Dear Christian friends:

Last Thursday was Ascension Day, the day we Christians remember that our Lord Jesus ascended up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

When Jesus ascended into heaven He took His disciples out of the city to the Mount of Olives. There before their eyes He slowly went up until a cloud hid Him from their view.

Jesus was very careful to let His disciples see Him ascend. As at other times during the forty days He could have just disappeared. But now He does not disappear. He wants them to see Him leave to go and sit at God's right hand. He will not appear to them again as He did often during the forty days. Now He leaves from their sight. The will not see Him again until they see Him in glory on the Last Day. Why does Jesus ascend? Why does He not let us see Him anymore?

First He wants to impress upon us that we do not belong to this world. We should not look for satisfaction and happiness in this world. This world will be destroyed. This life on earth will quickly end. Jesus has prepared a new world and a new home for us. He lets us see Him ascend so that we will look up to where He is and hope for that wonderful new and glorious place.

Secondly, He does not let us see Him any more because He wants us to believe His Word and promises. He said to Thomas, "Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed." (John 20:29) Before He ascended Jesus said, "I am with you always, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20)

Although He no longer lets us see Him, He is still with us, and with us in a better way: with us in mind and spirit with us through His Word by which the Holy Spirit comforts us.

And although Jesus has ascended and hides Himself from our sight He does not stop loving us and attending to us in our needs.

The Bible teaches that our ascended Lord and Savior sits at God's right hand and prays for us. He said this prayer to His Father on the night before He was crucified. In the verses that make our text Jesus tells us why He prays for us. We need to know that Jesus sits at God's right hand and prays for us. This should give us great comfort and encouragement.

Why does He pray for us? In verse nine Jesus says to God His Father, "I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours." Jesus prays for us because we are God's. God the Father has chosen us to be His dear children. He called us by the Gospel to faith in His Son Jesus Christ. In Jesus He has forgiven all our sins and made us His precious children.

God the Father loves us very much and because the Father loves us Jesus, the Son also loves us and worries about us. That is why He prays for us and because He died for us the Father will listen to Him. Another reason why Jesus prays for us is because we are still in the world." "I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one." (John 17:11)

In this world we have many troubles and temptations. We are children of God, not children of the world. Sons of God, not sons of men. At the time of Noah we read that the sons of men persecuted the sons of God. Jesus says the same in John 17:14-16):

"I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth."

It is hard for us to keep on remembering Jesus' ascension and remember that our true home is not here on earth but with God in heaven. For money or pleasures or fame and other earthly things we are always tempted to quit and give up our faith in Jesus and have a good time with the world and make our hope and joy in the things of this world.

Paul said of one of his helpers, "for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica." (2 Timothy 4:10)

When I went to California last week and saw the great riches of many people and their easy comfortable life, I was tempted to quit the ministry and go into business and make a lot of money and have a good time. Heaven seems so far away and so hard to believe. That is why we all need Jesus to pray for us. If He did not pray for us, we would all quit.

What does He pray for us? In verse 11, Jesus says,

"Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one." He prays that we will be one as He and the Father are one. What does that mean? "be one"? That means that we will have the same faith, same hope, same goals and love one another and help one another. Perfectly united in our life.

Not quarreling or fighting with one another. But learning the Father's will and helping each other to do it. Just as Jesus learned the Father's will was to save the world from sin. He denied Himself and suffered much. He even died on the cross to obey and do His Father's will. By that the Father and the son were, "one".

So we should deny ourself and take up our cross daily and do the Father's will. Remember the Father's kind and good will is that men hear the Gospel and be saved. Are you in agreement with that will?

How does Jesus ask God to do this unity? By the power of His name and hearing the Word. Yes, Jesus prays for us. We are so weak and easily tempted. We need His prayers. We need to know that He prays to the Father for us. This gives us hope and encouragement.

Amen.