Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore

In Psalm 24, David asked two frightening questions: “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place?” (v. 3). The answer is discouraging: “He who has clean hands and a pure heart. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation” (v. 4).

It may sound simple enough, but no one born of Adam can meet these qualifications. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned, all of mankind can only go down to eternal hell, not climb up to high heaven. The only hope for perishing mankind is for someone from among us with clean hands and a pure heart to ascend the hill of the Lord as our representative. Only then, as verse 5 says, will we receive righteousness from the God of our salvation. But in the whole history of the human race, out of millions of people born, not one has been able to live with clean hands and a pure heart and ascend to the hill of the Lord to stand in God’s holy place.

Today, we will meditate on the one who did ascend the holy hill. In the same psalm, David celebrates and rejoices, calling him the “King of glory.” Verse 7 says: “Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in.” There is a ceaseless, highest worship offered to our Lord in heaven. May the Holy Spirit give us faith to join that worship today.

In our series “Looking Unto Jesus,” we have seen Jesus pre-creation, in the Old Testament, at his birth, during his life, at his death, and at his resurrection. You may wonder if this is the end of the series because the resurrection is mostly the end, but you are wrong. Actually, the resurrection is the beginning of redemption being applied. The great redemption our Lord purchased through his life, death, and resurrection begins to be applied in our experience after his resurrection. Most of us clearly know the story of redemption up to the resurrection, but we have not studied in detail Jesus’ ascension.

After his ascension, there is his session, or sitting, at God’s right hand; then there is the mission of the Holy Spirit he begins; and his intercession ministry. Ascension, Session, Holy Spirit’s Mission, and Intercession—these are four marvelous, but very little understood, truths. All of this is part of Christ’s saving work, and not understanding each of them deeply will impact our faith and the full experience of salvation, resulting in a weak Christian life.

All of this is like one package of his saving work. In my mind, I have eight acts of Christ’s saving work. If you need a rhyming ending with “-tion,” there is: Life of Substitution, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, Session, Holy Spirit’s Mission, Intercession, and full redemption at the Second Coming. These are set forth as objects, or food, for our faith. Our faith is like a hungry stomach. If it is not fed regularly with truth, it will become weak. We must study this healthy food for our faith again and again. The Lord is doing all of this particularly for each of us, so we should not only study as a church but also take personal interest in learning more and believing them in our hearts.

So, we are going to focus on those five acts—his Ascension, Session, Holy Spirit’s Mission, Intercession, and full redemption—in the coming months. I pray the Holy Spirit may help us realize his glorious present ministry of applied redemption and fill our hearts with faith, joy, love, and peace.

Today, we are going to focus on his ascension. We may be inclined to think this is not an important event and see it as merely a vision the disciples had of Jesus going to heaven. But the New Testament emphasizes that it is a major object of our faith. The Lord was doing something of immense importance for us, something very needed for our full experience of salvation. You can see the Lord repeatedly emphasized his ascension. For example, in John 6:62, when they were doubting who he was and were unable to believe, he pointed them to his ascension to strengthen their faith. They didn’t believe what he said. In verse 62, he asks, “Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before!” Then John 20:24 tells Mary to go tell the unbelieving disciples what? “I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.”

Ascension was an essential part of the apostles’ preaching. Paul, in 1 Timothy 3:16, says, “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, and then the final item… Received up in glory.”

When, in Romans 8, Paul is challenging us about the believer’s security in Christ, he says, “Who is to condemn us?” If you have come with a condemned conscience today, look at the objects for your faith. “It is Christ Jesus who died, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us?” You will notice how the death, the resurrection, the ascension, and the session, or exaltation, and intercession of Jesus are bound together. Paul says this is the Jesus you need to bring you the full experience and assurance of salvation—not just the Jesus who died, but the Jesus who died, rose, ascended, is exalted, and intercedes for us at God’s right hand.

Not only the New Testament, but also the Apostles’ Creed and all confessions emphasize the ascension. You know the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; the third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” Some Reformed churches, realizing the theological weight of this great event, named their churches “The Church of the Ascension” or “Ascension Reformed Church.”

