Word of Salvation – Vol. 25 No. 21 – February 1979

The Present Absent Christ

Ascension Sermon by Rev. W. Wiersma, Th.Grad. on Lord's Day 18
Scripture reading: Ephesians 1:3-23
Psalter Hymnal: 183; 324; 368; 85; 319

Dear Brothers and Sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,
When we speak this morning/evening of the present Christ, we have in mind two meanings of the word 'present'. First, it is to be understood in the sense of time. Jesus Christ lives today. We must think more of Who and what He is now. Too often we think only of Jesus as He was on this earth nearly 2,000 years ago. We think of Him in His humiliation in His life and work as the suffering servant. But the present Lord Jesus Christ is the exalted One The One Who was raised from the dead, Who ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God.
In the second place we speak of the present Christ as the One Who is present with His people. He is near, and with and in the believers. A truth most worthy of our earnest attention! A fact which is too often almost strange and foreign to many who claim to be disciples of Christ.
How is Christ near and with and in His people, when He is clearly absent from them since He has left this earth? Surely that is what the ascension, the going up of Christ into heaven, is about - that He has left this earth and said farewell to His disciples.
That is true. In the way that Christ was with His disciples when He walked as a man on this earth, He is now absent from us. As man, Christ is no longer with us. He ascended into heaven.
No matter how many questions we may have about this truth of Scripture (the Ascension), we are clearly told that, physically, Christ is no longer with His people.. Visibly, in the sight of the apostles, the Lord Jesus was taken up from this earth. Angels were present to explain this glorious moment in the life and work of our Saviour and Mediator. "This Jesus has been taken up from you into heaven" they said. It was as Jesus had told His disciples, "the poor you will always have with you, but not Me. I am going to leave this world and am going to My Father in heaven."
Now, what does that mean, that Christ has been taken up into heaven? The Bible uses the word 'heaven' in three different ways:
- heaven can simply mean 'the sky',
- or heaven can be what we call space, the realm or place of the sun, moon and stars,
- thirdly, heaven refers to the place or realm in which God and the angels live and work. The realm of glory above and beyond the sky and space. The ‘third heaven', as Paul calls it.
It is into this (last) heaven that Christ was taken up as Mediator at the Ascension. It is in this heaven that Christ lives and works for the coming of God's Kingdom, and in the interest of His people until He comes again to judge the living and the dead.
Through the ages there has been much talk and disagreement about this heaven. Where is it?: What does it look like? God has not told us. Apparently He does not think it is necessary for us to know much about it. Perhaps it would be impossible for us to understand if God tried to tell us. How could we, who live in this world and in this body of sin, understand what the realm in which God moves is really like?
It should be enough for us to know that Christ is preparing a place for us in the glorious presence of God and the angels. Our Saviour is going to take us into it one day. That's what we should concentrate on. That's what we should long for and be working towards.
By His Spirit the Lord Jesus encourages us to seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God and not the things that are on earth. So the Bible teaches us to think of and be busy with the things that are eternal - the things that are pure and lovely and of good report. Of all the things that are in keeping with God's character and work. Of the good and perfect things which Christ has proclaimed and done and won. Of the things He is doing now to bring the work God has given Him to its perfect completion.
Thinking about and meditating on the Ascension should help us in this. It should help us to remember that Christ is no longer in the grave, no longer in this world of darkness and limitations.. It should help us to realise that His work on earth is finished. He laid down His life but He has also taken it up again. All the necessary blessings for our salvation and life have been purchased by His blood. All the forces of evil have been overcome by the perfect love and faithfulness which Christ has shown most clearly in His death on the Cross.
The Ascension is proof that God is fully satisfied and that He has rewarded our Representative with the highest honour and glory. God has given our Saviour and. Brother all power and authority in heaven and on earth.
Someone has called the Ascension of Christ a triumph stronger than the Resurrection. The Bible not only speaks of Christ being taken up into heaven as the act of God the Father, but also as the act of Christ, the glorious Mediator, Himself. "In the Ascension Christ triumphs over the whole earth, over all the laws of nature, over. the gravity of matter. What is more, His ascension is a triumph over all the hostile, diabolical and human forces which were robbed by God of their armour in the Cross of Christ, (forces), which were exhibited in their helplessness and bound to Christ's chariot of victory. They are led away now as captives by Christ Himself." (Bavinck). We indeed have a mighty and victorious Saviour in heaven!
And the fact that He is there is of great importance and benefit to us. We are told that He is making intercession; He is praying for us on earth. He is making His will regarding us known to the Father. And on the basis of His blood, offered once for all on our behalf, God grants Christ what He desires for us and God answers our prayers. God clears us of our guilt and cares for us as His beloved children and heirs.
The fact that Christ our Head is physically in heaven is also the great assurance that we, His members, will get there too. In Christ we are already there! Is that not what the apostle Paul says? That God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus (Eph.2:6). Our place in the heavenly realms is assured because Christ, our Head, is there. That's where our eternal home and fatherland is. That's the realm on which we should set our sights.
Now we should realise that the Bible also teaches that we shall live in our new resurrection body on the new earth. It would seem therefore that there will be no separation between heaven and earth when everything has been restored and God shall be all in all. We may possibly draw the conclusion from this that what separates earth from heaven is not a physical distance but sin; that heaven, the realm of perfection in which the omnipresent God dwells and moves, is hidden to us so long as we and the world in which we live are in any way affected by sin. So that when Christ's work has been fully completed and all evil is finally destroyed, heaven will become visible to us on the new earth. The New Jerusalem will descend, will come down, to this earth and the dwelling of God will be fully and unhindered with man.
In the meantime Christ has not forsaken His people. As He has promised, "Lo, I am with you always." Physically and visibly, as man, He is no longer with us on this earth. But as He said, "It is to your advantage that I go away to the Father. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you."
And then the Lord spoke about the Spirit, the Counsellor, Whom He would receive and send to His people. And in that Spirit Christ comes to the believers. For He, the Spirit, takes of what is Christ and reveals it to those who believe. The Holy Spirit makes Christ known to us in all His grace and glory in a way that would have been impossible if Jesus had not been raised from the dead and ascended into heaven. The Holy Spirit reveals Christ's greatness, His Godhead, His majesty and His power and grace to us. So Christ comes to us spiritually. So He is present, near, with and in us as the God, the Sovereign Lord, Who loves, cares, guides, provides and protects us.
The Spirit makes us see, in faith, the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. The Spirit makes us rejoice in our exalted Saviour and Lord. What more could we ask for than this? What more could we desire at this point of time? Where else would we want Christ, other than in heaven where He can most effectively exercise His authority and power to complete the work He has on earth begun?
By the Spirit, Christ is our true Immanuel. God with us NOW. For by the Spirit of Christ we are brought to love Him and to keep His Word. And to such as do that, Jesus promises, "My Father will love him and we will come and make our abode with him.” That is the promise! Nothing less!
If we do not yet enjoy the full benefits of that promise, is that not because we still pay so much attention and spend so much of our time thinking about the things of this world? Is it not because we pay so little attention to the things which the Spirit, through the Word tells us about our glorious Saviour and Head?
May God truly grant us the grace to think on these things as the apostle expressed it in Eph.3:14ff: "For this reason I bow my knee to the Father, from Whom the whole family of believers in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fulness of God. Now to Him Who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.
Amen."