Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ and its encouraging practical lessons

The Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ and its encouraging practical lessons

Acts 1; Luke 24

   Today is one of those watershed events we mark in our liturgical observance taken from the Scriptures.  As we would say in morning prayer before we sing the Venite ( Ps 95) the preface for Ascension is, " Alleluia. Christ the Lord ascendeth into heaven; O come, let us adore him. Alleluia.", p. 8 , BCP.

In Luke 24 we read in vs before the Gospel for today, " ...all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.....he opened their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.."

1.  We must continue to trust in God and in his Word which we read .  We too should ask for the understanding that Christ and the Holy Ghost can give us as we read the Scriptures.  We are continually buffeted about in our world today and many say things that are contrary to scripture.  But we must continue in the Scriptures if we are to understand and do God's Will in our lives here now.  As a child many of us learned Psalm 119:105 , " Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." 

Have we ever gotten up in the middle of the night and not had a light/flashlight?  You know what happens.  When I forget to take a light, I usually stumble or step on one of the animals in our house. 

One of the delightful things we have at our disposal if  we have a computer is that weekly we can listen to Choral Evensong BBC from England.  I usually meditate best when I have a background of Scripture being read, the lessons being interpreted, and the prayers being said from the Prayer Book for Evening Prayer.  It is an inspiring experience each week that a different church/cathedral from England tapes their service live usually WED at 0930 our time and you can listen to it for a week. How lovely.  How encouraging.  It doesn't hurt that this is from the traditional services of Evening prayer from our mother church in England. 

The familiar Resurrection evening account in Luke 24 about the two disciples who were sad as Jesus encounters them also reminds us again that we have the Scriptures that give us all we need for this life and the life to come. " O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?  And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." 24:25

2.  " Ye are witnesses of these things"  24:48  The Lord then instructed the disciples to "tarry" in the city of Jerusalem. Acts 1: 4 says " wait for the promise of the Father...ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."  Unfortunately we are not always very good at waiting .  What kind of witnesses are we?  We can be witnesses of "these things" that is what has happened in the Scriptures and given to us, " Christ suffered, rose from the dead on the third day, and repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem ( our home too where we begin)...and ye are witnesses of these things." Luke 24:48

We often feel that waiting for direction is a waste of time.  But that is how God works. The immediate answer is not always the spiritual one.  I remember the familiar words of Isaiah 40:31, " ...they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint."

We struggle with waiting do we not?  Did not Jesus set us an example as He was fasting in the wilderness for 40 days? Matthew 4.  We hear the same thing in Acts 1:3 :" he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God."

" Waiting on God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given." G Campbell Morgan ( great grandfather of mine)

3.  Encouragements from the fact that Christ ascended into heaven .

As "he went up, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Acts 1:11

In other words He will come again in power and glory suddenly as we heard in our WED study on Revelation 3.  " I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." 3:4  So we are to watch and as our Lord told John in Revelation 3:3 " Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent."  " he that overcometh , the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." 3:5

We too as He was resurrected and gone into heaven as Article 3 of our 39 articles reminds us will also be with him in heaven with our body, bones and our flesh perfected , as he " ascended into heaven and there sitteth, until he return to judge all Men at the last day."

So today as we say the Nicene Creed together in our service we will hear these words again: " and he was crucified also for us under Pontus Pilate; He suffered and was buried: and the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures: And ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father: And He shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end."