All right, verse 49, and behold,
I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the
city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. 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. And they worshiped him and returned
to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple
praising and blessing God. Verse 51. While he blessed them,
he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. I think sometime
that the ascension of our Lord gets slided in some of the modern
day preaching. We often brush close to it and
mention it, and yet I think sometimes it is slighted in preaching.
So this afternoon, I wanted us to consider not only the ascension
of Christ, but the doctrinal implications of our Lord ascending
again to the right hand of God. So we consider it more extensively. We will read and find that as
our Lord neared the day or the hour of his death, he began to
prepare his disciples for his departure out of the world. And there were two things that
he emphasized to them again and again, over and over. Number one, of course, that he
would be betrayed into the hands of the Gentile by the Jew and
be crucified at Jerusalem. And he was. And then number two,
that when he had given himself in death, that He would return
again unto the Father, but He would not leave them comfortless
or orphans or unattended. He would send unto them another
Comforter who would abide with them forever and He did. And in both of these, the disciples
were understandably slow to catch on. They heard him speak of his
death, and like in Mark chapter 9, 32, they understood not the
saying and were afraid to ask him. Again, in John chapter 16,
in the close of the upper room discourse of our Lord unto his
disciple, he told them that he would go away, but that he would
send unto them another comforter who would indeed abide with them
forever. But they could not grasp the
meaning or the deepness or the significance of it. And we see
that in John 16, 16 through verse 21. Thus, to accommodate their
lack of understanding, the Lord graciously managed both his death
and his departure to their understanding and to their spiritual insight
and profit. He did that in two ways. He did
not directly descend to heaven immediately after his resurrection. He did not go directly from the
grave. to heaven in the ascension and
the right hand of God. He appeared unto them on several
occasions, confirming that He was risen from the dead, confirming
their hearts in the truth that He had taught them, and comforting
and assuring them concerning Himself. And then number two,
He granted them a very high privilege. He granted them the privilege
of being eyewitnesses to the ascension of himself back to
heaven. Therefore, both Mark and Luke
close their gospel with a short account of the ascension of the
Lord. Mark in 1619 and Luke in 24 and
the verses that we have read. Of course, the fuller account,
Acts 1, 8 through 11. There he descended, the Lord
blessed them, he comforted them, he promised them the Holy Spirit,
Acts 1 and verse 8, and was taken up in their sight and a cloud
received him out of their sight, and two angels in the axe account
come and tell them, this same Jesus which was taken up from
you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen
him go into heaven. So the message is twice repeated. He is gone into heaven. And I think that's important.
They must understand he has not been whisked away to some other
location on the earth. He is not simply transferred
from Jerusalem or the Mount of Olives to some other place in
the world. Having said that, remember in
2 Kings chapter 2 verse 16 through 18 when Elijah the prophet was
taken up by a whirlwind into heaven. What did the prophets
think about that? The prophets urged Elisha to
form a search party, quote, lest peradventure the spirit of the
Lord has taken him and has cast him upon some mountain or into
some valley, unquote. Perhaps he's just been snatched
away to another place on earth. We have another case in the Old
Testament that is Enoch who was translated that he did not see
death, he leaped over the grave. Genesis 5 24 and also in the
book of Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 5. Now such a translation
Such an ascension as these actually defies our belief, our understanding,
even if we see it with the eye. Seeing the Lord go up, however,
the disciples were by that confirmed in the ascension of the Lord,
that he is not only alive, but that he has ascended again back
into heaven. Now concerning this ascension,
what are the implications of it? What are the related doctrines? Has Christ, in his ascension,
simply gone to heaven again, having finished his work, and
so there's nothing now? left for him to do? Or has he
turned the salvation of the elect over into the hands of the Holy
Spirit as Elijah let his mantle fall upon Elisha? How do we know
that the Lord Jesus Christ has gone again into heaven? How do
we know that he arrived and that he is there and with the Father? I submit to you that the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost is an indisputable
confirmation that he has not only gone to heaven, but that
he is carrying on a mediatorial ministry while he's there. Consider
Acts 2 and verse 33, when Peter tells his hearer at Pentecost,
that what had just happened had been accomplished by the risen,
exalted, and ascended Christ, the one they had crucified. God had raised him from the dead
and set him at his own right hand, and that he has shed forth
this which you now see and hear. That is, the giving of the Holy
Spirit was a work of Christ in his exaltation. First, let us
remember the times the Lord did promise to send the Spirit of
God into the world. John 14, 16 through 18. I will pray the Father, He will
give you another comforter, that He may abide with you forever,
the Spirit of truth to dwell in you. I will not leave you
comfortless, or the margin has orphaned. John 14 and 26. the
Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father shall send in my name,
shall teach you all things. John 15 and 26, when the Comforter
is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, the Spirit
of truth, which proceeds from the Father. John 16 and 7, nevertheless,
I tell you the truth, it is expedient necessary that I go away. It is to your advantage, for
if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come. But if I go away,
I will send him unto you." He said back in verse 5 of that
chapter, I am going my way to him that sent me, and none of
you are asking me, where are you going? This seems to be a
rebuke unto them. He is constantly telling them
that he would leave them, that he would go away. And yet they
had not sought from him a fuller explanation of it. Sure it is
true that Peter asked in John 13, 36, Lord, whither go you? Where are you going? And Thomas,
Thomas' response was in John 14 and 5, Lord, we know not where
you are going, and how can we know? The Jews in John 7 and
verse 35, where will he go that we cannot find him or that we
cannot follow him? Now the Lord must depart out
of the world, not only by his death, but also by his ascension
and entering into heaven. For the Spirit of God to come
in the fullness of Pentecost, it was necessary, so that the
resurrection of our Lord, therefore, is working in union with the
Ascension. It is expedient, or was expedient,
on several accounts that Jesus enter into heaven, dwell with
God there in his throne, which we will consider soon, such as
to intercede, to present himself before the Father, to be our
great high priest of our profession, to be the advocate and the surety,
the administrator of the covenant. There's also a close connection
between the glorification of the Lord and the effusion of
the Spirit on Pentecost, as well as there is a connection between
the atonement of our Lord and regeneration and the indwelling
of the Spirit of God in the elect. Consider that passage in John
7 and verse 37 The works, or the words rather,
of the Lord Jesus Christ in the end or the closing of the Feast
of Tabernacles. He that believes in me. out of
his belly, out of his innermost being, shall flow rivers of living
water. Verse 39 is sort of an explanatory
footnote of John, how often John does this in his gospel. He says,
this spoke he of the spirit When the Lord spoke of drinking and
of thirsting, of believing, a river of water flowing out of their
innermost being, John said he was referring unto the Spirit. This, he said, concerning the
Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit and those graces which the Spirit
imparts and instills in the elect. to believe on him and those who
later would also believe. Then John makes a statement that
is both amazing and perplexing, again, in his explanatory fashion,
John connects the giving of the Spirit with the glorification
of the God-man, saying in John 7 and verse 39, the Spirit was
not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Now, in the King James Version,
the translation Translators have had added the word given as a
supplement. Not that the Holy Spirit did
not exist yet, but that he had not been given in the sense that
Jesus promised and that he would. And it would be an error, I think,
to conclude that John is saying that the Holy Spirit was not
yet in existence. For the Spirit is called eternal
in places like Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 14. For it was the
Spirit that breathed upon creation. in Genesis chapter 1 and verse
2, was the Spirit of God that inspired the writing of the Old
Testament as well as the New and the prophets of God. Now,
concerning the humanity of our Lord, Luke 1, 35, John is establishing
the connection between the effusion of the Spirit and the glorification
of Christ in heaven at the right hand of God. But yet he was manifest
on the earth in his incarnation, so the Spirit existed from eternity,
but was not so fully manifested until after the Lord was glorified. The Lord existed eternally, but
was manifested in the flesh in and through the incarnation.
What might John then have in mind as being the glorification
of the God-man? How was he glorified? What does it consist of? Well,
it occurred in connection with the ascension, with his removal
from the earth into heaven. how it could better be summed
up than the words of Owen. The glorification of his humanity,
that the humanity of the Lord was not jettisoned at his ascension. He was not separated from it
to enter into heaven, but he has taken it into perpetual subsistence
with himself, and it was glorified in the ascension of our Lord.
