Nathan E. Lewis

Pastor Nathan Lewis is preaching four sermons on the Ascension of Jesus Christ. He preaches at Chehalem Valley Presbyterian Church in Newberg at 9:00 a.m. on Sundays and then at Evergreen Presbyterian Church in Beaverton at 11:00 a.m. Below you can read Nathan’s sermon scripts and you can also go to Audio sermons to hear a recording of his preaching.

“The History of the Ascension”
Luke 24: 36-53 and Acts 1:4-12

As Christians we recite the ecumenical creeds confessing the historicity of Jesus, believing his death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven to be historical events. Douglas Farrow, professor of Christian Thought at McGill University wrote in his book, Ascension and Ecclesia, “Christians have never believed that the cross was the end of that history, nor even the resurrection. To adopt such a view would put us in the strange position of having to fall silent midway through the creed. Yet to continue in full voice is not possible without renewed commitment to the absolute priority of Jesus-history.” Farrow and the rest of us live in a world where theologians have been searching for the historical Jesus. Frederich Nietzsche helped theologians strip Jesus of all historic description to uncover the essence of the Christ. As N.T. Wright presents it, “The great prophet of postmodernity, Frederich Nietzsche, deconstructed big stories into collections of aphorisms, little fragments to try to make sense of a life. The Jesus of the Jesus Seminar has become a Nietzschan Jesus who is deeply non-Jewish — and actually deeply non-Christian.” With the death of God and the undermining of divine inspiration revealed in holy writ, the search for the historic Jesus has been taken up in our day by the likes of the Jesus Seminar who conclude that the historical Jesus was a guru who constructed for us a moral system – scrap the guru and retain his moral system – the system is all that matters. John Dominic Crossan in his 1991 book, The Historical Jesus, joined the Jesus Seminar by describing Jesus and his disciples as “hippies in an age of Augustine yuppies.”
The Jesus Seminar undermines and discounts the historical records of a first century medical doctor by the name of Luke, the personal physician of the apostle Paul. He is the author of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. An analysis of the language and style of his writing show him to be well educated, intelligent, and purposeful. When the search for the historical Jesus was in full-swing at the turn of the 20th century, did any scholar wonder why the only non-Jew among the biblical authors presented a thoroughly Jewish Jesus, the fulfillment of the Jewish prophecy? Could it be that he was faithful to the purpose of historical accuracy and would have nothing to do with the later movements of stripping Jesus of his historicity, to get to his immaterial essence?
In every epoch of history, there have been those who have attempted to reduce Jesus to apparitional gas, a spiritual hologram. Many have done so at the point of resurrection and others at the point of ascension. It is difficult to deny the flesh of Jesus as he hung on the cross. But can flesh rise from the dead? Can flesh ascend? Does not our Platonic foundations of reason tell us that only spirit graduates into the realm of purest reality? Does not our Aristotilean knowledge inform us of the science by which all flesh is bound? And so some insist upon a resurrected Christ less a body. They insist that only the spirit or the concept of Jesus ascended.
Luke is careful to report in his Gospel, chapter 24: 36-43, that the risen Jesus Christ had his fleshy body. The disciples were shocked and full of fear as Jesus appeared to them. They thought that he was a ghost, an apparition, a spirit appearing in the misty form of a body not present. Jesus identifies their mistaken assumption, the root of their fears and invites them to discover that he has risen from the grave body and soul. Their disbelief rooted in confusion is replaced by the disbelief of wonder. It is too good to be true: the history of Jesus has spanned the grave. The history of Jesus did not end at the cross but continues through his resurrection and appearance to more than 500 witnesses. The historical record includes the risen Lord Jesus eating broiled fish in the company of his disciples.
Secondly, Luke records the words of Jesus teaching his disciples the importance of the Jewish historical records. In (44-48) Jesus reminds his disciples that the law of Moses, the words of the Prophets, even the Psalms of David, Asaph, and the sons of Korah all pointed beyond themselves to historical fulfillment. The Jewish community carefully preserved their Holy Scriptures believing them to be the very words of Yahweh the Covenant God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They preserved these words in large part because they announced, the coming of the Messiah, the historical Liberator of all creation. In (45) Luke writes, “Then Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” In the discussion study guide I have asked the question, “How did Jesus open their minds? What is the key that Jesus gave his disciples to unlock the Holy Scripture?” In (46) Jesus supplies the key with these words, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” The key is Christ. He is the fulfillment of the Hebrew law, historical narrative, and wisdom literature. The Christ, a real human being, died on the cross. He rose from the dead body and soul. The purpose of his death and resurrection is repentance and forgiveness of sins for all people groups in history, starting in the geographic center of Jerusalem and spreading like wild fire through out the entire world.
The history of Jesus Christ does not end with his death and resurrection. The disciples were eye-witnesses not only of his death, burial, and empty tomb, but they also ate with the risen Jesus, who repeated his promise to send to his disciples the Holy Spirit, the promise of his heavenly Father. His disciples would be empowered to continue his historic mission on earth. Certainly no one can responsibly deny the historicity of the Apostles and the early Church fathers. Luke, the Greek Physician, as historian records a seamless narrative connecting the work of the incarnate Christ to the work of the Apostles. The ascension of Jesus is the connecting historical event. As Jesus ascends to heaven it is as if he passes the baton to his disciples. But it is better than the passing of a baton. Jesus actually gives to them his very Holy Spirit so that they might run the race empowered by the Spirit of Christ.
Luke is not only the author of his Gospel but also of the Acts of the Apostles. He concludes his Gospel with the ascension of Jesus and he opens his Acts of the Apostles with the ascension of Jesus. In doing so, he connects his two historic narratives providing continuity for the one story of the redemptive mission of Jesus Christ. Luke repeats Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit and he repeats the missional instruction describing the historical spread of the gospel beginning in Jerusalem, moving throughout the entire world. The history of Jesus would not end at the cross. It would not end with the glorification of the risen Lord Jesus, but instead, it will continue until the whole creation is restored!
