Who Is This King of Glory? (The Ascension)
Download MP31st reading is from John 17. It's verses 1 through 5. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that the son may glorify you, Since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Speaker 1:I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
Speaker 2:Acts 16 through 11. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you, at this time, restore the kingdom to Israel? And 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'd said these things, as they were looking into heaven, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
Speaker 2:And while they were gazing into heaven, behold, 2 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.
Joel Brooks:Thanks be to God. If you would, pray with me. Lord, there is such potential here. If your people, if we in this room grasp these words, if through the power of your spirit, they are worked into our hearts. There will be transformation.
Joel Brooks:There there will be personal transformation. There will be community transformation. So god, I ask that you would send your spirit to open up our hearts and our minds. Give us a a clarity that we would not normally have, an openness that we would normally resist. And write these words on our heart.
Joel Brooks:I pray that my words would 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. Amen. After the Lord delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, Through the hand of Moses, the people were immediately led through the desert to the foot of Mount Sinai.
Joel Brooks:And there, the the one who had saved them, the Lord had used to save them, Moses, he he ascended up the mountain, and and the the the mountain was covered with smoke and no one knew exactly what was going on. There were rumors about glory. There were there were rumors of different things but nobody could could see through the cloud and and nobody could see what was going on. And so this this Ascension of Moses proved to be a time of testing for god's people. It was a time of perseverance.
Joel Brooks:It was to be a time of waiting and it was a time of testing. One in which they failed. Exodus 32:1 says this, 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 now the Ascension of Jesus provides for us here in this room a time of similar testing.
Joel Brooks:We wonder what has happened to Jesus. Where has Jesus gone? And if we're not careful, we can fall into the same trap and commit idolatry. If we don't know where Jesus is, we don't know what has happened to him. I think that the church as a whole, especially the western church, the the church here in America has committed idolatry because of this.
Joel Brooks:And and now by this, I don't mean that, you know, we have we've melted down gold, and, we're manufacturing, a golden calf. But but we are making idols. When we worship a a Jesus that is different than the ascended Jesus, different than the exalted Jesus, it's nothing more than idol worship. And when we worship a Jesus who's not all powerful, a Jesus who is not ruling, a Jesus who does not demand absolute allegiance, who's not supreme, who's not majestic in his glory. He he might be the risen Jesus, but he's not the exalted Jesus.
Joel Brooks:He hasn't ascended to the throne of god. And I think the Western church as a whole doesn't see Jesus as exalted. The the evidence that I would submit to you is all you have to do is look at how we pray. Look at how we pray. The Western church and the the Christianity that we export to other parts of the world, Pray is like one would pray to an idol, or maybe even to a good luck charm.
Joel Brooks:You know, we we pray for things like, you know, God give us health. God give us a job. God give us give us some money. God, give us good digestion before this move before this meal. You know, we we almost like a genie lamp that we rub or or a good luck charm.
Joel Brooks:Missing are prayers like this from Paul in Ephesians 1. 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 his saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his great might.
Joel Brooks:That he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and 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 in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet, and he is the head over all things of the church. It's really bad English.
Joel Brooks:It's a run on sentence. It's it's it's bad Greek. It's a run on Greek, but Paul would get this way when he would pray. It's great theology. When was the last time you've been in a prayer meeting where somebody has stood up and prayed like that?
Joel Brooks:When when was the last time you have prayed like that? We usually I think one of the mistakes we make is we usually think of the resurrection of Jesus as when Jesus is exalted, the resurrection of Jesus. And as a result, we make a really big deal of Easter, which we should, but we kind of ignore the day of the Ascension. You might be surprised to find that in scripture. Nowhere does it say Jesus is exalted in his resurrection.
Joel Brooks:Nowhere. He's exalted 2 times. He's exalted on the cross and His death, and He is exalted at His Ascension. The Scripture never says He is exalted in His resurrection. And when the church forgets about the ascension, it begins to worship a Jesus who is not highly exalted.
