Sermon for Seventh Sunday of Easter/Ascension Sunday

Text: Ephesians 1:19-21 How very great is his (God’s) power at work in us who believe. This power working in us is the same as the mighty strength which he used when he raised Christ from death and seated him at his right side in the heavenly world.  Christ rules there above all heavenly rulers, authorities, powers, and lords; he has a title superior to all titles of authority in this world and in the next.

Christ's power working in us.

I saw a report this past week of people in our country who are at the point of desperation. They are feeling powerless to change their circumstances.  People have jobs but are powerless to find a place to live and so are living in cars and tents.  People are powerless to make the money they have stretch far enough to pay for essentials like food, electricity, and petrol because of rising costs.  Those who are sick are powerless to afford the rising cost of medical expenses. 

Over the years in the towns where I have served as a pastor, there have been people of different ages who were so trapped by the feeling of powerlessness and failure that they attempted and even succeeded in taking their own lives.

Being powerless is a terrible thing – whether it’s in the middle of a war zone, a famine, a terminal disease, domestic violence, a cyclone or flood – being powerless destroys our will, our freedom, our peace and certainly our joy.

All of us have a sense of powerlessness at some time.  Powerlessness is that sense that we have lost control of what is happening in our lives.  We lose hope.  We are confused.  We wonder where to go next. 
In our powerlessness we might challenge God and question why he hasn’t used his power to help us out, like the psalmist did. 
“Save me, God! I am about to drown.  
I am about to be swept under by a mighty flood.  
I am worn out from crying for help, and my throat is dry” (Psalm 69:1-3).

Can you feel the complete sense of powerlessness, helplessness, how out of control life has become?  Even God seems far away as he keeps on calling, keeps on calling, until he is hoarse.

We feel powerless when suffering a serious illness. 
We feel powerless to change the direction our children are taking. 
We feel powerless to change what is happening in our own lives. 
All of these are beyond our control and ability to fix.
We need a power beyond our own power. 

Some turn to astrology, fate, crystals, cults, gurus, the power of positive thinking.  Some turn to “someone up there”, some universal force that is a greater power than themselves, even though they can’t identify what this vague power might be and hope they might be helped in some way.  “The Force be with you” the characters in the Star Wars movies would say to one another when facing a far greater enemy.

Today we are celebrating the Ascension of Jesus and the reading from Ephesians focuses our attention on Jesus’ power and presence.

The apostle is praying for the people at Ephesus.  He is praying that they might receive the Holy Spirit so that they will know God’s magnificent and  incomparably great power that is in those who believe in Jesus.  He is saying to us also that God’s magnificent and incomparably great power is also in you and me.

And how can Paul be so definite about what this kind of power this is?  He points to Jesus.
We see the power of God on the cross when out of love he gave up the life of his Son for us. 
God used his power to load all of our sin and the sin of all humanity on to the shoulders of the One who died on a cross. 
With power, God brought Jesus to life again when he raised him from the grave, defeating the power of sin and death forever.  God’s power did this for us.
With power, he carried Jesus up to heaven and gave him all power and authority.  He sits on the throne of God as Lord of lords and King of all kings and uses his power for us.

The power that you and I possess, and even the power of the great forces that shape the world, are temporary and easily corrupted.  God's power, however, is permanent, never-ending and what makes it different to all other kinds of power – God’s power is always power driven by love.

Jesus’ power is not a power to be feared.  It isn’t a tyrannical power. Jesus’ authority and power isn’t some distant, far off, unfeeling, vague kind of power. 
Jesus is here with us. 
Jesus rules with love. 
Jesus rules with compassion. 
Jesus rules with his presence and his assurance that he will not abandon us in our time of need and will use his power when we are powerless.

How can I say that Jesus is here with us when it is quite clear that he ascended to heaven, and we can’t see his presence as the disciples did?  How can I be sure Jesus is with me when I can’t see him?

It’s true we may not be able to see him visibly but that doesn’t mean he isn’t with us, or even better, in us.  Jesus said this to his disciples, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. …. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:18-20).

Jesus’ ascension is not his departure from us into another place beyond our reach.  He promises “I will not leave you as orphans”, “I will be with you always.”  But even closer than that.  He will send us his Spirit not just to be with us but to be in us.  Christ will be in us, and we will be in Christ.  “You are in me, and I am in you”, Jesus said.  We have been made holy and blameless by Christ, adopted as God’s children, and Christ now lives in you and me.  We can say, “Christ is in me and I am in Christ”.  That is a very intimate and personal relationship.
Wherever we go,
whenever difficult times frustrate us,
wherever the path of life takes us with its joys and sorrows,
whatever dark personal pathways we go down,
whatever deep valleys we are led down by the people in our lives,
whenever our happiness is threatened, and even death darkens our way,
Jesus is always available and present
with power to help and give us new directions to deal with problems,
with strength to carry on,
with comfort to cheer us,
with forgiveness to heal us,
and hope to look ahead beyond our time of trial, even if that better time is beyond this life to the perfect life in heaven with Jesus.

The power of Jesus isn’t like any power that we know on this earth. 
His power redefines, changes our lives.  It recreates us as his new people through the water of baptism.  He claims us as his own.
His power gives us his body and blood in a piece of bread and a sip of wine and refreshes and renews and re-empowers us.
His power gives us faith through the Word of God. 

When we pray, we are praying to the one who is the “supreme Lord over all things”.  We know that he has the power and the knowledge to answer our prayers in the ways that are the best for us.  He is waiting to use his power on our problems.  He is waiting for us to call on his name.  The writer to the Hebrews encourages us, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb 4.16).  Because Christ rules with grace and love, we know that he doesn’t treat us the way we deserve to be treated because of our sin, but rather he understands our predicament and gives us divine help and strength.  He is in us, and we are in him.  He knows our needs better than we do.  He answers our prayers with his love which, by the way, may not always be the way we might think they ought to be answered.

Without a doubt there will be times, many times, in our lives that we will find it hard to believe that Jesus is really present in us and walking with us as life upfolds.  There will be times when our courage will fail, and we will wonder if God is absent – why doesn’t he act and stop the evil that is happening around us.  And yet we know that God is love – it is the faith in which we stand – Jesus is in us and we are in him, God’s love is also in us and will not abandon us.  This we hold on to even in our darkest moments.

Let’s go back to the Mount of Olives and the moment when Jesus ascended to heaven.  The disciples were once again alone.  The first time they were alone after Jesus’ betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane, they were afraid.  They hid.  They were confused and sad. 

But now on the Mount of Olives when Jesus leaves the disciples we are told, “They were filled with great joy and spent their time in the Temple giving thanks to God” (Luke 24:52-53). The disciples were happy and confident to trust Jesus to give them the power and presence they needed to carry out their task as witnesses to all they had seen and heard.

For all that the apostle Paul had to endure he too was happy and confident to continue serving Jesus and spreading the Gospel.  He says to the Philippians that it didn’t matter if his belly was full or empty or he was cold or warm, “I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me” (4:13). Here is the example of the risen Lord of lords empowering Paul to be content regardless of the conditions he faced.  Christ is in him, and he is in Christ, and he trusted Jesus to get him through every trial and trouble. 

A final word.  Sometimes we are reluctant, even refuse, to acknowledge that we are powerless.  Before addicts of any kind can make any change, they need to admit that they are powerless to make any change by themselves.  Accepting that we are powerlessness is the first step in facing the future.  Accepting that the problems we face, especially Satan and the trouble he causes, are bigger than we can handle ourselves, is the first step in realising that we have a power far greater than anything else on our side.

Our future is safely in Jesus’ hands.  When we are fearful of what tomorrow will bring, with Christ in us, he will give us the courage to face the challenges and to live courageously.  He is close by, in fact, he is in us, and ready to use his power.  We don’t know what the future will bring, but we do know that the future is safe in Jesus’ hands, and that future always includes life beyond the grave.