Those who resonate to the Jesus Seminar’s reprisal of 19th and 20th century rejection of Luke’s history have an objection often published. If Luke were an accurate historian, why would he write in his Gospel that Jesus ascended into heaven in Bethany and then write in the Acts of the Apostles that he ascended into heaven at the Mount of Olives? This is a frivolous argument. Luke is not only an accurate historian, but he is also a presenter of literary beauty. In his Gospel, he describes the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem riding a donkey surrounded by the praise of the crowds. He entered the city, traveling on the road from Bethany to Jerusalem. This road leaves Bethany and rises over the summit of the Mount of Olives toward one of the many gates into the holy city. Luke then records Jesus departing Jerusalem on the road to Bethany, which climbs the Mount of Olives and then descends into the town of Bethany. Luke writes, “And then he led them out as far as Bethany.” In his day, the town of Bethany included villas and vineyards on the slopes of the Mount of Olives providing residents a picturesque view of the town of Bethany in the valley below. The vicinity of Bethany included the town, the Mount of Olives and could certainly include the road to Bethany. Luke accurately describes the location of the ascension and at the same time he provides the beautiful symmetry of Jesus’ entrance to and departure from Jerusalem on the very same road, the road to Bethany.
In the Acts of the Apostles Luke writes, “Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.” The Jewish community for centuries followed Joshua’s measurement of 2,000 cubits as a Sabbath Day’s journey. The Jewish community increased this to 4,000 cubits and then, by Jesus’ day to 8,000 cubits. The reason for the increase was the improvement of roads and transportation, so that it took less and less time and effort to travel the distance. A cubit is approximately 1.5 feet in length and so a Sabbath Day’s journey in Jesus’ day was limited to 12,000 feet or approximately 2.2 miles. Bethany is approximately two miles outside of Jerusalem. It is always encouraging to discover that a Physician, let alone a historian, knows how to accurately measure.
The Jesus Seminar and other like-minded skeptics have a greater problem with the historical Jesus and his ascension into heaven. The real problem is not a discrepancy of location, a problem lurking within the space of two miles. The real problem is that these scholars cannot accept the ascension of a human body. They cannot accept the resurrection of a human body. For their spiritual and ethereal constructs to endure, like the teachings of the first century Gnostics, Jesus must lose his human body at the cross and rise as a spirit, as a concept, as an ideal. And so they must discredit the historic accounting of Luke who makes it altogether clear that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven as a whole human being, possessing a body and a soul.
In your way of thinking, what would be the more reliable historical account: the appearance of a Christ apparition after the resurrection or the appearance of a true Man, body and soul? If a historian recorded that the disciples of Jesus encountered the concept of Jesus or that they saw a ghost, would you consider this account to be reliable history? Would not the historical account of the appearance of an actual human being be historically credible?
Do you believe that George Washington was an actual man, body and soul wintering with his troops in Valley Forge? Certainly, upon his death and to the present day, the spirit of George Washington is a powerful symbol in the American mind, but does not the actual historicity of his determination and faithfulness in Valley Forge serve as the unshakable foundation of the spirit we now encounter? Do you believe that Martin Luther King Jr. actually marched with 37,000 people in 1957 to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial? Would you deny that approximately 200,000 people gathered on August 10, 1963 at the same memorial to hear Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his famous “I Have a Dream” speech? In 1965 Dr. King led a march of 600 people from Selma, Alabama to the state capital in Montgomery, but six blocks into the walk state troopers stopped the march. Two ministers, one white and one African-American were killed. 70 marchers were injured and 17 hospitalized. On April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed outside his motel room. No one, not even his widow, Coretta Scott King, would deny that the spirit of her husband has loomed larger since his death than before he started to march. Nevertheless, no one would ever dream of suggesting that the actual history of the march and civil rights movement did not occur and that it was unimportant, that all we need and care about is the concept of Martin Luther King Jr., the ideal that we now live with in the 21st century. But this is precisely what the Jesus Seminar and fellow skeptics have done with the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the historic account of Luke.
Allow me to offer one more note on the history of the ascension. Jesus Christ ascended into heaven body and soul, taking with him the history of redemption into the very center of heaven, into the very heart of God. In heaven and in the heart of God, the history of Jesus dying on the cross, rising from the dead and ascending into heaven is of utmost value and importance. It is the business of heaven and it is the mission of God. It is our history, the history of God restoring all creation. There is a road between Bethany and Jerusalem. But there is another road, the road between earth and heaven. For epochs this road has been hidden in the mist of dimension but now, a true human being has walked it and he has opened it to us. The gates of heaven have opened wide! Lift up your heads, oh ye gates, and be lifted up ye ancient doors! That the king of glory may come in!

“The Science of the Ascension”
Luke 24: 36-53 & Acts 1: 4-12

The title of this sermon is “The Science of the Ascension.” What I mean by “science” in this sermon is how the event of the Ascension of Jesus is related to space and time. By “science,” then I mean “natural science” as opposed to Theology, the “Queen of the Sciences.” The Bible is the history of God redeeming his people and so the Queen of Sciences best serves its focus and theme. Nevertheless, space and time are not ignored in the biblical text, and so we may benefit from studying the relationship of the Ascension of Jesus to space and time. The doctrine of the Incarnation claims that the infinitely divine Person of the Son of God took on human flesh entering into space and time. The theology of the ascension claims that this very God yet also very Man departed this earth and entered into the heavenly realm, leaving space and time as we know and measure it.
