Word of Salvation – Vol. 46 No.12 – March 2001

 

Christ's Ascension

 

Sermon by Rev MP Geluk

on Lord's Day 18 (Q&A 46-49 Heid Cat)

Scripture Reading: Acts 1:1-11

Suggested Singing: BOW 2; 454:6; 330; 326; 334; 331

 

Beloved in the Lord.

Whenever we confess our faith with the words of the Apostles' Creed, we also say "He ascended into heaven.”  The Heidelberg Catechism is asking us: What do you mean by that?  What are you saying when you confess that Christ ascended into heaven?  The shortest and easiest answer is that Christ, while His disciples watched, was visibly and physically lifted up from earth into heaven.  This happened forty days after Jesus' resurrection, on a hill called Mount of Olives, near a village called Bethany, not far from Jerusalem.

But that answer is just giving the facts.  And as you know, Christians can give facts of what they believe without realising their meaning.  So the Catechism asks another question: How does Christ's ascension to heaven benefit us?  How does the fact of Christ's going to heaven help you and me as believers?  What comfort is there for the church when it believes in Christ's ascension?  We want to try and answer these questions.

You may have noticed that Lord's Day 18 gives two more questions and answers, 47 and 48.  We'll make a brief comment on them now and then go quickly back to the first and last question and answer, for we want to concentrate on those more.

The middle questions and answers, 47 and 48, deal with Christ having left the earth for heaven and yet always being with us.  But how can that be?  How can the Lord have departed for heaven and still be with us?

Both statements are true and the Catechism gives this explanation.  Christ is always with us in His divine nature, so Christ as God is always with us.  But in His human nature, so Christ as man, He is now with the Father in heaven.

This seems to suggest that Christ's natures are separated, the God-part on earth and the Man-part in heaven.  But the Bible won't allow that.  Christ is one Person, we can't divide Him up.  The God-part of Christ is also in heaven.  There is never a moment when the divine nature of Christ is separated from His human nature.  In fact, Christ's divine nature is present everywhere, on earth and in heaven, just like God is everywhere.  But we also have to say that Christ, as Man, is not with us anymore.  In His human nature He is now only in heaven.

The church nowadays does not spend too much time on trying to understand this.  It's a part of Scriptural doctrine that is beyond explanation and we best accept it in faith.  But in the 16th century, when the Catechism was written, there was considerable controversy about how Christ's human and divine natures were united, even though they seem to be separated because Christ's human nature had gone to heaven.  The controversy had come about because of the different views about Christ's presence in the Lord's Supper.

The Roman Catholic doctrine said that Christ was physically present in the bread and wine, which implied that His human nature was there.  The bread literally became Christ's body and the wine literally became Christ's blood, whenever the priest said, "this is my body, this is my blood."

Calvin and his followers held that Christ was only spiritually present, because with His human nature Christ was not with us anymore.  Luther and his followers held a kind of halfway position.  Our churches have adopted Calvin's view of the matter and say that Christ as God is everywhere present, in heaven and on earth and so also in the Lord's Supper, but His human nature has gone to heaven.

Now that's all we want to say about Question and Answer 47 and 48.  What we really want to do now is to understand the blessings that have come with Christ's ascension to heaven.

1.  Christ's Ascension is for Our Good

Jesus told His disciples that He was returning to His Father in heaven and they all felt sad and insecure.  But Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth: it is for your good that I am going away.  Unless I go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you" (Jn.16:7).  The Counsellor is the Holy Spirit and He came after Jesus left.  Now why is Jesus' ascension and the coming of the Spirit a good thing?

Well, it has to do with God's plan of salvation shifting up a gear.  There was first that whole period of Old Testament times in which believers were expecting Christ.  Then Christ came, from heaven to earth, and the New Testament gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, tell us about Jesus' teaching and works.  Since Jesus is also the Saviour from sin, He suffered, died and rose again from the dead.

He had to do all that in order to wipe away the sin and guilt of all God's elect.  Not just the sin and guilt of believers who lived on earth when Jesus was on earth.  No, all God's elect, whenever they lived or will live, between paradise and Jesus' coming again at the end of time.  Up to the time of Jesus' first coming, and during His time on earth, the elect were mainly among the chosen nation of Israel.  But then God commanded that the good news of Christ's death and resurrection be proclaimed to all the nations on earth.  It had always been part of God's plan to gather His elect from the furthest corners of the earth.

To have that happen, God could have had the risen Jesus stay on earth to lead and command all the believers to spread the gospel and continue to make new disciples.  Jesus might have made Jerusalem His headquarters, although with His resurrected body Jesus could also appear instantly in strategic locations around the globe to direct the operations of His church.  But God did not do it that way.  Christ returned to heaven and God's throne became His headquarters.  He gave us His written Word, put the fullness of His Spirit in the hearts of the believers, giving them power to bring the gospel to all men.

