Sermon - Ascension Day 2025 - Mark 16:14-20

Christ Enthroned, Emmanuel Tzanes, 1664

King Jesus Nourishes His Church

1. Jesus’ ascension marks His enthronement as King

2. His church lives in the wilderness of this world

3. King Jesus rules with a rod of Iron, His Holy Word, in order to nourish us

“So then the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down.” Sounds pretty lame, huh! Here Jesus dies and rises again, conquers sin, death, and hell, and what does He do next? He sits down. It sounds terribly anticlimactic, kind of like the creation account. God creates all things, from nothing and chaos to a perfectly ordered universe teeming with life, and then on the 7th day God rested. But of course God didn’t just give up on the 7th day and take a nap, but He thenceforth continued to uphold and preserve the universe.

Likewise, Jesus ascending to heaven and sitting down does not at all mean He’s just kicking back in His Lay-Z-Boy, throwing back a couple beers and lazily smoking His pipe. Instead, Jesus’ ascension and sitting down are His enthronement as the King of Israel. Since we don’t really have royalty and kings here in America, the whole king thing is a bit foreign to us. But the reigning of a king begins when the king sits down upon His throne and rules over the people. So when king Solomon became king he was anointed and then he sat down upon his throne. Likewise, Jesus’ ascension into heaven and sitting down at the right hand of God the Father almighty means that He is reigning as our king.

This is why we sang in the introit from Psalm 47: “For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne.” Jesus has ascended to heaven and sits on His throne, and therefore behold Christus Rex, Christ the King! The Lord God, King Jesus, has sat down upon His throne and He reigns over all the earth.

However, while King Jesus ascended to heaven, the disciples were left on earth gazing into heaven at His departure. The apostle John describes the ascension in this way in Revelation 12: “She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.” The woman of Revelation 12 is the church. The Son of God rules the nations and has been caught up to God and to His throne. But the church remains here in the wilderness of this life.

Consider how the ministry of the apostles is described by Jesus, which is miraculous in the signs that they perform, but is also done in the midst of many evils in this wilderness. The apostles will be able to cast out demons, but that means that there are demons they must face. They will speak in new languages, but that means they must leave their comfortable homes to live among strangers. They will pick up serpents without injury, but this means that there will be fearsome snakes they must handle. Deadly poison will not hurt them, but this means that others will try to murder them with poison. They will heal the sick, but this means they will be surrounded by sick people.

Maybe it’s not the most uplifting thing to hear that since Jesus’ ascension the church has fled into the wilderness of this world and that we must suffer many things. But I find it remarkably comforting to know that God is well aware of our troubles on earth. It’s one of the most frustrating things when rulers talk as if everything is great in our country, because either they just don’t care about us and so they’re unaware of the state of things, or they are so cruel that they want things to be miserable for their citizens.

But King Jesus  is neither blissfully unaware of nor sadistically contented by our suffering, instead, He knows exactly the state of this world in which we are living, and He Himself calls it a wilderness. Dear Chistians, the Lord Jesus, Christ the King, sees you and He knows your sorrows! He knows that things are not good. He sees His little congregations struggling. He sees His little Christians mocked and ridiculed. He knows your daily sorrows and temptations. He hears your cries for mercy before they even escape your throat. Your every plea and petition are heard by King Jesus and your cries echo in the throneroom of God.

Your King has heard your prayers and so He rules the nations with a rod of iron. The Lord your God not only hears your prayers, but with a mighty and outstretched arm He acts. And on the final day He shall come down from heaven and judge the nations and deliver His bride the church from her sorrows. Until that time the Lord is still preserving His church. The church has fled into the wilderness, but the Lord has prepared a place for her here in which she is to be nourished.

What does this mean that God nourishes His church on earth? Let’s think about it a little bit. In Mark 16, when Jesus comes to the apostles they were reclining at table and He rebukes them. Why? For their unbelief and hardness of heart. That hardness of heart is interesting, because the Greek word used in this instance is rarely used in the New Testament and it means a hardness caused by being dry. Think of how soil that is dry becomes hard like a rock. Thus, this hardness of heart is caused by a lack of moisture and nourishment. And how does God nourish His church after His ascension? “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned… They went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them.” Jesus nourishes His church with His Word.

How does King Jesus nourish you? How does He make the hard soil of our hearts fertile? He pours on the water of holy baptism. He sprinkles us with the oil of His Holy Spirit. He quenches us with the wine, that is His blood, in His blessed sacrament. He nourishes us and brings us up from infancy to maturity with wisdom from on high. By means of this nourishing food the Lord shall sustain you blameless until the day of His coming.

But like the disciples, perhaps you wonder: “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Perhaps you wonder when will the Lord finally return and restore all things. Why does the Lord tarry? If the time is so short, why hasn’t He already come back? But the Lord reminds us: “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority.” Not all things have been given us to know. However, until the time of Lord’s return, He has prepared a place for us, He will nourish us, the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon us, and the Lord will work with us. 

Therefore, clap your hands and shout to God with loud songs of joy! Christ is King! Jesus sits on His throne and reigns over all the earth! Alleluia! Christ is risen and ascended!