First Lutheran Church of Little Rock

Pentecost 2 (Proper 5), June 6, 2021

Text: Mark 3:20–35

Theme: Members of God’s family

Other Lessons: Genesis 3:8–15; Psalm 130; 2 Corinthians 4:13–5:1

1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.

1. The Gospel lesson serves as our sermon text for this morning.

1. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:
– Lord, preserve us from the power of Satan. Remove any lingering
doubts we might harbor, that we might be confident in the
fact that You
have bound him and rescued us from His dominion. Amen.

1. Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father through our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Introduction

1. When God created Eve—unlike descriptions of his other acts of
creation—a unique Hebrew word is used to describe her creation.
1. Literally translated, Genesis 2:22 says:
1. “And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he
built into a woman.”
2. From this wording (Hebrew banah), rabbis would recognize woman
as the building and builder of humanity.
3. Thus Sarai says of Hagar:
1. “Perhaps I shall build children through her” (Genesis 16:2).
4. And as Ruth is ready to marry Boaz, the people exclaim:
1. “May the Lord make the woman, who is coming into your house,
like Rachel and Leah, who together built the house of Israel”
(Ruth 4:11).
5. God always uses means, and his means for building families is
woman.

1. God’s Goal Is That We, Individually and Collectively, Live as
Immortal Members of His Family.

I. In his creation, God’s goal was to have family.

1. God’s creatures were lovingly commanded to be fruitful and
multiply—have families.

1. Humans were unique, created in God’s image—a family reference
(Genesis 1:26).
1. “Image” includes the understanding of being one’s child.
2. For example, Adam’s son Seth is described as being in Adam’s
image (Genesis 5:1–3).
– This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created
man, he made him in the likeness of God. (2) Male and
female he created
them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they
were created. (3)
When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his
own likeness, after
his image, and named him Seth.
3. We still use the term in our phrase “spitting image.”
1. More about “image” later.

1. Thus Adam and Eve were sons and daughters of God by creation (Luke
3:38).
– the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of
God.

1. Unlike any other creature, God wanted man to be family.

1. So God instituted marriage—a foundational family concept—for
humans (Genesis
2:18–25).
– Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be
alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” (19) Now out
of the ground
the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the
heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call
them. And
whatever the man called every living creature, that was its
name. (20)
The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the
heavens and to
every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a
helper fit for
him. (21) So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon
the man, and
while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place
with flesh.
(22) And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man
he made into a
woman and brought her to the man. (23) Then the man said,
“This at last
is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.” (24) Therefore a man
shall leave his
father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they
shall become one
flesh. (25) And the man and his wife were both naked and
were not ashamed.

1. Moreover, God created us to want to have families.

1. Families are most commonly established by birth—blood relatives.
1. Children naturally want to be in a family, to have parents.
2. Parents (usually) want children.

1. But foster children, stepchildren, and biological children are all
equally loved as family.
1. Adopted children are of the same status as children of a blood
relationship.

1. Then families are also established in marriage, a union as strong as
blood relations.

1. All these family concepts are used by God to describe his
relationship with humanity.

1. In Jesus, God ultimately became our blood relative, our Brother.
1. From eternity, Jesus had a Father, but no mother.
1. As God’s Son, he is without beginning;
2. a mother implies a beginning.

1. In time, the man Jesus has a mother, but no earthly father.

1. In our text for this morning (especially in verses 21 and 31), we get
a glimpse of Jesus’ earthly family:
1. mother, brothers, sisters, but still no human father.
– Mark 3:21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize
him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
1. Later in Mark 6:2–4 we hear these words:
– And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and
many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did
this man get these
things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such
mighty works done by
his hands? (3) Is not this the carpenter, the son of
Mary and brother of
James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his
sisters here with us?”
And they took offense at him. (4) And Jesus said to
them, “A prophet is
not without honor, except in his hometown and among his
relatives and in
his own household.”

