Word of Salvation – Vol.51 No.44 – November 2006

 

Our Lord is Up There – and Everywhere!

 

A Sermon by Rev Sjirk Bajema

on Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 18

Scripture Reading:  Acts 1:1-11

 

Congregation in our Lord Jesus Christ…

What do we mean by saying, “He ascended into heaven?” That actual Ascension Day happened long ago. Haven’t two thousand years or so gone since Christ Jesus was taken up to His Father’s right hand? How is it relevant to us today?

Although it’s been a long time, we still have a very clear picture of what happened. It’s here, in the pages of Scripture. And of the passages which describe our Lord’s ascension there is no more vivid description than that found in the first chapter of Acts. That’s where we read of Jesus speaking His last words to His disciples while with them on the earth.

In response to their continued confusion about the nature of the Kingdom of God, He said, in verses 7 and 8, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And then we read, in verse 9, “After he had said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”

Jesus was taken up! Their Master was somehow wafted up into the sky above! Regardless of all those miracles they had seen before – despite whatever had happened previously – this miracle would have captivated their total attention. Jesus had been right again! He was returning to His Father in heaven!

Those disciples were looking intently into the sky as Jesus was going. What would have been their thoughts about all this? Which kind of future were they picturing for themselves?

Although we know a little of their continuing ignorance, yet we can never know their exact thoughts. But the Lord didn’t leave them in those thoughts for long. Suddenly, while they were watching their Lord depart, two men dressed in white stood beside them. Speaking to the disciples they said, in verse 11, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

The disciples are immediately reminded of the Lord’s return. This was no last farewell! Quite the opposite, in fact: This was actually the beginning of anticipating His return.

Congregation, as we consider the ascending of our Lord we will reflect upon this future anticipation in three ways. In the first place we will see how CHRIST IS THE PERFECT FRUIT. Secondly, we will note how CHRIST IS THE FIRST FRUIT. And, thirdly, we will look at how CHRIST IS THE SUSTAINING FRUIT. The common theme of these three points is “fruit.” We’re going to discover three different things about fruit which directly tie in with the Lord.

Firstly, then, CHRIST IS THE PERFECT FRUIT.

Perfect fruit has no blemishes. It’s not rotten, it’s not full of bugs, there is nothing wrong with it. It’s perfect! This point reflects upon the successful completion of Christ’s ministry. For why is it that Jesus rose from the dead? Why was He being taken up to heaven? Christ’s resurrection and ascension show us the Heavenly Father accepting the sacrifice Christ made on our behalf. When our Lord cried out, in Luke 23:46 those last words upon the cross, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit,” He was laying before God the whole of His work upon this earth. Had He been true to His calling? Did He fail in any way? Was there any temptation amongst the thousands Satan hurled at Him which had tripped Jesus up, was there any sin that had gotten in the way? Absolutely not! Christ’s task had been completely fulfilled!

That is why at the end of His time on the earth the Father took Him to Himself. His Son had proved Himself to be the new Adam who had not sinned. This is the good news, brothers and sisters! Christ Jesus has redeemed His people. His sacrifice has made them free for forever!

We may, and we do, sin. But He never did! And because Jesus never did wrong, we can now go to Him, asking Him to intercede on our behalf with the Father. As the apostle John describes it in his first letter, in 1 John 2:1-2, “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.” Christ was the perfect fruit! And He still is the perfect fruit!

Doesn’t this bring out the tremendous beauty of the book of Revelation? There, in Revelation 5:9-10, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders sing a new song to the Lamb, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

We see, in the ascending Lord, the God-man who has taken His rightful place of exaltation at God the Father’s right hand. He has done it! He has accomplished all that the Old Testament scriptures point forward to. Good news alright!

Yet, congregation, we need to move on to see how Christ’s exalted position has a bearing on us – His redeemed people. This is where we come to our second point. This is where we see CHRIST IS THE FIRST FRUIT.

You see, Jesus is giving us a taste of what is to come. Just as the very first fruit on a tree tells us that more will come, so we know that one day we will go up too. For the exalted Lord being taken up to heaven isn’t only the successful completion of an earthly ministry. This is not only the return of Jesus to his heavenly home as a triumphant king.

As Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:3-6, “Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” So what we have, then, with Christ’s ascension into heaven, is also a guarantee of what will come for us. Yes – for us, who belong to Him, who belong to His Glorious Body!

This wonderful truth is brought out in the following illustration from Abraham Kuyper. Think, he said, of the Lord Jesus as the head of a large family of migrants. Think of Him as the first one who leaves that family to go to a new and better country. He goes ahead! He goes there for the interest of the other members of the family. They will follow later!

When we speak of Christ and His glorious ascension, we are speaking of ourselves at the same time. The Church cannot possibly think of Christ’s departure, without, at the same time, thinking of her own life. It is He who went before, and it is we who are still waiting to follow Him. He is in heaven – we are on earth. He is in glory – we are still in the place of sin.

