JESUS’ ASCENSION IS THE STARTING PLACE FOR HOPE
The Text, St. Mark 16:14-20 (v. 19-20). So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Lord Jesus, give us
Dear fellow redeemed in our ascended Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
On Easter, I preached to you about hope. Jesus’ ascension 40 days later also is a good time to hear about hope. Hope is something we in our congre-gation named Hope should know, what it is and what to say about it.
Hope is similar to faith, but it’s differentiated from it slightly:
Faith is that you believe what God says and reveals to you in His Word; you believe not what you can see but God’s promises. Faith is like a teacher: it’s about saying Amen to the true teaching of God’s Word. You believe that God is Triune, that He created the world, that Christ is true God and Man, that He was born of a virgin, that He suffered, died and rose again. You believe God’s word of forgiveness and that He’ll take you to heaven.
But the devil attacks your faith. He uses all the things you see or feel to get you to doubt that it’s true, or to stop believing. This is where faith has to become hope. Whereas faith is a teacher, hope is a captain. It’s the captain of a storm-tossed ship, which is you. Hope looks to the distant shore – the heavenly home – and keeps heading for it. Hope is faith battling, basically. Hope is faith being courageous, and joyful, despite what you see or feel.
A key part of hope is that it looks forward, to the future, being sure that God will bring to pass everything He has promised. Hope lives on God’s “I will.” This brings us to Jesus’ ascension. It’s the starting place for hope.
On the 40th day after He rose from the dead, with His disciples present on Mount Olivet, Jesus went up, or ascended, to heaven. Mark says: “He was received up into heaven.” Luke describes it this way: that “while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.” The angels said He would return just like He went, which agrees with Jesus’ words to Caiaphas that He would be “coming on the clouds of heaven.” When He went up, they saw Him as far as the clouds, and then saw Him no more. It’s not as if Jesus traveled like a rocket going past the moon and the solar system and constellations. As soon as they couldn’t see Him anymore, just that quickly He was with the Father. But how did the apostles know this, if they couldn’t see that far? Because Jesus told them He was going to the Father, and also the Holy Spirit informed them by inspiring these words.
We confess in the creeds that this is part of our saving faith in Jesus. We say: “I believe in Jesus Christ, who ascended into heaven.” This is the only Jesus: the one who ascended to heaven. This is our faith, but it also provides hope.
So first, what are the ways the devil attacks our hope that Jesus’ ascension answers? It’s simply the lie that there won’t be any going to heaven. Years ago in a popular song someone said: “Imagine there’s no heaven.” For some reason, some people use that at funerals. Those are funerals without hope.
Jesus going up to heaven, first of all, tells you that there is a heaven and that there is definitely a going-there, first for Jesus and then for us. As Jesus is received into heaven, He isn’t traveling alone but blazing a trail. We go into heaven because He did. Heaven is open to Him and us.
But on what basis are sure that you’ll go to heaven? Jesus’ ascension answers this too. It says that He completed His work. He came down from heaven for us and for our salvation, and He goes up after doing it all. On the cross He said: “It is finished!” On Easter morning His resurrection proves that God the Father accepted His death as full payment for everyone’s sin. After 40 days of showing Himself alive, His ascension is the exclamation point that says our salvation is complete.
So Jesus’ ascension also answers the devil’s attacks on our hope, since it answers all doubts that you can be forgiven and saved. It doesn’t matter how well you know what Jesus has done for you; the devil will magnify your sins and make what you’ve done wrong seem more real and holding weight more than what Jesus has done for you. You need to hear the Gospel more, even this Ascension Gospel, that “He was received up into heaven.” Whoever would keep you out of heaven has to keep Jesus out of heaven, and that didn’t happen, did it? Jesus went into heaven and so will you. You need to hear: you are going up and into heaven just like Jesus did, no matter what you’ve done, because He has taken away those sins.
The second part of this is that “He sat down at the right hand of God.” This is also part of our saving faith in Jesus. We say: “I believe in Jesus Christ, who is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” This is the only Jesus, the one of whom this is true. This is our faith, but it also provides hope.
