Ascension—Raised with Christ: Seeking the Things Above
Transcribed by TurboScribe.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. These words can hit our ears in different ways.
One natural way it can hit us first when you hear those words from Colossians is as an exhortation to us Christians who have been baptized in the name of Christ. If you really have been raised with Christ from spiritual death to life through his word and holy baptism, do not be unduly concerned with things of this life, the things on this earth. We might hear it first as that sort of exhortation.
If you spend too much time surfing the internet, doom-scrolling social media, staying up to date, staying up to date with the news, or checking out the stock market too often, or checking realtor.com too often, or any such thing like this. If you spend too much time, too much of your time and attention on the things on earth, you will be sinfully anxious. You will.
You might even be diagnosed with anxiety, and it would be a real cross to bear, but it would also be like a drunkard getting drunk and being shocked by over-consuming alcohol leading to that result. Same thing with technology today. If we're too unduly concerned with these things, we will be anxious, unduly anxious, and overly concerned with the things of this world.
You will be sinfully distracted if you're using your spark phone all the time, never getting away from it, hearing God's word throughout your week, praying, spending time with people in person, face-to-face with Christians. If you are constantly distracted by screens, you will be distracted by earthly things and apathetic toward the things of God, toward the things that are in heaven. And you might even get diagnosed with ADHD, and it might be real, but it would also be a result of this immoderate use of the internet, smartphones, and other dopamine overloads that exist in our world.
You will become distracted by the things of the earth and grow cold and apathetic toward heavenly things like our Lord Jesus and His word, like remembering your baptism, like confessing your sins and receiving absolution, or partaking of the body and blood of Jesus. You will grow apathetic toward these things, these heavenly things, because you have been unduly fixated on the things of this earth. Even things that in and of themselves might have been morally neutral, they're still of this earth, and they will take you away from those heavenly things.
If you have been truly raised with Christ, seek those things that are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. All these things on earth that can so easily tug us away from the heavenly goods will be destroyed in the fire of God's wrath, most certainly.
Do not order your life according to them. They are doomed for destruction, the things of this earth. You will never receive life from them, not life that endures to eternity.
Psalm 135 says, the idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. Sound familiar? They have a mouth, but they cannot speak. They have eyes, but they cannot see.
They have ears, but cannot hear. There is not even any breath in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them.
So will all who trust in them. This is not the end to which you were called by your Lord. Your end is not the end of the idols of our age.
It is not the end of the things of this earth. That is not your end. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
That's your end. In this way, the truth of our Lord's ascension can be an exhortation for us Christians to wake up. Remember that you are raised with Christ.
Remember that your elder brother and Savior, Jesus Christ, is seated at the right hand of the Father. Remember that he will return in the same way in which his disciples saw him depart. Remember that he who is our life, seated at the right hand of God, constantly interceding for us, and will return in glory.
Remember that when he does appear, you also will appear with him in glory. And when you remember that, you will be fixated on the heavenly things that we ought to be fixated on. We will have our eyes fixed on these things.
We will stand there as baptized Christians with the Holy Spirit and say, how can I act this way about these earthly things that are going to pass away? How can I have such anxiety? How can I be so distracted by these empty things, these dead idols, when the Lord lays such precious gifts in my lap? You, your spouse, your family, your friends and neighbors, we are all called to more than what this fallen and wicked world has to offer. Humanity was called to a greater end, and Christ has proven that fact, that we are called to a greater end by taking our humanity up into heaven. In the sight of his disciples, above the ranks of the birds of the sky, passing above the choirs of cherubim and seraphim, and all the angels and archangels, soaring unlimited through the heights of heaven to reach the right hand of the Father, where it, the human nature, which is joined inseparably to the eternal word, that human nature that he shares with you and me, sits there at the right hand of the Father.
He soars above the stars with our human nature, and he has set on his throne in glory, united his human nature to divine forever, and he's taken us up into that. When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to his people. How can we Christians set our minds on worthless things of this earth when our Lord has placed such heavenly treasures as his word and the other means of grace into our ears, on our tongues, in our hands, in our laps? This is how Christ's ascension is an exhortation to live as Christians in this world that is passing away, a call to repentance, to wake up.
But another way we Christians can and should hear these same words concerning our Lord's ascension is as a great consolation in our afflictions. For this, hearing of the Lord's ascension as a great consolation for our afflictions, I want you to consider the account of St. Stephen's martyrdom in Acts chapter 7. After Stephen, who, if you remember, was one of the deacons appointed to handle the treasury, to give out to the widows and orphans, it's funny, almost all of them went out and started preaching instead. But Stephen preaches this sermon before the Jews, giving a whole history of salvation, ending with, you see, you've always been stiff-necked, you've always rebelled against your Lord, and you killed the Messiah.
And when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But Stephen, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears and ran at him with one accord, and they cast him out of the city and stoned him.
And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul, and they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Think about the great gift our Lord showed Stephen as he faced this, and think about what he did face. I've been hit in the head with a rock by my friends growing up, but it was about that big. I'm sure y'all been hit by things, maybe got hit by a baseball, playing baseball, and it hurt, right? These weren't little pebbles being thrown at this man.
