The Ascension Of Our Lord
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VII Cycle C
Seasonal Theme
The resurrected Christ becomes a physical presence in the world again.
Theme For The Day
The power of the Ascension, and Jesus becoming the Christ in heaven for us on earth, and witnessing.
First Lesson
Acts1:1-11
The Promise Of The Spirit
This book of the Acts of the Apostles seems to be the second book written to Theophilus (v. 1) by Luke. First came the life and teaching of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, then this one relates how it went after Easter and the ministries of the Apostles in the early church. The events went like this:
1. Jesus gave the apostles the Holy Spirit.
2. Jesus appeared to them many times after Easter to give them proof of the physical resurrection.
3. Power is promised for witnessing.
4. Jesus ascends.
Two messengers told them Jesus had ascended and would return in a similar fashion.
Notice in verse 4 the disciples are ordered to wait for the Spirit. Waiting is one of the toughest struggles for this author. It seems a waste of precious time. Actually it is empowering and encouragement for the task (Isaiah 40:31).
Verse 8 is the one all missionaries use when preaching back home and when meditating on their mission and ministry overseas. God's spirit helps us witness. And a witness can state for sure something is true. Our witness is often most effective in our action rather than our words. In Greek the word for witness is the same one for martyr -- we are faithful even if it means death.
Verses 9-11 tell us that it's not easy to explain this story of the ascension. Only Luke writes about it (Luke 24:50-53). Jesus couldn't just gradually fade away, so there needed to be a definite conclusion to his physical resurrected presence. Luke provides that and adds an equally difficult idea to explain -- the second coming. I'll leave that idea alone because to speculate on it is even more than Jesus did (Mark 13:22).
Just notice out of this complicated story that the disciples were happy when they returned to Jerusalem. Something very powerful and joy-filled appeared!
Second Lesson
Ephesians 1:15-23
Paul's Prayer
I like Paul's comments to a former congregation here. What joy he must have written to them that he had heard they were faithful and loved the saints. He then prayed that they would be given wisdom and revelation. It's verse 18 that I find so intriguing --"eyes of the heart." If it were not Ascension and those gathered expecting a homily about the curious event on a hill outside Jerusalem, it's the heart I would talk about. The Interpreter's Bible says, "For that citadel of the soul which stands guard over love and hate, loyalty and treachery, trust and mistrust, we still have no better word than heart." See the following references to heart: Matthew 5:8, Mark 7:21, 1 Samuel 16:7, and 1 Peter 3:4. When the heart has been moved by gifts from God we are enlightened -- that's worth much more than intellectual brilliance (Matthew 6:33).
In the next portion of this verse and that following, Paul lists some of the results of an "enlightened heart": hope, glorious inheritance, and his power for us believers.
Wow, there is power here! Paul says God used power to raise Jesus from the dead and place him in heaven with God (no doubt this passage was chosen for Ascension Day) and God has made Jesus the head of the church which is Jesus' body. This much power God gives to us believers as well! Now that's power! So this passage is a prayer by Paul, that Christians may know God's purpose and power.
There are some rich metaphors: Spirit of wisdom and revelation; the eyes of your heart; riches of his glorious inheritance; seated at the right hand; put all things under his feet; head over all things; and the church, which is his body.
The Gospel
Luke 24:44-53
The Ascension Of Jesus
A number of appearances of Jesus after the Easter resurrection took place in the upper room. It must have been a gathering place for those frightened believers. But now that Jesus is about to leave them physically, he tells them this:
1. He has now fulfilled what the Old Testament writers claimed would happen.
2. The major thought here is that the Christ will suffer and rise from the dead.
3. And they are witnesses to this Good News and must leave the security of the upper room and take this message to all nations (v. 48). They will have God's help in the doing of it!
Verses 50 to 53 are Luke's first take on the Ascension of Jesus as no longer the physical incarnate God-man from Nazareth. He now becomes the Christ of heaven. How this happened is not at all describable. Whatever happened that day on the Mount of Olives across Kidron Valley overlooking the Temple mount, we know it was all a part of our God's plan to end the physical earthly presence and begin a new spiritual relationship which could not be severed. Paul understood in Romans 8:38, 39. The joy of the disciples (v. 52) comes from knowing that Jesus was in heaven and remained their advocate and friend there.
