"Christ Ascended = the Church's Provision" Part 1 May 13, 2018 AM

Always knowing what we need. You have given us your

Son, the Beloved, in whom you are well pleased.

Father, I ask today that you would raise up our eyes of faith to Christ, ascended, reigning from your right hand, and that we too would be well pleased in Him.

I ask that you would especially bless the mothers here in our midst and give them joy in the precious gift that you have given them.

I ask also that you would help all of us honor our mothers in the moments and the memories that we have with them.

We ask this for the sake of Christ. Amen. Happy Mother's Day.

I hope it's already been a good morning for you. I hope that you all will be able to spend time celebrating that, this day,

Mother's Day, as you move on throughout. We're not having services tonight, so more time to spend together as family, and I pray that you'll make the most of that.

By divine arrangement, Thursday was

Ascension Day, and so today is Ascension Sunday. What is Ascension Day? Forty days after Jesus Christ had been crucified on the cross and was raised from the dead,

He ascended back to heaven. Ten days after that, He sent the

Holy Spirit to fill the church on the day of Pentecost. The ascension of Jesus Christ is not something that we often talk about, and so it's something that I've tried to stress every time we come around this time of year, to have at least one

Sunday where we talk about the ascension of Jesus Christ, that after He rose from the dead and spending that time with His disciples and teaching them about Himself in all the scriptures, that He ascended to heaven.

He was taken out of their sight by the Shekinah glory cloud, and He even now, though we do not see

Him, by faith we know Him to be at the right hand of the Father, and He has been given a name which is above every name, and He is

King of kings, and He is Lord of lords, and He reigns there even now. Now, I was drawn,

I believe, by the Spirit to Ephesians 4 verses 7 through 16, and I had intended to preach all of it for you this morning.

That will not happen. The Lord has led us into what should undoubtedly be a series of sermons from Ephesians 4 verses 7 through 16, so we're going to put

Jeremiah on pause and pay attention to the glories in this text.

We are going to spend some time thinking about what does it mean that Jesus has ascended, what does it mean, what are the blessings, what is the good news that Christ has ascended?

We know that Jesus was born of a virgin, born for us, that's good news.

We know that He lived a perfect life, living all the righteousness and living perfectly before God in a way that we could never live, that's good news.

He died on the cross for our sins so that we would be forgiven, that's good news.

That He was raised the third day to give us new life, that is good news.

And all of it is incomplete unless He ascended to the right hand of the

Father from which He sends us all that we need to live for Him, and from whence

He will return certainly, suddenly, and soon. So our gospel message, the greatest story ever told, is incomplete if we don't have this part, that He ascended to heaven.

And we say things like, the Word became flesh and He dwelt among us. We say that at Christmas.

We talk about on Good Friday, for us and for our salvation, He died upon the cross.

On Easter we say, He is risen, He is risen indeed. And also,

Christ has ascended and He will soon come again. Christ has ascended and He will soon come again.

Well, before I read for us out of Ephesians 4, I want to remind you what this letter is all about.

At the beginning, the first 14 verses, Paul is just giving praise to God for the remarkable way, for the wonderful way

He sums up all things in His Son, Jesus Christ. And then he begins to share with the

Ephesians how he prays for them. And that begins in chapter 1, verse 15, all the way through the end of chapter 3.

Can you imagine that? Dear Ephesians, this is how I'm praying for you. Why am I praying this way? Because of who you are in Christ.

And this is how I'm going to keep on praying for you. And he can't help it, at the end of chapter 3, he goes off into doxology again, praising

God for summing up all things in Christ. As we read through the first part of Ephesians, we ought to notice the theme of unity.

That if we believe in Jesus, if we are alive in Christ, all those who are alive in Jesus are united as one people, one family, one church.

And that is good news. That kind of unity is stressed again and again through the first part. And we come to the second part of the letter, in chapter 4.

And then Paul says, Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.

And the calling with which we have been called, in chapters 1 through 3, is that by grace we are called to be in relationship with Jesus Christ by faith, and that we are one people in him.

