Julius: you The Lord be with you. Let us pray. Almighty God, as your only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, ascended into the heavens, so may we also ascend in heart and mind and continually dwell there with Him, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. You may be seated. The first reading from Acts chapter 1, the gospel writer Luke actually got to write about Acts twice, at the end of his gospel and here at the start of Acts. And we hear about the ascension, the account of the ascension and what Jesus sends us to do. I wrote in my first book, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began doing and teaching until the day he was taken up, after he had given instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After he had suffered, he presented himself alive to the apostles with many convincing proofs. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and told them things about the kingdom of God. Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, But wait for what the Father promised, which you heard from me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now." So, when they were together with him, they asked, "'Lord, is this the time when you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel?' He said to them, "'It is not for you to know that times are seasons that the Father has set 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, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.' After he had said these things, he was taken up while they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight. They were looking intently into the sky as he went away. Suddenly, two men in white clothes stood beside them. They said, men of Galilee, Why are you standing here looking up into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you, taken up from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. I invite the choir forward for Psalm 47. Psalm 47 is a prophecy of the ascension. The choir will sing the first refrain as well as the verses. I invite you then to join on the rest of the refrains and the glory be to the Father. I'm you As it was in the beginning The second reading, will serve as the sermon text this morning, Ephesians chapter one. I never stop giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, will give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in knowing Christ fully. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope to which he has called you, just how rich his glorious inheritance among the saints is. and just how surpassingly great His power is for us who believe. It is as great as the working of His mighty strength, which God 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, authority, power, and dominion, and above every name that is given, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. God also placed all things under His feet. and made him head over everything for the church. The church is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Our gospel acclamation for today will be assisted by the choir. So the choir will sing the first refrain, then you're invited to repeat the refrain. We'll sing the proper verse and you can join to sing the closing refrain. Please stand to acclaim the gospel. The Holy Gospel according to Mark chapter 16 beginning at verse 14. Later, he that is Jesus appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table. He rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen. He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. but whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe. In my name they will drive out demons, they will speak in new languages, they will pick up snakes, and if they drink any deadly poison it will not harm them. They will lay their hands on the sick and they will get well. Then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. Those who went out preached everywhere. while the Lord worked with them and confirmed His word by the signs that accompanied it. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise be to you, O Christ. You may be seated for the hymn of the day, hymn 472. We'll sing stanzas 1, 2, 5, and 6. Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from our risen and ascended Lord Jesus. We pray. Lord, send us the spirit of wisdom and revelation to open the eyes of our hearts to your glory. In Jesus' amen. I need to tell you about a vast conspiracy network today. It's in charge of everything, behind all the banks and businesses and media and rulers. And it might not surprise you when I tell you that behind this vast conspiracy and control of the entire world is a Jew and the nation of Israel. The disciples were on to it right before the ascension. The last question they asked Jesus was about this. If you could ask Jesus one last question, what would you ask? This was the question they asked, Lord, at this time, are you going to restore the nation to the nation of Israel? They're thinking, here's the Jew, Jesus, the King, he's in charge, and here's the physical nation of Israel that needs to be restored. Is now the time. And Jesus redirects them. You're close, disciples, but you're thinking of physical Jews when I'm thinking of spiritual ones. You're thinking of physical Israel when I'm thinking of spiritual Israel. And so he says, ⁓ disciples. It's not for you to know. The times and dates and seasons, everything the Lord has arranged when it comes to physical countries and physical nations and the end of the world, you don't get to know that. But, I want you to know something better. A real conspiracy, if you can even call it that, that the Holy Spirit would reveal to them about the people of Israel. That is, believers. and the nation of Israel, that is the spiritual kingdom of God and heaven itself. He said, I'll send you the Holy Spirit so that you can really know what's going on behind the scenes. And that was also Paul's prayer for the Christians in Ephesus, and that is my prayer for us today, that the Lord opens the eyes of our hearts to the vast Ascension Day conspiracy. Paul says this in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 16, And I never stop giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, will give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in knowing Christ fully. that they receive the Spirit to know Christ fully. When Paul was writing to the Christians in Ephesus, he didn't really talk about any controversies. This is rare. Most of Paul's letters have something in there that says, stop doing