B, Ascension of our Lord - Acts 1:1-11 "Hidden Here"

We don’t know exactly how Jesus went into heaven; all we know is he was hidden by a cloud.  Was it a glory cloud similar to that which shrouded Mt Sinai when God spoke, or the cloud which covered the mountain of Transfiguration?  We don’t know!   What we do know is Jesus was taken into heaven to be at the right hand of the Father in glory, and once this happened the Holy Spirit would come.

Now if it was you or I who had done what Christ had done, wouldn’t we want to stay about and bask in the glory amongst those whom we had helped?  A nice little ego massage perhaps!  But it was not Jesus’ style nor was it his will to do such a thing.

In fact, his whole ministry was one of humility and hidden glory.  The spotlight was not the motivation for his ministry here on earth, rather this man from Galilee seemed to be much the same as every other ordinary person – maybe even a little weak.  His family was in the line of David but they held no priestly office.  His dad was a carpenter, a simple man no doubt, and Mary his wife kept the house.  As a matter of fact, we know little about Jesus.  Only what was needed to be revealed for the sake of our salvation is written about Jesus.  The gospel witnesses write specifically about only three years of this man’s life.

In their books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John, we hear Jesus commanding those he healed not to tell anyone. We hear Jesus allowing the devil to come into his presence to try and tempt him, when at any moment he could have repelled him with his divinity.  He never sought the high place at banquets and gatherings, but rather served. Think of Jesus washing his disciple’s feet or the outcasts of Jewish society amongst whom he dwelt.  When he did find himself in the position of honour, he was compassionate and humble, as he was when the woman wiped his feet with tears, perfume and her hair.  And in the extraordinary events such as the transfiguration, he asked for the disciples not to make what happened known until after he was gone.  Most of the things he did were done in humility before only a few witnesses.

In the four gospels we hear of the events of Holy Week; one week leading up to Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Weakness seems to be the theme.  He didn’t strike back when captured but submitted to the Father’s will, even though it appeared that through his death he had lost and it was all over.  The disciple were very ordinary men, he chose the weak of this world—the unschooled, the unpopular, and the ordinary—to continue his ministry, even after they had all failed in standing with him as he was condemned to die on the cross.

Under all these things God’s glory was hidden.  Under the flesh of this man was an all-powerful or omnipotent God.  He suffered death and now has risen from the dead.  The disciples witnessed these things, and then Jesus appeared only to a certain number for a certain time before ascending into heaven.  He didn’t stay with the disciples to build the church first in Jerusalem and then out in the nations of the world.  However, as the disciple stood there and watched Jesus disappear into a cloud, it was still only the beginning.  The work was not complete, and humanity had not given the glory to Christ nor recognised him for who he is.  In fact, today the work is still not complete, nor has all humanity recognised Christ as glorious Lord of all.

Ever since Christ has ascended, however, he has become powerful.  He had to rise from the earth to be omnipotent, all powerful.  His all-knowing, or omniscient, presence once only found with the disciples in Jerusalem and the surrounding districts two-thousand years ago is now present everywhere.  Jesus is present everywhere, his infinite knowledge is there for everyone, a gift for all people, to know, as he knew. And the power and glory given to him is available to all people.

The disciple’s looked up into the sky and lost sight of Jesus.  Two men in white appeared, just like two appeared with Jesus in glory at the Mountain of Transfiguration.  Was Jesus still there standing with the two men shining in glorious white clothes?  After all, his ministry had only begun and the kingdom of Israel still had to be restored (Acts1:1,6).  He was now hidden, first by a cloud just as God was hidden by a cloud when he spoke, and then by his glorious omnipresence throughout creation.  What the disciples saw at transfiguration, what Saul saw on the road to Damascus, and what John saw and recorded in the book of Revelation is the reality which is all around us now.  These two men dressed in white, representatives of the unseen realm of God, which is all around us, announce Jesus will return.  Surely their presence was also a testimony the kingdom of heaven was still near even though the King of heaven was now hidden. 

In the Lord’s Prayer we pray your kingdom come.  Has not it already come to us in baptism?  Hasn’t Christ come to us?  In the explanation of the Second Petition in the Small Catechism, Luther asks us, ‘when does God’s kingdom come?’  And then he says: God's kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so by his grace we believe his holy Word and live a godly life on earth now and in heaven for ever.

You see Jesus vanished out of sight, but he is still with us, he promised in his word to be with us.  He had to become hidden from the physical sight of a few so he could be physically present through the eyes of faith to many.  Jesus was not on earth for only thirty-three years and now is absent.  He is God with us today and to the very end of the age. 

