The Ascension of the King of Glory
Download MP3If you would, open your bibles to Acts chapter 1. We're gonna take a break from our series on the gospel in the life of David, to look at the Ascension of Jesus. The day of the Ascension is this Thursday. Actually, next Sunday is the day the church traditionally celebrates this. And we're our text for tonight in looking at the Ascension will be Acts chapter 1.
Jeffrey Heine:In the first book of Theophilus, I've 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 it 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?
Jeffrey Heine: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 end 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, 2 men stood by them in white robes and said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?
Jeffrey Heine:This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. Pray with me. Our father, we ask that you would honor the reading of this word, that it alone, through the power of your spirit, would already begin sinking into our hearts and minds and doing its work. Father, we need to hear from you. So spirit, you're welcome in this place to move in our midst and do as you please.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, my words are death, but your words are life. So speak life. May my words fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen. After the Lord led the Israelites out of slavery from Egypt through their savior, Moses, the first thing they did was they went to Mount Sinai. The where the Shekinah glory of God, the cloud came down and Moses spoke with the Lord for 40 days. The people down below didn't know what was happening to Moses, their savior who just disappeared. And this was a time of testing for them.
Jeffrey Heine:What would they do in this in this time? Would they persevere? Would they wait? Would they pass this test? We know they didn't.
Jeffrey Heine:Exodus 32 says, when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. Now the ascension of Jesus has left us with a similar time of testing. We wonder what has happened to Jesus. Our savior.
Jeffrey Heine:He has ascended. He's gone up into heaven. We're, we're waiting for his return. Where is he? If we're not careful, we can fall into the same trap as the Israelites.
Jeffrey Heine:We can, we can make ourselves idols. Now Now none of you are goldsmiths. You're not gonna, you know, melt down a golden golden objects and make a golden calf, but we make idols in our own way. Anytime we worship a Jesus other than the revealed Jesus, maybe a Jesus who is not supreme, a Jesus who cannot make commands that we must obey, a Jesus who is not exalted overall. Anytime we make a Jesus who is different than that, we have created our own gods, our own idols.
Jeffrey Heine:He might be risen from the dead, but this Jesus has not yet ascended to the throne. I guess in support of this to see how the church, I think has succumb to this in a large degree is all we have to do is look at how we pray. The Western church and the Christianity that we export often treats God more like a, like a good luck charm. Jesus is our little good luck charm. He's our little idol that we can pray to to get whatever we want.
Jeffrey Heine:And so our prayers are consumed with things about like healings or we need jobs, or we have some relational issues that that we want God to come and fix Jesus. That's why we need you is to fix those problems and hear me. You should pray for those things. You you need to pray for those things, but you shouldn't stop praying for those things. Don't stop there.
Jeffrey Heine:Listen to Paul and how he prayed in Ephesians 1. We're missing prayers like this. I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe? And according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and he seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.
Jeffrey Heine:Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the ones who come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as the head over all things to the church. Now, that's horrible grammar, just so you know. It is one really long run on sentence. But, man, what a prayer.
Jeffrey Heine:When is the last time you've you've heard somebody pray like that in a prayer meeting? I've been to lots of prayer meetings and, and usually the, the prayer meetings are, you know, you're gonna pray for, for somebody who is sick. I did college ministry for 10 years. We prayed about a lot of relational drama, lots of relational drama. I've been in a prayer meeting where a lady prayed for a match to one of her antique chairs.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, we, we, we, we pray for all of these things, but what is missing is this, We're, we're not gripped by a vision of the ascended and the reigning Jesus. We don't want to keep gushing on and on about about him. Do you pray like this? You know, we usually think of the resurrection of Jesus as the time when Jesus was exalted. And it's one of the reasons that we make a huge deal about Easter.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, we make a pretty big deal about Easter here at this church. We have champagne on Easter after the service. It's a day to celebrate. It might surprise you to find that nowhere in the Bible does it ever link Jesus's resurrection with his exaltation. It never says that Jesus was exalted in his resurrection.
Jeffrey Heine:He's exalted in 2 places. He's exalted on the cross and is exalted at his Ascension, the cross and the Ascension. And if any of those two places are missing and your prayers and your worship, then then there's this vacuum that you will try to fill in another way. In many churches, they might try to fill it by, you know, just putting on a light show or putting on, you know, sound effects or or doing some kind of emotional manipulation. Anything to try to distract people so they don't notice that Jesus is obviously physically missing.
Jeffrey Heine:They haven't been gripped by a grand vision of him and so they've got to somehow fill this space. And they failed the test and they make idols. But we have no excuse because unlike Israel that couldn't see through the veil to see what was happening to Moses. We have scripture. We we know what has happened to Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:We know he is currently reigning. He currently sits on the throne. So we have no excuse. Well, let's see exactly what happens at this ascension. Let's look at Acts 1 again.
