Dr. James White: The Ascension | Acts 1:9-11 Sermon

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Please turn with me to the book of Acts, Acts of the Apostles, chapter one,

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Acts chapter one. So here's the genesis of this particular subject and this particular sermon.

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I remember a number of years ago, I believe it was in New Jersey, may have been

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Long Island, I think it was New Jersey. I was asked to preach at a church and they followed somewhat the liturgical calendar.

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Now I was raised as an independent fundamentalist Baptist, GARB. Anybody know what

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GARB stands for? General Association, there's a GARB brother, a sister,

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I can't see from here right now. I can put my glasses on, we can find out. Who is that? Oh, is that you?

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Oh yes, okay, all right. So we've got a GARB background in the Pearson household. Anyway, General Association of Regular Baptists.

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Now what's a regular Baptist? That's a tough thing to define. What is a regular

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Baptist? There are a lot of irregular Baptists out there, but we thought we were the regular Baptist. So it was, we were not overly wedded to a liturgical calendar, but we were.

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We didn't say we were, but hey, you always had to have your Easter musical, your

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Easter cantata, and your Christmas musical, and my mom was involved with all that stuff.

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She played piano and organ really, really well. And so we had our liturgical calendar, it was just much simpler than the

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Methodists or the Presbyterians or somebody else. And so I guess at this church it was

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Ascension Sunday or something, and so if I was gonna be preaching, I needed to preach on the

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Ascension. And I realized something. I had never heard a sermon on the

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Ascension my entire life. I could not think that had it been mentioned in passing at some point,

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I would I would assume so, but I honestly could not think of a single sermon that I had ever heard on the

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Ascension. And I'll be honest with you, I struggled with that sermon. I mean, you know, there's,

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I'm looking at Acts chapter 1 in the LSB here, and there there's a section that says the

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Ascension, and there are three verses. That's it. And so I, I'm not,

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I don't remember much about what I said, and I doubt anyone else remembered much about what I said either, let's put it that way. And I've thought over the years a few times about that situation.

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And then a couple years ago, you all remember that I preached a sermon from this pulpit talking about my adoption of a particular eschatological viewpoint that all of a sudden gave significantly more meaning to the issue of the

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Ascension. I had not seen how important this is as the transition from the earthly ministry of Christ to the heavenly reign in ministry of Christ.

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For most evangelicals, for most people who call themselves Christians, aside from a few paintings or things like that, the

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Ascension, the, about the only importance the Ascension had that I could think of as a young person, even as a

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Southern Baptist growing up within the convention and being ordained as a Southern Baptist and things like that, about the only thing that was relevant about the

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Ascension was that as the angel said, this Jesus has been taken up for you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven.

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And so we we made a connection to the second coming of Christ. And that might fit into various premillennial discussions and arguments about pre -trib and mid -trib and post -trib and all the rest that kind of stuff, but that was about the only relevance that that the

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Ascension had. And so as we think about it, as we think about this brief event, we have to admit

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Scripture does not emphasize it to any great extent, does it? And so for a lot of us, we're just like, well,

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Jesus said that he had to go back to heaven, and if he went back to heaven, he can't send the

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Holy Spirit, so how else would he go? I mean, given the resurrection, is he gonna, you know, there's, for example, various cult groups that teach that Jesus didn't descend into heaven, that he went east and wandered into India and set up various religious movements in the east and stuff like that, and then died of old age or something along those lines.

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How else is Jesus going to fulfill the promises in John 14 and 16?

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Father and I, we're gonna send you the Spirit. Well, that means Jesus has to be in the presence of the

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Father, and he had already said to the Apostles, I'm going to prepare a place for you. Well, he's got to get there, and so the

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Ascension was just sort of like, okay, that's how it happened. But when you think about it, there is so much more to the reality of the fact that the

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God -man, having risen from the dead in a true physical body, incorruptible, incorruptible.

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There are aspects of how that body existed that we can't really understand in this life.

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I mean, it's a true body. He eats food. You can touch the body, and yet he can appear in a room that has the doors locked.

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How does that work? He's not a phantom. He's not a ghost. It's a real body, but it doesn't have the same limitations.

