Acts 1:1-11 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
The Ascension of Our Lord Sunday, May 16, 2021 “Still Connected”
How long does it take to say goodbye? Obviously, just saying the word itself doesn’t take all that long. But, perhaps your experience is something like mine, and saying goodbye to close friends or family members, especially those you don’t see often, seems to take a bit of time. We try to squeeze in all sorts of last-minute comments and conversations, hugs, and well-wishes before we actually depart. We acknowledge how nice it has been to see each other, sometimes even with some tears, and we eventually do say goodbye. The ascension of Jesus into heaven in front of his disciples is one of the most interesting goodbyes ever. It certainly is an unusual goodbye, a unique one. But what is most unique about the ascension of our Lord is that it was both a goodbye and at the same time not a goodbye at all. Just a little while ago we read in our verse of the Day how Jesus told his disciples that he would always be with them. He wasn’t lying about that. At the same time, he was taken up from them and hidden from their sight. It was a goodbye, even though Jesus was still with them. And that goodbye is a powerful reminder for us that Jesus is still with us, too. Or, to say it in the way that our recent worship services would suggest, we are still connected. We are still connected to the ascended Jesus. In fact, Jesus’ ascension tells us in a powerful way that we are connected to our successful Savior. Our verses this morning record for us how Jesus ascended into heaven forty days after his resurrection. Those forty days were much more than a long goodbye to his disciples. Jesus used those forty days to teach and instruct them. He told them how he had suffered and died to take away their sins. He told them how his resurrection assured them that they too would rise from the dead to live with him forever. And he gave many convincing proofs. He left no doubt in the minds of his disciples and followers that yes, the Savior who had died for their sins was alive again. He had done what he had come to do. Scripture records for us several of these convincing proofs that Jesus gave. We have discussed this Easter season how Jesus appeared to almost all of his disciples on the evening of the first Easter. He stood among them even though they had locked themselves inside a room out of fear. He talked to them. He ate with them. And he came back again one week later because one doubting disciple did not believe that Jesus was alive. But he was. He gave Thomas a convincing proof by letting him feel the nail marks and spear piercing. And having shown them that he had kept his word and risen from the dead, he taught them. Luke writes that Jesus, “told them things about the kingdom of God.” He instructed them about what they would do, and about what they should do. And after those forty days were done, after the instruction was completed, Jesus was taken up into the sky until a cloud took him out of sight. Jesus had come to earth as a little baby with one purpose to fulfil: to rescue a world of sinners. And his ascension means that his work was done. Salvation had been won. It was earned on the cross and guaranteed by the resurrection. And Jesus’ teaching his disciples set the stage for the good news to be preached to more and more people. That part of his work would continue to be carried out even as his people no longer saw him and spoke with him and ate with him. As we gather together today, there is a world around us that tries to tell us that we have to do something or be something. It tells us that we have to live up to certain expectations or accomplish certain things. That’s how we make something of ourselves. That’s how we prove our worth and our value. That’s how we earn our position or the admiration of others. But the ascension of Jesus tells us
that everything that is most important, everything that has truly lasting value, everything that we truly need has been done for us. We could never do enough good to convince God to love us. We could never live up to our heavenly Father’s expectations. We could never earn our way into heaven or make God value us more. In spite of ourselves, in spite of our sins, in spite of the fact that we have not only let others around us down but have also sinned against our holy God, he does value us. He says that we are worth something to him. We are worth everything to him. We are worth a journey from heaven to earth to become one of us and to live with us and to die like us. We are worth him teaching the good news and his disciples sharing the good news so that we could know it and believe it. Our Savior was successful for us. Our Savior’s work is done, and so he has returned to the heaven from which he came. He has ascended on high, leading captive our captivity to sin. And we are still connected to him through faith. That faith holds on to the precious promises of Jesus. In our verses, Luke tells us a bit more about what Jesus was teaching his disciples. He gave them promises. He said that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit, and he instructed them to wait in Jerusalem until that time. He told them that they would receive power to be his witnesses, starting right there in Jerusalem and moving from there to the region and to the ends of the earth. These were indeed precious promises. Next week we’ll take a closer look at these promises being fulfilled, but notice a few things now. One thing is, the disciples still needed these promises. After three years of learning from Jesus, and after a forty-day intensive training from the risen Savior, the disciples were still asking questions like “Is this the time when you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” They still didn’t fully grasp what Jesus had been teaching them all along. They still tended to look at things from a worldly perspective. That’s why Jesus promised what he did. That’s why Jesus would keep working for and with his disciples by sending them the Holy Spirit. He would give them power and understanding. We can be so much like those disciples, too, can’t we? As we see things from a worldly perspective? We forget that our real home is not here; it’s in heaven. We live as though this life is what is truly important, but as important and valuable as this life is, it’s what comes next that’s most important. That’s true for us and true for those around us. Like those disciples, we don’t know the times or the seasons when God will carry out his plans. What we have are his promises, his precious promises that he sends his Holy Spirit to us through his Word and through the sacraments, that he empowers us to be his witnesses, that he is still with us and will make that plain and obvious at the appropriate time. See, Jesus ascending into heaven does not hinder him from keeping his promise that he is always with his disciples. It marks a change. He is not visibly and physically with them in the same way, but as true God he is everywhere and always with us. And one day he is going to return visibly. The disciples who saw Jesus ascend stood there, staring up into the sky. That’s when the angel messengers appeared to them to say that Jesus would return in the same way. Jesus has promised it repeatedly. The next time we see him the way those disciples did, face-to-face, he will be coming back in glory to take us to be with him in his heavenly glory forever. That is a precious promise indeed. The disciples said goodbye to Jesus in a particular and unique way at his ascension. But he ascended into heaven so that we would never have to say goodbye to him. We are still connected to our successful Savior. We are still connected to his precious promises. And by his grace, we will stay connected to him forever.
The Text: Acts 1:1–11 (EHV) I wrote my first book, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began doing and teaching 2until the day he was taken up, after he had given instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3After he had suffered, he presented himself alive to the apostles with many convincing proofs. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and told them things about the kingdom of God. 4Once,
when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for what the Father promised, which you heard from me. 5For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6So
when they were together with him, they asked, “Lord, is this the time when you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7He
said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9After
he said these things, he was taken up while they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10They were looking intently into the sky as he went away. Suddenly, two men in white clothes stood beside them. 11They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking up into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”