Dear congregation, Acts chapter 3 opens up with Peter and John, these two apostles going up together to the temple in Jerusalem. And as they do so, right outside the gate, called beautiful, there is a picture of something that is not beautiful. There's a man lying there who's been lame since birth. for 40 years, as you can read later. And the apostles stop, and Peter looks straight at him and says to him, man, look at us. And the man looks up, expecting to receive alms. But Peter says something. Silver and gold have I none. and the man doesn't look down. But what I have I give unto thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk And leaning forward, Peter takes the man by the right hand and lifts him up. And the man's feet and ankles become strong so that he jumps to his feet. And he begins to walk. And he's never done this before. And the man not only walks with the apostles, but he is jumping. He's leaping and praising God. who has done such a miracle. And a crowd gathers, because they've seen this man for decades, begging each and every day. And they're filled with wonder and excitement. What has happened here? What an amazing miracle. What a turning back of the brokenness of life, and instead a marvelous Restoration. How has this happened? And Peter, as it were, takes the microphone, if we could say, and he says, what you've just seen is but a small window of a great and worldwide restoration that is now underway. And bit by bit, this will take place at every level, spiritually, And in the final analysis, physically as well, there is a restoration underway all in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, who was crucified right here in Jerusalem by you people. But He is risen and He is even ascended into heaven and it's that ascension into heaven that explains everything and that can give great hope. Also to us congregation in the midst of life as we see it both the beauty and that which is not beautiful but broken as we see it around us and in us. And so with the Lord's help we want to focus on these words, our text being Acts chapter 3 verses 19 through 21. Let me just read 21 once again. Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets since the world began. A theme with God's help is ascension hope for a broken world. We'll see first of all that Christ's ascension opens heaven. Secondly, we'll see that blessings descend from heaven. And thirdly, hearts must turn to Christ in heaven. Ascension hope for a broken world. Christ's ascension opens heaven. Blessings descend from heaven. And hearts must turn toward Christ in heaven. Children, where is Christ now? He walked this earth for 30 plus years. And then he went to heaven. And we hear about that every week, don't we, in the Apostles Creed. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. And that's where he is tonight. He's in heaven. on the throne of God. Don't you think the Lord Jesus is happy, joyful to be there at His Father's right hand? And in a way, there should be no question that the Lord Jesus should go to heaven after his death and resurrection. There's no more appropriate place for the Lord to go. In a way, it's almost surprising that he stayed on earth this long. He died and rose again, and for 40 days, he walked this earth still, this earth that rejected him. And he was seen by these and by those and he moved through walls and he appeared to disciples at the Sea of Tiberias and to five hundred all at once probably in Galilee they saw him. Many infallible proofs. Christ wanted people to know for sure that it was the same Jesus that was crucified who was also risen and he was with his people and during those days he prepared his people for the time when he would ascend into heaven and again I say this is to be expected what did he tell the thief on the cross today you will be with me in paradise in heaven And our text says it so bluntly and starkly and sharply. Did you hear that in verse 21? Whom the heaven must receive. Whom the heaven must receive. What a difference this was with the treatment that Christ received on the earth. The earth by and large did not receive him while he walked this earth. and especially in his great suffering before Pontius Pilate. The people had said, these very people here in our story, away with him, away with him, crucify him. He's not worthy, as it were, to live on this earth. And they even chose Barabbas instead of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he came unto his own and his own, his own people, whom you might expect that they would receive him. They received him not. But now, what about heaven? Heaven must receive him. And heaven, children, you know is a wonderful place. It's a place that's filled with light, glory, and splendor, and holiness. There the angels cover their faces, they sing God's praises, and they swiftly obey God no matter what it is that they're asked to do. And in heaven there's a throne. And from that throne issues His commands. Everything that happens on the earth, ultimately, must first pass by heaven. Heaven decrees everything, and it happens. And that's where Christ must go. And this is where Christ had been from all eternity. God set up His throne in the heavens, and Christ had been there. in the bosom of the Father from all eternity, God of God, rejoicing with the Holy Spirit. And he had prayed in John 17, he said, And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. And so here, after all his work is done, the Lord Jesus Christ goes back to his father, goes back to heaven. Now as a public person, as a federal head of his church and people, he carries them, as it were, in his heart, and he goes on their behalf into heaven. The Heidelberg Catechism says we have our flesh in heaven, meaning the head is there. and the body is soon to follow. And heaven must receive him, since he really ultimately was there. But heaven must also receive him, because it is from heaven that he will apply salvation. He's obtained salvation on the earth. He cried from the cross, it is finished. All the work that he had to do on the earth was finished. He had paid the penalty. He had drunk the cup of the wrath of God to the bottom. And he had procured a full obedience. It was finished. But now he must apply that work which he has obtained. And from where is he going to do that? Is he going to do that from Jerusalem? No. Can you do that from Rome or some other place on the earth? No. I ascend to my father and to your father, to my God and your God, he had said. And so he must, from heaven, apply the salvation that he has obtained. And heaven must receive him to do that. And heaven must receive him so that he may intercede for his people there. So that you, child of God, in all your temptations, in all your trials and afflictions, you would have an advocate at the right hand of the majesty on high, right there in the throne of God. So that when Satan would accuse you, Paul says in Romans 8, who is he who condemns us? It is Christ who died, yea rather who is risen again, who is even now at the right hand of the throne on high, ever interceding for his people. Father, forgive them. I've paid the price. Father, save them. For I have merited by my suffering and death their salvation. He's constantly, day and night, he's there. In the Old Testament temple, the incense would rise heavenward from the priest in order to symbolize the prayers that would go heavenward twice a day, nine o'clock in the morning and three o'clock in the afternoon. But this high priest, he ever lives to make intercession. His whole life, his whole presence in heaven is one huge prayer. that intercedes for all his people the world over all the time. The heavens must receive him. And the heavens must receive him for another reason as well because Under his feet must come every principality and power, thrones and dominion. Everything that is named on the earth must be under his feet. Think about that. The next time you wonder whether our world will simply spin out of control, whether governments and dictators and secular governments and all what is happening whether it will not just ultimately just spin out of control. No, above all these things there are the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ who rules and reigns and nothing happens by chance. He controls everything from the height of heaven. There's nothing above Him. There's nothing under whose feet He is. He is above everything. Don't you see, congregation, why heaven must receive this Savior, this Son of God? What an amazing thing. An amazing thing that He came to this world which He had made and this world wouldn't receive Him. You and I, by nature, The Lord comes, and He comes knocking on the door of your and my heart. By nature, it's barred, it's shut, it's locked, it's barricaded. That's what we do. It's almost as if when we see Him coming, we put up more obstacles, more of a wall against Christ. We will not have this man to reign over us. But when the Lord Jesus Christ, when He is there at the time appointed on the Mount of Olives, and He's there with His church and His disciples, representing His church, and His feet, all of a sudden they start to go up. And His disciples see those nail-pierced feet. They see them go up and up and up. Gravity can't hold him down. There he goes, higher and higher. They have to look higher and higher each time, and then there comes this cloud, Acts 1 says. I think that was a special cloud, not just any cloud. It wasn't as if he just got so high that he reached the level of the clouds. No, a cloud received him. It says in the Old Testament, he makes the clouds his chariot. And there was a special cloud that the Lord had appointed, and there that cloud is Christ's chariot. And with it He rides into heaven, and He comes to heaven. And you know what heaven's gates say. They say one to another, lift up your heads, O ye gates, and lift up ye everlasting doors, for the King of glory comes. He enters in. And who is this king of glory? We'll sing about it later. The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord of hosts, strong in battle. He's defeated Satan and every enemy. And there he comes. And he doesn't have to knock on any gates or on any doors. They swing open. There's never ever been such a king, such a righteousness he has. And heaven must accept it. There's no question. There's no deliberation. There's no doubt. There's nothing missing from this righteousness of this king. And heaven's gates swing open. If you and I, as we're born, if we were to come to those gates, they would forever stay shut, forever be barred. Outside are dogs. Outside are the fearful, the unbelieving, and all those who make a lie, and who's not like that. Outside, outside, that's you and me. What congregation do you hear about this one whom the heavens must receive? And he doesn't go alone. He goes with his church, his people, sinners like you, and like me, the worst of them, the thief on the cross. He takes them in. You with me. With his spoil. With his booty. There he goes through these gates and heaven doesn't say no. Heaven opens up. Not just for him. For all who have fled to Christ for refuge. For all who have believed in this Savior. In him they enter. They can. They will. and heaven can't stay closed for you. My dear believing friend, no matter how such a sinner you feel yourself to be, no matter how often you have sinned against the Lord and against His grace, heaven's gates won't shut, can't shut to you. If you're in Him, if you're joined by true faith to Him, And that bond to him can be the weakest from your side imaginable. A spider's thread of faith, you might say, from your side. His grip is strong. His righteousness is complete. Thanks be to God. Heaven thinks so differently than we do about Christ and about sinners in Christ. opens to Christ. That's our first point. But as Christ ascends into heaven, we see in our second point that blessings descend from heaven. Blessings descend from heaven. If you were to look later on in our chapter, Acts 3 verse 26, Peter says, unto you first, God having raised up his son Jesus sent him to bless you from heaven blessings are coming down to you Jerusalem sinners Christ crucifiers to you of all people first it says well what are some of these blessings that our text speaks about well there's three in total the first is the blessing of the blotting out of sin look at verse 19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. What does that mean? Well children, to blot something out, in olden times, and you can picture this, is if you had a bill that said you owed somebody, let's just say $10,000. You were in debt. And that's what the bill said. So-and-so owes so-and-so $10,000. And every day you would look at that and you'd say, well, I'm really in debt. I'm over my head in debt. And you'd look at that and you'd really despair, wouldn't you? How can I ever pay that? Well, our sins are like that. We are indebted to God and we can't pay what we owe. We can't. We can't start to pay. We can't pay even one dollar of that great and tremendous debt. But what they used to do in those old times, if someone forgave your debt, or someone else paid that debt for you for example, then the person to whom you owe that money, they would take a whole can of ink, deep dyed ink, and they'd just throw it right over that bill. And the whole debt would be blotted out. And you'd hold up this paper and you couldn't read it anymore. It's just this big blot. And it meant your debts were gone. They were blotted out. And really in essence the word here in our text is even stronger than that because it isn't even just that there's a big blot over it so you can't read it and can't tell what it is, but the word actually means that that is so obliterated. It's so eradicated. It's not just a big blot on it. There's nothing at all. It's clean. You can't see at all. It's like a blank slate. It's like a white piece of paper. In fact it's even better. It has all the righteousness of Christ on it. It's the most glorious thing. It's like gold really. It's the most precious thing we can think about. And your debts, what about those? Well, they're gone. You can't find them anymore. In fact, like the psalm says, they are removed as far as east is from west. So far has he removed all your sin, believer. How far is east from west? You can't measure that. It's infinite. It's glorious. And it's all because of Christ. You see, it's not just heaven's gates that move to the Savior. It's sin's dark record and debt that moves because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sins are blotted out. They're removed. They're eradicated. That's the first blessing that comes down. And it comes down to any and every sinner who cries out, blot out my transgression, for it is great. And blessing comes down, and sin is blotted out, eradicated. It's put in that everlasting, in that sea of forgetfulness. Your iniquities, the Lord says, I will remember no more. We still do, sometimes very much. But the Lord assures his people, your sin and your iniquity shall I no more remember. Oh glorious ascension of Jesus Christ that procures such a benefit. But then there's a second benefit in verse 19 says that. It goes on to say, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Literally even it says, so that times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. This word refreshing is a special word. And especially for people who lived in the hot Middle East. Sometimes in certain areas, there would be in the mid afternoon, or late afternoon, there would be this cool breeze that would come over the land. It would be a refreshing wind that would break the heat. And laborers, especially, who were working in the sweat of their brow, and they didn't think they'd be able to make it to the end of the day, so worn, so weary, so fatigued. There'd come this breeze over their souls and their lives. And it was refreshing. It was wonderfully refreshing. And isn't that, dear believers, what we long for as well? We need so much. Psalm 42 talks about, as the heart or the deer panteth after the water brook, so panteth my soul after thee, O God, my soul thirsteth for God. There we are, as one psalm rendition gives it, we are heeded in the chase, pursued