Acts chapter one, starting at verse one. Please give your full attention. This is the word of God.
Scripture Reading – Acts 1:1-11
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God while he was with them. He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you heard from me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.’ When he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. 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 looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. Grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our Lord truly endures forever. May he add his blessing upon it as it is preached at this time.
Introduction: Foundational Truths for the New Year
Well, as we’re at the close of one year and the start of a new year, It’s good for us, as is our practice, to remember to bring to mind core foundational truths, to set the stage, to be reminded going into the new year, be reminded of foundational key things, key truths. And as we saw last week, before Christ had died, risen, and is coming again, we were reminded that Christ has come. He has come. He is with us. We remember and repeat and believe those things. We are to do so, brothers and sisters, to remember, to trust, to believe these things. Let them get into you. Let them change you, these core truths. So very important.
We are, of course, as I have mentioned many times, every Lord’s Day, we are those who proclaim with delight and joy and passion and excitement that God is with us. He is risen indeed, and also that He ascended. He ascended. It’s that complex, amazing and glorious, that complex of what He did that’s so crucial to believe, to trust, to feed on in our minds and in our hearts, those historical truths of His birth, life, death. burial and resurrection, right? Emmanuel last week, he’s a God with us to bless those who were saved, those who were united to him, those who know him and are known by him. And the reality as well, and the centrality and the necessity of the resurrection to be believed, right? It actually really happened and it really matters. There’s no hope without it.
This morning, I want to remind us of that other truth, the ascension of Christ, the ascension. Next week, we’re going to just kind of forecast what we’re going to be doing. We’re going to look at the Bible’s teaching on matters of worship, again, as we like to do at the beginning and the end of the year. And then we’re going to preach through the book of the prophet Joel, the small prophet, the minor prophets, prophet Joel. And then we’ll begin a series through the great book of Revelation, or the book of the Revelation, as one of my professors always called it. He couldn’t ever just say Revelation. It was always the book of the Revelation. So be reading those books to maximize, to optimize your benefit from them. Be reading those books, Joel and Revelation. It will benefit you. It will, to be familiar with, to be familiarizing and internalizing what it is, the word that will be preached Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day.
This morning, as I said, I want to look at the ascension of Christ, the ascension. For many of us, this is a less-thought-about or less-taught concept. Many just don’t think about the Ascension, rather. It gets overshadowed by the Resurrection, which is in some ways understandable, right? Surely the Resurrection is the capstone in the arc of our holy faith. It’s interesting, though, as we look historically at what the Church has confessed about our faith confessions and catechisms. It’s interesting that that great catechism, the Heidelberg Catechism, has only one question and answer about the resurrection, but it has four questions and answers about the ascension of Christ. So we’ll look at why this is the case and why we should, with thanksgiving and enthusiasm, affirm with knowledge and joy that we believe and confess that Jesus ascended into heaven, ascended into glory.
The Book of Acts as Continuation
And so our text this morning, as we heard, is from the Acts of the Apostles. That’s the old full name of the book we know as Acts, the Acts of the Apostles. And we’re mostly familiar with the Gospels and even the epistles, the letters, the apostles. But what is this book, the Acts of the Apostles? Well, when we read the book of Acts, we see that it’s actually part two of Luke’s writings. Two, right? Luke writes the gospel of Luke, of course. And just by sheer volume, this is a massive percentage of the New Testament, Luke and Acts together. He writes the gospel of Luke, and then he continues and references in the first words of Acts that very thing, right, as we heard in verse one. In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and to teach. It is a continuing of the historical facts that Luke begins with, that he opens to tell in his gospel. Luke opens in this way. Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also having followed things closely for some time past to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
You may have certainty concerning the things that you’ve been taught. And so the order of the Gospels, we’re very familiar with, have been the way that they are even down to our day, and they have been for a long, long time. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It’s all we’ve known for most of our lives. But it would make sense to put Luke at the end of the Gospels just for nothing else to maintain this unity of Luke’s writing. There’s this book of John that’s in between Luke 1 and Luke 2. if you will. And I would encourage you, perhaps in your reading as you begin the new year, to read the Gospel of Luke and then go right into Acts. It’s OK to do that. It’s OK to read Matthew, Mark, John, and then Luke-Acts. I think you’ll see some connections that perhaps this pause of the Gospel of John may distance us from.