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So what's the connection? Well, Paul talks about that a lot in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, but the point is, since he has a true physical body, and he's promised he is going to be ministering to us by the

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Spirit from heaven, he's got to get there somehow, and here's what the Ascension is. So let's look at the few verses here in Acts chapter 1, and then consider a few aspects of what this might mean to us today.

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So, and after he had said, well, you know, let's go back to verse 6, okay? So when they had come together, they were asking him, saying,

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Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel? But he said them, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the

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Father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the

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Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all

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Judea and Samaria and even to the end of the earth.

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Even to the end of the earth. Now in the

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LSB, to the end of the earth is in all caps, indicating a citation from somewhere else in Scripture.

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Now there's some argumentation as to exactly where that's coming from, but Jesus has just said to them similar words.

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They sort of help fill out some of what we have in Matthew chapter 28. In fact, if you just sit back, you go,

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I wonder why Matthew didn't give us this part. It was sort of fit naturally after the

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Great Commission. All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth, and here I go. I'm gonna,

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I'm gonna prove it. There is a real connection between the two. You have a discussion of power, you will receive power when the

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Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all

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Judea and Samaria and even to the end of the earth. This is not just gonna be limited geographically.

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This is going to be extensive. This power I'm gonna give you, the witness you're gonna give to me is to the end of the earth.

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And after he had said these things, he was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received him out of their sight.

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What received him out of their sight? Cloud. Keep that in mind. A cloud received him out of their sight.

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And as they were gazing intently into the sky while he was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them.

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They also said, men of reality, why do you stand looking toward heaven? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven.

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So here's the ascension. After Luke's abbreviated version of the commission, you will be my witnesses.

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I will give you by the Holy Spirit power, and in that power you will go to the end of the earth.

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Then Jesus is lifted up, and it says that they were gazing intently into the sky while he was going.

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I don't know about you, but I wouldn't stop looking. I'd be watching until...

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John, your eyes are better than ours. Can you still see him? Yep, just a little bit. Okay, all right. You know, there's

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Peter. Peter already needed these things. And John, John was a young guy, so he...

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and it's like, nope, he's gone. And then all of a sudden, there's these two men in white clothing standing beside them.

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That's why they didn't see them approach, or maybe they didn't approach. Maybe they just appeared being angelic, undoubtedly.

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And they are given a promise. This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way you have watched him go into heaven.

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I'm not sure how anybody who denies that Christ is going to return to this earth can get around these words.

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There is a promise given. Yes, he has now left. He has gone back into where he came from, but he left in a different way than he came, of necessity.

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He took on flesh, and now he's going to continue to be active.

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And I think that's one of the... one of the reasons why the Ascension didn't necessarily ring a lot of bells for me, is because, let's be honest, what

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Christ is doing in heaven right now is a bit of a mystery to most Christians. It shouldn't be.

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There's enough revelation about it, and it's exciting, and it's encouraging, but most of us don't think about it.

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Most of us don't think, what is Jesus doing today? What is he doing in heaven today?

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And if someone were to ask you, where would you go in the scripture to describe what the resurrected

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Lord is active in doing today? Where would you go? Well, I want to suggest two primary texts that tell us about what

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Jesus is doing now, and then I want to look at a prophecy from the

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Hebrew Scriptures that told us this is what was going to happen, okay?

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So we have the Ascension. Jesus has entered into heaven.

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He's going to come in the way that he is left in the future. There is the promise.

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So when do we see Jesus next? Well, you can't help but think about the book of Revelation, and you can't help but remember that in the book of Revelation, Jesus, well, he's all over the book of Revelation.

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He is seen by John. He is described by John in the

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Revelation, and he talks about the vision of the

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Son of Man in chapter 1. He was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, verse 10 of chapter 1, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, write in a scroll what you see, and sent it to seven churches, to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.

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And then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me, and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the middle of the lampstands,

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I saw one like a Son of Man. Keep that phraseology in mind.

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We're going to hear it again, because it was used hundreds of years before this.

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I saw one like a Son of Man, clothed in a robe, reaching to the feet, and girded across his chest with a golden sash.

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And his head and his hair were white, like white wool, like snow, and his eyes were like a glow in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters.

