As we look together to the Scripture, earlier in our service I

read from the last section of Luke’s gospel. I want to begin

the message this morning by reading from his second
volume. Luke wrote two volumes: the gospel of Luke and the
book of Acts, as we call it. He begins the book of Acts in
chapter 1 by referring to the same event that he referred to
when he closed the book of Luke. Let’s look at Acts chapter 1.
He ended his gospel with Christ going to heaven. He begins
volume 2 with Christ going to heaven. Volume 1 is the story
of Christ, and volume 2 is the story of the church.
Chapter 1 of the book of Acts, verse 1: “The first account” –
meaning the gospel of Luke – “I composed, Theophilus, about
all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He
was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given
orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He
also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many
convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty
days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of
God. Gathering them together, He commanded them not to
leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had
promised, ‘Which,’ He said, ‘you heard of from Me; for John
baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy
Spirit not many days from now.’
“So when they had come together, they were asking Him,
saying, ‘Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom
to Israel?’ He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or
epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but
you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon
you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in
all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the
earth.’
“After He had said these things, He was lifted up while they
were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was
going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them.
They also said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you standing looking
into the sky? 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.’” And so does Luke begin
volume 2 of his account by referring to the same event with
which he closed volume 1: the ascension of the Lord Jesus
into heaven.
On Friday, Good Friday, we considered the cross of Christ.
We considered it by looking at our Lord in the garden; and
there, seeing His attitudes demonstrated to us His view of
the cross. He knew exactly what was coming. Yes, of course,
He knew the physical elements of crucifixion; He had seen
them done to other people. He also knew the details that
would happen to Him, because the prophets described those
details, even in the Old Testament. And He Himself spoke
concerning the very sequence of things that would be done
to Him, including His arrest, and even that they would spit on
Him and scourge Him. All of that He was fully aware of, and
anticipated.
But that is not what caused Him such terror in the garden.
That is not what produced the agony that made Him so
deeply distressed He came near dying in the garden before
He ever got to the cross, and is not the physical things that
He was anticipating that caused Him to sweat, as it were,
great drops of blood, and be in agony, and cry out if there’s
any way that the Father might change the plan for Him to do
it. No. He saw His death not just for the physical elements of
it, but He saw it for the spiritual realities of it. And what He
saw was a true understanding of His death. He would not die
as just a misunderstood religious leader. He would not die as
a rejected, noble prophet/teacher. He was about to die
under the full fury of the wrath of God, His Father.
What He saw coming against Him was not so much Jewish
animosity and hatred, or Roman brutality. But what He saw
coming against Him was the fury of the Father of His eternal
love. He saw His death for what it was. He had a right
understanding of His death. He anticipated the wrath, the
anger, the fury of His Father coming on Him to punish Him
for all the sins of all the people who would ever believe
through all of human history. He realized that He was about
to bear divine punishment for all the sins of all the people of
God. He was going to die as their substitute: a
substitutionary, sacrificial atoning death, chosen as the Lamb
of God, to provide forgiveness, salvation, and everlasting life
to unworthy sinners. He accurately understood the human
experience of crucifixion.
More importantly, He understood the spiritual reality of it;
and that is what was so terrifying to Him. He was in the
garden, the garden of sweet communion with the Father, the
garden where He Himself would go in order to talk with the
Father, commune with the Father. And now He was in that
garden, and it was if the Father was hunting Him down to
execute Him in this horrendous way. Still we saw on Friday
that it was a garden of glory, because we saw His holy
sorrow, His holy trust, His holy strength, and even holy
worship, as an angel appeared to give Him a taste of the
worship that was awaiting Him in heaven. So we looked at
the cross from before the cross, the view of Christ.
Now for this morning, I want us to look at the resurrection
not by looking specifically at the resurrection, but by seeing
the Father’s view looking back at the resurrection. We saw
Christ looking forward to His death, and now we’re going to
see the Father looking back at the resurrection. What was
the Father’s view of the cross and resurrection?