Jeffrey Heine:It's been 40 days, 40 days since Jesus rose from the dead. He's now assembled His disciples together. He has commissioned them and then he ascended. The words here, he was lifted up, We shouldn't understand that as him somehow shooting off into space, That that's led to really like those awkward church history, you know, those paintings in church history where Jesus's feet are kinda hanging out of the clouds. CS Lewis actually had to write an article about this because, during the time when the space program was, was just starting to take off, people were expecting when the astronauts went into space that they would find Jesus there.
Jeffrey Heine:That's what people thought. He ascended. He's, he's in orbit. And so, so CS Lewis actually had to write an article called the seeing eyes. They're like, when you go up there, don't expect to find Jesus floating around, out there in space He said that, Jesus didn't ascend to the heavens.
Jeffrey Heine:He ascended to heaven. Alright? And so the Shekinah glory is surrounding him, and he goes from from this earthly space into this heavenly space. He he he disappears before them. And when the disciples saw this, when Jesus disappears, they they they're fixated on the on just looking at this empty space before them and they they can't move.
Jeffrey Heine:And so they get a gentle rebuke by an angel. It's a gentle rebuke, but it it it's a rebuke. You could kind of picture the angel, like, coming up alongside of them and like, what what are you all doing just staring over here? You've got work to do. Quit, quit staring.
Jeffrey Heine:Yes, He's gone, but He will come again. So he sends them off. But the disciples immediately sense that loss that comes with the physical Jesus now being absent. They felt it. Mary had a similar reaction to Jesus after the resurrection.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus is risen from the dead. Mary sees him, and the first thing she does is she, like, gives him a death grip. I mean, she just goes and she holds on and she will not let him go. It's one of those, like, kind of awkward moments in the Bible. You just kind of picture Jesus like this.
Jeffrey Heine:And he says, Mary, let go. He says, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to the father. But go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my father. So, so he says, Mary, you gotta let me go. Yes.
Jeffrey Heine:I, I have risen from the dead. Yes. I've defeated death. I have conquered sin. I've done that, but I have to ascend.
Jeffrey Heine:Let me go. I was risen in order to ascend. As a matter of fact, when he tells Mary to go tell the disciples to go tell his brothers, he doesn't say, go tell them that I'm alive. He says, go tell them that I am about to ascend because that's his focus. It's not just rising from the grave, but rising to the grave and ascending and sitting on the throne.
Jeffrey Heine:But Mary just, she holds on to Jesus. She wants to be close to him. It's understandable because I mean, how many times have you hurt and you've just thought, if, if I could just have this tangible arm of Jesus around me, how amazing would that be? Mary was no different, but she didn't understand. And when Jesus is telling her, let me go.
Jeffrey Heine:You let me go and let me ascend, and I will be closer to you than you can ever imagine. Because at this point, if Jesus is over here talking to people in Jerusalem, he can't be talking to people at Galilee. And if he's over here talking to people at Galilee, then he can't be over here talking to people in Jerusalem. But once he has ascended, is sent his spirit down. He is now united with all believers at all times, intimately close with him.
Jeffrey Heine:And once Mary understands this, once the church understands this, the disciples, they take off like thunderbolts and they changed the world. Let's look at what happens or happened at the Ascension. I'll go through a few verses here. According to Paul in Ephesians 1, when Jesus ascended, we read, his father seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places. Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.
Jeffrey Heine:Hebrews 1:3 says, after making purifications for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Having become as much superior to angels as the name he inherited is more excellent than theirs. Hebrews 10. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. These verses tell us that when Jesus ascended, he went right into the throne room and he sat down at the right hand of God.
Jeffrey Heine:And you should not understand sitting as now he's resting, doing nothing. No. He is now just beginning His work. That's what Acts starts says. Acts, 1 verse 2 says, these are all the things that Jesus began to do.
Jeffrey Heine:He is doing a new work now. And being at the right hand of God means now he has assumed all the power and all the glory of God, and he is working. Paul says this in Philippians chapter 2, Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven, on the earth, and under the earth. And on his name that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:So the glory of God, the father. Now hear me, that, that glory that Paul's talking about Philippians 2 is what Jesus longed for his entire earthly life. He longed for this. The night before he died when he gathered his disciples around and he prayed for them. That's what he that's what he prayed for was this longing.
Jeffrey Heine:You read this in John 17, says that Jesus, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that the son may glorify you. Glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. Father, I desire that these disciples here with me, the ones you've given me, that they may be where I am to see my glory. This was the consuming desire of Jesus, not to just be glorified, but that we would all see him in his glory.
Jeffrey Heine:It's what he longed for. It's what he still longs for is that the church would see him in all his glory. Now on earth, Jesus was glorious. He was glorious, but not like the glory that Jesus got when he ascended. You need to make a distinction in her mind.
