Sermon text: Ephesians 1
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
This morning, we’re celebrating the Ascension of our Lord, which has always been a major festival in the church calendar. It always falls on Thursday, so Ascension was really technically a few days ago, on Thursday, the fortieth day after the Easter celebration. This morning, we’ll examine how this one event, the ascension, connects and ties together the past, the present, and the future work of Jesus Christ. And because it does, our Lord’s ascension has great importance for each one of you, for our past, our present, and our future. And that is the theme for this morning’s sermon: the ascension — past, present, and future.
Our text this morning is the epistle reading. It’s Paul’s prayer, in large part, to the Ephesians, where Paul brings together the past, the present, and the future, and the meaning of Christ’s ascension to the right hand of God in the heavenly realm. So, I’m going to read the text once again. Try to hear those past, present, and future tenses: “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that 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, having 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, and 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, far 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. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
So let’s start with the past. Paul refers to it when he talks about the working of God’s great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. It’s a reference to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and its application to the church and to individual Christians. Christ’s past work was completed on the cross. Finished. It is finished, totally. There’s nothing that you can add to it. Christ died once and for all. Christ’s past work was completed on the cross, and it’s the basis for everything that follows. The resurrection follows after the crucifixion and because of the crucifixion. His ascension follows the crucifixion. His being seated at the right hand of the Father is after the crucifixion and resurrection. And his coming again all rises out of the crucifixion of Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. There can be no present or future work of Jesus Christ without his past work of dying on the cross. His crucifixion is foundation to everything. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” His crucifixion is the building block and cornerstone of his church.
What Paul says here in this part of Ephesians is in the context of what he says elsewhere in Ephesians. Elsewhere, Paul makes much of the past work of Christ, of his suffering, his death, and what it means for us. Paul opens this letter by saying, “In him, that is in Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.” Later he wrote that we had been brought near to God by the blood of Christ, and that Christ made peace and reconciled us to God through the cross. The Christ who ascended into heaven is the same Christ who suffered and died, shed his blood on the cross. The same Jesus is the one whom God raised from the dead and seated at his right hand. So the past completed work of Christ is the basis for his present work as he is seated in the heavenly realm, and his future work to come in the age that is to come. And the completed work of Christ takes care of your past. All of your transgressions, all of your unsavory past, all of those things for which you are ashamed, all those failures, unfaithfulness: all of the past is taken care of, cleansed, paid for, atoned by the blood of Christ on the cross of Good Friday. You are freed from the unfavorable record of your sins. The slate has been wiped clean by the finished work of Jesus Christ. Christ completed the work on the cross, and he covers and cleanses your guilt from your past. Romans 4:23-25: The words, “It was counted to him,” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Jesus’s ascension into heaven confirms that he completed his work on the cross. He finished it, and it was satisfactory to the heavenly Father. It shows that the heavenly Father approved of what the Son has done. He put his stamp of approval on Jesus and his work by raising Christ from the dead, exalting him to a glorious ascension, and seating him with honor at his right hand. So there is the ascension itself affirming the past work of Christ. At the same time, the ascension also points to the future work of Christ. Paul refers to this when he speaks of Christ’s authority and dominion not only in this age but also in the age to come. The age to come: the age that will commence when Jesus returns again in his glory on the last day. That is the age to come. The angels who were at the ascension were definitive about his second coming. They told the eyewitnesses to Jesus’s ascension, right there on this spot, that Jesus was taken up from you into heaven and will come in the same way as you saw him go. And this coming again will initiate the age to come. Paul also speaks specifically about our future in the age to come. He wants us to know that the riches of his glorious inheritance belong to the saints. Glorious inheritance is our future. It’s what’s in store for us. An inheritance, by the way, as you probably know, is not something that you necessarily hold in your hand immediately. You have to wait for it. You have to wait for the one, the testator of the will, to pass away. And then you receive your inheritance. You are entitled to it. It’s stored up for you. It’s kept in safekeeping in the heavenly realm. No one can touch your inheritance or take it away from you. You and I are the rightful heirs to the work of Christ on the cross, and in the church in the present time, because we are baptized as sons and daughters of God through Jesus Christ. We are, the scripture says, co-heirs with Christ the Son of God. And so what Christ receives, we receive. Jesus was raised from the dead. So too, we will be raised from the dead. Jesus was carried up to heaven. So too, all those who trust in him will likewise be carried up to heaven. And so the ascension shows our future. It shows what’s in store for us. And it shows us a glorious promise and heavenly picture. On Christ’s ascension, I now build the hope of my ascension.