So, it is not a simple truth. It is not only emphasized in Scripture and church history, but it is a truth filled with abundant comfort for believers. If our faith in the Lord is to grow, this has to become a major object of our faith. So, as we come to the Lord’s table today in faith, let us remind ourselves of this great truth: we come to the table of the Lord who ascended to heaven.

The Event

The Ascension was a prophesied, historical, and divinely confirmed event.

It was prophesied

First, it was prophesied in the Old Testament. Out of many, here are two prophetic verses. Psalm 68:18 says, “When you ascended on high, you led captivity captive; you received gifts among men,” and it goes on to list the wonderful fruits of his ascension. Daniel 7:13 says, “I saw in the night visions; and behold, one, like the Son of Man, came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him; and there was given him dominion, glory, and a kingdom.” In Luke 24, summarizing the Old Testament, Christ states, “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory?” So, the ascension is a prophesied event.

It was a historical, eyewitness event

Second, it is a historical, eyewitness event. Acts 1:9 says, “Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.” Imagine the apostles. This Jesus with whom they lived for three years, whose mother and brothers lived with him for 33 years, whom they had seen since his birth, who grew up and lived a perfect life, who was crucified and died, and who is now risen. He was with them for 40 days and walked with them. They now understood he was the true Messiah. All of a sudden, as they watched him, standing on the same level as them, he goes up one foot, two, four, as if he is climbing up an invisible elevator. He rises and rises, and they can’t believe their eyes: 1,000 feet, 10,000 feet. Clouds come in after 20,000 feet, so they see a cloud receive him out of their sight. Though he did so many miracles, he was always with them on the ground. Now he goes up, up, up and disappears. No wonder their eyes were wide, fixed, and their mouths were open, standing there stunned for a long time, wondering if it was a dream.

It was a divinely confirmed event

This was not only a prophesied, historical, eyewitness event, but third, there was also a divine confirmation. Verse 10 says, “And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?'”

They ask the question, “Men of Galilee.” This brings to their minds all his major Galilee ministry and works among them. “Why do you stand gazing up, what is the use, why are you wasting time?” The angels, who never lie, give divine confirmation to the event. “You are not dreaming, you are not having a vision; what your eyes and brain are telling you is reality.”

They give a prophecy: “This Jesus”—pointing a finger specifically at him, not at some other Jesus—”this same Jesus who was born, lived, died, rose, and now ascended, this Jesus who gave you the apostolic ministry, whom you know with an intimate relationship, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” This same, identified Jesus will come back “in like manner.” This means he went in his bodily form, and he shall come in bodily form. Secondly, he went visibly, and he will return visibly.

So this event—prophesied, historical, eyewitness, and divinely confirmed—became an important pillar of the apostolic witness. When we open the New Testament, as they preached about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, you also see the ascension of Jesus presented as an important object of our faith. Though we didn’t see that, as believers in faith, I want you to imagine you were standing there, watching him go up, and heard the angel’s confirmation. Jesus truly ascended. So, we see the event.

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The Meaning of Ascension

Jesus ascended. So what? What does it mean to us?

Jesus could have gone to his Father invisibly. The Lord was never interested in a superhero show. Our Lord chose to leave this world in this unique way—visibly, publicly, and physically—to emphasize certain truths and teach them the meaning of his ascension. There could be many, but when I searched my Bible, I could identify five. For the eyes that saw the ascension, these five truths should have been engraved in their minds. These five should make the ascension such a precious and dear truth that from now on, instead of wallowing in the mud, we should again and again lift up our eyes and look to our ascended Lord. It is my experience that whenever I am discouraged about something, I behold my ascended Lord.

1. Jesus is exalted and enthroned as King of the universe.

We know Philippians 2:9 says, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.” When Jesus ascends, it is of great significance that again and again it is conjoined with the idea that he ascends to sit down at the right hand of the majesty of God in heaven. The ascension is a step toward the exaltation and enthronement of Christ. Next, we will study how he is exalted and seated at the Father’s right hand, but ascension is visible confirmation that Jesus is exalted above all authority and power and enthroned above every name.