1. Thus, as a man, Jesus is our Brother.

1. But as God, Jesus is also betrothed to his people.
1. Marriage is also a family relationship God uses to describe his
relationship to his people.
2. Christ desired to take us as his Bride.

1. God’s goal is still to have humanity as his family.

1. In disobedience, man lost the image of God; man broke God’s desired
family.

1. Man ceased to be children in God’s family.
2. Of course, Satan had a hand in this (Genesis 3:1).
– Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the
field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did
God actually
say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
3. Therefore, humans now have the devil as their father (John 8:41, 44
).
– You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We
were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even
God…You are of
your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s
desires. He was
a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the
truth, because
there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his
own character,
for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

1. Man is born in Satan’s domain (Ephesians 2:1–3).
– And you were dead in the trespasses and sins (2) in which you
once walked, following the course of this world, following
the prince of
the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of
disobedience— (3) among whom we all once lived in the
passions of our
flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

1. Jesus was accused of involvement with Satan’s family (Mark 3:22–27).
– And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is
possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the
demons.” (23) And he called them to him and said to them in
parables,
“How can Satan cast out Satan? (24) If a kingdom is divided against
itself, that kingdom cannot stand. (25) And if a house is
divided against
itself, that house will not be able to stand. (26) And if
Satan has risen
up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is
coming to an
end. (27) But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his
goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he
may plunder his
house.

1. Now marriage and bearing children are under a curse (Genesis 3:16).
– To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in
childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your
desire shall be
contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

1. Now many, many sins are related to broken families.
1. Betrayal, like Adam blaming Eve (Genesis 3:12),
– The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she
gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
2. adultery
3. fornication
4. divorce
5. unloved and unloving children
6. disobedience in families

1. But God desires that we be adopted back into his family (Gal 4:5–7).

1. The Son of God becomes the seed of a woman (Gen 3:15).
– I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall
bruise his heel.”

1. As the Son of God, Christ is of God’s family.
1. And he becomes the new Adam to bring man back into God’s family.

1. As predicted, Jesus must crush the serpent’s head (Gen 3:15).
1. Our text describes this as “[binding] the strong man” (Mark 3:27
).
2. Jesus must plunder Satan’s goods, taking his “children” away
from him.
3. Thus exorcisms are spoken at Baptisms:
1. the sponsors confess that a child does “renounce the devil”
and all his works and all his ways.

1. Likewise, to restore the image of God in man, Jesus must destroy sin
and death.
1. Death belongs to Satan; Jesus takes it upon himself (Hebrews
2:14).
– Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he
himself likewise partook of the same things, that through
death he might
destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,
2. Sin is the root of death.
1. Eating the forbidden fruit caused death;
2. the wages of sin continue to be death.
3. Therefore to restore God’s human family, Jesus had to
destroy sin (1 Pet 3:18).

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the
unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh
but made alive in the spirit,
1. And that is exactly what Christ did for us!

1. In Jesus, God’s goal is reached; his family in this creation is
restored.

1. Jesus did destroy sin and death and crush the power of Satan by dying
and rising.

1. Jesus now has eternal brothers, sisters, and mother (Mark 3:33–35).
– And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”
(34) And looking about at those who sat around him, he
said, “Here are my
mother and my brothers! (35) For whoever does the will of
God, he is my
brother and sister and mother.”

1. Collectively, God’s people are now also Christ’s Bride (Ephesians 5:32
).
– And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us,
a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

1. In Christ, we now again possess the image of God (2 Cor 3:18; 4:4).
– 2 Corinthians 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding
the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same
image from one
degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who
is the Spirit.
– 2 Corinthians 4:4 In their case the god of this world has
blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from
seeing the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
1. Therefore, God’s family does God’s will.
2. We believe in Jesus, who did God’s will (John 6:29).
– Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you
believe in him whom he has sent.”

1. We are now empowered to behave as family, as God’s children (Ephesians
5:1-2).
– Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. (2) And
walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us,
a fragrant
offering and sacrifice to God.

