Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

Eric Alexander: This is the Sunday before Ascension Day, which is on Thursday. And although not many of us would be addicted to the church year or the ecclesiastical calendar, the occurrence of this particular day, when we are not in the midst of a series of studies of another kind, provides us with a much-needed opportunity, as it seems to me, to think together about the vital theme of our Lord's ascension to the right hand of God in heaven, his being taken up, as the scripture puts it, into glory.

Because just as you cannot separate the death and the resurrection of Jesus, so we dare not separate his death and resurrection from the next event in his saving work, which is his ascension into heaven and his exaltation to the right hand of God's majesty. Hebrews 10:12 reminds us that when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

And although we are inclined to think less about the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ than about his resurrection and his crucifixion, it occupies a crucial place in what he came to do as our savior. Jesus himself challenged his disciples about it when they were doubting him in John 6:62. "What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending where he was before?" he asked them. He urges Mary in John 20 to go and tell the disciples, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."

And it is certainly an essential part of apostolic preaching, this truth of our Lord being taken up into heaven. "Great," says Paul in 1 Timothy 3:16, "great is the mystery of our religion. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and taken up to glory." And when in Romans 8 Paul is throwing out his challenges about the believer's ultimate security and inviolability in God's gracious purpose, he says, "Who is to condemn us? Is it Christ Jesus?"

And then he begins to describe his mighty work for our salvation. "Is it Christ Jesus who died, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who intercedes for us?" You will notice how the death and the resurrection and the ascension and the exaltation of Jesus are bound together as Paul explains how he saves and keeps his people.

Now it is to the significance of the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of the Father described in that passage we read in Acts chapter one this morning that I want us to turn for the rest of our time. There are four things particularly which seem to me to be important for us to draw out from it. The first of them is a kind of preliminary, and it is this.

The ascension of Jesus in the first place for some people poses a problem. And the problem derives, of course, from the story in Acts 1 which we read, the very language that it uses to describe how Jesus was taken up. A cloud received him out of their sight. And the men who came said, "Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven."

Many people would wonder, "What are we to make of this idea of Jesus defying the law of gravity, as it were, and going up into heaven, as it were, taking flight into the clouds?" Let me say at once that the God who created the law of gravity is equally able to suspend it at his will. But some people are troubled by this thought of Jesus ascending into the sky. Is this where the Bible tells us heaven is therefore and where Jesus has gone to and where God lives? Is this the whole concept that we are to have in our mind?

It's important for us perhaps to recognize that the word 'heaven' in scripture is used generally in one of three ways. First of all, it's used for the sky or the air above us. Jesus speaks quite literally of the birds of heaven. And that is the one use that is made frequently of the word. It's used for what we would speak of when we say the sky or the air above us. Secondly, it's used for the whole realm of space. Sun, moon, and stars, the galaxies of the universe. The heavens declare the glory of God. And that is a reference clearly to the upper stratosphere of the universe where the heavens, as we speak of them, are.

But the third use of the word in scripture is for the sphere of God's unlimited power and sovereignty. So that in the Old Testament Satan says, "I will ascend into heaven. I will be like God." That is, he is saying, "I will be where God dwells in this place of unlimited sovereignty and power." And so the scripture speaks of heaven in that sense as God's throne and the earth as his footstool. And his kingdom is the kingdom of heaven.

Now it is to this thought of God's unbounded power and supreme authority that Jesus directs us when he teaches us to pray, "Our Father, which art in heaven." For the terms 'heaven' and 'the right hand of the Father' are related to the whole idea of heaven being God's unlimited sphere of dominion, his throne room, as it were, where God reigns supreme and high above all.

And it is natural, therefore, that we express that with seriousness and integrity as being above us. As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards them that fear him. The realm in which God dwells can rightly and properly and accurately be described, therefore, as a sphere that is above us. And we rightly think of Jesus ascending into that realm. But what we are saying is that the sphere in which God reigns is a sphere of unlimited dominion and unbounded glory, and it was into that realm that the Lord Jesus was taken up when he left this world.

The second thing that I want us to say about the ascension, and here we come to the positive area of what this truth has to teach us, is that it proclaims a message. And that message is, of course, most obviously that Christ ascended to glory on the day of his ascension as the victor over sin and hell and death and Satan.

When Paul describes this in Ephesians 4, he says, "When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive." And this is the whole picture supremely of Christ's ascension. What is happening in his ascending from this earth into heaven is that God is declaring that he goes up to the throne that has been waiting for him as the one who has gained the victory and led captivity captive and now goes to the place of his exalted majesty there to reign and to wait until all his enemies become his footstool.

Now you can see how this is a significant and vital element in our thinking of all that our Lord Jesus has done for us by his death and resurrection as our savior. What Paul is speaking about is the Lord Jesus' exaltation to a place of supreme glory at the right hand of the Father. It is this that Psalm 24 speaks about so beautifully and picturesquely where the Psalmist pictures Jesus going up in a train of triumph.