For example, in Isaiah, Satan says, “I will ascend into heaven. I will be like God.” He is speaking about his desire to be equal with God, to dwell in the place of supreme power and authority. But Satan couldn’t. He was pushed back, but when Jesus truly ascended to heaven from his state of humiliation in a human body, with all the limitations of being here or there, his ascension took him to a place of the highest authority. It raised him to unbounded, sovereign rule, unlimited power, and unlimited presence, even to the Godhead.

Clouds in the Old Testament always indicated the shekinah presence of the Godhead. “The glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.” “The Lord called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.” “The Lord descended in the cloud.” Clouds are said to be God’s own chariot. Though he was God in spirit for all eternity, now with humanity, the cloud receiving him shows the God-man exalted to equality with the Godhead. The ascension visibly proves his words that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. He is exalted, enthroned, and he is the one who reigns over the universe now.

Think of what impact this had on the disciples and what it should have on us if we believe this. The disciples, as they went out to preach the gospel, were going to have every reason to doubt that truth in their lifetimes. They were going to experience persecution. Things would come into their lives to test them. All the things happening in the world may not seem like their Lord and Savior is reigning over this world after all, but in spite of whatever happened in the world, this picture of the ascension always gave them the vision that their Lord is sovereignly ruling everything in this world. That is what made them more than conquerors of the world by faith.

You may be looking at the increasing crime in society, the tension and fights in our nation, wars, and politics. It doesn’t look like Jesus is reigning. But God says, “Look at his ascension.” He himself prophesied these things would happen before his Second Coming. When you struggle in your own life or in your families, asking “Why are there all these problems?” and you feel discouraged, thinking it doesn’t look like Jesus is reigning, God says to you, “Look at the ascension; it is he who reigns, who orders all circumstances in your family, life, and surroundings, and is working all things for good in your life.”

So, for those apostles and for us, God graciously gave this visible sign that our Savior Jesus Christ is reigning. He took him up as a king would ascend the steps of a dais to be enthroned and anointed as king. So Jesus, step by step, ascended from earth, was exalted, and was enthroned as king over the universe.

2. The ascension displays Jesus’ complete victory over all his enemies.

Ephesians 4:8, talking about the ascension and quoting a psalm, says, “Therefore He says: ‘When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive.'” This phrase, “he led captivity captive,” is a picture of a Roman commander winning a battle. After the war, there is a big victory parade. As the commander marches through Rome with a grand red carpet welcome, in the midst of the whole city’s shouts of victory, praises, and flowers, the parade includes all the spoils. Enemy kings and princes he had taken captive are tied to his chariots, and he drags them as slave dogs for Rome’s service.

Now, Christ made war with all our enemies—the world, sin, Satan, death, and hell—on the cross. And you know what? He won that spiritual war. Colossians 2:15 says, “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross.” He vanquished and triumphed over all our enemies.

Paul says in Ephesians 4:8 that when he ascended, he “led captivity captive.” This means his ascension is like the Roman commander marching in victory into the heavenly city, while all his enemies are tied to his chariot as slave dogs. Now, the world, sin, Satan, death, and hell will be used to accomplish the purposes of God’s kingdom. They are slave dogs. So, the ascension is the victory parade of our Lord, a public triumphal show. How important it is to have this object of faith when we think the devil is out of control, the world is troubling us, or sin makes us feel our battle is in vain. Our Lord has completely triumphed over them on our behalf. They are now slave dogs actually accomplishing his will. How we should join the heavenly Roman city and scream shouts of triumph for this Lord!

3. Faith in the ascension gives believers assurance of perfect righteousness.

Talking about the Holy Spirit, John 16 says, “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more.” I never understood this verse until now.

What he says is that the Holy Spirit will convince believers that they have perfect righteousness in Christ, by what? By his ascension. “I go to My Father.” Why? Because Christ was our representative as sinners. If Christ had not fulfilled all righteousness for us, he could not ascend to heaven. So, his ascension to heaven proclaims openly and loudly that he has completely finished the work he had to do for us here, atoned for all our sins, and earned perfect righteousness for us, and God was well pleased with all he did.

When you and I, by the weakness of our faith, fall into sins, the devil and sometimes even our own conscience condemn us. We cannot go to God, and we lose assurance of our acceptance with God. All we see is our sin and cannot see our savior. We think God is angry with us. We wallow in guilt. How do we get mercy and helping grace to lift us from the guilt gutter?