Conclusion

1. How appropriate that he who must be the builder of every house (Psalm
127:1) ultimately builds his house of salvation through a
woman—the humble
Virgin Mary!
1. Now the Bride of Christ has become God’s building and builder,
as eternal children are continually conceived and born in and from her
through the living and abiding Word of God (Mark 3:34–35).

1. Our restoration as God’s children is beyond the grasp of the world.
1. Thus the apostle John writes:
– “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we
should be called children of God; and so we are.
– The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not
know him.
– Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has
not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we
shall be like him,
because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:1–2).

1. As we live out our lives in this fallen world, we struggle; we have
pain.
1. But we know that as God’s children, we have eternal life.
2. We shall indeed “be like him.”
3. We are waiting for our glorious immortal bodies, bodies like
what was intended for God’s children.
4. Thus, in conclusion, hear how St. Paul explains our immortal
family, speaking of each of us in Romans 8 as children of God:
– The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of
the sons of God.
– For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly,
but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the
creation itself will
be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the
freedom of the
glory of the children of God.
– For we know that the whole creation has been groaning
together in the pains of childbirth until now.
– And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the
firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait
eagerly for adoption
as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:19–23) Amen.

1. Let us pray:
– Lord, thank You for the privilege of being included in Your
eternal family. Keep us in this faith and life forever. Amen.

1. 2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love
of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

1. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.