A couple of passages to begin with. If you will, turn to
Philippians chapter 2. That is a very famous chapter,
Philippians 2, that describes the spiritual realities of Christ
incarnation. It tells about Him being equal with God, and yet
being willing to descend, condescend, humble Himself. Verse
7 of Philippians 2 says, “He emptied Himself of His divine
prerogatives. He did not cease to be God, but took on the
form of a slave, and was make in the likeness of men.” God,
the second person of the Trinity, takes on human form.
Verse 8: “He was found in appearance as a man, He humbled
Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even
death on a cross.” This is a familiar portion of Scripture that
describes the incarnation. God, the eternal second person of
the Trinity, comes down, takes on human form, is developed
in the womb of Mary, is born of Mary the virgin, lives a
perfectly obedient life all the way to the point of death, and
willingly suffers death at the most ignominious level: death
on a cross.
And then we hear the Father’s response, verse 9: “For this
reason also,” – because of His obedience, because of His
willing humiliation – “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed
on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the
name of Jesus every knew will bow, of those who are in
heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every
tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of
God the Father.”
What was the Father’s commentary on our Lord’s death? It
was His ascension. Did you notice something missing there?
You have many components of the life of Christ in that brief
passage. Verse 6 says that “He existed in the form of God,
and was equal with God.” That’s His eternal deity. But then in
verse 7: “He emptied Himself, took the form of a slave, was
made in likeness of a man.” That’s the virgin birth. And then
He is appearing as a man; that’s His life. It is a sinless life,
though humble, because He is obedient throughout that life,
even to the point of death. And then you have His cross.
But something is missing. There’s no mention of the
resurrection. God’s response in verse 9 is to highly exalt Him,
and bestow on Him the name which is above every name, the
name Lord, and then call on everyone to bow the knew to
Him as sovereign. There’s no mention of the resurrection in
Philippians 2.
The resurrection, I’m not diminishing it. How could you
diminish it? It is not to be diminished, because you can’t even
be a believer unless you acknowledge Jesus as Lord and
believe that God raised Him from the dead. I’m not
diminishing the resurrection. But what I am saying is the
resurrection is not the final event in the life of Christ. It is the
penultimate event, and not the ultimate event. And the
Father goes right to the ultimate, divine commentary on the
death of Christ: “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on
Him the name which is above every name.” He exalted Him
above every other person.
The ascension is the ultimate event in the life of Christ,
because glory is the ultimate goal in the life of Christ. The
ascension is the most neglected event in the life of Christ,
even though it is the culminating, monumental, consummate
event. It has immense significance. You should never think
about the cross without the resurrection; you should never
think of the resurrection without the ascension. The
ascension is God saying, “I validate, I approve everything that
Christ did in His life, in His death, and through His
resurrection, and raised Him to My right hand on high, and
elevate Him above every person in the universe
everlastingly.” Rarely do we give attention to this glorious
event.
The Lord did speak about His death; He referred to that. He
said He was going to die. Early in His ministry He said He was
going to die. He did refer to His resurrection. He even
explicitly said it would be in three days that He would rise. He
told His disciples about the fact that He was going to die and
rise, preparing them for those realities. But we can’t ignore
the fact that our Lord also spoke often about His ascension.
In John 6:62 He says, “What then if you see the Son of Man
ascending to where He was before? How will that strike you
when you see the Son of Man go back up to heaven from
whence He came?”
In the 7th chapter of John’s gospel, again Jesus said, “For a
little while longer I am with you, then I go to Him who sent
Me,” again referring to His ascension. “I’m here for awhile,
and this ends when I go back to the Father in heaven.”
In the 14th chapter in the gospel of John, in the upper room
the night of His betrayal, He’s got His ascension in mind.
Verse 28: “You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away,’ –
apparently it was something He said to them frequently – ‘I
go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would
have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is
greater than I. In other words, this incarnation experience is
a lowering of Myself.” He is man; He is man made lower for
awhile than the angels. “You should rejoice that I’m saying
I’m going back to the Father, back to where I belong.”
Again in the 16th chapter in the gospel of John, and the 5th
verse, that same night to those same disciples, He says, “I’m
going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks me, ‘Where
are You going?’” He’s got His ascension in view, and they
don’t seem to have any interest in what happens to Him. So
caught up are they in what happens to them.
When He rose from the dead Mary Magdalene came to the
grave, chapter 20 of John, and she sees the risen Christ.