And this is good news. Well, how do we walk worthy of that calling? Well, we should walk unified.

We should be in unity in Christ, in loving, harmonious fellowship.

And so verses 2 through 6 are all about our unity in God. But unity does not mean that we're all just alike.

Unity does not mean uniformity. In fact, our unity is made strong by the harmonious diversity amongst us that God gives to us these experiences.

He gives to us these talents and these desires. He gives to us especially his grace in a myriad manner of gifts from the

Holy Spirit that we would work together like the many men who surrounded Jerusalem, all from different types of vocations, all different types of situations, but they all worked together to build that wall.

So also, God gives us grace to be at work with one another to build up his church and to advance his kingdom.

With all that in mind, would you do the honor to Jesus Christ once again by standing with me?

And I'm going to read for us Ephesians 4 verses 7 through 16.

Let's give our attention this morning to Christ revealed in this text. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives and he gave gifts to men.

Now this expression, he ascended. What does it mean except that he also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?

He who descended is himself he also who ascended far above all the heavens so that he might fill all things.

And he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the

Son of God to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

As a result we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men by craftiness in deceitful scheming but speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head even

Christ from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

And this is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. You know when

Mother's Day comes around there is this desire those who want to honor the mothers in their life to try to do whatever they can to alleviate her normal array of responsibilities in providing for her family.

And that's a hard task to do. It's a lot of pressure on dads and children to try to figure out what they can do to make it easy for mom on Mother's Day.

It's on occasions like that that we begin to tally just how much a mother means to her family. All the different things that a mother does that is sometimes no matter how much we try just irreplaceable.

Just can't do it. But you know all the various needs of the church.

All the various needs of the children of God are not provided for by a mother but by a

Savior who was risen from the dead and ascended to the right hand. And this is

Jesus Christ. Now at home my children know who to gather around and to plead incessantly for their needs to be met.

They gather around my beautiful wife who's always dancing around in the kitchen around all the children. Please I need this and I need that.

They know where to go to have their needs met. Do we as God's children know who to gather around and plead to when we have needs?

To each one of us grace is given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Are we conscious of the fact that he's at the right hand today? Perhaps it's easy to forget we do not see him now but we will be like him for we will see him as he is when he returns but we don't see him now.

And so it is easy for us to simply let that fact that he reigns from the right hand.

We just let it lie there. Perhaps we know it but we don't think about it very often and we don't rely upon that truth.

We don't apply that truth very often. But are we conscious this morning of what is called the session of Christ that he is seated at the right hand of the

Father that he reigns. By faith do you know that he is seated at the right hand of the

Father ascended in glory. That his throne Hebrews tells us the throne he occupies is a throne of mercy and grace.

That we may approach to find grace and mercy in our time of need.

We need to remember that this morning on Ascension Sunday. Maybe we're not as aware of our real needs as we think we are.

We must have a tally and an ongoing list in our minds of what we need.

Do we go to Christ and ask him to meet our needs? And on that list that we have of our needs.

Do we have there on our list even anywhere near the top of the list. The things we need that God tells us we need.

Very often my children think they know what they need but they don't know what they need. And there is a constant rearranging of priorities on that need list.

No you don't need that and you don't need that what you really need is this. And here is the provision for it. We need to pay attention to what our needs are.

So look at verse 14 very briefly. Verse 14 in our text. As a result of receiving this manifold grace of God through Christ.

As a result we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves.

And carried about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men by craftiness and deceitful scheming.

The trajectory the direction we are going in this series by this text is saying this.

What Christ gives to us plenteously for our salvation and for our growth in him.

Delivers us from deceits and lies and evil schemes.

That in fact one of the greatest needs that you and I have is truth. Truth. We need the truth of Christ.

We need the saving living active and powerful truth of God.

And the word of God given to us by this saving living active powerful spirit of God.

That is what we need. Without it what are we left with?

That we would as the pagans walk in the futility of their mind. That we would be darkened in our understanding.

Excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in us. Because of the hardness of our own hearts.

