If you will turn to Acts chapter 1 for our reading of God's Word. We're looking at the ascension. this evening. Now, if you know anything about the church calendar, the Ascension or Ascension Sunday usually comes later. But I think it's fitting for us to consider this in connection with the resurrection while these things are fresh on our minds. And far too often, there's not much said about the Ascension even on Ascension Sunday. So let me read. opening chapter of Acts where we have a record by Luke of that great and powerful act of Christ ascending up into glory to be with his father. Hear the word of our God. In the first book, O Theophilus, 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 40 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. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know 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 ends of the earth. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a 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 said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. This is the word of the Lord. God commands us to remember His great acts of salvation. For instance, in Psalm 105, the psalmist writes this. urging this upon the Old Testament worshipers in the temple. Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered, O offspring of Abraham, his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones. It was to be at the forefront of the mind of Old Testament Israel, the great acts of redemption that God had performed on their behalf, primarily during the Exodus period with Moses. And we see Jesus saying something very similar to the New Testament church in John chapter 16. just before Jesus is crucified, he leaves a number of instructions in John 13 through to John 17 to his disciples. And in John 16, we read this. Jesus says, I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father or me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told them to you. Jesus is explaining to them the significance of the events in his lives. And he wants them to remember the things that he tells them. He goes on, I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me. He's speaking here of his ascension. I'm going to him who sent me. And none of you asks, where are you going? But because I've said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 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. So listen to what he's saying. Remember what I'm teaching you. Because there's a day when I'm going to go away from you. I'm going to be ascended, taken up into heaven. But I want you to remember it is for your good that I am doing these things. Now, there are practical ways for us to keep the significant events that the Bible tells us to remember before our eyes. Publicly, in worship, we confess our faith. So if you read the creeds that the church has historically confessed, what are they about? They're structured Trinitarianly about the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And the biggest section of all the creeds is the section about Jesus. And what is it teaching? What is it calling the church to rehearse on a weekly basis? the great events in the life of Christ. This morning, we confessed that he ascended into heaven and sitteth, or sits, on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. Now, those creeds, those statements about Jesus, those are kind of the reduced, teachings, fundamental teachings about the faith. And I wanna ask you before we begin this sermon, what's so important about the ascension? Could you tell me how the ascension affects your salvation? And yet, the creed makes it clear that all of these things about Christ are for us and our salvation. Everything he does in the flesh including his ascension has profound significance for you and for me. Two very simple points in our sermon tonight. First, what is the ascension? And then second, why does it matter? What is the ascension, why does it matter? What is the ascension? The first and most simple truth that we need to understand is that this is a historical reality. It's not a myth. It's not given in scripture to communicate some symbolic truth. It's an actual, concrete event in the life of Christ. And Jesus speaks of it in terms of his going to be with his Father. We see him coming and then we see him going. He's always, he talks about this quite a bit in John's gospel. He is longing to go and to be back in the presence of his father. It's a divine homecoming of sorts. Now, let me be clear. In his divine nature, his eternal divine nature, he never left the presence of his father. He never once neglected his responsibilities to care for and to rule over the world, to sustain it. But he's not talking here about his divine nature, he's speaking in terms of this human nature that he has recently taken to himself. The ascension is an elevation of his flesh, his human nature, to its appropriate place. It's really quite a remarkable thing that's taking place here, and we just read over it mindlessly and think nothing of it. Now, there's a couple of dangers that we must avoid, and these are, heresies that we must avoid when thinking of Christ. You know, it's interesting, I know in my early days as a child, I kinda thought that Jesus was a man, he did his work, and then he went back up to heaven, but he wasn't a man anymore. Any of you thought that way? He was a man, died, was buried, raised for a few days, but when he ascended, he kinda left the flesh behind. Well, let me tell you, if we believe that, our whole salvation is jeopardized. Two dangers to avoid. Jesus did not borrow a human body to carry out his work and abandon it, as I just mentioned. And another thing that we need to avoid is a historic error which is called docetism. And that's an idea that the Jesus we saw, the human form of Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, was just a ghost, a mirage. not real in flesh and blood in terms of the substance of his humanity. Now why do these kind of errors come out? Because it's so difficult for us in our finite human minds to grasp the magnitude of what happens in the incarnation. How can God become How can the creator become a creature? How can God become man? How can the infinite take on finite? To us, it boggles the mind, but to the Greek philosopher, it's repulsive. Because they saw tied with the material world to be everything that is sinful and objectionable. Those are dangers to avoid. Jesus, in verse three, and really throughout his whole life, sought to make it crystal clear, but especially in verse three, he sought to make it crystal clear that after the resurrection, he still had a true human body and soul. Verse three. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And probably the most clear picture of this is Thomas. You know, Thomas wasn't there at one of the first appearings of Jesus and he, Mary came and told the disciples, the apostles about the resurrection and he didn't want to believe it. more of what we would call a scientific mind. He needed to test and experiment. Unless I can touch, put my fingers, or see the holes in his hands, put my fingers in his side, then I'm not gonna believe. He's a scientist. Or at least he's wanting that scientific, empirical type of an understanding of Christ. And Christ gave it to him. That's remarkable. Why did Christ do that? so that the rest of the human race would have that lust for that experimental knowledge fulfilled. Christ has been in the laboratory. He's been tested by Thomas. And Thomas steps away and says, my Lord and my God. This Jesus, who we see ascending up to the Father, is the incarnate flesh and blood Son of Mary. The ascension is physically witnessed by the disciples. Look at the language, it's all about physical, the physical senses that are involved in verses nine to 11. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, He had his witnesses. He was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. While they were gazing into heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? Three statements, stressing their physically, the fact that they physically witnessed this man ascending up into heaven. It's a very real, verifiable event. It's as important in our understanding of salvation as the incarnation, as the cross, as the resurrection. What's going on? The human nature of Jesus for the first time since his birth, the human nature, not the divine, the human nature, is now ascending up to enter into that sweet communion with his Father. The human Jesus is entering into the presence to enjoy communion with his father. First time that that happened. But then secondly, Jesus enters into the holy of holies for you and for me. His ascension, this is how it starts to really impact our thinking about our salvation. Everything that he does relates to us. He died, we died with him. He was raised, we were raised. He ascended, we ascended. It's because of what he is doing that we have entrance into the presence of God. One of the most classic expressions of this is found in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 10, and it picks up this language of the ascension. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence, and we're gonna talk about this in a minute, but since we have confidence to enter the holy places, now that is a very particular term in the book of Hebrews. The holy places is into the direct presence of the Father. Remember in the Old Testament temple, there was the Holy of Holies. Nobody had access to that. Except for a priest once a year, and it was very terrifying. He didn't have much confidence. They'd tie a rope on his leg in case he did something he shouldn't, and they had to drag him out. We enter into the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened up for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh. His ascension is an opening up for us of a way into the presence of the Father. Because His flesh and blood is admitted into the throne room of heaven, so too is ours. So we understand what the ascension is. But now let's look at why does it matter. And very briefly, we're gonna look at four benefits that the ascension brings to the church. And the first thing is this. The ascension and the church's warm reception by the Father. The ascension is a momentous event. It's, in terms of an understanding of the history of the Bible, this is earth-shaking, what's going on here. Remember Adam? He had access to God. When he was created, he enjoyed this fellowship with God. God would come and they would walk together in the garden in the cool of the day. What a picture that is. But when Adam sinned, all of that changed. If you'll look with me to the end of Genesis chapter three. This verse, in Acts chapter one, have a relationship, and maybe you haven't picked up on it. Adam was with God in the garden until verse 24. Listen to this. Adam sinned, and these were the consequences of his sin. He, that is the Lord, drove out the man. And at the east of the Garden of Eden, he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. Adam, because of his sin, and together with all of his descendants, were driven out. It's kind of a hostile term. We are unwelcomed guests into the presence of God. Humanity was disconnected. from fellowship with the divine, and it was emphatic. A cherubim, a great angel, was placed to guard the entrance to the presence of God, and a flaming sword, no way, was man getting back into contact with God. Jesus changes that relationship. He is the first flesh and blood human being to enter into the presence of his God since Adam was driven out. It's the ultimate reversal of the curse and the fall. Jesus Christ is the first man back in the presence of God, our elder brother, going to prepare a way. And I wanna read something from John Calvin. I don't always do this, but I'm gonna do this tonight. Speaking on the ascension, Calvin says this as one of the benefits of it. He says, speaking of Christ, having entered a sanctuary not made with hands, he appears before the Father's face as our constant advocate and intercessor. Thus he turns the Father's eyes to his own righteousness to avert his gaze from our sins. He so reconciles the Father's heart to us that by His intercession, He prepares a way and access for us to the Father's throne. He fills with grace and kindness the throne that for miserable sinners would otherwise have been filled with dread. Isn't that amazing? He's there ahead of time to make sure that our reception is warm in the presence of the Father. It reminds me of my childhood. I had a father who I love very dearly, very gracious man, but he was not slack on discipline. And if we needed to, he would pull the belt out of the closet and he would give us a very thorough spanking. And it was the type of spanking that you didn't want to get. You didn't mess with him. And I remember what I would do as a child. If I had done something stupid, and I did a lot, I would go to my mom first. and kind of explain my stupidity because she was much more gentle. She had an ability to go to my dad and to kind of calm things down before I entered into his presence. And that kind of reminds me, it's a very weak and feeble attempt to illustrate what Christ is doing here. But he goes to the Father first. Look at my hands, look at my side, look at the blood I've shed. To appease the wrath of the Father. And to make for a warm reception when we enter into the Holy of Holies. We also see something here of the ascension in the church's mission. One of the most important works that Jesus speaks about in Acts chapter one is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That cannot take place until he is ascended