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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
Christ is not only risen, but especially today we could add that He is also ascended! The First Reading (Acts 1:1-11) and the Gospel Reading (Luke 24:44-53) narrate the Ascension of our Lord, His being lifted up and taken out of the disciples’ sight, His parting from them and, as it were, being carried up into heaven. The Epistle Reading refers to the Ascension, as St. Paul tells the Ephesians (and any others to whom the letter might be addressed) about his praying that God would give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Specifically, St. Paul was praying that the eyes of their hearts might be enlightened so that they would know three things: the hope to which God had called them, the riches of God’s glorious inheritance in the saints, and the immeasurable greatness of God’s power toward us who believe. That great might, St. Paul goes on to say, worked in Christ when God the Father raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places and put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to (or “for”) the Church—that’s the Ascension! Particularly striking in the Epistle Reading’s single long and remarkable sentence in the Greek (Kretzmann, ad loc Eph 1:15-23, 264) is the heaping up of different and repeated words for “power”, including those words translated as “working” and “great might” (Grundmann, TDNT 3:401-402). Tonight we consider the Epistle Reading and do so under the theme: “The immeasurable greatness of God’s power toward us”.
As we heard in the Epistle Reading, St. Paul had heard of the Ephesians’ faith in the Lord Jesus and their love toward all of the saints (confer Colossians 1:3-4). In the preceding verses, he praised God for blessing them in Christ Jesus with every spiritual blessing, especially redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of trespasses and so an inheritance sealed with the promised Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:3-14). Yet, despite their being so blessed, and despite their believing and loving, St. Paul prays for them to have the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God, their eyes and hearts enlightened to know such things as the immeasurable greatness of God’s power toward us (confer Colossians 1:9-11). Their justification was taken care of, but their sanctification was a work in progress. They apparently could be blessed more, believe and love better, at least in part by precise and correct knowledge of God’s inherent power at work for them, as it was at work in Christ.
As St. Paul goes on to say in the next chapter of Ephesians, they, like all of us, were dead (dead, dead, dead, dead) in the trespasses and sins in which we once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is at work in those who do not repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind, and were by nature children of God’s righteous wrath, on account of our sinful natures and resulting actual sins (Ephesians 2:1-3). Without God-worked repentance and faith, we would not only be so spiritually dead in this world but also be apart from God and tormented in body and soul for eternity in hell (confer Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration II:12, 15; Pieper, II:456). But, as St. Paul goes on to say, God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead (dead, dead, dead, dead) in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:4-6). Such is the working of God’s power toward us, as He also worked in Christ.
The Holy Spirit came upon the Virgin Mary, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, and so the Child born of her was the Son of God (Luke 1:35). However, not the exalted power of God in Jesus but His humble weakness was involved in His being conceived by the Holy Spirit, being born of the Virgin Mary, suffering under Pontius Pilate, being crucified, dying, and being buried. Then, that immeasurably great power worked in Christ as He descended into hell, was raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, and was seated at God’s right hand in the heavenly places, with all things under His feet and as head over all things to (or “for”) the Church (confer 2 Corinthians 13:4). Jesus’s human nature—like our human natures, only without sin—has been exalted and enthroned, and through that human nature the Christ exercises that immeasurably great Divine power for us and for our salvation (confer Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration VIII:12, 51; Pieper, II:387). Since we on our own could not, He enables us to repent and believe and so be forgiven of our sinful natures and all of our sin.
The Ascension of our Lord was, in at least some sense, necessary for His sending of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost (confer Marquart, CLD IX:17). But, our Risen and Ascended Lord did not only send the Holy Spirit to His disciples on that occasion. For us to obtain saving faith, God instituted the Office of the Holy Ministry, that is, He provided the Gospel and the Sacraments, through which, as through means, He gives the Holy Spirit, Who works faith, when and where He pleases, in those who hear the Gospel (Augsburg Confession V:1-2). For example, at the Baptismal Font, we who by nature are darkened in our understanding are enlightened (Ephesians 4:18; 5:8, 14). There, the Triune puts on us His Name that is above every other name that is named. There we are buried and raised with Jesus through the powerful working of God (Colossians 2:12). There God makes us His children and so gives us and all the saints the riches of His glorious inheritance. As part of the family of God, we eat the family meal: bread and wine that in the Sacrament of the Altar are the Body and Blood of Christ, given and shed for us, for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Christ’s being seated at the Father’s right hand in the heavenly places does not keep Him from being present here, but rather His enthronement makes all the more possible His being really, physically present here.
Enabled by the Holy Spirit given and working through the Gospel and the Sacraments, we, like the Ephesians, believe and love, with room for us to believe and love better. We, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another, and we use our different gifts according to the grace given to us (Romans 12:5-6). Christ was given as head over all things to (or “for”) the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. God’s immeasurably great power is working for us and for the Church as a whole. That does not necessarily mean, as this congregation has experienced in the past, that there will always be a full-time pastor here, nor does it necessarily mean that this congregation even will exist until the age to come. But, God alone knows! For, as St. Paul later in the letter reminds the Ephesians and us, God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us (Ephesians 3:20).
Tonight we have considered “The immeasurable greatness of God’s power toward us”: power that not only worked in Christ when He was raised from the dead and seated at the Father’s right hand in the heavenly places but power that also both worked toward us, in bringing us to repentance and faith, and is working toward us even now, increasing our faith in the Lord and our love toward all the saints. We wrestle against the lesser cosmic powers over this present darkness (Ephesians 6:12), but our Lord Jesus is far above—that is, stronger than—all such powers, and, when the end comes, He will destroy every such rule, and authority and power (1 Corinthians 5:24), and we finally and fully will be free of the struggles of sin and with Him in the heavenly places for eternity.
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +