Why Jesus’ Ascension Still Changes Everything
The Ascended King
In the first book, Otheophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You heard from me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. the Ascension. And so when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? And he said to them, it's not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses. in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on him, he was lifted up and the cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes. And they said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who has taken from you into heaven will come in the same way as you've seen him go into heaven. Good morning everyone. Morning. um Anyway, that last song was a good one to get the jump on you guys. You didn't see that coming, did you? It came out of nowhere. Love that. um Anyway, so yes, this morning we are talking about the ascension. Because when we often talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ, maybe we think of some words to sum it up. think, what is the gospel? It's the life. death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Then it's like, what happened after that? Did he just kind of get resurrected and now he's just been walking around the earth for the last 2000 years? No, something happened. Something happened after that. What happened? His ascension. He ascended into heaven. 40 days after he was resurrected, he ascended into heaven and then 10 days later, the Spirit would descend on all the disciples. So now before we begin and dig into this, let's first pray. Father, we know it is a glorious thing, Father, that Your Son is by Your side. That He now rules and reigns over all of us, over everything, over all creation, that He's working things and performing to a great and glorious plan. So now would You teach us the greatness of such an ascension? And would You help us by the descension of Your Spirit, who has descended upon all of us now at this very moment, would You teach us mold us, conform us unto your will and teach us your ways we pray in Jesus name, amen. Please be praying for me because I've been praying this morning that I might be filled with liveliness and all I've done since walking the church is start yawning. Not because it's boring, just I don't know, I'm just yawning a lot. So, not that I'm going to fall asleep up here, but just be praying, please. So, we know that afterwards He ascended, but where did He ascend to? He just went up into heaven. Now, this isn't the idea. When we think of heaven, typically what are the ideas that come up? We're floating on clouds. Maybe there's a golden palace or something like that. Most of us know though, it never actually says that heaven is a bunch of clouds. If anything, it describes as the new heavens and the new earth. It's actually a physical thing. It's on the ground, right? When we go into it. But what is this, the heavens? Because the reality is when you read about it in the Bible, the heavens are the stars, the sky, everything above, everything up there. So is Jesus up there? Is He in the clouds? No. Is he up there in the stars on another planet? Where is he? When we're talking about above, His ascension, He hasn't ascended, now this is the confusing part, technically not into a physical place. He has ascended into this place that we call the throne room of God. The God's where His presence is, where He rules from. Somehow, Jesus' bodily presence can dwell in a place that's somehow spiritual. It is not actually here. So he's ascended into this throne room of God. He's now taken his place on the throne. And so now we need to look at this question of the ascension. Why? Because we celebrate Easter. Sorry, is this pulling or tugging on something? Anyway. um And we celebrate the death and the resurrection of Jesus, right? We just did that. Amen. That is the center of the gospel. That is such an important thing to celebrate. But then why is the ascension seemingly... Has anyone here actually heard a message on the ascension? Anyone? Like maybe if you thought back, maybe you have heard one. But the reality is we don't really talk about it. Granted, it literally has about one passage that actually records it in Acts. But the reality is we celebrate the climax of Jesus' earthly ministry, His death and His resurrection. And the ascension is not a question about His earthly ministry. It is a question not of what He has done, but what He is now doing. That is the question we are asking today. What is Jesus doing now? Is He sipping pina coladas on the beach or is He actually doing something us, for our benefit. What is he doing up there? Four things we're going to look at. First one, he went up that we might receive the Holy Spirit. Second, that we might be his witnesses. Third, that he might rule. And fourth, that he might intercede for us. Plenty of this we were talking about in the kids' talk, so if you forget all of this, just remember the kids' talk. So here we come, first point, that we might receive the Holy Spirit. This is one of the most essential, one of the most important things about the ascension. As Jesus says in John 16, seven, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. So you see, Jesus sets this precedent. until