The Day of Pentecost, May 23, 2021
Text: Acts 2:1–21
Theme: The outpouring of the Holy Spirit
Other Lessons: Ezekiel 37:1–14; Psalm 139:1–12 (13–16); John 15:26–27; 16:4b–15
1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.
1. The reading from Acts 2 serves as our sermon text for this morning.
1. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray: – ‘Cleanse me from my sin, Lord,
put thy power within, Lord,
take me as I am, Lord,
and make me all thine own’ (RH Pope, 1879–1967).
1. Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Introduction
1. Today, We Celebrate the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. 1. Christ, before ascending to heaven, promised his believers that another counselor would come (John 14:16). 2. God kept his oath by sending the Holy Spirit among the believers.
1. For the believers on Pentecost Day.
1. We’ve all seen pictures of this incredible day. 1. The Holy Spirit is God, and he is spirit, which means he doesn’t have a physical body. 2. However, he appeared like the form of fire to the people gathered to celebrate Pentecost. 3. Why did the Holy Spirit do this? 4. For the sake of people, he became “visible.” 5. He wanted people to see the evidence of his presence and be comforted. 6. God is powerful, and whenever the Lord would interact with his creation, especially with his crown of creation, that is humanity, something extraordinary happens.
1. Acts 2 gives that long list of people gathered in Jerusalem from all over the Roman world. 1. Why were they in Jerusalem in the first place? 2. Pentecost was one of the major Jewish feasts, and people from all over the Jewish resettlement would converge on Jerusalem to worship the Lord during this feast.
1. It’s interesting that Pentecost was the occasion to thank God for the harvest of crops, especially wheat. 1. The point of the feast was to emphasize that the Lord was the one who gave the ability to work (Deuteronomy 8:18). 2. Additionally, the Jews reminded themselves that it was God who made crops to grow and yield the harvest, that the Lord was responsible for everything. 3. Perhaps the Jews were tempted to view only the physical blessings on Pentecost, but God sent the Holy Spirit to focus on his desire to save the souls of people as well. 1. “God wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (see 1 Timothy 2:4). 4. A festival of harvest would now become a festival of God harvesting souls!
1. So the Holy Spirit gave to his small band of believers special abilities to speak in different languages. 1. Obviously a remarkable miracle! These men of Galilee were able to speak their messages not only in the Greek language, which all those visitors to Jerusalem could already understand, but in the local “native” languages of these people from all the various regions of the Roman Empire and beyond. 2. An amazing miracle! 3. How sweet for all those listeners! 4. It’s the part of the Pentecost story many remember best.
1. Unfortunately, believers in other church bodies that are not Lutheran single out Acts 2 to be very special, fixating on this speaking in tongues. 1. Unfortunately, they then miss the real importance of Pentecost Day, for two reasons. 1. One, they overlook that the different “tongues” spoken by the apostles on Pentecost were recognizable languages, clearly understood by the hearers, not ecstatic “tongues” or “prayer language” that fellow worshipers can’t understand, as encouraged by certain church denominations. 2. Two, the focus should not be on the people speaking in other languages; attention should be given to the One who gave these abilities. 2. It’s a common temptation to praise the creation rather than the Creator. 1. The believers who had gathered on Pentecost were proclaiming the “wonders” of the Lord (verse 11). 2. The text gives no details on what these first messages were all about. 3. However, they were surely connected to how the promises given to the Old Testament people were fulfilled in Christ, just the way that Jesus explained to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24:27).
1. After hearing these languages, what were the reactions of the people? 1. Some were amazed. 2. But some started to mock that these Galileans were drunk. 3. Peter, the disciple who had denied Christ three times to save his own skin, now stood up courageously and defended these brothers by reminding all those gathered of the words spoken by the prophet Joel. 4. God made the promise to pour out his Spirit on all people. 5. Pentecost is the time when his promise was fulfilled. 1. The Old Testament believers trusted that the Lord would follow through on what he said.
1. For us, Christ’s believers today.
1. How is the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy relevant to us?
1. The Holy Spirit continues to convert to faith people of all nations and continues to preserve people in the faith, just the way he did in the first century, with both Jews and Gentiles, males and females, slaves and free. 1. These faithful people of God then carried out the “Great Commission” themselves. 2. They truly became the witnesses of the love of Christ, and the Gospel of Christ was proclaimed in many places.
1. We are the evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit done by the voices of those faithful Christians. 1. The Gospel has reached our ears and hearts. 2. We’ve heard what brought these first few believers together: 1. Jesus—his death on the cross, his rising from the grave, that he has taken away our sins. 2. The Holy Spirit has ever since been announcing Christ crucified. 3. That’s the reason we now know Christ as our Savior. 4. God’s desire to save started from the beginning of time, and he’s still at work. 5. The Holy Spirit is strengthening our faith through the Gospel and Sacraments. 6. The Word of God is the power of God for salvation to all who believe (Romans 1:16).
1. That same assurance then energizes us to be the people of Pentecost. 1. As Paul says: 1. “We are the jars of clay bearing the treasure” (see 2 Corinthians 4:7). 2. The Lord uses people like us, sinful and weak, to speak the Gospel to others. 1. How can we do this? It is the Holy Spirit living in us who is saving people, and he alone is enabling us to proclaim his Gospel.
1. Whenever we are disappointed at our frailties and sins, we remember our gracious God, who sacrificed himself for us on the cross. 1. He did not remain dead there but kept his promise by conquering death. 2. By his conquering power, given to us by the Holy Spirit, our God will accomplish his will through us, just the way those lowly Galileans became the proclaimers of the almighty God on Pentecost.
1. This will be the mission of the Church until that other day the prophet Joel foresaw, that Peter preached about on Pentecost: 1. “The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day” (Acts 2:20). 2. Jesus is coming back again. 3. Our Lord Jesus Christ will come back to judge the living and the dead. 4. Because of his sacrifice and forgiveness, proclaimed to us at Pentecost, proclaimed by us since Pentecost, we and countless others will welcome that Last Day with praises of Christ that will never end.

Conclusion
1. “It’s no longer Greek to me!” people who were gathered for that first Christian Pentecost Day might have exclaimed.
1. The crowds—you heard the list (Parthians and Medes and Elamites, from Phrygia and Pamphylia)—they all had homes somewhere else. 1. And yet, to God’s faithful people in those days, Jerusalem was always to be like coming home. 2. Like going off to college on the other side of the country, then getting a job there and staying. 3. It’s your address: 1. it’s where you have your things and pay your taxes. 2. But, oh so sweet to get back to Mom and Dad’s . . . 3. The hometown cooking 4. The friends you have not seen in years 5. And hear the down-home phrases, maybe even fall back into your old accent again.
1. Faithful visitors to Jerusalem hadn’t been able to do that, because their “native languages” were the languages of all those distant countries. 1. When they came to Jerusalem, they could get along just fine with Greek. 1. It was the lingua franca (the common language) of that day. 2. Jews living in different parts of the world knew it, but it was impersonal, for business, not for intimate conversations among friends and family. 3. It would have been wonderful to hear God’s good news, the Gospel, in their native languages. 4. Then Jerusalem would be like coming home—even hundreds of miles from where they lived.
1. Well, that’s what suddenly happened at Pentecost. 1. Suddenly they could hear the wonderful works of God, Jesus’ death and resurrection for their salvation, as the sweet words of Mom and Dad, the way they meant the most. 2. That is what has happened to us as well. 3. All thanks, praise, and glory be to our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
1. Let us pray: – ‘Be thou my armor, my sword for the fight,
Be thou my dignity, thou my delight,
Thou my soul’s shelter and thou my high tower
Raise thou me heavenward,
O Power of my power’ (EH Hull, 1860–1935, from Old Irish, ‘Be thou my vision’).
1. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21)
1. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.

The Ascension of Our Lord, May 13, 2021
Text: Acts 1:1–11
Theme: Jesus is enough!
Other Lessons: Psalm 47; Ephesians 1:15–23; Luke 24:44–53
1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.
1. The first reading from Acts serves as our sermon text for this morning.
1. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray: – O, the bitter shame and sorrow,
That a time could ever be
When I let the Savior’s pity
Plead in vain, and proudly answered,
“All of self, and none of Thee!”1

Yet He found me; I beheld Him
Bleeding on th’ accursèd tree,
Heard Him pray, “Forgive them, Father!”
And my wistful heart said faintly—
“Some of self, and some of Thee!”
1. Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Introduction
1. Our parish used to have a Christian day school here at this location, and often when a child going into kindergarten was enrolled here, the child would go through a separation phase with his or her parents. 1. That typically means the child cries for days until becoming accustomed to being in kindergarten and also learning that the parents always return for pickup at the end of the day. 2. Parents come back because they love their children!
1. Jesus likewise loves us, and although he has ascended to his Father, he has promised to take us to the place he has prepared for us in his Father’s house. 1. We may cry while we’re here—for all sorts of reasons this sinful world throws at us—but we can rest assured that in his love for us, Jesus will return for us (Acts 1:11).

1. In this season of trouble, we ask, “Haven’t we suffered enough pain? Where is the good the Lord has promised to us?
1. The young couple had spent the last forty weeks in such excitement waiting for the birth of their first child. 1. The nursery was decorated, and the baby shower had been held. 2. Both parents enjoyed week after week hearing their friends in church commenting on how her stomach was growing as God was busy knitting together this precious child. 3. Now, at their due date, all that needed to happen was for their new bundle of joy to be born. 4. But then the unthinkable happens. 1. The mom-to-be notices that her child has stopped moving in her womb. 2. A trip to the emergency room brings them to their knees when the physician tells them that no heartbeat can be found. 3. Their unquenchable joy and anticipation quickly have become unspeakable suffering and sorrow. 4. They ask: 1. “How can this happen? 2. Why now? 3. Isn’t it enough that we’ve waited so patiently? 4. And the hardest question of all to answer: Where is God in all of this?”
1. On the other side of the country, a “seasoned” couple gets ready to celebrate their sixty-fifth wedding anniversary. 1. The children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren would all be coming home to make their joy complete. 2. The guest bedrooms have been prepared. 3. The food has been ordered and paid for. 4. The pastor has been invited to come give them a blessing at the celebration. 5. Just a few more days and they would start making the trips up to the airport to bring the family home. 6. But then the unthinkable happens. 1. Two days before the anniversary, the bride of sixty-five years awakens to find that her husband—the love of her life—died in his sleep. 2. Their unquenchable joy and anticipation have become unspeakable sorrow. 3. The bride and so many of the family ask: 1. “How can this happen? 2. Why now? 3. Isn’t it enough that we’ve waited so patiently? 4. Where is God in all of this?”
1. In times of tragedy, it may seem that Jesus’ resurrection isn’t enough—but only a setup for betrayal, leaving us again by ascending back to heaven.
1. We as Christians, who are saved entirely by grace through faith outside of any works, are so richly blessed by our God. 1. Yet of course we continue to live here in this sinful world: 1. A world full of trouble. 2. Disease. 3. Uneasiness 4. Stress 5. Crime 6. Fear 7. Mourning 8. Depression 9. And if all that were not enough, even death.
1. How easy it is for us as Christians: 1. In the good times: 1. To allow the words of the author of Hebrews to echo in our hearts: 1. “For he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5–6). 2. But in times of great human sorrow and tragedy, how is it that those same words of God can seem like a cruel betrayal? 1. Do we find ourselves like Jesus’ disciples at his ascension, staring into the sky, wondering what just happened, and perhaps asking: 1. “Isn’t it enough that we’ve suffered so? 2. Where is God in all of this?”
1. The disciples had been through so much with the Savior. 1. They’d witnessed the first of his many miracles: 1. turning water into wine, 2. and then his healing lepers with his word, 3. calming storms and seas, 4. walking on water, 5. raising the dead. 6. They were there—albeit hiding in the shadows—during Jesus’ Passion. 7. The horror and shock to learn that their beloved master was dead. 8. Dead, dead, dead! 2. And then the great fulfillment of Jesus’ promise on that glorious third day. 1. He is not dead, but risen from the dead! 2. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! 3. They were thinking: 1. “Jesus really is who he said he is, and he did what he said he’d do! 2. Now things are in order! 3. Now that we really know Jesus, now that he’s resurrected and alive, things will finally be good for us!”
1. And so they ask him: 1. “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). 2. In other words: 1. “Jesus, will you now get rid of these Roman occupiers? 2. Will you finally shut the mouths of these Pharisees who hound us day and night? 3. We’ve surely been through enough! 4. Now life will finally get better, right?”
1. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, are we any different from Jesus’ disciples? 1. Now that we are Christians, our lives should be better. 2. Jesus will never leave us or forsake us, so this world can no longer inflict its cruelty on us, right? 1. The expectant parents and the bride of sixty-five years who just lost her husband may answer differently. 2. The woman who has been suffering for years with the pain of advancing diabetes ravaging her body and causing her to endure another amputation may answer differently. 3. Jesus’ disciples, after forty glorious post-resurrection days, but then: 1. “as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight” (verse 9), might answer differently: 2. “Jesus, you’re leaving us again? 3. Wasn’t once enough?” 4. “God, where are you in all of this? 5. I know you died on the cross for my sins and rose again to bring me eternal life. 6. But earthly life—this time right now—it’s hard for me!”
1. And Jesus doesn’t answer directly: 1. “It is not for you to know times or seasons” (verse 7).
1. But already now, Jesus’ death, resurrection, and even ascension is the fulfillment of God’s promises.
1. Jesus Is Enough . . . for This Time and Season and the Next. 1. I don’t have to tell you that this temporal life, this time and season, is difficult, because each of us has suffered in one way or another. 1. We each have faced tragedies in our lives. 2. Our challenge as Christians, however, is to remember—and apply to the here and now—what the disciples heard as Jesus was lifted into the cloud: 1. “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (verse 11). 2. Is that not just for another time?
1. The answer is a big fat No. 1. In his final moments with the disciples, Jesus is telling them to let go of the past and to stop worrying about the future. 2. Already now, Jesus’ death, resurrection, and even his ascension is the fulfillment of God’s promises. 3. Yes, already now. 4. From the fall of man, when our first parents plunged humanity into the sin and death of breaking God’s Law, God promised Good News—the Gospel—of sending a Savior to fix our brokenness. 5. Jesus is that Savior. 6. And his saving work has now been accomplished. 7. Yes, Jesus Is Enough . . . for This Time and Season and the Next.
1. Therefore, because of Jesus, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are already with us now.
1. The Father reminds us: 1. “Isn’t it enough for you that the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among you?” 2. The same Word that spoke our world—and each one of us—into existence became flesh and lived with us on earth, died for us, and rose again on our behalf!
1. And that same Word speaks these same words to us in our times and seasons of suffering and sorrow: 1. “You will receive”—have now received!—“power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (verse 8).
1. Jesus, in all of his sufficiency for our lives, reminds us: 1. “Isn’t it enough that the Word become flesh is with you daily and in every moment right now through the power of the Holy Spirit? 2. Isn’t it enough that the all-availing sacrifice of my body and blood on the cross has forgiven your sins and secured your future, promising the day when you will never again know pain, suffering, sorrowing, mourning, or death?” 2. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection allow us to shift our focus from our earthly existence with all of its troubles: 1. COVID and the fear and anxiety it brings. 2. Violence in the streets. 3. People not coming back to church as we would like.
1. By his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus gives us something much better to focus: 1. Our heavenly glory! 2. And he gives us the Means of Grace to do so! 3. By Jesus, for Jesus, through Jesus, with Jesus, God has triumphed over the troubles of this world and points us to a glorious future with Christ. 4. Therefore, Jesus is enough!
1. And knowing that we are waiting for Jesus’ return here in this earthly setting, far from leaving us alone, he gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. 1. Not only so, but Jesus comes to us through his Word, through our Baptism, and in the most real and true way through the bread and the wine, sustaining us with his body and blood. 2. God Incarnate intimately with us here today! 3. Already now! Jesus is enough!
1. And Jesus will return to take us to the place he has prepared for the next season.
1. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, just as Jesus ascended into heaven as God Incarnate, the Word made flesh, he will come again in the same manner: 1. The Word made flesh.
1. He will fulfill his promise to take us to the place he has prepared for us: 1. for the next season, eternity. 2. We have this promise in the best of days and the worst of days, and we have his holy presence as the fulfilment of this promise. 3. “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way” (verse 11).

Conclusion
1. There’s the story of a mother who would bring her young son each morning to preschool, kiss him good-bye, and tell him, “I’m leaving you in good hands.” 1. Years later, as the mother became aged and dementia took its toll on her, the son, now a middle-aged man, took his dear mother to a nursing home. 2. As he said good-bye, he kissed her and told her, “I’m leaving you in good hands.” 3. The mother, who could barely remember a conversation she had just five minutes earlier, began to weep as she remembered those same words that she’d uttered to him so many years ago.
1. When Jesus ascended back to heaven so many years ago, he left us in good hands, for he sent his Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). 1. That’s as true for us after countless generations as it was when he made the promise to our first forebears of believers.
1. Of what I remember in German class in high school and college (which is not much), there is one phrase I will never forget: 1. Genug ist genug (enough is enough)
1. Guess what? Jesus ist genug for us today, tomorrow, and forever. Amen.
1. Let pray: – Day by day His tender mercy,
Healing, helping, full and free,
Sweet and strong, and, ah! so patient,
Brought me lower, while I whispered,
“Less of self, and more of Thee!”

Higher than the highest heavens,
Deeper than the deepest sea,
Lord, Thy love at last hath conquered:
Grant me now my supplication—
“None of self, and all of Thee!”
1. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21)
1. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
1. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.