The trouble we face on this earth can really get to us sometimes – perhaps even most of the time! All that suffering, that sorrow, that sin. And it seems only to get worse, doesn’t it? But if you’re really one of His, you keep waiting, you keep on anticipating! Just like that migrant story. As some of you yourselves did once when you came here. Perhaps you had to wait in the old country for a while then?

Believers too are waiting! It won’t be long now! As those who are one with Christ we can be looking forward always with a keen, expectant, and uplifted head. Answer 49 says, “We have our own flesh in heaven – a guarantee that Christ our head will take us, his members, to himself in heaven.” And Hebrews 2:8-9, puts it this way, “At present we do not see everything subject to Christ. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honour.”

Our Lord Jesus is there in heaven, making everything ready for His beloved people. After all, didn’t He Himself say, in John 14:2, “In my Father’s house there are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.”

So this world is not our home! Just as for those migrants the old country isn’t their home. And much as they may have sentimental attachments to the old Queen they have a new one now!

In the same way spiritually we have to see that we’re only on this earth for a short while longer. Soon we will be with the true Head of our Family – Jesus Christ Himself!

This second point we entitled, Christ the first fruit. Christ being a first fruit shows that there is a harvest and soon the rest of it will be collected. Then there will be more fruit to join the first fruit. And in continuing the use of that word, fruit, we see, in the third place, that… CHRIST IS THE SUSTAINING FRUIT.

Congregation, that orange or apple or pear you are going to eat cannot just look good, or taste nice. The fruit needs to satisfy your hunger. You don’t want to feel as though you immediately have to eat another one!

In the same way, it is not enough that Christ has perfectly fulfilled His work for His Father. Neither is it enough that He shows Himself to be an indication of what is to come. Christ has to be more than the perfect and first fruit. For what about now? How are we to survive in the meantime?

Often it seems that the guidance of the Lord’s people isn’t mentioned much. We talk of His wonderful salvation, but we can under-emphasise His continuing presence. But his continuing presence with us is just as important, which is something this Lord’s Day certainly recognises. Question 47 anticipates this very question, as it asks, “But isn’t Christ with us until the end of the world, as He promised us?”

The answer is very clear: “Christ is true man and true God. In His human nature Christ is not now on earth; but in his divinity, majesty, grace and Spirit he is not absent from us for a moment.”

We haven’t been left as orphans, here, in a far-away land. Although in regards to His human nature Christ is in heaven, yet He’s still very much with us. Those divine and human parts of Christ are united in heaven.

We must never forget that Christ is true and living God. He has all the attributes – those particular characteristics – belonging to God. We only need to think here of His omnipotence, which tells us that He has all power. Then there is His omniscience, which means He knows all things. And His omnipresence, which means He’s everywhere at every moment. Christ Jesus wouldn’t be truly God if He didn’t possess these qualities! So we’re never left alone – not even for a second!

Christ’s presence with us is especially seen in the ongoing work of His Spirit. As we read with the third part of Answer 49, “he sends his Spirit to us on earth as a further guarantee. By the Spirit’s power we make the goal of our lives, not earthly things, but the things above where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand.”

In the Bible we can read about this in John’s Gospel. There, in chapter 14, John deals specifically with our Lord’s instructions about the coming of the Spirit. There Jesus tells of the Counsellor who will be with His followers until His return. And He says about the Spirit, in John 14:17-19, “The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him or knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you… Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.”

Our Lord Jesus is no longer walking those dusty roads of Palestine, preaching the good news, and healing the sick. That was only for a particular time, and for a special purpose. Instead we now have Christ here – in our hearts! It’s His Spirit who’s at work in the believer, leading him or her on the right path. For we’ve been raised with Christ! We are the rest of that harvest of fruit that will soon enter the new land.

The question that comes to us now, however, is this: Are we living like we’re on the way to that new land? Are we indeed pilgrims here in a foreign land? Do we follow the same journey as those saints of old described in Hebrews 11? In Hebrews 11:13-16, we read, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”

Brother, are you living out of your resurrection glory? Is the way you work at your job showing that there’s a real purpose to your life?

Sister, what about those times when you look back to what you’ve just left? Those moments of frustration when there is so much you just want to do, and things you want to have, and yet you don’t!

Young people, is the choice of your boyfriend or girlfriend being decided by who you’re going to spend eternity with? Or is it that fleeting worldly pleasure – that feeling you might miss out now – which dominates your mind?

To sin is to look to ourselves – to our wants, our pleasures, our world. But to glorify God is to honour Him – to hold His Name high in this wicked world. And isn’t holding His Name high a truly fitting reflection of where He now is?

Amen.

PRAYER:

Let’s pray…

Lord Jesus, our King in Heaven, how we are looking up to you right now! What glory is yours! And what a strength and comfort is ours since we know, in our hearts, where you are bringing us to.

O Lord, help us to trust in your redeeming work. Guide us to live your Life in our lives. Bless your people to extend your rule in a world where there are so many other rulers. This we pray in the forgiveness of our sins in your Name alone.

Amen.