I depart from you bodily, you cannot receive my spirit." And he says, is far better that you receive this spirit than that you have me and my body. And you see, this is a biblical precedent that has always been the case. Even when you take that of Elijah and Elisha, prophets in the book of Kings, Elijah was probably the greatest prophet that ever lived, maybe Bar-Moses. And he had his successor, Elisha, who he had picked out. And Elisha is about to take over the ministry. Elijah is about to be taken away. And so Elisha was like, I can't do this by myself. I need your spirit. I need that blessing from that gifting from God that you have. need it. Better yet, he even asked for a double portion of it. And so then he says this, Elijah says this to him, when they had crossed the Jordan, second Kings two, no. Elijah said to Elisha, ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you. And he said, please let there be a double portion of your spirit for me. And then later on he says, you must see me ascend. He ascends and then what happens? He receives his spirit. But you see, it couldn't happen. While Elijah was still walking here on this earth, Elisha could not receive the spirit. Because you see, is something, for some reason that God has set up that while the body of the person still exists here, we cannot receive their spirit. Okay, not doing very well with the mic today. So it is the same with Jesus. We need His Holy Spirit. We need His Spirit within us, so therefore we need His ascension. We need Him to depart and to become invisible. And so you see, why is this Holy Spirit important? Why do we need the dissension of the Holy Spirit? Because on the cross and after the resurrection, Jesus accomplished our salvation. When I look at my salvation, I don't actually look at the here and now, I look back to then. There I was saved, there my sin was dealt with. At that resurrection, I rose. All my hope is in that point in history. But you see, here's the interesting thing. The reality is, were you saved back then? Well, you didn't exist back then. How do you receive your salvation? How are you actually saved from the physical sinful desires that you have? How do you receive it? We receive it through the Holy Spirit. You see, this is the actual experience of salvation. We are currently being saved at this very moment. It's not just a one-time thing. All of us are continually walking back into sin and God is continually redeeming us from it every single day. Should I just use this instead or something? Yeah, okay. We'll just use this. uh Beautiful. Put it like this, Jesus has put this gift together, this perfect gift made just for you. But He is not the one who delivers it. The Holy Spirit is the one who delivers it, who brings it to the door. But better yet, He's not just that. He helps you unpack it, put it together and figure out, helps you figure out how to use it. He is your helper. He is the one that brings your salvation to you and works it into every aspect of your life. So see, we should be incredibly glad he has ascended. Because the reality is, if we could still touch him, if we could still feel him with our own hands, then we have not received his spirit. And better yet, some of us can think, wouldn't it just be easier if Jesus were here? If I could just feel him with my own hands, if I could talk to him face to face. But I want you to think about the disciples. When did they start understanding Jesus? After he left. They kept screwing it up. Even after he rose, they started getting it, but they still didn't quite get it. Because they were still hiding away in a room. They didn't realize the power and the authority that he now had. He declared to them, authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. And yet still they were hiding in an upper room for fear of the Jews. But it was only when the Spirit descended upon them, that they received the power and the confidence to be able to speak it with all courage. And so see, we often think face to face would make it so much better, but can actually tell you it wouldn't. Because the reality is his body, can only get as close to you as a hug, but his spirit can penetrate deep into our hearts. It can know everything about us. It can reach the deepest parts. It can actually change you. We need his spirit. Yes, one day we will see his actual physical body and that'll be a glorious day, but don't overestimate the body. definitely do not underestimate the power of the Spirit and the joy it is to have Him. Now that you have the Spirit, you actually know Him more deeply than His best friends, than even His own mother did before the Holy Spirit came. You have a more intimate relationship with Him than they ever could because His Spirit is in here now. So now we go on to the second point, that you might be His witnesses. So this comes from our verse 8, where we read, But you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. For what purpose? That you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Now when he says you will be my witnesses, the word for that in Greek, I don't normally like bringing up stuff, but it's the word materos, which is where we get our English word from, martyr. They were to be martyrs, to witness. to the truth of who