Christ’s Ascension
Mark 16:14-20
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. Mark 16:15-16 [15] And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. [16] He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… It is impossible to overemphasize the importance of Christ’s Ascension, for it marked both the end and the beginning of an age. All of history can be divided into just three ages: The first age was before Christ came into the world.
The second age was the time when Christ was physically present in the world, when the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, when Christ was made our Brother, when Christ our Brother died for us, when Christ our Brother was raised from the dead and commissioned His apostles and instituted the ministry of Word and Sacrament.
That age came to an end when Jesus ascended, ushering in the third and final age of the world, when Christ reigns over the world from the right hand of God. He is the man who went away on a journey in so many of Jesus’ parables, but who will eventually return from His journey at the end of the age, as the angels promised the disciples in Acts 1: “This same Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Let’s consider, first, how the second age of the world wrapped up. As Luke tells us in his second volume, the book of Acts, Jesus showed Himself alive to His disciples after His suffering with many infallible proofs. He ate with them several times. He appeared to them and walked and talked with them several times during the 40 days between Easter Sunday and Ascension Thursday. And He gave them some final instructions.
The first instruction had to do with the coming of the Holy Spirit. He told them to wait in Jerusalem for “the promise of the Father” which He had told them about. The last two Sundays we’ve been hearing Jesus talk about the Holy Spirit in John 14-16, and we’ll hear it again this Sunday and the following.
The second instruction had to do with the disciples’ witness throughout the world during the third age of the world. We’ll also talk more about that this Sunday and on the Day of Pentecost. But there are some things we should mention yet this evening.
First, Jesus told His disciples where they were to be His witnesses: “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Or as Mark records in his Gospel, “…into all the world.” Or as Matthew records in his Gospel, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” No longer would the message of the true God be concentrated in Israel. It was to go out to every place and to every people on earth. No one is excluded from hearing the witnesses.
Then Jesus revealed the content of their witness: “Preach the gospel to every creature.” What is the gospel? A fine summary is given in Mark 16: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Whoever believes – that is, whoever believes in Me, Jesus – as their crucified and risen Savior from sin, death, and eternal condemnation. Whoever believes in Me as the one Mediator between God and man, as the one Reconciler of God and man. Whoever believes in Me in order to be forgiven and justified before God. Whoever believes and is baptized. See how Christ holds up baptism as a tool and instrument of salvation, as His Sacrament of bringing a sinner into Himself, into His body, into His righteousness. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”
“But whoever does not believe will be condemned.” That’s part of the Gospel too, part of the message that is to be preached in the world. God wants all men to be saved – to be saved by believing in Christ and being baptized. That’s His invitation to everyone. But those who do not believe also have to hear what the result of their unbelief will be: condemnation. The fact is, as Jesus says in John 3, those who don’t believe in Jesus are “condemned already,” because all are born in sin and born under God’s wrath.
But Christ has provided the atoning sacrifice that every sinner is now authorized to use before God as an answer for his or her sins. “Yes, Father, I know I deserve only punishment from You. But here is Jesus, who made atonement for all sins. By the gracious working of Your Holy Spirit, I now believe in Him and have been baptized into Him. Accept me for His sake.” And He does.
The third instruction Jesus gave His disciples had to do with the signs that would follow the apostles’ preaching. “And these signs will follow those who believe: In my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and the sick will recover.” We see almost all of those miraculous signs mentioned in the book of Acts, from the speaking in tongues on Pentecost to the healing of the sick that took place here and there. And these are not permanent gifts given to all believers, but signs, given by the Holy Spirit where and when it pleased Him, for the purpose of confirming the apostles’ testimony.
And so, after 40 days of appearing to and instructing His disciples, Jesus had them gather one last time on the Mount of Olives, and with His hands raised in blessing, He visibly rose up into the sky until a cloud took Him from their sight. So ended the second age of the earth, the time of Christ’s physical presence on earth. It ended with this final, visual lesson that from that moment on, no one should look for Jesus anywhere on earth anymore, or expect that He will make random appearances on earth ever again, until the very end of the third age.
At the end of Matthew 28, Jesus said, “I am with you always.” He is with His Church always. And yet, only days after He said this, He was taken up into heaven. So, what does His ascension mean?
It simply means that Christ is no longer present with us visibly. It means He has a different way of being with us. It means He’s here, working, building His Church through the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments that He Himself instituted, the gifts of Baptism, Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper. It means He is still present with the preachers He sends, and with the saints who hear them, support them, pray for them, and lead holy lives in the world, spreading the Gospel by their example and by their own words.
It means that, although He sits at the right hand of God and reigns over all things, Jesus is right here in our midst, too, hearing our prayers, receiving our worship, sending His Holy Spirit into our midst, and building His Church right here, right now, according to His own plan and purpose.
We all need to remember this in our little church. It is very tempting to look around and ask, what are we doing wrong? Where are all the people? Why aren’t we growing? What will the future hold for us here? But the future isn’t in our hands; it’s in the hands of the One who reigns at God’s right hand, our Savior, our Brother. And He hasn’t revealed His plans or purposes to us except for this: “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Lk 12:32).
As for growing and expanding, all of us here would love to see more people in these pews, hearing God’s Word, confessing Christ together with us. But we must not let our wishes begin to compete with Christ’s purposes. If He, seated at the right hand of God, chooses to show mercy and grace to our community and to our country by bringing more people to hear His truth purely taught, then He will turn the events of their lives to bring them into contact with us, and the Spirit of truth, through the preaching of the truth, will convince them of the truth. If He, seated at the right hand of God, chooses to harden the hearts of the impenitent, to punish those who cling to their idols, to test our faith, or to glorify His grace and to highlight His strength through our weakness, then we may remain small.
But if we believe that Christ ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, then let us also believe that He is Lord of the Church, and that all He does among us is perfect and right and just exactly what He wants to do.
It’s not for us to worry about what happens to Christ’s Church. That job belongs to the One who ascended into heaven and sits at God’s right hand. It is enough for us to know this – that Jesus Christ, God’s one and only Son, came to this earth to live the perfect and sinless life on your behalf, to suffer and die for the sins of the whole world, and to rise again the Third Day giving you who believe the sure and certain hope of everlasting life in Him. This we hear every time we gather.
All that remains for us is to do the very thing He commanded His disciples before He ascended: “Preach the Gospel to every creature.” Teach. Baptize. Do “this” – celebrate the Sacrament of the Altar – in remembrance of Him. Pray. Support the ministry with your offerings and support one another with works of love and service. We have our work to do. Let’s do it zealously, trusting in the Lord Jesus to do His own work, and to do it perfectly, until He comes back from heaven in the same way they once watched Him go up into heaven! Until then, the ascended Lord will build His Church. May we, by grace, ever be found within her walls.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