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And having in his right hand seven stars, and a sharp two -edged sword which comes out of his mouth, and his face was like the sun shining in its power, when

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I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. And he placed his right hand on me, saying, do not fear.

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I am the first, and the last, and the living one. And I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

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Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.

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As for the mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars of the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands of the seven churches, and what we then have in the next two chapters, some of the most important words of wisdom and warning to the churches.

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We looked at Revelation chapter 2 just recently. But what do we see here?

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Well, we see the resurrected Christ, and we see him in glory. He is glorious, and he identifies himself as the first and the last, the living one.

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I was dead, behold, I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

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And with that authority, we then have the letters to the seven churches, and what do we see in them?

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That Jesus is intimately aware of what is happening to his people. He knows their successes, and he knows their failures.

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He knows their challenges. He knows their persecutions. He's not just up there in heaven enjoying the praises of the angels again.

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Oh, so glad. Man, I miss this angelic worship. It's great to be back. No, his body is here on earth, and he knows what's taking place, and he exhorts them and encourages them and judges them and warns them.

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If you, if you don't repent, I will come and take away your lampstand. He walks amongst his churches.

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He is fulfilling the promise of John 14 and 16, but then the letters end and the scene shifts, and in Revelation chapter 4, you have the vision of God upon his throne, and you must recognize.

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I think it was Jeff that said, did you say recently that if they had the same plagiarism laws in the ancient world,

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John would get sued for plagiarism? Was that you? See, I do listen. I do listen, and I get to,

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I get to learn stuff, too. It's great. I love it. I think it's the way it should be. I never want to be,

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I knew a man, I knew an elderly scholar who expressed to me once that he could not learn anything from anyone that was younger than him, and I remember at that time being younger than him.

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I remember at that time saying to myself, I never want to be like that. Never want to be like that, and so far the

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Lord has allowed me to keep that promise, but it's true. If you don't see all the direct citations, and echoes, and allusions, and the fact that John is specifically tying everything in the book of Revelation into previous scripture, he wants you to be seeing that he's using that same language, vitally important to an interpretation of the book, and so if when you look at Revelation chapter 4, what you should immediately do is go, hey, we're back to Isaiah 6.

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We're back to the the worship of Yahweh upon his throne, and what that should tell you is everything that's happened on earth, entire empires have risen and fallen, and the worship of God in heaven has not been disturbed or ended by any of it.

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Something to remember as we think about everything that goes on on this planet.

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So you have the beautiful worship of God, and it's expanded, we're given more information than we have in Isaiah chapter 6, but the beauty of the worship, and in verse 8, holy, holy, holy is the

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Lord God, the Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come. Language straight out of the

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Hebrew Scriptures, that worship is continuing, and the living creatures give glory and honor, and verse 11, worthy are you, our

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Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created.

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Here is worship in heaven, and there is perfect consistency. Not a new religion, not a new

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God, but it doesn't stop there. Then we have chapter 5, and remember the chapters are added later on, that's not a part of the original writings, and something happens.

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John sees in the right hand of him who sits on the throne, chapter 5, a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals, and they look for someone who's worthy to open the scroll, and no one's found, and John weeps, he cries, and one of the elders said to him in verse 5, stop crying, behold the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome, so as to open the scroll and its seven seals, and all of a sudden, here's what's new, here's what's changed since Isaiah 6.

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The incarnation has taken place, the ministry, the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus has taken place, and so I saw in the midst of the throne the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders a lamb standing as if slain.

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The lamb is standing, but he bears upon him the marks of death.

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Now anyone who had been in the temple knew what a slain lamb looked like.

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Most of us would be repulsed, we've never seen anything like that, we're not not been on a farm, we haven't chopped off too many chickens heads, or slaughtered any animals, and so that's all far away from us, and we don't want to see anything like that.

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But I need to tell you something, when you, when you, when you slay a lamb, when you slit its throat, it's not like the old -time movies where you go, ah, and fall over.

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There's blood, and death is not instant, and so the the lamb's coat is soaked in blood as his lifeblood flows out, and so immediately you don't think of a lamb standing as if slain, because they don't keep standing for very long.

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So it's meant to strike you, that the language is meant for you to go, this is communicating something else.