up into glory. Then when he is seated on his throne, he pours out the Holy Spirit, which is witnessed to the church in Acts chapter two, the day of Pentecost. That is, Pentecost and the Spirit's anointing upon the church is an act of the ascended Christ, the ruling Christ, the Christ seated at the right hand of the Father. And the spirit is given to guide and to empower the church in the expansion of the kingdom of God. The ascended Jesus is like a general on his hill directing his army, sending supplies where they need it. Now what do we learn from that particular aspect of the ascension? Well I think we learn this, we're not alone in our endeavor. Remember what Jesus firmly tells the apostles. Do not go preaching the gospel in Jerusalem and in Samaria and in Judea and all the ends of the earth. Do not utter a word until the gift from my Father comes. We are not alone in our mission. Why do we get so intimidated by being witnesses to Christ in our world. I mean, come on guys. Columbus is a lot less intimidating than where Paul walked. I doubt any of us by actively proclaiming the gospel are going to get stoned like Paul did in Lystra. I seriously doubt any physical thing will happen to us. We don't need to fear the people around us. We don't even need to fear the hardness of their hearts. Because you see, it's not our convincing discussion that's going to change it anyway. The only way the heart is changed is by the working of the Holy Spirit upon it. It's a divine work of God that he commands us to be a part of because we have to bear witness. But our hope is not in the ability of ourselves. It's on the power, the almighty transcendent power of God working in the hearts of the recipients of that message. So the ascension plays a role in the church's mission. Thirdly, the ascension plays a role in the church's life. Remember, as we talked about this morning, we are united to Jesus. We are one with him. We are identified with him. How are we to think about our lives? If you look at Colossians chapter one, or sorry, Colossians chapter three, The ascension changes how we are to live our lives. Paul writes, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is. That's ascension language. Seek the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. For you have died, your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Now I think I've used this illustration before, but it's fitting for what Paul is saying here. When we found out that Main Street Presbyterian Church was calling us to serve as a pastor here, that changed how we lived our last few months in the United Kingdom. We lived in Britain, but we started to act like we lived in Mississippi. Don't talk about the rubbish bin anymore, it's a trash can. Don't talk about the back garden, it's a yard. Okay, we start saying yes sir and no sir because that's what you're going to be doing when you live in Mississippi. And it won't be understood as if you're speaking to the queen or the king. Everybody of a certain age would expect to be addressed as yes sir and no sir, yes ma'am and no ma'am. We didn't drive on the right side of the road yet, but you get the point. That's how we're to live our lives. We are to live our lives because we have a heavenly future. So how do we conduct ourselves? You see, Paul is saying exactly this. Seek the things that are above, where Christ is. And then he's gonna go on, and he puts it in the context of sanctification. Verse five, put to death therefore what is earthly in you. Because you're not earthly anymore. You've ascended with Christ. It should shape how you think about your life. Put to death that which is earthly in you. Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. Begin to live as citizens of heaven. Because indeed, that's what you are. And then finally, the ascension and the church's comfort. Jesus is ascended as a king, but he's also ascended as a priest. The book of Hebrews speaks of this quite a bit. In Hebrews chapter four, we're told, This, since then we have a great high priest. This is in verse 14 of chapter four. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who is in every respect has been tempted as we are. So the picture of the ascension is like the priest entering into the holy of holies of the Old Testament to represent us before the face of the Father. He comes as one who can sympathize with us in our state here under the sun. In times of grief, loss of a loved one, the knowledge of tragic news, Jesus, is seated at the right hand of the Father, ruling the world as a sympathetic priest who knows the grief of loss, who wept upon the news of hearing of his great friend Lazarus' death. Remember that? He wept. So he knows how to comfort us through his ascension in times of suffering. when it feels as if the weight of the world is pressing us down, suffocating us, we can't even breathe because life has hit us with its full force. Jesus is one who suffered. He knows abandonment. He knows loneliness. He knows hardship. Nothing. that we are faced has escaped him. And even in times of temptation, although he never sinned, he knows temptation to a greater degree than us. And I think it was Sinclair Ferguson, I'm not sure about this, but I think it was Sinclair Ferguson. I was reading a book by him, it may have been Arthur Pink too, I'm not absolutely sure, but one of these men spoke of the temptations of Christ in the wilderness. And he said, and it was an insight that really gripped me, he said that Jesus was tempted to a degree that we will never understand. Because you see, in the temptation game, we're usually won over in about the first inning. Doesn't take a whole lot of temptation, and we're buying into it. Jesus went all the way to the ninth inning, and still refused, wave after wave after wave of the devil's best temptations, and he never took it. He was never swayed by it. We're swayed pretty easily. He sits in the heavenly places, ready and eager for us to call upon him in prayer. He intercedes on our behalf. Four things. Prepares that warm welcome for us. Gives us the power and the confidence to move forward in our church's mission. Reminds us of our life, how we're to conduct ourselves. We are to live a heavenly life. And then he comforts us in any time of need as our intercessor. Let us pray. Our Lord and our God, we thank you that the ascension of Christ is also necessary for us and for our salvation, and we pray tonight that we would have learned something about how it affects us, why it is so important, and how we can learn from it and even grow and be encouraged by it. We thank you. that not only did Christ come through his incarnation, not only did he die on the cross, not only was he raised from the dead, but also that he ascended into glory and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. We praise you in Christ's name, amen.