St Luke 24:44-53/Acts 1:1-11/2 Kings 2:5-15
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
The Lord has gone up with the sound of the trumpet! Sing praises to God! Sing praises to our King! The Sundays of Easter we hail Him as the Paschal Victim, who on the Cross was slain. But on this day, the Ascension of our Lord, we sing to Him praises as the mighty Victor. He has received His proper crown. He has entered His glory, having finished His work of redeeming man. Now all our enemies – the devil, the world, sin, and death – lie crushed beneath His feet. He has delivered you from these. He has cleansed you from your sins and now sits at the right hand of the Divine Majesty in heaven.
Christ’s ascension is of great and supreme comfort for you. Prior to Good Friday the hearts of the disciples were weighed down with dissipation and sorrow. The little while between the resurrection and the ascension was also bitter sweet. Yet at this departure, the disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy! For though He has left their sight, He has not forsaken them.
As we rejoiced at Christ’s coming to earth, His incarnation and nativity – how the angel sang, Behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people – so now do we rejoice that Christ, true God, begotten of His Father from all eternity, and true Man, born of the Virgin Mary, is seated at the right hand of God. There He intercedes for you!
Dear Christians you heard last Sunday about the great gift and benefit of prayer. Tonight you are comforted with the promise that you do not pray alone. He has sent the promise of the Father: the Holy Spirit. He prays for you and in you. The Son prays for you, laying your prayers on the Father’s throne as His very own. Thus the Father hears you and answers, for the sake of His coronated Son, your King, the crucified and risen and ascended Lord Jesus.
Remember the words He spoke while He was still with them: And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also (Jn 14:3). This promise is for you also; to refresh your spirit and enliven your soul, to comfort you with the knowledge e that when you die you shall abide with Christ and remain with Him forever. He who has been crowned with glory and honor has laid up for you the crown of righteousness, which He, the righteous Judge, will give to all who have loved His appearing.
He has taken rightful possession of His kingdom once more and rules over all things in heaven and on earth in grace, for the good of those who love Him and for the proclamation of His Gospel, which is the forgiveness of sins, His baptism and doctrine. At the last He shall return and say, Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Mt 25:34).
All this is on account of His holy, innocent, bitter suffering and death. Christ became your brother in the flesh in order to accomplish for you in the flesh what you could not accomplish – perfect obedience to the Law. He has fulfilled Moses and the Prophets. He has silenced the accusations of the Law. He is risen from the dead, never to die again.
And He who became your brother in the flesh has given you to become His brothers and sisters according to the Spirit. By the preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His Name, that is, by the proclamation of His Cross and Passion, His resurrection and ascension, He gives His Holy Spirit, by which you are clothed in His righteousness, given His life and peace, and made sons of God.
Finally you shall attain heaven’s glory and everlasting salvation. He shall draw you to Himself, to the place where He is exalted at the right hand of the Father, and bring you into the company of the holy angels and all the saints where you shall not only behold His glory, but share in His glory with all the faithful.
Although He has ascended on high and withdrawn from your sight, Christ remains with you, as He promised at the close of St Matthew’s Gospel: Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Mt 28:20). And it is precisely in this way that Christ Jesus is with you: in the preaching of His Word, in His Holy Absolution, His Baptism, His Eucharist – all for you!
He is with you in the hour of need. He is your Comfort in affliction. He is your Rest in suffering. He is your Peace in adversity. He is your Courage in fear. And you shall see Him face to face and behold Him with you own eyes and not another, in your very flesh, as Job rightly confessed.
My friends, this day is a feast of gladness, for Christ and for us. Our Brother is glorified by His ascension. So also is our human nature elevated to the divine. It participated in the highest divine honor. Christ entered heaven in His human Body, to sit on God’s throne in His human nature.
But in a mystery behold all telling, He is here, in both natures, divine and human, in and under the Bread and Wine, His Body and Blood. Christ has ascended on high, yet continues to bring heaven down to earth, uniting the two in Himself. Tonight, dear friends, we enter heaven, though we are on earth, for the glorified Christ comes to dine with you. You, who are loved by the Father. You, to whom the Holy Spirit is given. You, who share in the humanity of the only Son of God.
