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Pastor Tom Steers on May 9, 2024

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ASCENSION DAY

May 9, 2024

Pastor Tom Steers

Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto

From the time of the early Church, this day has been honoured and observed.

Just as the passion and resurrection were predicted in the Old Testament, so too was the Ascension.

The Ascension is the fulfillment of the Incarnation.

Jesus’ extraordinary visible ascent is the essential capstone of His earthly ministry.

At the beginning of the Fifth Century, Saint Augustine wrote that Ascension Day is of Apostolic origin, and that it was the universal observance of the Church long before his time.

Christ’s Ascension does not mean He has gone away and is no longer with us.

To the contrary, shortly before He ascended, Jesus said, “behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

In His time on earth, Jesus, true God and true man, did not fully use his divine powers. Thus, He limited Himself to being in one time and one place.

Now, Christ is “seated at the right hand” of God the Father. (Ephesians 1:20).

Jesus has entered into the full and continuous use of His divine attributes.

To the Christian, the Ascension holds many comforts.

Faith and hope for the future of God's kingdom rest secure in the knowledge that our Lord ascended.

He is now everywhere present while governing and protecting His Church on earth.

Here is my service and sermon for this blessed day.

Pastor Tom Steers,

Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto

The Invocation –

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

The Verses:

Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea;

hear me and answer me.

Evening, morning, and noon

I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice.

Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you;

He will never let the righteous fall.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

The Collect Prayer for Ascension Day:

Almighty God,

as Your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,

ascended into the heavens,

so may we also ascend in heart and mind

and continually dwell there with Him,

who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever. Amen.

Our Bible Readings --

First Reading – Acts 1:1–11

Psalm 47

Epistle Reading – Ephesians 1:15-23

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 24th Chapter, verses 44–53.

“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 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 for[a] the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. 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.

“And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.”

The Apostles’ Creed –

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,

Maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died and was buried.

He descended into hell.

On the third day He rose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven

and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy Christian Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting. Amen.

The Hymn of the Day: “Up Through Endless Ranks of Angels”

Lutheran Service Book, 492: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxKstPK15QE

The Sermon –

Today marks a special day.

As we confess, “Jesus ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”

Those words from the Apostles’ Creed come from knowing the account of Christ’s ascension into Heaven recorded by the Apostle Luke.

Luke told of the Ascension both in His Gospel, as well as his accompanying volume, the Acts of the Apostles.

The fulfillment of these passages, and other references in Holy Scripture, come on this day the Church holds in reverence for the sake of the ascended Lord.

The number ‘40’ is significant in the Old and New Testaments.

For 40 days and 40 nights rain fell in judgment on the earth during Noah’s time.

For 40 years God’s people wandered in the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt, and for 40 days the twelve spies searched the Land of Canaan.

Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days. There are more examples.

But now we have a joyous reason to count!

On the fortieth day after His resurrection, Jesus ascended into Heaven, witnessed by the disciples.

Imagine being with the eleven that day.

They must have held mixed emotions.

Jesus had told them that He would be raised on the third day after His crucifixion. (Matthew 20:19)

He also told them He was going to prepare a place for them in His Father’s mansion. (John 14:2).

Now, at the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem, He leaves them.

All they could do was silently watch as He ascended into Heaven.

But Luke also tells us just how Christ left the disciples:

“Then [Jesus] led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. While He blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven.”

Did you catch that?

As Jesus left, He blessed His followers.

That blessing was delivered as Christ was received into the clouds of Heavenly glory.

So, what does that mean for you and me today?

Remember something Jesus said earlier in Luke’s Gospel: “Temptations to sin are sure to come . . . . ” (Luke 17:1).

Our world today is certainly full of temptation, and sin.

Our daily news and honest self-reflection confirm that.

Yet our Lord continues to bless us.

If there is one message, we can take away with us on Ascension Day it is this: Jesus blessed us as He ascended and continues to do so.

As Christians, we trust He will return to take us to Himself, that where He is, we may also be. (John 14:3).

We build the hope of our ascension on what Jesus has shown us in His.

He left earth, but in doing so, truly blesses His followers, those who confess His saving name.

As believers, we will triumph over the temptations of this world – through Christ.

Despite our broken nature, Christians everywhere, in all times, have the daily healing of our loving Saviour.

Ascended into Heaven, Jesus is completely unfettered by time or place.

We have the living presence of the Holy Spirit that He sent to us, and Christ’s promise that He would never leave us.

We remain connected to Him as we read and hear God’s Word in the Bible.

We pray to Him, and He hears our petitions.

We remember our baptismal identity in lives of daily repentance and promised forgiveness, while rendering faithful service to others, all the while knowing one day we too will be called from this world to eternal life in Heaven.

Then we will be blessed as Simeon was in Luke’s Gospel when he said: “Lord, now let Your servant depart in peace, according to Your Word.” (Luke 2:29).

At the beginning of Luke’s Gospel, we learn of the peace from God in Heaven which comes to us in Christ.

We not only have this peace now, but the lasting hope of Christ’s glorious return.

As the angel said to the disciples, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Until that magnificent day there is work to do.

In our daily lives.

In our witness to Christ.

Jesus said to the disciples, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

By Christ’s bodily ascension into heaven in the sight of His followers, He helped them, and us, to see that His Kingdom is within us, and comes into existence through His forgiveness.

Jesus frees us from our sins and the guilt of sin.

Through His Word and His rich blessings of the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, Christ empowers us to live under Him in His Kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness.

We are given our Lord's very body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.

We hear Christ's absolution spoken through the Pastor in the Divine Service.

Just before His ascension, Jesus promised, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

All in the Kingdom of God receive power to be Christian witnesses, first and foremost to our families, our friends, and to our neighbours close by and perhaps, through the internet, around the world.

The Ascension did not take Jesus away . . . it brought Heaven near.

He promised us, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Our Saviour Jesus Christ was raised by God the Father from the dead.

He died for our sins and was raised for our justification.

Jesus ascended bodily.

He lives as the ascended Lord of all and sits glorified at the right hand of God the Father.

The ascension of Christ is a preview of the promised consummation for believers.

At the Last Day Jesus will return as He went.

It will not be a “spiritual” or metaphorical return, but an actual coming of His physical body.

No one is going to miss it.

As our Lord was raised from the dead and ascended to Heaven, so Christians will be raised by Him and brought to paradise.

Our Saviour said to the Apostle John in the Book of Revelation, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore . . . . “

Through Him may you be comforted, empowered and blessed, now and forever.

Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer –

Our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name,

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread;

and forgive us our trespasses

as we forgive those

who trespass against us;

and lead us not into temptation,