Now why was Jesus' ascension to heaven God's way and why is this way a blessing to us?  Well, let's take a panoramic sweep of history leading up to Christ.  We start in Genesis.  There, in paradise, God and man were in perfect fellowship.  But when the fall into sin occurred, it was like a blackout.  Spiritual darkness came on Adam and Eve and their descendants.  Over the years things became so bad that God no longer wanted to continue with humans.

He sent the big Flood which destroyed everything on land except Noah, his family, and a male and female of all other living land creatures.  God keeping these alive in the ark was the only ray of light at the time.  They re-populated the earth.  But evil came to a climax again with the tower of Babel.  Men began to imagine they were smarter and more powerful than God.  So God confused their language and people were forced to scatter over the whole earth.

In the many years that followed, no one seemed to bother much about God.  Things were dark again.  Then God called Abraham and made a covenant with him.  God promised that Abraham and his descendants would always be the Lord's people.  God was shining His light again.  It continued to shine with Isaac and then with Jacob.

Then Jacob's family ended up in Egypt and for more than four hundred years the light went out again.  Jacob's descendants forgot the Lord.  But God stayed faithful to His covenant promise, and so He raised up Moses and used him to lead His people Israel out of Egypt and back to the promised land.  The light of God's salvation was shining again.  People served the Lord and put their trust in Him.  Yet many times in the wilderness, during the times of the judges and kings, they sinned and turned away from God.  However, in His love and mercy, God persevered with them.

It was like the light being switched off and on.  When the Israelites forgot God and turned to idols, they plunged themselves into the darkness of sin and disobedience.  But God came back again and again to turn the light of His salvation back on.  Finally, things became so bad again, with one king after another leading the people into terrible sins that the captivity came.  Israel was taken away to Babylon and Assyria.  It was a dark time.  Yet God again remembered His covenant.  He brought a remnant back and under Ezra and Nehemiah Israel again served the Lord.  Once more the light was on again.  But history repeated itself and gradually the light grew dim as the people once again drifted away from God.

Finally, God sent His Son Jesus.  And He really made a difference.  He brought heaven on earth.  The light was on again but this time it was brighter and better than ever before.  God was just not going to allow sinful people and Satan to have the last say.  So in Christ, God Himself was on earth and among His covenant people.  Christ not only taught them the ways of God's kingdom but He even suffered and died for their sin.  He removed their guilt so that they could always be right with God.  And through His resurrection Christ conquered forever the power and stranglehold of darkness.  The light was not going to be turned off again.

But then came that shock announcement that Christ was going back to heaven.  And He did.  After His resurrection He returned to His heavenly Father.  Wasn't that plunging the people on earth back into darkness by removing Himself, the Light, away from them?  Not at all.  Jesus gave two main reasons.

The first reason for His ascension we have given already.  It has to do with God's plan to save many more people than just those from Israel.  Abraham's descendants would be found among all the nations of the world.  God went outside the borders of Israel and He began calling the Gentiles to salvation.  And all those whom God had elected to salvation would respond in faith and repentance to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is the Saviour, not just of one nation, but of the world.  And the best way for God to fulfil His plan of salvation was to have Christ return to heaven.  From there Christ reigns over all the world in order to bring the elect into His church everywhere.  Satan, so much in charge still, was knocked off his perch.  The whole world was now Christ's field of operations.

The second reason for Christ's ascension follows on from the first.  From heaven Christ went to all the world by sending the apostles with the same gospel that He had preached.  And He equipped them with His Holy Spirit.  Through the Spirit, Christ was with His apostles and He used them to establish the church in the world.  When the apostles died, the church carried on the work of bringing the gospel and calling sinners everywhere to repent and believe in Christ.

Christ's ascension, then, has been a very good thing.  It has turned on for good the light and power of God's grace and mercy to all in the world who hear the gospel and believingly respond to it.  And the devil cannot stop our Lord.

Let's now look at some passages in the Bible that are so personal and so powerful that Christ has become more precious to the Christian than anything or anyone else.

2.  In Heaven the Lord Prays for Us

Romans 8:34 says, “Christ Jesus...  is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us."  Why is Christ in heaven at God's right hand a blessing to us?  Well, the previous verse speaks about charges being brought against those whom God has chosen, and about condemning Christians belonging to God.  What charges and condemnations might these be?  Well, the passage is about the Christian living in the world, in hostile territory where Satan still wields considerable power.  Think of our fellow believers living in countries where there is persecution.  They are arrested and dragged into court where they are charged with crimes against the Muslim state.

The Christian has tried to live in peace and not provoke anyone.  But he is condemned simply because he is Christian.  It may even mean prison and death.  But the Christian remembers that Christ is interceding for Him.  Christ prays to the Father in heaven and says – this one has been saved.  You, the Father, have loved him always and I was sent to suffer and die for him.  This Christian has been raised with me into a new life.  We must protect him so that the persecution this beloved believer is going through on earth will not harm his faith, or his certainty of coming to heaven, even if his trials and sufferings will end his earthly life.

