See your ascended Savior! - Ephesians 1:15-23
I feel like Jesus’ ascension into heaven was a sight to see. Why else would else would all the disciples be looking intently up into the sky as He was going? I get the impression Jesus ascension was so cool that the disciples would have kept watching it for hours on end If God had not sent two angels to shoo them off the mountain. Yet in Acts 1 saint Luke simply records the Ascension of Jesus by writing “9 He was taken before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” Considering, in his former book, Luke wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day He was taken up into heaven, I have always thought Luke was a little stingy on the details when it came to Jesus’ actual ascension into heaven. In Luke’s gospel account of the Ascension, he is stingier still. There Luke writes, “While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.”[1] That’s it. No description of Jesus’ face shining like the sun or clothes gleaming white as snow like at His transfiguration. No mention of an angelic choir singing like the one that performed at His birth. No report of a booming voice like the one that spoke from heaven at His baptism. No indication that the earth shook like it did at His resurrection. Just simply, He was taken up into heaven, and a cloud hid Him from their sight.
I understand that Jesus had just given His disciples the great commission to go and make disciples of all nations. I understand that there was work to do and not a lot of time in which it could be done. I understand that the book of Acts is focused on the spread of the gospel. But, with all due respect to saint Luke, I would have liked just a little more information about Jesus’ ascension, which is why I have always preferred Paul’s account of the event. Now, saint Paul was not there when it happened, but by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul writes about Jesus’ ascension in his letter to the Ephesians. Today, in Ephesians 1:15-23, saint Paul invites us to peak beyond the clouds that once concealed Jesus from the sight of His disciples and see our ascended Savior raised from the dead, seated in glory, and ruling the church.
Paul most likely wrote his letter to the Ephesians while he was imprisoned in Rome. After returning from his third missionary journey, that last stop of which was an emotional visit to the church in Ephesus, Paul returned to Jerusalem to report “what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry”[2]. The Christians praised God, but when a group of orthodox Jews discovered Paul in the temple, they seized him and began to beat him to death. It caused a riot in the city and Roman soldiers were dispatched to restore the peace. The soldiers rescued Paul from his persecutors, but Paul then found himself in the clutches of the Roman legal system. The Roman governor Felix kept Paul in prison thinking that he might extort a bribe from him. Finally, after two years, Paul was so frustrated that he appealed to Ceasar and was shipped off to Rome.
In Rome Paul was placed under house arrest for an additional two years. House arrest was better than a jail cell. Paul couldn’t go to the synagogue, but he was at least permitted the occasional guest. However, for a world missionary who was accustomed to being on the go, house arrest would have been downright depressing for a guy like Paul. Like a caged animal, we can almost imagine Paul pacing back in forth, waiting for the day when he would be free.
While under house arrest, Paul occupied his time by writing letters to the various missions he had visited. One of those letters was written to the mission in Ephesus. The letter to the Ephesians is remarkable when you consider the circumstance under which it was written. After a formal greeting Paul begins the letter by writing, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”[3] Not exactly what you might expect from a guy who had been violently persecuted and unjustly imprisoned for the last four years. If I were Paul, my letter to the Ephesians would have been filled with worry and woe. Bitterness would have dripped from every page of my letter, as I grumbled and complained about how unfair and unjust my situation and sufferings were.
If you were to write a letter to the Ephesians would your letter proclaim praise, or would your letter be filled with worry and woe? I suspect your letter, like my letter, would be decidedly less optimistic than Paul’s letter. I base my suspicions on the way we tend to act when we face trials and temptations that are not nearly as trying and tempting as those faced by Paul. World events, by which we are remotely affected, cause us to wring our hands and check our retirement portfolios three times a week. A little trouble at work and suddenly the sky is falling. A small argument with a family member and the sun stops shining. A minor frustration with a friend and the ground beneath our feet falls away. And don’t even get me started on how we react to spiritual trials and temptations. The slightest ridicule or resistance to our faith gives us a persecution complex. And even when we are suffering the consequences of our own sinful actions we can’t help but think to ourselves this must be how Job felt. “Praise be” is how Paul started his letter to the Ephesians. “Woe is me” is likely how we would have started ours.