Secondly, there is his mediatorial exaltation to be considered by
which he is made Lord and Christ, Acts 2.36. He's given a name
above every name, Philippians 2, 9 through 11. He is highly
exalted. John Eady called this, quote,
a supreme exaltation, unquote. And the word exalted in Philippians
chapter 2 and 9 means to raise, it means to elevate, to advance
above others, to give or install in the highest position. Paul,
as it were, doubles it. Not just exalted, but highly
exalted is the way he put it. And this exaltation is not just
height or distance, but having glory, power, authority, sovereignty,
lordship, might, dominion over all the works of his hand, and
particularly as the head of the church. Concerning those words
in John 7 and 39, making the connection between the coming
of the Spirit and the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. One
of the best commentaries on that is that passage in Acts 2 and
verse 33, that at the Feast of Tabernacle, the Spirit had not
yet been diffused in the fullness because the Lord had not yet
been glorified. While at Pentecost, the Holy
Spirit came as a result of the Lord being exalted, ascended
to the right hand of God, and as the Apostle said, He has shed
forth this which you see and which you hear. He has been highly
glorified, highly exalted. Peter's points are on Pentecost. Yes, he was put to death, but
he was buried and saw no corruption. He was raised again. Where is
he now? He is at the right hand of God
exalted. Consider this, if you never have.
When our surety was let out of prison, that is, when he raised
again, it was proof that he had paid our debt, for God had not
set him free had he not answered the debt. On the other hand,
when the Spirit came in the manner of Pentecost, it was a confirmation
that the Lord had been received into heaven Exalted now before
we go to other points concerning the ascension of the Lord Let's
consider what I might call a puzzling text found in John chapter 20
and a quick summation of the events immediately following
the resurrection in verse 1 Mary Magdalene came early to the sepulcher,
found the stone rolled away, and the grave empty, no body
in it. Verse 2, we read in the record
that she goes to tell Peter and John, pillars in Jerusalem. In verses 3 through verse 10,
They hasten to the grave, and they find nothing but the grave
cloths, and they return home again. Verse 11 through 18, Mary
has an encounter with the Lord, whom she did not recognize, even
taking Him to be the gardener. And in verse 16, Jesus calls
her by name. and she recognizes him and in
the Hebrew calls him Rabboni or master, teacher. Gil thought the word signified
Lord or master, Lord of the world. Some are of the opinion that
in her excitement at seeing him alive, she may have fallen and
grasp his feet or in some way demonstrated unto him her faith
and enthusiasm to see him out of the grave. The reason he gives
is not so easy to explain. It's proven by the fact the expositor
have so little to say upon him. When you read the expositor and
they don't have much to say on a passage, that means it's hard
for them too. They spend a little time on it.
And yet he says, don't cling to me, Mary, for I ascend not
yet to the Father. Don't cling to me, I have not
yet ascended to the Father. But go and tell my brethren,
I ascend unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God,
unquote. And because a short time later,
he allowed Thomas to touch him, some have concluded that between
the two events, the Lord had ascended to heaven, perhaps to
present his sacrifice unto God and his blood, and then returned
back again. This does not suit most Calvinistic
expositors, as the footnotes in the New Geneva Bible on John
20 and 17 say, quote, there is no reason to suppose that Jesus
ascended to the Father between the encounters with Mary and
Thomas unquote now the question is can we get inside the mind
of Mary whether we are helped by the words then of the Lord
spoken unto her her fault was not that she would worship and
honor and glorify the risen Lord or even that she touched him
or that there was anything inappropriate or unseemly or untoward in her
doing so For shortly after, in Matthew 28 and verse 9, he allowed
women, plural, to hold him by the feet, worship him. And in
John 20 and 27, he had Thomas to touch his hands and his feet
that had been wounded in the cross. Now the words of the Lord
Jesus give a strong hint, I think, as to the mind of Mary, for what
it is worth. Methinks that those expositors
are near the mark who think that Mary saw no further than the
resurrection of the blessed Lord. And Mary saw not beyond his resurrection. She had seen that. It was confirmed
in her. And Jesus, knowing her mind,
graciously corrects her. as if she thought her lord and
master alive would remain upon the earth and just pick up with
his work perhaps where he had left off, as if he would be as
he were before, as if he'd never be taken away from her. After all, he had said that he
