Here and There for Us
Grace, mercy and peace be with you, from God, our Father, and our risen and ascended Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has promised to be with us always.
Here and There for Us is the title of our message today, here on earth, and there in Heaven.
In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ ascension, we’re told that Jesus promised His followers, “Lo, I am with you… always.”.
We’re going to talk about the different ways God is present, and what it means for us.
First, God is omnipresent, present everywhere.
Jeremiah 23:24 says, “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.
God created these realities we call time and space, and He fills them. There is no time apart from God, and no space apart from God. He fills the universe and beyond.
This shows how great and unlimited God is. Because He has unlimited abilities, He’s able to do what we can’t, most of all, to give us life and save us.
Since God is everywhere, and always present, let us strive to live in a godly way that honors His presence, rather than in a sinful, selfish way, that mocks and despises His presence.
Another way God is present in Heaven, His heavenly presence. There God will be fully revealed to us.
Here on earth, in our fallen state, we can’t see or fully discern God. But in Heaven, in our glorified state, we will.
And it will be like nothing we’ve ever seen before, God in all His glory, shining on us, and lighting up Heaven, as Revelation 21 says.
God’s full and heavenly presence means that all His blessings will be there for us.
His blessings accompany His presence. In the fullness of His presence, will be the abundance of His blessings.
As His Heavenly presence is glorious and eternal, so His blessings will be glorious and eternal.
So that we might fully and forever experience His Heavenly presence and blessings, God became present in another way: physically, in a man, on earth. God is present in Christ, to save and bless us, His incarnational presence.
The Son of God came to be with us, and to be one of us, human like us, to go through what we go through in this life, but to do so without sin, with perfect love and obedience, so that He could take our place and die for our sins, and then rise for our salvation, His saving presence.
Since Jesus is risen and ascended, He’s present now in Heaven, and there we’ll see Him at last, in all His beauty, our beautiful Savior. From on high, He rules on our behalf, and sends us His Spirit.
Jesus is here and there for us! He came here to save us, but He had to go back, so that with His Father, He could send us the Holy Spirit to help us on earth.
And that leads to another way that God is present: He’s present in His Church, in and among His people.
To better understand this, let’s go back to the Old Testament and look at God’s presence among His people then.
At the time of Moses, as they traveled through the wilderness, God was present with them in a pillar of fire by night, and a pillar of cloud by day.
In the fire and the cloud, God was there to personally lead and protect them.
After they received the law on Mount Sinai, God made His presence known to them in another way, in the tabernacle, and later the temple, in the innermost part, the holy of holies, where the ark of the covenant was kept.
God’s holy presence was in that small space, 10 cubits by 10 cubits by 10 cubits. 15 feet wide, 15 feet deep, and 15 feet high.
That sacred place was hidden behind a heavy curtain. (There we see the curtain pulled back so we can the ark inside, but it would have been closed.)
Only the high priest was allowed to enter, and only once a year, on the day of atonement, when he would sprinkle the blood of sacrificed animals on the ark.
That represented the forgiveness that would be won by Jesus, through His presence on earth, as His blood was shed on the cross.
When Jesus died, the curtain tore in two, showing that He has won our forgiveness, so that we might come into the presence of God, to receive His many blessings.
We no longer have the tabernacle or temple, but we have the church, where God is present with us, through His Word and Sacraments.
Jesus promises, Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Where we gather around God’s Word and Sacrament, there is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with us.
Where the Word is taught and the Gospel proclaimed, there God is, blessing us.
As we confess our sins, God comes to us in His word of Absolution, and gives us His personal forgiveness.
And in Baptism, the Holy Spirit, comes to us, and by faith, lives and abides in us.
1 Corinthians 6:19 says, Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the
Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?
God in us, is our power to believe. When the Holy Spirit enters into our hearts and spirits He brings His gifts, which bless us, so that we can be a blessing to others.
Through Baptism, by faith, not only is the Holy Spirit in us, blessing us, but Christ, Himself is in us, and blessing us.
In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul says, Do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?”
And Ephesians 3:17, That Christ may make His home in your heart through faith.
God is present in His Church, in the hearts and souls of His people, wherever they are.
And Christ is present in another amazing way, in His Sacrament, with His body and blood, which are truly present in, with and under the bread and the wine, what we call the sacramental union.
In this extraordinary way, the most personal way possible, Christ comes to us, and within us, giving us His very self, His body broken for us, and His blood shed for us, to forgive and comfort and renew and strengthen us. to bless us in many powerful and personal ways.
Finally, one more way that we will experience the presence of God, the way promised by the angel in our reading from Acts, “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Jesus will come again, visibly. He will be present for the whole world to see, and to raise and judge all for their place in eternity.
God is with us in so many wonderful ways. 1) His omnipresence. God is present everywhere, in time and space and beyond.
2) God is present in Heaven, His heavenly presence, to be with us and bless us eternally.
3) God is present in Christ, His incarnational presence. Jesus is God with us, blessing and saving us.
4) God is present in the Church, in and among His people, through His Word and Sacraments, to forgive and renew and comfort and empower us.
By being present in all these amazing ways, God shows how much He wants to be with us, that He might richly and personally bless us.
Knowing how close God wants to be to us, let us always be close to Him, and to one another.
As God is here on earth for us, and there in Heaven for us, so let us be present for others; let us be here, in the church for them, and out there in the world for them, especially in their time of need.
Let us be here and there to offer God’s Word and share His blessings with others, and to do what we can. Sometimes all you can do is to just be there; your presence shows you care.
God’s amazing presence shows how great He is, and how much He cares, so much so, that He is present with one last, extraordinary blessing, His peace which passes understanding. May it always guard your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus, who is with us always. Amen.