Word of Salvation – Vol. 33 No. 21 – June 1988

 

Christ’s Ascension Into Heaven

 

Sermon by Rev. M. P. Geluk on Lord’s Day 18

Reading: John 14:1-3; 26-31; 16:5-16

Singing: Ps.H.42:1,2; Ps.H.42:3; BoW.H.505; BoW.H.508; Ps.H. 125: 3,4

 

The birth of Jesus Christ means that the Son of God, who from eternity dwelt with God in heaven, came to live among us as a human being in order to save us from our sins.  The death of Jesus Christ means that the Son of God was punished for our sins.  The resurrection of Jesus Christ means that the Son of God conquered forever the power of sin and death.  Christ will not die again.  But when He arose, would He now stay on this earth forever, so that all generations after the resurrection could see Him and touch Him?

We know that this was not in the plan of God.  Christ left the earth and ascended to heaven.  He came to earth through the womb of an ordinary, human mother.  In order to save man He became like man in every way, except sin.  For it was sin that He came to conquer.  He left the earth, having completed the work of salvation, and returned to His heavenly Father.  He left the earth as the victorious Saviour, the conqueror over sin and death.  His departure from earth was as miraculous as His coming.  Mary all of a sudden discovered that she had conceived, yet was still a virgin.  But there was a child in her womb.  When He ascended, He was a human being in the prime of life.  Only God can perform a virgin birth, and only God can perform a bodily ascension from earth to heaven.  The disciples saw it happen.  Right in front of their eyes they saw Him go up into the sky.  He blessed them as He went up and then a cloud drifted by and they saw Him no more.  He had come from heaven and returned to heaven.  But why could He not stay on earth after He had risen?  Why the ascension?

Let us look at Christ’s Ascension into Heaven.

1.  What we are to understand by heaven.

2.  The struggle of the church to understand Jesus’ continuing presence.

3.  The three benefits of the Ascension.

1.  In the first place let us try to understand something of heaven, for that is where Jesus went.  Christians generally do not question the existence of heaven but non-Christians do.  They prefer to think of heaven, and its opposite, hell, as being either extremely good or bad situations on earth.  Heaven may mean being married to the person of your dreams, hell is when that person marries someone else.  Heaven may mean a wonderful holiday on a South Pacific cruise, hell is when the boat capsizes and goes down to the bottom.  Non-Christians think only in terms of this earth and this life.  Christians believe there is more; there is God, eternity, and the existence of heaven and hell away from this earth.

The Bible uses the word heaven in a number of ways.  We can mention three.  Heaven is first what you see when you look up into the sky.  When it is night and stars are visible, then the Bible calls that “the host of heaven.”  Actually, the Bible speaks of three levels.  There is heaven above, the earth beneath, and the waters below.  By this the Bible does not mean to deny that the earth is round.  It simply expresses what man sees around him.  And in Scripture people often spoke of height as being closer to God and depth as being far removed from His presence.  To sink into the depths of the earth, as in the grave for instance, meant being forsaken by God.  Or to be lifted up into the heavens, is to be near God.  Although elsewhere, as in Psalm 139, God is confessed as being everywhere present.  So when in Ephesians 4:9-10 Christ is spoken of as having descended to the lower, earthly regions, and then having ascended higher than all the heavens, then it simply refers to Christ being forsaken by His Father whilst on the cross, and Him being now extremely close to His Father in heaven.  So heaven can simply mean what is above the earth.

The second use of heaven in the Bible is seeing it as the place where God lives.  God is everywhere of course.  But heaven is His headquarters, the place from where He rules and controls all things.  “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool,” God told the people through the prophet Isaiah (66:1).

Then the third use of heaven is when heaven is another word for “God”.  Think of the phrase, “the Kingdom of heaven.”  It means and is quite often spoken of as “the kingdom of God.”

All three uses of “heaven” help us to understand the ascension of Christ.  He went up, into heaven, close to where God is.  He went to the place from where God rules over the whole universe.  And Christ went in order to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth.

In Paradise that was not necessary.  God reigned in Paradise as perfectly as in heaven.  There, heaven and earth were in harmony.  Adam and Eve were creatures who lived on the earth.  God the creator lived in heaven but dwelled also in Paradise.  The communication and fellowship between God and the creatures He made knew no barriers.  There was complete interaction.

But when the fall into sin occurred, then all kinds of barriers sprang up.  Sin is rebellion and our first parents refused the rule of heaven over earth.  This broke the harmony.  And it has been like that ever since.  The people who live on the earth do not understand heaven anymore.  They are constantly building human kingdoms that are opposed to and different from the kingdom of God, or of heaven.  The tower of Babel is an early example, the anti-God political systems of today are modern examples.  All earthly kingdoms that ignore God and His Word, whether they be political, philosophical, scientific, military, or commercial, are examples of rebellion.  People simply refuse the rule of heaven.