Verse 17 of John 20, “Jesus said to her, ‘Stop clinging to Me,
Mary! I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to My
brethren and say to them, “I ascend to My Father and your
Father, and My God and your God.” Go tell them I’m not
staying, I’m ascending.’”
As critical as this was to the purpose of God, the plan of God,
as glorious as it was, the culminating event, it is so little
considered. We don’t consider it like the disciples didn’t,
because we’re not so much thoughtful of what happened to
Him. And so He reminded the disciples in John 16:7, “If you
can’t think about the ascension for what it means to Me,
think about it for what it means to you. I tell you,” – He said –
“it is to your advantage that I go away. Maybe that will get
your attention. If it isn’t enough that you love Me and desire
for Me to be glorified, it’s for you as well.” I think clearly the
ascension was a part of the life of the early church in its
expression of worship.
1 Timothy there is a hymn at the end of the chapter. It says
this, verse 16: “By common confession, great is the mystery
of godliness,” – that is God in human flesh – “great is the
incarnation. He who was revealed in the flesh, vindicated in
the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world, taken up into glory.” Apparently the
early church sang hymns of ascension, as we did this
morning. “Soar we now where Christ has led.”
The ascension is the culminating reality in the life of our Lord
on earth. Now what is its significance specifically? Many
things could be considered. Let me give you just some things
to think about.
First of all – and we’ve already indicated this: The ascension
marks the completion of our Lord’s earthly work. The
ascension marks the completion of our Lord’s earthly work.
And what was His earthly work? It was to come and provide a
sacrifice for sin, so that the people of God could be forgiven,
and gathered into eternal heaven.
John 4:34 He said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent
Me and to finish His work. I’ve come to finish the work.”
When did He finish the work? John 19:30 He says on the
cross, “It is finished! The work of providing the acceptable
sacrifice is finished.”
In anticipation of having finished the work, you remember in
John 17, verse 4, He prayed to the Father, “I glorified you on
earth, having accomplished the work which You gave Me to
do.” He anticipates His accomplishment even before it
happens. He came to do the work of the Father. Throughout
His life He said, “I only do what You show Me to do, what You
tell Me to do. I only follow the Father, His will only.” Even in
the garden: “Not My will, but Yours be done.”
The ascension says, “The work is finished.” On the cross, the
work of substitutionary sacrifice was finished. But there was
still a resurrection, there was still forty days of instruction,
and there was still an ascension. The ascension marks the
ultimate end of the work that He did on earth. And now the
Father can receive Him back to glory. The fact that He goes
into glory is the Father’s statement validating His work.
Say what you will about Jesus Christ. Think what you will
about Him. I’ll tell you what God thinks. God exalted Him to
heaven and sat Him at His right hand. And this didn’t happen
in secret, this was visible. This was seen by the gathered
believers who watched Him go. The Father said, “This is My
beloved Son in whom I’m well-pleased,” at His baptism. But
the Father said it much more dramatically, powerfully, and
finally in the ascension of Jesus Christ, and sent two angels to
declare that He would be back from the heaven to which the
Father had taken Him.
What is the significance of the ascension? It marks the
completion of our Lord’s earthly work. And necessarily,
secondly, it signals the end of His limitation, the end of His
limitation. No longer does He set aside the prerogatives in
using His power. No longer does He limit Himself.
He prayed in John 17:5, “Father, give Me back the glory I had
with You before the world began.” And that’s exactly what
He received when He went back. “Give Me back full use of
My power, full prerogatives for all of My attributes.” He
returns to heaven.
But there is a wondrous thing to contemplate. He goes back
different than when He came. He goes back with a pre-
incarnate glory for sure, but He goes back with a post-
incarnate glory that is more. What do I mean by that? He
came as pure deity. He came as spirit. He came placed into
the womb of Mary, and God began to develop a body, and
He took on full and pure humanity, something He never
possessed in all of eternity to that point. He became the
perfect God-man, Theanthrópos, God-man. This is new.
When He goes back to heaven He goes back not just as God
in a spirit, not just the invisible one. He goes back as the God-
man. And why? Because He is now the head of a whole
redeemed humanity who are to be made like Him. And so
God first makes Him a man, and then makes all redeemed
men like Him.
