An Ascension Gift Basket For You!

We call them “gift baskets.” They might be for holidays like Christmas or Easter. Or they may be given for someone’s birthday, or perhaps an anniversary. Now as you think of gift baskets what makes them different from other gifts? Although perhaps you can think of many more things that make them unique, I would point out two.

Typically, gift baskets follow a theme or a predictable pattern. For example, let’s say the theme of the gift basket is chocolate. There will be different kinds of chocolate in it, right? Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and probably packets for hot chocolate. Or let’s say that the theme of the gift basket is the beach. There will be things that a person would typically need or enjoy at a beach. To me the other thing that makes a gift basket a unique gift is that they are typically a whole bunch of gifts in one gift. That’s one of the things that makes them fun for the person receiving them. As you unwrap it or unpack it you get to look at each of the gifts and see how they are tied to the theme or the occasion.

Although the Bible doesn’t call it a “gift basket” it does use the word “gifts” in connection with our Savior’s ascension. Because of Jesus ascension we receive many gifts. Ephesians 4:7–8, “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” Like a gift basket with a theme, Jesus’ ascension gift basket to us follows the theme of what his ascension means for us. The Bible reminds us that because of Jesus’ victorious return to the right hand of his Father he now intercedes for us. That means he is there speaking up for us to his Father both when we sin and when we need help. Digging a little deeper into our ascension gift basket we are told that Jesus returned to heaven to prepare a place for us. We are also told that he ascended into heaven to resume his rule over all things. He does that for the good of his Church and for the eternal good of each of us. We looked at that during our Bible study this morning. And we heard that same truth in our Second Lesson for today from Ephesians 1. We also heard from the angels in our First Lesson for this Sunday that Jesus will return just as he ascended into heaven—he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

We can tie all of these ascension gifts to what our Gospel Lesson pictures for us. Jesus raised his hands to bless his disciples. And as he ascended, they received blessings from their Lord. Today, we ask God the Holy Spirit to fill our lives with blessings from Jesus’ ascension.

“RECEIVE ASCENSION GIFTS FROM JESUS”

I. Scriptures fulfilled

II. Salvation completed

III. Spirit given

Our Gospel Lesson for this Sunday took us to the closing words of Luke’s account of Jesus mission to save us. You may recall that Luke was also the author of the Books of Acts—or as it is more fully known, The Acts of the Apostles. So, where our Gospel Lesson ended our First Lesson from Acts 1 began. For six Sundays now during this Easter season we have seen the effects of Christ’s resurrection from the dead on the New Testament church. The timid followers of Jesus became confident and totally committed evangelists for him. We have also seen how the good news about Jesus quickly spread around the Roman Empire. Jesus’ disciples, and evangelists like the Apostle Paul, shared the good news about Jesus wherever they went. All of their success can be traced back to these verses we are considering. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he secured blessings for his followers. Like the disciples we are blessed because Jesus returned to his Father. We are assured that the Scriptures have been fulfilled, our salvation is completed, and the Holy Spirit has been given to us!

I.

Luke tells us, “He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” It’s worth pointing out that the description Jesus used for God’s Word reassures us that the Old Testament of the Bible as we know it hasn’t changed. The Jews had the same 39 books that we have today. Of course, they were written in Hebrew and were divided differently than they are in our Bibles but we can be assured that God has preserved his Word for us.