Ascension Day today! Yay!

ASCENSION DAY is by far more important than Christmas (where we recognise his coming in humility)
More important than Easter (where we see Him dying in indignity)

For here we see HIM GLORIFIED – HONOURED - exalted to the place of great authority – the right hand of the Majesty!

The write to the Hebrews spells it out: The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

Here the church MISSES the very reason for it’s existence! How foolish we are – how our minds need to opened again! Here we think that we exist only for people.

But the Body as a whole – the Church corporate – EXISTS FOR THE WORSHIP OF THE EXALTED HEAD – THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

The Westminster Confession (Short and Longer) sums it all up:
Question: What is the Chief End of Man? Answer: Man’s Chief End is to Glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.
Question: What is the Chief and Highest End of Man? Answer: Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him for ever.

Worship – honouring God – glorifying God - Honouring God in praise and thanksgiving.

And out of our worship comes witness:
Honouring God in our WITNESSING – listen to His words again:
and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

Worship – being in the presence of God – propels us out again into the workplace – the schools and colleges of education, the highways and byways of life – the aisles of the supermarkets and the smoky places of the night – the bridge rooms and the bowling greens, the cricket pitches and the crochet courts.

There we are to be witnesses. We are to tell. To preach! To teach! To declare! To share!

STORY:
St. Lawrence was martyred in 258 A.D. But we remember him, not for his martyrdom, but for his being Archdeacon of Rome. His responsibilities included maintaining the sacred vessels of the small, struggling church and distributing alms to the poor. While he was Archdeacon, the Governor of Rome took Pope Sextus captive and demanded, "Where is the treasure of the church?" The Pope would not tell, and they tortured him to death. He never did tell, but in his agony and pain, Pope Sextus somehow mentioned the name of Archdeacon Lawrence. They took Lawrence captive.

"Where is the treasure of the Church?" they demanded, threatening with the same fate that befell the Pope. Lawrence replied, "Governor, I cannot get it for you instantaneously; but if you give me three days, I will give you the treasure." The Governor agreed. Lawrence left. Three days later he walked into the Governor's courtyard followed by a great flood of people. The Governor walked out onto his balcony and said, "Where is the treasure of your church?"

Lawrence stepped forward, and pointed to the crowd that accompanied him -- the lame, the blind, the deaf, the nobodies of society -- and said, "Here are the treasures of the Christian church."

The riches of the Church are not its buildings, its treasures, its books. How often people think of the church as the grand buildings throughout the world, huge cathedrals and the like.

JUST PEOPLE – a variety of people - who WORSHIP and WITNESS

TO ILLUSTRATE: Do you know the difference between heaven and hell? I heard recently that . . .

Heaven is where the cooks are French, the police are English, the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian, and everything is organized by the Swiss.

Hell is where the English are the cooks, the Germans are the police,
the French are the mechanics, the Swiss are the lovers, and everything is organized by the Italians.

The church is the place where people from all diverse tribes and nations are affirmed in their magnificent variety. The church is a community where people can be what they are, and do what they do best. We are blessed with many gifts and many gifted people in our churches.

BUT the one area that we need to grow in comes out of our relationship with the Exalted Christ – King of Kings and Lord of Lords: We need to grow in WORSHIP and WITNESS.

He is worthy of worship! And what He has done is worthy of PASSING ON – because it is GOOD NEWS for all people.