God says, here is an object of faith that will give you assurance of perfect righteousness. Lift your eyes and look at your ascending Lord. This is heaven’s greatest proof that Christ’s active and passive obedience in our place has been accepted by the Father. You can come to God with confident faith. “Yes, I have sinned, but I repent, and I come to my Father on the basis of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ who has accomplished perfect righteousness for me, and proved it by ascending to heaven.” What else do we need to convince us of our perfect righteousness before God because of Christ’s work?

4. The ascension assures all the heavenly blessings we need until we reach heaven.

Very beautifully, the Lord himself shows us with the posture with which he ascended. Look at Luke 24:50: “And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven.”

This is so beautiful. The last visible posture of Jesus the disciples saw when he went to heaven was him blessing them. Aren’t you happy that the one who is so exalted above and enthroned in the highest heaven went up blessing us? And what is his posture even now? Nothing but blessing us. That is why Paul in Ephesians can say we are blessed with every spiritual blessing. 2 Peter 1:3 says, “His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness who called us by his own glory.”

This is so sweet. He didn’t bless us as some detached spirit. The disciples didn’t see Jesus change into a spirit and disappear; they saw a physical man, Jesus, rise higher and higher, and that body was taken into a cloud. His humanity did not evaporate when He went back to glory. He was exalted and enthroned with a body that had a rich experience of all human suffering. It is so vital for us to understand that a man is at the right hand of the heavenly Father right now. That should make the ascension a very beautiful and dear truth. He went as our representative, in our nature and in our body. This guarantees endless sympathetic grace and blessing for all our human weaknesses and circumstances. Whatever you are facing, remember this ascended Lord. He knows, not only knows, he cares. Not only cares, he deeply feels. And he can help; he has all power. Such a sympathetic God-man is in heaven in a blessing posture until the end of the world, ensuring we are always blessed. We will see in the next time how his session at the Father’s right hand, the mission of the Holy Spirit, intercession, and his ministry of the Priesthood, Prophet, and King infinitely blesses his people.

5. Finally, he ascended to heaven as a forerunner to all his people.

Just as He is the first fruits in the resurrection, so also He is the first fruits in the ascension. This should make the ascension a more dear event to cherish. He said to his disciples in John 14, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” Why? “I am always troubled, Lord, in this world.” Lift your eyes: “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” Jesus has gone into heaven as a forerunner for us. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself that where I am, there you may be also.”

Jesus entering heaven is a guarantee of all his people entering heaven. He went not as a single person, but as our federal head. He actually, virtually, mystically, and positionally carried all believers up with him into glory. Ephesians 2:6 says, “and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” which is a result of our union with Christ. Because of our union with Christ, his ascension guarantees our entrance into heaven. Whatever God did to Christ’s person, he did on our behalf, and he means to do the same to us. Was Christ crucified? So are we. Has Christ risen again? So we have risen with him. Has Christ gone up into glory? So have we: heaven is now opened and possessed by Jesus Christ for us, and at last we shall ascend just as he ascended.

How beautifully he says, “I go to prepare a place for you.” He has some work to do in heaven before we go there. He has done everything on earth to purchase perfect redemption for us; now he goes to heaven to apply that to us by his ascension, session, the Holy Spirit’s mission, and his intercession. So he goes before us, to prepare heaven for us.

It’s as though the Lord Jesus is a host in his own house to a visitor or a guest who is coming. You know the kind of thing we do. You get word that a guest is arriving and preparations have to be made. For example, if Pastors Bala and Mitch want to come to my home, I inform the deacons to bring them. I go to my house first and early to make preparations. My wife always wants perfect and lavish preparations for a guest who is coming. So as they are walking inside, the gate should be open, the lights should be bright, there should be no slippers outside, the door mat should be clean and new, the carpet beautiful, the sofa clean, and all the bright lights on in the house. First, welcome drinks, starters, food on a banana leaf with several items, and desserts are all ready. So eventually when the guest arrives, we say to them, “Please, welcome. Everything is ready for you.” We want to awe and surprise them and make them feel so special.