Jeffrey Heine:Yes, Jesus, he was glorious, but, but when he ascended, that's the picture you get in revelation 4 when, when John's on the Island of Patmos and God shows him through a vision. This is Jesus on the throne and John struggles so much to try to even communicate what he's seeing. When he, when he looks to the throne, he uses the word throne 11 times in 11 verses just trying to describe what is happening with all this glory surrounding the throne. And so he says this, behold, the throne stood in heaven with 1 seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and carnelian.
Jeffrey Heine:And around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were 24 thrones, and seated on the thrones were 24 elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads. From this throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder. And before the throne, there were burning 7 torches of fire, which are the 7 spirits of God. And before the throne was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal.
Jeffrey Heine:And around the throne on each side were 4 living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first creature like a lion, the second like an ox, the third with the face of a man, the 4th like an eagle in flight. And these creatures, each of them with 6 wings full of eyes all around day and night, never cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was and is and is to come. And whenever the creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him seated on the throne who lives forever and ever. These 24 elders, they would fall down before him who was seated on the throne, and they would worship him who lives forever and ever.
Jeffrey Heine:And they would cast their crowns before the throne saying, worthy are you, oh lord and god, to receive glory, honor, power for you created all things and by your will, they exist and were created. That's the glory. That's the glory that Jesus was longing that his followers would see him in. Can you imagine if you had a picture of that glory, how it would change your worship and your prayer life? This is the Jesus that Paul met when he was going on the road to Damascus.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus or Paul didn't just meet the risen Jesus. On the road to Damascus, he met the risen and the ascended Jesus. And this Jesus didn't come to him and say like he did to Thomas, hey, look look at my hands, look at my feet. You need some proof? This Jesus didn't say, Do you have any fish?
Jeffrey Heine:Let me eat it. No, this Jesus he's shown like the sun. And when Paul saw him, he was struck blind. When when John on the island of Patmos saw this Jesus, he said he fell down to the ground like he was dead. When Daniel and his vision saw this Jesus, it said the color left him, and he fell to his face.
Jeffrey Heine:When Stephen saw his picture of the exalted Jesus standing at the right hand of God, he did not even notice that stones were hitting him. The vision was so glorious. He is looking up at Jesus in all his glory, and he's not even noticing he's being executed. A vision like that will change you. How it would change our worship and our prayer.
Jeffrey Heine:If you have time, sometime in the next few weeks, I'd love for you to just read through the epistles and you'll notice a subtle difference. When you read through Peter, James, Jude versus reading through John and Paul, Just read them and Peter, James, Jude, they have a, they have an exalted view of Jesus. Make no mistake. It's a very exalted view of Jesus, but they had only seen the risen Jesus. You read through Paul and you read through John who had seen the risen and the exalted Jesus, and you get a lot of run on sentences that they can't stop gushing about his glory.
Jeffrey Heine:They have forever been changed by what they have seen. Now, we get a peek at the Ascension from heaven's point of view and the 7th chapter of Daniel. It's a famous passage of scripture that, most people think it's about when Jesus is coming to earth, but, but it's not when he's coming to earth. It's when he has ascended into heaven. Let me read it to you from Daniel 7.
Jeffrey Heine:I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came 1 like a son of man, And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. That all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed. So Daniel here is describing the Ascension.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus loves this text so much. Jesus thought about this text so much. It was his consuming desire for this to happen, that when he chose the title that he would use, it comes from here. He almost always referred to himself as the son of man, The son of man which comes from right here and he's he's thinking about Daniel 7 and the day that he will be glorified, the day that he will be given a kingdom that will never end. When Jesus is on trial and he's standing before the high priest, the high priest says, I adjure you by the living God.
Jeffrey Heine:Tell tell me, are you the Christ? Are you the son of God? And Jesus who was almost always quiet at his trial, who was who kept his mouth shut. Not this time. He says this, you have said so, but I tell you from now on, you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power coming on the clouds of heaven.
Jeffrey Heine:You kill me, that just begins my enthronement. Go ahead. You will see me ascend, and I will have a kingdom that will never fade. Go for it. This passage never left Jesus's mind and heart.
Jeffrey Heine:He longed to sit on the throne and to once again be glorified that we might see him in that glory. And can you imagine that enthronement as Jesus goes to the heavenly gates. I think of it this way. If you have myriads of angels who rejoice over 1 sinner who repents. So you have thousands of angels who rejoice over 1 sinner who repents.
Jeffrey Heine:Imagine the rejoicing and the celebration when the one who defeated sin and conquered death comes. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine the, the procession as Jesus is going back home? All of the angels lined up, all of the creatures, they're lined up. And and the ones that were mysteriously held back from helping him at his crucifixions.