They were both written by Luke. We know him as the beloved physician. And both of his great books have that one purpose that we just read at the beginning of Luke. Again, Luke 1, 4, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. And Luke has researched the ministry of Jesus. And he got his information from those who were eyewitnesses of the very accounts. But look now, if you would, back at Acts, and notice that Luke is telling us something, or what he is telling us. And what that is, remember, he says that in the first book, the Gospel of Luke, Luke dealt with all that Jesus began to do and to teach. Notice Luke tells us why Jesus, what he continued to do until the day when he was taken up and after he’d given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
So through the power of the Holy Spirit in his sovereign activity, his working, he continues to teach his people. And so maybe some have suggested it might be a more accurate title for the Book of Acts that would be the Acts of the Lord Jesus Christ through the Apostles in the Power of the Holy Spirit. That’s a very non-modern, you know, Puritan title, right, that’s like a paragraph. But that really accounts for more of what’s going on there. The Acts of the Lord Jesus Christ through the Apostles in the Power of the Holy Spirit. That’s indeed what it is telling us. in this book.
The apostles act because Christ has sent them and commissioned them to be apostles. And so Luke tells us what Jesus did through the apostles to grow and to build his church. The book of Acts tells us of the truth of the gospel and the triumph of Christ. as some have put it, the truth of the gospel and the triumph of Christ. And in this book, the book of Acts, we read of the challenges to the spread of the gospel. And we read that nothing can stop that spread, regardless of those challenges. And it’s a beautiful historical record of what actually happened, right? The birth and the growth and the spread of the church, the gospel. As we consider the ascension of Christ, particularly this morning, and that most don’t give a whole lot of attention to it, It makes us question and think, why was the Ascension given so much attention in the history of the Church? And we’ll see that we should perhaps give more attention and thought to Christ’s Ascension than we previously have done.
The Ascension as an Accounting of Scripture
The first reason the Ascension should get our attention is because it is an accounting of God’s Word. It’s an account of God’s Word. It’s what the Holy Spirit tells us through Luke in Acts chapter 1, the accounting of Scripture. Again, it says that after Jesus rose again, quote, he presented himself alive to them, that is his disciples, by many proofs appearing to them 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. It’s verse three. As well as giving commands through the Holy Spirit.
And what did Jesus command them? One of the things he commanded them And verse four was not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father. This promise came, of course, on the day of Pentecost, which was 10 days after Christ’s ascension. And one of these days when Christ appeared to them to talk about the kingdom of God, verse six tells us this. They asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And Jesus answers them. It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. He’s telling them, again, to wait for the Spirit to give them power.
And in verse 8 of chapter 1 of Acts, he says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And then he says what in verse 9? And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. A cloud took him out of their sight. This is the account of scripture.
The Significance of the Cloud
Notice there, a cloud took him out of their sight. I’ve mentioned this in the past, but consider again the use of clouds. This is not insignificant. It’s not novel. It’s not brand new in this verse. Clouds are there when God comes before his people. Remember how God does this. Remember how did God appear when he led Israel out of Egypt, right? It was in a pillar, cloud, and fire. When he appeared before Moses, when the temple was dedicated, it was a cloud. It was filled with the cloud of his presence. But what about when Isaiah saw Yahweh in the temple? It was a cloud. When Jesus was transfigured on the mount before his disciples, what was it? A heavy cloud. over the mountain, and how did God appear on this day, on this day of Pentecost, the birthday of the church? The room was filled with smoke, right, a cloud.
The appearance of the cloud tells us that God’s glory is present, is present. And remember when the glory of the Lord left the temple, what happened? It was gone, right, the cloud was removed. And so it tells us of the presence of God’s glory in that cloud. And that is the case when Christ tells us that divine glory is present in his ministry as well. Jesus is the promised divine savior.