It shouldn’t surprise us he is hidden from the sight of most.  Although many saw him two-thousand years ago, they failed to see him as their Saviour and rejected the things he taught them while he was with them.  He remains hidden to many today.  We do not see him face to face but we do see him.  He has sent the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to his hidden presence – in us, in the forgiven sinners we congregate with in church, in the bread, in the wine, and when we hear his word.

It shouldn’t surprise us the church still appears weak to most.  But we know it is powerful because the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the reality that the glory of God is not hidden in a cloud but concealed within the limbs and sinews of you and me.  We need not look into the distance to see Jesus, he is here with us right now, and he is faithful to you every day regardless of your recognition of him.  Now that is powerful!

Jesus did not stay with the disciples to receive commendation for his work of salvation on the cross.  His power, once hidden in him on earth, is passed onto us by the Holy Spirit so we might do what Jesus did and continue to do even greater things because he is now with the Father (Jn 14:12).  The power which was hidden in him while he was on earth is now revealed through the Holy Spirit, given to, and hidden in us.  

How do we handle his power?  We look to Jesus as our guide?  The power he gives us is only effective if it brings glory to God.  Harnessing and restricting this power just for ourselves is like trying to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; it never happens.  When we seek to use God’s power for our glory it vanishes like a mirage. 

Picture God looking at us from the unseen heavenly realm.  What does he see?  He sees Jesus hidden in multitudes of Christians, witnessing to the ends of the earth.  He sees the Holy Spirit encouraging his church to speak the word of God boldly, bringing glory to his holy name.  In our weak human frame he sees the ascended Jesus Christ glorified and powerful. 

All power and glory to the God the Father, his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

A, Mid Week Lent 3- Sermon Series "The Litany of Jesus' Treasures - Work"

By the toils of Jesus, Lord teach us how to work; allowing the Holy Spirit to inspire work within us.  Amen.

If you’re going to do the job, you may as well do it right the first time.

But how was God to do the work of saving humanity?  He tested humanity and showed that anointing the Israelites as his chosen people was not good enough.  He placed kings over Israel and they too failed.  His most faithful king, King David, also turned away from God, trusting the strength of his own fighting men.  Even David, was not good enough!  God had to find the right way for humanity to fulfill all righteousness; one that was effective, functional, and perfect.

God needed the work to be more than just pragmatic, that is, done because a certain deed works, or  for the love of the deed.  No!  He needed the work done to convey his deep love for humanity.  This love needed not just be practical but personal, relational, and demonstrate to the recipient their worth to God the Father, and his willingness to make the recipient holy.  Only through becoming holy can a person come to God without fear of God’s almighty holiness causing death.

It seems God the Father was in a bit of a quagmire over how to sort out humanity’s sin and at the same time, give us access into his holy presence, for a relationship that brings life rather than death.

In Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Father found the effective, functional, and perfect answer to bring the work of righteousness to completion.

Last Sunday, we heard Jesus at Jacob’s Well with the Samaritan Woman.  Here, Jesus proves to be the perfect mediator between a Holy God and a sinful woman.  Without fear the woman speaks to Jesus, and without condemning the woman, Jesus condemns her sin and gives her his Word of life, God the Father’s Word of life!

To the woman, Jesus teaches and says, “[T]he hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”  (John 4:23–24 ESV)

Then to his disciples, Jesus teaches and says, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.  …Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.  I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. …Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.”  (John 4:34,35b,38 ESV)

See how Jesus works!  He mediates the two together.  Sinner and teachers, so the sinner leaves to become the teacher, and the teachers learn that they are sinners. 

But the work Jesus does just does not end there!  We know if the work was finished here, it would be left undone, and the sinners would not have the power to teach, and the teachers would lose the power to learn about their sin.  God needed to do the complete job.  If he was going to do the job he needed to do it right.  If there was to be righteousness on earth, Jesus needed to finish, complete, or fulfil all righteousness.

The mediation work of Jesus was completed on the cross, when Jesus cried out, “it is finished”!  He hung his head, and he died!  The work was done!

God now calls you to hang your heads, and know that, “it is finished!”  His work is done and so too is yours.  However, like the disciples Jesus taught, you are called to enter into the labour of others, to continue the work of others!

Therefore, the teacher-sinner paradox continues.  Jesus’ work is finished in you, but now through you he seeks to finish it in others.

