Ascension Sunday

<)) Listen to the sermon here

[Luke 24:50-53] …Then Jesus led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.

Ascended to Be Our Intercessor

In the children’s sermon we covered, “I am with you always” – as Jesus promised, before ascending into heaven, “And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” [Matthew 28:20]. Jesus also ascended to send us the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit – poured out from heaven on Pentecost and upon you in your Baptism [Acts 1:4-5; Acts 2:38].

And Jesus ascended into heaven to take His rightful seat at the Father’s right hand, to exercise “all authority on heaven and earth” [Matthew 28:18] and to be “head over all things to the church” [Ephesians 1:22].

But now we’re going to talk about another purpose Jesus has in ascending into heaven – His role as intercessor. Jesus ascended into heaven to be your intercessor.

An intercessor is someone who talks to another on your behalf when you are in trouble or in need. The intercessor speaks on your behalf to make peace.

This past Thursday, on Ascension Day, I was blessed to preach the chapel service at St. Mark’s in Yonkers. There, the students heard the story of a young boy named Billy.

Billy loved to play baseball. He took his ball and bat and glove with him everywhere, even on his way to school. One day, while on his way to school, Billy couldn’t help himself. He tossed the ball into the air and took a swing at it with his bat.

He happened to be standing in front of his best friend’s house at that moment. It was a great hit. The ball soared through the air. And went straight through the glass window of his best friend’s father’s study.

Billy was terrified. He broke a window. His friend’s dad would be angry. And Billy had no money to pay for it.

So, day after day, Billy avoided the house, avoided his friend, avoided the father, and ducked his head under his hood and hurried past that house as quickly as he could when heading to and from school.

Until one day, Billy’s friend stopped him on the sidewalk. “Billy, why don’t you come over to my house anymore? Why do you always hurry by?”

Billy told his friend what he had done and why he was afraid. His friend said, “Let me go up and talk to my father for you.”

The friend did and came back down and said, “It’s okay. My dad says you can still come over.” Back to normal. Backyard play and dinner at the table.

Billy expected his friend’s dad to at least chew him out. To at least make him pay on a payment plan. But the father said, “My son has already spoken to me about it for you. And my son has paid it for you from his own allowance. There’s nothing more that must be done. It is finished.”

Back to normal because Billy’s friend acted as his intercessor.

            Now, in real life, a broken window is not that big of deal and shouldn’t require such an ordeal. However, also in real life, my sins against God the Father are a big deal.

Our sins – the wrongs we do and the good we leave undone; the wrong things we are and the good we fail to be – our sins do rightly deserve and cause God’s anger.

As we confess, “all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal (in this life) and eternal (in the next life) punishment…”

At our worst, we live happily ignorant of our sin and the threat of God’s judgment. We can pass by His house, by His cross, or use His name, without any thought of our need for repentance – nor of our need for God at all.

That is the very depths of sin. The blindness of sin. Complete darkness that isn’t even looking for light. That’s our sin-fallen nature.

But when some light does shine on our darkness, then there is some fear of conscience. Excuses and reasons given, because we do know the wrongness of what we’re doing or failing to do. Avoidance of His house or of the things of God, because we know we broke the window and that we can’t pay.

But promises to ourselves or to God that, this time, we’ll do better, this time, we’ll make up for it – that’s not what we need first. That cycle repeats itself. That debt increases.

What we need first is an Intercessor to go up to God’s side, speak for us, and present the payment that covers us. And that’s what Jesus has done. Jesus, your Intercessor, who ascended to God’s right hand.

Jesus’ work as man’s Intercessor – as man’s Mediator – the go-between between man and God, who reconciles us to God - is possible, and sure and certain, because of His work of atonement. He has given Himself on the cross as the once-for-all, sufficient sacrifice for man’s sin. For your sin.

Jesus is the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” [John 1:29]. He is the perfect and pure one who carried the sins of us all and died - and suffered all the anger and wrath that was due us - in our place. He paid what man justly owed. “It is finished” [John 19:30]. It is paid.

When Jesus rose from the dead on Easter morning, He was no longer suffering. The payment was made. But what did He retain in His hands from the cross? The nail marks in His hands and the mark in His pierced side.

When Jesus ascended into heaven in the sight of the apostles, He lifted up those same hands and blessed them [Luke 24:50].

And Jesus carried those same nail pierced hands into heaven, to His Father’s right side, to forever remind the Father of the price He paid for you.

Jesus, your ascended Intercessor, forever speaks to the Father on your behalf, forever telling the Father, “I died for them.” “I died for him.” “I died for her.” “Their sins are paid for.” Jesus forever speaks to the Father about what He has done for you.

So, do not fear. Because the Father hears Jesus, the Father also receives and hears you. The failures of yesterday don’t hinder your place in God’s house today. Peace has been made. Therefore, He hears your prayers prayed in Jesus’ name.

And do not pass by His house on Sunday morning without coming in. His Son has spoken for you. Be here where you’re called to be, receiving from Him all that you need most, for this life and the next. Amen.