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He sees a lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

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Don't miss that. Sometimes because of the figurative, metaphorical, apocalyptic type language, we sort of just skip things, and because we've heard people make such wild connections to everything.

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I mean, you go on YouTube today, and oh my goodness, the level of absurdity of stuff that you will find there is shocking.

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But there is a reason why you have the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

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Who wrote Revelation? Who wrote the Gospel of John? Well, some people argue that there's different Johns, but if they're the same

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John, I think they are, then John well knows the promises of John 14 and 16.

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I will not leave you alone, I will come to you, the Father and I will make our abode with you by the

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Spirit of God. Well, why are there seven spirits? Because seven is the number of fullness, that's why.

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And so the Spirit of God is fully engaged and is sent into where?

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All the earth. Where did Jesus, right before the

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Ascension, say, you're going to be witness to me unto the end of the earth? There's no place we can go in fulfilling the

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Great Commission that the Spirit of God will not be there. Nowhere we can go, no time we can go.

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The Spirit doesn't get tired, doesn't get old. As long as we're being obedient to Christ, we will have the

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Spirit of God. And here's Jesus, and he's presented to us as having the seven spirits of God, the fullness of the

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Spirit of God, sent out into all the earth. Fulfillment, John 14 and 16.

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And he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sits on the throne. No one approaches

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God upon his throne in this way. There is a familiarity, there is a worthiness here.

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And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

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We could stop at any one of these and really fill these things out. And they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain and purchased for God with your blood people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and you made them to be a kingdom and priest to our

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God, and they will reign upon the earth. Those in heaven understand what

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Christ has accomplished in his ministry, that by his death he did not simply make salvation a possibility.

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He is a powerful Savior, and he actually purchased for God with his blood people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

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Think about that. He actually accomplished it. So many of the theories of atonement do not have a specific object as the result of Christ's work.

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It's just sort of a general thing that makes it available to everybody. That's not what it says here. You made them to be a kingdom and priest to our

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God. They didn't make themselves to do that. They didn't take advantage of something. You made them to be a kingdom and priest to our

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God, and they will reign upon the earth. No one who will ever be reigning because of the work of Christ will have any reason to claim anything for themselves.

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If we reign with him, it's because he is the one who redeemed us and purchased us and made us a kingdom of priests unto our

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God. And what's the result? Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the

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Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.

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Look over to chapter 4 and you're seeing the same language that is used of the worship of God upon his throne.

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And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth, every created thing.

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What is John doing? He's excluding the Lamb from the realm of being created.

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He just did by the worship that's being given to him. You don't say to a creature, the song worthy is the land that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory.

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You don't say it about created things. Every created thing which is in heaven on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them.

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That's, that's, that's everything. There's nothing excluded here. I heard saying to him who sits on the throne and to the

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Lamb, be the blessing and the honor and the glory and the might forever and ever.

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And the four living creatures kept saying, they were saying ongoing action, amen, it is true.

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And the elders fell down and worshiped. So what has changed from Isaiah 6?

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The incarnation, the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ and his ascension into glory where he is now the object of the worship of all of creation.

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But intimately connected with that assertion of his worthiness is what? You were slain.

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You were slain. What do you say to John? I was dead but I'm alive forevermore. That obedience, that humility, that obeying the will of the

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Father. It is necessary that I go to Jerusalem. Peter says, no Lord, no.

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Get behind me Satan. It's necessary that I go to Jerusalem.

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It has to happen. And here's the result. To him who sits on the throne and to the

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Lamb. Now you don't get to the book of Revelation and the Bible has ceased being monotheistic.

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You don't get to the last few pages and all of a sudden, oh hey by the way, I know we've been saying there's only one true

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God all along but guess what? Now we're worshiping two gods. No. This same

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John had already told us in John 12 41. Having quoted from Isaiah 6, he said

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Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and he spoke about him.

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Isaiah, whose glory did you see? Yahweh. John, whose glory did

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Isaiah see? Jesus'. Once you understand that that name

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Yahweh is used of the Father and of the Son and the Spirit is the spirit of Yahweh.

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We don't have tritheism. We don't have three gods. We're not worshiping separate deities.