That then brings us to the present. And this is where the ascension serves as a bridge between the past and the future. It connects Christ’s past and future work. And it connects our own past and future. For the ascension tells us what Christ is doing now for us, and that in turn fills us with hope in our present. What Christ is doing now during the time between his ascension and his coming again: Paul tells us, he says that God seated Christ at his right hand in heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, above every name that is named, not in this age only, but in the one to come. He has all things under his feet and has given him as head over the church and all matters in the world. Our risen and ascended Lord now sits at the right hand of God. The right hand of God is a designation of high power and all authority. God has exalted Christ and given him great glory because he has accomplished his saving mission on the cross. And Christ has been set as head over all things. All things have been put under his feet. He said to his disciples, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given unto me.” And the risen Christ declared: Jesus truly is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Know this: Christ right now is ruling all things for the sake of his church. That means that all things are under his control and all things are done for our own good. It doesn’t look like it from time to time. We’re not sure what he counts as good from time to time, but he is there, ruling over all the elements of the earth, including your life. The rise and fall of nations, the tumultuous events that play out in our world daily, the course of human history: all of it’s under Christ’s control. And Christ is ruling all things for the sake of the church and for the people of the church, so the church can carry out her mission, which is to spread the gospel, for the good of his people, for the sheep of his flock whom he loves and cares for, for your good. This is how Jesus exercises his authority right now in our present, in your presence. It doesn’t look like he’s taking care of us from time to time. We often wonder if he’s abandoned us and is punishing us, withdrawing from us. It may look like the world is spinning out of control. It may look like your life is going downhill: health problems, financial problems, family problems, relationship problems, chaos, confusion, careening from one crisis to another. And what about the church? From our perspective, it may look like the church is on its last leg. Numbers are down. People are discouraged. False doctrine prevails everywhere. Has Christ forgotten his church? Rest assured: what Paul is telling you here is that Christ is still in charge. He’s ruling and governing all things for the good of his church and for your own good, unto salvation. When you hurt, he knows it. Your brother Jesus knows your weakness, and he will give you the strength to endure unto the end. Though many ears seem deaf to the church’s message, there are still those who rejoice in the hearing of the good news. There are still precious souls being gathered into the church and nurtured there.
Christ Jesus has ascended into the heavenly realm. He’s now seated at God’s right hand. He is in fact the head over all things, with all things under his feet. And this present work of Christ will fill you with hope even in the midst of terrible circumstances, whatever they may be. That’s what Paul is telling us today in his prayer for the Ephesians, and his prayer for us. He prays that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what the hope is to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward all us who believe, that you may know Christ, know him personally. Grow in your knowledge of him. Grow in your trust in him. This is the will of God for you: that you may have the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you can see clearly the picture from God’s perspective, and that you may know the hope to which he has called you. And hope is nothing more than faith going into the future. Hope is believing firmly what is in store for you, what the future holds for you. It’s knowing that God holds your future in his hands, in Christ’s hands. Hope is the present knowledge of your future inheritance. I’m going to say that again: Hope is the present knowledge of your future inheritance.
And this firm and certain hope, as sure as Christ’s own resurrection and ascension, this hope is what will sustain you in the midst of the ups and downs of your life. This hope acts as your anchor in the storms of life. It will hold you steady so that you’re not shaken or overwhelmed. God wants you to have this hope, to know this hope with every fiber of your being. And Christ’s ascension is sure. So this morning, we’ve learned that the ascension is not merely one historical act, but rather the ascension is for our good, to put Christ where he belongs and you where you belong. The past, the present, and the future work of Christ confirms that his work on the cross is complete: that he did in fact finish the work of our redemption. It points to his future return. It leads us to arrive now, in the present time, at Christ ruling over all things for the sake of his church. And so his ascension has great meaning for your past, your present, and your future. The sins of our past have been wiped away by the blood of the Lamb. We have a glorious future inheritance laid up for us in heaven. And we have a firm hope in our present, whatever the circumstance may be, knowing that Christ is indeed fulfilling his promise of ruling over all things for our good and for the good of his church. Christ has wiped our sins clean. He has dealt with our past. He has ascended to rule over our present. He has gone before us to prepare a place for us, just as he said, so that death can no longer hold us, for our sins have been paid for and forgiven in Christ. And that’s your present reality. Amen.
May the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.