Two weeks ago I accompanied my daughter, Hannah, to the Linus Pauling Lecture Series at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, to hear Dr. Paul Davies of Arizona State University present “The Architecture of the Universe.” In the middle of a fascinating lecture in which he described the developing theory of the “megaverse,” or the “multiverse,” an infinite cluster of universes of which our universe in merely one, he quoted Nobel Prize winners and influential scientists showing how each bump up against the limits of space and time to peer beyond, looking for ultimate answers. Then he said, “But one man got it right. A certain Augustine said, ‘The world was made with time, not in time.’ In quoting Augustine, all of us listening had to consider something beyond space and time. Dr. Davies told the parable of the old woman who tells the scientist that she has it all figured out: The earth balances on the back of an elephant and the elephant stands on the back of a sea turtle. The scientist asks, “And what supports the sea turtle.” The old woman says, “Oh, it’s turtles all the way down!” Dr. Davies then said, “Scientists have scorned theologians for suggesting that a divine Being is the ultimate source, the answer to those plaguing ultimate questions – what’s behind the Big Bang? But Science is not free of the unanswered ultimate questions. What is beyond time and space? A great sea turtle? You may laugh at someone’s God, but he may laugh at your great sea turtle.”
The science of the ascension brings us to the very brink, the outskirts of space and time. It shows us in the twinkling of an eye that there is a mysterious boundary between our world of space and time and a world existing beyond it. John Calvin, admitting in the new Copernican age, that he found it difficult to shed his ancient view of the world, nevertheless took the new earthshaking discoveries of natural science to heart and preached that the ascension of Jesus was not his upward movement from a lower region to a higher region. The ascension was a movement away from us, beyond the heavens of space, beyond anything that can be conceived in terms of earth and heaven.
Let us look for the elements of space and time in the ascension texts before us. In (36-43) Jesus shows his disciples that he is truly part of this world, existing as a true human being in our space and time. He is not a spirit visiting from another period of our space and time, from the past or from the future. He is not a vision of a being existing in another dimension, in heaven or in a neighboring universe governed by a different set of natural laws. He is actually present body and soul with his Disciples. They can touch his flesh. He can eat a piece of broiled fish. It is this Jesus Christ, body and soul, who arrives to the boundaries of time and space and instantly disappears into the heavenly realm. In (51) Luke writes, “he was carried into heaven.” In Acts 1:9 Luke writes, “as they were looking on, he was lifted up.” These are interesting verbs describing the ascension. They are passive. Did something or someone snatch Jesus out of space and time? As Gerrit Scott Dawson writes in his book, Jesus Ascended, “He did not so much go up as he was picked up.” In natural science we are accustomed to thinking of impersonal force pushing or pulling matter from one location to another. But we also know from our own experience that a personal force can push and pull matter. Whatever the cause, the science of the ascension is the snatching up of Jesus into a realm beyond time and space.
Notice the description of space in (51) “While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried into heaven.” The intimacy of blessing gave way as Jesus spoke his love yet physically walked away from his Disciples. At a spatial distance from them, he was forced into another realm or dimension. Luke, in his Acts of the Apostles, seems to adopt the ancient view of the architecture of the universe, a layered universe, a vertical stack with heaven above earth with space between them. In (9-10) Luke writes, “as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went….” While the ancient cosmology is inaccurate according to natural science, it did cause the observer of nature to marvel. The Copernican revolution improved our understanding of cosmology spatially removing the earth from the center of the universe. The result, as Dr. Davies describes it, was humanity viewing itself and its earthly home as “typical.” We are merely one common part of a whole universe and so there is nothing truly special about us. Thomas F. Torrance in Space, Time and Resurrection, traces the return to marvel crediting Albert Einstein who corrected Newton’s dualism between absolute mathematical space and time and bodies in motion. Einstein reminded humanity of the limits of the mind, calling us to, “That humble attitude of mind toward the grandeur of reason incarnate in existence, and which, in its profoundest depths is inaccessible to man.” Dr. Davies commends the “multiverse/megaverse” movement for returning marvel to our world. Now we know how special our space and time is. Davies projects on the jumbo tron a cartoon figure of God with a set of dials on a laptop sort of contraption. He asks, “How many knobs does God have at his disposal to make and control our earth, our particular place in the universe? Scientists estimate that he would have 30 knobs each one controlling a factor of the whole. If only one knob were turned a fraction to the right or to the left, then life as we know it could not exist on earth.” All of sudden we are special again and we marvel at our unique position in the universe, or perhaps the “megaverse.” This marvel has returned not solely as the work of Intelligent Design scientists, but also through the work of atheist and agnostic scientists. Indeed, we don’t know where Dr. Davies stands. Although he won the Templeton Prize in 1995 for his contribution to comsmology helping along a Christian worldview, he humorously distances himself from the Intelligent Design movement. All to say, we do not need the ancient cosmology to retain our marvel of nature, of what we believe to be divine creation. Natural Science as it continues to discover the world is bearing out what the Queen of Sciences has proclaimed on a macro level.