And so Luke ends his first book, the Gospel of Luke, saying this in chapter 24, while he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and were continually in the temple blessing God. So this is significant. It’s significant because it’s in your Bible. It’s an account of scripture. It’s God’s word. Inspired, breathed out, inscripturated, preserved for his people. God saw fit to include this in these details. It is the account of the biblical text.
The Ascension Answers Theological Questions
But it’s also of great significance to us because it leads us to deal with an answer to a few questions that arise, right? So it’s an accounting of scripture, but it’s also the answer or answers.
Recall in Matthew 28, right? After Jesus gives the great commission, go therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And remember what he says next. What are the last words of the gospel of Matthew? What are they? And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age, to the end of the age.
We remember from last week, God with us, Emmanuel, right there in the beginning of the gospel, in the middle, in regards to the affairs of the church and the protection of the church, and also at the end, behold, Emmanuel, God with us. I am with you always to the end of the age. And if you’re trying to follow and understand, you might think, OK, if Christ ascended back into heaven, how did he keep this promise from Matthew? How was he with us to the end of the age if he indeed departed from us? He ascended versus I’m with you always. And we might think that there’s a conflict there.
But what is the biblical answer to this question? It’s not hard. It’s not a trick question. It’s that Christ is true man and true God. John 1, we see both. The word was God, and all that was created was created through him. And he took on flesh and dwelt among us. He was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. He was born a human baby, a real baby. Theologically, we answer the question by referring to the two natures of Christ, of course. Christ is one person in two natures, divine and human. And in Christ’s human nature, he is no longer on earth. But in his divinity, in his majesty, in his grace and spirit, he is never absent from us.
Christ has two natures. He has two natures and the church has strongly, throughout time, affirmed and proclaimed both natures. And then when we affirm this, if we are a bit more theologically thoughtful in thinking about it, no matter how the Bible talks about this and how we parse it all out, we might think of another question and realize that another answer is needed. And it is there, right? The question is, if Jesus’ human nature ascended into glory and his divine nature is ever-present, aren’t we dividing or separating those two natures?
These are things that theologians have talked about and fought about and argued about. And I don’t want to ask for a show of hands, but some of you might not have ever thought much about this, how this works out. Some of you might have never thought of this as a question at all. Some of you might think it’s really not a problem. But it really is something to be answered, because scripture is clear. We seek to think God’s thoughts after him, to think rightly about the text. We don’t think that the scripture contradicts itself or that it has a bunch of loose ends that It can’t be tied up.
But remember this. Remember the book of Job. Remember at the end of Job, the Lord rebukes Job’s friends. And remember what he says to them. Job 42, verse 7. The Lord says to Eliphaz the Temanite, says this, my anger burns against you and against your two friends. My anger burns against you. Why? for you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has.
So is it important that we think right things about God? You better believe it is. Very important. The Lord’s anger burned against them because they have not spoken about him what is right.
I won’t go into great detail in regards to the technicalities of all of this, the theology at this time, but the historic church, right, orthodox Christian, true gospel-believing Christians, and the Christian church, Christianity as a whole, has insisted on clarity here, because it guards against a handful of errors, of heresies. And it’s because of our desire to be faithful, too, and in line with what scripture teaches.
The Two Natures of Christ
The Church has and does affirm the two natures of Christ, and it gives four qualifiers about these two natures. So this is the technical part of the sermon. What about these two natures, the divine and the human? We’ve always affirmed that the two natures are unconfused, they’re unchangeable, they’re indivisible, and they’re inseparable. They’re unconfused, they’re unchangeable, they’re indivisible, and they’re inseparable. We have to hold to these descriptors of the reality of the two natures of Christ.
And it has ramifications for our understanding, particularly it has ramifications for our understanding of the Lord’s Supper, for instance. We Reformed Protestants say that the bread and the wine are not physically transformed into the body and blood of Christ, right? That was the historical, That was an issue historically at the time. We don’t affirm that, but we do affirm Christ’s real presence in the supper. Is Christ really present in supper? Yes, he is. Not physically or corporally, right, as in body. How is he then? How is he really present?