Jesus was by sacrificing their own lives. Now, how are those two words connected? Because you can see right in the early church, Christians were executed. Why? Because they said, I don't care that you want me to say Jesus is not Lord, but instead Caesar is. Jesus is Lord. And they offered up their own lives attesting to the fact that they believe that. Now, most of us are probably not gonna be executed. Who knows what the future holds, but it's probably not gonna happen anytime soon. So what are we called to do? All of us have a billboard above our heads. Imagine it like this. There is this massive sign above you. And all of us are advertising something. All of us are advertising that which matters most to us. That is what our lives do. People see what we love, what we do, what we pour our heart in, what we treasure above everything else, where our priorities are. And those things are slapped on a billboard for everyone to see. That is what our lives do. People see what matters to us. And so Jesus is asking, would you make sure that on that billboard is me? That when people look at your lives, what they see is not you attesting to the fact that the only way you can be happy is if you have enough money in the bank. That the only way you can be happy is if everyone in your family gets along and everything's warm and cozy. No. What we say is that my life, what matters to me most is that Jesus is my Lord and my Savior. And so you see, this begs the question, what is being advertised on our billboards? Can people actually see in our lives that we are witnessing to the truth of Jesus, of who He was, of what He taught? This becomes a very practical thing because we can see it. The reality is, are you aware? that there is actually a spiritual opponent, that there is actually a devil out there right now that does not like you, that does not like what you are doing with your lives, that does not like that you're in this very building listening, rejoicing and sharing in the gospel. You might say, well, yeah, I believe that. But in our lives, are we actually praying that God might keep us? In the Lord's Prayer, He says, keep us from evil or the evil one. Are we praying that? Are we alert to the fact that there are schemes and lies out there that will seek to lead us astray? Are we being vigilant? Do you actually believe that this world has nothing to offer you? Do you actually believe it will all be burnt up? Would you genuinely trade everything you have for a deeper relationship with Jesus? Because you see, we can say all these things, but when we actually don't do them, we testify to the opposite. Our lives testify to something, to some truth. And so we must be eager and seek to make it that our lives are testifying that He is our Lord and our Savior, and that we want nothing more than Him. One of the hard things about putting Him as a priority, putting Him as the billboard of our lives is that we must suffer the loss of things we love. We must suffer the loss of things that the world will bring against us. It will be harder putting Jesus on that billboard than anything else. All right? How can we suffer that loss? In your own strength, you can't do it. But what did I say in the first point? We have His Spirit. What did that Spirit enable Him to do? to suffer the loss of literally everything. He was God sitting on His heavenly throne. He came down and died as a criminal. And that spirit that empowered Him to do that is the same spirit at work in you. You think, cannot suffer the loss of these things. I cannot do it. Putting Jesus on this billboard is just too hard in this moment. But you are not alone in the fact that you feel insufficient, that you can't do it. The Spirit is your helper. He will comfort you. He will encourage you. He will strengthen you. He will make it. So what do you do? Pray to him. Because when you pray, you are admitting the fact, I genuinely do not have it in myself. So I must pray to another to give me what I need. And better yet, Jesus has even shown us what is truly desirable. By putting him up on that billboard, we are saying that we will suffer as he did. Jesus said, I am making my life about God and what did it get him across? So do not be surprised when it comes to us, but was that all that he gained? No. He showed us that there is a life beyond this one that is so much more worth it. That is what the ascension points us to. We are witnessing to him and to the fact that there is something much greater to come. This is what Paul was all about. For he says, desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. Jesus will call us to suffer much, but he has given us a helper that will help us to lose, to even possibly lose our lives. But he has also showed us in his ascension that through suffering, there is something far better. To depart this life is a joy, though it may mean mourning for others. It is a joy for us because we go into the hope we've been holding onto for so long. So, now we go on to our third thing. We're talking here now more about what he is actually doing up there, which we talked about in our kids' talk. So, third point, that he might rule. Now, when a king is conducting his business, when he is ruling over his kingdom, where does he do it from? His throne, right? We