The Servant, Ascended

[00:00:01] Christ is risen. [00:00:03] He is risen indeed. Hallelujah. This is still the seventh Sunday of Easter. [00:00:09] We've also passed the ascension. Now, Ascension was on Thursday. [00:00:13] Christ has ascended. [00:00:18] Hallelujah. That was a little less natural. I don't know. [00:00:22] I guess we only have one Sunday of Easter on which to do that, so maybe we haven't done that one as much. Let's try it again. [00:00:29] Christ has ascended indeed. [00:00:33] Hallelujah. He has ascended on high. I like that. [00:00:39] Yeah. Well, it's just as exciting, you know. Crown Him With Many Crowns is an epic hymn. It's so exciting. And, Ken, the way that last verse slows everything down. [00:00:53] The way that you play it helps to capture the, well, the majesty of Christ's ascension. Crown him the Lord of Heaven enthroned in worlds above. [00:01:09] Crown him the King to whom is given the wondrous name of love. Crown him with many crowns as thrones before him fall. And that's where, like, it's like, you just see everything below him crumbling and he's ascending. And I just flipped the page when I moved my arm. [00:01:29] Crown him, ye kings with many crowns. So, like, everybody in the highest places are now in the lower place giving him the crowns. For he is king of all, nobody below Him. Christ has ascended. [00:01:49] Okay, we're ready now, right? [00:01:55] You know, why do we get excited about Jesus rising from the dead? [00:01:59] Like, why do we say that Christ is risen? He's risen indeed. Alleluia. We say it because. [00:02:05] Because he rose, we will rise. [00:02:09] Or you could say we've risen. [00:02:13] We share his life already now and will in the end. Well, we get excited about the ascension for the same reason Christ has ascended into heaven, and so we have ascended with Him. Paul says we've been seated in the heavenly places with Christ. [00:02:32] We could describe the benefit of that in many ways. [00:02:36] I want to start just with the image in 1 Peter of the devil prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. [00:02:46] Just hearing those words makes me want to hide like Adam and Eve in the garden, you know, from that prowling lion. [00:02:56] Wolves are kind of like lions. A couple years ago, when wolves were being reintroduced into the mountains here. [00:03:09] I lived in the mountains then. So I thought about a little extra. [00:03:12] And I thought, whose job is that to go and capture wolves, right, and then transport them? It sounded like a dangerous job or just like, at least like an elite hunter kind of job. You know, like, who is it that goes out and finds the wolves and captures them? [00:03:36] And then I read an article about it, and it briefly described it. It's like the helicopter came down and they shot him with darts, make him fall asleep. You know, my image was shattered. All of a sudden, it's just like, helicopter comes down. [00:03:52] It's like I just picked him up and left with them. [00:03:58] I don't know about you, I just thought that was so funny. I. [00:04:02] It just seemed like it would be such a dangerous, or. [00:04:05] Yeah, at least difficult job. And. No, it turns out you just come from the air and hit them with darts. Right. They fall asleep, and then when they wake up, they're somewhere else. [00:04:18] You guys didn't think that was as funny as I did. [00:04:25] Like, Christ has ascended and he's the King of all, and even the kings give him the crowns. Like he's above all. And so that prowling lion who is seeking someone to devour can't touch us. [00:04:43] It's like going to the zoo and there you are above the lion, and the lion can't jump up there because you trust that it was designed properly. [00:04:53] Just a wonder. [00:04:54] But Christ has ascended and. [00:04:57] And you guys aren't cutting me off like you cut off Pastor Pete. You know, a few Sundays ago when he kept saying, christ has risen. And you're like, he's risen. Right? [00:05:06] It's not happening with ascended yet. [00:05:08] It's okay. [00:05:10] Next year, though, you're going to be ready. You're going to be primed so that every time I say Christ has ascended, you'll just. [00:05:21] Thank you. Thanks, Pastor Hesse, for helping with you. I know we'll get there, but there we are, lifted up with Christ above all that could harm us. [00:05:36] In fact, really, I mean, Peter tells us about the prowling lion, the roaring lion, seeking someone to devour for a reason, because this is serious. [00:05:48] But with Christ, you've got to realize that Peter is saying, look, you want to be up there in the helicopter with Christ, not down on the ground trying to take him on yourself. [00:06:02] That's what you want. [00:06:05] It's actually as simple as that. [00:06:07] That's the comfort that we have in Christ. [00:06:09] How are you safe? [00:06:11] Look to Christ and believe in him and you're united with him. Put your trust in Jesus Christ, and, yeah, you're up there above all that would harm you. [00:06:24] Above death, above all your enemies. [00:06:29] Nothing will hurt you. [00:06:32] You're exalted now. [00:06:36] That means humbling ourselves. [00:06:39] Peter reminds us, Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time, he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. [00:07:03] Be Sober minded, be watchful. [00:07:07] Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him firm in your faith. Faith in what? [00:07:17] Faith in Jesus. [00:07:20] Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. [00:07:28] And after you have suffered a little while, the gift, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you to him be the dominion forever and ever. [00:07:46] Amen. [00:07:47] Now wait a second. Christ has ascended and yet we suffer. [00:07:58] Resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while. [00:08:11] There's both. There's both. For Jesus. [00:08:14] He suffered and was buried, ascended into hell. Third day he rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven. [00:08:22] There's both. [00:08:24] Christ, though he was in the form of God, emptied himself, humbled himself, became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him. [00:08:36] Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you. [00:08:43] There are both. [00:08:47] It turns out that while Christ has promised that those who are in him, those who are in his name, those who are Christians, will rise with him and are seated in the heavenly places with him and have an inheritance kept in heaven for them, Peter also says they also suffer with Christ. [00:09:19] And both happen at the same time. [00:09:23] Here's the thing. [00:09:27] Christ. [00:09:29] I'm going to do something here. I'm going to move back to the night when Jesus was betrayed. When he's with his disciples and he washes their feet, it says Christ knowing that all things had been given to him, that he had come from God, and that all things had been given to him. So like he took off his outer garments, wrapped a towel around his waist and washed his disciples feet. [00:10:03] He suffered. And then he told his disciples, if I've washed your feet and I'm your master, then you wash each other's feet. A new commandment I give you, that you love one another just as I've loved you, that you love one another. [00:10:20] Then he tells them that the world hates him. And they're going to hate, it's going to hate them too. [00:10:27] That there's no other way. [00:10:35] Jesus teaches us that our flesh is for the life of the world. [00:10:48] You are children of God. You are a child of God and seated in the heavenly places and have eternal life. That's what Jesus came to give you. You have it because you know the true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. [00:11:03] And that means that you are the wealthiest person in the world because Christ is the wealthiest person. [00:11:10] It means that you have all honor and glory because Christ has all honor and glory. It means that you are safe because Christ is your fortress, because Christ is in the heavens and nothing can harm him. [00:11:31] But your life is for the world. Just like Jesus is the bread that's come down from heaven for the life of the world. [00:11:40] Just like Jesus offered himself on the cross for our sake, so we sacrifice our bodies. We offer ourselves as living sacrifices, pleasing and acceptable to God. And this is our spiritual worship. [00:12:03] You have it all, and that means you have it all to give everything that we are for the sake of our neighbor. [00:12:14] This, this means none of this is. [00:12:19] It's not like, go be a superhero, right? Although the superheroes really are pretty good examples in that they're usually not looking for recognition, right? They're usually Christ figures in that sense, right? [00:12:36] It doesn't mean go and make a big fuss about your serving your neighbor means humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time, he may exalt you. [00:12:51] There are two kinds of glory. [00:12:55] There's an earthly glory seen from an earthly perspective. That's the kind of glory that gets you customers or allows you to amass wealth. It's the kind of glory that says that any kind of PR is good pr. [00:13:21] You could probably name, like, the most wealthy people in the world or maybe the people who own or run the biggest companies in the world, right? And as soon as a company like an, you know, there's news about, well, now a new company is ahead in the race for AI and such. [00:13:42] That kind of glory, that kind of attention, kind of weightiness or shininess, it attracts attention. It attracts customers, followers. [00:13:54] That's not the kind of glory that Jesus sought or has or gives. [00:14:01] Shields has that kind of glory. I discovered not to give them an advertisement, but I walked into Shields for the first time. Can you believe it? It's been like two and a half years. [00:14:16] Yesterday, walked into Scheels, and it's like, you know, you walk in and get the high ceiling higher than our sanctuary, I might add, right? You walk into our sanctuary and it's this big space. Well, you walk into Shields, it's bigger, it's grander. [00:14:35] The light that's pouring in through these huge windows. [00:14:39] You see a mountain over there with a mountain goat on it, ready for somebody to hunt. [00:14:46] Like, you walk in and it's Amazing that the space itself makes it feel like there's a hush, there's like a quiet murmur like I would expect in like a big cathedral if I were visiting someplace and looking for a grand heavenly experience. [00:15:04] And then there's the Ferris wheel in the middle, which we tried and partly went well, but there, I mean, I went up on the Ferris wheel and came to the top and I looked at the world and I said all this. [00:15:27] I felt like I was on the mountain being tempted by the devil, you know, all this could be yours if you just had enough money, you know. [00:15:37] No, it was a grand, grand place and, and you know, just kind of. I really, I felt like this is how I should feel in church. You know, I looked around and there were the big advertisements, right, that were telling stories of their own, like buy this apparel and you too will be honored. [00:16:06] Like your image will be glorious and people will look at you and think how great you are. [00:16:15] Like the stained glass around this sanctuary, it told stories of glory that made you want to be a part of it, be lifted up in that. [00:16:31] Alright, enough about sheols. [00:16:36] But these are the stories of glory that we want to be taken up in. We want things to be glorious. [00:16:42] The reality is that Jesus received very little glory on the cross. [00:16:52] If we want to say any at all, think of Mary there and John. [00:17:00] But he received spitting and beating. [00:17:02] He was naked. [00:17:04] It was an embarrassing, weak spectacle. [00:17:08] And that's where Jesus says that he is glorified in John 17 in our reading. [00:17:15] That's where he's at. He is about to be crucified and he says, now it's time for me to be glorified, for God to glorify him on the cross. Jesus was in all his glory and it was a glory not from below, not something where he was building up an image that would attract attention and such. [00:17:40] It was a glory given by God in self emptying. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that at the proper time you may be exalted. [00:17:50] The glory of Jesus is, is in not looking for attention. [00:17:57] It's in self service. [00:18:04] It's in emptying ourselves for one another. [00:18:07] It's not about any one of us individually, it's about Christ and sharing him with those around us. [00:18:17] The benefit, the benefits of Christ are enjoyed by us but given to those around us. [00:18:29] It's not in our service this morning, but I want to share the peace of the Lord with one another. [00:18:38] And when we do that, when we do that, we're greeting one another but kind of forgetting ourselves and Even saying, like, the peace of the Lord be with you. [00:18:57] I don't know. Maybe we'd rather say good morning. And you could. You could. [00:19:05] When we say, the peace of the Lord be with you, right? Or peace of the Lord, that kind of thing. [00:19:13] We have Jesus on our lips and me and sort of my personality and such are secondary, like, let that be taken up into Christ. [00:19:24] But it's a ritual way to habituate ourselves to setting our minds together on Christ, who brings us together. [00:19:37] Christ who unites us. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, right? One eternal life given to us. [00:19:46] In the reading from John 17, Jesus says, Keep them in your name, that they may be one as we are one. [00:19:58] Jesus makes us one, not in some outward, worldly way, but he makes us one in his name, the name that God has given him that's above every name. [00:20:12] He makes us one in God because we are in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit together. [00:20:21] That's our unity. [00:20:23] It's something that can't be seen or grasped or identified by the world. [00:20:29] It's invisible and shared by faith. [00:20:33] Our unity is in Christ. So let's share Christ with one another right now.