Belonging to Christ's exaltation, as we confess it in the Apostles Creed, is His ascension into heaven. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in His human nature, is no longer on earth. Forty days after His resurrection, He ascended into heaven in the presence of His disciples, after having given them the promise that He would come again and take them and all His own unto Himself, that where He is, there we may be also.
Now the fact that Christ is no longer on earth may seem to be contrary to that which would be for our spiritual good. Wouldn't it be better, if He would have stayed to walk with us side by side, as He did with His disciples? But Scripture makes clear that such was not His way for us. Instead He would give us a better way, the way of living in our hearts by His Holy Spirit. We'll have to say more about that when we consider our faith in the Holy Spirit and what Scripture reveals concerning His work. But the Bible makes clear in many different places that Christ's ascension into heaven was and continues to be extremely profitable for us. We want to consider our confession this morning by following our Catechism's exposition as it leads us through the historical event of the ascension into the consideration of its advantage to us.
CHRIST'S ASCENSION
I. WONDERFUL
II. PROFITABLE
I. WE CONFESS THAT CHRIST'S ASCENSION WAS AN HISTORICAL AND WONDERFUL EVENT.
IT WAS AN EVENT THAT MARKED VERY CLEARLY THE TRUTH THAT WITH RESPECT TO HIS HUMAN NATURE, JESUS IS NO MORE ON EARTH.
A change had already taken place before the ascension. Jesus was no longer with His disciples as He was before the cross. But several times in the forty days after the resurrection He had appeared unto them and spoke with them and had given them instruction concerning the things of His kingdom and their calling in the Church on this earth. He commissioned them to go and teach all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit all who believe. He gave them the calling to teach the citizens of His kingdom "to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you," and comforted them with the words, "and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:19,20). But it also was very clear that He would not be with them in the same sense as He had been before. He no longer walked with them, and taught the multitudes. He no longer performed miracles in their presence. He no longer lived among them as a Man among men. But they would be meeting here, or would be together there, and all of a sudden He would appear in their midst, coming as if out of the air.
But finally there came a time, on the fortieth day after that great day of His resurrection, when something happened which made clear to all the disciples that those appearances that the risen Lord had made would not continue. Another ten days, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, they would understand clearly how Jesus would now dwell in them and be with them always. But on this fortieth day, something happened which brought a physical separation between Him and them.
We read about the event from the account in Acts 1. After Jesus had given His final instructions to His disciples, we read in verses 9-11: "And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Mark gives this inspired account, in Mark 16:19: "So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." That element of Christ's sitting on the right hand of God is treated separately by our Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 19. But Mark points to the fact of Christ's ascension as attaining a definite end or purpose. In Luke 24:50,51, we read: "And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven." Notice, He was parted from them. There was very definitely a physical separation that took place at that event on the mount called Olivet.
Of the ascension we confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, in His human nature, departed from the earth and went to heaven. The significance of that event we shall come to presently; but Scripture clearly teaches that the ascension involved a definite change of place. The reason the Catechism expands upon this truth is because of the controversy with the Lutherans in this matter. After the resurrection and in the ascension Christ did not become ubiquitous, as Luther said. That is, Christ's human nature did not become everywhere present. But on the contrary, our risen Lord departed from the earth, and entered into the place called heaven.
That ascension was a wonder. We do well to remind ourselves of that. While heaven is a definite place beyond our earthly senses, the ascension cannot be compared to taking a journey from one earthly place to another. It is easy, when thinking about this event recorded in Acts 1 and elsewhere, that we think of Jesus stretching out His arms like an airplane and suddenly "taking off," to land in another place. But we must not forget that even this last manifestation of the Lord to His disciples on Mount Olivet was an appearance of Him Who had already passed on into the resurrection-sphere, and Who lived in His glorified, incorruptible spiritual body. While we read that the disciples stood "gazing up into heaven," that means nothing more than that they stood with their eyes fixed toward the sky after their Lord had been taken up from them. They were not able to see heaven. A cloud received Him out of their sight. What they saw with their eyes was that Jesus was taken up from them, as a sign to them that He had departed from them, not to walk in their midst again in the same way as He had to that point.
