Word of Salvation – Vol.3 No.13 – May 1957
Ascension Festival, 1957
Sermon by Rev. W. F. Van Brussel on Luke 24:50-53
Hymn 92:2,3
Hymn 401 (After Confession of Faith)
Hymn 132 (After collection)
Hymn 362:3,4 (After the sermon)
Hymn 90:1,2 (closing)
Hymn 425 (after the benediction)
Scripture Reading: Acts 1:1-12
Translated by John Westendorp.
- Translator’s note: early editions of ‘Word of Salvation’ still had some sermons in Dutch for the migrant communities that then made up the Reformed Churches of Australia.
- In the Netherlands Ascension Day is was?) a Public Holiday – hence the title ‘Ascension Festival 1957’
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
The Ascension Gospel tells us that we are rich. That is very useful to us, because we often pretend to be poor. It appears to be a very big job for us to imagine and especially to empathize with the joy of Lord’s Day 18 of the Catechism.
Our much-praised fathers have confessed the USEFULNESS of Christ’s Ascension in a precious series of joyful cries.
– He is our ADVOCATE before the face of His Father. Should this not be a fact of real daily comfort for us?
– Furthermore, we have OUR flesh IN HEAVEN as a sure pledge, that He as the Head will also take our members unto Himself. Should this not make the walk to the graveyard possible for us again and again?
– And finally, He sends us His SPIRIT as a counter-pledge, by Whose power we seek what is above and not what is on earth.
With this confession in our pockets, we will have to learn to be rich. And that is why it is good that we may deliberately come and listen to the Ascension message today.
THE LORD JESUS IS SEPARATED FROM THOSE WHO ARE HIS..!
- How did that go?
- What was the effect?
1. The moment has now finally arrived when the Lord Jesus will part from His own. The 40 days in which the Father wanted to leave Him on earth for the sake of His disciples have also now come to an end. The King will ascend His throne. After everything that had to happen on earth has been accomplished, the glory, to which the Saviour has a right, is now open.
Man of sorrows He is NOW no longer.
Lord of Glory is NOW His Name.
Therefore His place can no longer be on the footstool, but He comes on the Throne, to the right hand of the Majesty of God.
The Master remained with His disciples for a while in Jerusalem on this day, perhaps in the same room in which He celebrated the Holy Supper with them before His bitter death.
At a certain moment He rises and goes out with His disciples. OUTSIDE, as His work has brought Him so often outside Jerusalem. Once very fiercely and very lonely, when He suffered and died outside the gates of Jerusalem. In fact, all the great events in the life of our Saviour happened OUTSIDE Jerusalem!
This final event, which concludes His sojourn among us on earth, will also take place outside the Holy City. Through the Eastern Gate He leaves the City for the last time with His disciples and chooses His way through the Kedron Valley.
Even on the way, the Lord Jesus is still talking to His friends. He is still busy giving them insight into the mysteries of His Kingdom. They are still receiving their final instructions; but also new promises!
The apostles must remain in Jerusalem, even though Jerusalem has lost all its attraction for them. They will not sing the praises of Jerusalem so easily on their own. But however fierce the opposition of Jerusalem may have been against the Lord Jesus and against all who have testified for Him against the sins of the “Holy City”, Jerusalem will still remain the base of operations for the coming events in the Kingdom.
Many times the Master has spoken to them of the things that would come when He should be separated from them. Quietly, and trusting in the promises of their Master, they must now wait. Another Comforter will come, who will continue and crown His labours; who will fill them with the wisdom and grace necessary for their apostolic work. The Spirit of Truth will come, who will remind them of all that the Master has taught them by Word and Deed. They will soon be faced with a surprising reality and they will certainly not have to feel like abandoned sheep. On the contrary, it is to their advantage that the Master goes away.
There is no talk of impoverishment by their Master departing from them. It will be enriching, however strange and impossible that may seem. There can be no talk of decline or stagnation in the Kingdom.