That is exactly what the Lord Jesus is doing, in a billion-fold higher way. He goes before us to prepare what no eye has seen and no ear has heard. Nobody captured it better than John Bunyan. When a believer leaves this world and their soul leaves their body behind, they follow the Lord Jesus into heavenly glory, and he is there waiting, with the gate open and his arms wide, saying, “Come, welcome, for all things are now ready.” That is what the ascension assures us. He went as our forerunner to heaven. Oh, how wonderfully we should cherish the ascension. His ascension is our guarantee of going to heaven. This truth opens to us the doors of glory.

So this is the meaning of the ascension. My brothers and sisters, what else do we need? Doesn’t this one sight answer all our problems?

Maybe you are wondering what is happening in your world, in your family, or in your life. The sight of the ascension assures us:

1. Jesus is my exalted and enthroned King of the universe. He rules sovereignly and orders everything not only in the world, but in your family and in your life, for your good.

Maybe you are struggling in your faith with the world, the devil, your flesh, or sin. 2. The ascension displays Jesus’ complete victory over all our enemies. What can separate us from the love of Christ? We are more than conquerors, victors over the grave.

Maybe you are struggling with assurance, with the guilt of remaining sin and your flesh. 3. Faith in the ascension gives believers assurance of perfect righteousness. He has given us that eternal standing before God as justified, adopted, and as heirs of God. By his death he obtained righteousness for us, but by his ascension, he applies that righteousness to us.

Maybe you are worried about the future, about your worries, or your needs. 4. The ascension assures us of all heavenly blessings we need until we reach heaven. See his hand blessing you even at this moment. Maybe you are wondering if no one understands your problem. But remember there is a man sitting on the throne of glory with infinite sympathy, who is deeply and organically connected with you and feels what you feel.

Maybe you are looking at your own body, becoming old, and you have physical problems that will never go away. Maybe there’s a disease that is working on killing you right now. Maybe others say you may not live long. 5. He ascended to heaven as a forerunner to all his people. He has prepared everything and is waiting for you for a great eternal feast. As soon as you close your eyes, you will see the doors of heaven open and Jesus’ arms wide open for you.

The ascension holds so many comforts for the believer. But hold on, that’s just the beginning, the first thing. Next we will see his session, the Holy Spirit’s mission, and his intercession.

So we have seen the event and the meaning. Next is the result. What should a proper understanding of the ascension lead to? It should lead us to do what it did to the apostles: true worship and evangelism.

Luke’s gospel ends in 24:52: “And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen.”

The first result of the ascension was a new dimension of worship in these believers who had witnessed him going into glory. Of course, people had worshiped him in the days of his humiliation when they saw a big miracle, like the calming of the sea. But now for the first time, they worshiped him as an ascended, invisible God. They worshiped Christ in his ascended glory. The invisible but glorious Savior, who was born like us, lived our lives, died our death, rose again for us, and ascended and gone into heaven to prepare heaven for us, and they worshiped him. This is the worship you and I are called to today.

Recognizing that he is at the right hand of the highest majesty, that the whole innumerable heavenly host sees him as the Lamb of God who alone is worthy to receive honor, majesty, dominion, glory, might, and wealth, they had run out of language in praising him. In a very real sense, faith in the ascension brings out of the believing heart this sense of worship, joy, and wonder at the exalted Christ in glory.

We are so lacking in such worship because we are only stuck with a humble savior who is dead. We don’t look at his ascension in faith. Gaze, O my soul, on this wonderful object. He climbs, clouds receive him as the Godhead, an all-triumphant Lord, accomplishing perfect righteousness for me. He goes to heaven in my nature, on my behalf, as my representative, to always bless me and prepare a place for me, as my High Priest carrying me positively engraved in his chest, thereby guaranteeing that we likewise will enter heaven. How the ascension should fill us with worship.

After Elijah ascended, Elisha cried, “My father! My father! The chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!” How should we cry after him, “O my Lord and my God!” What an excellent object of worship is the ascended Christ, with his ascending, blessing, marching, conquering, and triumphing postures? In his free, and large, and magnificent gifts? O the glory, O the excellency, of Christ in these respects; I believe this is the top of heaven’s glory, to see and wonder at the virtues of him who sits on the throne at the right hand of God, to be filled, but never satiated, with the glory of Christ.

