Acts chapter 1. And we'll be
looking at verse 9 this morning. Verse 9 alone this morning. Last
week we had looked at the Lord's resurrection. We looked at the
Lord's command that He gave His apostles. And now this morning
we will look at the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
ascension of Christ. That's the title I have for the
lesson this morning. The ascension of Christ. Verse 9 of chapter
1 in Acts says, And when He had spoken these things, while they
beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their
sight. Here we have in this book of
Acts the record of Jesus Christ who came into the world. merited the righteousness of
God by His obedience, He who died as a substitute for God's
elect, who rose from the dead of His own power, who spent forty
days with His disciples after His resurrection, and by many
infallible proofs showed Himself alive, and who gave commandments
to His apostles and gave the promise of the Holy Spirit that
was to be poured out on them, And now we see that He is risen,
He is ascended out of their sight, out of this world, and taken,
taken from them. Now, what I want us to think
about just for a moment is the confusion of the apostles. The
confusion of the apostles. You think about it. The Lord
Jesus Christ, they witnessed His crucifixion and His death. They spent three years following
after Him night and day, listening to His teaching, received of
His hand power to perform miracles, and yet now He was crucified
before their very eyes and died. They felt the loss of Christ
whom they had believed. Remember in Luke chapter 24,
the disciples on the road to Emmaus, they said, that this
was the One who would restore Israel. Past tense. We believed that this was the
One. But now He is dead and He is
gone and we miss Him. We thought He was the One. But
when Jesus revealed Himself, what did they say? Did not our
hearts burn within us? They changed from sadness to
joy. All the joy of seeing their risen
Lord. They were no longer sad, but
they were with Him. Forty days He showed Himself
alive to them. Imagine their overwhelming joy
of the physical presence of the risen Christ. Can you imagine
the joy? If the Lord Jesus Christ would
appear physically to us, what joy that would be to our hearts! What encouragement that would
be to their souls at that time! He was dead, and now He's alive
again! They loved Him, and they saw
Him, and they handled Him, and they ate with Him, and they walked
with Him again. They were restored. And they
said in verse 6, they asked the Lord, they said, when are you
going to restore Israel? Isn't this the time? Is this
the time you're going to restore Israel? He said, don't worry
about what God's placed in His own time. It's not for you to
know. And as He was speaking to them,
as He was telling them the promise that the Holy Spirit was coming,
the Spirit of God would fall out upon them and they would
be endued with power to witness to all the world of His resurrection. As He spake with them, He was
lifted up out of their sight." Imagine that sight. All of a
sudden, He's speaking to them and He just started lifting up
off the ground, out of their sight. And they were watching
as He went all the way up and they didn't take their eyes off
of Him. Even after He was gone, the angels said, hey, what are
you doing gazing? What are you doing looking up
into the sky? He's gone. He's gone out of your sight.
This morning, I want us to look closely at the ascension of Christ.
We're going to do this two Lord's Days, if the Lord's willing.
I have four questions, two of which we're going to ask this
morning concerning the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. First
of all, where did He go? Where did He go? And second of
all, what is He doing there? Where did He go and what is He
doing? Why was He ascended out of their
sight? Where did He go? Well, that's
one a child could answer, I'm sure. Where did He go? Heaven.
