Pastor Timothy Patoka The Ascension Of Our Lord: June 2, 2019 Jesus’ Assuring Ascension Luke 24:44-53 1) Everything About The Savior Is Fulfilled 2) Jesus Blesses Us With Forgiveness How a person says goodbye can be a big deal because that is your lasting impression with a person or with an organization. Disgruntled employees dream about what they can do on their last day to make their exit both original and memorable for all to remember and to get a sense of satisfaction at their boss’s expense. Sometimes goodbyes are the opposite and more like a party. I had the opportunity to be on the receiving end of one such goodbye. My high school job was at McDonald’s and the store manager and I had a good working relationship. She knew that when I came to work, I was there to work wherever I was needed. On my last day before I left for college, she and the other crew members had gotten a cake with my name on it for me. I thought that was pretty cool and a nice way to end my time there. But not all goodbyes go that way. Sometimes they can be awkward or leave you hanging. That you tried to say goodbye, but you weren’t ready for what followed. This morning we’re looking at Jesus’ ascension, when he said goodbye to his disciples and returned to his home in heaven. And what a goodbye it was! He had gotten to know these people very well over the last 3 years and spent the previous 40 days teaching them important truths – truths they were to share with others once Jesus was visibly gone. As we look at Jesus’ ascended goodbye, we see that it was on good terms. Jesus didn’t leave as a disgruntled employee or in secretive or awkward fashion. Rather, he made it known to his disciples that his ascended goodbye is one that assures us of wonderful truths. It assures us that Jesus is the Promised Savior in whom everything is fulfilled and that Jesus continues to bless us with his forgiveness. 1) Everything About The Savior Is Fulfilled Sometimes people wonder why it is that Jesus ascended into heaven. Well I can tell you that it’s not because he finally got homesick. Rather it’s because Jesus completed his mission to be our Savior. He says as such with these words, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms….This is what is written and so it must be: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day” (Luke 24:44, 46). Everything that the Old 1
Pastor Timothy Patoka The Ascension Of Our Lord: June 2, 2019 Testament said – or as they called it back then as the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms – about the Promised Savior had been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And now that Jesus was done doing what he came to do, now it was time for him to ascend and go back to his heavenly home. But perhaps you’re wondering, what exactly was all that was fulfilled? There’s a lot of references to the Promised Savior in the Old Testament, but they can be broken down into 2 categories – things that Jesus did and things that are done concerning Jesus. We see some of the things that Jesus did like: living a perfect life as defined by God’s law, showing love and compassion by sharing God’s Word with all segments of society, and willing to suffer and die on the cross. But there are other things that were done concerning him like: being born in Bethlehem, coming from a virgin mother whose lineage traced back to Abraham, and being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. Jesus was correct to say that “everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44). And as we look at what he did and what was done concerning him, we can rightfully view Jesus’ ascension as proof that all concerning our Savior has been fulfilled. But we may not always view Jesus’ ascension in this way. Instead, we may doubt if it all was actually fulfilled when he went up to his heavenly home. Bible scholars and mathematicians have concluded that there is a greater probability to have a perfect March Madness bracket than to have all the Messianic prophecies fulfilled in one person. We consider it a miracle if we can get half of the Final Four correct. Mathematically speaking, it’s impossible that Jesus is this Promised Savior! But there’s also the doubts we harbor because of what happens to us in this life. No matter what age you are, life hasn’t gone as you expected it to. Our youthful dreams have been realigned by the realities of adulthood. Parents haven’t been role models of Christian parenting. If Jesus is supposed to be our Promised Savior, then why do we still struggle so much in life? Why is there still so much wrong in this world? And we are tempted to look at Jesus ascending into heaven and wonder, “Was it all fulfilled? Or did Jesus go home too early?” But we don’t have to worry about such things. That’s because Jesus is more than a mere man. He is the Son of God, one of the persons of our Triune God. He not only beat the mathematical odds, but he wrote them in the first place. Look through his life as recorded in the New Testament and try to find an Old Testament prophecy he didn’t fulfill. You won’t. And as we look at those Old Testament