Don't misunderstand. He is not absent from us. In His Godhead, and according to His divine nature, He is always present. But we speak now about Christ in His human nature, as the Son of man. We may say indeed that it was the Person of the Son of God that ascended into heaven. But that ascension was realized only in His human nature. The Godhead is unchangeable. In His divine nature the ascension of the Son of God did not effect a change. In fact, to speak of a change of place with respect to the divine nature would be absurd. For God is immanent in all things, yet He is also the Transcendent One. He fills all things, while at the same time being far above all things. In His Godhead He can neither ascend nor descend. He is everywhere present. But according to His human nature, He is now in heaven. Once His disciples could meet Him and have earthly fellowship with Him. They could sit at the table with Him, and hear Him preach and teach. They could even touch Him. But now, with our earthly eyes, we don't see Him any more. All earthly associations are gone. Having been taking up from earth into heaven, "He continues there for our interest until He comes again to judge the living and the dead."
BUT EVEN THOUGH JESUS HAS ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN, NO MORE TO DWELL ON EARTH IN HIS HUMAN NATURE, THE FACT REMAINS THAT WITH RESPECT TO HIS GODHEAD, MAJESTY, GRACE AND SPIRIT, HE IS AT NO TIME ABSENT FROM US.
Jesus is still with us, beloved. Luther was not wrong in that. Our Lord Christ is still with us, to be sure. But He is with us in a far higher and more intimate sense than He was ever with His disciples during His earthly sojourn. This is how the Catechism explains it in Q & A 47: "Is not Christ then with us even to the end of the world, as He hath promised? Christ is very man and very God; with respect to His human nature, He is no more on earth; but with respect to His Godhead, majesty, grace and spirit, He is at no time absent from us." Now we face here a doctrinal issue. Earlier, you recall, in Lord's Day 6, we saw the truth of Scripture that our Mediator must be very God and very man in One Person. The two natures of Christ, the human and the divine natures, are inseparable. That is also a matter of the Church's confession going back many centuries. But now we speak of Christ being in heaven in His human nature, and yet being with us in His Godhead. How can we speak that way? That certainly brings up the question, as our Catechism faces in Q & A 48: "But if His human nature is not present, wherever His Godhead is, are not then these two natures in Christ separated from one another?" The answer, however, is this: "Not at all, for since the Godhead is illimitable and omnipresent, it must necessarily follow that the same is beyond the limits of the human nature He assumed, and yet is nevertheless in this human nature, and remains personally united to it." The divine nature of Christ is beyond the limits of the human nature that He assumed, yet remains personally united to it. That is how Scripture explains this wonderful phenomenon of His ascension.
It is important, even from a practical point of view, that we lay hold of this truth by faith. Sometimes we think, "How nice it must have been to be one of the disciples, to live with Jesus in the midst, to walk with Him and talk with Him, to be able to ask Him questions and hear Him teach and preach." But when we think that way, we are overlooking the rich blessing that God has given us, far superior to that experienced by Jesus' disciples. For us, we have the Lord Jesus not only with us, but in us by His Holy Spirit. He is present with us not only as the Creator of all things, but as the God of our salvation, Who was delivered for our iniquities and raised again for our justification. He is present with us as the Christ Who has accomplished the victory! (even as we considered last week). Christ is present with us now in all the glory of His sovereignty, in all the authority of His Lordship over all. He is present with us now as the One Who loved us unto death, even the death of the cross, and Who arose that we might live, and that more abundantly.
And this is true, because after His ascension He received the Holy
Spirit without measure, according to the promise His Father had given Him. As we are told
in Ephesians 4, in fulfillment of Psalm 68 He ascended up on high, leading captivity
captive, in order that He might give gifts unto men, glorious gifts, gifts of grace and
forgiveness, of righteousness and holiness and love, gifts of everlasting life and glory.
To that end He received the Spirit, and in that Spirit returned to His own as He had
promised, to dwell in them and to be with them forever. He is present with us in such a
way that we know His love for us. Through the Spirit's work in our hearts, He causes us to
know Him and to taste His grace, to hear His Word and to partake of all the blessings of
salvation. That presence is constant, beloved. He never leaves us nor forsakes us. He
never fails to lead us through the deepest trials. He never fails to bring us back in the
way of repentance from our deepest wanderings through the mire of sin, that we might once
again taste of His fellowship. And in the measure that we live by faith, and hear His
Word, and walk in His way, we also experience this truth, that the ascended Christ our
Savior is always present with us by His Spirit and grace. That knowledge is indeed the
fountain of the joy of faith. A tremendous blessing it is that Jesus ascended into heaven,
no more to dwell on earth in His human nature, but never absent from us in His Godhead,
majesty, grace and Spirit.