In Luke’s account, the Disciples went from “looking on” as Jesus blessed them to “gazing into heaven” as he disappeared. Did their marveling at what they were seeing hinge on their cosmological view? I rather think that their marvel focused on the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Does Luke describe what happened in terms of the ancient cosmology and thus skew the science of the ascension? His description in his Gospel is much easier to understand within our present scientific understanding than his description in Acts 1: 9-10. Luke says, “He was lifted up,” describing an action done to Jesus rather than to an action propelled by his personal force. There is a 16th century woodcut of Jesus with flames coming out of his feet shooting him upward as if he were a rocket in a pre-rocket age! But this verb in its passive form does not necessarily describe upward motion as much as it describes an other-worldly force grabbing Jesus and pulling him from one place in our world to another place in a different realm or dimension. If this indeed is the picture we should adopt in our minds, why does Luke mention in Acts a cloud and tell us that the Disciples were gazing into heaven. Here in Oregon, we understand clouds on our level better than someone who lives in the Midwest where clouds are thunderheads at a good height above the land. Many readers of the text interpret the cloud as the presence of God, the Shekinah glory cloud that descended on the tabernacle as Moses and Aaron commemorated its opening. The cloud is certainly and centrally a natural manifestation of the presence of God descending into our realm to do his glorious work. Some of these readers in making this connection evaporate the cloud altogether. But if we believe that there was an actual cloud, a manifestation of God in the wilderness during Israel’s wanderings, then we can soundly believe without doing violence to natural science, that an actual cloud in the vicinity of the Mount of Olives enveloped Jesus obscuring him from view and that this cloud was the manifestation of divine presence, the Holy Spirit descending to grab Jesus from this earth, hurling him into the heavenly realm. By the way, at Jesus’ baptism, Mark tells us, that the Holy Spirit hurled Jesus out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. This forceful language indicative of the Holy Spirit’s powerful actions may be in concert with natural science to a greater degree than we have heretofore imagined. And so, why did the Disciples gaze into heaven? First of all, they were awestruck. Secondly, their ancient cosmology would have encouraged them to look upward upon the disappearance of the One they now believed had come from heaven. We have since learned from natural science that if there is a heavenly realm it is not necessarily “up” from us. We could gaze into space and try to glimpse beyond peering “down” as well as “up”, “right” as well as “left.” As we spin and rotate around our star, which way is “up” and what do we mean by “down”? Nevertheless, this cosmological view does not prevent us from looking “up.” It is not wrong and it is not even incorrect to look “up.” The Disciples “gazing into heaven” is more of a statement of awe and thus worship then it is a statement of their cosmological view. Luke writes in the Acts of the Apostles, “as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went….” This directly corresponds to what he wrote in his Gospel, “While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him.” Which clause in the Acts of the Apostles directly corresponds to, “and they worshipped him”? It would be this clause: “While they were gazing into heaven.”
The Disciples at the ascension teach us how to worship. With our 21st century cosmology, we still look “up” liturgically. We worship by focusing upon Christ Jesus. Our hope is certainly fixed upon following the ascended Jesus into the heavenly realm. Our worship is saturated with marvel. Is not the ascension of Jesus awesome? Does not the science of the ascension enhance our awe? The more natural science discovers and describes for us, the more we marvel at the work of God. The gospel we embrace at the center of our Christian faith is the gospel of the ascended Lord Jesus. The snatching of him from this earth was no abduction, nor was it some natural mishap, the kind that whisked Dorothy out of Kansas. The Gospel of the Ascension is nothing less than the meeting of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit on the Mount of Olives rejoicing in the completion of the earthly mission of Jesus Christ and the welcoming of him body and soul into heaven. The means of this ascension began in space and time best described for us by the most current work of natural science and ending beyond the limits of space and time where no human eye, as Einstein hinted, could see.
In closing let us return to the matter of matter, the material substance of the universe that has mass, occupies space, and is convertible to energy. Dr. Davies told his Portland audience that the romantic has said that our bodies are made of stardust. The scientist comes along and has to agree because he knows that carbon has its source in stars, which have spewed it throughout the universe. Carbon is the second most abundant element by mass in the human body second only to oxygen. About 18.5 % of the human body is carbon. The scientifically enlightened realist says, “Then our bodies are made of nuclear ash.” Joni Mitchell (in her song “Woodstock”) sang, “We are stardust
Billion year old carbon/We are golden/Caught in the devils bargain/ And weve got to get ourselves/ Back to the garden.” What does this banter about the matter of carbon have to do with the science of the ascension? Jesus Christ body and soul has ascended into heaven, taking matter beyond this realm of space and time. He has taken his 18.5% of carbon into the center of heaven. As Leo Imperator, one of the Post-Nicene fathers preached on Ascension Day, “Now dust sits at the right hand of the Father! For today our dust in taken up on the shoulders of the cherubim and being received within the inner palace is set upon the royal throne.” The Gospel of the Ascension is that Jesus Christ is the first fruits of all of us who have died but shall rise on the last day. We too shall ascend into heaven. As Paul preached to the Church at Corinth, Christ the firstfruits has opened heaven to all believers. Carbon dust has arrived in heaven and in the end there shall be a good deal more piled high around the throne to the glory of God. Upon our deaths, if we choose the traditional language to be spoken at our graveside, the minister will say, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” The carbon of our bodies will join the carbon of the earth, which forms more compounds than any other element, with almost ten million pure organic compounds described by natural science to date. One of the most remarkable forms is the diamond, highly transparent yet among the hardest materials known. But the end of our lives is not at best a diamond produced under intense subterranean heat and pressure as opposed to a chunk of soft graphite good for second-graders’ pencils or a hunk of dolomite. Our glorious end is carbon dust in heaven. Who can imagine the glories of carbon dust hurled beyond the limits of our space and time into the realm of heaven! In the ascended Lord Jesus, we catch a glimpse of this glory, a glory we will share with him as we unite to him by faith and await our ascension to the realm of eternal praise and renewal.

“The Blessing of the Ascension”
Luke 24: 36-53

In this sermon series, “The Ascension of Jesus Christ,” I have first delivered two sermons, one, “The History of the Ascension,” and a second, “The Science of the Ascension.” In short the science supports the ascension as an action done to Jesus Christ, snatching him, body and soul, out of this realm of space and time and landing him in the heavenly realm beyond our space and time. The history of the ascension is found to be a reliable account, one that we must then consider, no matter how marvelous or unbelievable it seems to be. In this third sermon, “The Blessing of the Ascension,” we can now turn our attention to the actual content of the actions and words of Jesus in the immediate context of his ascension into heaven. The key word for our consideration is the repeated word, “blessing.” In (50) Jesus “blessed” his disciples. In (51) Luke redundantly yet purposefully writes, “while he blessed them….” Finally in (53) Luke tells us that the disciples respond by “blessing” God.