He is restored to His limitless use of power. He is restored to
His limitless intimacy with God. But He is restored with scars
and signs of suffering that remain on Him forever. He is a
wounded Lamb, John says, when he sees Him in Revelation 5.
It will always be that His wounds are visible and are tokens
for the joy and the worship of all whom He redeemed by
those wounds.
There’s a third thing to understand in the ascension: It
establishes the universal and eternal worship of our Lord, the
universal and eternal worship of our Lord.
I read you earlier from Philippians chapter 2 that “God
exalted Him, bestowed on Him the name above every name”
– that’s the name Lord – “and at that name every knee will
bow in heaven, on earth, under the earth. Every tongue will
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father.” There will be universal worship of Christ forever.
The apostle Paul writes about this it says that “God raised
Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the
heavenly places,” – and then this – “far above all rule and
authority, and power and dominion, and every name that is
named, not only in this age but also in the one to come,” –
through all ages, all persons (good, bad, indifferent, all
human beings), all angels (holy angels, demons, Satan), all
who can be named because they are persons come under the
sovereign authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only all
persons, verse 22, “He put all things in subjection under His
feet, and the church as well is His body, over which He is the
head.” The ascension then essentially establishes
permanently the universal and eternal worship of the Son of
God; and that is exactly what goes on in heaven, even now
and always.
When Peter was preaching on the day of Pentecost, toward
the end of his message he was talking about God raising up
Jesus. In verse 32 of Acts 2, “God raised Him up.” And he
says, “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of
God,” – verse 33 – “and having received from the Father the
promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which
you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended
into heaven, but he himself says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool
for Your feet.”’ Therefore let all the house of Israel know for
certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ – this
Jesus whom you crucified.” So I just want to remark that
when He is taken into glory and He is given dominant,
sovereign power over all beings, that includes demons and
Satan and those who reject Him.
Psalm 110 says, “The Messiah will be seated by God at His
right hand, and God will make His enemies a footstool for His
feet.” This is bad news for Israel, that “God has made Him
Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified,” which is to
say, “You are among the enemies who will be crushed under
His feet.
The 7th chapter of the book of Acts, Stephen has given a
powerful message of redemptive history, and he ends it, of
course, by coming to the resurrection. And the people are
infuriated in verse 54. “They’re cut to the quick and began
gnashing their teeth at him. But being full of the Holy Spirit,”
– verse 55 of Acts 7 – “he gazed intently into heaven, saw the
glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”
Just in case anybody wondered: they saw Him go up. Stephen
is given a vision, the only one like it in Scripture, of Christ
standing at the right hand of God. Only Stephen sees it, so he
gives testimony to it in the next verse.
Verse 56, “He said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened up and
the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’” Well, all
the Jews who were there listening to him knew who the Son
of Man was. They knew Jesus claimed to be the Son of Man –
a messianic title from Daniel 7. This infuriated them that
Stephen would say, “I’m looking into heaven; I’m seeing the
throne of God. And there at His right hand is Jesus whom you
crucified, He the Son of Man.” So furious were they, verse 57,
“They cried out with a loud voice, they covered their ears,
rushed at him with one impulse, drove him out of the city,
and stoned him to death.” It was more than they could
possibly handle: Jesus at the right hand of God in heaven?
And they sealed their own eternal damnation.
And when you think about the ascension, God being so
satisfied, so pleased that He lifts the Son, puts Him back on
the throne. For us, that’s all glorious; but for His enemies,
that’s all devastating judgment; for His enemies will become
His footstool, which is to say they will be crushed under His
feet.
There’s another reality that we understand in the ascension,
it is this: The ascension signaled our Lord’s sending of the
Holy Spirit. This now turns from what the ascension meant to
Him to what the ascension means to us. It signaled the
sending of the Holy Spirit.
Back in that upper room on that night before our Lord was
crucified, He said in John 16:7, “I tell you the truth, it is to
your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the
Helper” – the Comforter, the Holy Spirit – “will not come to
you; but if I go, I will send Him to you, I will send Him to you.”