II. BUT HAVING CONSIDERED THE FACT OF THE ASCENSION AND WHAT ACTUALLY TOOK PLACE
IN THAT EVENT—INSOFAR AS WE ARE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND IT BY WHAT SCRIPTURE
REVEALS—WE WANT TO FOCUS OUR ATTENTION ON THE ADVANTAGE OF THAT ASCENSION FOR US.
CHRIST'S ASCENSION WAS PROFITABLE IN THREE WAYS, AS OUR CATECHISM EXPLAINS IT IN Q & A 49, THE FIRST BEING THAT JESUS IS NOW "OUR ADVOCATE IN THE PRESENCE OF HIS FATHER IN HEAVEN."
That term advocate appears in the Bible in I John 2:1. The Apostle had revealed the holiness of God, Who is light and in Whom is no darkness at all. He made clear that fellowship with Him is found only through Christ's blood, and in the single way of walking in the light as He is in the light. If we walk in the light, we don't deny our sin, for then we only deceive ourselves. But we confess our sins and turn from them to lay hold of God's faithfulness and justice, according to which He forgives our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. And so John writes, as he begins his second chapter: "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not." These truths are set before us that, hearing the Word, we might walk in the light and fight against sin, showing ourselves the children of God. However, aware of the fact that we have a continual battle to fight involving our old nature and the sin which cleaves to us and even the best of our works, the Apostle continues: "And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
An advocate is one who defends us. We are those who stand constantly before the Righteous Judge. But with us stands our advocate, Jesus Christ the Righteous. He is the One Who died for us, Who obtained for us the forgiveness of sins and everlasting righteousness. In Him we have also been delivered from the power and dominion of sin, and by His work in us we also walk in the light and long to be completely delivered from all corruption. But at the same time we find in ourselves sins that rise up against us, even sins that remain in us, any of which would make us damnable before God and would deprive us of all opportunity for His fellowship—except for this one thing: We have an advocate. As our advocate, our Lord Christ pleads for us before the Father and defends us. He doesn't defend our sin. Far be it from Him to condone our sin! He is the Righteous One, after all! But He defends us from the just judgment of God. He does that, however, by presenting Himself before the Father as our Defense. On the basis of His own work of atonement, He appeals to the faithfulness and justice of God, and pleads on our behalf for the sentence of innocent and righteous.
What a tremendous blessing that is! The exalted Christ is our advocate in a very special sense of the word. He is so as our High Priest. That is the significance of what we read in Hebrews 4:14-16. He is our advocate as the One Who made the sacrifice once and forever for all who are His. He stood in our place, experienced our way of struggle and temptation. He took upon Himself our guilt and all our iniquities. And standing before the Father in perfect love, He paid the price, the only price, that we might be redeemed and declared righteous. As One Who has walked our path, He is our advocate Who also makes intercession on our behalf. His plea is not occasional, but constant for us. And because of Who He is and what He has accomplished, that plea is always granted by the Father. The Father, hearing the plea of His Son, looks upon His people in the light of Christ's righteousness with an eye of everlasting love and mercy. And so we read: "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Only in the consciousness of this work of Christ do we approach God through Him, and obtain the assurance of our perfect righteousness and the forgiveness of our sins. That is the first way in which we find Christ's ascension profitable, exceeding profitable, for us.
THE SECOND WAY IN WHICH THE ASCENSION IS PROFITABLE FOR US IS FOUND IN THIS, "THAT WE HAVE OUR FLESH IN HEAVEN AS A SURE PLEDGE THAT HE, AS THE HEAD, WILL ALSO TAKE UP TO HIMSELF US, HIS MEMBERS.
Although Hebrews 6 is not one of the passages appended to this clause by way of a footnote to the Catechism, it is this truth that is revealed in the last two verses of that chapter. Hebrews 6 faces the reality of our own experience, which seems as if the Lord is slow concerning the realization of His promises. And we are told to be followers of those who obtained the promises by patience, in full assurance of hope. That hope is certain. It cannot fail. Our hope is certain by two immutable things, by two unchangeable things. In the first place, that hope is sure because it is rooted in the counsel of God, which is eternal and unchangeable. And in the second place, our hope is sure because God has sworn an unchangeable oath to realize His promise. He did that for our sakes. But the writer to the Hebrews points at that certainty of our hope and tells us that our hope, or really the object of our hope, has now become the anchor of our soul.