Well, our Lutheran brothers and sisters, they say that Christ is what? In, with, under, the bread and the wine, because he is present in both natures, right? And they want to do this. They’re trying to protect against the error of the inseparableness of the natures of Christ, right? Guard against the error of separating the natures. So they come to their belief concerning the Lord’s Supper that they have.
But we, in the Reformed Presbyterian trajectory, the Reformed churches have always affirmed that because divinity is not limited and is present everywhere, omnipresent, It’s clear that Christ’s divinity is beyond the bounds of humanity that has been taken on. But at the same time, his divinity is in and remains personally united to his humanity. Again, I referenced the Heidelberg Catechism earlier. Jesus has two natures, human and divine, and the divine is not limited by the human.
So we’ve answered some questions as we parse this out and understand it. rightly, and the Ascension, the significance and importance of it, not only answers those questions, but it’s an accounting of what God’s word said.
The Advantages of Christ’s Ascension
And then finally, and wonderfully, the third thing about the Ascension is the advantage of Christ’s Ascension for you this morning, for us even today, the advantage to believers of the Savior’s Ascension. Because Jesus is ascended, he is my advocate in heaven in the presence of his father. If you belong to him, because he has ascended, he is your advocate before the father. Remember, Hebrews says, he ever lives to what? To intercede for you. And that’s something we need, something we need as sinners, as weak. frail, fragile people. Something we need is a mighty Savior who is our advocate before the Father.
The Apostle John says in 1 John chapter 2, if any one of us does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, the righteous. His very presence before the throne of grace eternally pleads my case, your case, and all that belong to Him and name His name and are named by Him
Because Jesus is ascended, it is a sure pledge that Christ, my head, will also take me up to himself. I’m united to Christ by faith. And that means that his promise is mine, right? John 14, where I am, you will be also. Glorious promise.
Because Jesus is ascended, he sends his spirit to me on earth as a pledge to be ever present with me. And with you, His Spirit is His own payment in my heart, that down payment in my heart, that one day I shall see Him face to face. Behold the glory of our Savior.
And so until then, by the Spirit’s power, what? I seek not earthly things. but the things above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
Do you think this will make a difference in your day-to-day life? It’s not high theology, but it’s your life. How will you think differently about the things that you’re attracted to, that draw you, that allure you, that pull you away from main and play things of scripture. This will have an immense impact on those things, brothers and sisters, as you live your life to be faithful, acknowledging your fallenness, acknowledging your remaining weakness in your life, the reality of the Spirit’s presence in your life because of the ascension. He has not left us. He has given us himself in his spirit to be with us.
So we don’t seek after the things of this earth. but things that are above where Christ is, in His session at the right hand of God.
Because you are united to Him, dear Christian, His righteousness is your righteousness. It is yours. His ascension presupposes His perfection, right? And that is sure confirmation that all of your sins have been paid for and dealt with. There remains no pocket of judgment or punishment for you. You’ve named the name of Christ. If you believe that, you’re calling into question, he’s completed a work for you. He didn’t take care of 90% of your stuff and then left 10% for you to be hammered with that you need to get on the treadmill of works to work out for yourself. That is a lie. He’s done everything needed to accomplish for sure your resurrection, your freedom in this life going into the next.
So do you have problems believing? Do you have problems even that you have value as a person here on this planet, in this town, in your life, in your family? Do you have a problem believing that God would ever love someone like you? Because I know in the quietness of your hearts and the quietness of my heart, these things can torment us.
Think of Psalm 3. The word of the enemies to David doesn’t want anything to do with the likes of you. Because if anyone knows your failings and your falling and your sins and your dirtiness and the blackness that remains in your heart, it’s you. It’s you. And when you’re confronted with that, these are the things that can haunt and torment us.
We believe the spirit truly dwells, resides within you, that his perfection, Christ, is your perfection. Do you believe that? How can I believe? How can I have value in this world? Would God ever want anything to do with me? Would God continue to love someone like you who fails and is weak and keeps on blowing it again and again?
