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What in the world makes us so embarrassed about the Gospel?
“For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).
Well, this is a special Lord's day in the sense of our text of Luke because we have
finally come to the final paragraph in Luke's gospel, and we close out this great history
with many wonderful memories of what we have learned in these ten years in Luke, many wonderful
benefits spiritually to these great truths, this great account of Christ. Let's look together
at the final paragraph, verses 50 to 53.
Before I read them to you, just simply to make a comment. This is the brief account
of the ascension of Christ into heaven, having completed His earthly journey and His earthly
work. It is a significant event, maybe, in some ways, far more significant than most
people give it credit for. In our culture we have a tradition of honoring the birth
of people. We celebrate birthdays. When there is someone important, we make note of their
birthday. Sometimes we even make national holidays out of the birthday of famous people,
Presidents, and so forth. We do that not because their birth was significant, because none
of their births were really significant. And when they were born, they had accomplished
absolutely nothing. So at the risk of seeming a little bit odd, may I suggest another approach?
That we begin to celebrate the death day of significant people which marks the culmination
of their achievement.
At their birth, nothing was yet accomplished, nor could anything be determined as to what
the future might hold. We might not be sure that they would amount to anything. But when
it was over, then we could look back and see the real value. The only person who ever lived
whose accomplishments were written before He was born was Jesus Christ. And so while
it makes sense to celebrate His birthday because it was already written what He would accomplish,
it also makes equal sense to celebrate His ascension which ended His earthly journey...not
in death the way everybody else's earthly journey ends, but in simply transporting Himself
in full view of His followers into heaven.
And again, I suggest that the ascension of Christ doesn't get anywhere near the attention
that it should. We celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ because of what we know
He accomplished, though it was still future when He was born. And sometimes that celebration
of His birth gets a little bit filled with sentimental things about a baby in a manger
and Joseph and Mary and shepherds and wise men. And for many people, they never really
get much beyond that. If, on the other hand, we were to celebrate the end of His life on
earth, we were to have a celebration and a great holiday marking the ascension of Christ,
which, by the way, we know the exact date of, then we would really remove all the sentimentalism
and we would be left to celebrate all His achievements. That celebration might be the
greatest of all celebrations because when Jesus ascended into heaven, that was heaven's
affirmation that He had accomplished everything He had come to do.
So, for at least this Sunday, we're going to shift our celebration from His arrival
to His departure. Luke began with His arrival, and Luke ends with His departure. Let's look
at the text, verse 50. “He led them out as far as Bethany and He lifted up His hands
and blessed them. While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into
heaven. And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually
in the temple praising God.”
The story of Jesus began in heaven when He left and came to earth. And it ends when He
leaves earth to return to heaven. The story began with condescension and ends with ascension.
Began with incarnation and ends with exaltation. Begins with expectation and ends with consummation.
It began with the Son of God being born of a ***, descending to earth and it ends
with the Son of God being born from the dead, ascending to heaven. The story began with
hope unrealized and ends with hope fully realized. It began with a promise and ends with a fulfillment
and a new promise.
And the story began with praise and worship. And it ends the same way. It began with the
praise of Mary and Zechariah and Simeon and Anna all praising God in anticipation of the
coming of Messiah. It began with the praise of angels. And it ends with worship and praise.
The story even began in the temple when the baby Jesus was taken to the temple and there
being offered for dedication in the Jewish custom, He was taken up in the arms of Simeon
who offered praise to God. Then there was Anna who was always in the temple praising
God. And so it began with praise and ends with praise. It began in the temple, it ends
in the temple.
We have come from the beginning to the end. And in between is the incomparable magisterial
of His life, His teaching, His miracles, His rejection, His death and His resurrection,
a history written majestically by Luke and not only Luke, but Matthew, Mark and John
as well.
However, only Luke is given the sole privilege of recording the culminating event, the ascension.
And Luke tells us about the ascension twice. It's how he ends his gospel and it's how he
begins his next volume of history called the Book of Acts. Luke tells the story of Christ
on earth. Acts tells the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit and the fulfillment of
the Great Commission in the establishment of the church.
So Luke again in his two overlapping, interlocking histories ends with the ascension and begins
with the ascension, which then should affirm to us its importance. It is the culminating
end of one history and it is the inaugural beginning of another history.
