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While they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into heaven? This Jesus who has taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way you saw him go into heaven.”
Christ is risen. He has risen indeed. In the name of Jesus. Amen. You may be seated.
There are 11 things that we confess about Christ in the Apostles’ Creed. Of those 11 things, nine of them are history. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, and so forth. He ascended into heaven. Of those 11 things, one of them is present tense. He sits at the right hand of God the Father. And one of those is future. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. I think this underlines the importance of the ascension. Because it is the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ to the right hand of God the Father that defines current reality, not just in the church, but in the entire world.
And so we have to meditate on that with great sincerity and devotion, and pray that the Lord would give us eyes to understand what these things mean. I’d like to approach the ascension of Jesus tonight under probably three subheadings. The first is that Jesus ascends to the right hand of God the Father. The second is that Jesus ascends to the holy place. And the third is that Jesus sits on the throne.
First, Jesus ascends to the right hand of God the Father. Now we understand that it is the Son alone, out of the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is the Son alone who has a body. So it is the Son alone who has a right hand and a left hand. What’s meant then by the right hand of God the Father is not a physical location, but something more. I think we use the same phrase today. We say, “He’s my right-hand man.” I would be worried if someone said, “He’s my left-hand man.” The right-hand man means the one who’s right next to you, the one who shares in your power and authority.
And this is what we mean when we say that Jesus ascended to the right hand of God the Father. It means that Jesus has taken up the full use of all of his divine attributes. Remember how we speak of the ministry of Jesus, how he had the time of humiliation and then the time of exaltation. The humiliation which was begun after his incarnation in his humble birth and in his sorrowful life, and deepest in his prayer in the garden and his suffering on the cross. But then that exaltation begins with his descent into hell to proclaim his victory and his resurrection and his ascension into heaven. And then at the ascension, he is fully glorified. All of the attributes of the divine nature—all those things which belong to God and which always belong to the man Jesus—are now fully taken up in their full glory and power.
Which means that all the things that we say about God, we say about Jesus, and we say about the human nature of Jesus. That he knows all things. That he is all-powerful. That he is in every place. And this is for your comfort. The ascension of Jesus is not… Okay, if you don’t get anything else, this is the thing that we have to get tonight. The ascension of Jesus is not his leaving you, going somewhere else. His ascension to the Father’s right hand means that he fills all things, that he is closer to us now than he was before his ascension into the Father’s right hand. That he is in every place, which means that he is with you, that he does not leave you or forsake you, that he does not leave you as orphans, but that he is with you all the time.
You can’t see him, but he is always here, present with you, watching you, protecting you, keeping you, serving you, blessing you, and ruling all things. More on that later. But we confess then that the ascension means that Jesus enters into the full use of all the glory of God. That’s what we mean by the right hand of the Father.
The second thing that we say about the ascension is that He ascended to the holy place. This is especially the imagery that the apostle gives to us in the book of Hebrews. The picture is from the Old Testament Day of Atonement. Remember back in the Old Testament that the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies, that veiled room where the ark was. He would only go in there one day out of the whole year, twice on one day, but he would go into that special room with a bowl full of the blood that was sacrificed from the bulls and the goat, and he would take that blood into the holy place and he would apply that blood to the ark.
It’s a beautiful picture because what’s in the ark is the Ten Commandments. But the blood is now covering the ark. I always think the picture is if you can imagine being called to the principal’s office, or if you were called, you can just remember, I suppose. And you go into the principal’s office and behind the principal on the blackboard are written all of the rules that you broke that week. You say, “Oh boy, now I’m in trouble.” Now this is what the Ten Commandments are. The Lord is sitting on his throne on the ark there, and he’s sitting on the rules that you and I have broken. But now the blood comes and covers over that.
It’s like the principal has all the rules that are broken, and somehow he’s able to erase them and give you a good conscience. But this is not just erasing them. It’s the suffering that he endured on the cross that now covers your sins. So that Jesus, when he ascended into heaven, ascended into the heavenly court, where your case is being heard, where your righteousness is being considered, and he entered into that court with his own blood. And there he intercedes for you day and night, and pleads his case, and offers in the heavenly court the evidence of his blood for your forgiveness. This is his ongoing priestly work. It’s what he’s doing now.