When you think of the whole of heaven, imagine the welcome he must have received as he entered. On one side, all the saints who went in advance on the credit of his work gave him praise from their hearts and mouths, and what praise from innumerable angels, and what delight and pride in the Father’s face. Oh, what a red-carpet, grand welcome. Verse 7 says, “Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in.” “The twelve gates of the holy city of New Jerusalem” opened of their own accord, and Jesus Christ, with all his grand, exalted glory, walks in and sits on the highest throne. O my soul, when we get some glimmers and visions of his glory by faith, we will prostrate ourselves and worship this Lord. We may also ascend into heaven by faith and love now.

But they did more than worship. Second, you will notice that in Acts, at the beginning, Luke tells us that they waited for his spirit, were filled with his Spirit, and became witnesses for him in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. This is the task that the ascended Jesus enables the church to fulfill. He sends the Holy Spirit’s power for them to be faithful witnesses where he has placed us. He went into glory in order that we might go into the world, worshiping and witnessing for him. That is the great task of the church between the ascension and his return. The ascension shows that the task of procuring our salvation is completed and that the task of proclaiming salvation has begun and will not end until Jesus comes back as they saw him go. That is our task this morning: worship him and witness for him.

We should stop giving excuses like, “Oh, I am not sure how I can fulfill it,” “I am not good at talking,” or “I don’t get opportunities for evangelism.” There is never a day in our lives where we don’t get an opportunity to witness to Jesus Christ. In fact, we are doing it every day, every hour. There are people around us in our families, neighbors, and others. You are bearing witness to Jesus Christ, for good or for bad, truthfully or falsely. Your life is being observed, your words are noted, and your priorities are being assessed by all kinds of people.

The kind of evangelism that draws people most powerfully and effectively is available to all of us. We can make a change. There are hundreds of people around us. Many will never come near a church, but they will come near you. They will never read a Bible, but they will read your life. The great question is, what do they read there?

Only two things: our life and our word. We live as personal witnesses. We have learned how to live as gospel witnesses. When we have such an ascended Lord, what hinders us from rejoicing in the Lord always, being gentle to all men, and living anxiety-free?

Word: When an opportunity comes, be prepared at least to share the basic contents of the gospel. We cannot say we don’t know. We learned it in the Great Commission series. Initially, it may be awkward, but practice, practice, and this will become a habit. At least this year, let us as a church pray and take this as a priority, and learn this habit. Until he comes, this is the task he has given us. May we, by his grace, fulfill it.

Blog:

Lift up your eyes: Behold your ascended Lord! Worship your ascended Lord! Proclaim your ascended Lord!

The Ascension means five things:

1. Jesus is my Sovereign King.
2. Jesus is my Triumphant King.
3. Jesus is my perfect righteousness.
4. Jesus is my blesser.
5. Jesus is my forerunner.

Most of us know to an extent the truth of the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord. Most think that is the end of our redemption story. No, in fact, that is the beginning of the “redemption applied” story. Christ accomplished redemption by his life, death, and resurrection, and he starts applying it after his resurrection with five subsequent saving acts of Christ. We can call them: Ascension, Session, Holy Spirit Mission, Intercession, and Full Redemption at his Second Coming. The Bible connects all this to his death and resurrection as objects of our faith. If we don’t grasp these, our experience of the full salvation Christ purchased will be weak.

So, this will be a short series on Christ’s saving acts of “Redemption Applied.” We will start with the ascension. This is a very precious truth. We know, according to Acts 1:9, that Christ ascended to heaven in the sight of his disciples and a cloud received him into heaven. This is a prophesied, historical, and divinely confirmed event.

The ascension means five precious things to every believer.

1. Jesus is my Sovereign King. The Lord Jesus Christ is now the exalted and enthroned sovereign king of the universe. Philippians 2:9 says, “Therefore, God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.” Though the ascension is a step toward the exaltation and enthronement of Christ, the ascension is the visible confirmation that Jesus is exalted above all authority and power and enthroned above every name. From a state of humiliation with a human body, with all the limitations of being here or there, his ascension took him to a place of the highest authority, raised him to unbounded sovereign rule, unlimited power, and unlimited presence. A cloud’s shekinah presence receiving him shows he is raised to the glory of the Godhead, and he reigns supreme now. The ascension visibly proves his words that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him.

