[Machine transcription]
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father,
from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Brothers and sisters, this is Ascension Day.
Talking about the Ascension, please be seated.
And Ascension Day is often overlooked
in the church year calendar,
even though it’s really one of the oldest
and most recognized holy days,
dating back to 68 A.D. when it was first observed.
In America, Ascension Day kind of gets overlooked, but in Germany it’s a big
deal. In fact, today is a national holiday and in German it’s called
Himmelfahrt. Come on, that sounds funny, doesn’t it? Come on. Yeah, Himmelfahrt,
which basically means a going up, a journey to heaven. And some
celebrations that they have there include processions, symbolizing Christ’s
entry into heaven and they chase around a model of the devil and they dunk it in a pond
or burn it in effigy.
What fun, who said Germans don’t have fun?
In America, Ascension gets overlooked probably because it’s on a Thursday.
It’s always on a Thursday being 40 days after Easter and it’s stuck between two big festivals,
Easter and Pentecost.
Ascension just doesn’t seem significant, but it really is.
It has as much value as Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection.
We actually do confess the ascension in both the Nicene and the Apostles’ Creed.
It’s important.
And it’s important because Jesus’ birth, His death, His resurrection, and ascension,
they all have something in common and that is a flesh and blood body. In birth
Jesus came into our world with a body and that body died on the cross and then
was resurrected three days later and in his ascension Jesus’s body goes up into
heaven. So Jesus had a bodily birth, death, resurrection, and ascension. And by
becoming flesh and blood and taking on a human body, Jesus identifies with us.
Jesus knows what it’s like to be us. Jesus identifies with us, that is, he
identifies with our weakness. You’ve probably heard the saying, the spirit is
willing but the… right, Jesus said that actually. And it’s true, our bodies are
weak. Don’t we all know that? We struggle with the weakness of our bodies, about
how they look or function or don’t. More so, our bodies are sinful. Don’t we all
know that, too? Our bodies are part of many sins that we commit. We can use our
bodies to hurt others with physical pain or with hurtful words that come out of
our body. Our bodies can be used to cheat and steal and lie and our minds which
are part of our body can sometimes conjure up thoughts that can only be
described as evil. Yes, God created your body but he’s not content to leave it
in its weak and sinful state.
God has also redeemed your body.
He’s paid for the evil
that your body is responsible for.
He’s paid for it in His own body.
In His body, Jesus took on all the sins of the world,
yours, mine, everybody’s,
died with them on the cross to forgive us, to forgive the sinful weaknesses of
our body. That’s how Jesus really identifies with our bodily weakness, by
experiencing bodily weakness, by experiencing bodily suffering and pain
and a bodily death. Jesus knows what it’s like to be us. There’s a bodily
resurrection of Jesus, but there’s teaching, heretical teaching, in some
Christian churches today that teach that Jesus didn’t rise from the dead bodily.
It was only a kind of spiritual resurrection. I heard a pastor give a
on an Easter Sunday, they said this,
I don’t care if you believe
that Jesus rose bodily or not.
That doesn’t matter.
I beg to differ.
Luke tells us twice
in the resurrection account
that the women went into the tomb
that they did not find the body
of the Lord Jesus.
And that Jesus appeared bodily
to the disciples,
even showing his scars to them. What was dead, his body was alive again. And still
now in the season of Easter, we continue to celebrate that bodily resurrection of
Jesus. He is risen. Hallelujah. How can people that say they’re Christians, how
from the dead. Bless their hearts, that’s all I got to say. In his resurrection, in
his bodily resurrection, Jesus has given us new life to our soul and our body. Our
bodies matter to God. And here’s where the full joy of Christ’s bodily birth
and death and resurrection and ascension.
Sometimes the real joy of that gets overlooked in Christianity.
Because Christians, we’re usually content with the idea of dying and going to heaven.
Okay? Not a bad thing. And it’s a true thing.
Our souls, when we die, our souls do go to heaven when we die.
but God didn’t just create our bodies and redeem them he’s also going to
recreate them the way that they’re supposed to be a body that doesn’t hurt
others or cheat or steal or lie or worse because on the last day when Jesus
returns as the angels said to the disciples when he returns those who have
died will be resurrected and recreated bodies reunited with their souls in
heaven perfect recreated bodies that live forever because not only was Christ
born died and rose bodily to give us eternal life but also to raise up our
bodies for our resurrection to see we’re human beings human beings we’re body and
soul beings we need our bodies even in eternity we’re going to have bodies like
Jesus does when he ascended he did so bodily still has his body Philippians
chapter 3 says Christ will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious
body that’s why it matters that Jesus rose bodily and ascended bodily because
if he didn’t do that if he didn’t rise bodily and didn’t ascend bodily then
there’s no hope for our bodily resurrection and recreation God’s purpose
in sending his son wasn’t just so that we can go to heaven, it’s actually more
than that. It’s better than that. Yes, when a believer dies, their soul goes to rest
with Christ, but there’s more. It’s better. His purpose is more than that for us.
It’s more encompassing. It’s more fulfilling because God seeks to
renew and recreate all of His creation,
including your body.
The return of Christ in glory is the time
when God’s good work that He’s begun in you,
He’s going to bring it to completion.
That’s the goal of the Christian,
not just going to heaven.
It’s a good one, it’s okay, there’s more.
The goal of the Christian is being renewed
and recreated body and soul forever. That’s what the Ascension is for us
today, that Christ had a body and he did his work here in his body and he still
has that body sitting at the right hand of God. That means we have a flesh and
blood advocate for us in heaven, one who still knows what it’s like to be us.
Although we’re weak and sinful,
we’re redeemable and recreatable.
That same fate of Jesus,
rising, ascending to heaven, awaits us.
We confess that in the creed,
which is why I had us do the Apostles’ Creed tonight.
It’s in a nice scene
when it talks about the resurrection of the dead,
but in the Apostles’ it’s even better.
I believe in the resurrection of the the body it ain’t talking about Jesus there
it’s talking about us we’re looking forward to that one day and maybe in the
creed when we’re saying it that comes near the end and maybe we’re starting to
kind of you know kind of tune things out we’re not really thinking about what
we’re confessing I’ll admit the pastor I’m starting to think okay what do I
have to do next you know where do I have to move what what chancel prancing do I
have to do up here in that and we kind of we kind of don’t think about what
we’re saying I believe in the resurrection of the body my yours we’ve
got fat to look forward to someday don’t like your body now great it’s gonna be a
lot better later really I just want my hair back when we confess the creed and
I’ll admit that I do it now too that I make it a point to think about that and
And I smile a little bit because that’s coming.
Our resurrection, our ascension, bodily,
recreated, living forever with Jesus, with His body.
We may get to see the scars.
And thinking a little bit weirdly,
we may be able to hug Jesus physically.
We have that to look forward to, brothers and sisters.
May this ascension and every ascension
bring that to mind and when we confess the creed we believe in the resurrection
of our body amen