Joel Brooks:And we will begin to deal with His mysterious absence in idolatrous ways. The church is going to use things to make up for the absence of Jesus. It's going to use, you know, things like lights and sound and, manipulation, a play on the emotions. It's going to be nothing more than smoke and mirrors to try to get you to forget what is absent Jesus. Because we don't have a strong picture of where Jesus is and how he is reigning.
Joel Brooks:No. We have no excuse because unlike Israel, when Moses ascended up the mountain, we actually have scripture that tells us where Jesus is. We actually have scripture that tells us how He has been highly exalted, how He is set seated at the right hand of God, the Father. And what I want us to do tonight is to to ask that God gives us eyes to see through that cloudy veil, and to see that see Jesus through His word as exalted. And so let's start off again by, by looking at Acts chapter 1.
Joel Brooks:This text here happens 40 days after Jesus had, been resurrected from the dead, and He's assembled all His disciples together, He has just commissioned them to go to all of the nations, and then it says that he was lifted up. He was lifted up. Verse 9 says, 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. Now we shouldn't understand the words, and he was lifted up as as meaning, having a spatial relationship as as, you know, maybe he would just kept going up and up in the clouds until he disappeared into outer space, and and Jesus is up there in outer space somewhere. That's that's not what this is talking about.
Joel Brooks:When spaceflight was just starting, that's actually what astronauts thought they would find. And when we find this absurd, but they thought when they would get into space, they would find Jesus because he had risen, risen up into space. But that's not the point of this text. I have a 7 year old Caroline who's in 1st grade. Next year, she will move up to 2nd grade.
Joel Brooks:She doesn't actually go up to a bigger building, up another floor, but she moves up. If you get a promotion, you will move up in your job. That doesn't mean you spatially move up, but it's, it's a higher, it's a higher level of job that you now have. And that's the, that's the main point of this, is that not that Jesus is floating around in orbit somewhere, but that the cloud that comes, which is the Shekinah glory of God, when that cloud comes and envelops him, he moves somewhere from earth space into heaven space. He moves to heaven, not the heavens, wherever that is.
Joel Brooks:And the disciples, they see this and they couldn't move. They can't move. They just, they just sit there and I kind of picture, you know, their, their mouths dropping. Just, what do we do now? An angel comes and rebukes them.
Joel Brooks:It's a it's a gentle rebuke that we read in Acts 1, but it's it's a rebuke nonetheless. Look, look at verse 10. It says, 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? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. The disciples are just standing around because at first they think that they have just experienced a terrible loss, an incredible loss.
Joel Brooks:They didn't know what to do. They lost Jesus and so they're stagnant And this is what happens to Christians when you don't have an understanding of the meaning of the Ascension. You, you just kind of stand around. There's no movement because we think of losing Jesus as a loss that we somehow have to compensate with now.
Jeffrey Heine:That's not at all what's happening.
Joel Brooks:Jesus leaving is better than Jesus staying. We see that Mary had the same reaction when she experienced the resurrected Jesus in John chapter 20. If you remember the story, she goes to the tomb. She's expecting Jesus to be in the tomb, but Jesus is out of the tomb, resurrected, and it says that she embraced him. She clung to him.
Joel Brooks:And Jesus says these words to her, and they're curious words. Jesus said to her, 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 and your father, to my god and your god. He he says, let go of me. Let let go of me.
Joel Brooks:I need to ascend to my father. That's where I need to go. And he he's he's saying that, I know you think that you have to hold on to me for closeness now, but if you let me go, I will be closer than you could ever imagine. And you see while, while Jesus was here on earth before he had ascended, when Jesus is in Galilee, he can't be with the people who are in Jerusalem. And when people, when He's in Jerusalem, He can't be with the people who are in Galilee.