Thankfully, in the section of his letter to the Ephesians that is before us today, Paul shares the secret of his optimism with us and tells us how we too can proclaim praises even when the sky is falling, the sun has stopped shining, and the ground beneath our feet has fallen away. Paul writes, “17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” In short Paul prays that the Holy Spirit might give us the ability to peek beyond the clouds, so that we might see our ascended Savior.
When the Holy Spirit enlightens the eyes of our heart so that we might see beyond the clouds, the first thing we see is our ascended Savior “20 raised from the dead”. I know we talked about this on Easter Sunday, but it is important that we repeatedly see that our Savior Jesus has been raised from the dead, especially if we are hoping to become more optimistic like Paul. That Jesus has been raised from the dead is proof that your sins have been forgiven. There is no dirty thought, no obscene word, no evil action that can keep you from receiving what Paul calls the riches of your “glorious inheritance”. Now you might say, “preacher you don’t know my past, you don’t know the kind of person I once was.” And that very well may be true. Perhaps your past is full all sort of sins that might make a demon blush. But not one of those sins can keep you from your glorious inheritance, because the same Jesus who suffered and died on the cross to pay for those sins has been raised from the dead.
The next thing we see when we peek beyond the clouds is our ascended Savior seated at God the Father’s “20… right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.” Our ascended Savior did not return home, like some rebellious teenager sneaking back into the house after being out all night. It is not like God the Father was waiting for Jesus at the pearly gates ready to yell at Him for spending the last 33 years hanging out with a bunch of rebellious sinners. Quite the opposite. Jesus left home with His Father’s full support and when Jesus returned home having successfully fulfilled His Father’s plan of salvation, the Heavenly Father was so pleased and, dare I say, proud of His Son that He seated Jesus at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all things. The Father seated His Son in glory. Which is why I Imagine, when Jesus came home, there was a party in heaven; I imagine the streets of gold were full of angels singing and saints dancing. And because Jesus successfully fulfilled the Father’s plan of salvation, it is going to be the same way when you get there. The one seated in glory is going to welcome you with open arms and show you to a seat that is graciously close to His.
The final thing we see when we peek beyond the cloud is our ascended Savior appointed “22… to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” Seeing Jesus appointed head over everything for the church is kind of like watching a football game that you recorded to watch later but your “friend” accidently told you your team won the game. You might not the play by play. There might be an occasional injury or penalty. The other team might score the occasional touchdown. The ref might make a handful of bad calls that rob your team of some yards. You might be disappointed in the way your team ran some plays. But you don’t get angry or upset because you already know your team won the game. Jesus is right now, from His seat of glory, ruling over the church. You already know your team is going to win the game. Along the way there are going to be some fumbles and fouls and unfair calls made against you. But in the grand scheme of things why would we be anything but optimistic. Jesus is in heaven ruling over all things for the church. We already know our team is going to win the game.
Paul was able to proclaim praise will being persecuted and imprisoned because Paul peaked beyond the clouds and saw his ascended savior raised from the dead, seated in glory, and ruling the church. And, thanks to the Holy Spirit, you can do the same. I know life has a way of making even the most positive of people pessimistic. But whatever it is that is currently making you feel that way, be it something at work, something at home, something in your social circle, health issue, financial issue, mental issue, be it a person a place a thing, whatever it is, I am praying that today through God’s Word the Holy Spirit has enlightened the eyes of your heart to peak beyond the cloud sand see your ascended Savior; raised from the dead, seated in glory, and ruling the church. Amen.
[1] Luke 24:51
[2] Acts 21:19
[3] Ephesians 1:3