Later on, as we read in Luke, He said, “Don’t go anywhere out
of Jerusalem until the promise of the Father is arrived, until
He comes.” In Acts 1:8, “You’ll receive power after the Holy
Spirit has come on you; and then you’ll be witnesses to Me in
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the remotest part of the world.
I’m going back to heaven. This is good for you, this is to your
advantage, because I’m going to send the Holy Spirit.”
The point He’s making is, “Look, you’ve had Me with you, but
I’m not everywhere in incarnated form. I can’t be with you all
the time. And now I’m leaving. But what is better for you
than having Me with you some of the time is having the Holy
Spirit in you all of the time, because He is as I am: God. And
He will take up residence in you. The Holy Spirit will come to
you. He will live in you. You will become His temple. He will
empower you. He will enable you. He will comfort you. It’s
better to go, because when I go, and the Father validates My
work, I will send the Holy Spirit.”
It only was a few days after He left. He said that in Acts 1, a
few days. It was Acts 2, the Spirit came, the explosion of
power, three thousand people are converted; thousands
more, thousands more, thousands more. And here we are
many centuries later, and the power of the Holy Spirit has
circled the globe again, and again, and again, building the
church.
When you think of the ascension in our terms, “What does it
mean to us?” there’s a second thing to consider: It marked
the beginning of our Lord’s preparation for our heavenly
home. It marked the beginning of our Lord’s preparation for
our heavenly home.
In John, again, 14, the disciples are languishing over the idea
that He’s leaving. He says in chapter 14, verse 1, “Don’t let
your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In
My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not
so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I’m going to come
again and receive you to Myself. That’s not going to be an
unoccupied place. I’m going to go, I’m going to prepare it for
you, I’m going to come back and get you, and take you
there.”
What is the Lord doing now? He hasn’t gone into retirement.
He’s not resting, sitting on His accomplishments. He’s in
heaven now preparing a home for us. Look at the beautiful
world in its pristine glory before the fall that He created in six
days – a universe in six days. What can He do with all this
time in heaven? What glories will we see when we get there?
You can read Revelation 21 and 22; the description of heaven
is breathtaking. It’s breathtaking.
There’s something else that happened for us it marked the
passing of gospel responsibility from the Lord to His
followers. The Lord says, “I’m going.”
Remember what I read you in Acts 1 about all that Jesus
began. Jesus didn’t finish the work of gospel ministry, He
finished the word of redemption. He didn’t finish the work of
gospel ministry, just began to do and teach, doing and
teaching, that is living out kingdom life and power and
righteousness, and teaching it; that goes on. He says, “He
began to do and teach it until the day when He was taken up
to heaven.” And once He was taken up to heaven, it had to
be passed on to somebody else. So the Holy Spirit gave
orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. So the baton
goes from the Lord to the apostles, and the Holy Spirit brings
the power and the calling to fruition in the case of the
apostles.
Well, what happens after the apostles? After the apostles
come the believers in the church. Look at Ephesians 4,
Ephesians 4. Again, talking about the ascension in verse 8:
“When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of
captives,” – He took those that He had purchased at the cross
into glory – “and He gave gifts to men.” That’s a portion of
Scripture wonderfully borrowed from Psalm 68. But it’s
talking about the ascension.
Verse 9: “He ascended. What does it mean that He had also
descended in to the lower parts of the earth?” You have the
incarnation, and then you have the ascension. “He
descended” – in verse 10 – “so that He could ascend above
all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.” He goes back,
back to the omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience of
His eternal being, and fills all things. And then He gives.
And what does He give? “He gives apostles, and prophets,
and evangelists, and pastors, and teachers, for the equipping
of the saints for the work of ministry, to the building up of
the body of Christ.” What happens at the ascension is our
Lord passes the baton to the apostles and the New
Testament prophets, and then they pass the baton to the
evangelists and the pastors and teachers; and so it goes
through history. Our Lord has gone back into glory, given us
the ministry.
But how can we do that ministry? What power do we have to
do that ministry? Well, you have the power of the Holy Spirit
that dwells in every single believer. And more than that, He
gave to the apostles and their associates another task. In
John 15 and in 16, He said, “I’m going to send the Holy Spirit.
He’s going to bring all things into your remembrance,
whatever I’ve said and whatever I’ve done.” And that
enabled them to write the Scripture, the New Testament.