As we look at this massive miracle, I want you to consider three aspects...the event
itself, miraculous ascension, the response, and then we'll talk about its significance.
And in so doing, we will transition, if we can, our praise from the birth of our Lord
to His ascension. From His humiliation to His exaltation, from His condescension to
His coronation.
Let's begin with the miraculous ascension in verses 50 to 51. Now we could wish we had
a little more here, how about a whole lot more? We could wish that the Holy Spirit had
been willing to give us some details about this that our curiosity longs to know, something
of just exactly how this could happen, such a staggering, stunning miracle. But we have
a very simple description. “He led them out as far as Bethany, He lifted up His hands
and blessed them. While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into
heaven.”
In the usual understated form of the biblical writers, they have just described something
that is beyond comprehension with very simple language. They rarely even used multiple syllable
words to explain this. There is the ascension described in those verses.
Just give you a little bit of background, where we are in the chronology of Luke's gospel?
If you were to go back to verse 36 when Jesus appeared to His followers, the Apostles and
the disciples, you would be back on Sunday night of the resurrection. That's when He
appeared and said, “Peace be to you.” And He revealed Himself to them and to prove
that He was actually alive, you remember, He asked if they had anything to eat and they
brought Him some cooked fish and He ate. So they know now that He is alive from the dead.
And verse 43 simply ends, “He took it and ate it before them.” That's the last scene
Luke gives us on that resurrection Sunday.
Starting in verse 44, Luke gives us an incident that features two things, two components,
instruction on the Old Testament prophecies related to the Messiah's suffering and dying
and rising, and His provision of forgiveness and the proclamation of the gospel to all
nations.
In other words, our Lord goes back and instructs them from each section in the Old Testament,
and for the Jews, there were three...there was the Law and the Prophets and the Writings,
or the Psalms as they are referred to here because Psalms is the first book in the Writings.
And He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures concerning His suffering and death
and resurrection and His provision of salvation and the need to proclaim this to the ends
of the earth.
So, Luke doesn't give us a time, doesn't give us a place, but sometime in the period from
Sunday night until His ascension He opened the Scriptures, the Old Testament, the only
Scripture that existed at this point, and He instructed them out of the Scriptures regarding
everything they now knew had come to pass.
Second thing He did was give them a commission to proclaim repentance for forgiveness of
sins to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem to be witnesses on His behalf. And then He
ends in verse 49 by telling them, “Don't go anywhere yet, the promise of My Father
must come upon you...that's the Holy Spirit...stay in the city of Jerusalem until you're clothed
with power from on high.” You have your commission, you now understand the Old Testament,
you now understand the fulfillment in My life and death and resurrection. You are now ready
with an understanding of Scripture. You now know that I am alive. You are now ready to
go and proclaim the message of the forgiveness of sins, the gospel to the ends of the earth.
But don't go anywhere until you're empowered from on high.
Now Luke doesn't tell us anything about when and where this was said. It is the same commission
essentially as given in Matthew 28:16 to 20. That specific commission was given in a mountain
in Galilee during the 40 days. This is the same in content but this may be another occasion
where the Lord repeated it in a different way. We don't know that because Luke doesn't
give us that information. If this was part and parcel of the commission that was given
by Matthew, then it occurred in a mountain in Galilee and you have to have some days
for all of them to come back to Jerusalem because that's where they are when He ascends
because Bethany is right near Jerusalem.
So Luke isn't concerned about the timing. The Lord may have repeated the commission,
He may have repeated it several times in several different ways over the 40 days. So in that
40-day period, all we know from Luke is that our Lord instructed them out of the Old Testament
as to what the Old Testament said that He fulfilled, and our Lord gave them the commission.
That's all we get from Luke. If you want more details about the 40 days, and about the ministry
in Galilee, you can go to John 21, John 21 gives a wonderful history and accounting there
of our Lord's interaction with His disciples while He was in Galilee which was where He
spent much of the time over the 40 days. But as Luke ends his gospel, he says no more than
the Lord did these two things.
Now as he begins his history in Acts, and I want to show this to you, he does fill in
more detail about the 40 days. In fact, Luke begins to write in Acts 1:1 and makes reference
to the gospel of Luke, back to his own gospel. “The first account I composed,” that's
a reference to his gospel, Theophilus, the one to whom he writes this history. “The
first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach until
the day when He was taken up to heaven.” So here he also refers to His ascension. That's
why I said he ended his gospel with the ascension, he begins his history of Acts with the ascension.