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Worship of only one God but now in light of the amazing reality of what he has done.

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The amazing reality of what he has done. Now there you have the acknowledgement on the part of all of creation of Christ's redemptive act but that's not all.

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You know what happens in the rest of the book of Revelation. He is the one who comes with a sword.

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He is the one who comes in judgment. I think one of the most amazing, mind -blowing pictures in all of Scripture is found in the very next chapter in chapter 6 of the book of Revelation.

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Beginning in verse 12, I looked and he opened the sixth seal and there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair and the whole moon became like blood.

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The stars of the sky fell to earth and as a fig tree cast its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind and the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up.

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Again, look at all the Old Testament references. This is all Old Testament apocalyptic language of judgment.

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Anybody reading it who knows the Old Testament, and that's one of our problems, is not going to be sitting here going, well we know that stars are actually much larger than the earth so how could they fall to the earth and then spending the next three hours trying to figure out some literalistic way to explain this when it would have been easier to just go back and read the prophets that would have taken care of the problem.

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The sky was split apart like a scroll when it was rolled up and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

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So here comes the judgment. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks the mountains.

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This is from Isaiah by the way. And they said the mountains into the rocks fall on us and hide us.

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Now in the Hebrew Scriptures it's from the wrath of Yahweh. Now what is it here?

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From the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the

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Lamb for the great day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand.

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Now again the wrath of the day of Yahweh. Repetitive concept in the

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Hebrew text. How is it fulfilled here? He who sits on the throne and the

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Lamb once again. But then the most incongruous shocking phrase in all the

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New Testament. The wrath of the Lamb. The wrath of the

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Lamb. When you think of little lambs you think of that painting of Jesus.

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He's got the little lamb in his hands. He looks like a little kitty cat. And of course

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Jesus has got nice long hair and he's white somehow. I'm not sure how that happened. But anyway.

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And he's holding the little lamb and he's petting the little lamb. And you just can't imagine someone looking at it going, better be careful of the wrath of the

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Lamb. Wrath of the Lamb? Seriously? Yes.

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The wrath of the Lamb. Because you see this Lamb is standing as if slain.

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This Lamb has given His life. This Lamb has purchased a people for God.

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This Lamb has brought grace and mercy and peace. And these men.

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These kings of the earth. Huh. What does Psalm 2. Psalm 2 says to kiss the sun.

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And who. Oh kings of the earth. And judges. Oh same ones. Huh. Kiss the sun lest he be angry with wrath.

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Huh. Sounds like there's a prophecy here. Huh. Yeah. These men had rejected that grace and that mercy.

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And there comes a time when the Lamb who has given

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His life becomes the judge who brings the just wrath of God against those who have spurned

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Him. Hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the

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Lamb. There is an eschatological reality of the fact that this one who is the source of all grace will someday be the one that brings just judgment.

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He's presented to us. So what's Jesus doing now?

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What's Jesus doing now? Well, we are given a good idea.

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Turn with me to the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews.

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Chapter 6. I don't know about you. Sadly, I grew up and if someone said to me

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Hebrews chapter 6, the first thing I would think of was this person wants to argue that you can lose your salvation based upon the first section of Hebrews chapter 6 verse 4, things like that.

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It's a shame that this tremendous text only brings that to our thinking.

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Instead, there's a discussion of the promise that God made to Abraham. The oath that he gave.

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In verse 18, so by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.

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There's a hope set before us. Now remember, this is written to Jewish Christians that are under pressure to go back to the old ways.

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And the whole thesis of the book is there's nothing to go back to. There's nothing to go back to.

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We have a hope. And what is that hope? This hope we have as an anchor of the soul.

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A hope both sure and confirmed and one which enters within the veil where a forerunner has entered for us.

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Jesus having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

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So here's a picture. We have a hope and that hope is an anchor of the soul.

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A hope both sure and confirmed and one which enters within the veil.

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The veil that the old covenant couldn't get you through. High priest only went through once a year with the blood, not his own.

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But we have a forerunner who's entered in and it's an anchor that goes within the veil into the very holy place itself.

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Where a forerunner has entered for us in our place. Who is it?

