“Christ’s Ascension And Our Ascension”
Text: 1 John 3:1-7
5-12-2024
In the name of Jesus our risen and ascended Lord, dear friends in Christ. This past Thursday was Ascension Day. Did you know that? Very few people do anymore. You may not know this but there was a time when the Ascension Day celebration ranked right up there with Christmas. Not only don’t we celebrate it, many of us can’t even explain what happened or why it’s so important for us as Christians. As we just confessed in the Creed, Jesus ascended into heaven. We don’t deny that it occurred, but we aren’t sure what the significance of Christ’s ascension is for you and me. That’s what I’d like to examine with you today and hopefully you’ll see just how important it is in relation to our eternal life.
Sadly, we’re not alone in our lack of knowledge about the ascension of Jesus into heaven. Many Christians of all the different denominations are in the same boat. And that’s too bad. I’m afraid the overall attitude towards Christ’s ascension is: So what?!? If that wasn’t true then don’t you think our church and all the surrounding churches would insist on having a special service? We’d be packed full on Ascension Day just like on Christmas Eve or Easter. And yet this important day passes by for so many believers without notice. The reason why is because we’ve lost sight of the connection between Christ’s ascension and our ascension. Maybe it’s because we don’t realize that there will be an Ascension Day for us believers also. We don’t seem to have a problem with connecting Jesus’ resurrection from the dead to our resurrection on the Last Day. That’s part of the basic confession of the Christian church. We believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead and everyone who trusts in Him can live again after they die. Our faith rests on this truth.
But the Bible also teaches us that after our resurrection we will ascend into heaven with Jesus. If you’re not sure about that, listen to what St. Paul says concerning our resurrection and ascension in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” Some Christians teach that this is the “rapture” of the church that ushers in the reign of Jesus for 1,000 years before the final day of judgment. Unless you packed your lunch, we don’t have time to go into the theological gymnastics that a person has to go through to come to this conclusion. Suffice it to say, we reject that silliness. Let Paul’s words say what they say without adding all that gobbledy gook to it. Christ will return, the dead believers will be raised to join the living believers, and together we’ll ascend into heaven.
Now maybe you’re still thinking: So what?!? Perhaps this information just sounds like details about our “mode of transportation” into heaven. Well, it’s much more than that. The ascension of Jesus’ physical body into heaven can give great comfort to all of us believers. First of all, it teaches us about our existence after Judgment Day. Have you ever wondered what heaven will be like for us? Some people believe we’ll fly around like angels with the new wings that God is going to give us. And we’ll sit on clouds strumming a harp. Others believe that we’ll be like Casper the Friendly Ghost; just spirits floating around. I have no idea where all these weird beliefs come from but it ain’t the Bible. Rather, the Scriptures give us very clear information about our resurrected and ascended bodies.
St. Paul tells us in Philippians 3:20-21 “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” If want to know what kind of body you’ll have on your Ascension Day, just look at Christ’s body on His Ascension Day. For 40 days after His resurrection, Jesus visited with His Disciples in a physical, yet, glorified body. Remember what happened on Easter evening when Jesus appeared to them as they were hiding in a locked room? They thought they were seeing a ghost because Jesus arrived in such a supernatural way. So, to calm their fears, He proved to them that He had a real, physical body. He invited them to touch Him. And He asked for some food to eat to show that He wasn’t just spiritually alive, but He was also physically alive. St. Paul says that our resurrected bodies will be like that.
This is general information without any specific details about those bodies. And yet, we still wonder, don’t we? For instance, will I be fat or thin in heaven? Will I have a full head of dark hair like when I was 16? Or will I be stuck like this for eternity? My grandfather lost 4 of his fingers in a farming accident. Will his body be fully restored? What about a person who died as a child? Will they remain that way forever in heaven? Granted, if we don’t know the answers to these questions it won’t affect our faith. But we’d still like to know, wouldn’t we? Well, listen to what St. John tells us in verses 2 & 3 of our text: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is...” In other words, all we need to know for right now is that we will have a glorified body like Jesus’ glorified body. A body that will never again suffer from the pains of this world, a body that will never die, and a body that can never be infected or bothered by sin ever again.
That change, which will be instantaneous, needs to take place in order for us to be ready for our ascension into heaven. As St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15: “I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.” Here’s why that’s so important: Christ didn’t leave behind His physical body when He ascended into heaven but He took it with Him. And He will do the same with us and our glorified, physical body.
All that may sound like wonderful news for us. It gives us confidence and assurance about the future. But what about now while we wait here on earth for Christ’s return? Well, here’s the most important point about Jesus’ physical ascension into heaven. Ever since that special day, He has been ruling over our world in His glorified body that He took into heaven. In other words, there is a perfect, holy human being, the God-man, Jesus Christ, running the universe now. In the Creeds we confess that Jesus ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of God the Father. That’s the position of power and authority. And Jesus is ruling over us in that glorified body that He ascended into heaven with.
What’s the comfort in that for us here and now? Well, St. Paul says in Romans 8:34, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” After Jesus ascended into heaven, He’s not just sitting there twiddling His thumbs, waiting for Judgment Day when He returns. He’s there interceding for us. Whenever we sin and repent, He’s there to say, “My death on the cross has covered that sin. You are forgiven.” Along with that, the writer of the Book of Hebrews reminds us that since Jesus was fully human like us, He can sympathize with our weakness. We don’t have a God who doesn’t know what it’s like to live as a human in this sinful world. No. We have a Savior who is still fully God and fully man who understands what we’re going through. So, we can pray to Him with the confidence that He does understand and will listen.
I pray that this helps you see the importance of Christ’s ascension. And I pray it truly helps you see why this is an event we should celebrate because our ascension is directly connected to Christ’s ascension. So, we can sing those words of our Sermon Hymn with confidence:
“On Christ’s Ascension I now build,
the hope of my ascension;
This hope alone has always stilled
All doubt and apprehension;
For where the Head is, there as well
I know His members are to dwell
When Christ will come and call them.”
May the Lord keep us faithful as we look forward to that glorious day when Jesus will return to take us and all believers home to live with Him in heaven for all eternity. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!