Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 30 – May 1981

 

Victorious Ascension

 

Sermon by Rev. J. H. Derkley on Ephesians 4:8

Scripture Reading: Acts 1:6-11, Rev. 5:6-14

Psalter Hymnal: 42; 365; 318:2,4; 125; 299:1,2

 

Beloved Congregation, Boys and Girls,

The children among us may find it a bit strange that you have to go to church on a week day (night). It only happens a few times each year. One of them is Christmas Day, but that is a very special day anyway and you would not easily forget Christmas! Then there is Good Friday, and that too is a very special day — it falls on a holiday too: Easter holidays. At other times, if you do go to church on a weekday it must be some thing “out of the ordinary”, like a wedding, or perhaps a funeral. Today is different. There is no wedding taking place, nor a funeral being conducted. It is not Christmas either and Good Friday was about a month and a half ago. Today is Ascension Day.

Maybe some have never heard of that day. It literally means “Going Up Day”, and it refers to the day the Lord Jesus went up into heaven to go back home to be with His Father.

This day is rather strange. In our country it is not a public holiday. There are no special things like trees and decorations for Christmas or eggs for Easter. It is as if the people in general have no interest in Ascension Day – in fact you hardly ever find it mentioned on calendars or in diaries. But it is sad that even Christians seem to have little to say or to sing about the Ascension of the Lord Jesus – there are only a few hymns or gospel songs about this event. Some churches don’t mention it at all. Other churches may remember Ascension on the Sunday after the traditional Thursday Ascension Day because people might not have time or interest to go to church on this day.

Why is that? Is the Ascension of our Lord so unimportant that it is not necessary to have a special church service for it? Or what is wrong with it that it doesn’t seem to have captured our imagination very much?

There is nothing wrong with the event of the Ascension! There is rather something wrong with us if or when we don’t get thrilled by it, or if we don’t consider it a day for celebration! For the Bible regards the Ascension of our Lord as much more than an event hardly worth being mentioned. When you look again at this part of the Bible which we took as our text, you discover that the apostle Paul called it an event of the greatest significance. In fact, he painted the Ascension in bright colours as a glorious entry of a victorious warrior.

In Paul’s time the Romans were the rulers of the world. Their authority reached over a large part of the globe, from the centre in Rome to deep in Europe, Africa, Asia, even into England.

Generally there was peace throughout the wide-spread empire, but sometimes a tribe would revolt and try to wrestle itself free from the Romans. The great emperor in Rome would send one of his generals with his army to restore order among the rebelling people and bring peace again. At other times the emperor might be interested in a country that had not been annexed yet. He would again order one of his most capable generals to go and conquer that country. After the battle was fought and usually won by the superior forces of the Romans the general would come back to Rome with the loot of the war. Precious pieces of art, religious objects, war machinery, whatever was considered to be of value was carried away from that country and brought in procession to Rome, to be shown to the emperor and to the people crowding along the streets. Hundreds or thousands of prisoners of war and other people captured in the war walked ahead of the general as a show of the might of the conquering Romans. Roman soldiers in their finest uniforms, officers on horseback, trumpeters, drummers, the general himself resplendent in his chariot — one long, impressive and — for the Romans — thrilling procession marching through the streets of Rome, up to the palace of the emperor where the general would be rewarded publicly by the emperor himself!

Many Christians in Paul’s days knew that picture all too well; they may actually have seen it, they personally may have walked in it as soldiers OR as prisoners — or at least they would have heard the description of the eye-blinding glare and its ear-piercing blare. Nothing, but nothing could compare with such dash and display they thought.

Paul was not writing about some successful Roman general, but about the Lord Jesus Christ! The Ascension was HIS glorious home-coming. He had been away — to fight a battle; THE battle, the titanic struggle with the strongest, cleverest, meanest, most vicious enemy earth has ever known — with the roaring lion, the vile liar, the prince of darkness, Satan himself. It had been a fight of life and death, a fight to free countless millions held as hopeless victims in the power of the enemy – OR – if the battle would have been lost (perish the thought!) to see them all perish under the cruel hatred of Satan. The enemy thought that he had won, when Jesus was nailed to that cross and when he died and even more so when he saw Jesus securely locked up in a grave, finished for ever he thought.

But then the great surprise took place. Jesus broke the power of death! Jesus broke open the sealed grave and the brave guards fled in terror. Thereby He demonstrated that He had broken the stranglehold of Satan upon Himself and upon every single one of His people. Jesus had become the Conqueror, He had won! The strife was over, the battle done; the victory of life was won; the song of triumph had begun. Hallelujah!

Now Jesus had the right to prepare Himself for HIS glorious homeward journey. And Ascension was that glorious day! Why doesn’t the church, why don’t all Christians, line the roads of this world and crowd the cities to shout out their joy. Jesus! He has won! We are free! Hallelujah!

As a matter of fact, when Paul was looking for adequate words to describe this thrilling event, he just had to quote from the Psalms; Psalm 68:18. That Psalm logically does not speak about a Roman general, not even of victorious David who had slain his ten thousands. This Psalm speaks of the ark, that particular box which stood for the special presence of God among His people.

Many, many years ago it had been removed from its place to “go into battle”. It had been captured by the enemy Philistines, it had been carried around in their midst, from city to city, then it was returned to Israel, where again it was transported from place to place for years. At last, after many, many years it was coming into the capital city, into Jerusalem. What a thrill it was, what excitement; it was one of the greatest feasts experienced by Israel. It was not just the acceptance of a piece of temple furniture, but “God Himself is with us, let us now adore Him.”

Paul applied THAT text to the Ascension of the Lord Jesus! So Jesus was much greater than any Roman general; Jesus was GOD! Just like the ark of the presence had gloriously entered into the sanctuary prepared for it, so now Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, entered into THE sanctuary, not made with hands, not of this earth, to receive His crowning glory from God Himself — there to sit down at the right hand of God.

That’s what Ascension Day celebrates. It celebrates the honour of the Lord Jesus! Jesus did receive honour and glory and power beyond what any man could ever imagine:

Saints on earth, lift up your eyes
now to GLORY see Him rise
in long TRIUMPH through the sky
up to waiting worlds on high.
Heaven unfolds its portals wide
mighty CONQUEROR through them ride,
KING OF GLORY, mount Thy THRONE,
BOUNDLESS EMPIRE is Thine own.

No wonder that Paul strung words of praise together as a garland to express his joy. Shouldn’t we do the same?

You would expect that all these people along the roads would come running up with presents in their hands to express their congratulations for the victorious warrior. Many did. Also when it comes to the victory of our Lord Jesus, we would love to do the same. But, “what language shall I borrow, to thank Thee, dearest Friend”? All our words, all our gifts, would be inadequate to compare with what He has done for us. True, we sing, and often we mean it, “Take my life, my hands, my feet, my intellect, my silver and my gold.” Even in heaven, those who are standing around the throne cast down their golden crowns in honour of Him who sits upon the Throne. Gratitude for Jesus and thankfulness for the deliverance He has brought about never comes to an end.

But in our text Paul wrote, HE gave gifts to men. He turned everything upside down when He did not sit down to await what we were going to hand to Him, but He stood up to hand gifts to us. In fact, Paul even changed his quotation from Psalm 68 where it says clearly, “and RECEIVING gifts among men” into “and He GAVE gifts to men”. Paul was entirely justified. For what no man would do, Jesus would do pass on gifts to His people.

What sort of gifts would he give? Well… what about health, work, love peace? Beautiful things indeed. But Paul did not mention them here. Perhaps faith, assurance, joy? More beautiful still, yet Paul did not mention them either. What he did name as the gifts from the victorious glorious, Jesus to His people are: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers.

In other words, the original office-bearers who wrote about the Lord Jesus, His life and death are the gifts meant. The men who explained for us the Old Testament and gave the books of the New Testament — as well as these men today whose central calling it is to let us see always more of the glory of our Lord Jesus as He is revealed for us in Scripture are the gifts given unto men.

How appropriate! The glorious Conqueror gave us His “Code of Law” which at the same time is His “Promise of Grace”, and He made sure that throughout the centuries there would be men given and fitted by Him to lead His church onward toward the great Day. It means that He made sure, right from that moment that not just HE would be the glorious, victorious One, but that ALL His people young and old, rich or poor, whoever, would share in that glory, that they all would attain the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, mature manhood, the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. That’s the glory He has, and He wants His church to share it, to be like Him, conquerors of sin and satan, glorious in holiness. Not only He, but we all, to be like Him.

Perhaps, instead of a largely forgotten day, Ascension Day should become the High Day of rejoicing and of rededication to our high calling. Ascension Day should be the day of assurance of our own final Conquest.

Amen.