But sin is not only rebellion, it also causes fear.  The Bible, in 1John, says fear is present because men know they will be punished for their sins.  The people of the earth do not love.  Their rebellion against God means there is no love for Him.  People rebel against one another, so there is no love among people either.  And when there is no love, hate prevails and men kill and destroy each other.

Thus conscious of their sins they fear heaven and cannot stand its goodness, purity and holiness.  This leads men into slavery to all that is base and earthly.  When earth-dwellers are not ruled by heaven, they become the subjects of the dark powers of the earth.  Powers which are from the pit, which are demonic.  And demonic forces do terrible things to God’s good creation.

You can see now that a whole lot more goes on than just atheistic communism and godless capitalism.  There are hidden forces at work behind AIDS and other evils that threaten to destroy man.  There is a struggle not only of visible but also of invisible forces.  “Our struggle,” says God, “is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph.6:12).

Really, we live between heaven and hell; we exist between God and the devil; we are attracted to the good things of heaven but are dragged down by the things from hell.  The battle is not just on earth, it is between heaven and earth.  It is not our inventions, ideologies, cultures, and conquests that determine the future of this earth.  Our future is decided in the realm of the spirits, with the cosmic forces.  But see Christ: He ascended to heaven having conquered the evil, spiritual powers by His death and resurrection.  The unity that was once there between heaven and earth, and broken by hell, has been restored.  We know it for we have a risen Christ in heaven.  Our hope therefore is not with the kingdoms of the earth but with Him who is in heaven.

So let us believe that earth needs heaven.  Without the rule of heaven, earth becomes as cold and impersonal as a computer.  Without heaven we see no light, our minds dim for there is no hope, the heart aches and the soul remains in darkness.  But Christ is in heaven and from there He governs the earth in order for God’s plan of salvation to be completely fulfilled.  Let us recognise that rule and thankfully embrace it.  For where it is resisted, the forces of The Pit take over.  But all power in heaven and on earth belongs to Christ and no corner of the earth needs to remain in darkness.  Jesus is Lord; the devil is on a chain.  The gospel may be proclaimed everywhere and men and women can be set free.  Such are the beautiful things that we may understand when we confess with the words of the Apostles’ Creed that Christ ascended into heaven.

2.  But then in the second place let us briefly see the struggle of the church in trying to understand Jesus’ continuing presence.  We could ask here: is it so difficult?  The Lord Jesus ascended into heaven but that does not mean He is absent from His people.  On the contrary, He is with us, for He said: “And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt.28:20).

However, things became difficult, even controversial, when the church began to argue as to what of Christ is in heaven and what on earth.  No one wanted to split Christ for all knew He is one Person.  But this one Person of Christ had two natures, a human and a divine.  Yet, you cannot say that whilst Christ in His human nature is not on earth but in heaven, that His human nature is separated from His divine nature.  Christ is with us in His divine nature but that does not mean that His divine nature is not with His human nature.  His divine nature is everywhere, but is His human nature everywhere?  That’s the struggle and there are some today who say that this difficulty need not be part of the church’s confession.  Maybe they are right.  When the Catechism was written there were many struggles about Christ’s presence in the Lord’s Supper.  For that of course is what lies at the back of the questions and answers 47 and 48 of Lord’s Day 18.

The Roman Catholic church said that the body of Christ is really present in the bread and wine when they are consecrated.  So for them Christ’s human nature is still on earth.  Luther could not hold to this teaching that the bread and wine actually became the body and blood of Christ, but neither did he reject it altogether.  Luther’s position became known as a half-way position.  Calvin denied the bodily presence of Christ in in the Lord’s Supper.  Christ is in heaven as a glorified human being, seated at the right hand of the Father, he said.  And therefore the Reformed Churches say, before they eat bread and drink wine at the table of the Lord, “Now lift up your hearts to God and remember Jesus Christ who sits in glory at God’s right hand.”

So when the church came to confess the implications of Christ’s ascension then you can see that the struggle as to the whereabouts of Christ’s human nature came to the forefront again.  But maybe it should only be dealt with when the presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper is confessed.  With Christ’s ascension, the church could simply confess that Christ is now in heaven and that He is also with us in the person of the Holy Spirit.

3.  And with that we turn finally to the three benefits the Catechism mentions which come to us from Christ’s ascension.

The first is that Christ in heaven is praying for us.  Romans 8:34 says that Christ “is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”  In 1John 2:1 that intercessory work of Christ is described as, “one who speaks to the Father in Our defence.”  Christians are assured that because of what Christ has done for them they have fellowship with the Father, and with each other.  But when we have sinned we experience alienation.  We feel forsaken and estranged.  But then it says, “if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defence – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”

It can easily happen that we picture this heavenly scene in the wrong way.  We see a courtroom in heaven and there is God the Father who sternly looks down at us because of our sin.  At any moment now He will judge us for our sins.  But then God the Son quickly steps up to the Father and reminds Him that as Saviour He has already paid for all our sins.  If that is the picture we have in our minds then we should correct it because it dishonours the Father.  He is not the One about to judge us, He is God who so loved us that He sent Christ into the world to save us.  The Father initiated our salvation, He is not about to condemn us.  No, the scene in heaven is where Satan accuses us of sin before God.  He, as it were, says to God that He is holy and cannot have anything to do with us sinners.  But Christ, standing next to the Father, says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me” (Heb.2:13).  And Satan has to back off for Christ by His sacrifice has made us perfectly acceptable to the Father.

So that is one tremendous benefit of having Christ in heaven Satan cannot capitalise on the sins we still do.

The second benefit says that Christ is in heaven as our forerunner or trail-blazer.  That may sound a bit ordinary but it makes more sense than saying that through Christ we have our own flesh in heaven.  What is meant, of course, is that we can be sure of our bodily resurrection and our place on the new heaven and earth, because Christ Himself was raised in the body and went in the body to heaven.  But in that sense we can speak of Christ as our forerunner or trail-blazer.  As He is now, so we will be.

There are many sayings of Christ that remind us of this.  “I am going there to prepare a place for you…  a place for you…  I will come back and take you to be with me so that you also may be where I am.”  (John 14:2,3).  And, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory.” (John 17:24). 

Migrant families will remember that in the 1950’s not always the whole family went to the new country.  Sometimes the father went first.  He found work, saved enough money to secure a place to live and made things ready for the whole family.  Then when all necessary things were prepared, he got prepared, he got the rest of the family over and they could be all together again in the new country.  The father was the trail-blazer.  So also Christ.  Someday he is going to say, “Now all of you should come.”

The third benefit of Christ in heaven is Him having sent us His Spirit.  Sometimes Christians wish that Christ was still present in the body.  They envy the disciples a bit who could see and touch Christ and be eye and ear witnesses of His saving work.  But we should not be wiser than Christ and trust Him that it is better for us that He is in heaven carrying on with His saving work from heaven’s control room.  In His farewell speeches to the disciples, found in John 14-17, Jesus said a number of times that it is good for them that He is ascending to the Father.

To see the advantage of Christ in heaven and His Spirit with us on earth, we should take a close look at the disciples before and after the resurrection and ascension.  In the letters of the New Testament, not the Gospels, we see the power of God in the apostles.  Before they acted cowardly and fearfully, but when they received the Spirit they went forth in Christ’s name with boldness and power.  Look at the beauty of the New Testament epistles, their depth and richness.  The Spirit of Christ led the authors into all truth.

There is really no difference between having Christ and having the Spirit.  But we speak of Christ being seated on the throne in heaven, overseeing the whole operation of the gathering in the elect of God.  He knows all things, fights off Satan as He defends the church.  From His control room He mobilises all spiritual forces loyal to Him to add to the church all those chosen to eternal life.  Christ is like a general with the plan of the whole spiritual battle in front of Him.  He knows where the enemy is strongest, where to employ His troops first.  We do not get to see all that.  We are on the battlefield.  But we know what goes on for we all carry with us a book wherein God has revealed Himself and the plan of His operation.  We must often look into this book, for without it we would be in the dark.  We make mistakes and get hurt.  And to help us understand what the book says, what God is doing, yes to sense what is going on around us and in us, we have been given the Holy Spirit.

It is a wonderful blessing to have the Spirit of God.  Without Him we could so easily lose sight of our goal and think there is only earth and no heaven.  Without Him we may well begin thinking, as those do who do not have Him, that it is the here and now that counts.  They say that there is no heaven and no hell and that you just live for a while and therefore you are better of getting the most out of it.  These people also know the history of the world, except they are not sure as to when it all began.  Probably a long, long time ago and from different forms of life man gradually evolved.  How long the world will go on for, no one knows.  But they are terribly afraid of infections, diseases and nuclear wars.  That could be the end of everything.  But Christians do not see it like that.  God’s Spirit helps them see the spiritual battle that erupted after the fall into sin.  A battle that goes on until Christ returns!  But Christians are not afraid.  They know God created the earth and the heavens and that He will claim it all back again.  They know because Christ became man on earth to defeat Satan and save the elect.  He ascended to heaven to finish the operation and from there He will return to bring in the perfect earth where Satan, sin and death just do not exist.  Christians know this because the book says so, and God’s Spirit helps them to understand and believe it.

Amen