ASCENSION (EASTER 7), A – May 4, 2008

SCRIPTURES – Psalm 110; Acts 1:1-11; Ephesians 1:15-23; Luke 24:44-53

Today we celebrate Christ’s ascension to the right hand of the Father in heaven. Before He ascended, He promised His apostles that after He ascended on high He would clothe them with power from on high. Imagine you were one of the apostles. What kind of power would you want from Jesus?

q   Earthly power to restrain evil and establish a mighty kingdom of peace and prosperity, where people could live in happiness and contentment? They seem to have this in mind, for they ask Him: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

q   Power over sickness and injury, so that people could be healthy and well off in body and mind? Jesus certainly exercised such power over sickness and disease during His ministry.

q   Intellectual power to understand mysteries, demolish the arguments of those opposed to Jesus, and find solutions to problems such as hunger and poverty and injustice?

Jesus’ primary focus isn’t upon such power, for all these things are too trivial. He ascends to give them the Holy Spirit, and with the Spirit His authority over sin.

IN HIS ASCENSION CHRIST RULES OVER SIN

This power over sin is far more important than any other power, for sin is the most destructive force there is.

Today is the 63^rd anniversary of the day Germany began surrendering to the Allies in W.W. II. What great devastation and horrible loss of life did the evil dictator Adolph Hitler, with his sinful lust for power, bring about by that war, the greatest of all wars! Many bear the physical and emotional scars to this day, including some of you.

 Sin also poisons our world, sometimes literally. Remember the Love Canal in upstate NY? The Hooker Chemical Company buried 1,000’s of drums of toxic chemicals there for years, then covered them over with soil and sold the land for a housing development. A record rainfall in August, 1978 caused the chemicals to come bubbling up into yards and homes. Greedy people out to make as much money as possible caused much suffering, financial and physical, for the many families who lived there.

 The desire for financial gain also spreads sinful ideas and philosophies like toxins into minds and hearts. Do you think that the recent release of Grand Theft Auto IV will be a benefit to our society? How about the abundance of pornography? Many hearts and minds, including those of Christians, are trapped by the sinful thoughts and desires that such things foster. People become enslaved by guilt and unable to break free of their sin, and even think that God cannot forgive them.

 The greatest destruction sins brings is eternal suffering in hell, away from the love and peace of God forever. This is why Jesus warns us: “If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the fire of hell.” (Matthew 18:8-9)

 Sin – your sin and my sin – is so pervasive. It infects the hearts of us all and threatens to enslave us all. Even while here in church, while hearing God’s holy words, sinful thoughts afflict us. Can God truly forgive us? Can He truly rule over our sin? Yes! In His ascension Christ rules over sin, and He does this in two ways.

 First of all, Jesus ascended to the right hand of God the Father in heaven. Just 43 days before this Jesus had hung on a cross and cried out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” Why would God the Father forsake His beloved Son? Because on the cross Jesus bore the world’s sin, even became sin. God sees the ugliness and hatred and violence and destruction of our sins far more clearly than we do, and He hates it. When Jesus became the guilty one, then, guilty of your sin, God hated him and turned His face from him. He punished Him.

 But our sin with all its ugliness could not hold Jesus in its clutches and overcome Him. He rose from the dead, free of sin, and it is gone forever! Then, 40 days later, the Father opened heaven to Him and received Him to His side. Holy Scripture proclaims that God “raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named… And he put all things under his feet.” Sin has been put under Christ’s feet, and so under our feet, also. For God “gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” Because Jesus died, rose, and ascended for you, your sin cannot condemn you to hell. Baptized into His death and resurrection, receiving His living body and blood within you, believing in Him as your Savior, you are His body. He fills you, and His victory over sin is yours. In Jesus you are raised to the Father’s holy presence, and all things, including your sins, are under your feet.

 If this is not assurance enough that your sins, every one of them, are forgiven, then listen to what God says in Psalm 110: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever…’ ” The Lord is here speaking about Jesus. He is a priest forever, the Lord says. What was a priest in the Bible? An intercessor, a go-between. He spoke for the people to God, and then from God to the people. Jesus did not ascend into heaven, then, to go away from you. He ascended to the Father’s right hand to intercede for you, to forever hold before God His sacrifice for your sin. Jesus is the One God listens to, and He will listen to no other. He has sworn this, promised this on oath. God does not lie or break His promises, and so you can believe, must believe, that God will not hear the cry of your sins.

 If they cry out against you, then, if the memory of your sins weighs you down and you feel like you cannot do anything other than give in to them, look upon your eternal priest, Jesus, and listen to Him. “Whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything,” says 1 John 3:20. God especially knows the voice of His Son, our eternal priest. Look upon Jesus, crucified for your sins, risen from the dead, and ascended to the Father as your eternal priest, and know that you are forgiven forever! The power of sin is broken.

 The complete forgiveness of your sins in Jesus Christ, given to us by the Holy Spirit – this is the greatest of gifts, the most powerful gift we poor sinners could ever receive. By it we have Christ’s “glorious inheritance in the saints,” heaven itself and God as our loving Father. Let us, then, seek this forgiveness, rejoice in this forgiveness, and proclaim and share this forgiveness which Jesus has won for us and poured out upon us in His ascension, until He returns from on high and brings us to where forgiveness is needed no more.