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Jesus having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

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Because you see, as soon as the Jewish mind would have heard about someone entering in, the first thing they'd think of is that's only temporary.

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Because you see, every year the priest enters in. He's in there for a brief period of time and then he comes back out.

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There is no seat in the holy place. There's no place for him to sit. He has one task.

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Sprinkle the blood in the mercy seat and then back out of there. So when you talk about a forerunner that goes into the holy place, an anchor of the soul, that doesn't make any sense unless you realize that Jesus has become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

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A higher order, which is going to be the argument in the next two chapters, than that of Aaron. So Jesus enters into the holy place.

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He is our anchor. He is our forerunner. He is our representative. And that's why in the next chapter we are told in verse 21, well verse 20, and inasmuch as it was not without an oath, for they indeed became priests without an oath, but he with an oath, through the one who said to him, the

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Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever. So much more,

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Jesus also has become the guarantee of a better covenant. And the former priests in the one hand existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing.

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But Jesus, on the other hand, because he continues forever, holds his priesthood permanently.

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Operabaton, without successor. I didn't get to meet who

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Jeff was talking about. Had the, uh, I guess Temple Recommend card.

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Is that what it is? Temple I've never heard a meaningful answer from, from the best

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LDS apologists I've ever debated. I've done debates at the University of Utah. I've witnessed more than 5 ,000

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Mormon missionaries in person, one -on -one. Salt Lake City, Mesa, all over the place.

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I've never gotten a meaningful response because most of them had never seen this. A Mormon elder claims to hold the

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Melchizedek priesthood. The problem is, according to the scriptures, because Jesus continues forever, he holds his priesthood, the

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Melchizedek priesthood, permanently without successor.

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He does not have to pass it on to anyone else. If you claim to be Melchizedek priest, you better be able to live forever because that's what the

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Melchizedek priest does. He holds his priesthood permanently. And what does that mean?

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I've asked a number of LDS elders this. We used to have a little tract that we pass out on the topic of the priesthood because most

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Mormons know very little about what the New Testament actually teaches about the priesthood. I said, so you're a

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Melchizedek priest. Are you able to save forever those who draw near to God by you? The look is amazing.

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What? Well, what does the Melchizedek priest do? Hebrews 7 .25.

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Therefore, he is able also to save Panteles, forever, completely, those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.

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I don't understand it, but let's be honest about something. In my experience, amongst most

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Christians, even sound Bible -believing Christians, I rarely hear anyone raising the glorious reality that each and every day, each and every moment of every day, we have a perfect representative, a forerunner in the presence of the

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Father who has given his life in our place. He does never have to leave the holy place because he lives forever, and he is making intercession for us, and that is the grounds of our assurance of salvation.

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No matter what happens to you, no matter what happens in your family, in your life, in your body, in your nation, in the holy place, you have a representative interceding for you.

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How can anything be more precious to anyone than that? I don't remember the author.

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I've seen the quote over and over and over again, but I have a feeling it was Horatio Bonar. I'm not sure, but we've all seen, you've probably seen the quote, and it goes somewhere along the lines of, if I could hear the voice of my

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Savior in the next room praying for me, I would fear nothing from any man ever.

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You have the Word of God saying, that's what Jesus is doing. You see, the ascension takes him to that place.

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It's not an added work to the cross. Don't get confused. We tend to think of things very linear, temporal, things like that.

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It's not like, Jesus did the cross, and now he's got to get, I got to get up to heaven now. See you later guys, because I got this job

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I got to do now. Jesus isn't re -presenting himself. It's not like the

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Father keeps getting angry with us, and he has to keep calming him down. Anything like that. Remember the picture from Revelation chapter 5.

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How is the Lamb standing? As if what? Slain. The Son is in the presence of the

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Father as the God -man, and he has the wounds upon his hands.

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And anyone who is united with him, the Father sees that perfect sacrifice and says, it is enough.

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And you, by faith in that perfect sacrifice, have peace with God, because the sacrifice avails to wash away all of your sin.

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It's not a new work. It's not an added work. It's the finished work of Christ, present before the very

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Father himself. So what is the

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Son doing? He's interceding. And since the intercession is simply that presentation of his obedience to the

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Father's will, Father, Son, and Spirit, glorified, God's people, redeemed, perfected.