That's verses 17 and 18. Do you hear what we miss out on if we don't have the truth of God?

So many lives are lived in quiet desperation or obvious disaster.

Because the truth of God is not at work and alive in these people. That's where I would be without the truth of God graciously revealed.

Do we know our great need is truth. Without it verse 14 says we would be infants in a typhoon of lies.

Without the truth of God saving us and sanctifying us. We are but infants in a typhoon of lies.

And there's no hope of being delivered from our great enemy. Keeping that in mind today on Ascension Sunday.

I want the anxieties of our souls and the aim of our prayers. And the affections of our hearts to all be resolved in Christ ascended.

Sunnyside, friends, visitors, neighbors. We ought not look anywhere else except for the right hand of God.

To know our needs met. To flourish as the body of Christ. The main idea that we're going to be talking about this morning and following weeks is this.

Our provision flows from Christ ascended. Our provision flows from Christ ascended.

Let's look at verse 7 again. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

We need to think about Christ's gift. This is a critical verse for our understanding of what it means to live the

Christian life. What it means to be a part of a church. To each one of us grace was given.

This means that the gift is an individual gift. Look at the words each one.

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

The term but at the beginning of verse 7 is there because after so much emphasis in the previous verse about all, all, all.

That we are all unified in Christ. We have one father, one faith, one hope of the calling, one baptism.

After all that emphasis on the oneness that we have. Here now is a in contrast but not contradiction.

An emphasis on the individual. That to each one of us grace is given.

This is important for us to understand that. And we're going to look at it more when we come to the part about the different roles of all the different members in the body of Christ.

But it's important that we understand that the grace of salvation. The full measure of what is offered to us in Christ comes to us individually for the benefit of the whole.

We are not to be individualistic. All on our own. Lone ranger.

Without any help kind of Christians. But we are to have what we often say is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

That it is real. That personally, individually, yes I have received grace according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Each one. We got to be clear on this. Salvation is not in a group.

Just because you belong to a group doesn't mean that you are saved.

That you have spiritual life or that you're headed for eternal life. Grace is not dispensed from a church's treasury.

But it is granted through Christ himself to each one of us. The question we have to begin with then is are you personally a recipient of Christ's gift?

Have you personally received the gift of Jesus Christ of salvation? There are many who enjoy the overflow of Christ's gift to others.

There are many who enjoy the overflow of Christ's gift to others.

They love sitting in the splash zone of the lives of others who are receiving the water of life.

The question is are you merely tasting a little bit of the heavenly gift that are given to others?

Are you settling for the crumbs that fall beneath the table? Or are you seated at the table?

Because you indeed have received grace according to the measure of Christ's gift. That you indeed are alive in Christ.

Or are you settling for drops and crumbs? That was the fear of the preacher who wrote a sermon we call the book of Hebrews.

And in chapter 6 verses 4 -9 he was concerned that there would be anyone, just even one person in his flock who was settling.

Just getting the afterglow of the life of Christ in others. On this

Ascension Sunday do you confess what Paul has already stated earlier in Ephesians?

Are you spiritually seated with Christ at the right hand of God?

As the hymn says, is your name graven on his hands? Is your name written on his heart?

Each one. See this gift is an individual gift. It's a question that you're going to have to wrestle with.

That you're going to have to get alone with God about. To pray about and read the scriptures about.

It's an individual gift and it's also an undeserved gift. Look at that word grace. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

John MacArthur writes, grace is a single word definition of the gospel. Because God is a

God of grace. He is a God who freely gives. His giving has nothing to do with anything we have done.

It is unmerited, unearned, undeserved. And that is a theme that Paul has stressed greatly in the first three chapters of this letter.

Why? Because he's seeking unity in the church.

He's seeking unity in the church. If the truth of grace does anything, it does this.

It humbles us. And humility is the absolute essential ingredient for unity.

Until the banner of grace flies over our heads. We keep thumping our chests and brandishing our crests.

And we are in competition with one another. With private agendas and marking out our own territory.

