Sermon 2nd June 2019 – The
Ascension
Text: Luke 24:44-53 – Our Jerusalem
Today we celebrate the Ascension of
Jesus into Heaven.
For 40 days after Jesus rose from the
grave on Easter Sunday he walked the earth to establish eye witnesses so the
world would be convinced that the resurrection was a real event and not a fairy
tale as it is often described in our secular world.
People often think that proving the
resurrection is our greatest challenge – convincing the world that Jesus rose
from the dead because we have no physical proof.
I don’t think that is our biggest
challenge.
The reality is that there is more
evidence to prove a resurrection than to disprove it.
For example:
We have the account of an empty
grave.
There was no body found when Mary
went to the tomb.
This is further supported by
Matthew’s Gospel that says the religious leaders paid the guards to say that
they saw Jesus’ disciples carrying Jesus body away from the tomb.
They could easily have said that they
themselves took the body away.
So an empty tomb is the reality
especially since his body never turned up.
How easy wouldn’t it have been to
make up a story that Jesus’ dead body was later found and yet this is never
spoken about as an alternative story?
And Paul speaks about Jesus having
appeared to over 500 eye witnesses including himself who was one of the most
powerful enemies of Christians, approving their deaths and seeking to arrest
anyone that called themselves a Christian – and now converted to Christianity
and Jesus’ greatest missionary.
So, as I said, proving the
resurrection is not our greatest challenge.
What is our greatest challenge?
I believe our greatest challenge is
fulfilling Jesus’ commission that we heard in Luke’s gospel today to proclaim
repentance and forgiveness of sins to the entire world.
And we only have to look at what
happened to Israel Folau who did just that when he called on all sinners to repent.
There is very little tolerance in our
secular world today for us to preach a message of repentance and forgiveness.
There is very little tolerance in our
secular world today to refer to people as sinners.
And yet that was Jesus commission to
the apostles to proclaim forgiveness of sins to repentant sinners.
We can go into the world and attempt
to have the world like and appreciate us.
We can do things like feed the poor –
do charitable works – and a whole range of actions that help others.
And we should.
But we must remember what the mission
was when he sent his disciples into the world.
That repentance and forgiveness of
sins is to be proclaimed in his name.
There is no repentance if there is no
sin.
There is no forgiveness if there is
no sin.
There is no sinner if there is no
sin.
Jesus’ death is meaningless if there
is no sin.
There is no Gospel if there is no
Law.
If we believe that Jesus came to die
for our sins, then at some point we need to mention the word sin – and that’s
when we lose people.
So how can we reach out into a
secular world that rejects the idea of sin?
Luke gives us a clue in the
commission by Jesus in both our Gospel reading and our first reading from Acts.
In the book of Acts he says - you
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
In his Gospel he says - that
repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all
nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
In both instructions they were to
begin their witnessing in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem was their home town.
In fact Luke’s Gospel concludes with
they “returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the
temple blessing God”.
I believe that their proclaiming of
repentance and forgiveness of sins was to their own lives first.
Their witnessing to the world would
come by living out what they had witnessed – Jesus forgiveness of their sins.
Here in our church community and in
our home community is where we are called to example to the world and witness
to the world what Jesus has to offer.
How can we tell the world about God’s
grace and the Gospel if we are not prepared to live it out in our own lives first?
How can we witness the forgiveness of
sins to the world if we are not exampling it in our own lives first – in our
Jerusalems – our families – our church community.
St Paul says in our 2nd reading about
Jesus’ sacrifice for us - that he has put all things under his feet and has
made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the
fullness of him who fills all in all.
This, I believe, is how we best
proclaim to the world what we believe as Christians.
But sadly we are often the worst
examples of it.
And that’s not surprising because
Satan knows how easy it is to target this area of our faith.
Later in the book of Ephesians Paul
will encourage Christians - Do not let the sun go down while you are still
angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
Paul knows how easy it is for the
devil to get a foothold into our communities – in our church and family
community – by steering us away from repentance and forgiveness and pointing us
towards our anger and instead of repentance we seek to justify our actions –
instead of forgiveness we exhibit hatred and revenge.
Many times the New Testament points
us towards ourselves as the living example of the Gospel.
Jesus says in John’s Gospel: Love one
another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone
will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
That’s a clear message by Jesus that
our witness as his disciples comes when we love one another as he loved us.
If we fail to love one another as he
loved us then what does that witness to the world.
And we love one another as he loved
us when we repent when we are wrong – and we forgive when we are wronged
against.
Repentance and forgiveness of sins is
to be proclaimed in his name – beginning in Jerusalem – beginning in our lives
– our families our church families.
Likewise St Peter in his letter says:
you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your
hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and
respectful way.
If people see us disputing with each
other they won’t ask us about the hope we have.
We have to get it right here first or
we will undo all the work of Christ’s mission to the world.
We may believe we have a good reason
to hold a grudge or to be angry and believe that we can never forgive this side
of the grave as I often hear.
But think of Jesus’ last words from
the cross to his Father about those who humiliated him and nailed him to the
cross – Forgive them Father.
Friends, our Lord walked this earth
for 40 days to establish eye witnesses of his resurrection which has been
effective for nearly 2000 years.
Let us not undo the work of those who
have laid down this testimony and foundation by failing to repent and forgive
in our own lives – in our homes – in our church – in our Jerusalem.
If we can’t be witnesses of
repentance and forgiveness in our Jerusalem, then we can ever be witnesses in
Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.