Firstly, we are encouraged to learn that the final words of Jesus in this world prior to his ascension were in the form of a blessing. While Jesus was upon this earth, he imparted many kinds of verbal statements to his disciples and varied audiences. He preached sermons about the coming of the kingdom. He taught about the fulfillment of the law. He told parables. He rebuked Peter, James, and John. He confronted religious leaders and he asked provocative questions. He prayed for the unity of the church. But in the end, he blessed his disciples. Did he do so without any planning or purpose? Or did he purposely choose his final words to be a blessing? Was it divine will that his final words be a blessing?
Our weekly Sunday liturgy concludes with a benediction, that is the speaking of God’s blessing upon us. This is an intentional conclusion. In the course of worship we may hear God exhorting us to holy behavior, hurling us into mission endeavor, calling us to love and good deeds, and imploring us to maintain the unity of the Church. But at the conclusion we hear the blessing of God conferred upon us as we walk into the world. As important as all of these divine messages are to God and to us, it seems to us that the final words we must hear are God’s blessings poured out upon us in great measure. In the end we belong to God and he belongs to us. In the end we realize that “we love him because he first loved us.”
The plan of God includes the final words of Jesus as blessing. Perhaps it would be fitting for a good mother to make her last words a lecture. On his deathbed a teacher may tell one more parable to make the point of his teaching career. The pioneer missionary might appropriately use his final breath to inspire his young adult children to “go into all the world and preach the gospel.” But the Redeemer of God’s elect, the Savior of the world, Jesus, the Friend of Sinners, chose as his final words, a blessing.
In the days between his resurrection and his ascension, Jesus did instruct his disciples. In Galilee Jesus lovingly exhorted Peter to be a pastor of God’s people. Jesus also gave to his disciples what we call the Great Commission. Matthew concludes his Gospel with the words of this Great Commission, spoken in Galilee rather than in the region of Bethany at the ascension. Jesus said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.” Closer to the ascension, Jesus instructed his disciples with the words recorded by Luke at the conclusion of his Gospel, (46-49) of our text. He spoke these words supplying his disciples with the key to understanding and applying the entire corpus of the Holy Scriptures. He summarized the worldwide mission before them, to take the Holy Scriptures with the gospel of Jesus Christ central and front to all people groups. As important as all this instruction is for the apostles and for the Church to this present day, Jesus chose to use his final moments and voice in the space and time of our present world to speak his blessing upon his disciples.
Ironically, we do not know the precise words of his blessing! Most blessings are concise and the essential meaning of any blessing is the same. A benediction is the expression of God’s love for us. It is his reminder of his loving and faithful presence with us.
Secondly, we discover that Jesus is snatched away, ascending into heaven in mid-sentence! Luke writes, “And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.” Did he disappear from their sight and yet they still heard his continuing blessing? Some poorly made Christian films show Jesus slowly levitating upwards as he is speaking to his disciples. But the language better supports an instant and powerful hurling of Jesus from one realm to another. Something or Someone either pushed or pulled him with great force. The only buffer, softening the visual disruption was the cloud, the physical manifestation of God descending. Why would God snatch away Jesus right in the middle of his final words of blessing? Why not allow him to finish, to add a seven-fold Amen, and then perform the ascension? The precise timing of the ascension is designed to assure us that Jesus blessing us in this world carries over into the heavenly realm where it is transformed into an eternal, never-ending blessing. Last Sunday we wondered what glorious results occur when carbon dust departs the space and time of this world and is dropped into the heavenly realm! The result is something more glorious than a diamond, something quite similar to the glorified body of Jesus Christ the firstborn and the first fruits of the resurrection. Now we are left wondering as we read Luke, what happens to a spoken blessing snatched from this realm and hurled into heaven? The blessing never ends. It does not merely echo off the walls of heaven, but rather is resounds upon the lips of our One and Only Mediator, the Man Christ Jesus, forever interceding for us before the throne of God. If there is one message God the Father hears continually from the lips of his One and Only Son, our Lord Jesus, it is his blessing of his Church, his pure and spotless Bride on earth awaiting the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.
Thirdly, we learn to return Christ’s blessing of us by blessing God, an act of regular worship. Upon the ascension of Jesus into heaven, the disciples immediately worship him. With great joy, they return to Jerusalem where they continue to regularly worship him. They do so in the most obvious place of worship – the temple. Their worship consists of praise and blessing. To praise God means that we recount his miraculous and providential acts, his love and grace poured out upon us. We do more than admire him. We do more than commend him. We do more than brag about him. We acknowledge that he is God alone worthy of our worship. What does it mean to bless God? When God blesses us, he is actually pouring out tangible expressions of his love for us. He is actually entering into a relationship with us. When we bless God, we are returning to him the love he has given to us. We are actually entering into a relationship with him. At the center of this relationship is the regular worship of God. He is the Creator, and we are the creatures. We are the helplessly lost and he is the Savior. He is our loving Father and we are his loving children.
This relational view of worship and of blessing is significant when we are considering the ascension of Jesus Christ. This ascension marks the physical separation of Jesus from his disciples. It is of significance that his disciples did not interpret the ascension as the end of it all, just as they did at the death of Jesus. When Jesus died on the cross, the disciples locked themselves in a room fearing for their own lives. They thought to themselves: this is the end, the tragic end of a good but failed mission. The resurrected Lord Jesus renewed their hope by completing their understanding of his mission accomplished. At the ascension of Jesus, the disciples did not despair but instead they were filled with joy. Where did they go? They ran to the temple to worship, praising and blessing God. They prayed day after day in the upper room anticipating the Holy Spirit poured out upon them according to the promise of Jesus and the heavenly Father.
The ascension blessing of Jesus assures us of God’s love while we are physically separated from Jesus. He is in heaven and we are on earth. He has sent his Holy Spirit to be present with us, the very spiritual presence of Christ with us. He has taken our flesh eternally into the presence of God, and on his lips, with his material vocal chords, he is speaking his blessing of us before our heavenly Father.