Joel Brooks:He was limited. But once He had ascended and He had sent His Spirit, He could be everywhere through His Spirit. As John Calvin said, Through the Holy Spirit, we are linked to Jesus in heaven at all times. And I tell you, once Mary understood this, once the disciples understood this, they were off like thunderbolts, Nothing could stop them. It's interesting that Jesus doesn't, when He is risen, he doesn't tell Mary, go tell them that I'm alive.
Joel Brooks:He says, Mary, go tell them I am ascending. That's what was beating in his heart. Let's look at what happens or what happened at the Ascension. I know pull from, several different places in scripture. According to Paul in Ephesians 1, when Jesus ascended to his father, he says this.
Joel Brooks:It says that Jesus is now or the father has seated Jesus at His 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 age to come. Hebrews 1 says this, after making purifications for sins, Jesus sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Hebrews 10 says, but when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifices for sins, He sat down at the right hand of god. And you could go on and on with many different verses that talk about when he ascended, he sat down at the right hand of god.
Joel Brooks:He went into the throne room where God, his father was, and he sat down. Now, when we typically think of a need to sit down, we think of rest. You know, Jesus is not Jesus sitting down because he's tired. That's not what's going on here. He's actually beginning a new work.
Joel Brooks:Luke points this out real quick. I'm not sure if you've ever noticed this, but in the very first verse of Acts, he says, in the first book, oh, Theophilus, I've dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up. Meaning that Jesus was working then, but that was just the beginning. Now He is taken up, He has ascended, and He continues a work. It's a new work, but he is ever working.
Joel Brooks:And he sits down at the right hand, And that just means that he has assumed all of the power of God. The right hand was where he had the scepter, and it's it's just a symbolic way of saying he has now assumed all of God's power. He's ruling. Paul says this in Philippians 2, therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of the Father. And if you read through the gospels, you see that is what Jesus has been longing for, that has been the desire of his heart all this time.
Joel Brooks:His desire has not just been resurrection, His desire has been exaltation. We see this in John 17, which we read earlier, and what we know is the high priestly prayer. Says this, when Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, father, the hour has come. Glorify your son with the glory, or that the son may glorify you. And since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all you whom you have given him, And this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Joel Brooks:I glorified you on earth having accomplished the work you gave me to do. And now, father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world was created. And later he says this, father, I desire that these disciples also whom you have given me, may be where I am so that they can see me in my glory. And so the the cry of Jesus' heart, His desire while He was walking on this earth was that He might return to glory, and that His disciples would witness Him as He has returned to glory. That was the desire of His heart.
Joel Brooks:Now when he was on earth, he, he was certainly glorious. We would never say that Jesus was not glorious, but he wasn't glorious. Like the song we just sang that was from revelation chapter 45. He wasn't glorious like that, where you see him glorious on his throne. When he walked on this earth, you saw him glorious on the road, glorious in people's homes, glorious in the wilderness, glorious in a boat, but you never saw him in all of his glory on the throne, which is what Revelation 4 is about.
Joel Brooks:Just listen to how many times the word throne is in revelation 4. Once again, it'd be horrible English, but there's a point here. At once I was in the spirit and behold, a throne stood in heaven and one seated on the throne and he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and carnelian 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 the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder. And before the throne were burning 7 torches of fire, which are the 7 spirits of God.
Joel Brooks:And before the throne, there was, as it were, a sea of glass, like crystal, and around a throne on each side of the throne are 4 living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first living creature like a lion, the second like an ox, the third with a face of the man, and the 4th like an eagle in flight. And the 4 living creatures. Each of them with 6 wings are full of eyes all around and within and day and night, they never ceased to say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come. And whenever they're living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever.
Joel Brooks:The 24 elders fall down before him who was seated on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, worthy are you, O Lord, our God, to receive glory and honor and power. Now, John had before seen Jesus in glory in the wilderness, or in homes, or in a boat, he had seen Jesus in glory that, but never before. The throne, on the throne. And that's the different ballgame altogether.
Joel Brooks:That's glory. And if we had eyes of faith to see Jesus in that glory, we would be absolutely transformed. Think of what that would do in your worship. To worship the glorified Jesus. This is the Jesus that Paul saw on the road to Damascus.