He's down on lower ground, men standing above him, and they're picking up rocks so big that they're taking off their clothes to throw them at him. Probably, depending on which way you drove, you saw those big rocks that kind of prevent erosion, those kind of rocks. And it would be horrific enough to die by people just laying rock after rock on you gently, but taking off their clothes and throwing them so hard at you until you are literally buried in a mound of huge stones.
Imagine that. Imagine that affliction. Imagine that.
And our Lord, to give consolation to Stephen as he is about to immediately face that horrific end, shows himself to him, ascended far above all the birds, all the angels, all the stars, to the highest heaven, standing at the right hand of God. And he doesn't cry out in despair. He doesn't cry out in pain.
He says, Lord, do not count this against them. And Lord, receive my spirit. And it's because he sees what we celebrate today.
The Lord has ascended with our human nature, our blood brother, standing at the right hand of God. You've heard me tell you again and again, as we've gotten closer here, that our Lord has exalted our human nature in himself to the throne of God in heaven, that our Lord has ascended to the Father's throne to share it and intercede for us until the last day as our flesh and blood brother, and with him seated at the right hand of the Father. And Stephen saw this.
We have no reason to doubt that every circumstance of our life is governed by him, by our Lord, in such a way that we too will live in glory with him when he appears again to raise all the dead and to judge the living and the dead. That is what his ascension also tells us as a consolation in our affliction. I quoted it last, this past Sunday, in these table of duties for young women, for wives especially, but for women in general.
I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain quiet for Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control. That last part, I want you to think about this. Paul there in 1 Timothy is not saying that having babies saves you.
He says, she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control. And that is true of every circumstance in our life. And Stephen saw that reality with his own eyes when he told them that he saw the Son of God, Jesus Christ, standing at the right hand of God.
He saw that reality. And the reality is this. It is not just childbearing.
You will be saved through loneliness. You will be saved through rejection. You will be saved through the good things in this life and the evil.
You will be saved through loss. You will be saved through desperate times when it comes to money. You will be saved through every circumstance that's going to come your way.
You will be saved through it if you continue in the faith that Jesus paid for your sins in His death, rose from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of the Father, because He will save you through those circumstances. Stephen is about to be stoned to death, and Jesus is showing him, you have no reason to doubt when you endure what you are about to endure, that I am ordering it this way. And I'm not ordering it this way so that you can just suffer for suffering's sake.
I'm ordering this for you, Stephen, to be pounded and pulverized with these stones for my sake, because through it you'll be saved as you continue in faith and love and godliness and self-control. He was saved through it, because how could it be any other way? When the Lord ascended to heaven, His Father said to Him, sit on my throne until I make your enemies your footstool. He is in charge as our flesh and blood brother.
So whatever circumstance you might be enduring, you can say the same thing. And when you have a loved one or a neighbor or a friend suffering or enduring good things, a great consolation for us to give to ourselves and to the other who is suffering or not is, I know the Lord has ascended and stands at the right hand of God and is seated there on the throne and is in charge and governing everything in our lives to save us through these things, whether we receive good or evil, ease or difficulty. Psalm 99 verse 1 says, the Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble.
He sits enthroned upon the cherubim, let the earth quake. And another translation that I like a little bit better is the Lord is King, be the people never so impatient. He sitteth between the cherubims, be the earth never so unquiet.
Do not be impatient. Your Lord sits upon the cherubim. And this is the last thing I'm going to give you.
It's not on the front of the bulletin. I almost wanted to put it on there, but there's this piece of artwork. Maybe I'll share it online so you can see it, but imagine this.
It's a painting of the Lord Jesus ascending to be seated at the right hand of God. And it depicts the father, you know, with a long beard and with a crown and he's holding the royal orb. You know, the father doesn't have a body, but artists do this, you know, and he's sitting there on the throne and at his right hand is a throne to sit on, but it looks just like the mercy seat, the top of the ark.
It's the cherubim. And Jesus is coming up to the throne, to the father, kneeling down. He still has a scarlet robe on from his passion, still has the crown of thorns, still has the wounds, and he's holding them up to the father like this.
And the father is extending his hand to the cherubim. In your affliction, know that, that the wounds of Jesus are there for you, that your human nature has been seated in these heavenly places, that when he ascended, he took captivity captive and gave gifts to his people. And he's about to give us gifts again and again and again until he comes again in glory and we will be glorified with him.
Let us pray. O my Lord Jesus, your apostles pray to you at the place of your glorious ascension, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and we're continually in the temple praising and blessing God. So grant by the power of your holy ascension, that we poor sinners may also spend our lives here in true faith and diligent prayer, that we may long with joy for your kingdom and the true fatherland.
During our time of waiting for your return, before our last little hour, grant that we may diligently learn your word among Christian congregations, partake of your body and blood in the supper, and at the end, in this your service, be found blessed in temporal death, and at last enter through your ascension into the heavenly company, abode, and joy. For you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen.
Transcribed by TurboScribe.
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