Every night of my childhood, the last words I would hear before I fell asleep were the words of my mother saying, “I love you.” Nearly every morning of my childhood I would awake to the sound of her banging pots and pans in the kitchen, whistling and talking like a loud Lewis. It seemed to me as if my mother was always talking, continually articulating her love for me in many ways. Now I know that at least for four to five hours every night, my mother slept and ceased from her verbal expressions of love. I will always know of my mother’s love for me. But I know of a deeper and more constant love, the love of Christ Jesus for me. He does not sleep but continually intercedes for me in heaven. He is ever speaking his love for me before the throne of God.
In 1742 Charles Wesley wrote of Jesus in his hymn, “Arise, My Soul Arise”:
He ever lives above for me to intercede,
His all-redeeming love, his precious blood to plead.
His blood atoned for every race,
And sprinkles now the throne of grace!

Ascension Sunday
“Humanity in Heaven”
Acts 1: 9-11; John 20: 11-29

On this day the Church celebrates the ascension of Jesus into heaven. Both Luke and John intentionally refer to the risen Son of God ascending into heaven by his given name, Jesus. This is the name that corresponds with his humanity. Luke and John claim that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. If the resurrection and ascension were the sloughing off of the body, freeing the spirit, the immaterial essence, to rise into heaven, then they would have refrained from using the name Jesus, perhaps writing that the “spirit of Christ” rose and ascended. But they write, “Jesus,” describing him as one who is body and soul. Humanity has found its way into heaven, into the heart of God. Jesus, our elder brother, is the Lamb in the center of the throne, the Lord at the right hand of God. He is the Alpha and the Omega!
Long ago, on Ascension Sunday, John Chrysostom preached: “Today our firstfruits ascended up to heaven, and taking up the flesh from us took possession of his Father’s throne, in order that he might work reconciliation….Stand amazed therefore, beloved, at the ingenuity of the Master, and glorify Him who gives such things freely to you….See, we who were excluded from paradise have even been taken up into heaven itself….For the Lord of all has ascended, reconciling the Father to the generation of man.”
Several centuries later, Leo Imperator preached on Ascension Sunday, “For today our dust is taken up on the shoulders of the cherubim and being received within the inner palace is set upon the royal throne.”
John connects the resurrection to the ascension helping us receive a glorified Jesus Christ, who is both soul and body. His narrative is built around two references to the body of Jesus Christ: 1) Jesus tells Mary, “Do not cling to me,” but then 2) He tells Thomas, “Put your finger here….put out your hand and place it in my side.” Clearly the risen Lord Jesus had a body and this body along with his soul ascended into heaven.
From his words to Mary we discover that the transformation resulting from resurrection and culminating in the ascension into heaven radically changes our interrelating to Jesus Christ. The point Jesus makes to Mary and for us is this: The resurrected Jesus Christ is radically different than the incarnate Son of God who made his way from the cradle to the cross. The continuity is that he is body and soul on both sides of the resurrection. The radical discontinuity is that on this side of the resurrection his body and soul have been glorified and the pending ascension will snatch him away from earth into heaven producing a physical separation and yet a profound spiritual union.
Jesus did not say to Mary, “Do not cling to me,” because he was immediately ascending into heaven from the resurrection garden. Some students believe that Jesus ascended into heaven twice – once on Resurrection Day and again on Ascension Day, but there is no reason for such a view except for a misunderstanding of Jesus’ words to Mary. Jesus says to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.” By this he means that Mary still has time to fellowship with him before he ascends. He is not departing immediately and so she does not have to hug him and hold onto him as if she will never see him again. She has time to obey his command to announce the good news to the disciples. Jesus helps Mary understand that even as he ascends into heaven, physically separated from her, nevertheless, they will enjoy a spiritual union unprecedented, a richer fellowship than they enjoyed while he lived upon earth. Jesus is not concerned that Mary, clinging to him, might be snatched away with him into heaven, but instead he is concerned that she lives the rest of her earthly life with the hope of her ascension into heaven to enjoy a perfect and eternal fellowship with him.
Our relationship to Jesus Christ is informed by these words. Our relationship to Jesus Christ is not earth bound but heaven centered. Paul tells the Church at Colossae that we are “seated with Christ Jesus in the heavenlies.” Do you remember Peter’s remarks on the Mount of Transfiguration, as he saw Jesus, Moses, and Elijah in their heavenly glory? He blurted out, “Let’s make three tents one for each of these glorified men and dwell with them here on this mountain forever.” This earth is no longer the place, the center, the temple. Jesus Christ has ascended into heaven and so our home, our headquarters have moved. We are inseparably united to him. Our perspectives, destinations, and hope have all been broadened and sharpened in focus. It is only a matter of time until we are snatched away from this space and time, ushered into the new heavens and new earth. Radically then, the Christian life is a pilgrimage with a definite and glorious destination. The ascension of Jesus Christ makes us wanderers, aliens in this world, like our father Abraham, who was searching for a heavenly city.
Secondly, Jesus says to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side.” We learn that though he is radically transformed in the resurrection, Jesus is nonetheless body and soul forever bearing the very marks of his death upon the cross. Jesus had a body that could be touched by Thomas. Jesus took that body complete with its five scars into heaven. I like to think of Thomas not as “Doubting Thomas,” but as “Honest Thomas.” Jesus does not rebuke him for his desire to touch, to see, to discover the wonders of the resurrection. Instead Jesus uses Thomas as a teaching opportunity.
Eight days prior to Jesus’ meeting with Thomas, Jesus appeared to the other disciples and he showed them his hands and his side. These scars convinced the disciples that this one before them was no ghost or impostor. He was none other than Jesus Christ, the Lord who bore five bleeding wounds on Calvary. And so, Jesus could not be disapproving of Thomas’ request to see and to touch, to discover what Jesus freely offered to the other disciples. Thomas was absent at this meeting and so the disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” Thomas said, “Unless I see his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” Thomas desired the same proof Jesus offered to the other disciples. It was nothing less than divine providence that hindered Thomas from being present. He was divinely appointed as Jesus’ opportunity to teach concerning proofs, evidence, and faith.
