Ascension
Acts
1:1-11
5/30/19
Forty days with the risen Lord, and
that is the question they ask? The
apostles say to Jesus: “Lord, will you at this time restore
the kingdom to Israel?” At first glance, when we hear the apostles’
question in our text it sounds like they are clueless. Jesus Christ has died on the cross and risen
from the dead. He has defeated sin and
death, and yet they are focused on Israel as a nation – Israel as it existed in
the Old Testament.
It seems that they have their
priorities all out of kilter and that they completely misunderstand Jesus. But
actually, there is more going on here. For anyone who knows what the prophets
of the Old Testament had said, their question actually rings true.
Luke tells us that Jesus “presented himself alive to
them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days
and speaking about the kingdom of God.”
A recurring theme in the resurrection accounts is that the encounter
with the risen Lord was not a one-time event.
It wasn’t even a one day event.
Instead, it was something that happened again and again. The Lord presented himself alive to different
groups of people, in different places over a long period of time – forty days. Why were the apostles and the other disciples
willing to struggle, suffer and even die in sharing the Gospel? It was because Jesus Christ had left no doubt
about the fact that he had risen from the dead.
Luke tells
us that Jesus gave a very specific command.
He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the
promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized
with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from
now.” The disciples understood that Jesus was the Christ – the Messiah promised
by God. As we hear in our Gospel lesson,
he had 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.”
Jesus had just promised that they
were about to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
In the prophets such as Isaiah, Ezekiel and Joel, the Davidic Messiah
and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit were the key features that Yahweh had
promised to Israel for her restoration.
The Messiah reigning and Spirit poured out was the expectation of
Israel’s promised future.
So when the disciples asked, “Lord,
will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”, they were simply
expressing the expectation provided by the prophets. Like John the Baptist before them, when he sent
the question about whether Jesus was the coming One, they weren’t entirely wrong.
But they also didn’t truly understand things yet.
Jesus responded, “It is not for you to know times or
seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
But
you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be
my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the
earth.” Our Lord sidestepped their
question about Israel. Instead, he
focused on what the Spirit would do. He
would give them power so that they could be Jesus’ witnesses in Jerusalem, in
all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
They wanted to talk about
Israel. Jesus spoke about the sending of
the Spirit and the proclamation of the Gospel in Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The disciples did not yet understand that
“Israel” was being transformed by God’s saving work. Through Christ, Israel was becoming the light
to the nations she was always meant to be.
In the Book of Acts we see how the Holy Spirit prompts … and sometimes
forces the Church to understand that Gentiles are now fully included in the
people of God through faith in Christ, and baptism.
The Israel of God was expanding to
include all nations. This would take
place through the work of the Holy Spirit – the Spirit who was yet to be sent
for this particular manner of working.
Jesus Christ was about to change that. Yet his doing so would be the
result of a change for Christ.
We hear in
our text: “And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was
lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” The Lord was taken up into the air until a
cloud hid him from view. The ascension of Jesus Christ was the means by which
he withdrew his visible presence from the disciples. For forty days the risen
Lord had been in their midst, interacting with them. Yet now an event occurred
that brought this to an end.
This fact
was emphasized by what happened as the apostles looked up into heaven. Luke tells us: “Behold, two men stood by them
in white robes, and said, ‘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.’”
Jesus had visibly departed in the ascension. But the angels announced
that he would also visibly return.
Our Lord
Jesus has ascended, and our text does not explain what this means for Jesus and
for us. But on the day of Pentecost – on
the day of the outpouring of the Spirit that Jesus had promised – Peter did
exactly that. He confronted his audience
with the fact that they had killed Jesus.
But then he declared, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are
witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having
received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this
that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.”
We learn
that the resurrection and ascension are directly connected, and that the
ascension is the exaltation of Christ. It is in fact the enthronement of Jesus at
the right hand of God. Peter went on to
say as he quoted Psalm 110: “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he
himself says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your
enemies your footstool.’ Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain
that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
The
ascended Lord now reigns through his Spirit.
The rest of the Book of Acts is the story of how the Spirit of Christ
moved the proclamation of the Gospel from Jerusalem to Samaria and Syria, to
Asia Minor and Greece, and on to Rome.
He continues his work of restoring and creating his Israel in these last
days.
Israel is
more than the apostles recognized, and they didn’t understand the timing of how
God’s Spirit would work. That often
describes us as well. We know how we
want God’s kingdom to look like. We know
how we want to see God’s reign through the Gospel advancing. But there are
times when it just doesn’t seem to be happening as we want. There can be
discouragement and doubt as we see the culture of the western world turn
increasingly hostile to Christ’s Church.
We grow frustrated with God in ways that pose a challenge to faith.
The Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord serves
to snap us out of this because it fixes our attention squarely on the Lord – our Lord. Designated as the
Messiah at his baptism, Jesus has been enthroned in his ascension. Jesus announced at his trial before the
Sanhedrin, “But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of
the power of God.”
In our text
Jesus Christ is taken out of sight by a cloud, and we have heard how Peter said
he has been seated at the right hand of the throne of God. The ascension shows us that Jesus is Son of
Man of Daniel chapter seven. There, Daniel sees the Ancient of Days – God – seated
on throne with a stream of fire issuing forth from before him, and multitudes
of angels around him.
Then Daniel
tells us: “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was
presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an
everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall
not be destroyed.”
This is our
Lord, and God has said that he is enthroned until God makes his enemies his
footstool – until the Father makes every so called power in the world submit to
him. This is the Lord we worship and serve. This is the risen and exalted One in
whom we trust.
And the day
is coming when all will have to recognize and submit to him. The angels told the disciples that he will
return in the same way he ascended.
Jesus said, “You also must be ready, for
the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” For now, our Lord reigns through his Spirit
as he works through the Means of Grace. These are means that can be resisted
and rejected. But the ascension of our
Lord declares that Jesus Christ who has been exalted will return in irresistible
power. For now we greet him in the Sanctus as he comes to us in the Sacrament
of the Altar. But on the Last Day we
will know the joy of crying out: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord,” as we greet the risen and exalted Christ.
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