Hebrews says that he always lives to intercede for us. That Jesus is at the right hand of the Father so that he can pray for you. It’s an amazing thing to think, what is Jesus doing now? And the answer is that he carries his blood to the Father for your sake, so that your sins can be forgiven.
So Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, that’s the full use of the divinity. Jesus goes into the holy place, that’s his priestly work of presenting his blood to the Father for our forgiveness.
And the third consideration tonight is that Jesus sits on the throne. Now this is probably the main thing of the Ascension, because Jesus is prophet and priest, but especially for us to know he is king. When Jesus sits on the throne, he is claiming all rule and all authority in all of the world for your sake, that he rules and reigns all things.
The vicar and I were talking about this the last couple of days. You know, when we normally think about the triumphal entry of Jesus, we normally think of the Palm Sunday when he rode the donkey into Jerusalem and made his triumphal entry. But really, I’d like to suggest that there are two other times that would maybe even be better to think of the triumphal entry. And it goes back to the way that the old Roman Caesars would do it. They would go, or the generals, they’d go off and they’d fight their battles, and if they won, then they would have a triumphal entry first into the city that they conquered. Like Alexander the Great going into Babylon or Pompey going into Carthage.
Or maybe this. Titus, who was not emperor yet, he was the general, marched into Jerusalem on August the 10th in the year of our Lord 70. He goes into the holy place, which was now decimated, and stands on top of the temple. Jerusalem is just a wasteland. He makes this triumphal entry into Jerusalem to show that he has conquered. That’s only his first triumphal entry because then Titus, the general, appealed to the Senate to have a triumph in Rome and they granted it. So one year later, they built this big arch, the arch of Titus. You can still see it. It’s got the menorah and all the Jewish stuff.
He goes through this arch and he goes into the city. He sends the captives first, and then he sends all of the treasures that they looted after that, which included the table from the temple with the showbread and the menorah and all the stuff that they had sacked from Jerusalem. All that goes in, and then his soldiers go in singing his triumph, and then in comes Titus on this golden chariot with these four white horses pulling him, and he has his laurel wreath, and he’s wearing a purple robe or a toga, and his face is painted red for some reason. He goes in, and all behind him are all these things that they captured, and he goes all the way around the city, all the way around the Palatine Hill, all the way up to the Jupiter altar, and he sacrifices two white bulls there on the altar.
Now, this is the point. There are two triumphal entries. There’s the first one, which is over that which is conquered, and then there is the triumphal homecoming where you’re hailed and welcomed. Well, I think this is exactly how we should understand the descent and the ascent of Jesus. When Jesus descends into hell, he’s making that first triumphal entry over the realm that he has conquered. He’s saying to the demons and to the devil himself and to death and to captivity, “Your rule is done. Your reign is over. You have been conquered by my resurrection. You have no more authority over my people. I’m in charge here.”
And then Jesus leads captivity captive as he ascends into heaven and is now welcomed as the conquering king of all of the world. He sits down at the throne of God on high. This is his ascension and his taking up of the glory that he won by his death on the cross, his rule over all of the powers of this world, and all of that for us.
Now, with that in mind, I want us to look at the Ephesians text. Because Paul, in this Ephesians chapter 1, and you’re going to have to look at it. I hope we have enough bulletins. About three years ago, I read this passage every day for four months, trying to understand it. I was remembering this week as I was looking at it that I should not have stopped reading it every day. Because it’s beautiful and full of comfort, but also very actually difficult.
But the thing that’s at work in this passage is this idea that Jesus ascended into heaven and his ascent is above all rule and power and authority. In fact, Paul is more interested in how Jesus is not over all of the earthly powers, which he is, but how Jesus is over all of the spiritual powers. Can you see in—well, let’s look at verse 20—that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead, that’s Easter, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, that’s ascension, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age but also in the age to come.
Now those words that Paul uses there—rule and authority and power and dominion—are names for the ranks of the demons. So that, and I suppose the angels too, but most especially the demons. So that when Jesus ascends into heaven, he is put in charge. He is ruling over. Under his feet are all of the demonic evils that want to rule this world and want to captivate us. Jesus is above them.