Heaven. He went into heaven. He went
into the veil of the Holy of Holies with His own blood. That's
where He went. He went into heaven itself. He
went to where He was before. He went back to where He was
before. Remember when He was talking
to Nicodemus, He said that the Son of Man came down from heaven? You see, He came from heaven
because He was always there. He was always there. He went
back to where He came from. where he was the Son of God and
he enjoyed all the glory and splendor of being God. Yet he
came down so low to become a man, but after he had accomplished
salvation, he now ascended to where he was before." You see,
God had given this man, Jesus, a name which is above every name
now. He is exalted on high. Because he has, by his passive
and by his active obedience to God, merited the ascension into
heaven. You see, none of us merit our
ascension into heaven. He alone merited his ascension
into heaven. Because he by his obedience and
death on the cross, God has given him this ascension and exalted
him into heaven itself. But not just into heaven. That's
not just into heaven like we go into heaven when we die. If
we're a believer in Christ, we go to be with the father. We
go into heaven. But he had a greater ascension. He had a greater ascension. Because
his ascension was to the right hand of God. the right hand of
God. He has given this man, Jesus
Christ, the very throne of God. This is what Mark says in Mark
16, and when Jesus ascended in His gospel, He says He ascended
up into heaven and sat down on the right hand of God. This is a glorious and triumphant
ascension. which was foretold to the prophets
of old." This was not something that wasn't foretold. This was
something God already purposed to do. Psalm 110 and verse 1,
the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand till I
make thine enemies thy footstool. Because of His victory over the
enemies of God and the enemies of yours and my souls, Jesus
Christ is now seated at the right hand of the Father. And the Father
says, sit thou at My right hand. David, who wrote that psalm,
was God talking to David? Did God say to David, sit thou
at My right hand? No. David's Lord is who the one
he's talking to. David's Son, who is David's Lord,
Jesus Christ. God didn't say, sit thou at my
right hand to any angels or any other being. But Jesus Christ,
the Son of David, David's Son and David's Lord. He who became
a man is now ascended at the right hand of God, which was
foretold in many other places. This is where Jesus Christ ascended
into heaven itself. And right now, as we are speaking
here this morning, there is a man on the throne of God. There's
a man there. There's a man seated on the throne
of God, the God man, Jesus Christ. This is where he ascended. Now
that I'm going to get a little bit more technical. What is the
right hand of God? What does that mean? What is
the right hand of God? He ascended to the right hand
of God. Do you suppose that there are really two thrones in heaven? And that there's God the Father's
throne and just a little bit beside it on the right hand is
really the throne of Jesus Christ and He's seated at the right
hand? Is that what that means? Now this term right hand is sometimes
referred to as the right hand of the throne or the right hand
of the majesty. But what is meant here is the
glory, His splendor, His grandeur. And by throne is meant heaven
where His glory is most clearly manifest. You see, you and I
can see the glory of God through a glass darkly. You look out
these stained glass windows that we have, and you can see light
out there, but you really can't see what's going on. You really
have only a slight picture of what it is that's going on. And
so we here have a glass darkly, and we see the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ darkly, don't we? We don't see it full.
But in heaven, the glory of God is most clearly manifest. And
now Jesus Christ sitting on the right hand is not a literal right
hand, but it is a figurative right hand. What does it mean?
What does the right hand of God mean? It means power. That's
what it means. The right hand of God means power.
If you go to Psalm 89, verse 3, it says, Thou hast a mighty
arm, Strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand." These
terms, arm of God, hand of God, we know God doesn't have arms
and God doesn't have hands. These are what we call anthropomorphic
terms which describe God's character or His being or something God
is doing. It's in a language so we can
understand. the character of God. In other
words, we couldn't understand God if He didn't use our language
to describe Himself. And so, right hand means His
power or His might or authority. He means, in Matthew 28, verse
18, it says, Jesus said before His ascension, all power, Power is given unto me in heaven
and in earth. The word power is exousia. This is used with divine beings. This is used with the authority
and right of God. It means freedom of action or
right to act. This word power means absolute,
unrestricted power. This is the power that is in
the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ this morning. The power of God
is in the hands of Christ. All power. God withheld no power
from Christ when He ascended and He seated Him at the right
hand, which means He gave Him all power and authority. He gave Him all power and authority. This man Jesus Christ, the God-man,
has all power over all creation and moves everything after the
counsel of His own will. That's what the ascension means.