that, stop teaching that, and he has to clean something up. But Ephesus seemed to be doing great. This congregation was doing very well. But what can happen when things are going well? Well, in the congregation in Ephesus, it led them to become a little bit bored with what they had. And you can tell from some other books in the New Testament, it says that the people in Ephesus, started chasing what sounds like conspiracy theories. They started chasing genealogies. Who's related to who? Who comes from which tribe of, physical tribe of Israel? In Revelation, when Jesus himself writes a letter to this congregation, he says, you've lost your first love. He's saying you had it, you had everything you need, you didn't even have any problems, but then you lost your love for the most important thing, the simple message of Jesus and the gospel, knowing Christ fully. And so Paul's prayer for the Ephesians wasn't that they turn to something more exciting, that the Holy Spirit comes to them and whispers some secret that nobody's ever heard before. No, he wants them to have the Holy Spirit which gives them wisdom and revelation in knowing Christ fully, in knowing the things they already know, in going deeper in the basics, in loving it more and more. And I think that's a good prayer for us too. By God's grace, I think we're in a pretty similar position to the congregation in Ephesus. I was just talking with someone how district convention this summer is going to be boring because we have no controversies. That's good. We like boring, but we don't want to be bored with that. This congregation, by God's grace, right now doesn't have any big doctrinal controversies. Don't let that make you bored. Don't think, ⁓ same old this Sunday. I bet pastor's gonna talk about Jesus ascending into heaven. Yes! And Paul's prayer for you is that you never get tired of that. You know, we confess in our confession of sins at the start of the service, we say, I confess that I haven't loved you with all my heart. If we truly loved Jesus with all our heart, we could have one Bible passage, let's say John 3.16, God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. If that's all you had, and you loved God fully, that'd be enough to keep you occupied the rest of your life. start with the first word, God. ⁓ let's think about that for a while. God so loved, he loved the world this much that he gave his son, his son, he gave up his son. You could spend eternity on just one verse but we have this sinful nature in us that likes to get bored, that wants something new, that wants something interesting. No, I don't need to the Bible today, I don't need Bible study, I don't need church. There's things happening out there in the world and we become fascinated with these things instead of. praying and praying and praying that the Lord would give us the spirit to understand what we already know, to dig into the scriptures to know Christ fully. That's Paul's prayer for us. He prays, great his power is for us who believe. It is as great as the working of his mighty strength, which God 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, authority, power, and dominion, and above every name that is given, not only in this age, but also in the one to come." Paul's prayer? That our eyes be opened. That's conspiracy theory language, isn't it? It's like when you buy a car. your eyes are opened, you start seeing it everywhere. For me, it's the Bernstein Bears conspiracy. Have you heard that one? Someone came to me, classmate of mine, he ruined my life. He came to me and he said, how do you spell Bernstein Bears? S-T-E-I-N, I said. Bernstein, right? He said, no, look at this book. S-T-A-I-N. Berenstain? Stain? It's never been spelled that way. I never remember it being spelled that way. He says that's right, that's because you're born in 1990. Oh. He said everybody born before 1990 knows that it's S-T-A-I-N. And I went to someone born before 1990 and she said, yeah, S-T-A-I-N. What? And this wasn't proof that I have a bad memory and that when we're reading we often skip the letters in the middle and assume what's in the middle. What this was proof was is that there was a space-time continuum change in 1990 and everybody before had this spelling and everybody after had this spelling but someone came and changed it. My eyes are open now yours are too. That's gonna help you in life. Paul wants your eyes opened. to something not silly like that, not something useless. And sure, a lot of those other ones seem a lot more serious, but compared to what Paul wants you to see today, they're nothing. Three specific things he wants you to open your eyes to, or the Spirit to open your eyes to today. First, he says, the hope that Jesus' ascension gives. See the hope. Paul says, so that you may know the hope to which he has called you. A lot of conspiracy theories out there make you lose hope. They say, ⁓ you're doomed. There's all these people in the distance, in control. There's nothing you can do. But not just conspiracy theories. That's the news. That's everything you see in life. It makes you feel out of control, like you should lose hope in this life. But Paul wants your eyes to be opened on this Ascension Day that you have a hope because you see behind the scenes. You see the risen and ascended Lord. And you've heard his words before he went to heaven, he said, hey, I'm preparing a place for you. Jesus, your brother, a human like you, true God and true man, he ascended into heaven, which means you can be there too. Where the body is, or where the head is, the body has to come too. He's given you this promise, do not let your hearts be troubled. You have this hope. So you don't lose hope when you look at the state of things in this world because you have a hope of a better world to come when Jesus comes back in all his glory the same way he left and takes you to be there. Paul wants you to see this hope. Second, he wants you to see how rich you are. Paul says, A lot of conspiracy theories are about how the rich people are controlling the world. The rich people. I would say absolutely. But be careful how you define rich. Let's define it how the Bible defines it. Are the rich people the ones who are really powerful, really in control in the world? Yes. And who does Jesus say that is? In the Sermon on the Mount, what did he say? Blessed are the meek, the humble, the poor. for they will inherit the earth. Who are the richest people in the world? It's you! You know our Lord Jesus that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor so that you, through his poverty, might become rich. You're the richest people in the world. You don't store up treasures on earth. You store them up in heaven. Whatever you invest this side of heaven, Jesus says you will be paid back 100 times more. in the next life. You are the richest people in the world who will inherit the earth. Third, Paul wants you to see how powerful Jesus is for his church. He prays that you see just how surpassingly great his power is for us who believe. And his proof is Christ's death and resurrection and ascension. How powerful is Jesus? Paul says, How much power does it take to raise someone from the dead? Frankenstein's monster took a lightning bolt and even then he was still a zombie. After three days in the grave, God raised Jesus' dead body back to life. God has that power and it is at work in your life and for the church and will bring you back from the dead in the end. God's power, how great is God's power? Paul says, it's as great as the working of his mighty strength, which God worked in Christ when he seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. far above all rule, power, authority, and dominion, and above every name that is given, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. How much power is that to take a human and lift him up into the sky and not to the sky and not to space, but to heaven itself? And above every name that is named. Any Princess Bride fans out there? Yeah, let's do it. Princess Bride, I have a friend who can quote that entire movie, and I'm gonna get the quote wrong, so he's gonna watch later and scold me. In The Princess Bride, Vizzini is trying to prove how smart he is, how clever, how wise, and he does that by naming other names. He says, you heard of Aristotle, Plato, Socrates? Morons. Wow. If he thinks those people, the smartest philosophers who ever lived are morons, then he, wow. That's what Jesus is doing here. Far above every name that can be named, who do you think's the most powerful people in the world? Name the names. Trump, Xi, Putin, pipsqueaks. Who are the richest people in the world? Elon Musk, Bill Gates, paupers. Let's go behind the scenes. Who's so powerful? The prince of this world, the devil himself, working all of his schemes behind the scenes. Puny compared to Jesus. The name that is above every name, launched not into the sky, but into heaven to sit down at this place of power and authority at God's right hand. His ascent into heaven makes the launch of the Artemis rocket look like a kid throwing a paper airplane. and don't miss for whom Jesus wields his power. Paul wrote, God placed everything under his feet and made him head over everything for the church. The church is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. God placed all things under his feet for the sake of the church, which means that everything you can name is under his feet. Just reading with the kids, great little story, story with little forest animals. There's a poor group of hedgehogs and moles trapped in their home, and outside is a group of foxes who want to eat them. And these little creatures in here are terrified. But then, the big, good, glorious badger comes with a giant mace, and he tells the foxes, better get down in the mud or I'm gonna bash your heads in. And the foxes collapse into the mud. And then how do the moles and the hedgehogs change when that happens? Woo, they come strutting out of their home. They're not scared anymore because the big badger's right there threatening their enemies and one of them even starts walking over the heads of the foxes. What should we do with these people? Ho, ho. That's you. Without the ascended Lord, yeah, we should be trapped, hiding in our little homes all the things you can name in life that stress you out. Mental, spiritual, physical struggles. ⁓ no! Temptation, sin, the devil, death. We gotta hide until Jesus ascends into heaven and wields his scepter of glory and puts those things down under his feet. which means you can come strutting out. The church is His body. The fullness of Him who fills everything in every way, if they're under Jesus' feet, then they are under your feet. That's the power at work in the world. Open your eyes. Now, it's not going to be visible all the time. It's not going to be easy to see. We don't see Jesus. A cloud hid him, but he's here. So if you want to see what's really going on behind the scenes, you don't have to look much farther than what is happening right here. Look around. The church is the fullness of his body. You want to see Jesus ruling in power? Look at disciples who are confused. But then the scriptures reveal things to them and they go out ready to proclaim. Look at this tiny little group of disciples as Jesus ascended into heaven, become a group of almost four billion people around the world in every country ⁓ under heaven. Look at people here receiving the spirit of wisdom and revelation to know just how rich and hopeful and powerful you are. Open your eyes. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. That's my prayer today and every day. You keep seeing who's really in charge, who's pulling all the puppet strings behind the scenes. It's your savior. And through God's word, by the power of Jesus' grace, it's you. Amen. Please stand. and the peace of God which goes beyond all understanding. Guard and keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus. Amen. We now confess our faith, including in our ascended Lord, using the words of the Nicene Creed. We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father. God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father, through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became truly human. For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who in unity with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified. who has spoken through the prophets. believe in one holy Christian and apostolic church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. You may be seated for the prayer of the church. I'll include in the prayer of the church a prayer of thanksgiving for all of those who are graduating in this graduation season. Ascended Lord, seated at the right hand of the Father, we rejoice in your rule. In wisdom, you govern the kingdoms of this world. Bless all those in positions of authority. Let them lead them to confess that all power comes from you. Continue to work all things together for the good of your kingdom and guard and protect us from all harm and danger. When you ascended on high, you gave good gifts to us. We thank you for sending the apostles and evangelists to record your words and explain them in scripture. Continue to provide pastors and teachers to guide and equip your people, especially be with those graduates from Martin Luther College who were assigned to their first field of service yesterday. Empower us to share your gospel with all nations. Direct us always to you for grace that will help us in our time of need. As our high priest, continue to intercede for us with the Father when we pray in your name, Lord Jesus. as you humbled yourself even to death on the cross before you were exalted on high. Lead us through all our trials in patient and humble faith until you lift us up on high where you have gone to prepare a place for us. On this festival day, we join the angels in rejoicing that you completed the work of salvation and returned to your glory. With those who gazed up toward heaven, lift up our hearts as we await your return. with those who have recently graduated, help them glorify you with their lives as they move forward to serve you in new schools and in new ways. Come quickly and redeem our bodies as you have redeemed our souls. We praise and bless you, our victorious Savior. Amen. We gather our thank offerings to God. Please stand. The Lord be with you. Lift up your hearts. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give him thanks and praise. It is truly good and right that we should at all times and in all places give you thanks, O Lord Holy Father, Almighty and everlasting God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who by his willing sacrifice on the cross took away the sins of the world and by his glorious resurrection restored everlasting life. Therefore, with all the saints on earth and hosts of heaven, we praise your holy name and join their glorious song. Blessed are you, O Lord of heaven and earth. We praise and thank you for sending your Son, Jesus Christ, and we remember the great acts of love through which he has ransomed us from sin, death, and the devil's power. By his incarnation, he became one with us. By his perfect life, he fulfilled your holy will. By his innocent death, he overcame hell. By his rising from the grave, he opened heaven. Invited by your grace and instructed by your word, we approach your table with repentant and joyful hearts. Strengthen us through Christ's body and blood, and preserve us in the true faith until we feast with Him and all His ransomed people in glory everlasting. Our Father, art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Our Lord Jesus Christ on the night he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, and eat. This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Then he took the cup, gave thanks and gave it to them saying, drink from it all of you. This is my blood of the new covenant which is poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. The peace of the Lord be with you always. you you you This is the true bond of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, given into death for your forgiveness. Take it. This is true bond. Take care. ⁓ you and bless you with body and blood, strength and health, keep you in the true faith until the light of your last. Go in peace. you you This is the true God, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We forgive and accept your forgiveness. This is the true body of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Christ your body and blood stream and keep me true faith until we meet again. Go in peace. you and drink this is the true blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ ⁓ Best true luck, we're not free. Christ, providing love, strength, energy to keep you safe until life everlasting. Go in peace. Amen. Jesus Christ. God bless you. Please stand. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His mercy endures forever. Whenever we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. We give thanks, Almighty God, that you have refreshed us with this saving gift. We pray that through it you will strengthen our faith in you and increase our love for one another. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look on you with favor and give you peace. At this time I invite any Sunday school children forward. They will sing the first stanza of our closing hymn, hymn 511, Crown Him with Many Crowns. The paschal candle has been lit for the Easter season, symbolizing Jesus' physical presence on earth with his disciples. We have now celebrated his ascension. He is still with us, but in a less visible way. And so the paschal candle will return next Easter season, unless we have a baptism or a funeral before then. You may be seated. Once again, good morning. A joy to gather together with all of you to celebrate every Sunday is special and this is one of those, a special Ascension service. Thank you to everybody who helped with music today. We have graduation season, as I mentioned. The NELS graduation, Nebraska Lutheran High School graduation, is this afternoon at two o'clock. I promise I wrote an entirely different sermon for that one, so you won't be bored. And it's shorter, so look forward to seeing you there as we celebrate. Sam Walters, our member, is graduating today. The Forever Young Outing coming up has been rescheduled to May 28th, so please keep an eye on that. Also keep an eye on all the fun things coming up this summer. Soccer camp is coming up soon, June 9th through 12th. And Camp Jefferson is coming up and the youth rally after that. Specifically today, thinking about the youth rally, we have a meal after Bible class and Sunday school. And the youth are going to help with that. And that's our fundraiser to help fund their travel there and as well as the cost of registration and things like that. But that does mean you have to stick around, please, for Bible class and Sunday school. Our last Bible class on vocation today, and our last Sunday school classes until the fall. So after this, we'll switch to a 19-minute family Bible study after services. 19-minute family Bible study, and that'll go throughout the summer. We'll have a memory verse challenge, Bible reading challenge, and we'll even have prizes at the end when you participate in that also. Look forward to seeing you at all of those as the Holy Spirit keeps opening our eyes to the wonders of God's grace. Any announcements out there? Alrighty, we'll see you at Bible class, Sunday school, and the meal afterwards. God bless your day.