It now seems we are in the same quagmire as God.  We have been finished, but death is not finished for all others.  In fact, certain elements of death still remain with us in this life, and will not be finished until the death of eternal death in our earthly death.  How do we demonstrate the death of eternal death to others, while we live on this side of death? Or, how do we teach others about life in the realm of death?

What does God’s Word say?  We go back to the work and Word of Jesus!  See how he functioned while he lived under the sentence of death, and listen to what he taught, knowing his death and resurrection justifies what he said and taught.

True worshippers of God the Father, workers of God, worship in spirit and in truth. 

Jesus said, “‘it is finished’, bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (John 19:30 ESV)  You and I are called to give up our spirits and know it is finished.  This involves allowing the Holy Spirit to give us life, having died to sin, so he can inspire us to live in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. 

We the sinners, learn from our sinfulness to become the teachers, continually being taught by the Holy Spirit and Jesus’ righteous work, what the toil of God is.  So, what is the toil of God, given to us?  It is the work of holiness.

Paul gives us the reality of Jesus’ finishing work, saying, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?  If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him.  For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”  (1 Corinthians 3:16–17 ESV)

The paradox of God’s holy work is strange to the world, and therefore, takes time to sort itself out in us.  This is because we still struggle with the works of darkness and death!  But God the Holy Spirit is constantly bringing us to the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross.  In fact, this is the work and purpose of the Holy Spirit in us, as individuals, and within the worshipping community of those needing to gather around Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit works to call, gather, and enlighten us with faith in Jesus Christ’s work.

Jesus left humanity’s visual presence, but he has not gone!  He is hidden but now we see him with faith, given through the Holy Spirit’s work. 

God the Father perfectly finishes the job by sending Jesus Christ, to work salvation on the cross.  He continues this work, by also sending the Holy Spirit, to finish this salvation in us, by constantly leading us to Jesus Christ, out of our sins.  You are both a student and a teacher of the Holy Spirit!

In this finishing school of the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12 ESV)

What is it you learn and teach?  What are these strange works, we both learn from, and teach?  What are the good works, the greater works we do now, since we are under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who makes us alive in Jesus Christ, so we can reflect this life, to the masses who are dead and dying around us?

These are the works of confession!  Confessing our sin, learning from what God teaches us about his forgiveness of sin, and teaching others about how they can be forgiven, by sharing what God has forgiven, and how God has forgiven in Jesus Christ.

In this finishing school of the Holy Spirit, “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10 ESV)

Let us allow the Holy Spirit to foster in us, “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.”  (Ephesians 1:19–20 ESV)

Amen.

Next week: we hear about the love of Jesus, so we might allow the Holy Spirit to inspire us to love.

C, Midweek Lent 5 - The Lord's Prayer #6 - Matthew 6:10b,12 "Forgiving them on Earth"

Your will be done on earth – as we forgive those who sin against us.

Part two of God’s will is for his will to be done on earth.  This is his horizontal will.  We covered his vertical will, in part one last week.

God’s vertical will, is done in heaven when he forgives us our sin.  Put another way, God the Father makes himself responsible to humanity, by finding a way that all might be restored to a right relationship with him.  This is God and humanity, coexisting in peace with each other, in a community of tranquillity and peace, as there was before the fall in the Garden of Eden.

For God’s will to be fulfilled in heaven he sent Jesus Christ to live the perfect life as a human being.  Despite bearing the nature of God the Son, he put his rights aside as the Son of God, and faithfully lived under the responsibility of God the Father as a created Son of Man.  He was faithful to the Father, even unto death.  Never losing faith, never losing hope in God who would redeem him.

God raised Jesus to his right hand in victory over sin and death.  In his faithful death,  he bore our guilt and sin, in his innocent loss of all human rights, when he was nailed to the cross.

It was Jesus’ right to suffer for our sin!  It was his right to be lifted up in love for you.  In doing so he not only gave us the right to become children of God, through the forgiveness of sin, but he died sharing the responsibility of the Father.

God the Father at the fall made himself responsible for the salvation of humankind.  He promised to send a Saviour, who would crush the head of the snake under his heel.  Saint Paul speaks of this verse in Genesis three when he says to the Romans, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”  (Romans 16:20 ESV)

We are children of God because of Jesus’ joy in putting aside his human rights, for yours and my eternal rights as holy adopted Sons of God.  Jesus made himself responsible to you in this life, by also sending the Holy Spirit to walk with you.  He does this to uphold your rights as children, so you and I don’t slip back into demanding the rights of self-righteousness.  But rather as God’s children we carry our crosses, bearing the rights of others, as it was Jesus’ right to die for us.

