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.
Although that is wonderful news let’s not see the trees and miss the forest. If each book of the Old Testament is a tree the forest God wants us to see is Jesus and how he accomplished his mission to save us! That was the message Jesus had for the disciples as he ascended into heaven.
For a moment let’s consider what this ascension gift from Jesus means for us. It assures us that when Jesus left his disciples everything written about him was fulfilled. That tells us that Jesus was the one he claimed to be. Fulfilling dozens and dozens of prophecies perfectly, leaves us with no uncertainty regarding his identity as the Promised Savior. He wasn’t an imposter. Also, Jesus’ fulfilling the Old Testament Scriptures reassures us that he will keep all of the predictions and promises that he has given to us regarding our future and this world’s future.
Now I want you to focus on what Jesus said before confirming the fact that Old Testament is God’s Word and that it pointed ahead to his coming. Jesus said, “This is what I told you while I was still with you.” Again, and again, and again Jesus had told the disciples that everything in his life—from where he was born to how he died—had been predicted in the Old Testament. So what was wrong with the disciples? Were they just poor listeners? No, they were sinners! The Bible tells us what that means for them and for us. Our sinful mind doesn’t want to listen to what God says. We are prone to question and to challenge God’s Word. Jesus wasn’t the kind of Messiah that they thought he should have been so they did not understand what the Old Testament said about him. God’s plan to save sinners wasn’t what they imagined it should have been so they didn’t believe it. We have the same deep-rooted problems. We too are deaf to spiritual truth, blind to God’s plan to save us, and dead in our sins. Thankfully for the disciples, and for you and me, Jesus died for our sins and our sinfulness. And through the Word of God he has created faith in our stubborn hearts and enlightened us to know and believe the Scriptures. He has done for us what he did for the disciples. “45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” Jesus has also opened our minds to understand the Scriptures he fulfilled. Through his Word, and through specific words connected to water, bread, and wine, he has opened our minds so that we can understand and believe what he has said. He is doing that again for us this morning as we open the ascension gift basket that he left for us.
II.
Our Savior’s ascension gift basket has more in it. The next gift we find brings peace to our troubled hearts. Our Gospel Lesson continues, “46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” The great Bible teacher from another generation, William Evans, noted, “Cut the Bible anywhere and it bleeds.” In other words we can see that the blood of Jesus stains every page, every book, in both Testaments. Evans observed that “the atonement is the scarlet cord running through every page in the entire Bible”; it “is red with redemption truth.” All of the Scriptures that Jesus fulfilled point us to what he accomplished through his life, death, and resurrection. That is the forgiveness of our sins.
So what exactly is “repentance for the forgiveness of sins?” Let’s start with what it’s not. Repentance isn’t being sorry because we are afraid of being punished by God. It’s not being sorry for our sins because we got caught by somebody, or when we are suffering some of the consequences of what we have done. Nor is it repentance when we realize our lives are open books to a holy God who sees and hears all we done and even knows what’s going on in our heads. Repentance for the forgiveness of sins is not just being sorry for our sins and trying hard to make up for them.
Repentance for the forgiveness of sins isn’t something we can do. That must be God’s work in us. Through the Word of God, specifically what we call the LAW of God, the Holy Spirit convicts us that we are guilty of sin. And through the Word of God the Holy Spirit enables us to believe that Jesus has taken away our sins. Yes, repentance for the forgiveness of sins has been preached to us. We have been led to a life of repentance. And we are regularly reminded that our sins are forgiven.
Once again it might be helpful to consider what the disciples saw when Jesus ascended into heaven. As he raised his hands to bless them his glorified body still had the marks of the nails from his crucifixion. Instead of being a horrific sight it reassured the disciples that Jesus had forgiven their sins and the sins of all people. When they went out telling people the good news about Jesus they could think of those wounds and know that salvation was completed.
“Repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” is still being preached in Jesus’ name to all nations. This morning we are proclaiming that message through God’s Word and the Lord’s Supper. We preach it to each other at our congregation and we proclaim to those around us through our lives.
III.
Speaking of the work of the Holy Spirit and our preaching of the Gospel that leads us to the last words of Jesus that Luke recorded in his Gospel. We see the final gift from our ascension gift basket that our Savior has left for us. “48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” Next Sunday, in addition to being our confirmation Sunday, we will celebrate Pentecost—the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And we can be confident that the Holy Spirit has been given to us since it is only through the Holy Spirit that we have faith in Jesus.
But does Jesus want to give us the Holy Spirit even more fully and more abundantly each day? Yes. The answer to that question is clear. In our Gospel Lesson next Sunday we will hear Jesus describe how he wants the Spirit to flow from within us like “rivers of living water.” Speaking of the work of the Holy Spirit among Christians the late Dr. A. W. Tozer, author and pastor, said, "If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.” Do you feel that’s a fair statement? Perhaps it is true of us and our congregation. And if so, it is a sin for which we are called to confess and ask for forgiveness. And today, Jesus again pours out the Holy Spirit through the Word and the Sacraments.
About 15 years ago a news story broke telling the story of a woman in Florida who lived without power for 15 years. The woman, identified only as Norena had her home severely damaged when Hurricane Andrew slammed into Florida in August 1992. Norena received an insurance settlement, and the repair work began. However, when the money ran out, so did the contractor, leaving an unfinished home with no electricity. Norena lived in her dark, unfinished home—without power—for fifteen years. Imagine that for a moment. She had no lights in her house. She had no air conditioning when the mercury climbed into the 90s and the humidity clung to 100 percent. She did not have one hot shower. Without money to finish the repairs, Norena just got by with a small lamp and a single burner. Her neighbors did not seem to notice the absence of power in her home. Acting on a tip, one day, the mayor of the Miami-Dade area got involved. It only took a few hours of work by an electrical contractor to return power to Norena’s house. CBS News reported that Norena planned to let the water get really hot, and then take her first “bubble bath” in a decade and a half. “It’s hard to describe having (the electricity)...to switch on,” Norena told reporters, “It’s overwhelming.”
How many of us are living without the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives? ever knowing what it is like to have the overwhelming Power of the Holy Spirit operating within them? To be quite frank, I believe that some of us have had that Power turned off for so long, that we would not even recognize it if it came back to us! Today, brothers and sisters, let’s ask Jesus to again give us the Holy Spirit as we again receive his ascension gift basket!
Have any of you received a gift basket? Perhaps you have bid on one at a silent auction. Maybe you have received one from a group of people. My wife and I received a “Low Country” basket from ya’ll. A few months ago we received a “gift wheel barrow” from for Pastor and Mrs. Pastor Appreciation. It was fun to dig through the gifts inside the gift.
I pray that we have done that in our worship service today. We have unpacked an ascension gift basket from Jesus. As we stand with the disciples watching Jesus return to the right hand of his Father we received assurance that the Scriptures are fulfilled, our salvation is completed, and the Holy Spirit has been given to us. Now let’s take those gifts with us today. May they guide and empower our lives as Jesus’ witnesses! Amen.