Now, again, we’ve got to hold on to that. Jesus is above the devil. Jesus is above the demons. Jesus is above all the dark powers, the benevolent powers of this world, which means you don’t need to be afraid of them. They fear Christ, and if you resist them, they flee from you. And look at what caused Christ to be raised from the dead and to ascend into heaven. Well, sorry. Before we get to that, let’s finish the text since we’re right at the end.
Verse 22: He put all things under his feet. This is the picture of the ancient king that would have a footstool. In their footstool, they would get their artists to carve pictures of all of the kings that they conquered. You know, it’s kind of a silly thing to think of, but if you’re King Xerxes and you go out and you conquer the King of Syria, then you have your artist draw a picture of the King of Syria and put him on your footstool so that you can put your feet on his face every time you sit on your throne.
And that’s the picture there: that Jesus puts his feet on the head of the devil and of all the demons. He stomps on them when he sits on that throne. He put all enemies under his feet—death, sin, devil—and gave him Christ as head over all things. Why? To the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
This answers the question: Why or for whom is Jesus ruling? We might think, well, he’s ruling for himself, but that’s not what it says here. He is ruling all things for the sake of his church, for you, for your sake, and for my sake, and for the sake of all of his baptized. That’s why he’s ruling. So Paul has this in mind: that Christ was buried, that the power of God, the power of the Spirit raised him from the dead, that the power of the Spirit lifted him up and exalted him over everything—every other authority and power that exists in all of the world—and that now he’s there ruling and reigning all things for your sake.
Now that’s the background to Paul’s prayer. And look at what he prays for. He starts his prayer, verse 15: “For this reason, because I’ve heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and I’ve heard of your love for all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge.”
So Paul’s prayer is that we would have the Holy Spirit and that that Spirit would reveal things to us, specifically, verse 18, that the Holy Spirit would open the eyes of our heart, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know these three things: the hope of your calling, the riches of his glorious inheritance, and the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead.
Now, this is complicated, but here’s the basic idea. Paul is praying for you and for me that God would give us the Holy Spirit so that our eyes would be opened, so that we would see that the same Spirit who caused Jesus to be raised from the dead and the same Spirit who exalted Jesus above all the demons—that that same spirit and that same power is at work in you.
Now this is amazing, and you can’t believe it unless it’s written down, and you probably can’t see it unless the Holy Spirit gives you eyes to see it, which is why Paul is asking for this. But here’s the idea: that right now, in your life, the Holy Spirit is working with the same power that he used when he raised Christ from the dead. The Holy Spirit is working with the same power that he used when he exalted Jesus to the right hand of the Father. That same power is at work in your heart and mine. We just can’t see it unless the Lord opens the eyes of our heart to be able to see it.
So here’s the kind of amazing thing of the Ascension: that this rule and power of our Lord at the Father’s right hand is at work also in you. It’s hidden, it’s quiet, it’s hard to notice, but now you know it because you came to the Ascension service, and you read Ephesians chapter 1, and you heard this promise that the same Spirit and the same power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him at the right hand of the Father is at work in you.
Now, I hope that you will join me then in praying this prayer. For you, you can pray it for yourself. You can pray it for me. I’ll pray it for you, that the Lord would give us eyes to see, even just a glimpse of His working in our own hearts. Because, dear saints, it means you don’t have to be afraid. You don’t have to be afraid of the devil. He’s under the feet of Jesus. You don’t have to be afraid of your own sin. It’s covered by the blood of Christ. You don’t have to be afraid of sickness or suffering or poverty or loneliness. The Lord Jesus is with you. He fills all things. And you don’t need to be afraid of death because you, in fact, are already seated with Christ at the Father’s right hand. And death means that you will be brought there to see it in its fullness.
So may God grant this prayer, that the eyes of our heart would be open, that we would be buoyed with the hope of our inheritance, and that we would live in the confidence of the resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. May God grant it for Christ’s sake.
Amen. Christ has risen. He has risen indeed. The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.