Let us
pray, Jesus Christ forty days ago You rose from the dead triumphant over sin,
death, the devil, hell and damnation.
Today we remember Your ascension into heaven. This was another of the milestones of the
plan of salvation that began in the Garden of Eden, neared completion with Your
birth in the manger and was fulfilled with Your life, death and
resurrection. May we be empowered to
embrace the gift of salvation You have brought to us and fully understand that
all things must be fulfilled by You for all of us saints gathered here at
Emmanuel. AMEN.
Jesus Christ fulfilled all things! He is risen indeed Alleluia!
Recently, Michele and I were doing some cleaning
and we made Sarah very happy. We didn’t
give her a tub of candy or a bowl of ice cream; we did something a lot simpler
and a lot easier. We found three pieces
from her very first puzzle. You see,
Sarah loves puzzles. She will spend
countless hours putting together puzzles and take them right apart to
reassemble them. Well this one puzzle
had three pieces missing that Michele and I had no idea where they had
disappeared to. So every time she would
play with her tub of puzzles, she would without fail put the entire puzzle
together except for the final three pieces.
When these three pieces had been found it was as if her life had been
fulfilled.
Tonight we celebrate the ascension of Jesus
Christ. Just as Sarah with the three
pieces felt and could see the puzzle was complete, Jesus Christ ascension was
the final bookend in the saga of Jesus life here on earth. Having been born in a lowly manger among the
animals in very humble surroundings, smuggled in the middle of the night by His
Father and Mother out of Israel to Egypt in fear of the tyrant Herod who was
seeking His life, protected until returning to a city named Nazareth and then
appearing at a wedding in Cana and performing His first miracle of changing
water into wine, Jesus Christ life was now complete. Jesus Christ having walked the streets of
Jerusalem, sailed and walked upon the water of the Sea of Galilee, brought
Lazarus back to life and healed the blind, the lame and the lepers and cast out
the demons fulfilled all righteousness with His life, death, resurrection and
now His ascension. Jesus Christ
completed and fulfilled every test, task and trouble that Satan could muster,
not only because He was the Son of God, but especially because His mission was
the salvation of mankind.
With Jesus Christ ascension into Heaven, He was
returning to His Father having completed the mission of salvation in order that
we His followers could spread the message of salvation. The message that we proclaim clearly in the
Creeds that Jesus Christ came down from heaven and took on our humanity in
order to save us from our sins. For it
was not just the simple act of becoming human, but in taking on humanity, He,
Jesus Christ overcame our weakness for us and became sin for us and suffered
for us so we would not have to. Jesus
Christ chose His life and all that it entailed because of His great love for
each and every one of us. Jesus Christ
gave His life to set us free and give us the greatest gift, the gift of eternal
life. For this fulfilled the plan of
salvation begun in the Garden of Eden and brings full circle God’s divine plan
that His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ would die for all of mankind. And then 40 days after His resurrection from
the dead would ascend into heaven to return to the Father.
For in Jesus Christ ascension His mission was fulfilled. The picture, plan and power of the plan of
salvation has been revealed to and for us with Jesus return to the Father. Jesus Christ earthly mission of the salvation
of all of mankind is fulfilled with His ascension into heaven. Especially for all of us saints gathered here
at Emmanuel this evening. AMEN.
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