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That's how, over the next few chapters in Hebrews, the argument's going to come to that final conclusion.

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In chapter 10, by one sacrifice he perfects for all time.

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Not just for a while. He perfects for all time those who are being made holy.

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The Old Covenant couldn't do that. That's why there's nothing to go back to.

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This is what Christ is doing for you, for me, every day, every moment, and there can be no firmer foundation for your relationship to God.

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If you're striving to try to bring stuff to God to get him to love you, you've missed the point.

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It's not how it works. There's nothing you can add. There's nothing you can increase.

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It's not possible. It can't be done. But I said earlier that there was a prophecy, and I want to conclude with that.

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Turn with me to the Old Testament Scriptures, and turn with me to the book of Daniel.

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Oh, I just found a page in my Bible that's all messed up. I'm going to have to do some

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Bible repair work in Ezekiel 29. The text is okay, but I'm to very, very carefully repair something there.

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Daniel chapter 7. Daniel chapter 7, you know it well because it's so beautiful.

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You know it well because when Jesus and Mark chapter 14 is at his trial, and they abjure him, they demand that he answer the question, are you the son of the blessed one?

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His answer was to conflate, put together, quote together, Psalm 110 1 and Daniel chapter 7 verse 13.

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Jesus used these words of himself, and the high priest tore his robe and said, what need of we have further witnesses?

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You've heard the blasphemy, yourself. Because everybody knew, everybody knew what

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Daniel chapter 7 was about, and what Jesus was claiming for himself. Verse 13,

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I kept looking the night visions, and behold the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man was coming, and he came up to the

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Ancient of Days, and he came near before him, and to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue might serve him.

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His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not be taken away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

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Have we heard that language anywhere before? We heard it just today? The night visions

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Daniel sees, behold with the clouds of heaven. Hmm.

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One like a son of man was coming, and he came up to the

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Ancient of Days. You see, this is what I was missing before. This is what

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I didn't understand for much of my Christian life. Here is the enthronement of the risen

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Son of Man. The disciples don't get to see this from earth.

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He disappears into a cloud, but how amazed they must have been to realize that Daniel had prophetically seen what took place next.

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One like a son of man with the clouds of heaven is coming. He came up to the Ancient of Days, he who sits upon the throne, and came near before him.

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So near you can take scrolls out of his hand. Huh. And to him was given dominion.

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Huh. Matthew 28, all authority, dominion, power. Acts chapter 1, same thing.

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And to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the people's nations and men from every tongue might serve him.

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Wow. It's like quotation time again. Here the extensiveness of the kingdom, the extensiveness of the work of the gospel.

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And it is interesting when it says might serve him, the

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Hebrew term Ahav can be translated as serve or worship, depending on the context.

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And sometimes it means both. That's why when Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy try to say that you can give

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Dulia honor to an icon, an image, saints, etc, etc.

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As long as you don't give them Latria, the highest form of worship, then you're not engaging in idolatry.

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But the reality is both terms translate the one Hebrew term that's used here.

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And what's interesting is in the Greek translation of Daniel, the Greek translation uses the term

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Latria, which is the highest form of worship in the temple.

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It is religious worship. And so all the people's nations and men of every tongue might serve him.

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His dominion, which he is given, is an everlasting dominion which will not be taken away.

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And his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

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Here is the enthronement of the risen Son. Here is what happens.

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The disciples see the cloud from below. Daniel had seen it from above long before.

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The ultimate success of the Son of Man here seen.

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And that means that the risen Lord today has dominion, glory, and a kingdom.

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And so when we read in Psalm 2, the psalmist saying to the kings and rulers and judges of the earth, kiss the

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Son lest his wrath burn against you. Here's a picture of why.

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Because this is a kingdom that has no limitation, a glory that cannot be diminished, a dominion that cannot be taken away.

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I can't help but think of a particular representative in the

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House of Representatives. What was it, about a year and a half, two years ago? Another representative had dared to call the

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Congress to obedience to God's law, and he stood up and said,

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God has nothing to do with the House of Representatives. Oh, the foolishness.