What are these rights?  These are the rights to forgive others, as we have been forgiven. 

Jesus takes our rights seriously, and we know this because he has given us the Holy Spirit, to be our helper. 

This right to forgive each other, is the will of God on earth.   Our right to forgive, is the responsibility lived and written in the Word of the Gospel, the good news of God’s responsibility, and our rights!

Our right to forgive has got nothing to do with a higher power born of our own doing!  Rather, it is solely based on forgiveness given to us as pure gift.  Likewise, our right to forgive others, has nothing to do with them showing some sort of better inclination towards us, to receive our forgiveness.  Our forgiving others is our right, born in the responsibility, good pleasure, and love of God, flowing through us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

God knows how to forgive sin!  It’s his will on earth for us to know how and why we forgive sin too!  Jesus joins the vertical with the horizontal, being the Son of God and the Son of Man.  He serves God as his faithful Son, by living as a faithful servant of humanity.

We too, being adopted as Sons of God, now function as types of Jesus Christ.  But you and I do so in a way that is greater than Jesus Christ.  We not only can forgive as he forgives, but we must continue to be forgiven, unless God ceases to function as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Recorded in Saint John’s Gospel, Jesus himself says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”  (John 14:12 ESV)

Here we have the two sides of the coin of being a Christian,  “Confession of Sin, and forgiveness of sin!”  Jesus gives you the right to confess your sin and the right to forgive others their sins!  Or put another way, the Holy Spirit bears the responsibility of working confession within you, and your forgiveness of others.

But, if you are like most other Christians, you struggle with confessing your sin and forgiving others.  For the most, we don’t even see a fraction of what we do as being sinful, let alone confess it.  But when we come to seeing the sin of others, we easily see sin, but find it very difficult to forgive it. 

But our right to forgive, in the horizontal sense, is bound to the vertical direction of God’s love and forgiveness.  God the Father comes down in his providence of humanity, God the Son comes down in his redemption of humanity, and God the Holy Spirit comes down in his help of humanity. 

God comes down and finds us helpless!  But he comes down because he knows we are helpless!  Therefore, he comes down to take you by the hand and help you.

Returning to John 14 again, Jesus tells us how we are able to do greater things once he goes to the Father, saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.  Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.  If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,  even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.  Because I live, you also will live.”  (John 14:12–19 ESV)

As children of God, we live as Jesus lives, because he lives.  As Jesus forgives, we forgive!  We also confess because Jesus now lives to forgive! 

When Jesus finishes teaching the Lord’s Prayer in his Sermon on the Mount, he goes onto give a footnote regarding forgiveness saying, “if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,  but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14–15 ESV)

Jesus hits home with the full force of the Law here, and it sounds frightening.  What is Jesus saying to us?

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was preached and recorded for the Jews.  Matthew’s Gospel is a catechism for Jewish believers, teaching them that through the Law no one can achieve righteousness.  If one thought they could, here Jesus extends the Law, making it obvious that no one will ever achieve righteousness under the Law.  That is, except him!

Jesus alone fulfilled all righteousness required from the Law, having every right to accuse us, but instead he champions the right to forgive, so we can live.  He neither accuses us or excuses our sin, he binds the sin and sets the sinner free.

You now have that freedom, and with it comes your right to forgive others.  We like Jesus, neither excuse the sin, nor accuse the sinner.  We pray to God the Father, for the Holy Spirit to give us the will on earth, to forgive as we have been forgiven.

After the cross, we, together with believing Jews, look at the Sermon on the Mount and cry out to God, naming his responsibility to help us forgive as we have been forgiven.

Therefore, we pray and demand, with the very demand he has given us to pray, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” “You have forgiven us Heavenly Father, now give us the will to forgive others!”  

God will give you the will to do so!  Why?  Because he sent Jesus to die for your sin, and the Holy Spirit to make you holy in his forgiveness!  And because he would fail to be God, if he did not fulfil his promises made through sending Jesus and the Holy Spirit!

Let us live in peace, knowing you neither have to accuse others, nor excuse their sin.  It’s God’s good pleasure, that we pray individually, and, as the body of Christ, his church on earth, to bind each other’s sin to the cross and loose the sinner. 

It is God’s responsibility to bind our sin and loose us!  And it is our right to loose other sinners and bind their sin, as Jesus has bound our sin and set us free.  Pray to your Father in heaven to give you and me the will to joyfully do this.  Amen.

On Maundy Thursday we conclude the series on the Lord’s Prayer with the centre kernel of the prayer.  We learn what the Holy Spirit does in us when we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread."