For Morning Prayer this Sunday after Ascension, I,
as Lay Reader, delivered the following sermon. I don’t think I committed any major heresies; I will leave
it to you whether I committed any minor ones. Enjoy and be edified.
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“God’s Ways Are Not Our Ways”
This Sunday, we are in the short season of
Ascension. It began Thursday and
will end with Pentecost next Sunday.
And – I don’t know about you – but I find it a slightly awkward
season. During this season, we
celebrate that Jesus is no longer physically with us. That’s a rather odd thing to celebrate! No wonder that
churches tend not to emphasize Ascension season that much.
Now, of course, the Ascension of our Lord is something to celebrate. For Jesus, having departed after
winning the victory over Satan, sin and death for us, is now at the right hand
of the Father in glory. And there
he ever intercedes for us.
Further, Jesus’ departure prepared the way for the coming of the Holy
Spirit at Pentecost.
Now I could attempt to go into these glorious
aspects of the Ascension. But
Father Ben is better at that than I am, so I will leave it to him to do that
next year as he has in years past.
What I do want us briefly to focus on this morning
is the reason behind why we may find Ascension season slightly awkward as I
do. And that reason is that God’s
ways are not our ways.
Isaiah 55, beginning with verse 6 reads:
Seek
the LORD while he may be found;
call
upon him while he is near;
7 let
the wicked forsake his way,
and
the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let
him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and
to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For
my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither
are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
9 For
as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so
are my ways higher than your ways
and
my thoughts than your thoughts.
Note the context in which God, through Isaiah, says
His ways are not our ways. The
context is the proclamation of God’s salvation and forgiveness.
Isaiah exhorts us to turn “to our God for he will
abundantly pardon.” Why will he
abundantly pardon? Because God is so impressed with our agendas? No, just
the opposite. The reason God
pardons and the manner in which he pardons follows in the very next verse: “For
my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the
LORD.” God pardons because His
love and grace and power far exceeds that of man and is far different from
man’s. And it follows that God’s
agendas and methods are far different as well. That is certainly the case in the life, death, and
resurrection of Christ – and, yes, in His ascension as well.
Jesus’ agenda was certainly very different than
man’s. When Jesus fed the 5000,
the people just fed were about to try to make him king by force. But Jesus would have none of that. His
kingdom was to be far different than what the excited people had in mind. He withdrew to a mountain by himself.
On the other hand, pious Jews were not expecting
their Messiah to be God Himself.
They were looking for a Messiah King, not Christ the Lord. So when Jesus
said He was God, when he said, “I and the Father are One” and “Before Abraham
was, I AM” they sought to kill him.
And, certainly, zealous Jews were hoping in a
victorious Messiah that would free them from the yoke of the Roman Empire. And these were surely among the throng
that cheered Jesus as he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
So when, later that week, many of that same throng
saw Jesus whipped, bloodied, and by all appearances completely defeated by the
Romans, the crowd turned on Him.
That was not the Messiah they were looking for. A humiliated Jesus did not fit their
agenda at all. “Crucify Him!”
Now we may look with disdain at those in the crowd
who called for the crucifixion of Jesus.
But have we ever been upset with God, even angry with God when His
agenda turns out to be different than ours? I have.
God’s ways are not our ways. And that can be perplexing at times.
Jesus’ followers wrestled with the ways of the Lord,
even right up until His Ascension.
Just before the Ascension, as recorded in the Acts 1, some of them
asked, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Understandably, they wanted Jesus not
to ascend but to stick around and establish His kingdom right then and there in
Israel. Even after the
Resurrection and being taught by the risen Christ, they still didn’t get it
that His kingdom was to be far far bigger and better than a sovereign Israel
free from Rome. And that kingdom
was to be ignited by the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Jesus therefore answered, “It is not for you to know
times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in
all Judea and Samaria, and even to the end of the earth.” And then he ascended.
The disciples once again found out God’s ways are
not our ways. And, in a way, that
was disappointing. They wished
Israel would be a free and sovereign kingdom again. They surely wished Jesus would stay and become king. But they soon discovered the kingdom
God had in mind was so much better.
And isn’t that way with us. We hope God will provide us with . . .
fill in the blank. And God at
times says, No. And we may be
disappointed. But then God goes on
to say, “I have something even better for you.” In the Bible again and again and again, God tells us He has
something better for us far beyond what we can even imagine.
The Ascension is very much a part of that. For one thing, Jesus is right now
interceding for us before the Father.
We ask friends to intercede for us, to pray for us, and that’s
good. How much better it is that
Jesus intercedes for us!
Further, Jesus told the Twelve of His good purposes
for us behind the Ascension when he said:
“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it
were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am,
there ye may be also.” (John 14:2,3)
In the Ascension, Jesus bodily departed for a time
so that the reunion when he returns will be that much better, including better
for us. Jesus’ prayer in John 17
when he prayed - “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may
be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me.” – that prayer
will be perfectly fulfilled.
I could say more of the glory God and His gracious
ways have in store for us, but I did promise a brief sermon, didn’t I.
God’s ways are not our ways. Did any man - except perhaps the
prophets, and even they saw only in part – did any man conceive of the Messiah
suffering, dying a criminal’s death, but then defeating sin and death, rising
from the dead, ascending to the Father and then one day coming again to reign
and to be with His people forever?
Did any man even conceive of that? No. God’s ways are not our ways. And thank God for that!
Let us pray.
O God, the King of glory, who hast exalted thine
only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven; We beseech
thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thy Holy Ghost to comfort us,
and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before, who
liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Ghost, one God, world without
end. Amen.
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