It means that Christ has all authority. And He upholds all
things by the Word of His power. Now that's where He went. The
next question is, what is He doing there? What is Christ doing
there? There are two things that I have
here. He is, first of all, calling out all His elect. He is calling
out His elect and giving them salvation. Flip over to John
chapter 17, a few pages. John chapter 17. Jesus Christ in His high priestly
prayer said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Thy Son that
Thy Son may glorify Thee. As Thou has given Him power,
that's the same word, exousia, power over all flesh that He
should give eternal life to as many as Thou has given Him. Our Lord Jesus Christ was not
the representative of every man. But to those that were given
Him by the Father, so then He lived and died, and now by His
authority gives eternal life even to as many as the Father
has given Him." The Lord Jesus Christ this morning is moving
the affairs of men for this purpose. To call out His elect and give
them eternal life. You see, kingdoms rise and kingdoms
fall. Kings come and kings go. Things happen. Joy, peace, war,
famine, pestilence, hurts, discomfort, distress, all of these things
that are happening are moving at the hand of Jesus Christ this
morning. Everything. All power over all
flesh, including us. Everything is in His power. Everything. Not one single thing moves without
His permission. Not one. All power is given to
Christ without restriction because He is seated at the right
hand of God. Now what we do not do when I
say all power and everything moves according to His counsel,
what we are not saying is that He is chargeable with evil, are
we? Jesus Christ moves and directs all men, evil and righteous,
but yet He is not chargeable with evil. Although He does either
restrain it or allow it. But He does this not for an evil
purpose. You see, He allows men or restrains
evil men Not for an evil purpose, but for a good purpose. Joseph, for example. Everybody
knows the story of Joseph. When Joseph was sold into slavery
by his brothers, he was left there at Potiphar's
house, but yet Potiphar's wife, she falsely accused him, threw
him into prison. He got into prison, he informed
who the guilty party was in Pharaoh's house, and the man that promised
to remember him did not remember him and left him in that prison. You see, all of these men had
evil actions, evil intentions, selfish motives, and God allowed
them all to do what they desired to do But you see, his purpose
was not for evil, but for the good of his people. You see, eventually in the time
that God had appointed, Joseph was exalted, the most powerful
man in all of Egypt. Why? To save the line of Jacob. To save God's elect. Think of Judas. The Lord Jesus
Christ handpicked this man, Judas. Gave him power to cast out devils,
to heal the sick. Yet this man, Judas, was raised
up for one purpose, to be the son of perdition. And he was allowed to do exactly
what he wanted to do. What every man wants to do by
nature, betray the Lord Jesus Christ. But in doing what He
wanted to do, His evil action, was used for the salvation of
our souls this morning. You're saved this morning. The
Lord used that evil man's purpose for our salvation. And so He
does with every evil man in this world. Right now, He is giving
Jesus Christ on the throne, is moving all things for the salvation
of His people. And nothing moves without that
purpose in mind. Nothing. What is this eternal life that
He's going to give? Look at that in verse 3 of John
17. And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the
only true in God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. My friend, this is none other
than salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone. Not of
works. That's what He's doing. That's
what He's doing. And number two, the second thing
he is doing is he is making intercession for all of those whom he saved. Go to Romans chapter 8. Romans
chapter 8 and verse 34. Romans chapter 8 and verse 34.
The Apostle Paul says this, Who is he that condemneth? There's that ETH again. Present
perfect tense. We'll look at that in just a
second. It is Christ that died, yea rather is risen again, who
is even at the right hand of God, speaking of His power. What is His power to do? Who
maketh, there it is, ETH again, intercession for us. Paul is asking, who is he that
condemned? Who is he that is condemning? And who is he that is going to
condemn? Because Christ has made intercession
for us, is making intercession for us, and shall make intercession
for us. Because we are saved does not
mean we cease from sin. If you and I were saved and we
cease from sin, why then would we need someone to intercede?
There wouldn't be a need for an intercessor, would there?
There wouldn't need to be anyone to stand between us to plead
our case before God. Well, this is our resting place,
Christians. This is our resting place that
Jesus Christ has all power in His hands. And He is ever living
to make intercession for you because of our sins. Anybody sin this morning? Anybody
sin this morning? Anybody have a problem with that?
Because I do. I need an intercessor. I need someone to plead my case
before God. And that's what Christ is doing.
He is a faithful high priest who pleads our case night and
day before God. I love that song, My faith has
found a resting place, not in device nor creed. I trust the
ever-living One, His wounds His wounds for me shall plead." Where is Jesus Christ this morning?
He ascended into heaven and is seated on the right hand being
given all power over all flesh. He is sitting there. What is
He doing there? He is saving His people from
their sins. Calling out His elect today. He's calling out His elect today.
Not a day goes by, I guarantee, that the Lord does not call His
people. Wherever they are, He is moving all circumstances and
all things so that He might call them by His gospel. And when He saves them, He is
making intercession for them even at this moment today. That's
where the Lord Jesus Christ is and that's what He's doing. And
we should be able now to give Him praise for these things.
Give Him glory and honor and it should bring joy to us. It
should bring joy to our hearts and our hearts should overflow
with love for Him because He ascended for us. I pray this be a blessing to
you.