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The foolishness. His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed, and every man, woman, and child will someday know it.

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Because what do the Philippians 2 say? Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess.

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This is the teaching of Scripture. So when we think of the ascension, I hope when you think of the ascension, you will no longer think of it as just sort of a disjointed three -verse, yeah,

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Jesus had to get back to heaven somehow. Instead, what you see in the rest of Scripture, what happens after the ascension, what makes the ascension necessary, the fulfillment of promises, ascending of the

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Spirit, the establishment of the kingdom and dominion and power and glory, it's all there.

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It's all connected together. I have said this to you many times before, and I'll say it to you again.

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This is our 40th anniversary for Alvin and Megan Ministries.

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40 years we've been in ministry now, and I can tell you that through four decades of ministry, people ask, what causes you to continue to believe?

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Well, it's not anything in me, I can assure you. But what has God used? And one of the things, one of the most important things that God has used in my life to continue my faith, to hold up my faith, to grow my faith, is the beauty of the consistency and the harmony and the fact that throughout the pages of this

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Word, God's truth is seen in so many different and beautiful ways.

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I've at a beautiful tapestry, and from one side it is indeed beautiful. You look at the back and it's a mess.

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But when we look at the way God wants us to see it, there are these threads that go from beginning to end, and sometimes they're not as easy to see, and sometimes they look different and they have a different hue and color.

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But from Genesis to Revelation, you have the purpose of the triune God being accomplished.

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And what's amazing to me is as we sit here today, thousands of miles away from the events of Jesus' life,

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I'm so glad since I'm not traveling overseas anymore that I did get one shot to see

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Israel. And it was so little. It was so small.

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It's a tiny little land. I stood in the seashore at Capernaum, and you could see the other side of the lake.

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Wherever you are, you can see the other side of the lake. I always thought the Sea of Galilee was like the Atlantic or something, you know?

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No, you can always see the other side. It's so small. And yet the events that took place there, here we sit 2 ,000 years later.

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And in a moment, we're going to partake of bread and wine because Jesus commanded us to do it.

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And people have been doing this in remembrance of him, recognizing his death, burial, and resurrection as the only hope they have, the means of forgiveness of their sins, that he is enthroned in heaven.

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We've been doing this for 2 ,000 years in different languages. This very day, your brothers and sisters in pretty much every language on the planet have taken the cup.

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They've taken the bread. And they've done so in obedience to Christ.

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And that means his kingdom was established. He was enthroned, and he continues to build that kingdom to this day.

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And you and I have the privilege of being a part. Think with me.

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All the stuff of this world that you're worried about this coming week, hey, we've got to do what

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God calls us to do. I get it. But all the stuff of this world, does it really have any eternal meaning in comparison to what the triune

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God has done for us, the privileges that are ours? How can we ever raise a single word of complaint or discontent to our

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God who has given us so much? And there's going to be so much more in the future.

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This world cannot stop you. If you are a true follower of Jesus Christ, there's nothing this world can possibly do to stop you from someday standing in the presence of all those you saw in Revelation 4 and 5, and in purity and holiness, worshiping

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God. This world can't stop it. When was the last time you thanked

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God for it? And whenever that discontentment, whenever that, well,

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Lord, you're letting that other person have something I don't have. If we really recognize what

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Christ has done for us, what He's doing for us right now in the presence of the Father, would we ever complain?

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We couldn't. We can't. We have to stop thinking about that stuff before we can start sinfully questioning

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God's goodness in our life. And I'm preaching to myself right now. Maybe somebody else out there might sort of feel it too.

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You know what Vodie says, we can't say amen, say ouch. But it's true.

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It's true. The ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ takes him into the very presence of the

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Father, his enthronement, where he is today, interceding for us. May our hearts be filled with thanksgiving and rejoicing.

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Let's pray together. Indeed, our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the glory of the

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Gospel. We thank you for the perfection of our Savior, for the presence of the Spirit amongst us.

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We thank you for the Scriptures and your preservation of them for us. We thank you for their consistency and their beauty.

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Father, if there is anyone, the sound of my voice that does not bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, may they see his glory this day, their need for him.

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And may you draw your people unto yourself. I'm praying in Christ's name.