Acts 1:1-11
The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was departing, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them; and they also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven."
Ascended, but not Gone
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
In our society, people do not die. That is a cultural linguistic oddity. People are "lost". They "depart". They "go away", "slip away", "pass on", or they "expire", but they are rarely said to die. Even in the church, we speak of people "receiving the crown of glory", "finishing their course", being "called home", "entering their rest", or some other euphemism. It is simply not polite to talk directly about death in our society. What was once called a "mortuary" - literally a place of death - is now a funeral home, or better yet, a "memorial chapel". Even a cemetery is now frequently called a "memorial garden". Yeah, those are seeds we plant.
Except, of course, for those people we would just as soon do without. They die. In such cases it is not unusual to hear of someone being "dead and gone". There is a cathartic quality to the finality of saying that. It means that such a person is gone, unable to hurt us further, out of our lives, beyond inconveniencing us any longer, They are "dead and gone."
In contrast we have Jesus. His enemies thought that He was dead and gone, but then He rose from the dead. It was an intense irritation to them and an equally intense joy to His disciples. Finally, forty days after His resurrection, Jesus went away. He ascended into heaven, as our text describes. In the eyes of the world, Jesus was now gone! To His followers, it looked and felt like He was gone.
But it is not so! This evening we come to weigh the teaching of the Ascension and it meaning, and our focus is on the truth that although Christ died, and finally ascended, He is not "dead and gone". The meaning of the celebration of the Church throughout two thousand years of Christian History is that Jesus is Ascended, but not Gone!
The Biblical account is sparse. It requires only three short verses. The disciples had come together with Jesus, and they were asking Him questions. They wanted to know if they had finally come to the end of the world, or if it was soon to occur, or if, perhaps He was going to establish Israel as the predominant world power - which demonstrated that even then, forty days after the resurrection of Jesus from the grave, they had still not unlearned the false theology of glory which dominated the messianic thinking of their culture.
Jesus answered them that they were not to be concerned with such things. Their assignment was to be His witnesses. They were to preach Christ and Him crucified for repentance and forgiveness and salvation. Then Luke wrote simply, "And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight." He just rose up in the air, higher and higher, perhaps still speaking to them, until He disappeared into a cloud, or one moved between Him and the disciples, hiding Him from their eyes.
That day is the last day that anyone saw Jesus on earth. Paul was caught up into heaven and saw Jesus - whether in the body or out of the body, even he could not say. John, as recorded in Revelation, saw Jesus in His glory in a vision. But, ancient Christian legends aside, no one has seen Jesus on earth since the day He ascended into heaven and was hidden from sight by the cloud.
I suspect the visible ascension stunned the disciples. Even after they could no longer see Jesus, they stood staring into the sky, perhaps searching for another glimpse. And Luke tells us that, "And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was departing, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them; and they also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.'"
There are not a lot of details here, but God recorded these events and these details because they are significant. The ascension of Jesus was a part of the plan of God, and a necessary part. This account is, in a way, like the end of one chapter and the beginning of another — which I suspect is why Luke did not include it in the Gospel, but chose to use it to begin the next book, which records for us the deeds of the Apostles. This book is called the Acts of the Apostles, or "Acts" for short.
We want to underline what was already noted - the Ascension was necessary. First, it was necessary to fulfill prophecy. The Psalmists prophesied about God ascending, Psalm 47:5, "God has ascended with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet." Then there is Psalm 68:18, "Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captive Thy captives; Thou hast received gifts among men." Jesus also had prophesied His ascension, saying, in John 3:13, "And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man."
Aside from fulfilling the prophesies, Jesus ascending visibly showed the disciples exactly where He went. He ascended. They saw it happen. The resurrection was not witnessed. It was demonstrated to be true "by many infallible proofs", but no one was there, in the tomb, to see Jesus' body come back to life. The Ascension was witnessed. They saw Him rise into the sky.
Now, that doesn't mean that heaven is physically "up". One of the early Russian cosmonauts boasted that he could not see God or heaven up there as he orbited the globe. He was a victim of that silly idea. The Jews of Jesus' day, and most people of whatever religion back then, considered God to be "up" and evil to be "down". It is a common image even today. God Himself speaks of being above, and looking down on us. Jesus' ascension into the skies was a symbol at the same time it was a reality. In the ancient world, the word for "heaven" was also the word for "sky" and the word for "the place where God dwells". Jesus rose into the sky to illustrate visually that He was going to be with the Father, and to reign over all things.
Jesus also told the disciples that "if He did not go away, that He could not send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to them." He told them that He had to go to send the Paraclete to build and guide the Church.
Finally, the Ascension was necessary so that Jesus could continue in His three-fold office. Because He has ascended, He is our Prophet, Priest, and King. As our Prophet, Jesus proclaims His Word to us through the lips of those He has called to be His messengers, who faithfully proclaim His Word in all its truth and purity.
As our Priest, Jesus made the once-for-all sacrifice for our sins, and even now, He intercedes for us with the heavenly Father.
As our King, Jesus rules all things in heaven and on earth in our favor, just as we learn from Romans 8:28, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." He rules the world by His power, He rules the Church by His grace in forgiveness, and He rules in heaven by His Glory, just as the Bible teaches.