think his palace and better yet, he conducts all his business, he sits on his throne. That is where all his rulings proceed from, all his decrees. And when visitors come in, they see him on his throne, because that is his place of authority. That is a place where he sits and says, this kingdom is mine, and I have the authority to reign over it and to sovereignly decree whatever I wish. Now on earth, was Jesus sitting on his throne? No, he was still king, he was still an authority, but there were enemies that he had to go out and fight. So you see Jesus, as he descended down, he came to wage war, to battle against the spiritual forces of this world. But you see, that points to the fact he was not sitting on his throne in that very moment. He could not focus on all the affairs of the kingdom in that very moment. He had to go out and defeat, but now he has ascended. He is now sitting on his throne. And so now his business is conducting and watching over everything that happens in his kingdom. He has defeated the enemy and now he sits on his throne. God has done what? In Ephesians 1, 20 to 23, God has seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, authority, power, dominion, and above every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body. fullness of Him who fills all and all. So He came down to save us and now He has ascended that He might rule over us and all creation. The dissension was part of His war, His battle over spiritual things but now He has defeated them and now He sits on His throne exerting His power and authority over everything that is, that has come and that will ever come. And so you see, this is the bedrock of our security. The ascension makes the promises of God certain. Just think about Romans 8.28, right? But we know all things work together for the good for those who are called according to His purpose. God is working all things to the good. But is that just a promise kind of written on paper that means it's going to come to fruition? How does that actually happen? What's actually making sure that promise happens? There is currently a king enthroned over all the earth, who knows everything, who sees everything, who knows the depths of every human heart. So that means he can actually conform everything into his plan. So you understand that at this very moment, it's not just, I read that promise and, oh, everything's working for my good, that's great to know. Because that sometimes isn't going to give you a great assurance. But the great assurance is, oh, there's actually a Christ in heaven. There is Jesus in heaven, a King who is reigning over in control of everything, making sure that promise happens. He has a plan and he will make sure it comes to pass. So we do not need to fear now because our Savior is a living and breathing King in control of everything, visible and invisible. And so now I come, this is the final point now. that He might intercede. So, I had an original sermon that I was going to preach, but it became way too big and it would have gone across about three weeks. So I had to scrap that. But here's a very short overview of what it was going to be about. In Jesus' ascension, He is showing the fulfillment of three things that we had in the Old Testament that are foreshadowed. That He is the fulfillment of prophet, priest and king. Because you see, in the Old Testament, they had all those things. They had prophets, they had priests, they had kings, but all of them fell short in some area. And all of them were pointing forward to a point where someone would come who would be the perfect prophet, the perfect priest, the perfect king. And Jesus fulfilled them all. We already just talked about the fact, He is the perfect King. The big problem with the kings, one, they weren't perfect. Two, they didn't live forever. They all died because they were sinful. But Jesus has been resurrected. He is the King who will go on for all eternity. And be it, He is the perfect prophet who was spreading His Word at this very moment through His church. But I want to focus on this last one. He is the perfect priest. Now, what were priests back in the day? They were priests in the Old Testament who used to represent the people before God. They would take the sacrifices of the people, slaughter them for them, but not just that. would then go into the temple and offer them on behalf of the people. They would go before God's presence which is represented in the temple and say, God, please forgive them. Take this lamb in their place. Do not chastise them, Lord, but forgive them. And so, better yet, there was the most revered and holy of priests, the high priest who entered into the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was that represented the throne room of God. One day of the year and the day of atonement where He would atone for the sins of the whole nation. But yet even He went in there fearing for His own life because He still was sinful. But yet Jesus is the perfect High Priest. Why? Because He was sinless. He was perfect and yet He offered up a perfect sacrifice, which we know in that He offered up Himself. Perfect, spotless, without blemish, no sin in Him at all. So He's now offered up that sacrifice, that sacrifice in our place. It now covers us. So