But we have to have the banner of grace clearly unfurled.

Flying strong above us. Paul begins in his letter by praising the glory of God's grace.

That he freely bestows to us in the beloved. We're only beloved by extension.

The beloved is Jesus Christ. It is only in the beloved, Jesus Christ, the

Son. That God the Father is well pleased. Everything hangs on this.

That God is well pleased in the Son. He's not well pleased with me. He's not well pleased with you.

He is well pleased with Jesus Christ. In his life, death, and resurrection. There is no one else that he says this of.

Are you well pleased in Jesus Christ? So everything hangs on the beloved.

Not us. It's all of grace. It is in the beloved.

It is in Jesus Christ that we have redemption through Jesus' blood. Which means the forgiveness of all of our sins.

The forgiveness of all of our trespasses. What does that mean?

Colossians envisions it like this. There is a scroll upon which is written all of your transgressions and all of your sins.

Even the ones that you have no idea about. But God knows because God knows everything and he sees everything.

Even the ones that we don't even have the capacity to define. They are there on the scroll.

And the entire record of our transgressions against God is nailed upon the cross. It says in Colossians 2 verse 14.

And is taken out of the way in Christ. That's undeserved.

Ephesians 2 verse 4 says but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us.

Even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ.

Parenthesis, by grace you have been saved. Now listen to this. Verse 6 tells us that because Christ is ascended.

And only because this is part of the gospel. Because Christ is ascended therefore we are alive and saved.

Verse 6 says and raised us up with him in the resurrection. But listen it's further. Not only are we raised from the dead with Christ.

And seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That by faith in Jesus Christ not only is his death made effective for your forgiveness.

Not only is his resurrection made effective to give you new life. But his ascension has taken you all the way to heaven.

Spiritually you are seated with him for everlasting life. Verse 7 so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Again by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves.

That is not of yourselves it is the gift of God. Not as a result of works so that no one may boast.

It's of grace. And as many have noted this not of works salvation is unto works.

Verse 10 says we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. Which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

And we're back to the key word walk. In chapter 4 and verse 1. Walking worthy of a calling with which we have been called.

How are we going to do that? How are we going to walk worthily of this great calling with which we have been called?

It's all because of the gift of Christ. Not on our own power.

Not by our own experience. Not because we are well determined to do it. It's because of Jesus Christ. You may give your mother a gift today.

You might have one planned out. You want to give your mother a gift today to celebrate her devotion and her sacrifice.

And in that sense the gift is deserved. It is right. It is a matter of just due.

We are giving honor to those to whom honor is due. Now when we reflect on Christ's gift.

We need to ponder it appropriately in light of where he is ascended to the right hand. His gift to us is not one that we do deserve.

The gift is not due to our devotion. His gift to us is not a reflection of our sacrifice.

His gift is not appropriate for our character. It is not an expression of what we justly deserve.

It's quite the opposite. Christ ascended and claimed all that he deserved.

All that was appropriate to his character. The gift he receives from his father is due to his devotion.

A reflection of his sacrifice. And that he gives us of his gift is pure grace.

And Paul makes the point again and again that God's mercy is rich and his love is great. And we need to confess that with our mouths.

And our lives need to resonate with this amen of the soul. That we are utterly undeserving and Christ is utterly worthy.

That leads us into humble paths of gratitude and unity. We look at each other in a whole different way.

This gift is individual. It's undeserved but also it's immeasurable.

Let's look at verse 7 again. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure. The measure of Christ's gift.

Grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. The term measure in the

Greek is the word metron from which we derive the word metric. In business and in politics and in sports.

Leaders are always trying to understand and then apply what they call the metrics.

So they can make better business decisions or better political decisions and so on.

But how can we possibly assess the metrics of Christ's gift?

And as soon as I see this, as soon as we read this. We ought to think of Paul's prayers for the

Ephesians. Just a little bit behind our passage in chapter 3 verses 14 through 21.

He says for this reason I bow my knees before the father. From whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

That he would grant you. Now grant is the verb form of the noun grace.

