chorus—the Communion of the Saints—and Jesus Himself is calling down to us with an invitation: ‘Come on up! Join us in this glorious chorus of praise! Be a part of something that is so awesome, so wonderful and that is so much bigger than you are!’
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but when we sing that song in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we’re joining in with all the Saints singing praises from the songs in Revelation and what the Seraphs sang in Isaiah 6.
Let us also remember that the Cross is central to the Eucharist. The bread is the Body of Christ; the wine is the Blood of Christ. When we come to the Table of the Lord, we come to die to self and live to Him. This is the message of the Liturgy!
Again, we are never in such communion with the church for all time as we are when we join together in the Liturgy, because believers since the first and second Centuries until now have prayed and sang those lines and those prayers together! When we pray and sing those prayers and songs, we’re joining a sweet melody of praise that proclaims the Cross and reverberates through the Halls of Heaven.
This is why.
This is the importance and significance of the Ascension. Jesus is on His eternal throne right now interceding for us.
He’s reigning from on high! He’s the holy One.
This gives us our holy purpose, which is to worship Him in a way that pleases Him—in a way that He desires.
And it is in this holy chorus to which He will respond and answer by an outpouring of His Spirit to us. When we sing with joy, when we pray with passion, He will baptize us with His Holy Spirit. And when that happens, we will find joy never ending.
Amen.