And then he goes on to say some things that happened prior to His ascension after He had
by the Holy Spirit...”He ascended after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to
the Apostles whom He had chosen.” What were those orders? “To go into all the world
and preach the gospel,” as Matthew puts it, or in Luke's case, “to proclaim forgiveness
of sins in His name to all nations.” That's the orders that He had given them.
And, of course, “During the 40 days He also presented Himself alive after His suffering
by many convincing proofs such as see My hands, see My side, such as give Me a piece of fish
and I'll eat, such as having breakfast with them in Galilee, appearing to them...in verse
3...over a period of 40 days and speaking of the things concerning the Kingdom of God.”
So He filled out their Old Testament messianic theology; He filled out their understanding
of the Kingdom of God. He gave them this great commission. He affirmed that He was truly
alive physically from the dead with many convincing proofs, all of this over a period of 40 days.
“Gathering them together, this time they're back in Jerusalem, He commanded them not to
leave Jerusalem, but wait for what the Father had promised, which He said you heard of from
Me, namely the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit to empower them for this great
mission. For John baptized with water but you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit not
many days from now.” Actually it was ten days later. “So when they had come together,
they were asking Him, ‘Lord, is it at this time of ten days later, not many days when
the Spirit comes? Is this going to be the time when You restore the Kingdom to Israel?'
He said, ‘It's not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed in His
own authority.'” You don't need to know the timetable. “You will receive power when
the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, all
Judea, Samaria even to the remotest part of the earth.”
Now, folks, that was a hint that the Lord wasn't coming in ten days because those guys
were not about to cover the remotest part of the earth in the next week and a half.
So again Luke begins with giving us more information about the period between His resurrection
and His ascension so that Acts 1:8 ends at the same place Luke 24:49 ends, stay in Jerusalem
until you're clothed with power from on high, namely the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Now with that, we can come to the text and look at the marvelous miracle of the ascension.
“And when He had led them out as far as Bethany,” they were in Jerusalem, right?
We saw in Acts that they were in Jerusalem and He told them to stay there. We saw from
verse 49 that they were in the city and He told them to stay there. Bethany is a suburb,
I guess you could say, of Jerusalem. If you out the eastern gate of Jerusalem and you'll
see a Mount of Olives and just go a little to the south and over the edge of the Mount
of Olives, you will arrive in Bethany. It is a little village on the back slope of the
Mount of Olives. Literally the original text could be translated, “He led them in the
vicinity of Bethany.” Acts 1:12 says, “It was at the Mount of Olives.” That is consistent,
just to the east of Jerusalem is the Mount of Olives and just on the back slope of that
hill is the little village of Bethany.
I have a lot of memories of Bethany, having visited a number of times. What makes it so
memorable to me is, of course, visiting Lazarus' tomb there but it was there that an Arab woman
tried to sell me her baby one time. And so it sticks in my mind as indicative of some
of the desperation of people who would be willing to do anything for money. But that
little village to this day is still a very simple and humble little village.
It was a very familiar little village to Jesus. He had stayed there often during His ministry
because He had a family there that He loved, two ladies, sisters, very famous Mary and
Martha and their brother, Lazarus, whom He had not long before this raised from the dead.
And during Passion Week it seems that He would stay there with that family if He wasn't in
the deeps of the Mount of Olives in prayer with His Father. So it was a very familiar
place for Him. And because of its proximity to Jerusalem, it was a great place to go to
get away from everything because it was the Mount of Olives which is right there near
the village of Bethany where the Gardens were, the people inside the city wall very often
had gardens outside the wall and, of course, Jesus went into the garden that we call Gethsemane.
An olive press, olive trees covered that area, still many exist today there. So it was a
restful place, it was a park-like environment. It was a place that He had familiarized Himself
with many times in prayer. And then, of course, during Passion Week, it was there that He
went with His followers after the Last Supper and it was there that He agonized and sweat,
as it were, great drops of blood in anticipation of His sin-bearing. It was there that they
came and arrested Him. And it was there that Peter pulled out his sword and there that
He healed the servant's ear. And it would be there at the Mount of Olives that He would
return, Zechariah 14:4 says He will come back in His Second Coming to the Mount of Olives.