Come, then, in the joy of sins forgiven and fellowship restored, come, eat and drink His true Body and Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, and ascend in heart and mind to dwell with Him in heaven, until that Day when He shall take you to Himself for eternity.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
The Lord has gone up with the sound of the trumpet! Sing praises to God! Sing praises to our King! The Sundays of Easter we hail Him as the Paschal Victim, who on the Cross was slain. But on this day, the Ascension of our Lord, we sing to Him praises as the mighty Victor. He has received His proper crown. He has entered His glory, having finished His work of redeeming man. Now all our enemies – the devil, the world, sin, and death – lie crushed beneath His feet. He has delivered you from these. He has cleansed you from your sins and now sits at the right hand of the Divine Majesty in heaven.
Christ’s ascension is of great and supreme comfort for you. Prior to Good Friday the hearts of the disciples were weighed down with dissipation and sorrow. The little while between the resurrection and the ascension was also bitter sweet. Yet at this departure, the disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy! For though He has left their sight, He has not forsaken them.
As we rejoiced at Christ’s coming to earth, His incarnation and nativity – how the angel sang, Behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people – so now do we rejoice that Christ, true God, begotten of His Father from all eternity, and true Man, born of the Virgin Mary, is seated at the right hand of God. There He intercedes for you!
Dear Christians you heard last Sunday about the great gift and benefit of prayer. Tonight you are comforted with the promise that you do not pray alone. He has sent the promise of the Father: the Holy Spirit. He prays for you and in you. The Son prays for you, laying your prayers on the Father’s throne as His very own. Thus the Father hears you and answers, for the sake of His coronated Son, your King, the crucified and risen and ascended Lord Jesus.
Remember the words He spoke while He was still with them: And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also (Jn 14:3). This promise is for you also; to refresh your spirit and enliven your soul, to comfort you with the knowledge e that when you die you shall abide with Christ and remain with Him forever. He who has been crowned with glory and honor has laid up for you the crown of righteousness, which He, the righteous Judge, will give to all who have loved His appearing.
He has taken rightful possession of His kingdom once more and rules over all things in heaven and on earth in grace, for the good of those who love Him and for the proclamation of His Gospel, which is the forgiveness of sins, His baptism and doctrine. At the last He shall return and say, Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Mt 25:34).
All this is on account of His holy, innocent, bitter suffering and death. Christ became your brother in the flesh in order to accomplish for you in the flesh what you could not accomplish – perfect obedience to the Law. He has fulfilled Moses and the Prophets. He has silenced the accusations of the Law. He is risen from the dead, never to die again.
And He who became your brother in the flesh has given you to become His brothers and sisters according to the Spirit. By the preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His Name, that is, by the proclamation of His Cross and Passion, His resurrection and ascension, He gives His Holy Spirit, by which you are clothed in His righteousness, given His life and peace, and made sons of God.
Finally you shall attain heaven’s glory and everlasting salvation. He shall draw you to Himself, to the place where He is exalted at the right hand of the Father, and bring you into the company of the holy angels and all the saints where you shall not only behold His glory, but share in His glory with all the faithful.
Although He has ascended on high and withdrawn from your sight, Christ remains with you, as He promised at the close of St Matthew’s Gospel: Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Mt 28:20). And it is precisely in this way that Christ Jesus is with you: in the preaching of His Word, in His Holy Absolution, His Baptism, His Eucharist – all for you!
He is with you in the hour of need. He is your Comfort in affliction. He is your Rest in suffering. He is your Peace in adversity. He is your Courage in fear. And you shall see Him face to face and behold Him with you own eyes and not another, in your very flesh, as Job rightly confessed.
My friends, this day is a feast of gladness, for Christ and for us. Our Brother is glorified by His ascension. So also is our human nature elevated to the divine. It participated in the highest divine honor. Christ entered heaven in His human Body, to sit on God’s throne in His human nature.
But in a mystery behold all telling, He is here, in both natures, divine and human, in and under the Bread and Wine, His Body and Blood. Christ has ascended on high, yet continues to bring heaven down to earth, uniting the two in Himself. Tonight, dear friends, we enter heaven, though we are on earth, for the glorified Christ comes to dine with you. You, who are loved by the Father. You, to whom the Holy Spirit is given. You, who share in the humanity of the only Son of God.
Come, then, in the joy of sins forgiven and fellowship restored, come, eat and drink His true Body and Blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, and ascend in heart and mind to dwell with Him in heaven, until that Day when He shall take you to Himself for eternity.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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