THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD
June 1, 2025
Acts 1:1–11
Ephesians 1:15–23
Luke 24:44–53
Christ Ascended Is with You Always
In His resurrection, the Lord Jesus presented Himself alive to the apostles, “appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). Then He ascended to the right hand of the Father, not orphaning His Church, but filling all things in heaven and on earth, and giving gifts to His disciples. So today, He continues to preach “repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 24:47) through “the apostles whom he had chosen” (Acts 1:2), even “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Jesus comes among us today by His Word and Spirit, whom He pours out upon “the church, which is his body” (Eph. 1:22–23). In His Church, He blesses us with forgiveness, lifts us up in His hands and seats us with Himself “in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:20).
INVOCATION LSB 203
P In the name of the Father and of the T Son and of the Holy Spirit.
C Amen.
P Our help is in the name of the Lord,
C who made heaven and earth.
CONFESSION OF SINS LSB 203
P If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?
C But with You there is forgiveness; therefore, You are feared.
P Since we are gathered to hear God’s Word, call upon Him in prayer and praise, and receive the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in the fellowship of this altar, let us first consider our unworthiness and confess before God and one another that we have sinned in thought, word, and deed, and that we cannot free ourselves from our sinful condition. Together as His people let us take refuge in the infinite mercy of God, our heavenly Father, seeking His grace for the sake of Christ, and saying: God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
ABSOLUTION LSB 203
C Almighty God, have mercy upon us, forgive us our sins, and lead us to everlasting life. Amen.
P Almighty God in His mercy has given His Son to die for you and for His sake forgives you all your sins. As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the T Son and of the Holy Spirit.
C Amen.
INTROIT Psalm 110:1, 4-5; antiphon: Psalm 47:5
P God has gone up with a shout,
C the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
P The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand,
C until I make your enemies your footstool.”
P The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind,
C “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
P The Lord is at your right hand;
C he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
C Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen.
P God has gone up with a shout,
C the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.
SALUTATION AND COLLECT OF THE DAY
P The Lord be with you.
C And also with you.
P Let us pray.
Almighty God, as Your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, ascended into the heavens, so may we also ascend in heart and mind and continually dwell there with Him, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
C Amen.
FIRST READING Acts 1:1–11
1In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3To them he presented himself alive after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
4And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
6So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
P This is the Word of the Lord.
C Thanks be to God.
EPISTLE Ephesians 1:15–23
15For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
P This is the Word of the Lord.
C Thanks be to God.
HOLY GOSPEL Luke 24:44–53
P The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the twenty-fourth chapter.
C Glory to You, O Lord.
44Then [Jesus] said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
50Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53and were continually in the temple blessing God.
P This is the Gospel of the Lord.
C Praise to You, O Christ.
NICENE CREED
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried. And the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. And He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.
And I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church, I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Sermon
by Pastor David Matthews
Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you from God our Father, and from Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text for our medication this morning is Luke chapter twenty-four. Today we see the Ascension of Our Lord into Heaven. This even of Jesus' life is pivotal for the Christian. It marks 40 days since the resurrection of Our Lord and Savior. The reign of Jesus is not yet fully visible. It will not be visible until Jesus comes again in glory.
The Ascension of Jesus takes Jesus to God the Father's right hand, and to this very day, the risen Christ is reigning over all creation as a Man, who was victorious and conquered death, and we worship Him as Lord.
The Old Testament provides the background for this reality. It goes back to the Book of Genesis, chapter three. In that story we learned about the promised seed, the seed of Eve, that would bruise the head of the serpent. A Man without a human father that would crust Satan to redeem us from the tyranny of sin, death, and the devil.
This reign of Jesus at His Father's right hand, Psalm 110 is preeminent. Our Introit, which is Psalm 110 tells us, "The Lord says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool." That is what God the Father says to His own Son. And, then God the Father tells his son even more, and swears and promises through the words, "You are priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." David the Psalmist then adds, "The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will life up his head." That is the extended cut of our Introit/Psalm this morning.
Melchizedek seemed a minor figure in the life of Abraham, but he was both the priest and king of Salem, which would be the future site of the future Jerusalem. He gave Abraham bread and wine and blessed him. The Lord Jesus Christ that sits at the right hand of the Father is a priest-king in the order of Melchizedek. Jesus also gives blessings with bread and wine. He is exalted to a heavenly throne and there He waits for his rule to be fully established when it comes time to judge among the nations and destroys God's enemies.
Isaiah 53 also teaches of His reign and from whence it comes: "Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors." (Isaiah 53:10-12)
The death of Christ as the atonement for the sins of the world is foretold here, but so also does the Father promise to give the Christ, the Suffering Servant, a place with the great and spoil of His victories as a reward for His obedience and sacrifice. Thus the Christ will be raised and exalted.
Finally, consider Daniel 7. There the prophet describes what he saw at the end of the world: "“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." (Daniel 7:13-14) Prior the the appearance of the Son of Man, Daniel saw four great beasts dominating the earth. These great beasts represented the empires of men. Although men dominated the earth for a time, Daniel sees how their rule will be swept away when the Son of Man's kingdom is eternally established. The Son of Man ascends on a cloud to the "Ancient of Days," that is, to the Father. Jesus shares His Father's throne and rule which will never pass away.
This is the same promise that was echoed by the angel Gabriel to Mary the mother of Jesus. Gabriel told her that Jesus would "be great and will be the called the Son of Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David", but unlike David, Jesus would reign over the house of Jacob forever and of His Kingdom there would be no end.
The New Testament consistently proclaims that Christ's exaltation by the Father is a rewarded for His obedient death. This vindication and exaltation happens in two stages. First, Jesus appears to his disciples and many others in His body, raised from the dead. Jesus' resurrection and many visits in the flesh to the disciples and other followers for forty days demonstrates his exaltation and triumph over sin, death, and the devil. Secondly, Jesus moves physically, in His body, from the temporal world to the supernatural realm of God's power and glory in heaven.
Though His exaltation, Jesus, reveals His full Divinity as a Man, His ascension demonstrates that heaven in open to men for He goes there to possess a heavenly throne as a Man and to be our Advocate. Thus the disciples are not sad at His departure but they rejoice. As God's people we do not go looking into the sky, but look to His promises. At the throne of the Father, Christ acts as our high priest, making intercession for us and preparing a place for us, and from there He comes to us in His risen Body and Blood, the Man Christ fully using His Divine attributes.
As a Man, Christ participates in the attributes of the divine nature. Thus He can become physically present, in His risen body, at many places at once. He, born of the Virgin Mary, the Seed of Eve, is one of us, and is the Mediator between God and man. Jesus is given all of the Father's power and glory even though He is still a Man, and so it is that He rules us by faith and grace. We rightly call Him Lord, King, and God, even as we call Him Brother, Husband, and Friend. Now let that be your peace.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.