So this little hill on the backside of Jerusalem has a very, very important place in God's
plan. And so He leads them out. In fulfillment of Zechariah 14:4, because He's going to leave
and an angel's going to come and say, “He's going to come back the same way He left,”
so it had to happen near Bethany at the Mount of Olives because that's where He's coming
back. So He led them out as far as Bethany. “And then He lifted up His hands,” which
would be a common gesture for people to make upon offering blessing. By lifting up your
hands, you're pointing to the source of all blessing. Every good and perfect gift comes
down from the Father of life. And He lifted up His hands, pointing toward heaven to symbolize
the place from where all blessing descends and He blessed them.
I don't want you to sort-circuit that statement, “He blessed them,” because I think sometimes
we might think of that as some kind of a symbolism, some kind of a symbolic gesture. It isn't
that at all. It's not some kind of a mystical sign. When He blessed them, it simply means
that He pledged to them blessing. Now according to Ephesians 1:3, “We have been blessed
with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus,” right? According to Ephesians
2:6 and 7, the promise through grace is that God will demonstrate in Christ through all
the ages to come His mercy and His kindness toward us. He will lavish us with the riches
of His grace forever and ever and ever and ever. And so I think what happened here, I
think the last thing Jesus said was blessing. He had given them the commission, that's responsibility,
that's duty. But the final word is the word of blessing. What would He have said? “Everlasting
grace is yours, everlasting mercy is yours, everlasting salvation is yours, comfort is
yours, peace, everlasting peace is yours. I pledge to you My care, My love. I promise
you all the things again that I have promised you all along. I am going to heaven to fulfill
all My promises to you.”
You remember on the night of His betrayal in the Last Supper, the Lord said, “Stop
letting your heart be troubled,” John 14. “Why are you troubled?” You're not losing
Me, and then He launched in John 14 to 17 in all those promises, “I promise you heaven,
I promise you the Holy Spirit, I promise you love, I promise you mercy, I promise you grace,
I promise you power, I promise you all your prayers will be answered according to My name
and whatever you ask I will do that the Father may be glorified.” He just gives them one
promise after another that night in the upper room. But they were having a hard time receiving
it at that point, processing it because this is pre-cross and it doesn't make sense to
them yet. And He may have gone right back to those same things, what else would He promise
but everlasting grace, mercy, salvation, comfort, peace, power, joy, care?
And they received it because the questions were all answered now. They've all...all their
doubts have vanished, all their fears have dissipated and there's no question left. They
know who He is. They know He is alive from the dead. They know He had to die because
they now have an accurate Old Testament theology. They understand the Kingdom because for 40
days He spoke to them about the Kingdom, all its essences. They've had their final lessons
and they get it and they understand it.
And He just reiterates as He parts everything that is pledged to them and to all who believe
by the goodness and grace of God in Christ. It must have been an exhilarating experience.
It must have been beyond comprehension to have Him now you know He is God incarnate,
now you know why He died and why He rose and that He rose and that He's alive and you understand
the fullness of the Old Testament and all the prophecies fulfilled and all your doubts
are gone and your faith is solid. And He reiterates all the promises that you had a hard time
comprehending and you get it. You can't calculate what joy filled their hearts. They went from
the depths of fear and doubt that week of His passion to this most exhilarating moment
40 days later. They understood it all.
Nothing left to say, so while He was blessing them, which tells you that it took time, He
didn't pronounce some formula blessing, in the process of reiterating all the blessings
that are in Christ, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. Never has so little
been said about such a monumental moment. Elijah went to heaven without dying. Enoch,
Genesis 5, went to heaven without dying. But apart from those two guys, it doesn't happen.
Jesus had a new glorified body, the likes of which the world had never seen. And He
had demonstrated this ability to transport Himself because earlier in the twenty-fourth
chapter of Luke, you will remember, won't you, when He was meeting with the two in their
house in Emmaus, just as they were eating dinner He vanished? They wouldn't have been
able to follow Him in whatever way He vanished because they were inside a house. But here
when He parts from them and is carried up into heaven, they actually watch.
This is the record of Acts again, Luke, Acts 1:9, Luke writes this, “After He had said
these things,” and that would indicate to me after He had given them blessing, and the
final note of His blessing is verse 8, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you and be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the remotest part of the
earth,” that would have been the last part of His blessing. I'm going to empower you
for this.