Joel Brooks:We're Paul didn't just see the risen Lord. He saw the risen and exalted Lord. And when, when he met Jesus, Jesus, Jesus didn't say, hey, come, look at my hands and my feet. Come touch me. He didn't say that.
Joel Brooks:He didn't say, come, let's sit down, have dinner and eat fish together. Jesus didn't say that. When Paul saw this Jesus exalted, he dropped down to the ground and was blind. When John saw the vision we just read about, it says that he fell at his feet as though he were dead. When Daniel saw his vision of the glorified son of man, this glorified Jesus, it says that the color changed from his face and he dropped to the ground.
Joel Brooks:When Steven saw this exalted Jesus, he was stoned, and it meant he didn't even care. He didn't even care. I mean, seriously, Acts 7 says, but Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, behold, I see the heavens open, and the son of man standing at the right hand of God. And when he sees this Jesus, and it's the only time ever Jesus is standing at the right hand of God, his father.
Joel Brooks:And, and this is pure speculation on my part. The only reason I could think of that Jesus is standing and not sitting here is if Jesus stands to welcome Steven. That's the only thing I could think of is he is standing to welcome Steven. And when Steven sees the exalted Jesus welcoming him, it's like, what's this people hitting me with stones? Who cares?
Joel Brooks:The stoning's an afterthought when you had the exalted Jesus welcoming you. God give us eyes to see how that would change us. Now, I think we're so grounded in our view of the Ascension. We don't have that heavenly view. Even Luke's account of the Ascension, if if I can say this, let let the emails begin, it's kind of boring.
Joel Brooks:The Ascension, you just kinda, you know, cloud envelops and, you know, goes, disappears. It's it's from the earth level of of the ground. But but there's a couple places of scripture we actually see the ascension from heaven's point of view. One of those is in Daniel 7. This is a famous passage of scripture that is often misunderstood to talk about people think it's talking about the second coming of Jesus, but it's not talking about the second coming.
Joel Brooks:It's actually talking about the coming of Jesus to heaven. Daniel 7, verse 13, Daniel says this, 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 is one that shall never be destroyed.
Joel Brooks:People often read into that that Jesus is descending from the clouds, but it no it doesn't say that he is descending. He's ascending, and then he goes before the ancient of days, his father. And when the son of man ascends, notice that he is given everlasting dominion. He's given a real kingdom that can never be taken away. You know, Jesus, for most of his trial when he was about to be crucified, most of his trial, he's absolutely silent.
Joel Brooks:I don't know if you've noticed that, you know, like a, like a lamb before his shears is silent. He didn't say a word, but one time he opens his mouth and this is what comes forward is when the high priest says, I adjure you by the living God. Are you the Son of God? And he says, you have said so, but I tell you from now on, from now on, you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power, in coming on the clouds of heaven. And what he says is, high priest, when you kill me, the ceremony for my my inauguration of being king begins.
Joel Brooks:Go ahead because I will ascend and I will go and inherit my throne. Can can you imagine? Try try to imagine the scene of when Jesus comes home to his kingdom. Imagine his enthronement. I mean, if myriads of angels rejoice now in heaven over 1 sinner who repents, What do you think the angels did?
Joel Brooks:1, the one who brought that repentance, the one who conquered sin and death itself came into heaven. Can you imagine? Can you imagine this procession as Jesus is is coming home, as he's approaching the heavenly gates and all of the angels, all of the angels that were held back at his crucifixion from rescuing him, that were held at bay, they're all there. All of the angels who would have gladly delivered Him in a moment, if given the word, but but the father says, no. All of the angels at the the Garden of Gethsemane, who were prevented from talking, who had to be silent.
Joel Brooks:And they didn't know why. Now, finally, their king comes home and he has conquered sin and death, and the father says, restrain yourself no more. Can you imagine? That's what Psalm 24 is about. It's an ascension psalm.
