SERMON NOTES, Sunday after Ascension, 1 June 2025 Anno Domini, the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
The Collect.
O GOD, the King of glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven; We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. AMEN.
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer. Amen.
The theme of the Sunday after Ascension is that of the Bride in Waiting. The betrothal will be sealed at the coming of the Holy Ghost. The dowery has been paid and the redeemed Church is awaiting that power from on high which will enable her to rise in weakness and defeat the powers of the earth – her weakness but the power belongs to God alone.
The victory of the cross was shared by our Lord Jesus Christ with the Father for it was the Father’s great sacrifice and will for which Christ came. This is properly averred by our Prayer of Collect. The Lord came in the humble body of a little child but has risen in great glory to the Father once more and, as the Creed says, “from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.” But what of the longing Church languishing in the hateful world as she endures the waiting for the coming of her Bridegroom? Our Lord Jesus will soon send the Comforter in the Person of the Holy Spirit to guide, direct, encourage and to confirm all that which is written of Christ in the Holy Scripture for Christ is the personification of the Word itself.
Christ gave us only one new Commandment – a commandment that was implied in all the Law of God – that we love one another. By that love, the world will know that we belong to Him. Love is indivisible. If we love God we cannot help but love all those who belong to Him and for whom Christ bled and died.
Peter makes the statement in his Epistle (1 Peter 4) that the “end of all things is at hand.” He refers to the completed plan of God in the redemption of His people and the inauguration of the Gospel Age has arrived. No longer will the elect of God cower in dark expectation but walk in the Light of Christ henceforth. Those who sat in darkness have seen that Great Light! (see Isaiah 9:2) Our love must be evidenced in our consideration for the welfare of each member of His elect and the hospitality we demonstrate to down-trodden as well as the exalted. Indeed, we are told in many parts of the Word that loves covers ALL sin. The lover never harms with intent the object of his love. The child will never bring shame or contempt upon his earthly father, neither will he do so to His Heavenly Father. Just as we love and adore our mother, we will love and adore those of our brothers and sisters of the Church.
Along with the gift of power that comes with the grant of the Holy Spirit to every believer comes, as well, the power of love that compels us to share the good Gospel with all into whom we come in contact – not simply the ordained minister, but every lay person as well as “good stewards of the grace of God.”
Notice the closing words of Peter’s Epistle: “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” “Any man” means all who have been blessed by the elect Spirit of God to be part of His Kingdom in the Church.
In our Gospel text from Gospel of St John15, we who are fore-warned will be fore-armed in our tribulations that must surely come. At the Ascension of the Lord, we await in longing His return to receive us to be with Him forever beyond the toils, dangers and enmity of the world – to be on the safe shores of Jordan Waters beyond the Gates of Splendor.
He was taken up from us in a cloud which received Him, and He shall return in like manner. Every cloud is a promise of His return.
To His Apostles, and to us, our Lord informs us that we too will bear witness. Our status as witnesses will be under constant threat of the world for the world hates Light and Truth. Our witness conforms to that same witness that the Holy Spirit bears of Christ. The Holy Spirit nowhere commends Himself but points always to Christ. The power of the Holy Spirit is not one which we bear as a tool of power, but rather a power that emboldens us with the armor of truth to witness of Christ. He is not awaiting the hour of the tv evangelist to come down at the power of the call of that man, but rather whose power and voice calls us to witness.
Our witness is not only FOR Christ, but FROM Christ. It is by His power and inspiration that we witness. All our good works are His. Without Him, we can do no good thing. All our righteous works belong to Him who works in and through us. It is only our unrighteous deeds that we can claim as our own.
The early church gave strong testimony for the power of Christ through their endurance of persecution and even death in their witnessing. It gave force to our own day in which leisure often prevails over any deep-seated burden to share the Gospel. But there are also men, women, and children in our day who are experiencing martyrdom to the same extent as the ancient Church. There are young boys and girls of tender age who have recently refused to recant their faith in Christ at the threat of the sword. Some were beheaded, others crucified in the Levant, rather than deny their Lord. It calls into question the strength of our own faith (and that of the pulpit dandies) in standing so firmly on the grace and Faith of Christ.
“They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” I need not remind you of the hate-filled followers of a false god who, today, are killing Christians in the name of that so-called god.
To be honest, none of us can know that hidden strength of our conviction until called upon at the point of a sword to stand firm in the Gospel faith. A reporter once asked the great English minister, Charles Spurgeon, if he had the grace to die for Christ to which Spurgeon responded, “No, I do not have.” “What? You are considered the most notable preacher in Britain today yet you have not the grace to die for your Lord?” was the reporters response. “True” replied Spurgeon, “but if the day ever comes that I am required to give up my life for Christ, I trust He will, at that time, give me the grace and courage to do so.” I believe that summarizes the faith of all who are required to lay down their lives for the One who did so for them.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