Preaching Possibilities
Because of the theme of Ascension today we must go with Luke's account of this mysterious event in the First Reading and the Gospel. That means the Second Reading from Ephesians written by Paul probably can only be used in support of the two accounts of the Ascension.
The connection, it seems to me, is Ephesians 1:20-21 and God's power put to work in relocating the raised crucified Jesus to the Christ seated at the right hand of God. (I once knew an old pastor who loved to ask how we knew if God was left-handed? Then he would quote verse 20 and say it was because Jesus sat on his right hand!)
If we preached on the Second Reading alone, we could ask the question: "What does Paul tell us about the Ascension?" Because Jesus ascended to return to God, we can love each other (v. 15), we can have the spirit of wisdom and revelation (v. 17), deep in our heart we have enlightenment (v. 18), we have hope and are called (v. 18b), we inherit God's power (v. 19), and Jesus becomes the head over the church (v. 22).
Possible Outline Of Sermon Moves
The homiletical plot will be to start with Luke's narrative of Ascension, then move to the Acts account and then move to Paul's witness, finishing with what this all means for us now in the twenty-first century.
A. Begin by retelling in your own words Luke 24:50-53, if the scripture has already been read.
B. Move to a confession that it is hard for us to explain how this all happened. If you want to take a risk for the sake of humor, you might even mention that today Jesus would need a "mission control" to avoid all the other stuff flying around earth.
C. Tell why Luke put this story here.
1. To transition from earthbound incarnate Jesus from Nazareth to the Christ of heaven always there for us.
2. To see Jesus as the fulfillment of all God promises us in the prophecy.
3. To encourage his readers to take seriously their role as witnesses.
D. Move to Luke's account in Acts and point out that Ascension is all about God's power.
1. The Holy Spirit gives us power: the power to forgive on God's behalf, the power to heal, the power to love the unlovely, and the power to witness.
2. Both accounts of Luke emphasize the responsibility we disciples have to witness to the gospel (Acts 2:8 and Luke 24:48).
3. Paul in writing to his Ephesian church talks of power also (Ephesians 1:19). We believers still have it even if we haven't used it for a long time.
E. Move to what all this means for us now.
1. We have a Christ in heaven who cares about us and so we never must face our lives alone.
2. We have an untapped power God wants to give us to help us live life victoriously.
3. We are to be witnesses and we all know those to whom our witness can be life changing.
4. We have a global mission to make this witness wherever the gospel has not been proclaimed.
F. Finish by using Luke 24:52. When they returned it was not with sadness, but with joy. This is a joy that is not the same as happy, for that is too fickle. This is a joy which is the opposite of unbelief. We can have this joy also.
Prayer For The Day
Ascended Christ, we are filled with great joy just like those earlier disciples, because we know you are now our friend in heaven. We rejoice in the way you fulfilled all the Old Testament promises of crucifixion and resurrection for us that we might have forgiveness and also life with you and beyond the grave. Give us power that we might be effective witnesses every day of our lives and whenever the opportunity presents itself. Amen.
Possible Metaphors And Stories
A man by the name of William Quinn was in jail in San Francisco, accused of sending letter bombs. He is supposed to have planted explosives in a hollowed-out Bible. The Bible can be that explosive without humans stuffing it with dynamite. (The root word for dynamite is dinimus, used a number of times in the New Testament.) Loving neighbor and enemy, going the second mile, turning the other cheek, forgiving seventy times are indeed radical and explosive!
On the outside of the Anthropological Museum in Mexico City are the words: "God is as invincible as the night and as untouchable as the wind ... They were able/knew how to dialogue with their own heart" (Aztec).
In Wittenberg-Lutherstadt they told me the story about a large statue of Christ in front of the Castle Church. A group of Nazi youth on a Sunday afternoon beat it to pieces with clubs and then painted these words on a nearby fence: "The reign of Christ is over." Later a Christian youth group saw what had been done and took the paint brush and can and stuck the pieces of the statue back together. Then they added three letters to the sign: "all." "The reign of Christ is over all."