And it is supremely of Jesus that he is speaking in that Psalm we sing in the metrical version, "Ye gates, lift up your heads." The Psalmist sees the whole host of heaven, as it were, bearing the Lord Jesus into the presence of his Father and crying, "Lift up your heads, oh ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and let the King of Glory in."

Now primarily that Psalm was speaking of the entry of a king to the place of his coronation. But clearly, the scripture sees it as ultimately pointing to the King of Kings going to his coronation to sit down at the right hand of the majesty. And you see the picture of heaven where from the ramparts, as it were, there comes back the cry, "Who is the King of Glory? Who is this King of Glory?" And the angelic host reply, "The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord of hosts, the Lord mighty in battle. He is the King of Glory. Open the gates and let him in."

Now that is our Lord Jesus' exaltation into a place of supreme glory and triumph. It is, as it were, the seal upon his death and resurrection. It is the ultimate moment when leading a train of captives, taking all the glory of what he has accomplished on the cross with him into his Father's presence, he goes, as it were, to his coronation as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So the ascension is, as someone has said, the festival of Christ's coronation as King of Kings.

But there is another element in this message of the ascension which it is important for us to grasp. It concerns Jesus being seated at the right hand of God the Father. We see the message of the ascension in Christ's mighty triumph over all the powers of darkness, and that is what the primary message of the ascension is. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ proclaiming to us that there is no power in heaven or earth or hell that is not before him bowed. He has gained the victory.

And that has all kinds of practical implications, of course, for us in our spiritual warfare. We recognize that the Lord who has redeemed us is the Lord before whom every principality and power has to bow ultimately. And that is why when we battle in our Christian experience, we battle not towards victory but from victory to victory. That is from his triumph to the triumphs he gains personally in our lives and ultimately towards the day when the triumph will be publicly completed and consummated and every knee will bow before him and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

But there is a great significance in what Hebrews 10:12 says to us, that when he went into the presence of his Father, he sat down at the right hand of God. Now that is the posture and position of rest after some work has been completed. And there is a great hymn of the ascension, "All his work is ended. Joyfully we sing, Jesus has ascended."

Now the point about that being seated at the right hand of his Father is that he has completed the work for which he came from heaven's glory into the world. And thereby he is distinguished, as the author of Hebrews points out to us, from all other priests who are seeking to deal with God on behalf of men. They are standing. They stand all the time because their work is never finished. But the Lord Jesus is a great high priest who is seated at the right hand of his Father because his work is completed. He has finished what the Father gave him to do.

What does that mean for us? Let me answer the question by asking another. What has Christ crucified, risen, and ascended left for me to do that I might be saved? Here is where the ascension and session of our Lord Jesus leads us to the heart of the gospel, you see. Take this away and you have lost something of the real significance of the gospel. What has the Lord Jesus now seated at the right hand of God left for any of us to do that our salvation might be full?

The answer is utterly nothing because all his work is ended. He is seated at the right hand of God because his work is completed. That means that all I may do is, as a poor needy sinner, stretch out an empty hand to receive that perfect full satisfaction for my sin which Jesus has perfectly accomplished on the cross. And struggling and striving and hoping and fearing about whether I can earn salvation are condemned by the ascension and session of the Lord Jesus at the right hand of God.

It proclaims a message to us of Christ's triumph over all the powers of darkness and of his completion of a finished work. Thirdly, the ascension not only poses a problem and proclaims a message, it provides a comfort for God's people. Now that comfort derives from many things. Jesus is not only seated at the right hand of God, he is seated on a throne. That is how he is seen in the book of Revelation when we have this vision of the exalted savior.

He is the sovereign Lord in the universe. And what he is doing as he is seated in heaven is reigning as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords upon whose shoulders are the government of the universe. And this is how he is seen as John the Apostle has heaven opened and a vision given to him of this infinitely glorious fact that the Lord Jesus is on the throne of the universe. And all power is given unto him in heaven and on earth.

Now because he is a reigning Lord, that means that for the child of God in every situation of his life, he may be a resting subject. My rest as a believer derives directly from his reign. And that's the vital importance of grasping the absolute glory of the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ. I rest on him as a totally adequate savior. I rest in him day by day as a reigning Lord who knows the end from the beginning and will bring the end from the beginning. And I find in his sovereignty my peace.

And it is because we have, in some sense, a distorted or clouded vision of the reigning Lord that we know so little about the resting life. It provides a comfort for God's people. But there is even more than that. What is the reigning Lord Jesus doing at the right hand of the Father? Well, this same epistle to the Hebrews tells us he is completing our salvation because he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him, seeing that he ever lives to make intercession for them.

And what he is doing at the right hand of God, what he has gone into the Father's presence to do, is to intercede for us according to the will of God in all the perfection of his intercessory ministry. And this is what the Lord Jesus is doing now. Have you ever wondered? His work is finished on earth. He has completed his work on Calvary. But what is the Lord Jesus doing now that he might save us in this day? I tell you what he is doing. He is praying for you.