as we are by hunters, and we think we're gonna just collapse and give up, and then the Lord says, but I will provide salvation in the daytime and in the night season I shall be the song of your life. And here in the words of our text, so that times of refreshing shall come upon you. Congregation, isn't this something that we long for even just now? Do you long for it? Dear believer in your own life, that you would have a season in which that cool breeze of the Spirit from the atmosphere of heaven would come and blow over your weary soul, and that there would be that refreshing experience in your life when things are so hard, when the race is so difficult, when you don't think you can do another lap, You can't scale another obstacle. You can't fight another foe. And the Lord comes with his gentle breeze, and it's a season of refreshing in your soul. And not just personally. The church has these seasons as well. God's people have seasons of refreshing. When after a time of deadness and dryness and dreariness, when you wonder, How can it go on? Then all of a sudden, not because of anyone on earth, no preacher, no church, no people, not from them, but from heaven, there comes this breeze, this cool air of heaven, the wind of the Spirit. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I will send refreshment to my people when they are weary." And it's from the presence of the Lord In times of revival and awakening, it's as if something of the atmosphere of heaven comes down to this earth, brought by God through his word and through his Holy Spirit. And people sense it, and there's expectation, and there's joy, and gladness, and happiness, and longing after God. And some of that longing is fulfilled, and you have a season of refreshment, and the Lord sets a table for you. in the midst of the wilderness and in front of your enemies, and your cup runneth over, and loving kindness and tender mercies are all about you. It's not that way all the time. Sometimes you can go long times without that experience, but oh, that refreshment. How enlivening, how quickening, how invigorating it is. And the Lord tells us that that's a blessing from his storehouse of heaven. Something of the days of heaven on the earth. Shouldn't we be praying for that like these apostles were doing? In Acts chapter one, waiting actively for the presence of the Holy Spirit which was to come upon them. You shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days hence. That's the second blessing. There's a third blessing in our text. Verse 21, whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restitution of all things, as God has spoken from the mouth of the prophets since the world began. Dear congregation, what we see around us and know around us is not always going to be there. The brokenness of life. These days in which we live when we have to be so careful. We don't know where this plague may come from. Where death and decay might come from. When all around us we see deformation. and the opposite of restoration. We need to know that in the order of God, it will not always be so. And the prophets talked about those days. It seems like especially Isaiah and Zechariah spoke about days in which there would be new heavens and new earth, when the lion would lie down with the lamb, something that doesn't happen here. And when there would be a city in which no one would complain of being sick, when disease would no longer enter in, when a Zechariah says that even on the bells of the horses, it would say holiness to the Lord, when everything will be devoted to the Lord so entirely, that's the day when everything will be set right. The day of the restitution of all things. That word simply means restoration, when everything will be restored. In creation, the Lord looked at everything that his hands had made and he saw that it was all wonderfully good. But it's no longer wonderfully good. Yes, the Lord has left us many mercies, many blessings, much goodness and still much beauty, but there's also much brokenness. But Christ now in heaven is guarantee that everything is under His control. And though now we see snapshots of it. Now we see a man lame from birth, who stands on his feet. by the power of the name of Jesus. There we see a soul that was dead in sins and trespasses on his way to hell and a never-ending eternity in darkness forever. He's quickened, he's made alive, and he lives a life, albeit with frailty and with sin, but he lives a life devoted to God. It's a picture, it's a window of God's restoring mercy. But most of it, is waiting for that day when the trumpet shall sound. When we will no longer be gathering at funerals and around graves, because the graves will be opened. And the Lord says, behold, I make all things new. I create new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells. all for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the heavens must receive. And that lame man who's leaping and walking and praising God, he's a fulfillment of it just in a little way. Just as every believer here on the earth is a small picture, Of that final restoration the lame man shall leap as an heart, Isaiah said in Isaiah 35. Oh my dear friends will you be there? Do you need this? Do you know in your own experience how deformed, how destroyed things are? Also by you. When you see sickness around you and sorrow and brokenness and misery in you and around you, doesn't