“After He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, all
the way up into the clouds until a cloud received Him out of their sight.” They watched Him
go in a physical, literal form. They had walked with Him, talked with Him, eaten with Him
on the night of His resurrection and later had meals with Him during the 40 days such
as the breakfast in Galilee recorded by John. And then this is amazing, verse 10, Acts 1,
“As they were gazing intently into the sky, while He was going,” which indicates that
they were watching as long as they could see, “two men in white clothing stood beside
them,” angels. “They also said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into
the sky?'” That seems like a pretty obvious answer, doesn't it? Where would you be looking
if somebody was going up? Is the question as trivial as it might appear? I don't think
so. It's really in the structure of the original language, “Why are you looking longingly?
Why are you looking as if you're losing someone? This Jesus who has been taken up from you
into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”
He went up physically and bodily and that's exactly the way He'll come back. He went up
from the Mount of Olives, He'll come back to the Mount of Olives. “And when He comes
back, every eye will see Him.”
He took His glorified humanity out of the grave. He lived for 40 days with those who
loved Him as a glorified God/Man. He then took His glorified manhood straight into heaven,
all the way back to where He had come from in a completely different dimension than time
and space. But He went back different than He had left. He had left as pure Spirit, He
went back as pure Spirit and pure glorified humanity. No more just Spirit but glorified
humanity. And this is proof that heaven is a place which accommodates glorified humans
and it will accommodate us. This is a preview of the Rapture when believers are taken up
and transformed on the way. This is a preview of the resurrection of the dead, whether it's
the resurrection of the dead at the Rapture or the resurrection of the dead at a later
time in the eschatological plan, or the resurrection of the Old Testament saints written of in
Daniel “We will receive a body like unto His glorious body,” Philippians 3 says.
And so He went. The work was done, it was complete. And more importantly He had secured
the complete faith and understanding of His followers. That was critical because theirs
was the responsibility to proclaim the message.
If you were on the heavenly side, what would have happened when He arrived there? Well,
Scripture says He went to the right hand of God. That's a way to describe the place of
association with God, the highest most exalted place that God could give. He sat down at
the right hand of God, Hebrews says. He sat down because His work was over. Hebrews even
compares Him to Old Testament priests who never sit down because their work is never
over. But He having made purification for sins once for all, sat down. Scripture also
says that when He took His place, He was given a name which is above every name, and the
name is Lord and at that name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is
Lord to the glory of God. He was declared to be the name above every name. He is far
above all rule, all power, all authority, all dominion, Ephesians 1 says. Colossians
3 says He ascended into heaven and took His place at God's right hand. So if you were
on the heavenly side, it would have been a coronation.
Now just a footnote. Before He left, according to Matthew's account of the Great Commission,
Jesus had said this, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the consummation of the present
age.”
How could He say that? If He's leaving how could He say, “Lo, I am with you always?”
Answer: because He sent the Holy Spirit who is allos Comforter. Two words in the Greek
for “other,” heteros, other of a different kind, like heterodox, but other of the same
kind is what Jesus said. He is another Comforter as of the same kind as Me, same essence. That
is why the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ. And He said that back in John,
you remember, 14, 15 and 16 He said, “I will not leave you orphans, I will come to
you.” And He came in the form, and the presence of the Holy Spirit who is pure Spirit and
takes up residence in us...ten days later.
So, we come then to the response. “And they..” we started out with “and He...while He...He...He,”
now “and they.” How would you react? There could be no other way to react than the way
they reacted. Why? Because they now understood everything. School was out permanently. They
had their degrees. They were done. They understood the Old Testament. They understood every messianic
reference in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Holy Writings. They understood who
He was. They understood what He had done. They understood the necessity of His suffering
and death as well as His triumph and exaltation. They knew that the salvation that He had come
to provide had been accomplished and that forgiveness of sins could be preached to the
ends of the earth. They knew that everything that the Bible prophesied about the Messiah,
about His impact, about the world's access to this salvation grace was now possible.
They also knew that He had risen from the dead and that guaranteed them their own resurrection
and they knew what a glorified body looked like and they had experienced that, and so
they had some kind of a knowledge of what their own experience would be in glory.