Or the Christian on earth is living in a country like Australia where he is quite free to practise his faith.  But through weakness the Christian has fallen into sin.  The believer allowed himself to be tempted and gave in to the temptation.  He or she took their eye off Christ, and it got him into trouble.  The believer's conscience is now accusing him or her of being two-faced.  The Christian face is worn in church but they know they have not acted as a Christian when they sinned.  And Satan is working overtime trying to make them think that God must be sick and tired of them.  What a hopeless and worthless Christian!

But again, in heaven the Lord Jesus speaks to the Father in the believer's defence.  He says to the Father, you have sent me into the world to be a sacrifice for sin and there, in the world, is a struggling, doubting believer who needs to hear that he or she belongs to you.  When I died for their sins then it was for all their sins.  Father, do not let Satan get this Christian into his clutches.  Let's continue to work in the hearts of Christians with the Holy Spirit and remind them that, in spite of their weakness and shortcomings, they are of heaven.

In this way Christ in heaven speaks in defence of God's children on earth when they sin.  That's the message of 1John 2:1, "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.  But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.  He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

What a wonderful blessing, then, that our Lord and Saviour in heaven prays for us here in this world and says to the Father, “Here am I, and the children God has given me” (Heb.2:13).  We are Christ's possession.  Nothing and no one can undo that.

3.  Christ's Ascension Guarantees Our Going to Heaven

The Catechism says we have our own flesh in heaven.  The word 'flesh' here means you, your person.  Will you get to heaven?  Or will you miss out?  We Calvinists are sometimes accused of making it too easy.  Others say to us that we should not be telling one another -- once saved always saved.  It makes believers spiritually lazy and they don't try hard enough to live holy lives.

There is a bit of truth in this.  We do not always try our utmost to be obedient to God.  Sometimes we're just motoring along on two cylinders whilst God has given us at least double that.  But the spark that will get all cylinders firing is not a fear that we might not make it to heaven.  If we serve God out of fear then we are afraid of judgment.  But God wants us to serve Him, not because we are dead scared of Him, but out of love.  And love grows out of thankfulness.  So how thankful are we?  That's the question we should be asking of ourselves.

Well, here is something that ought to make us thankful.  Believers have been made members of the body of Christ.  Christ is the head of this spiritual body, which is the whole church.  Now Christ has ascended to heaven but we are still here on this earth.  But the church is not a body without a head.  If that were the case with us we'd be dead.  Christ and His church are always one, always together.  Christ is with us here.  Remember His words?  “And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age" (Mt.28:20).  Now when the end comes, Christ will have every member of His body with Him in heaven.  Nothing can be surer.  He is there already, and He will gather to Himself all His sheep.  When that's all done then Christ will come.

The following might have been your experience.  The father goes to the new country.  There he gets a job, works hard, saves money, secures a house and fills it with beds, other furniture, kitchen things, etc.  When all is ready, then the message goes back to the rest of the family – now all of you should come.

How similar is that to Christ?  When He told the disciples of His ascension, He said, “I am going there to prepare a place for you...  I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am" (Jn.14:2,3).  And Christ says to the Father, “I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory" (Jn.17:24).  Some day soon the Lord is going to say – now all of you should come!

4.  Christ's Ascension Brought the Holy Spirit to Us

This is the last benefit of Christ's ascension that Lord's Day 18 want us to see.  Lord's Day 20 of the Catechism will say more about the Holy Spirit, but for now let us remember again that Christ sent His Spirit, and works in us through His Spirit, to turn all Christians into a spiritual people in whom His light is shining freely.

Unfortunately, the word 'spiritual' has come to mean a number of things.  Sometimes we meet people who are always peppering their talk with 'the Lord this' and 'the Lord that'.  We might say that they are a bit too spiritual.  It's a poor choice of words but what we mean is that people can talk piously about the Lord and yet live unspiritual lives.  It's the double standard that makes the spiritual talk look cheap.

That doesn't mean that we should stop trying to be spiritual.  The Lord wants us to be His spiritual people.  The ascended Christ has sent us His Spirit so that the goal of our lives is not material things but things of God's church and kingdom.  Being a truly spiritual Christian is when we make it our aim to serve Christ our King in everything we do here on earth.  Being spiritual is not the opposite of being material.  Spiritual is the opposite of sinful.

To be a spiritual Christian you serve the Lord in everything that you do, and that can be as an elder, deacon, pastor, missionary, Bible teacher, builder, solicitor, administrator, housewife, cleaner, or garbage collector.

To be spiritual means that you seek to glorify God's Name in all that you do.  Just being and living as a Christian in the everyday and ordinary things of life is being spiritual.  Your goal is to serve Christ in everything.  It is putting to death all actions and desires that God hates.  It is to clothe yourselves with the virtues of Christ.  It is to apply the Lordship of Christ to your marriage, to family relationships, to education, and social responsibilities.  Being spiritual is simply showing in all of life that we have a Lord in heaven and that He rules over us here on earth.

We have seen, then, that Christ's ascension has been for our good; in heaven Christ prays for us; His being there guarantees our going to heaven; and that Christ's ascension has brought the Spirit to us to make us spiritual.

Amen.