Bible Passage: Ephesians 1:22-23
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: May 14, 2026

Bulletin – May 14, 2026 (Ascension)

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

“Who’s in charge?”  That’s an important question.  There are many times and places in life where we need to know the answer to that!  Children in school need to know who is in charge of the classroom.  Players on a team need to know who is in charge and gets to choose the plays and the players.  In your place of work you need to know who is in charge.  Soldiers going to battle need to know who’s in charge.  And if you’ve ever had to have surgery, you sure want to know who’s in charge and calling the shots in the operating room!

Tonight we want to look bigger than all of that.  Tonight, we consider the cosmos.  Tonight we look to the heavens and the earth.  “Who is in charge?”  Ascension helps answer that question!  Ascension tells us that Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven.  Jesus is on the throne.  As our text tells us, Jesus now reigns Over Everything…For the Church.

We have already heard this evening the two classic records of Jesus’ ascension in the Bible.  Luke gives more detail than the other writers about what happened forty days after Easter.  Jesus’ trip with his disciples to the Mount of Olives just east of Jerusalem.  Jesus’ hands outstretched in blessing.  His slow rise into the air.  The cloud that finally hides Jesus from sight.  St. Luke has given us the earthbound perspective of the event.

St. Paul in our text kind of gives us heaven’s perspective of the event.  God…placed all things under his feet. (v. 22)  The first thing we might comment on here is…Jesus has feet!  Now, Paul is using a metaphor (more on that in a moment).  But ascension day is when the Son of God enters heaven for the first time with feet!  What do we mean?  Thirty-three years before Ascension Day, the Son of God left the throne room of heaven to come into this world on a rescue mission.  He didn’t have feet when he left.  He came here to take on feet, and a head, and heart, and hands, and legs and arms.  In short, to become fully human.  The Son of God took on flesh so he could be our substitute.  He would obey God’s will perfectly as our substitute.  He would take the punishment for sin as our substitute.  The Son of God “with feet” would live and die and rise again.  When the Son of God had completed this rescue mission, he returned to heaven.  But now, he has feet!  He is still the same God-Man who lived, died, and rose!  The Son of God did not shed his flesh when he returned to heaven.  He still has his body.  He is still your elder brother in flesh! And now, all things are placed under his feet (v. 22).

Paul is using metaphor here.  To the ancients, to have something under your feet is to have complete authority and control over that thing.  Victorious generals might have the defeated general and his officers sprawled on the ground in front of them, and then they would put their foot on their neck.  The message was clear:  “I’m in charge here!”  All things, Paul says, have been placed under Jesus’ feet.  The message is clear.  If we ask, “Who’s in charge?” the answer since Ascension Day is the ascended Lord Jesus!

And “all things” means “all things.”  There is nothing that falls outside his power and authority.  Nature, politics, medicine, economics, spiritual forces.  Everything is under his feet.  Think of it.  The One who is in control of nature is the One who walked on water and commanded wind and wave to be quiet, and they obeyed.  The One who is in charge of politics is the One who mentioned his name to some soldiers who had come for him in the Garden of Gethsemane, and at the mention of his name, they all fell down!  The One who is in charge of “health and human services,” who gives orders to bacteria and viruses and the DNA in human genes, is the One who healed all who were brought to him!  There was never a case too hard for Jesus!   The One who is in charge of the world’s economy is the One who once paid his taxes with a coin he made appear in a fish’s mouth!  Economics is child’s play for the Son of God!  And the One who is in charge of the unseen spiritual realm is the One who defeated Satan and at the mention of whose name the demons shudder (James 2:19), and who now commands an angel-army of 10,000 x 10,000 holy soldiers!  Jesus Christ is over everything!

And here is where this all gets very comforting.  The enthroned Jesus uses all this power and authority for YOU.  Paul tells us that God made him head over everything for the church. (v. 22)  Martin Luther said this about the Church in his large Catechism:  “I believe that there is on earth a little holy flock or community of pure saints under one head, Christ. It is called together by the Holy Spirit in one faith, mind, and understanding. It possesses a variety of gifts, yet is united in love without sect or schism”.   Christians are that Church!  YOU are that Church.  Paul says we are the body of Christ.  We are bone of his bones!  We are his bride!  A little later in Ephesians Paul will write, Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present to himself a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. (5:25-27).  Christ went to the cross for his bride!  He now sits on the throne for his bride!

Live in that peace!  The One on the throne has betrothed himself to you in righteousness!  Everything that happens – everything in the realm of nature, or politics, or medicine, or economics – Christ does for the good of his bride, Christ’s church, you, and me.  This includes the big things you hear about on the news every night, and the most insignificant little things that no one noticed today except you.  It all must serve the good of those who are loved by, and love, Jesus.

“Who’s in charge?”  Ascension Day gives a resounding and triumphant answer!  Christ is!  Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. (Revelation 12:10)  Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise! (Revelation 5:12) 

Amen.