See the picture here. Our hope in Christ and in the fulfillment of the promise is an anchor, the cable of which is fastened to our soul, and which reaches into the innermost sanctuary of God, striking into the ground and securely stabilizing our soul. But that is true for one reason. Our hope has become an anchor, entering the very bosom of God, as it were, because our forerunner has entered into that sanctuary for us. That is the reason! Because Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, and has entered the very sanctuary of God, our hope is anchored, solidly fastened, immovably fastened, upon the Rock of our salvation. Because Christ has entered the sanctuary, the object of our hope has been realized, and it has become an anchor to which our soul is bound.
That hope consists of a sure expectation. That expectation is heaven! And although heaven is a glorious and beautiful place, that is not the primary idea of heaven. Its glory and its beauty is rather the result of what heaven really is. Heaven is the place "within the vail." The picture for those Hebrews to whom that epistle was written was the fulfillment of the temple. The place within the vail is the holy of holies. And the idea of the holy of holies was that it is the place where God dwells. In other words, it was a picture of heaven. That is what heaven is. Not as if heaven can contain God, any more than the holy of holies in the temple could contain God. The heaven of heavens cannot contain God. But heaven is God's dwelling in the sense that there the creature, there we, dwell with God in Jesus Christ. In heaven we shall see His face in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ. In heaven we shall have fellowship with Him in a way that we experience now only in a very, very faint measure. In heaven we shall live with Him. Heaven is a home, therefore. That home is the object of the Christian's hope. God has given us the promise in Christ Jesus that we shall dwell with Him some day in His house of many mansions. The wonder of the ascension is that Jesus has opened the door for us to that home. He is our forerunner. That is certain. And we have that hope as an anchor of the soul.
CLOSELY RELATED TO THAT BENEFIT OF CHRIST'S ASCENSION IS THE THIRD BENEFIT, NAMELY, "THAT HE SENDS US HIS SPIRIT AS AN EARNEST, BY WHOSE POWER WE SEEK THE THINGS WHICH ARE ABOVE, WHERE CHRIST SITTETH ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, AND NOT THE THINGS ON EARTH."
For that reason we have that hope. Christ has sent us His Spirit as an earnest. An earnest is a promise or assurance of something to come. He sent us His Spirit as an earnest of our final salvation. The ascended Lord received that Spirit, in order that through Him He might bestow all the blessings of salvation according to His promise. For you remember how Christ said to His people, as recorded in John's gospel account, chapters 14-16, "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you" (John 14:16-18). Our contact with the ascended Lord is by the Word, but through the Spirit. "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth rom the Father, he shall testify of me" (John 15:26). And again in John 16:12-14, Jesus said to His disciples: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you."
All who are regenerated by the Spirit of Christ partake of Christ's life as the ascended and exalted Lord of glory. His life is the resurrection life! It is the life of heaven. In union with Him by faith we are at this very moment citizens of the kingdom of heaven. But that heavenly life in us also brings us into a continuous tension in this world. It is a tension within ourselves, first of all. On the one hand, we, being earthly creatures and sinful besides, are attached to the earth. We are strongly attached to the earth, from many different perspectives. And our sinful nature compounds the attachment. But on the other hand, there is the Spirit of our heavenly Christ dwelling in us, drawing us unto Him, and making us partakers of His heavenly life. That also is ours, when we are His. So that we long to be with Him, to have closer fellowship with Him. And so the presence of Christ in heaven is an earnest to us that there awaits for us heavenly glory.
And by the power of that indwelling Spirit, we seek the things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Do you find that in your own life? Do you confess that you are a pilgrim and stranger in the earth, whose home is in heaven? Do you declare plainly that you seek a country, whose Builder and Maker is God? By the power of the Spirit of Christ, this is the life of the Christian. While yet present in this body, we are absent from the Lord. And absent from Him, we long to be closer to Him. We hear His voice. We long to hear it more. We love His commandments, even while grieving at our failure to keep them. We fight against sin within and without. And daily we put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Though in much weakness, our conversation is in heaven, where Christ sits at God's right hand. That explains why we pray as we do, with all the saints, "Come, Lord Jesus, yea, come quickly."
Amen.
Preached: 1) Randolph PRC 1/5/97 (pm)
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