The difference between Thomas and the other disciples in this situation is that he vocalized in strong terms his insistence that evidence precedes faith. “Unless I see and touch, I will never believe.” “Never say never.” God will surprise you! God will never disappoint you! Eight days later, Jesus appeared to Thomas and invites him to see and to touch, to receive the proofs he so desired toward faith. What did Thomas do? Did he touch his Lord’s scars? Amazingly, this dogmatic, macho man who said, “Unless I see and touch, I will never believe,” refrained from touching his Lord. Instead he spoke his faith, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus says to Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen me?” Thomas would have immediately answered, “No. I have believed because I heard you, because you are present and you have revealed yourself to me.” In this interchange, Jesus is paving the way for the gospel proclamation rather than material evidence as the foundation of Christian faith. God freely gives to us faith and we experience the reception of faith by our hearing of the gospel. As Paul wrote to the Church at Rome: “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
Jesus said to Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Jesus blessed Thomas! In saying these words to Thomas, Jesus was commending Thomas for believing short of accepting the invitation to see and touch the scars of redemption. Jesus was kindly, ever so kindly reminding Thomas that his cocky statement, “I will never believe,” is the stuff of blind pride. What was Thomas’ experience? He discovered that he did not need the evidence he desired to believe. The voice of Jesus and his peaceful presence was sufficient. The gospel message of the disciples, which prompted his insistent statements, was sufficient.
Jesus not only dispels our doubts, but he also tempers our honesty. Thomas did not doubt much of anything. He was confident, so sure of himself that he was able to honestly say, “Evidence precedes faith.” Jesus does not dispel much doubt in Thomas but instead tempers his honesty, checking his confidence. “No, Thomas, faith in me is a gift from God freely given so that you might see the evidence.” “My Lord and my God!” Thomas discovered in the presence of Jesus, the alternative to seeing and touching. The alternative is the reception of the apostolic message, the gospel! The disciples came to Thomas and said, “We have seen the Lord!” In eight short days Thomas was able to embrace the gospel: “My Lord and my God!”
This is precisely our situation today. Are we willing to receive the apostolic message, the gospel? Or must we see and touch and then believe? When we ascend into heaven, then we shall see Jesus Christ face to face. The motive for seeing and touching the Lord Jesus in heaven will be different than the gathering of evidence. No one in heaven will be on a fact-finding mission. Mary Magdalene was at the cross looking into the face of Jesus; she was at the resurrection garden gazing into the face of her risen Lord. Have you ever wished that you could have been alive in the first century to catch a glimpse of Jesus, to share a meal with him and to ask him all of your plaguing questions? Have you ever thought that your faith would be stronger if you could have stood at the cross next to the centurion who said, “Surely this man is the Son of God”?
The gospel on Ascension Day is this: We shall also ascend into heaven and we shall see Jesus face to face. We will be able to inspect the five wounds of his crucifixion and rejoice that though we were not there when they were inflicted upon him, for our salvation, we are now present with him forever, body and soul.

“The Holy Spirit and the Ascension”
John 16

Have you ever wondered if we could live on the moon? NASA has plans to establish a human residence on the moon by 2020. Its plans, presently tested by prototypes in Antarctica, have people joking about a motel on the moon. Humanity has consistently had an adventurous spirit, a longing and a hope of life beyond the third rock from the sun. Is it possible that we could live beyond our earth’s atmosphere? It is possible that this NASA project is an indicator of our longing for heaven and our sense that we have a future and eternal home beyond this present earthbound world? Not a few in our community are critical of Christian belief in a world beyond this one, in life after death, accusing Christians of escapism and novelty. But, then, our government and the scientific community are involved in theory and exploration beyond tierra firma.
The Gospel of the Ascension is that Jesus, the one Man, has arrived body and soul into heaven and he is successfully living there, preparing a place for us to live with him eternally. It is possible that Moses and Elijah are body and soul in heaven. We think this might be the case since they appeared with Jesus, in glorified bodies on the Mount of Transfiguration long after their deaths. The death of Moses was a private affair attended the archangel Michael contending against the devil for Moses’ body. Elijah did not die, per se, but was caught up in a fiery chariot riding the clouds, disappearing from the sight of Elisha. We read in Genesis, “Enoch walked with God and he was not because God took him.” And so, we posit that Enoch may have escaped death and thus may be body and soul in heaven. It seems to us that these three, along with Jesus, are the exceptions to the common experience of death, which all of us, most likely, most assuredly, will experience. Paul instructs us that at our deaths, our souls shall immediately pass into the heavenly presence of God while our bodies rest in their graves until the last day. On that great and final day, our bodies shall be resurrected, united to our souls, and glorified.
Our certain hope of our resurrection and ascension into heaven is the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. He is a glorified human being in heaven. We put our faith in him alone, realizing that he is our only hope of passage from this world to the next, from God’s love for us in this world to his eternal love for us in heaven. The Church is full of ideas and beliefs about what happens to the rest of us at death. Is there a Purgatory? An intermediate resting place? Do our souls sleep? What is the passage of time beyond our present context of space and time? Can God resurrect and glorify a cremated body as well as an embalmed one? These are fascinating questions and the answers of the Church over two thousand years are interesting to say the least.
There are two blessed results of the Ascension of Jesus Christ. The first result is the surety of humanity in heaven. The second is the surety of the Holy Spirit present with us in this world.