It wasn't just for Jesus or those first disciples that the ascension was necessary. We needed Jesus to ascend, too. The Christian faith is just that, faith. If Jesus and not ascended, faith would be ever so much more difficult.
Now, I am not suggesting that we have the power to believe on our own. We do not. Still, it would have been much more difficult for us - more intellectual road blocks, more emotional hurdles to deal with - if Jesus had not ascended. Let me give you a simple example: One of the blessings of the ascension is that we do not know what Jesus looked like. There is no description of Him in the Bible. The best we have are a couple of prophecies that suggest that Jesus was not going to be a real attractive person, physically. There is one description of Him in history, by Josephus about twenty years after the Ascension, working from rumors and legends. He said that Jesus was taller than average, and He had a piercing, high pitched voice that could be clearly heard at a distance, and that His hair was blond or light brown, lighter than normal for His society. But even that description is historically suspect - it may be true, and maybe someone added it at a later date. We do not know.
I think it was deliberate on the part of God to leave that space blank. Now all men can accept Him. Race and other outward defining characteristics don't get in the way. Orientals see Jesus as oriental. Blacks often picture Jesus as black. Us white folk imagine Jesus to be white. Slaves can imagine He looked like them, while their masters picture Him looking just like them. They can endow their mental image of Jesus with many of their own characteristics because no one knows any different, and Jesus did come to be one of us! Jesus ascended out of our sight to enable our faith. Nothing about His physical appearance can strain our faith. We don't know what He looked like, so we can imagine whatever His inward qualities suggest to us. What matters is not what looked like, but what He accomplished on the cross for us all.
Because Jesus ascended, we can genuinely believe. Think about it, and it makes perfectly good sense. And yes, God wants you to use your intellect - You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. Yes, God wants you to use your mind - in faith, and in love, and in service to Him. The use of the mind should always be subject to the Word of God, but He would have you use it to the fullest.
Think about it. Jesus took His visible presence away from us so that we might believe that He is always with us! If you could see Jesus, on T.V., or if He made occasional appearances among us, then you would want and need to see Him with your own eyes to believe that He was here! How do you know I am here? Because you can see me. How do you know when I am not present? You look around, you listen carefully, and if you cannot detect me, I must not be there. You would not want to pray without seeing Him or hearing His voice respond. You would struggle to believe that His body and blood are really present in the Sacrament before us tonight, if you knew He was physically present someone else - or even here among us.
Of course, Jesus is here, tonight, physically present. He attends all of our worship services. He comes to all of our meetings. He hears our prayers personally, and answers them personally. You know that song about Santa Claus, "He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good . . ." It is true -- about Jesus. He promised it, Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.
Strangely enough, we can take Him at His Word because we can't see Him. Since we cannot see Him at any time, we know that we cannot expect to see Him when He is present. So, not seeing Jesus doesn't mean He is not here. We have to decide the matter on the basis of His promise.
We can honestly say that Jesus is really present in this Sacrament for our forgiveness and blessing and strengthening because we don't anticipate being able to find Him with our senses - and because He says so! He wanted it to be so that we would walk by faith, and not by sight, or any other sense. On our altar tonight, Jesus is bringing us His body and blood for our cleansing and blessing and salvation.
And He is present in the Word preached. If the pastor proclaims the true Word of God in purity and honesty, the voice you hear is not the voice of the pastor alone. It is the voice of Jesus. It is not His natural voice - it is the voice which He has called, through your calling of a pastor, to be His voice here, among you, speaking His holy and saving Word to you, in your ears.
The Ascension also means that Jesus is coming again, just as He promised. He is coming in the clouds. He is coming visibly, and with great glory - just as the Disciples watched Him go. They will be here on that day, too. The angel promised them that they would see Him return just as they witnessed Him depart! Of course, that means that the Ascension also means to guarantee us that we will rise from our graves at the end, unless we still stand on earth alive on that great day! Jesus is coming again, and not in secret, to rapture a few away, but suddenly, visibly, and with great glory, and all of mankind will stand before Him and see it happen and glorify God.
And that is what the Ascension tells us. It teaches us that Jesus is not gone, but among us. It says that we can look for Him in the Sacrament, and listen for His voice in the voice of the shepherd He has called to be His voice. It means that He is listening to every prayer. And finally, it assures us that He is coming again, and we are going to rise from our graves to that salvation long promised, prepared on the cross and at the empty tomb, and proclaimed to you tonight, and every Lord's day. Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you." Trusting His promises, the Ascension reminds us that Jesus is preparing that place for each of us, to come and receive us to Himself.
Dead and Gone. It is a stark and rude phrase. It fits most people who die, but not Jesus. He is no longer dead, and He is still with us. He rules the world on our behalf and in our favor. He sends preachers and teachers that we may know Him and hear His Word about His love, and His grace in forgiveness and salvation. He is watching over us to protect us, and to bless us, and to guide us, both physically and spiritually. So He is not dead and gone, but alive and among us and actually present wherever two or three are gathered together in His name. Jesus said, "Behold I am with you always, even to the end of the world." He is Ascended, but not Gone.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(Let the people say Amen)
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