The Transcript of Sermon on Luke 24:50-53 has been lightly edited for ease of reading.
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If you have your Bibles, please take them now and turn with me to the Gospel of Luke. Today we are going to look at the last few verses in Luke 24, Luke’s account of the Ascension, and we’re going to consider that phrase in the Creed, “He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”
When we began this series, we looked at an overview of how the Church is built upon the truth of the Scripture, and we also talked about the need that we have for creeds and confessions to help us summarize and to understand better the truth of the Scripture.
All the time being reminded that those creeds, those confessions are subservient to the truth of Scripture. If our study of Scripture leads us to a point where we see that the creeds or confessions disagree with the Scripture, it is the creeds and confessions that are changed, not the Bible.
Then we began to look at the work of God the Creator, who is also Father, Lord God Almighty. We have been spending time looking at the work of Jesus the Rescuer, as J.I. Packer calls him, looking at his miraculous birth, his suffering, his death, and his resurrection.
This sermon and one more on the work of Jesus, and then we will turn our eyes to the work of the Holy Spirit and the ongoing work of the Spirit within the Christian and within the Church. Today we are considering the ascension and the reign of Jesus, and so with that in mind, let us look to Luke chapter 24, beginning in verse 50.
“When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. They worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.”
Let’s pray.
Gracious God and Father, like Nicodemus, we come to your word with many questions. Sometimes, Lord, we can be captivated by our own correctness, our own rightness and righteousness, and thinking that we have all the answers, and yet, Lord, we know that we don’t.
And so we ask that your Spirit would be with us today to illuminate this word, to illuminate our hearts in light of what you are teaching us today, and to transform us more and more into the likeness of our Savior. We pray all of this in his name, amen.
INTRODUCTION
Most of the time when we talk about the work of Jesus, we have either a past focus or a future focus. We know what he did for us in the past.
We know what he’s gonna do for us in the future when he returns, but that leaves us with the question, what is Jesus doing for his people right now, today, in the present? And it’s important for us to understand that Jesus’ work is not merely something that happened in the past or will happen in the future, but Jesus’ work is being done right now on behalf of his people.
Much of that work being done by the work of the Holy Spirit, which we will study in the next few weeks, but a very important part of that work being done by Jesus in the throne room of God, and that’s part of what we will talk about today. We’re going to cover briefly the ascension of Jesus into heaven and then look at that current ministry that he has on behalf of his people.
When we talk about Jesus ascending into heaven, it’s important for us to understand that this is a positional declaration more than it is a geographical declaration. We’re good, kind of Greco-Roman-influenced people in America, and when we say that somebody ascended, we have a tendency to think of maybe we went to the mall and we need to get to a store that’s on the third floor.
We hop on an elevator or an escalator and we ride that escalator up to where we want to end up. But that’s not what we’re talking about when we talk about Jesus ascending into heaven. This was Jesus assuming a place of glory and prominence that was his before the incarnation and that he was returning to after completing his work here on earth.
We see this in the Creed telling us that he was seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. He is in the presence of God, in that place of glory that Paul tells us in Philippians 2, he did not hold onto, but set aside in a way that’s mysterious and hard for us to understand, set aside without losing any of those things, but limited those things so that he could walk among us.
After his sacrifice was seen to be worthy, after his resurrection was accomplished, he was returned to that place of glory, not only in his divine form, but in his human form as well.
And so when we say that he ascended into heaven, we’re not talking necessarily about a geography change, we’re talking about the fact that he took up once again that place of glory that was his as the second person of the Trinity.
When he returns, when he descends again from heaven, it is more than just geography, but it is him returning to this earth in all of his glory, in all of the power and majesty that is his as the second person of the Trinity, but bringing with him that next time, the glory and the majesty of God’s throne room to dwell here on a new reconciled heaven and earth where the harms and rifts of sin will have once and for all been reconciled. So when we talk about the ascension and the return of Jesus, that is the terms in which we are talking.
Today we are going to look at two aspects of Jesus’ work as he is there in the heavenly throne room, seated upon the throne of God. First, his act of ruling and reigning. And secondly, his work of intercession for the people of God.
THE PRESENT REIGN OF JESUS
So first, the current reign of Jesus. When we talk about Jesus’ return, there’s three main ways that we interpret the prophecies of Thessalonians and Revelation. And when we looked at Revelation a couple years ago, we said that wherever we land in those interpretations, we need to hold that a little bit loosely because only one person knows for sure what that is exactly going to look like, and it is not me, and it is not any of you.
But one of those ways that people interpret it includes Jesus coming and reigning for 1,000 years upon an earthly throne in Jerusalem. And I think that view oftentimes gets our focus off a very present reality. Jesus is reigning upon the eternal throne of David right now in God’s presence, in God’s throne room.
Hebrews chapter one, beginning in verse four. The author of Hebrews, or beginning in verse one, excuse me, reading one through four, the author of Hebrews tells us this.
“In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.
