Title: The Last Day: the greatest event in the history of the world

My thesis for the first part of this sermon for the last Wednesday in Lent is that the ascension of our Lord Jesus is the greatest event in the history of the world.

If we took a vote of the greatest events that make up this series, this is the one that would easily finish last. Yet, that Jesus left the earth and returned to heaven is the one under which we are living, and a vital reason that we can be Christians.

After His resurrection, Jesus now lived in a body that could no longer die, was all powerful, was glorified, and was spiritual. He no longer would live by the laws of this natural world. He didn’t have to eat to live. He would never get tired. He could walk through walls. He could transport Himself from one place to another—snap—just like that.

If Jesus had not ascended to heaven, His disciples would have hung around Him; they would not have wanted to go out into the world to spread the Good News about Jesus the Savior. If Jesus had not ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit would not have descended from heaven, meaning there would be no people being born again of water and the Spirit.

Baptism would have no power. Jesus could not fulfill His promise to feed us on His body and blood in His bread and wine Supper. The Word of God would have no effect on sinners. There would be no repentance of sins through faith in Jesus Christ. Wherever Jesus was, there would be a circus: "Come and see the two-thousand-year-old man who never ages!"

Following Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter, the ascension to heaven of Jesus Christ is the greatest event in the history of the world because it gives saving benefit to His birth, death, and resurrection. Having ascended and taken His seat of power at the right hand of the Father, Jesus puts His life, death, and resurrection to work. He has sent the Holy Spirit. The Gospel has power to convert sinners to saints. Baptism has power to unite with Christ. Holy Communion has power to dine with and on Christ.

These are the days in which you live, under the ascended and reigning King of the Universe, who has performed the greatest feat in the history of the world by bodily leaving the world so that He could fill the world with His spiritual presence. But, this can’t remain the greatest event in the history of the world, because the world simply cannot go on as it is, and, besides, Jesus has promised one, last greatest event.

The greatest event in the history of the world is yet to come. It is the event which brings together Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, and Ascension. It is the return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of every human being, the judgment of the world, and the new world—the Paradise of the new Garden of Eden—in which Jesus will live with His people, forever.

Those wrong teachings came out of bad theology that took root in the 1800s. The good theology and correct teaching has been in the New Testament, all along, and goes like this.

First, the angels will inform the whole world, with a trumpet blast, that Jesus is returning. There will be no warning; Jesus will return like a thief in the night, descending from heaven just as He ascended to heaven, but He will stop short of the earth, remaining in the air above the earth.

All of the dead, from Adam & Eve up to then, will be raised. With the resurrected, all living people will meet Jesus in the air. He will separate them into two groups—the sheep and the goats. The sheep are the believers, and they go on His right. The goats are the unbelievers, and they go on His left. This is going on in the air, above the earth, because God is busy destroying the earth and recreating it.

Now comes the judgment. The unbelievers are judged in their sins. Their sins had not been removed from them, for they had not lived, by grace through faith, under the salvation of Jesus Christ. The unbelievers, along with the devil and all his demons, will be damned to hell, and the lid will sealed upon it so that they can never get out.

Now, it’s the believers’ turn to be judged. But, the believers are not judged in their sins, for their sins had been removed from them, for they lived by grace through faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ.

So, for what will the believers—that’s you—be judged? Jesus will reward you for the good works of your lives. As you want to ask, "What good works did we do?" Jesus has the surprising answer. It’s not that you built the better mousetrap, or won the Super Bowl, or found the cure for cancer.

Surprisingly, the good works that you do are the everyday things that are right in front of you. Jesus says that when you give a glass of water to the least of His brothers, and clothe the naked, and visit the sick and imprisoned—when you do all of the things that your fellow man needs from you, each day, simply to live, doing these things from the love of Christ which dwells in you—you do these things for Jesus, and these are the good works for which you will be rewarded on the Last Day.

Jesus will give the crown of glory to all of His sheep, and they are now prepared to descend to the newly recreated earth, the new Garden of Eden, the Paradise of eternal life.

Oh, but I have left out a key thing: whom will you be? Of course, you will be you, but you will be the new you. From First Corinthians, we learn four things about the new us—we learn the former things and the new things.

First, these present bodies of ours go to the grave because they are perishable bodies. None of us can escape death. But, the body that Jesus will resurrect on the Last Day will not be able to die, ever again—it will be imperishable.

Second, these present bodies of ours will be sown into the earth in dishonor. It is a horrible thing for a living, breathing human being to be dead and still. It is equally horrible to be closed shut in a casket, and laid in the earth with a mound of dirt over us, or to be pulverized to ashes by cremation. But, in the resurrection, we will be raised in glory, in bodies which will never again suffer a moment of dishonor.

Third, these present bodies of ours will be sown into the earth in weakness. What is it that will kill us: will it be a disease, will we have an accident, will we simply wear out from the wearing out of old age? Whatever it is, it will weaken us to the point of death. But, the resurrection body will be one of power, never again to be weakened.

Fourth and finally, these present bodies of ours will be sown into the earth the natural bodies which they are, prone and obligated to the laws of this natural world. But, the resurrection body will be a spiritual body. This, we can barely contemplate, for there is nothing in the natural world which mirrors it.

Here is what we know, from the Word of God. We will be like Jesus, and we will see Jesus for who He is—the Son of God made man in the womb of Mary, born at Christmas, died on Good Friday, raised on Easter, ascended forty days later, and returned to earth to give us every last thing that our Father has promised.

Finally, we will be at home in Paradise, where no sin, no Satan, no sorrow will ever again visit us. Pure joy awaits.

These are the greatest events in the history of the world, dear Christians. They were promised by the Father, accomplished by the Son, and delivered to you—free of charge—by the Holy Spirit. Next week, as we worship through Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter, you are prepared to rejoice with all your heart, praising Jesus Christ for making you partners in the greatest events in the history of the world. Amen.