Jeffrey Heine:The ones that so desperately wanted to stop every hammer blow, stop every beating of the head and the crushing of the skull with the thorns. The ones who wanted to whisper words of encouragement in the garden of, of Gethsemane, But they were told to keep their tongues in check and did not say anything. All of these angels are now gathered together as Jesus victorious, comes into his city, and God the father says, hold back no more. Rejoice for he is returning. This is your glorious king.
Jeffrey Heine:That's what Psalm 24 is about. When we have lift up your heads, oh gates. Be lifted up, oh ancient doors that the king of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? He's the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Strong, mighty in battle. He is the King of glory. Lift up your heads, oh gates be lifted up, oh ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in. Who is this king of glory? He's the lord of hosts.
Jeffrey Heine:He is the king of glory. And that is echoing throughout, flags unfurled, trumpets blaring as Jesus comes back in to his kingdom, which will never end. And when Jesus comes into that kingdom with such a course and he comes and he sits down at the right hand of his father, What he does is he asked, said, father, you made a promise to me. You promised that if I would do this, you would give me the nations as my inheritance. Give me the nations.
Jeffrey Heine:And and what good father could deny that request? God grants it and he sends his holy spirit down at Pentecost. That's what's happening at Pentecost. Pentecost is a result of the Ascension of Jesus, our king. It's often overlooked.
Jeffrey Heine:It might be one of the reasons we don't really celebrate so much the the Ascension of our Lord. But that's what's happening. Peter, he understood this. At Pentecost, when, when he's running out of that room, like his head's on fire and he starts preaching, what he does is he says this, at the climactic point of his sermon at Pentecost, he says, this Jesus, God raised up, and we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God.
Jeffrey Heine:And having received from the father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David, as great as David was, David did not ascend to the heavens. But he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. So let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. This Jesus whom you crucified.
Jeffrey Heine:When they heard this, it says they were cut to the heart and they said, what do we do? And what do we do with this picture of the enthroned, exalted Jesus? Know that the foundation of missions is the Ascension of Jesus. Let, let me share with you. We've got time.
Jeffrey Heine:Let me share with you one final thought. And I've always struggled to communicate this thought. It's it's because it's so glorious, so wonderful that I am almost convinced every time I try to teach on this, I'm committing some huge grand heresy. But the scripture is so clear on it, but yet I feel borderline blasphemous when I read it. So let me just read scripture.
Jeffrey Heine:Another familiar text. Unfortunately, like, like most passages like this, people always stop just a verse short. Revelation 3, behold, I stand at the door and I knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.
Jeffrey Heine:He who has ears, let him hear. Were you able to hear that? Were were you given ears to hear that? Jesus says that for those who conquer and anybody who trust Jesus, who through his spirit has been so united with Jesus that when Jesus conquers, we conquer with him. This person will will be granted to sit with Jesus on his throne.
Jeffrey Heine:Let me say it another way. For for those who have trusted in Jesus for their salvation, You're given your spirit, his spirit, you're so united with him that when he sits on the throne, you sit on the throne. I don't think this is registering because your jaw should be hitting the ground. This is the throne. This is the revelation for throne.
Jeffrey Heine:The one that you, you know, you can't really even describe all the stuffs going around all about it. And you're just, you're dumbstruck as you look at it. And Jesus is saying that for those who conquer, I give them the privilege, the right to sit with me on that throne. I have no idea what that means because there's a lot of people in this room and it's a little throne, I guess. And I don't know exactly how, how it all works for all the Christians at all times to fit on that, but, but I trust God, it will work.
Jeffrey Heine:And what Jesus is saying here is through our faith in him and through his spirit that we will somehow share in this kingly rule and the ownership of the world. Paul talks about this in Romans 8, one of the pinnacles of the Bible when he says that we are heirs with Christ, What Christ inherited, Father, give me the nations. We inherit. We inherit the nations. This is what Paul is talking about when he tells the Corinthians.
Jeffrey Heine:He says, all things are ours, even the world. And I love it. Paul just says it nonchalantly. Hey. All things are ours, even the world.
Jeffrey Heine:The whole world is ours. Such thoughts are too wonderful for me. Let me end by just reading from Paul these words from first Corinthians 2. But as it is written, what no eye has seen nor ear heard nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him. These things God has revealed to us through his spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen. Pray with me. Lord, we ask that through your spirit, you would reveal those things to us. That through your word and through your spirit, the veil would be removed and we would come to understand and rejoice and clearly see that Jesus, our king is exalted, seated on the throne, currently reigning. A real throne in a real kingdom.
Jeffrey Heine:May we live our lives as such. May that affect our prayers, may it affect our worship, may affect the way we do our jobs, the way that, we live in our neighborhoods. And we understand that we are part of your kingdom and Jesus, you reign supreme. Through your spirit, press that in on us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus, our present and our future King.