Joel Brooks:It's when Jesus reigns on the throne. It's the enthronement psalm. Lift up your heads, oh gates, and be lifted up, oh ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. And the city responds, who is this King of glory? It's the Lord, strong and mighty.
Joel Brooks:It's the Lord, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, oh gates, and be lifted up, oh ancient doors. And they respond, who is this king of glory? It's the Lord. The Lord of hosts.
Joel Brooks:He is the king of glory. Can you imagine that procession? And in in a small way, we get to enter into that as believers. That when we worship, we join with that chorus. And let me tell you, when the King of glory comes in and and is is embraced by His Father, and sits on his glorious throne.
Joel Brooks:What we know from scriptures, he looks at his father and he says, father, you promised me the nations for my inheritance. Give me what you promised And the father gladly grants the request of his son, and the spirit of God is unleashed. And we have Pentecost. Pentecost is the result of the Ascension. It's the result of the enthronement of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:It's the evidence of it. This is often overlooked when thinking about Pentecost, but the apostle Peter certainly understood this when when, when Peter rushes out of that upper room with basically his head on fire, it seems like, and he is just preaching like crazy, filled with the Holy Spirit. The the final thing he says in that first sermon, the, the climax of the sermon is this, this Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God 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 did not ascend into the heavens for he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
Joel Brooks:Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. It says, when the people heard this, they were cut in 2. The foundation for missions is the ascension and the exaltation of Jesus. I'm going to share with you one final thought. Bear with me.
Joel Brooks:I just simply can't skip over this. It's a thought that is, to me, so so glorious, so wonderful that every time I say it, I think I'm I'm out of my mind. Y'all might too. I always feel like if it wasn't so clearly taught in scripture, I would be committing blasphemy. There are several scriptures we could turn to because of time, we're just gonna look at 1, and this is a familiar text in Revelation chapter 3.
Joel Brooks:Jesus says this, listen carefully, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me. Most people usually stop there. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear.
Joel Brooks:Did you have an ear to hear that? Jesus says that for those who conquer, which is those who keep the faith, those those who keep trusting Jesus for their salvation, he will grant for them to sit on His throne. Let me put it another way. W when we trust Jesus for salvation, we are given His Spirit, which so unifies us to Him, that when he sits on his throne, we will someday sit on his throne. A matter of fact, Paul says in Ephesians, in some strange way in Ephesians 2, he says, that we are already seated with him in the heavenlies.
Joel Brooks:Someday we will do so physically. We're going to sit on a throne. That's that's the revelation for the throne. Now, you see why I feel like I'm almost committing blasphemy, that I'm, I'm, I'm almost crazy. And I will be the 1st to admit, I have no idea how this works.
Joel Brooks:How can we all fit on the throne? I don't know. I don't know. But I'm saying is that some way, some mysterious way, we're going to share in the kingly rule of Jesus overall. And that's what Paul means in Romans 8 when he says that we are heirs with Christ.
Joel Brooks:Meaning everything that Christ inherited, we inherit. That's what Paul means when he tells the Corinthians that, all things are yours, even the world. Such a thought is too wonderful for me. It is too high, I cannot attain to it. Let me close by by reading these words from Paul in 1st Corinthians 2.
Joel Brooks:Paul, who had seen the ascended Lord. 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 the Spirit. Amen. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Lord, we don't want to be idol worshipers. Our worship is infected with idols, pathetic idols, Puny idols. Idols that do not speak of the glorious Jesus we find in scripture. That do not speak of an exalted Jesus. Spirit of God, what we just read is that you will show us what no eye has seen or ear has heard, or we can even imagine, that you will reveal these things to us, and I am asking you for the glory of Jesus to do that now.
Joel Brooks:Fix Jesus in our hearts as so supremely exalted that we will gladly throw down whatever crowns come our way in this life. We will gladly lay down our lives in allegiance and obedience. We will gladly worship Him with all of our being. Spirit of God, do that now for the glory of Jesus. Amen.