So through the apostles and those who were with them, the
Lord gave the New Testament to His people. So we have the
internal power of the Holy Spirit, we have the external
revelation of Scripture written by the Holy Spirit, so we have
the book that the Spirit authored, and we have the author
living in us; and by the Word and Spirit, we are empowered
to finish the work that Jesus only began. So the ascension
marks the end of His work of doing and teaching, and the
beginning of our work of doing and teaching in the power of
the Spirit based upon the revelation of Scripture.
There’s one other benefit to us, profound advantage.
Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 14 says this: “We have a great
high priest.” What does a high priest do? Intercede between
us and God. “We have a great high priest who has passed
through the heavens,” – that’s the ascension again: the first
heaven, the second heaven, into the third heaven.
This great high priest is none other than Jesus the Son of
God, and knowing that He is there, and He has us in His
heart, and nothing will ever separate us from His love. Let us
hold fast our confession. We do not have to ever fear that we
will be forsaken or we will be lost. Hold fast your confession.
We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with
our weaknesses.
You say, “Well, wait a minute. He’s our High Priest. He goes
into heaven for us. We can count on His faithfulness. But
what about our sin? What about our weakness?”
No, we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize
with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all
things as we are yet without sin, which is to say He knows
temptation to its max because He never gave in. He gets that.
He understands our weakness. So rather than fear that He
might forsake us, let us draw near to that faithful High Priest,
that sympathizing High Priest with confidence to His throne
of grace. We will always need grace. We will never be
acceptable on our own. We go back again and again to the
throne of grace. And what do we receive? Mercy and grace
to help in time of need.
He is our merciful, faithful, sympathetic High Priest. That’s
why chapter 7 of Hebrews, verse 25, says, “He is able to save
forever those who draw near to God through Him.” How
does He do that? “He always lives to make intercession for
them.” He brings us to glory by His constant intercession on
our behalf. And though there may be those that accuse us,
and though Satan might accuse us, no accusation will stand.
Nothing will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Better for Him to ascend. Better for us, because we have the
Holy Spirit, because we have the Scripture, because we have
the ministry, because we have an interceding High Priest.
Better for Him. He is exalted to glory. The whole universe,
every conscious being in the universe is subjected to His
sovereign power and glory. His enemies even are crushed
beneath His feet.
And then there’s a final reality when you think about the
ascension, and that’s exactly where we started in Acts
chapter 1. The angel said, “This Jesus who has been taken up
from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you
watched Him go into heaven.” How did He go? In the clouds.
How will He come? In the clouds. The ascension guarantees
the Lord’s return. The ascension guarantees the Lord’s
return. “I’m going to prepare a place for you; I’ll be back to
take you.”
Our Lord in the ascension is exalted. In the ascension His
humiliation has ended. He is given back full glory that He had
before He ever came into this world. He is there to receive
universal and everlasting adoration. He’s there preparing our
eternal home. He’s there acting as the head over His body,
the church. He’s passed to us ministry, but also given us the
Spirit to empower us, and the Scripture to direct us.
He is, for us, constantly interceding on our behalf, so that
grace is always flowing to us, which will bring us to eternal
glory. And He stands ready in the Father’s time to come back
and take us with Him to heaven, and then to establish His
kingdom on earth. And then the new heaven and the new
earth forever to be the King of glory. That’s the Father’s view
of the cross and resurrection.
Lord, we are grateful again that Your Word is so rich and full.
These are heavenly truths. These are realities that would be
known to no one. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard; these
are not available. These truths that we celebrate we only
know because You’ve revealed them in Your Word, and
You’ve given us Your Holy Spirit that we might accurately
discern them. So we rejoice as this Resurrection Sunday
comes to think not just about a risen Christ, but about an
ascended Christ. That’s Your commentary on His death and
resurrection. You exalted Him to Your right hand and made
Him Lord over everyone and everything. And He is our Lord,
preparing a place to gather us to Himself.
We rejoice in all that Christ is to us. Pray that no one, no one
would end up among the enemies of the Savior, the
Redeemer. Open every heart, Lord, to the glory of Jesus
Christ as Lord and Savior, we pray in His name. Amen.