(This sermon page was last updated on the 23rd April 2008) MEDITATION TEXT "Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." The Ascension of Jesus takes some understanding on our part to believe in what happened to Jesus on the day of his Ascension. We can not naturally think in those terms. Our experience is of this earth and what happens on this earth. We are limited by gravity. People do not in our experience ascend into heaven. We are more used to them being buried in the earth.But perhaps we can understand the difference the Ascension should make in our lives - that Jesus completed his earthly ministry and then sent the Holy Spirit to the disciples. He gave them power from on high as they waited in the Upper Room praying for the Holy Spirit to descend upon them (Acts 1:4, Acts 1:8). Saint Paul calls us to be those people who pray without ceasing. The world is a frightening place. In John's Gospel, from the Farewell Discourse at the Last Supper, the last thing Jesus does before going to his death and resurrection is to pray for the Disciples. And not for them only, but for all who believe in him "through their word." That is, the last thing Jesus does is pray for us. He prays that we might remember that God loves us as much as God loves Jesus, God's only son. Jesus prays this prayer because he knows the Disciples live in a dangerous place. And that the life of the church will be a life lived facing dangerous and frightening situations. The New Testament tells us that Jesus ascended into heaven, and now intercedes for us at his Father’s right hand. Have you ever wondered what this means? Some have mistakenly thought that our Lord is somehow constantly ‘re-offering’ the sacrifice of his death before the Father in heaven, and in so doing is ‘pleading’ on our behalf. But the New Testament is clear in its insistence that Christ’s death was historically once and for all achieved. Hebrews 7:25,27 tells us “…he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them….he has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily…. Since he did this once for all when he offered up himself….” Instead, Jesus is now in heaven to ‘represent us before the Father’ (1 John 2:1). He is there to escort you into the Father’s presence every time you turn to God in prayer. That is why Christian prayer always ends with ‘In Jesus Christ’s Name’. He is our only way through. The Ascension has the great promise of the Holy Spirit given to the disciples who were to wait in Jerusalem and pray to receive the power from on high. They as individuals were given as gifts to each other. Some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up – the goal being reaching unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God, becoming mature Christians, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.(Ephesians 4: 11-13) We will then grow up into Christ, the Head of the body. “From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Ephesians 4:16. This is the answer to the problems of the church today. We need the power from on high. We need to believe in what Our Ascended Lord Jesus Christ is doing for us in glory . That is, He is praying for us constantly. We need through his prayers and the strength and inspiration He gives in the Holy Spirit that each part of the body will do its work to build the body up. Each part, each person that is, each congregation, each denomination, the whole church do its work for the building up of the whole church. Have you thought what your part may be in all this, what your work is, and about your own faith to receive all that God wants to give you in gifts through the Holy Spirit, through your faith in the crucified, Risen Ascended Christ? They are gifts for the building up of the whole body, the church. As the church is built up, so too will you be built up as individual parts of that body. 
© CJG 2002
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