Just mark it down whenever you see grant. It's just the verb form of the noun grace.

That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory. To be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man.

The Holy Spirit is this gift that Christ gives to us from his ascended throne.

Verse 17. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

Well why? Because he's reigning invisibly from the right hand. And so the only way he can dwell with us in our hearts is by the

Holy Spirit. As we have faith in Christ. And that you being rooted and grounded in love.

May be able to comprehend with all the saints. Now here are the metrics. Are you ready? Here's the measurements of Christ's gift.

That you may be able to comprehend with all the saints. What is the breadth and length and height and depth. To know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.

That you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. And we can't measure that.

It's an immeasurable gift. And that's why Paul says now to him who was able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.

According to the power that works within us. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.

Brother Dwight and I attended the Oklahoma jail and prison ministry. A ministry that we support.

And we went to a luncheon there with the folks last week. A couple of awards were handed out.

One was for those who had been extra active in the service of the ministry.

Being chaplains inside prisons and jails. And counseling with people and preaching the gospel to them.

And the other award was for generous givers. And the president of the board was setting up that gift.

And he talked about how over the years the donations would decline. And the budget was getting tight.

And they would have to plan to scale back the ministry. And inevitably a check would come in the mail from this couple that they awarded.

And he said these checks always tended to have a couple of more zeros at the end than the other ones.

Why would this couple give? Are they more holy than others? Not really. They gave according to the measure that God had given them.

Which is what we're all supposed to do. And we don't get to boast in such gifts. Because after all we received it first from God.

So what are we going to boast about? The point is that God has different servants in different stages of life and finances and wealth.

And stewardship comes in different packages. And the fact is that when Abraham gives a gift, it's a little more hefty than when

John the Baptist gives a gift. But we're all supposed to give gifts. And the reason why we can't boast about any gift that we give.

Or any act of sacrifice that we do. Is honestly we have to put it in comparison to what Christ has given.

What Christ has done. And in the immeasurable weight of who

Christ is and what he has done and what he has given. Who are we to boast? What we give or what we do.

There are limits on what you and I can give. There are no such limits for Christ. There are limits to what a mother can do for her children.

But there is no end to the grace Christ gives to his own. John 3 .34

says, Doesn't that change your prayer life?

John Newton in a hymn reminds us, And I think when we change the way that we pray.

We're more willing and confident to ask God for grace according to the measure of Christ's gift.

And then I think we're going to find ourselves more often than not. Pressing further on adventures of obedience.

So we should walk worthy of the calling with which we've been called. It is a high calling, a heavenly calling. A holy calling, a miraculous calling, an eternal calling.

And all that we need to walk worthily is amply given to us by Jesus Christ at the right hand.

Our provision flows from Christ ascended. One last picture to stake this in our minds until next time.

Our provision flows from Christ ascended. Revelation 22 verses 1 and 2.

An image that I've often pondered about and perhaps understood a little bit more about this week.

It says that there's a river and there's a street and they're in the same place.

Revelation 22, 1 and 2. Then he showed me a river of the water of life as clear as crystal.

Coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street.

What's street? The street of the New Jerusalem. The street of gold. When we read the description of the

New Jerusalem, we read about the street of gold. And there's this one street and it's heading straight for the throne of God.

The throne of Christ ascended, the Lamb. And from that throne there flows a river.

The river of the water of life. So here's the image. The water of life is flowing from the throne and the street is heading towards the throne.

Brothers and sisters, the narrow way of salvation, the narrow way of life, may be to us now but a creek bed and we're walking on gravel and sand.

But the end of that path is a golden street and a river of the water of life.

Our provision flows from Christ ascended. We may be ankle deep now, but let's press on to deeper waters.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the time that you have given us this morning.

I pray that you would be honored and glorified in our hearts and our lives. Help us to trust this word and that to each one of us has been given the grace according to the measure of Christ's gift.

It's always, always to look to you for our provision. We pray these things for the sake of Christ, the beloved, whom you are well pleased.