what's he doing now? He's not offering any sacrifices anymore. He's doing the other part of the priest job, to bring that sacrifice before God and say, forgive them. This is what he's doing now at this very moment. He is what we're doing, what we call interceding. He is standing between us and God. And so realize this isn't just a theological kind of, you he's interceding. That's a thing he does. This means at every moment of every day, literally every day we walk through, do you guys not think, eh, screwed that up, could have done that a bit better? All of us finish every day with regrets, something we felt we could have done better. And we can let those things burden us, get us down all the time because we are bearing the guilt and the shame of the fact we should have done something else. We could have done something better. And we think there is no one on our side, no one helping us. No one advocating us, but that is not true. You see, we are constantly under the weight of our own judgment, of the judgment of others. But I tell you now, you do not need to be under the judgment of God, because there is one who sits in heaven, standing before God in His presence, every screw up in your day. And He says, forgive them for that, Father. I already paid for that. Look at me, not at them. We are covered. Not just in an eternal way, but in every day. He is there before God with every sin saying, don't punish them. Don't do it, Father. reminding, constantly hitting that refresh a. And so we are not to think that the Jesus that we read in the gospels, the one that shows compassion and mercy, the one that could barely even eat because there were so many people and then when he went across the lake to try and get some rest and, you know, peace, found another crowd, what did he do? He didn't sit there in annoyance, he said, I have compassion on them, they are lost sheep. He was only ever compassionate and merciful. He was never once... annoyed by people who came seeking his help, who genuinely wanted him. And we are not to think that is any different now that he is in heaven. We constantly think that Jesus is there saying, ah goodness, again? Yes, God, forgive him for that one, I guess. Frankly, they're kind of running out the loyalty card. They're really pushing this one. No, he was always happy to be there for the needs of the people. And he is always happy to be there for his people now. He died for you and He will now always intercede for you. Every moment of the day and every screw up, every time He is there, it is His delight and joy to intercede for those He has died for. So sure, if you want to feel the weight of others and the weight of yourself, but you do not need to feel the weight of the greatest judge in all the earth, God Himself. You're at peace with Him because His Son intercedes for you. And so you see, all these things can only happen because Jesus is in the presence of God. That He is in His throne. We would not have His Spirit if He did not left, had not left. We would not have the power to go on as His witnesses. He could not rule in power over everything above every rule and authority if He were not in His throne in heaven. And He could not intercede for us in the presence of God if He were not up there before Him. So none of these things are ours if He did not leave us. But we should not begrudge or despise the fact that we cannot see Him. For it is the fact that He is invisible that we have received all these benefits. But we also take this hope. From the last two verses of the passage in 10 and 11. This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. So you see, says, as he ascended, one day he will descend again. He will return again. He's not just invisible forever. One day we will see him again. We shall see him with our own eyes. But until then, he is ruling and reigning, spreading the influence of his kingdom, spreading the word of God into the hearts of all his people. And so we continue to trust in faith, knowing that His time is perfect, that His plan is good, and that one day He will come and destroy sin, Satan and death forever by the appearance of His coming. But until then, we wait, knowing that He has given us everything in His ascension that we need to make it through this life. So, I'll now finish up in prayer, and then I'll invite the worship team up. Father. We thank you for such a great and glorious day. Lord, that you ascended into the heavens. Jesus, that you are now right there before the Father interceding for us in this very moment. Lord, we haven't even made it through this service without sinning. And yet, Lord, you do not see it as a burden. You see it as a delight to right now in this very moment say, God, forgive them. See my sacrifice. See the wrath that I took. It is gone. There is no more. It is done. That is what he says for all of us. Thank you, Father. Now we pray that you may rule in authority over our lives, over all creation, that this kingdom, that it would come. And we ask, Lord, that you might grant us, Lord, a greater measure of your Spirit, that we might be your witnesses in all the earth. Lord, that the billboards of our lives would declare you and nothing else. We ask all these things, Father, in Jesus' name, by the power of your Spirit. Amen.