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Pastor Timothy Patoka The Ascension Of Our Lord: June 2, 2019 prophecies, we also learn which problems Jesus has promised to save us from. It’s our eternal problem of sin he saves us from. Part of the Savior’s mission was to receive the full punishment of all our sins. And that’s exactly what Jesus did when he was on the cross. He fulfilled our debt to God that we could never pay. That’s why he ascended into heaven, because his work was done. And as surely as Jesus fulfilled every other prophecy to be the Promised Savior, so he also blesses us as the Promised Savior. 2) Jesus Blesses Us With Forgiveness And what does he bless us with? His forgiveness which comes to us through repentance. The Old Testament not only talked about what would be fulfilled in the Promised Savior, but as Jesus told his disciples, “This is what is written and so it must be: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46-47). Because Jesus is the Promised Savior, repentance and forgiveness of sins now go hand-in-hand. If a person repents, that is, confesses their sin against God in genuine sorrow and trusts in his promise to forgive, they will be washed clean of that wrong. That’s it! That’s all that’s needed for us to receive the blessing that Jesus earned with his sacrificial death. We don’t like to keep repentance that simple. Sometimes we entirely avoid repentance because to repent means we have to admit that we’ve done wrong! No one likes to realize or remember where they have erred. We would rather stay positive and focus on the good things. So we wonder, how can it be a blessing from Jesus when I’m getting down on myself? Other times we complicate repentance by putting in ourselves into the equation. It’s not enough to confess and trust so as to receive forgiveness. We have to do something earn God’s forgiveness. That’s how our world operates. If you get in trouble with the law, you haven’t made things right until you pay a fine or do your time. But there’s also a supposed sense of security if we put ourselves into the equation. If we can somewhat base our forgiveness on what we’ve done, then we can reassure ourselves that we are forgiven because of those things. But that’s not how repentance works. Repentance depends on Jesus alone and what he’s done to be our Promised Savior. And that’s a good thing. If my forgiveness were dependent on myself in any way, how could I be sure I was sorry enough or did enough to fulfill my part of the repentance equation? I never could. 3
Pastor Timothy Patoka The Ascension Of Our Lord: June 2, 2019 It’s because it doesn’t depend on me that Jesus can assure me that I am truly blessed with his forgiveness which comes through repentance. He is the Promised Savior! He paid the price for my sins! He gives his forgiveness to anyone who confesses their sins and trusts in his promise to forgive! It’s only because it depends entirely on Jesus that we can be sure we have forgiveness. And because he has ascended, we are assured that this will always be the case. So instead of shying away from repentance, we instead should joyfully go to our ascended Lord in confession because we know he is faithful and will deliver on his promise of forgiveness. This assurance also brings us to praise our ascended Lord as it did for the disciples of old. As we read earlier, “He led them out as far as the vicinity of Bethany. He lifted up his hands and blessed them. And while he was blessing them, he parted from them and was taken up into heaven. So they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. They were continually in the temple courts, praising and blessing God” (Luke 24:50-53). Did you catch what Jesus was doing when he ascended into heaven? He was lifting his hands over the disciples and blessing them. What better way was there for Jesus to say goodbye? He didn’t leave in a disgruntled or secretive fashion. Instead, he left them in the same way that believers have ended their worship services for thousands of years with the minister lifting his hands and speaking God’s blessing. How could the disciples not praise God for this? How can we not praise God for having the same blessings ourselves? Because when the disciples witnessed Jesus ascending to heaven, they were assured, assured that everything concerning the Promised Savior was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. All those Old Testament prophecies they learned growing up were completed before their very eyes. They knew for certain who their Promised Savior was. It was Jesus Christ who ascended into heaven because his work was done. And as surely as he ascended, so he continues to bless all his repentant children with the forgiveness of all their sins. All person needs to do is confess and trust to receive this blessings. It doesn’t depend on us and that’s a good thing. Although we live many years since Jesus’ ascension into heaven, we too can praise God for the same reasons they did. We have a Savior. We have his forgiveness. And that’s assured to us by Jesus’ ascension. Amen.
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