Thus the Master prepares them for the miracle of Pentecost. But that it is now really about a separation, is not clear to them until the very end. Luke tells in Acts 1 of their old misunderstanding, which still plays tricks on them: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” They still cannot let go of their horizontal line of thought. It seems as if the teaching of the Lord Jesus has had no effect on them. As long as that Spirit of Truth has not been sent, they will not possibly be capable of carrying out their task.
In the meantime, the Mount of Olives has been reached and the journey continues upwards. When the top is reached, one has a fascinating view of the surroundings. From there, one looks far over Jerusalem to the Mediterranean Sea. To the east, one sees the Jordan meandering and in the south, the water surface of the Dead Sea becomes visible. Every glance, in whatever direction, is at the same time a memory. This entire land, the Lord Jesus with his disciples, has crisscrossed – and NOW here on this mountain it still looks as if everything has been for nothing.
About this the Saviour nevertheless doesn’t speak a word. Speaking is something He apparently no longer does from this moment on. He extends his hands out over his disciples and blesses them but at the same time an invisible hand pulls Him upward before their very eyes – as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world. There are not even any accompanying phenomena as there were in some previous events in salvation history. Silently and solemnly the figure of the Saviour rises heavenward. A moving event this Ascension..!
Moving especially because those arms of the Saviour over His disciples and at the same time over the country remain extended. This memory remained so strongly with the apostles, that they apparently told it with great emphasis to Luke because Luke mentions this fact twice in these few verses.
It is understandable that this has particularly affected them. It makes this Ascension stand out so beautifully as a harmonious conclusion to a life of blessing. The Master’s entire existence on earth has been one continuous blessing. Wherever He went, He left a blessing behind. Whether He attended a wedding or a funeral, whether He was in the market place or in private, everywhere He distributed divinely abundant blessing. Blessing was there in His Words, because grace was poured out on His lips. Even hostile and neutral people came to the recognition: NEVER has a man spoken like THIS! In His Words there always bubbled spirit and life. How wonderfully His liberating Word sounded each time: Man, your sins are forgiven! What an effect His Words have had in confused and contrite hearts.
And He did NOT LIMIT it to Words. His DEEDS were always surprising blessings. How many blind people could now see again, cripples could walk again, deaf people could hear again, lame people could move freely. Even the dead were brought back to life by Him.
This gesture, with which He ascends to heaven, is not at all disturbing. It suits Him completely. He has proven to be nothing but a blessing.
And now with this blessing He concludes all His blessed work on earth.
Involuntarily we think of the story of the grey Zacharias, who after having completed his task in the temple blessed the crowd in the forecourt. Zacharias’ blessing was but a shadow, a symbol.
The blessing of the Mount of Olives is REALITY, lasting reality.
Here our only High Priest departs from His people, after He has fully accomplished the work of Atonement. God has accepted the Sacrifice of His Son, which He offered in perfect obedience on Golgotha. The Covenant of grace and reconciliation, the new and everlasting testament is NOW concluded. These arms extended over the disciples are the crowning of the work of the Mediator and signify the blessing for the Church, which will be built on the foundations of the apostles.
This is the blessing that applies to the Church of all times, that also applies today and tomorrow to you, congregation of Christ.
– WITH HIM WE were crucified on the hill of Golgotha,
– WITH HIM WE were raised in the Garden,
– WITH HIM WE are now seated in heaven!
– WITH HIM you, my brother and sister, are blessed
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
On this day of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of the 1000 year reign has begun its course. For although we live in a dying world, as long as the hands of the Saviour of the world extend themselves over it in blessing, it STILL REMAINS an Ascension Day.
This saving fact is told to us by the gospels without much ado. John and Matthew do not even mention the Ascension. The others do it in a single sentence. The gospels dwell least extensively on this Coronation Feast, so that there is a real danger that the FESTIVENESS of this event escapes us.