The son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.”
Who sits down at the right hand of a king? You ever thought about that before? The right hand in this first century and in ancient Near Eastern thought, the right hand is the hand of power. It is the hand of authority.
It is the hand of equality with a ruler. When the scripture and the creed says that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, it is saying that Jesus is seated upon his throne and he is ruling and reigning today. We are not waiting for some day in the future where Jesus will take up an earthly throne.
Just like Hebrews goes on to say that we no longer need an earthly temple, we no longer need an earthly throne because Jesus reigns as king today, right now. Not talking about some vague description of God’s sovereignty, but an active rule and reign by our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. What does his rule and reign look like?
Well, the shorter catechism question 26 gives us a summary of what Jesus is doing.
Question 26 asks, “How does Jesus execute the office of a king?” And it answers that Jesus executes the office of a king by subduing us to himself, by ruling and defending us and in restraining and conquering all of his and our enemies.”
So three things Jesus is doing. First, he subdues us. The book of Ephesians reminds us that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Sins being those times where we find ourselves knee deep in rebellion against God, not really realizing how we got there. Thinking, hey, I am not gonna struggle with this sin anymore. And then without thinking about it, about 30 seconds later, we’re knee deep right in the middle of it again.
Transgression is that idea that we know exactly what God’s law is in a very specific instance. And we say, I don’t care, I’m gonna do it my way anyway.
We are guilty of sins and trespassing against God’s law. And this means that we are at war with God. We have rebelled and are in active military conflict with the God of creation.
And we have to be subdued. If we are going to submit to him, if we are going to surrender to him, we have to be defeated and subdued. And Jesus does that as our great King.
He sends the Holy Spirit, he regenerates us as we talked about under the resurrection. Gives us a heart that is no longer tuned to war and rebellion against God, but is tuned to love and to desire what God wants. And so our King sits upon the throne, thanks be to God, subduing us to himself.
Secondly, he rules and defends us. What is Jesus doing right now? He is ruling over his people. He is defending his people.
Well, Ike, if we’re reconciled to God, what do we need to be defended against? Well, the first thing we need to be defended against is the world. The world hates God. And Jesus told his disciples, they hate me, they’re gonna hate you.
And that applies to us as well. As bad as the current persecution is within the church around the world, it is not as bad as it could be. And as we’ve said before, one of the points of Revelation is regardless of what Satan and the world can do to God’s people, the worst that they can do to God’s people is usher them into the glorious presence of their Lord and Savior.
So Jesus right now is defending his church from the world, but you know, he defends his church from us as well. Yes, we have that new heart. Yes, we have been subdued to Jesus, but we still have the influence of sin.
We still have the influence of our fleshly desires. We are still tempted to be angry. We are still tempted to gossip. We are still tempted to say bad things. Yes, even about our brothers and sisters in Christ. And so Jesus is defending his church from us as well.
Part of his rule is leading us to holiness also. By the power of the Holy Spirit, as we talked about at the beginning of the service, he is completing the work that he has done within us, showing us where we are called to obey, showing us where, as we talked about in Sunday school today, where we are called to put off those fleshly habits and to put on new holy habits that God has designed for us.
And finally, the third thing Jesus does as king is he restrains and conquers all of his and our enemies. This brings us back to the first point where he subdues us because at one time we were his enemies who needed to be conquered, but we know from scripture, we know from his life that he has conquered death, the ultimate enemy of the Christian, and he has conquered sin.
One day we will see the fullness of that when he returns and we are no longer plagued by death. We are no longer plagued by sin. We are no longer even tempted to sin, brothers and sisters. He has conquered all of his enemies. He has conquered all of our enemies. And we long for the day when he returns.
Oftentimes when life is hard in the life of the Christian, we turn to Romans 8:28. Romans 8:28 says, “All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.”
All the good stuff, all the bad stuff, all the joyful stuff, all the hard stuff that happens in your life, even though it may not look like it, is working together for your good and for God’s glory.
And that is true because our savior reigns and is seated upon his throne right now. Jesus is seated at God’s right hand, reigning over his church and all of creation.
JESUS’ WORK OF INTERCESSION
But Jesus is not only reigning right now, he is also doing the work of intercession on behalf of his people. To help us understand what I mean when I say Jesus intercedes for his people, I want to look at two aspects of that work of intercession that is important for us in our daily lives.
The first we’ve already seen in 1 John 2. We were reminded that if we claim to be without sin, we are lying, and then we are called to confess because God is both just and righteous to offer us forgiveness. And then he goes on to say,
“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have one who speaks to the father in our defense, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.”
That word, that phrase, “one who speaks” there in chapter two, verse one of 1 John in other translations is translated as “advocate.” Jesus is our advocate in heaven.
What do we mean when we say that Jesus is our advocate? This is a courtroom term. In our modern understanding of courts and the system of justice, we would think of this as the defense attorney. It’s a little different, we lose it because their idea of courts and justice was different than the way we do it today, but that’s the best analogy in our world today.