Wow! So they did what anybody who loves Him does, they exploded in worship, fully informed
worship, fully informed praise. “And they, after worshiping Him...” I suppose that
began as He was going up. They worshiped Him.
What can we understand about that? It was the purest kind of worship of which human
beings are capable, fully informed, first-hand experience. They knew the risen Christ just
as they had known the incarnate God in the years of His ministry with them. They understood
the Scripture and how it pointed to Him and how everything was fulfilled in Him, and they
knew the future Kingdom was to come. And they knew He would be back and they exploded in
worship then and there.
Isn't this wonderful? All those years He had struggled to get them to understand anything,
now they get it all. All the doubts are gone, all the fears are gone, all the questions
have been answered. And they know He's the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior, the Redeemer
and they're ready now to preach the gospel if it cost them their lives, that's fine.
By the way, the word “worship” here, Luke holds that word back until he gets here. He's
never used it in his whole gospel. It's almost as if you've got to hold this word out for
this moment because this is worship without parallel to express the final crescendo of
pure confident adoration unmixed with any doubts. This is remarkable because these are
Jews who lived under one dominating command their whole life...worship only God...the
first commandment. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
Don't have any other gods. This then is the affirmation that Jesus is God from Jews.
Now that to this day is the one thing that offends the Jewish people, to tell them that
Jesus is God. This violates their monotheism. But they now know, this is pure worship of
the pure true God. And then this, after worshiping Him, they return to Jerusalem with great joy.
Well I understand the joy...dominating joy. I just would love to have heard the conversations
on the way back to Jerusalem and for the subsequent days, ten days until the Spirit came, as they
rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed what they now knew, what they now understood.
Why did they go back to Jerusalem? Because in verse 49, when He had given them the commission
some time during the 40 days and maybe reiterated it that day again, we can't necessarily know
where Luke's timing is here. He said, at the end of verse 49, “Stay in the city until
you're clothed with power from on high.” And they did exactly what He told them to
do. And this again, folks, I just submit to you is a perfect illustration of how pure
their worship is because pure worship always results in pure obedience. It wasn't just
praise, it was instant obedience. And it wasn't reluctant obedience, it was obedience with
great joy. They returned to Jerusalem with great joy, there's no more sorrow like in
the upper room.
They worship and they obey and pure worship is undiminished. And that's exactly what verse
53 says, they were continually in the temple praising God. You couldn't stop them...couldn't
stop them. If the little hymn in 1 Timothy had been written, they probably would have
sung it. It was written at some time in the future. Paul gives it to us by common confession,
great is the mystery of godliness, speaking of Christ, He who was revealed in the flesh,
vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on
in the world, and taken up in glory. And if that hymn had been written, they would have
sung it.
So, they are a force to be reckoned with, folks. They get it. They understand. They
are eyewitnesses. They are ready to preach. They are ready to pick up their quills, those
of them who will do this, and write. They are ready to come alongside others who associate
with them as they write under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the books of the New Testament.
They are ready to go to the ends of the world. They are ready to die and most of them will,
for the sheer joy of what they now know to be true. And their praise cannot be contained,
and they are continually in the temple praising God. This book began with Simeon worshiping
in the temple. And it ends with them worshiping in the temple, praising in the temple.
Finally, we've seen the event and the response, what's the significance? I suppose you could
approach it negatively, no more stupid questions for Jesus. That would be a certain amount
of relief. No more having to deal with the foibles of fallen creatures on their own turf.
No more hateful Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees. No more having to walk dirty robes with dirty
people. No more agonizing rejection. No more indifference. No more hate. No more sleepless
nights. That would be a very superficial look at the significance of the ascension.
But a much more significant way to look at it is to see what it signals by way of His
accomplishment. So let me just give you some things you could think about quickly. It marked
the completion of His salvation work...it marked the completion of His salvation work.
After the cross and the resurrection, there was nothing more to do to provide any aspect
of salvation. That was summed up in the words on the cross, “It is finished.” I glorified
You on earth, He said to the Father in John 17. How? Having finished the work You gave
Me to do. The work of redemption is done.