Those who deny this miracle of the Ascension have found reason for their denial in this meagre reporting (they say!). However, there is also another explanation possible, which is much, much better. It is this: This miracle is actually self-evident. Not many words are needed for this. Anyone who has followed the gospels up to this point is NOT surprised or disappointed by THIS ending, but instead, only satisfied. This is how it HAD to come about! The purpose of Christ’s coming to earth HAS been achieved! Long enough, too long He has had to share our existence. And how?
On this Ascension, this return Home, this life had to climax. Could heaven remain closed to Him? To Him, Who Himself opened heaven for US?
2. It is understandable that all this did not immediately penetrate the mind of the apostles. Even though the Master had prepared them for this several times.
A farewell forever always affects us deeply. That must have been how they felt at first. OF COURSE they stood there looking up..! It would have been strange if they hadn’t done that.
Yet they did not feel themselves to be like ORPHANS, although the appearance of the cloud that hid Him from their sight was painful at first.
As the FIRST, they also tasted the joy of believing WITHOUT seeing. Until now, the two had always gone together for them. Now the time of seeing was over. But faith remained, also because of the encouraging word of the angel.
Finally, THIS cannot have perplexed them, as Golgotha had once dismayed them. THIS has satisfied them. THIS is victory …CAN be nothing but victory. They no longer have their Master with them as before, but they cannot grieve. Here is room for great joy, for the song of praise in the temple.
So they return to Jerusalem. Without the Master now, without Him suddenly appearing among them again. And yet they do not feel like sheep without a Shepherd. Purposefully they return to the Holy City.
This is the outworking of the Ascension event on the apostles, who are now no longer confused: JOY, PRAISE!
This Salvation Fact must have the same effect on us. We too can NOT linger on this Mount of Olives, although everything here speaks of peace and joy. Just as the apostles had to return to that city, which, after all that had happened could no longer be dear to them, to the place that had so bitterly disappointed them, so we too must return to Jerusalem.
Jerusalem has NOT changed at all when they return there.
It is not JERUSALEM that has awakened this joy in them and motivated them to this praise. It was the farewell blessing of their departing Master. But this same Ascension blessing today has the same undiminished value for all who are in Christ. Why then do OUR voices of praise resound so little when we return to our Jerusalem? After all, those are the moments when we sing God’s praise with full voice!
From where do we get that same joy today that we see here with the apostles? How can we share in their happiness? Only when the fact of the Ascension of our Saviour is seen to stand in the centre of our lives. There must be a bond of faith between OUR life of today and Ascension of our Saviour and Lord.
All around there are many difficulties in our lives. The battle is often full on. The losses are heavy and paralysing often the wounds. Serious is the sin and often discouraging the course of events. Satan is still powerful always – even though he is bound – and every day he has it in for us again. He knows only too well our weak spots and how to take advantage of them.
There is so much which robs us of our resilience and darkens our joy.
And YET we will NOT go under with such a Gospel.
Yet our joy must keep prevailing or get the upper-hand.
That’s possible! But then you must also look exclusively to the King Who sits at the right hand of God in His Lordship.
– THERE is the victory;
– THERE is ALL power;
– THERE is He, Who has defeated all enemies;
even up to and including the last and greatest has defeated.
WE NEVER win.
But THE victory is already won for everyone who believes.
The devil can easily be defeated by US. NOT HIM!
OUR path may be pitch dark, but in the darkness HE remains our LIGHT.
It may become terribly oppressive in Jerusalem, where God wants us to be, but we can STILL be filled with great joy.
Even though you sometimes see no way out, even though you stumble in many things, NO ONE can EVER snatch you out of the hand of Christ, your King.
Congregation, are you also going back to Jerusalem with great joy, because BEHIND YOU LIES THE MOUNT OF OLIVES!
ASCENSION…!
AND THEREFORE FOR YOU A CLEAR VIEW OF GLORY!
Amen.