Ascension 2012- Like as we do Believe

The Rev’d Stephen E. Stults
St. Barnabas Anglican Church

Ascension Day, 2012

“Like as we do believe…”

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be alway acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.  Amen.

Acts 1:9  ^“Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.”

Tonight we celebrate one of the most important feasts of the Christian year, the Feast of the Ascension.  At the same, we suggest that it is vastly undervalued and does not enjoy the emphasis that it should. 

The reasons for both are manifold.  Ascension marks the end of Christ’s time on earth, or, as Merrill Unger puts it, the “capstone of his earthly ministry.”  It clearly identifies Christ as Divine, as he is received up into glory in the sight of the disciples.  It has fundamentally important theological reasons for its pre-eminence as well, chief among those is Christ’s physical ascension, taking his body (and Man’s nature) to heaven with him.

Yet, for all these reasons, Ascension is largely ignored by many Christians, who, by most measures, are pious and devout.  Could it be because it is a mid-week service?  Perhaps, yet Ash Wednesday is also midweek, and I daresay that it is better attended than Ascension. 

It is my firmly held opinion that, if Christians really understood the significance of Ascension, our churches would be full.  If they really understood that Ascension actually defines their salvation, our churches would be full.   

Finally, if they really understood that without the Ascension, Christ would be just another great teacher, misunderstood and martyred by the Authorities, our churches would be full on this night.

Let’s consider these points in turn.  First, we should recognize that the Ascension really does sum up the whole of Christ’s ministry.  He told his disciples, “I came from the Father and now I go back to the Father.”  Christ came, the Dayspring from on high to tabernacle with us and to take our nature upon us.  He was born the normal way, he grew, matured, and became a man.  He taught, healed, did miracles, drew crowds and amazed many. He gathered disciples, drew the ire of the Jewish authorities, was accused falsely, was condemned and ultimately killed by sinful men, nailed to a cross to endure a horrible torture death. 

If this was all, Jesus Christ would have been known as just another great man.  But, we know that this was not all.  On Easter morning, Christ rose from the dead, showing that the g rave had no power over Him.  As St. Paul says in Colossians 2:15  ¹⁵ “And having spoiled ¹ principalities and powers, he ² made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in ³ it.”  The Geneva Bible notes say, “The cross was a chariot of triumph. No conqueror could have triumphed so gloriously in his chariot, as Christ did upon the cross.”

Truer words were never spoken.  The Resurrection is the greatest act that a mortal man can imagine, as one is victorious over man’s greatest nemesis, Death. Yet, even the Resurrection, as marvelous and cosmically stupendous as it is, is not enough to completely fulfill Christ’s Ministry.  If He has risen from the dead, merely to spend another 60, 70 or even 80 years before eventually succumbing to eventual physical death, there would be no ultimate victory.  But, there was an ultimate victory.

Christ led His Disciples out to Bethany, teaching them on the way.  He then blessed them, lifting up His Hands.  As he did this, He was lifted up into Heaven, until a cloud received Him out of their sight.  This is the same Cloud that covered the Tabernacle in the Wilderness when Moses spoke with God.  It is the same Cloud that Ezekiel saw from the inside out, full of innumerable saints of God.  Many commentators think that this was the Shekinah Glory Cloud, so often mentioned in the Old Testament.

Christ entered into this Cloud and thus into Glory, not just the great Teacher, not just the great Miracle worker, not even just the Great Martyr for Righteousness’ sake, but as the Son of God returning to His Father.  Matthew Henry asks us to imagine the scene in Heaven as Christ returns to take his rightful place at the Father’s right hand. What a celebration, what a mighty shout of triumph from an incomprehensible number of angels that must have been! Yet, even at this might moment of victory and joy, Christ thinks of His Disciples by dispatching two angels to say to them, “Acts 1:11  "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven."  In Henry’s words, these two angels, who would rather had been in Heaven to witness the Son’s homecoming, obeyed His command and ministered to the disciples. Even in His hour of triumph, Jesus thought of us.

Thus, Jesus takes his rightful place at the right hand of God the Father. Having done all that He was to do, having served as the Lamb “slain from the foundation of the World”, he is enthroned on high to receive everlasting glory and honor and dominion. Amen.

He thus completes the great Cycle of Salvation, beginning with his Incarnation, then his Nativity, next his Atonement, His Resurrection, and finally, His Ascension.  For this reason alone, Ascension is a significant day.

Ascension also defines our salvation.  When Christ ascended into Heaven, He wasn’t just an ethereal spirit, or some nebulous apparition. No, Christ took a real flesh and blood body with Him to Heaven. Granted, it was a glorified body, but a body it was just the same.  Thus, we know that if Christ rose from the dead, so shall we.  If Christ had a real Body in his ascended state, so shall we.  As He ascended into Heaven, He took our human nature with Him to be glorified and exalted forever.  Remember, what Christ did not assume, he could not justify.  What he did not take with Him to Heaven, He could not glorify.  Yet, He did.  In his Incarnation, He took our human nature upon Him and atoned for it on the Cross.  In His Resurrection, He arose in his Human Body, thus giving it (and us) victory over the grave. Finally, in His Ascension, He arose to Heaven, glorifying our natures, our souls and bodies.

On the Last Day, Christ shall call all from their graves and they shall appear for judgment in their flesh. Those who have trusted in Christ for their salvation will reign with Him in eternal glory.  Those who rejected Christ in their lifetimes on earth will also be rejected.  There will indeed be “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” I weep for the unredeemed, for those who know not Christ, for they know not what they are going to lose forever.  Pray God that we can minister to some of them, to give them the Good News of Salvation.

But, Praise God, not so with us.  We who have trusted in Christ, will hear those blessed words from Matthew 25:34  “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:” Not in a sense of Christian triumphalism, but in humility and love will we welcome those words.  Because Christ, our Great Captain of Salvation, paved the way before us, will we ascend.

Thus, it is fitting and right that we give thanks and praise this night.  For now is Christ our Lord glorified and magnified.  Now has Christ our Lord taken His rightful place as Son and Heir to the Kingdom, to regain the glory he had from everlasting with the Father. He accomplished his mighty mission of salvation. His mighty cry from the Cross, “It is finished!” attests to that.  Pray God that we and all the world may let those words ring in our innermost souls.

Thus, we must take heart and be encouraged.  We are not deceived, nor are we mistaken.  We know whom we have believed, our mighty re-ascended Lord. With truth like that and the power of the Holy Ghost, our joy is unstoppable.

One last point needs to be made about the Ascension.  Without the Ascension, there would be no transcendent Holy Ghost to cheer, guide and strengthen us.  Remember that Christ said in John 16:7  ^1”Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.”

These are blessed words.  Jesus is promising that He will send us a Helper if He returns to Heaven.  This Helper or Comforter, is not just a fond wish or good feeling, but the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, God Himself, to be with us until our eventual journey to Heaven, where we will be united with God forever in complete love and bliss, forever.

This is the promise that Christ sealed for us in His Ascension.  This is how he defined our salvation, for as He is, so shall we be. 

This is indeed a glorious thought.  This is the significance of the Ascension.

Acts 1:11  "Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven."