A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! A curious question from the Apostles sets up the Ascension event, its meaning, and implications. They ask the risen Christ: “Lord, will You at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?” Jesus does not answer the question directly but tells them to remain in Jerusalem (praying and keeping watch) until they receive the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Then, as they are looking on, Jesus ascends before their eyes, tipping us off to a double transition for Jesus: enthronement in Heaven but also His abiding Word-and-Sacrament presence with His people and the giving of the Holy Spirit who reveals this same Jesus is present with and for His people. Now, if Easter is about Jesus as the prototype of the New Creation, then the Ascension is about His coronation as the One who rules forevermore on Earth as it is in Heaven. Easter tells us Jesus stands as the firstborn of the New Creation. His Asc...

"The Ascension" by James Tissot Click here to listen to this sermon. “[Jesus] presented Himself alive to them after His suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the Kingdom of God… So when they had come together, they asked Him, ‘Lord, will You at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?’” (Acts 1:3,6). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! When it comes to Christian holy days and festivals of the Church there is no greater confusion than over the Ascension of Our Lord both in terms of what we are celebrating and why we are celebrating it. We confess the ascension of Christ every Sunday in the words of the creeds: “And He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father” but no further explanation is really given in either of the creeds, and we are left with more questions than answers concerning Christ’s ascension. Why didn’t Jesus stay? Where is He now? What is the right hand of God? D...

Click here to listen to this sermon. "Ascension of Christ" by Benvenuto Tisi " For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ” (Ephesians 1:7–9). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! “Listen, I tell you a mystery”—so Paul writes the Corinthians concerning the resurrection of the body. Today, in our text from his letter to the Ephesians, Paul also tells us a mystery, a mystery made known to us by God. This is not a different mystery, but the same one, for it has its substance and its solution in Christ Jesus. From Sherlock Holmes to Miss Marple, from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Agatha Christie, the characters and authors of mysteries are part of our culture. Even those who usually write in other genres often try their hand at mystery writing, learning the difficulty...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessings in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:3-4). Over 425 years ago, the founders of the Lutheran church wrote: “This doctrine affords glorious consolation under the cross and amid temptations, namely, that God in His counsel, before the time of the world, determined and decreed that He would assist us in all distresses, grant patience, give consolation, excite hope, and produce such an outcome as would contribute to our salvation” (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, “Of God’s Eternal Election,” XI 48). What is this wonderful doctrine that is said to bring so many blessings to Christians? It is the biblical doctrine of predestination or election. To be honest, many Christians have not found so much comfort in the subject of predestination. In fact, some would rather...