Jesus is there in heaven. He has taken the perfect sacrifice to God. It has been accepted as worthy for the sins of those who believe to give them righteousness, to give them atonement, to give them salvation and forgiveness of sins.
And Jesus is there, even though you and I stumble, even though you and I fall, we have been set apart as saints, but we are still under the weight and the influence of sin, even though it no longer reigns and rules over us. And Jesus is there with the sacrifice in the presence of God saying, this covers Ike’s sins. He’s not begging God, he’s not reminding God because God has forgotten or God needs to be swayed in his opinion, but he is there as a righteous one on our behalf in the presence of God.
And the second thing he does as the one who intercedes for us or the second thing that we’re going to focus on today is that Jesus is in the presence of God praying for his people.
I encourage you later this week to spend some time in John 17. John 17 is called Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer.
He prays this in the presence of his disciples on that night that he was betrayed before he goes through the garden. He prays this prayer and he prays for himself, he prays for the disciples that are there and he prays for every Christian that will come from the ministry of those disciples. He prays for his people.
What are the kinds of things that he prays? He asked God to restore him to the glory that was his before he brought the incarnation. And we know from his ascension and his being seated at the right hand of the Father Almighty, that God has answered that prayer.
He prayed that he would protect the disciples and all of God’s people. And we know that the church still stands today that God has answered that prayer to protect the gospel and the people of God. He prayed that God would be glorified through the church and through the people of God. And he prays several other things as well.
He prays for your holiness, he prays for your sanctification, day by day, Jesus is praying for those who come to faith through his work. And that should be a great comfort to us, brothers and sisters.
I have a little note that I’ve thumb-tacked to the window frame around the window in my study. And that note, I look at it every now and then and I find great comfort for it because it says on that note, “I pray for you every day.” There are men and women in my life, there are men and women in your life who regularly pray for you. And they remind you of that, that they are constantly praying for you.
Whether it’s parents, whether it’s spouses, whether it’s relatives, whether it’s friends, and I’m gonna apologize for this one now, but I’m gonna say it anyway. Whether it’s the little old ladies sitting in the church pew. People are praying for you on a regular basis.
But it’s easy to forget that. It’s easy to think, “Hey, I’m in this alone and nobody’s praying for me.” It’s not true.
There is always somebody praying for you. And on the off chance it is true, your Savior, who gave all for your salvation, stands in heaven praying on your behalf. Praying that all things will work together for good because you love God and are called according to his purpose.
Praying that God’s holiness will be made manifest in your life. A holiness that has been given to you by God. Praying that in the hard times, you will find gratitude and joy.
Praying that in the good times, you will live in thanksgiving and anticipation of the perfect times when Jesus returns.
The scripture says that the prayers of a faithful man availeth much. The most faithful man to ever live prays for you. Jesus intercedes for his people.
CONCLUSION
This leads us to two conclusions. First, Jesus is king upon his throne.
This should change the relationship of God’s people. It should change their relationship to authority in this world. What do I mean by that? In our culture today, we find two places where people give authority.
One is in the individual. I am my own truth. I am my own source of authority.
And what I say goes for me and what you say goes for you. And the other end of the spectrum is the group that says the community or the government is the ultimate source of authority in my life. And in reality, we don’t live on either extreme.
We live somewhere in the middle saying something like, my truth is my truth and the government needs to protect it for me. It’s kind of where we live. And it’s easy to fall into the trap, even within the church, to think that, well, I do what I want to do, or the government tells me what’s right and what’s wrong.
But we can hold our government allegiance, our individual allegiance loosely because we know that there is a king upon the throne to which our own individual authority derives from him and a governmental authority derives from him as well. And God will hold to account those whom he has given authority for how they use that authority.
We can vote and not have our lives end metaphorically because the wrong person got elected, because we know that Jesus is seated upon his throne and kings and rulers and presidents and Congress people come and they go. But he is forever seated upon the throne.
And the other application to this is knowing that Jesus is in heaven interceding for us. There is a human being in heaven advocating for the sake of all human beings who believe and embrace and surrender to the God of this world.
That means that our place in his presence is assured. That means that whatever happens to us here, the infinite omnipotent king is seated upon the throne ordering things for his glory and his glory is for our good. So may you know today the comfort and hope of the truth that Jesus is presently reigning, ruling and interceding for you.
Let’s pray.
To the great God above, we do thank you for this glorious truth. We thank you that we are not waiting for some future time when you are in charge, but we thank you that you are in charge and ruling now and that we can be assured that whatever happens is for your glory and our good.
And we thank you, Lord, that you are interceding on our behalf, that you act as our advocate and that you are praying for us and that your prayers will be answered in a way that is powerful and mighty. And so, Lord, we ask that you would help us to live in the comfort of knowing those things. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
But as you go, know that God gives blessings to his people, and this week, the blessing is this. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who called you is faithful and he will do it.
He who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming soon.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
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