In (7) of our text Jesus says, “If I did not go away, the Helper will not come to you.” Let us remember that God helps us! The Bible is abundantly clear in announcing to us that God, our Savior, has completed all of the work necessary for us to be reconciled to him. Jesus cried from the cross, “It is finished,” which means that he completely fulfilled everything necessary for our salvation. But God does not save us and then ignore us, leaving us alone until the great and final day of glory. While there is nothing, absolutely nothing for us to do or to add to the redemptive work of God transforming us from death to life, there is plenty for us to do in this world, this side of heaven. Our lives are full of opportunities to live virtuously, fruitfully, evangelistically, restoratively, and joyfully until our ascension into heaven. God is our Helper in this life. Jesus Christ helps us by sending to us his Holy Spirit, the Helper. In (8) Jesus says, “If I go, I will send him to you.” One of the blessings of the Ascension of Jesus is the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Helper.
Jesus further describes the work of the Holy Spirit, the Helper. In (9) Jesus says, “The Helper will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment.” The Holy Spirit helps us along in faith by convicting us of our sin. Jesus says, “The Helper will convict the world concerning sin…because they do not believe in me.” This is first an internal work of the Holy Spirit . The Helper will convince me that I am vile and wicked, in need of divine cleansing of my sin. If I crack a fortune cookie or read my Horoscope, I will not receive this kind of help. Who is going to address my sin head-on? Not every kind and syrupy message I hear is the voice of a friend. The divine Helper brings a difficult message at first, the internal conviction of my loathsome character and condition apart from Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit helps us in the physical absence of Jesus to pursue righteousness. Jesus says, “The Helper will convict the world concerning righteousness…because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer.” The Model of righteous living, Jesus, is physically separated from us, ascended into heaven. But we have not been left to ourselves to flounder at the mercy of our distractions and lusts. The Holy Spirit produces the fruit of righteousness in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. All of these grow within our behavior as the Spirit graciously and powerfully works them in us. The pursuit of righteousness is the life-long mission of living according to the gospel in every area of life. The fruit of the Holy Spirit would inform every single relationship. The fruit of the Holy Spirit would decide every single word we speak. The fruit of the Holy Spirit would influence every project we complete at work. The fruit of the Holy Spirit would direct our education, recreation, investments, consumerism, and thought-life.
The Holy Spirit helps us to face the spiritual battles of this sin cursed world. Jesus says, “The Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning judgment…because the ruler of this world is judged.” Not all of our trials, problems, and persecutions can be explained by human sinfulness. There is a spiritual battle raging around us in this world to the extent that Paul wrote, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” How does the Holy Spirit help us against such a formidable force? Jesus says that the Holy Spirit convicts us that the devil, the ruler of the dark and evil world, is judged. In the death and resurrection of Jesus, the ancient prophecy was fulfilled: the serpent would bite the heal of the seed of the woman, but he would crush the serpent’s head. We may be embroiled in a battle, but the enemy we face is a defeated enemy. He has already lost the war and as he is swooning, falling to his eternal demise, he is writhing and hopelessly hurling his darts to harm as much as he can with his futile efforts. The Holy Spirit repeats these helpful words of Satan’s defeat for our comfort and wellbeing.
The Holy Spirit, helps us by guiding us into all truth. Jesus says that the Holy Spirit speaks the truth he receives from both the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit receives and speaks this truth with the authority of the Father and the Son. All truth is God’s truth. The Holy Spirit speaks God’s truth in such a way that it appropriately informs our thoughts and behaviors. The Helper applies God’s truth to our lives. This is what Jesus means by saying, “The Spirit of truth will guide you into all the truth.” There is human discovery involved – we are life long students. But discovery and application of truth, if it be anything better than vanity, is the work of the Holy Spirit within us. Thus God is not anti-intellectual. Our minds matter. Our research matters. John Stott wrote an essay, “Your Mind Matters,” of which he says, “In negative terms I would like to subtitle this essay, ‘the misery and menace of mindless Christianity.” God not only made us in his image to think and to process truth towards application, but he helps us in this endeavor. Stott writes, “God has renewed our mind through Christ, and shall we not think with it?” The Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son to aid us in this very processing of truth. He quotes a man who said, “Whenever I go to church, I feel like unscrewing my head and placing it under the seat, because in a religious meeting I never have any use for anything above my collar button.” The Holy Spirit engages our minds as well as our hearts. J. Gresham Machen wrote in his book, The Christian Faith in the Modern World, “There must be the mysterious work of the Spirit of God in the new birth. Without that, all our arguments are quite useless. But because argument is insufficient, it does not follow that it is unnecessary. What the Holy Spirit does in the new birth is not to make a man a Christian regardless of the evidence, but on the contrary to clear away the mists from his eyes and enable him to attend to the evidence.” Billy Graham said, “I’ve preached too much and studied too little.” Dr. Donald Barnhouse said, “If I only had three years to serve the Lord, I would spend two of them studying and preparing.” The Holy Spirit attends to our study as well as to our application.
The Holy Spirit also declares to us future events. He does so under the authority of the Father and the Son, according to the special revelation given to us in the Holy Scriptures. What more would the Holy Spirit tell us than what Jesus has told us about the signs of the times and the culmination of all things? Jesus said, “No one knows the hour of the coming of the Lord, not even I know, but only my Father in heaven.” And so, will the Holy Spirit reveal to one or some of us in these last days the date of Christ’s return as Judge? Don’t count on such a revelation. Anyone who claims to know such information has not received anything from the Holy Spirit. But the person who keeps his eyes to the horizon, his lips praising God, his hand to the plow and his knees bent in prayer is one who is hearing the Holy Spirit on future events.
Finally, the Holy Spirit will glorify Jesus. In (14) Jesus says, “He will glorify me.” The Holy Spirit does not bring attention to himself; He turns our attention, our praise, our worship, all of our service toward the glory of Jesus Christ. If a Church, a group, or an individual is filled with the Holy Spirit, then Jesus Christ will be praised. If we are filled with the Holy Spirit, then those who observe us would see Jesus, not the Spirit, who is like the wind. The Holy Spirit is the gift of the Father and and the Son to us, given to be our Helper. The Holy Spirit, then, will glorify God, in part, in large part, by working within us and upon us to glorify Jesus. “Now, unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory, forever and ever. Amen.”

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