The resurrected Christ becomes a physical presence in the world again.
Theme For The Day
The power of the Ascension, and Jesus becoming the Christ in heaven for us on earth, and witnessing.
First Lesson
Acts1:1-11
The Promise Of The Spirit
This book of the Acts of the Apostles seems to be the second book written to Theophilus (v. 1) by Luke. First came the life and teaching of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, then this one relates how it went after Easter and the ministries of the Apostles in the early church. The events went like this:
1. Jesus gave the apostles the Holy Spirit.
2. Jesus appeared to them many times after Easter to give them proof of the physical resurrection.
3. Power is promised for witnessing.
4. Jesus ascends.
Two messengers told them Jesus had ascended and would return in a similar fashion.
Notice in verse 4 the disciples are ordered to wait for the Spirit. Waiting is one of the toughest struggles for this author. It seems a waste of precious time. Actually it is empowering and encouragement for the task (Isaiah 40:31).
Verse 8 is the one all missionaries use when preaching back home and when meditating on their mission and ministry overseas. God's spirit helps us witness. And a witness can state for sure something is true. Our witness is often most effective in our action rather than our words. In Greek the word for witness is the same one for martyr -- we are faithful even if it means death.
Verses 9-11 tell us that it's not easy to explain this story of the ascension. Only Luke writes about it (Luke 24:50-53). Jesus couldn't just gradually fade away, so there needed to be a definite conclusion to his physical resurrected presence. Luke provides that and adds an equally difficult idea to explain -- the second coming. I'll leave that idea alone because to speculate on it is even more than Jesus did (Mark 13:22).
Just notice out of this complicated story that the disciples were happy when they returned to Jerusalem. Something very powerful and joy-filled appeared!
Second Lesson
Ephesians 1:15-23
Paul's Prayer
I like Paul's comments to a former congregation here. What joy he must have written to them that he had heard they were faithful and loved the saints. He then prayed that they would be given wisdom and revelation. It's verse 18 that I find so intriguing --"eyes of the heart." If it were not Ascension and those gathered expecting a homily about the curious event on a hill outside Jerusalem, it's the heart I would talk about. The Interpreter's Bible says, "For that citadel of the soul which stands guard over love and hate, loyalty and treachery, trust and mistrust, we still have no better word than heart." See the following references to heart: Matthew 5:8, Mark 7:21, 1 Samuel 16:7, and 1 Peter 3:4. When the heart has been moved by gifts from God we are enlightened -- that's worth much more than intellectual brilliance (Matthew 6:33).
In the next portion of this verse and that following, Paul lists some of the results of an "enlightened heart": hope, glorious inheritance, and his power for us believers.
Wow, there is power here! Paul says God used power to raise Jesus from the dead and place him in heaven with God (no doubt this passage was chosen for Ascension Day) and God has made Jesus the head of the church which is Jesus' body. This much power God gives to us believers as well! Now that's power! So this passage is a prayer by Paul, that Christians may know God's purpose and power.
There are some rich metaphors: Spirit of wisdom and revelation; the eyes of your heart; riches of his glorious inheritance; seated at the right hand; put all things under his feet; head over all things; and the church, which is his body.
The Gospel
Luke 24:44-53
The Ascension Of Jesus
A number of appearances of Jesus after the Easter resurrection took place in the upper room. It must have been a gathering place for those frightened believers. But now that Jesus is about to leave them physically, he tells them this:
1. He has now fulfilled what the Old Testament writers claimed would happen.
2. The major thought here is that the Christ will suffer and rise from the dead.
3. And they are witnesses to this Good News and must leave the security of the upper room and take this message to all nations (v. 48). They will have God's help in the doing of it!
Verses 50 to 53 are Luke's first take on the Ascension of Jesus as no longer the physical incarnate God-man from Nazareth. He now becomes the Christ of heaven. How this happened is not at all describable. Whatever happened that day on the Mount of Olives across Kidron Valley overlooking the Temple mount, we know it was all a part of our God's plan to end the physical earthly presence and begin a new spiritual relationship which could not be severed. Paul understood in Romans 8:38, 39. The joy of the disciples (v. 52) comes from knowing that Jesus was in heaven and remained their advocate and friend there.