We’re called to believe, brothers and sisters. Believe what he says, that Christ, that God in Christ has dealt with all of your sins and your failings and your darkness and your weaknesses, all of them. Were not all of those things dealt with in full on the cross, he could not have ascended into heaven and taken a seat at the right hand of the Father. The ascension is proof and confirmation that what Jesus said when he said, it is finished. It’s true. It’s true. That he has paid for the sins of his people, all of them, and accomplished redemption truly for his people. Believe it, brothers and sisters. Believe it because it’s true. Because it’s true.
So let us go, as we briefly have reflected on this reality and the glory of his ascension, What needed to be true in order for that to happen? Let us go believing afresh and anew. And let us go believing also and trusting that the ascension was a public testimony and a demonstration of Christ’s and therefore your, dear Christian, righteousness. If it was true of Christ, and it was, then it’s true of you, regardless of our doubting hearts. It is true. You are indeed clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You’ve placed your faith in and are trusting in him for your life. It’s true of you. You are clothed with the perfection, the dazzling white, blinding perfection of the robes of his righteousness.
The ascension is part of the gospel story, brothers and sisters. That’s why we, with the church for centuries, have proclaimed together of God, the second person of the Trinity, come fully God, yet fully man, into his creation. We confess that he has died, and he has risen, and he will come again. And we do so with confidence, and joy, and expectation, and hope. May you embrace the ascension, dear people, the truth of Christ’s bodily absence, and the glory of his divine presence.
Because, you know, we often We often might wish that we’d been blessed to have seen and been with Jesus, the man, physically while he was on earth due to our weakness and our misunderstanding and our feeble faith. But think again of the end of Luke chapter 2, the end of Acts part 1. The end of Luke in chapter 24, remember on the road to Emmaus. when Jesus speaks with them and he teaches them. And it says, well, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, that is all the scriptures, he interpreted to them all the scriptures in them, the things concerning himself. And then it says in verse 49, stay here until you are clothed with power from on high. This is language of investiture. Jesus was with them and they were still dejected. They were still downcast. Why? Because they didn’t recognize Him. And then Jesus was gone, and then they were happy, right? It says, with great joy, because they knew better then. They knew better. They saw why it was better for Him to be gone physically, His physical presence. It is better, brothers and sisters, it is better to be on this side of the resurrection and the ascension, even never having heard His voice with our own ears audibly. than to be on the other side and have missed what was going on like his brothers did.
May we delight, as we close, brothers and sisters, delight in the risen and ascended Lord and Savior, our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. And may we flee again, flee to him in all things, especially when we are downcast and when we are overwhelmed by the flood of our own sin and the world and the devil all around us, wishing to drown us and crush us. May we remember and trust that in his ascension, he has accomplished all that needed to be done to bring us pure and clean and whole before our heavenly father. Rejoice, dear Christian, rejoice. Trust and believe and confess your belief that Jesus ascended into heaven, and there He rules and reigns, ever interceding for you before your Heavenly Father. Amen.
Let’s pray. Gracious Lord and King, we praise You. We praise You that You are our Redeemer. Lord, we thank You for the redemption won by your work, Lord, we praise you that we indeed are whole and pure because of your righteousness before our Heavenly Father.
Lord, we ask that you would indeed give us faith to believe the things that you tell us here in your word, Lord. Help us to not devalue or discount or neglect them, Lord, but to long after them, to embrace them and to internalize them, Lord, for our good. for Your glory.
We do pray that You would give us hope and assurance in this life, even amidst all of the staggering problems that we encounter, not only from within our own hearts, but all around us in the world in which we find ourselves. Lord, we thank You that You are sovereign, even over all of those things. We thank You that You, through Your providential dealing, You indeed will bring all things for our good, work them for our good, and that your glory that you require of all of your creation will not be denied and will not be thwarted.
We do pray the gospel goes forth and the fame of your name spreads, Lord, that it will be with power as you’ve promised it, that it will not return void, your word as it goes out. Lord, we thank you and we praise you. Be with us, Lord, we pray. Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day, even hour by hour, as we seek the truth as you’ve given us, in your word, living before your face, longing for that day when all things will be made new.
We ask this all, thanking you, through the power of the Spirit, in Christ’s name, amen.