Secondly, it is the end of His limitation. He says in John 17:5, “Take Me back to the
glory I had with You before the world began.” He set aside the independent use of His divine
authority and power to become a slave to the Father and that was over. He came back into
His preincarnate glory. He came back, in one sense, more than when He left. He left as
Spirit. He came back as theos/anthropos, the God/Man whom He remains forever. And even
when you go to heaven to worship Him, according to Revelation 5, you're going to see a lamb
who has been wounded.
Thirdly, the ascension marked His exaltation and His coronation. It was then that God gave
Him the name above every name, the name Lord and called on all to bow.
Fourthly, it signaled His sending of the Holy Spirit. John 16:7, “If I don't go, I can't
send the Holy Spirit. It's better for you...He said...that I can send the Helper, the Holy
Spirit who will be with you all the time. He has been with you, He shall be in you.”
Number five, His ascension marked the start of His preparation for our heavenly home.
In John 14 when they were all moaning and sorrowing over His leaving, He saw it so very
differently. “Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me. In My
Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again
and receive you to Myself that where I am, there you may be also.” He is there preparing
our heavenly home.
Number six, the ascension marked the passing of the work of evangelism to His followers.
That's why the book of Acts begins with Luke saying, “The former treatise,” namely
the gospel of Luke, “I wrote, “O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began.” Yes there is the
finished work of Christ, that's the redemptive work, the work of evangelism He only began
and He passed the baton to His followers.
Number seven, the ascension signaled our Lord's headship over the church. He who is named
Lord, He, according to Ephesians 1, who is far above all rule, power, dominion and authority
is given as head over the church...which is His body in which all the fullness dwells.
He's exalted then to be Lord and ruler of His church which embodies His person. That
all is launched at the ascension.
Number eight, it marked His triumph over Satan. First John 3:8 says, “He came to destroy
the works of the devil.” And in His triumph and coronation the Father was affirming that
He had done that destruction in full. The serpent's head was crushed and Christ is supreme.
Hebrews 2 puts it this way, “He took away from Satan the power of death by which He
held men in bondage all their lives.”
Number nine, it signaled our Lord's giving the work of ministry to gifted men. He was
the gifted man with His disciples. He never seemed to pass the teacher's mantle to any
of them. But according to Ephesians 4:8, when He ascended on high, He led captive a host
of captives and gave gifts to men. Because of His work, when He ascended into heaven,
He had provided a salvation that would capture souls who would be given back as gifts to
men...some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastor/teachers for the equipping of
the saints for the work of the ministry. So in His earthly provision of salvation, He
secured the salvation of all future leaders of the church who would be given to the church
for its own edification to make it strong for the work of evangelism.
And then, as we indicated, number ten, the ascension marked the start of His High Priestly
work. He now ever lives to intercede for us. He is our advocate before the Father no matter
what accusations are brought against us by Satan and his emissaries. Who's going to lay
any successful charge against God's elect? No Christ who justified us. He has been in
all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. So He's a sympathetic and merciful High
Priest, the writer of Hebrews says, who can come to us and nurture us in all our struggles.
And finally, the ascension guarantees and secures His Second Coming. “He has been
taken from you, but He will come in like manner as you've seen Him go,”Acts 1:11. What an
amazing event. Talk about something worth celebrating. If we can go all the way from
the birth of Christ to the ascension of Christ, from His arrival to His departure, we'll get
a picture of the whole thing.
He is exalted by His ascension, crowned as Lord. He sends the Holy Spirit. He begins
to prepare our eternal home. He takes the headship of the church. He defeats Satan.
He passes evangelism and ministry to His followers. He begins the blessed work of intercession
on behalf of His people and stands ready to return in God's perfect time.
Yes, in the words of Paul to the Corinthians, “He who is rich became poor, divesting Himself
of all heaven's riches that we through His poverty might be made rich.” So as we come
to Christmas this year, maybe we could go on to the end of the story, get pass the beginning
and reflect on everything that He accomplished.
Father, we thank You for Your truth. The Word never disappoints us, it always overwhelms
us. It is so consistent, so unassailable, so clearly divine in all that it affirms.
We understand those on the road to Emmaus who said, “Did not our hearts burn within
us while He spoke with us and explained the Scriptures to us?” We thank You for Your
truth. Thank You for the work of Christ. We want to be like those followers who worship,
who obey with great joy and who offer continual unceasing praise for this gift of gifts, our
Savior. For all the wonders of this experience this morning and for the joy of our time together,
we offer You thanks in His name. Amen.