The following sermon was preached online at the Feast of the Ascension. The video below should start at the sermon, but feel free to watch thew whole service if you wish. A transcript of the sermon is included below.
The Feast of the Ascension doesn’t work without a descent, how can you go up if you first haven’t come down.
Jesus is the God who comes down, God with us. He descends in humility to Bethlehem, born vulnerable and frail, he descends further still as he becomes the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief and hardship, he descends even further at Golgotha, suffering, humiliated, tortured and killed. There are no depths of sorrow, of hardship or difficulty, which Jesus has not Himself descended into. God descends, stoops to the lowest place. But he doesn’t stay there, he Ascends and this is Good News. In the victory of the Resurrection Salvation’s work is done. Jesus has bourne the weight of sin, paid our debts, he’s conquered death, he has become our way to God. Through Jesus our relationship with God can be restored, we can be made right with God once more. He bursts forth from the tomb in resurrection life and light and joy, the resurrection we’ve been celebrating these last 40 days, the resurrection we share in. And Luke tells us He stays for 40 days, teaching about himself from the Scriptures, convincing people of the reality of his resurrection, enjoying fellowship with them. And now, Jesus’ work of salvation is completed, and so in victory he leaves, he ascends into heaven to receive his reward. The Ascension is the final seal on the Resurrection. Jesus doesn’t just come back to life again to live a few more years on earth to die again some day, he doesn’t come back to life to wander the earth for eternity. No Jesus bursts forth in new life, and in joy and in victory Ascends into heaven, to live eternally in His Father’s presence. And He doesn’t just live, He reigns. He reigns right now at God’s right hand, working all things for the good of those who love Him. Jesus doesn’t leave for a holiday, leaves us to enjoy heaven for a bit then one day will remember us and come back. Jesus in His Ascension enters heaven in glorious and victorious procession and takes His place to reign over all things until the day when His Kingdom will come in all its fulness, when all things are made new. And he doesn’t leave earth abandoned physically either. He commissions the apostles along with his whole church to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. Which means proclaim the Gospel, tell people the good news yes. But it also means to witness to Him in how we live, in our priorities and in our actions. Witness to Him in the world we try to build, in the life of the Church. Our whole lives and the life of the Church should witness to the world what Jesus is like, who Jesus is. But that’s not through our own effort, through how good we manage to be or through our programmes or plans or schemes. It’s because Jesus is at work in us by His Spirit. We witness to Jesus not just because we know Him well but because He is living and active in us. At the opening of Acts Luke writes: ‘In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven’. Has that ever seemed odd to you? All that Jesus began to do and teach until the Ascension. Even if we take it as an intro to what he’s about to tell us about Jesus now, Jesus has left by verse 11, there’s still 28 chapters left to go. What Luke recognises here is that whilst Jesus is no longer physically present and active on earth, He’s still present and active in His Church. He’s still at work in and through us to the point that Luke can say that the Gospels tell us what Jesus began to do and teach, this next book tells us what he continues to do. And Luke isn’t coming up with something new here, later on in Acts when Jesus appears to Paul and confronts him about persecuting the Church Jesus doesn’t say why are you persecuting my people, my believers, my church, he says ‘why are you persecuting me’. Jesus identifies himself with us in a very real sense. It’s why when he’s giving these instructions to the disciples (to go out at be his witnesses) he tells them not to do anything yet, to hold fire. Because it’s not something they can do in their power, this isn’t about them and their efforts. They have to wait for the Holy Spirit. They have to wait for God’s Spirit to come, then they will be empowered, then they can go out and live out Jesus’ command. Christ is present and active in them through His Spirit. I’ll be talking about that a little more at Pentecost in 10 days time. Back to the Ascension. Where is Jesus right now? Reigning at the right hand of God, and at work by His Spirit in and through His Church. That’s something to rejoice in. The world isn’t left abandoned to the forces of entropy, to chaos, waiting for God to come and take control. Instead we are assured that the one who loves us so much that He died for us is reigning over all things. Working His purposes out in and through all things. He’s ruling as King, Christ triumphant ever reigning. That’s what the Ascension means. And He’s also our High Priest. The role of the High Priest in the Old Testament was to make the people right with God, to come before God on behalf of the people. The High Priest would come into the presence of God with the people on his heart. That’s what Jesus does. He’s made us right with God and now stands in the presence of God praying for us. Paul says in Romans 8 that Jesus intercedes for His people. He prays for you, every day Jesus is praying for you. In all the mess and confusion and difficulties you face Jesus is praying for you to His Father. He knows what it is to suffer and hurt and mourn and he prays for you. He loves you, and day by day He comes before His Father with you on His heart. That’s what the Ascension means. In Baptism we are united with Christ, it’s a bit like getting married what’s his becomes yours and what’s yours becomes his. We are united in His death and resurrection. We probably know that, but we are also united with Him in His Ascension. Paul in Ephesians 6 says that ‘God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus’. We share in Christ’s Ascension, not yet in its fullest sense, but, because we are united with Christ, because He is seated in the heavenly places so are we. Sharing in the Ascension means that when life is at it’s hardest, when we feel like we are at our lowest, Jesus has been there, but He has also Ascended from there and will bring us to share in that Ascension out from the pit, past our old normal and up into new heights, if not in this life then certainly in the life to come. The Feast of the Ascension means we have a friend in very high places. The King who rules over all things, the priest who prays continually for us, the brother who reaches down into the pit to draw us up to where He is. Which means whatever we face in even the darkest places we find Jesus who came down from heaven to the mess of our world, so that we can look up from the mess of our world to His heavenly glory, and know that where he is, there we also shall be. Amen
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AuthorAn Anglican Curate in my 20's I was raised in an Anglican Church, went to a Youth Club run by an Evangelical Church, attended a Baptist Church while at Uni and was a member of a New Monastic Community after graduating. As such my faith has been influenced by these experiences and traditions into what I hope is a more rounded viewpoint. Archives
September 2022
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