Think of what impact this had on the disciples and what it should have on us if we believe this. As the disciples went out to preach the gospel, they were going to have every reason to doubt that truth in their lifetimes. They were going to experience persecution. Things would happen in their lives to test them. It may have made them wonder if their Lord and Savior was truly reigning over this world after all. But in spite of whatever happened in the world, this picture of the ascension always gave them the vision that their Lord is sovereignly ruling everything in this world. That is what made them more than conquerors of the world by faith.

You may be looking at the increasing crime in society, the tension, the fights in our nation, the wars, and the politics of nation against nation, and think, “Boy, it doesn’t look like Jesus is reigning.” God says, “Lift up your eyes and behold your ascended Lord.” He himself prophesied these things would happen before his Second Coming in Matthew 24. When we struggle in our own lives, in our families, and wonder if Jesus is truly reigning, God says to you, “Lift up your eyes and behold your ascended Lord.” That will strengthen your faith and make you realize that in spite of what happens here below, I know He is reigning, ordering all circumstances surrounding me, and is working all things for my ultimate good as he promised.

So, when you see our Lord ascending step by step from your sight, it is as if King Jesus ascended a dais to be exalted and enthroned as the sovereign king of the universe.

2. Jesus is Triumphant. The ascension displays Jesus’ complete, triumphant victory over all his enemies. Ephesians 4:8, talking about the ascension, says, “Therefore He says: ‘When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive…'”

The phrase “he led captivity captive” is a picture of a Roman commander winning a battle. After the war, there is a big parade of victory as the commander marches through Rome in a grand, red-carpet welcome, in the midst of the whole city’s victory shouts, praises, and flowers. He marches with all his spoils, and all the enemy kings and princes he had taken captive are tied to his chariots, and he drags them as slave dogs for Rome’s service.

Now, Christ made a war with all our enemies: the world, sin, Satan, death, and hell on the cross. You know what? He won that spiritual war. Colossians 2:15 says, “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross.” He vanquished and triumphed over all our enemies.

Paul says in Ephesians 4:8 that when he ascended, he “led captivity captive.” This means his ascension is like the Roman commander marching in victory into the heavenly city, while all his enemies are tied to his chariot as slave dogs. Now, the world, sin, Satan, death, and hell will be used to accomplish the purposes of God’s kingdom. They are slave dogs. So, the ascension is a public triumphal show, a victory parade of our Lord. How important it is to have this object of faith when we think the devil is out of control, the world is troubling us, and sin makes us feel our battle is in vain. God says, “Lift up your eyes and behold your ascended Lord!” He has completely triumphed over them on my behalf. They are now slave dogs accomplishing Christ’s will. They are being used as kingdom slaves to increase our faith, patience, and to sanctify us. What can separate us from the love of Christ? We are more than conquerors in him.

3. Jesus is my perfect righteousness. Faith in the ascension gives believers assurance of perfect righteousness. Talking about the Holy Spirit, John 16:8 says, “when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and you see Me no more.” I never understood this verse until now.

What he says is that when the Holy Spirit comes, he will convince believers that they have perfect righteousness in Christ, and he will do this through his ascension: “I go to my Father.” Why? Because Christ was the sinners’ representative, accomplishing full salvation. If Christ had not fulfilled all righteousness for us, he could not ascend to heaven. So, his ascension to heaven proclaims openly and loudly that he has completely finished the work he had to do for us here, atoned for all our sins, and earned perfect righteousness for us, and that God was well pleased with all he did.

When you and I, by the weakness of our faith, fall into sins, the devil and sometimes even our own conscience condemn us, making us feel that we cannot go to God. We lose assurance of our acceptance with God. All we see is our sin, and we cannot see our Savior. We think God is angry with us. We wallow in guilt. How do we lift ourselves up from this guilt gutter? How do we get mercy and helping grace as Hebrews 4 says?