would die and rise again. Now that he had gotten up out
of the grave, out of the tomb, perhaps as Richard Sibbes wrote,
Mary was too much addicted to the bodily presence of the Lord,
unquote. She and also his brethren must
come to the knowledge that Jesus the Lord, by dying, and living
again, had entered now into the next and new state of his mediatorial
work of the everlasting covenant, for after his resurrection and
ascension. He is entered into, shall we
call it, and accepted as the other half of his priestly work. He has ascended into the holy
of holies in heaven as the great high priest. to present the sacrifice
and to make intercession. This was the two-fold part of
the priest's work, to make a sacrifice at the altar, but also then to
enter into the Holy of Holy. Thus the Lord sent the message
that he would ascend, and where he would ascend is clearly stated,
to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Indeed, he was received up into
glory. 1 Timothy 3 and verse 16. But not to be idle, but to make
intercession for us, Romans 8 and verse 34. This verse is a part
of Paul's declaration that there is no condemnation to them who
are in Jesus Christ. Thus, in verse 34, John Murray
wrote, the apostle turns our thoughts to the security which
belongs to God's elect by what Christ continues to be and to
do for them." That's Romans 8, 34. And it contains four aspects
of the saving work of Christ. A. He died for us. B. He's risen again. C. he has ascended
to the right hand of God, and D, he makes intercession for
us. Now this confirms the fact that
our souls' interests are better served with Christ glorified
in heaven on the right hand of God than having him still in
the flesh on the earth. Consider Hebrews 7 and verse
25, having an unchangeable or intransmissible priesthood on
that ground. He is able to save them to the
uttermost or entirely or completely forever that come to God by Him,
seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them and in
their behalf. To repeat something said earlier,
That being that the actual presence and intercession of our high
priest in heaven is, as John Owen put it, the second act of
his sacerdotal office, fundamental article of our faith, and a principal
foundation of the church's consolation, unquote. Actually, the saints
of God have two intercessors. Number one, the Holy Spirit.
who dwells in them. Romans 8 26. makes intercession
for the saints in their prayer. And number two, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is even at the right hand of the Father and intercedes
in our behalf. Reading another one of the Puritans
wrote on the subject of the intercession of the Lord, that the work of
saving the elect is so great and glorious, quote, that it
is necessary that Jesus Christ, our great high priest, should
lead a mediatorial life in heaven." Salvation cannot miscarry. Sinners are saved by the death
and the resurrection as believers are preserved by his life and
his intercession. in that he ever lives to make
intercession for us, for his own, for the elect. Now the sure
and certain salvation of the elect is laid in a couple of
things. Number one, the eternal purpose
of God. Number two, the death, ascension,
and death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord. He is
keeping up by an intercessory life in heaven in our behalf
at the right hand of God. But the question comes and is
answered in the scripture, what if we sin? in spite of our desire
or our dedication unto our Lord, in spite of our attempts to avoid
sinning, praying for victory over sin and those kinds of things. What if the children of God sin? Well, 1 John 2, 1 and 2, If any
man sin, we have an advocate with the Father who is no less
than Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Our intercessor is not Mary
or the Pope or the preacher, is not a good friend. Our intercessor
is Jesus Christ the righteous, the one and the same one who
is the propitiation for our sin is our advocate, our lawyer,
our attorney at the bar of God. And the intercessory life of
Christ is a comfort to the saints in their time of temptation,
of sin, and of weakness. We have an advocate, one with
the Father, one in heaven. who pleads our case against any
accuser that might come against him. He deflects any charge. He represents us before the bar
of God faithfully and fully. The only intercessor we have
in heaven, therefore, is the Lord Jesus Christ. His only ground
or reason to intercede for any is the purpose of God and His
death. He does not plead our personal
worthiness, but He pleads the merit of His atonement that He
has made a perpetuation. The Lord is entered into heaven,
the right hand of God, surrounding God with God in his throne, we
read, and intercedes for his own. We have an intercessor right
there in heaven itself, in the Holy of Holies, our great High
Priest, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Evidence that He arrives
safely, is again the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.