Ascension

Good Shepherd

2004 Pass Rd, Biloxi, MS 39531

Draft 2 K 2:5–15; Acts 1:1–11; Lk 24:44–53; Ps 110; anti.: v. 1   –     5/17/26

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Then [Jesus] 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 and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. Here Jesus explains to His disciples that all of the laws and all of the stories of the Old Testament were and have always been about Him and His work to save man from death in sin. What this means then, is that you or I could go to any book of the Old Testament and read it, and there find Christ proclaimed. Sometimes that connection will not be easy for us to make except in so far as the sin of men is evident, parts of the books of Kings and Chronicles come to mind for this situation. In others the Christ becomes readily apparent, such as Job, Isaiah, Ruth. In others still, we must understand Christ’s work and how He overcame sin and death, placing them into captivity, then such books as Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy open up to us. I am not going to go through a long list and explain them all to you. Instead, as Christians, you should all daily be exploring the Bible and trying to make the connections that Jesus has said today you will find, and you should all be going to Sunday morning Bible Study to learn there more of the council of God.

Today what should concern us beyond the blessing of being able to find Christ throughout the whole Bible are the fruits of Christ’s Ascension. Already 40 days ago Jesus rose from the dead, having suffered for your sin, died, been buried, and harrowed hell, or probably more accurately Hades. Now He goes to His Father and your Father and the Church sees Him no more. So what are the fruits of the Ascension? How did the Psalm open today? There is some of the answer: The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! I already spoke to you about what it means for our Savior to sit at God’s right hand, and here we see that same teaching again. Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father Who has through Christ’s death subdued the great enemies, sin, death, the devil, and hell but waits the final comeuppance on the Last Day. Meanwhile, there Christ is at the right hand of power, having assumed again His authority and power, that being the mighty scepter, so that He rules over all of creation. Even though the devil and his demons seem to be running amok among us, what is the truth of the matter? They are bound under the rule of Christ. In the book of Job we see how the devil cannot do anything unless God permits him, that very evidently remains true today, so that all which the devil would do against God’s people, against you, fails and results rather in our good. We ought to repent for our own sins and also pray that we would endure whatever trial the devil brings against us so that we would see the good God has in story.

Likewise, the David again says, The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. This shows that even the kingdoms, the states, the countries and rulers of the world are under Christ’s scepter. He overthrows those whom He desires, and He upholds those whom He desires so that they may accomplish only what permits them to accomplish. All the sins a country commits He will one day demand justice for, and He will crush them with a rod of iron for the evil they have done to His Christians. The full dolling out of justice we will not see until the Last Day, but we do see minor acts of God’s wrath in wars, famine, plague, and natural disasters. We ought to pray for our nation, that the United States would cease to commit evil and instead do good, that our nation would no longer operate by greed and usury, no longer buy the future in the blood of babies, and that when disaster strikes our neighbors would heed God’s wrath, repent of their wicked ways, and believe in Christ.

David says elsewhere, You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men, Even from the rebellious, That the Lord God might dwell there. (Psalm 68:18) And St. Paul adds, “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.” (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) (Eph 4:8–10) David and Paul intend to show us also that in the Ascension Christ is leading away His enemies and our enemies who have been completely defeated, though the full effect of this won’t be apparent to you and me for some time yet. Christ descended from heaven, was born of a woman, faced sin and overcame it His whole life, faced the devil on the cross and chained him while paying the debt of sin, then descended to those in captivity, as St. Peter tells us, For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient. He then leads the captives out, with sin, death, and the devil in chains, before the throne of God. Thus when we hear or read the passages on the Ascension we ought to take great comfort in knowing that Christ has overcome them and bound them for us, that they are awaiting their final judgment where they will be cast into hell, as Revelation tells us, Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire (20:14–15). We ought therefore pray that God would daily remind us of this victory, and thereby strengthen us, and that He would also open the ears of all people to His Word lest they suffer the second death for their unrepentant hearts.

Lastly, note what St. Paul said, that Christ might fill all things. What does that mean for us? First it means that Christ is everywhere present, upholding and sustaining the world and universe. A blessing, to be sure. But more personally, it means that there are certain places where Christ has chosen to be for your sake. Yes, after a fashion He is in the trees, the ocean, the sky, whatever, but He has not in those to be received by us. Rather, He has designated that He is in certain gifts: the waters of Holy Baptism for us for the forgiveness of our sins; He is in the bread and wine of His Supper for us for the forgiveness of the sins of those who believe, but condemnation for those who do not believe; He is in the Word of Absolution, I forgive you your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; and He is in the Word of God read and preached to you on Sunday, but also in the Word of God read in your own homes. We can go walking in the forest, or sailing on the bay or in the gulf and yes, Jesus is there, but He is not in those places to give you His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. The lesser gifts of beauty in creation, sure. We ought daily pray that we would believe His Word, worthily receive His Supper, remember our baptism in times of trouble, and ever more as the day grows darker desire all that He has prepared for us in His Church, desire the Lord’s Supper, desire Absolution, desire to hear the Scriptures read that they all would sustain us until the final day in the faith. And we also ought to pray that our friends and neighbors would hear of Jesus, His death, resurrection, and ascension, that we would be bold to proclaim Christ to them, and that they would believe and so be freed from their captivity to sin.

There is one other fruit of the Ascension, And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high, but that will keep until Pentecost. While we wait the final day, let us emulate the disciples and return to our homes in great joy, continually in our hearts, our homes, and our church blessing God. Amen.

Now the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen