THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST




Introduction: Good evening/morning every one. I am so happy to welcome you all. My special welcome to all our parishioners, cottagers, visitors and every one who is here today, dear friends every time we come to church, we celebrate the Ascension of Christ our Lord who is with us until the end of time, we celebrate His sending the Holy Spirit upon us and every time we come to Church we prepare ourselves to ascend with Christ our Lord where we will celebrate life everlasting.
Once a catholic teacher looked at his class and said if you answer the following question, I am going to give you twenty dollar, “Who is the greatest man that ever lived?” Every student came up with different answers. But the catholic teacher was not satisfied and finally a Jewish boy raised his hand and said, “Jesus was the greatest and perfect man that ever lived”. The teacher was happy and she gave him twenty dollar. When he came home, he told his mom the whole story and the mom asked how come you said Jesus. Then the boy said, ‘mom, I know it was Moses but business is business”.

Christ our Lord, after His resurrection, for forty days stayed on earth, appearing to His disciples and preparing them to send them out to preach the Good News of the gospel. Then on the fortieth day, in the presence of His disciples and of all his followers, was taken up to heaven. Yes, He who descended ascended into heaven.

One day an elderly man walked about two kilometers to his next door neighbor and rank the door bell, when the neighbor opened the door, he hand him a piece of birthday cake saying, “my wife’s birthday today and she celebrates her eighty-fifth birthday and the neighbor was happy and wished his wife, happy birthday and then within twenty-minutes the old man came back and knocked at the door. The neighbor opened the door and said, “Joe, did you forget anything?” Joe the older man said, ‘no, my wife sent me back to let you know that she is not eighty-five but only eighty-four”.


1. The Ascension of the Lord tells us where the Risen Christ is now: He is now sitting at the right hand of the father, and fulfilling all our needs. The good Shepherd is looking after his sheep. The Jesus who lived, died and came back to life is still with us, every time we pray, read the bible and come to Church, we can experience his presence among us.

2. The Ascension of our Lord Jesus tells us why Christ appeared to His disciples: He appeared to them to remove their fears and anxieties. They were afraid of authorities and were hiding behind locked doors. Every time, Christ appeared to them, he gave them peace, hope and strengthened and asked them to face the world with his love and kindness. He promised them saying, 'don't be afraid, I will be with you until the end of time".

Once two men shipwrecked on an island. The minute they got on to the island, one of them began to scream and cry saying, “there is no food, no water and we are going to die” but the other guy was so calm and was looking at the sea. The man who was screaming asked, “how come you are so calm?’ because I make 100,000 for a week. What difference does it make, there is no water or food. We are going to die. The other guy looked at him and said, “look I make 100,000 per week and I tithe ten percent on that $100,000 per week. My pastor will find me”.

3. The Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ will come again on the last day. His coming will be our glory and joy. He comes to judge us and those who follow him will have life everlasting. And we who follow him will be given new life, so let us eagerly wait for the day.

4. The Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that those who follow him should go out and preach the good news to all, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says we don't need to be worried of what to say and how to say, because everything will be given to us at that time. So let us celebrate his resurrection and ascension and celebrate our life in Him. Amen.