Not the First Time He Went Up

Ascension

May 5, 2016

Judges 13:20 & Mark 16:19

Not the First Time He Went Up

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Jesus' ascent into heaven that we celebrate tonight wasn't His first ascension. He had done it before. It isn't a well-known incident, but it is well-worth hearing. Judges, chapter 13. (See if you can guess the name of this special son before I mention his name.)

1 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.

2 A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth. 3 The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son. 4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. 5 You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

6 Then the woman went to her husband and told him, “A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name. 7 But he said to me, ‘You will become pregnant and have a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from the womb until the day of his death.’”

8 Then Manoah prayed to the Lord: “Pardon your servant, Lord. I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.”

9 God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. 10 The woman hurried to tell her husband, “He’s here! The man who appeared to me the other day!”

11 Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said, “Are you the man who talked to my wife?” He said, “I am.” 12 So Manoah asked him, “When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule that governs the boy’s life and work?”

13 The angel of the Lord answered, “Your wife must do all that I have told her. 14 She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her.”

15 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “We would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you.” 16 The angel of the Lord replied, “Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord.” (Manoah did not realize that it was the angel of the Lord.)

17 Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?” 18 He replied, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.” 19 Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the Lord. And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: 20 As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground.

21 When the angel of the Lord did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord.

22 “We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!”

23 But his wife answered, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this.”

24 The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson.

The angel of the Lord is God's Son ascended into heaven on this flame. This Son of God came to Samson's parents as the Angel of the Lord. Over a 1,000 years later, He would be born to the Virgin Mary and would be named Jesus.

Samson was a man sent by God to deliver one group of people at one time in history from being oppressed by another group of people. Jesus is better than Samson. Jesus is God sent by His Father to deliver all His chosen people from all times and all places from the tyranny of all our sin and death.

Samson lived a life full of sin; Jesus' life was so perfect that His most bitter enemies couldn't even imagine up lies to discredit His life and behavior.

Samson ended his life in disgrace, but used his death to kill many of his countrymen's enemies in one crushing blow. But Jesus' death, unlike Samson's, would not be to kill His enemies. No, His death would save His enemies from eternal death and deliver us from evil.

And unlike Samson, Jesus did not remain dead. He rose on the third day, just as He promised. And for forty more days, He taught His disciples all of His promises. And then He went back to His Father in heaven.

Samson's parents saw Jesus' ascend on a pillar of fire; Jesus' disciples saw Him ascend as a Himself, as the Man, who is God's Son. And from that moment on, the God-Man Jesus Christ sits at His Father's right hand. Spirits and angels cannot sit down because they have no body. But Jesus sits. He is the Man who saves. He is our Man, who does His Father's will. He breaks and hinders the Devil's plans. He opposes our sinful nature and proclaims that we deserve to die. But He also sends us His Word that makes us holy and faithful unto the end.

Jesus died for Samson and washed away his sin. And in the end He saved Samson because of His great mercy. Just as He spoke up for Samson before His Father, He speaks up for you. When the Law correctly damns us because of our many sins, Jesus exonerates us with His greater sacrifice of His own life on the cross. And His Father will listen to His Son every time, so that when we see Jesus eye-to-eye, we will not cry out in fear. We will not die when we see Him. We will live.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,

so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Alleluia! Amen!

2 Corinthians 5:21