Preaching Possibilities
Because of the theme of Ascension today we must go with Luke's account of this mysterious event in the First Reading and the Gospel. That means the Second Reading from Ephesians written by Paul probably can only be used in support of the two accounts of the Ascension.
The connection, it seems to me, is Ephesians 1:20-21 and God's power put to work in relocating the raised crucified Jesus to the Christ seated at the right hand of God. (I once knew an old pastor who loved to ask how we knew if God was left-handed? Then he would quote verse 20 and say it was because Jesus sat on his right hand!)
If we preached on the Second Reading alone, we could ask the question: "What does Paul tell us about the Ascension?" Because Jesus ascended to return to God, we can love each other (v. 15), we can have the spirit of wisdom and revelation (v. 17), deep in our heart we have enlightenment (v. 18), we have hope and are called (v. 18b), we inherit God's power (v. 19), and Jesus becomes the head over the church (v. 22).
Possible Outline Of Sermon Moves
The homiletical plot will be to start with Luke's narrative of Ascension, then move to the Acts account and then move to Paul's witness, finishing with what this all means for us now in the twenty-first century.
A. Begin by retelling in your own words Luke 24:50-53, if the scripture has already been read.
B. Move to a confession that it is hard for us to explain how this all happened. If you want to take a risk for the sake of humor, you might even mention that today Jesus would need a "mission control" to avoid all the other stuff flying around earth.
C. Tell why Luke put this story here.
1. To transition from earthbound incarnate Jesus from Nazareth to the Christ of heaven always there for us.
2. To see Jesus as the fulfillment of all God promises us in the prophecy.
3. To encourage his readers to take seriously their role as witnesses.
D. Move to Luke's account in Acts and point out that Ascension is all about God's power.
1. The Holy Spirit gives us power: the power to forgive on God's behalf, the power to heal, the power to love the unlovely, and the power to witness.
2. Both accounts of Luke emphasize the responsibility we disciples have to witness to the gospel (Acts 2:8 and Luke 24:48).
3. Paul in writing to his Ephesian church talks of power also (Ephesians 1:19). We believers still have it even if we haven't used it for a long time.
E. Move to what all this means for us now.
1. We have a Christ in heaven who cares about us and so we never must face our lives alone.
2. We have an untapped power God wants to give us to help us live life victoriously.
3. We are to be witnesses and we all know those to whom our witness can be life changing.
4. We have a global mission to make this witness wherever the gospel has not been proclaimed.
F. Finish by using Luke 24:52. When they returned it was not with sadness, but with joy. This is a joy that is not the same as happy, for that is too fickle. This is a joy which is the opposite of unbelief. We can have this joy also.
Prayer For The Day
Ascended Christ, we are filled with great joy just like those earlier disciples, because we know you are now our friend in heaven. We rejoice in the way you fulfilled all the Old Testament promises of crucifixion and resurrection for us that we might have forgiveness and also life with you and beyond the grave. Give us power that we might be effective witnesses every day of our lives and whenever the opportunity presents itself. Amen.
Possible Metaphors And Stories
A man by the name of William Quinn was in jail in San Francisco, accused of sending letter bombs. He is supposed to have planted explosives in a hollowed-out Bible. The Bible can be that explosive without humans stuffing it with dynamite. (The root word for dynamite is dinimus, used a number of times in the New Testament.) Loving neighbor and enemy, going the second mile, turning the other cheek, forgiving seventy times are indeed radical and explosive!
On the outside of the Anthropological Museum in Mexico City are the words: "God is as invincible as the night and as untouchable as the wind ... They were able/knew how to dialogue with their own heart" (Aztec).
In Wittenberg-Lutherstadt they told me the story about a large statue of Christ in front of the Castle Church. A group of Nazi youth on a Sunday afternoon beat it to pieces with clubs and then painted these words on a nearby fence: "The reign of Christ is over." Later a Christian youth group saw what had been done and took the paint brush and can and stuck the pieces of the statue back together. Then they added three letters to the sign: "all." "The reign of Christ is over all."