Even as he said to Peter, "Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to have you, but I have interceded for you." There is a paper that I sometimes get which is not published in Scotland and it has a personal column to which my curiosity is frequently drawn. And it has some of the most extraordinary and pathetic things in it. People in their personal advertisement asking some saint to pray for them. "St. Jude, pray for me. Examinations coming off, St. Jude, pray for me," they say. And the next week you will get another insert, "Thank you, St. Jude, for favors received."

My dear friends, it is an extraordinary thing for people to be asking St. Jude to pray for them when the great high priest who has gone into the heavens, even the Son of God, who bears our humanity because what was taken up into heaven was his humanity, and there it is a glorified humanity that is present, and the Lord Jesus who has stepped in every footstep that we go into, who knows every pain and ache of our heart, who understands our weakness and feels our frame, that in the presence of his Father, he is our advocate.

Oh beloved, what other advocate do you need? What other intercessor do you need to cry for when the Lord Jesus is pledged to bear your needs into the presence of his Father? And he is doing that for you. He ever lives to make intercession. And that's why he is able to save to the uttermost. Oh, we denigrate God's provision when we forget what the Lord Jesus is doing now.

It provides a comfort for God's people. But even more than that, why has he gone into heaven? He has been taken up into heaven to reign as an undoubted king and monarch. He has been taken up into heaven to intercede for the saints. He has been taken up into heaven thirdly, upon his own word, to prepare a place for you, he says to his disciples. John 14, "I go to prepare a place for you."

Now when they saw him taken up into heaven and knew that he was going into the presence of his Father, that was the fulfillment of that promise. And that is what the Lord Jesus has gone to do. He has entered heaven not only as a mighty conqueror but as our forerunner. Again, the epistle to the Hebrews speaks to us of it in chapter 6, verses 19 to 20. "We have this hope." That is the hope of the gospel and the hope of heaven, the hope of the general assembly of the church of the firstborn.

And how many of us look forward to that when we were at the other one last week? The hope of that great gathering and glorious day when the people of God will be met together. "We have this hope," he says, "as an anchor to our souls, sure and steadfast, which enters into that within the veil, whether the forerunner is already entered for us, even the Lord Jesus."

Now that has so much to say to Christians in sorrow. You know how we prepare for people coming to stay. Does it happen in your house? Someone's coming to stay. And we say, "Oh, well," or usually the lady of the house will say, "We'll need to get everything prepared." And the day comes, you know how it happens. You find that you are perhaps a little bit neglected if you are the man of the house at that time. They say, "We are preparing everything. It's getting ready for the day when the visitor is arriving."

And then there is something very beautiful about someone coming to the door and they say, "Come away. We are all prepared for you." My dear friends, that is precisely that which happens for the believer when swept into the presence of the Lord of Glory. God himself with the Lord Jesus at his right hand says, "Come away. We have been preparing for you. All things are now ready. Come."

And Jesus said, "If I go, I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come again to receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also." Isn't it a beautiful thing when people are at home with the Lord? That's glory.

But there's one last thing about the ascension. It also presents us with a challenge. Because you see the right hand of God to which our Lord Jesus has gone is supremely the place of universal authority. And it is to this that Jesus is referring in that great divine commission in Matthew 28 when he says before his ascension, "All authority is given unto me in heaven and on earth." And the challenge of that is the challenge both of mission, "Therefore go into all the world and make disciples of all nations," and submission, "teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."

You will notice that this is how the Lord Jesus sends us into the world. When he ascended up on high, he gave gifts unto men. He sent his church out into the world as the bearers of the message of him to whom all authority is given. You notice that only because all authority on earth belongs to him can we go to all nations knowing that he is a savior to the whole world.

Only because all authority in heaven belongs to him may we go to all men knowing that all power belongs to the Lord Jesus and we may be assured of his triumph in their lives. Let me read you some words that John Stott has written. "The fundamental basis of all Christian missionary enterprise is the universal authority of Jesus Christ in heaven and on earth."

"If the authority of Jesus were circumscribed on earth, if he were but one of many religious teachers, one of many Jewish prophets, one of many divine incarnations, we would have no mandate to present him to the nations as the Lord and Savior of the world. If the authority of Jesus were limited in heaven, if he had not decisively overthrown the principalities and powers, we might still proclaim him to the nations but we would never be able to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God."

"Only because all authority on earth belongs to Christ dare we go to all nations. And only because all authority in heaven is his as well have we any hope of success." That's the mission of the church. And it derives from the submission of his people. Because the ultimate challenge of the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ is that he has been raised by God to a place of unique glory. And the real question is, is that the place that he occupies in my life this morning? Or do I have a controversy with God about where Jesus is? Mission and submission are married together by the ascension of Jesus Christ. May God teach us the message of his exaltation this morning.

Mark Daniels: You're listening to Hear the Word of God with the Reverend Eric Alexander, a minister in the Church of Scotland for over 50 years. To access more Bible teaching from Reverend Alexander, visit hearthewordofgod.org where your generous contribution will help us sustain and grow this ministry. That's hearthewordofgod.org. You could choose instead to mail a check to this address: 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17601. Or call 1-800-488-1888. This program is a presentation of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. I'm Mark Daniels. Thank you for listening. Please join us again next time for Eric Alexander and Hear the Word of God.