your heart ever long for this restitution of all things, this restoration of all things? Well, it's coming. It's all bound up with Christ whom the heavens must receive, until the restitution of all things. He's going to stay there on the throne of heaven, working out all his work here on the earth. And then when it's finished, then the trumpet will sound, and you will see him come, the angel said, in like manner, As you saw him go up, there all of a sudden, there he'll appear before all nations to do that work of glorification. Oh my dear friends, are you ready for that day? Do you look with expectation for that day when everything will be righted, when everything will be restored? You sense, don't you, that Peter must be saying just one more thing. Indeed he does it as we see in our third point briefly. Our hearts must turn towards Christ in heaven. You see congregation, Peter doesn't just set forth Christ. He calls his hearers to turn to Christ. Listen to what he says to these Christ crucifiers who are there in the temple. He says, repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. when the time and the seasons of refreshing are come from the presence of the Lord. In other words, repent now, turn to God now, turn away from your sins now, and turn to God now. In other words, congregation, we're on the wrong path by nature. We're on the road not of a blessing, not of restoration, but we're running away from God, faster and faster, away from God. And Peter calls to these Christ crucifiers there in Jerusalem. Just 40 days before, these people were saying, crucify him, crucify him. He says, all of you, while you have space to repent, turn, repent, and be converted. He uses two words there, as if to say, turn from heading towards hell. Turn around and head there where Christ already is now. Turn, turn, for why will you die? In other words, Peter is saying to them and he's saying to us as well, people, You've been wrong about Christ all these many years, and especially there where you called for His death. You were wrong. Don't you see it now? Heaven received Him, and won't you receive Him? You've been thinking to do God's service. You've been thinking that God would accept of you because of your works, because of your life, because of your law keeping, because of all your pledges and resolutions before God. All that you're trying to do by your own imagination and with your own energies. But dear friends, don't you know that that will never avail. You must turn, turn or burn, as one said. question comes to us in this Ascension Day congregation. Have you turned? You. I'm not asking about your neighbor, or about your father, or mother, or sister, or brother. Have you, my friend, turned? Have you realized that up till now you've been so wrong in your thinking about life, about yourself, but especially about Christ? You've despised Christ. You've rejected Christ. All of you here, you've heard about Christ. Times without number. You've had him preached in all his loveliness, in all his willingness to save sinners to the uttermost. How there is in Christ, there is nothing that would keep a poor, vile, wretched sinner from being saved. In Christ, all is finished, all is full, and all is free. Oh, then why don't you turn to Him? Why don't you even cry, turn thou me and I shall be turned? And with sincere desire of heart, to look to the Christ who comes in the scriptures and offers himself in the scriptures under the preaching of the word as the one whom heaven must receive and who is on the throne of heaven and sending forth every blessing imaginable, everything that you could ever wish for or ever need, it's all from Him. You don't need to produce this. You don't need to come with your tithes and your offerings and this and that in order to be accepted to Him. No. He ascended and He pours forth everything, including repentance. He is exalted for to give repentance and remission of sins. What a full, what a complete Savior. In Him there is everything. In us there is so much brokenness, but in Him is all restoration. In us there is so much sin, but in Him there is so much salvation. In us, dear believers, we find so much death. But how about in Him? In Him is the opposite. There is so much life. In us there's so much confusion, but in Him it is such clarity, such comfort. There's such hope with the Savior. In us there's so much departing from God, but in Him there's so much devotion to God and to His people. And so, congregation, the Lord tonight, He deserves your empty life. He deserves your sinful life. He deserves it. Don't you think? If the gates of heaven swing open for Him and lift up their heads with joy for Him, then why would you and your heart, my dear unconverted friend, why would it stay locked and barred and shut to this King of glory? Is there no loveliness in Him? Is there no righteousness for a sinner like you in Him? Is there some defect in Him whereby He couldn't save you? Oh my friend, you're mistaken. Heaven crowned Him with the most glorious crown there could ever be. He is the sinner's King, the sinner's Savior. He can be your Savior to the uttermost. Oh, my friend, hear His voice today. Oh, He so deserves to enter into sinners' hearts, to sit on the throne of their lives. Oh, may He do so by His Word and Holy Spirit. May He from heaven come riding this night and may gates swing open, and Christ take the throne, and refresh our souls.