God says, here is an object for your faith that will give you assurance of perfect righteousness. Lift your eyes and look at your ascended Lord. This is heaven’s greatest proof that Christ’s active and passive obedience in our place has been accepted by the Father. You can come to God with confident faith, even with your guilt. “Yes, I have sinned, but I repent, and I come to my Father on the basis of the work of my Lord Jesus Christ, who has accomplished perfect righteousness for me and proved it by ascending to heaven.” He has given us that eternal standing before God as justified, adopted, and heirs of God. I don’t have an angry judge, but a loving Father who is ever willing to forgive and give mercy that will relieve my present guilt and helping grace that will help me overcome that sin in the future because my High Priest sits next to him ever interceding for me.

4. Jesus is my blesser. The ascension assures us of all heavenly blessings we need until we reach heaven. Very beautifully, the Lord himself showed this with his ascending posture. You know how he ascended. Luke 24:50 says, “And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven.”

So beautiful. The last visible posture the disciples saw of Jesus when he went to heaven was a posture of blessing. Aren’t you happy that the one who is so exalted and enthroned in the highest heaven went up blessing us? Has his posture changed now? Never. He ever sits, blessing us. We will see his session, the Holy Spirit’s mission, and his intercession with his great offices of Prophet, Priest, and King all resulting in our being ever blessed. That is why Paul could say in Ephesians that we are blessed with every spiritual blessing. 2 Peter 1:3 says, “His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness who called us by his own glory.”

This is so sweet. He is not blessing us as a detached spiritual being. The disciples didn’t see Jesus change into a spirit and have his humanity evaporate when he went to glory. They saw a physical man, Jesus, rise higher and higher, and that body was taken into a cloud. He was exalted and enthroned with a body that had the full experience of all human suffering. It is so vital for us to understand that a man is at the right hand of the heavenly Father right now for us. That should make the ascension very beautiful and dear. He went as our representative in our nature and in our body. This guarantees endless sympathetic grace and blessing for all our human weakness and circumstances. Whatever you are facing, remember this ascended Lord. He knows. Not only does he know, he cares. Not only does he care, he deeply feels every groan and sigh of yours because of your union with him. It gets better: he can help because he is a mighty savior who is able to save us to the uttermost. We have a sympathetic God-man who is in heaven in a blessing posture until the end of the world, ensuring we are always blessed.

5. Jesus is my forerunner. Jesus ascended to heaven as a forerunner to all his people. Just as he is the first fruits in the resurrection, he is also the first fruits in the ascension. He said to his disciples in John 14, “Let not your hearts be troubled. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also.”

Jesus has gone into heaven as a forerunner for us. Jesus entering heaven is a guarantee of all his people entering heaven. He went up not as a single person, but as our federal head, our representative. He actually, virtually, mystically, and positionally carried all believers up with him into glory. That is why Ephesians 2:6 says, “He raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (meaning in our union with Christ). Because of our union with Christ, his ascension guarantees our entrance into heaven. In this union, whatever God did to Christ’s person was done on our behalf, and it will inevitably be done to us. Was Christ crucified? So are we. Has Christ risen again? So, we have risen with him. Has Christ gone up into glory? So will we be. Heaven is now opened and possessed by Jesus Christ for us, and at last we shall ascend just as he ascended.

How beautifully he says, “I go to prepare a place for you.” He has some work to do in heaven before we go there. He has done everything on earth to purchase perfect redemption for us; now he goes to heaven to apply that to us by his ascension, session, the Holy Spirit’s mission, and his intercession.

It’s as though the Lord Jesus is a host in his own house, and we are his guests. We know how some of us make great preparations before a guest comes. We want to awe and surprise them in every way and make them feel so special. So eventually when the guest arrives, we say to them, “Come on, please welcome. Everything is ready for you.” In the same way, the Lord has gone to prepare a place for us, to prepare what no eye has seen and no ear has heard. Nobody captured it better than John Bunyan. The moment a believer closes his eyes here, he will ascend to heaven and find his Lord waiting with the gates open and his arms wide open, saying, “Come on, for all things are now ready.” That is what the ascension assures us. He went as our forerunner to heaven.

So, dear discouraged brother and sister, lift up your eyes and behold your ascended Lord. This will thrill your soul and, like those first disciples, make you go home and worship and proclaim your ascended Lord with great joy always. Amen.