“Sitting at God’s right hand” doesn’t mean Jesus is relegated to a sitting position in one location. No, as it says in the Psalms: “The right hand of the Lord” – that is, Christ – “is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly” (118:16). The right hand of God is the position of power and might. So when we hear that “He sat down at the right hand of God,” it says Jesus, as God and Man, is living and ruling; He can do all things. Luther explains: “the right hand of God is everywhere” – it’s wherever the exalted Lord Jesus is.
The comfort, the reason this is the starting point for hope, is that He is not far distant, but quite the opposite – He’s able to be close to you, and He is! And He’s not just sitting in one place, but quite the opposite – He’s busy doing things for you, being involved with you, in all-powerful ways.
For what are the ways the devil attacks our hope, that Jesus’ sitting at the right hand of God answers? I think it’s this, when everything seems out of control and the fears and anxiety escalate. The devil not only magnifies your sins, but will make you – and us the Church – hyper-aware of all that results from sin being in the world. He’ll magnify that: how things fail or go wrong, how human love fails – how it’s failed you – how alone you can feel or how much goes against you and against God’s Church. He gets you, he gets us as the Church to despair, which is just the devil defeating hope by what we see.
How does Jesus sitting at the right hand of God answer such things? It’s this very truth that He is not just “up there” but that He’s able to be with his Church, with you, and allows you to know exactly how He is with you and what He’s able to do. After the verse about Jesus’ ascension Mark says the apostles “went out and preached everywhere, the Lord” – Jesus – “working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.”
So the apostles saw Jesus go up, He’s in heaven, but wait, at the same time He’s there as they preach, He’s doing it through them, and when they do “signs” – the miracles they perform to show that the Word they preach is true – whom, does Mark say, is doing it? Jesus Himself! Where is He? With them!
Jesus Himself said this right before He ascended. First He commanded them to “preach the gospel to every creature.” Next He promised that “he who believes and is baptized will be saved.” Then He ascended.
This is the Gospel. That when Jesus’ word is being preached, when the pastor is forgiving sins, it’s Jesus doing it through the pastor. That’s what Jesus said to the disciples: “Whoever hears you”doing this “hears Me.”
It’s especially true in the Lord’s Supper. Those who reject the idea that His body and blood can be present in and with the bread and wine, their starting point for this is that Jesus is sitting in heaven, stuck up there, so He can’t be here in the Lord’s Supper. But because His sitting at the right hand of God is not at all referring to a place, but to His power, then this means that He is able to be present in His Supper, and He is! Not only in His nature as God, but in His nature as Man, that His very body and blood are offered to you, are eaten and drunk by you, and so He is with you and even in you.
Can you imagine that! – that Christ who is at the right hand of God is also with you and He dwells in you after you eat and drink in the Lord’s Supper! And that, by faith in Him who ascended and brought your human nature that He shares with you up to heaven, He has lifted you to the highest heights, as high as anyone can be – no matter how low it feels like you sink at times or how low things get. He follows you to your lowest points, and stays with you, to persuade you that He has brought you up high with Him. This is what the Lord’s Supper is telling you, and why you can’t ever have the Lord’s Supper and meet Christ there enough! This gives you courage.
There’s so much more with this, how Jesus always prays for you and His Church on earth, how He controls and rules over all things all for the good of His Church, how He presents you every day to the Father holy and blameless by His blood, how He sends the Holy Spirit to guide and comfort you.
This is where our hope begins, and how we fight the devil with this hope: we know that Jesus ascended, He went up to heaven, and yet wait, He is right here, He speaks to you every time you hear His Word, He meets you in His Supper and goes forth with you into the world, when you say a prayer it is Jesus who is bringing you into God’s presence with that prayer, when you feel guilt and shame He is here to show you that He presents you before the Father holy and spotless, when you feel alone He shows you that you are in His Church with all these others who struggle just like you and need mercy.
So you’re never alone. Isn’t He with you always? In the Lord’s Supper He brings the heavenly sanctuary down to enfold you. He is the Captain of your ship. You have this hope as an anchor whose rope is connected to Him who is at the right hand of God. We keep our eyes on Him. That’s hope. Amen!