We take great comfort and we have weeks of anticipation and celebration for Christmas, don't we? We make a whole season out of it. Right, as Easter gets close, each week we kind of build with excitement and we have Holy Week, a whole week to kind of dwell upon that moment. But the Ascension is something that we don't put as much emphasis on, right? We could really easily proclaim the gospel out of any of those events, right? Like, Jesus came to earth to save us. That's Christmas. He died on the cross for our sins. That's great. He rose on the dead in order that we might live. He's coming again to save us. But what about the Ascension? Do we feel like we could proclaim the gospel out of that? Well, again, I just highlight to say, we sometimes don't give it the airtime, perhaps, that it is due.
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But here's what some of the questions that the Ascension can help us answer. One, where's Jesus right now? Where is he? Second, what is he doing right now? Third, what is he waiting for? Why does he come back? And then when will he return? And then finally, what should we do? If we find ourselves needing him, I'm not going to go question by question tonight. But those are some of the things that if we're wondering why is this important, those are some of the questions that it answered.
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It's something that Jesus would say, uh whenever he uh whenever Jesus uh is um talking to the pharisees they're like okay well uh you know who is the christ who does the christ come from because they knew their old testaments they knew that the christ was descendant of david and jesus says if he's descended from david how does david call him my lord notice there are two lords david wrote the psalm the lord yahweh said to my lord who is david's lord as he stood before pontius pilot he said he said you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of the father again it comes from psalm 110 kind of emerging that with the son of man from daniel chapter 7 or on the day of pentecost remember peter preaches his sermon he's preaching the gospel from the old testament now i will say they didn't have the new testament written yet so that's why they were doing that a lot but they he preaches on joel too but then he gets to his kind of point of application and he quotes from three verses out of psalm or over the course of three verses quotes from psalm 110 just to demonstrate that jesus is enthroned at the right hand of the father that's where he reigns as the king of the universe and later he demonstrates that it refers to jesus's exaltation the fact that he should receive glory in the future.
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He currently whenever jesus ascended into heaven he is now the reigning over all of the universe as not only god but as the god man he's still in heaven as a human uh who sits by the father and one day we'll come again to victoriously again that second point who will put all of his enemies under his feet first timothy or first corinthians 5 25 all of his enemies will be subjected to him and he will reign uh we know that he intercedes for us colossians 3 1 if then you have been raised with christ set your mind on things above where christ is seated at the right hand of god.
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The right hand is the image of a king right who uh is saying to his heir or his co -regent that you have my authority you have my power you have my blessing but there's more than that right it's it so psalm 110 tells the story of a king who defeats his enemies remember how psalm 2 begins why should the nation say where is their god uh well that's actually psalm 150 i think actually both psalm 2 and 115 start with that but why should the nation's rage and the people's plot in vain those nations what psalm 10 says will be subdued by the one whom the lord will send namely his son and the reign has begun.
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And as the divine human Lord, Hebrews 6, 9, says that we have a sure and steadfast anchor for the soul, a hope that enters into the place behind the curtain. So again, this is what it means for Jesus to be in heaven with God.
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And again, we also have to think, what did Jesus say about this? Because he said, I think, one of the most ludicrous things that Jesus ever came out of Jesus' mouth, if we were in the room with him and he told it to us, we would say, you know, Jesus, you're Lord of the universe, you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God, and you're wrong. Because he says in John 6, verse 7, it's better that I leave.
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But why does he, how is it better? He tells them, if I don't leave, then I can't send you the helper, the comforter, which we know to be the Holy Spirit. Right? If Jesus, if there's, if Jesus is here on earth, that means that Jesus can only be here. Right? He can help us in the room. But Jesus has a lot more people to help. As the Lord of the universe, he intercedes for us.
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So our salvation is bound up in the fact that the Spirit's interceding. We go down to verse 34.Verse 33, Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
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So Jesus being in heavens, the word that we read earlier from Hebrews 4, he has passed through the heavenlies. There is a heavenly temple, which is an image of the earthly temple, or really it's the other way around. The earthly temple is an image of the heavenly temple. There's the Holy of Holies that only one person can go in one time a year. And Jesus goes in there. He sits down by the Father. And therefore, while he's by the Father, he's praying for us. And it means that we have someone to whom we can go to.
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I asked the question earlier, what should we do if we need him? What do we do in the present if we need the Lord? Well, we can pray to him, knowing that our request will come before the Father.
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So Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the Father. He's seated at the right hand of the Father. That means his work is done. That means that he reigns with the Father.
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But the Bible does tell us that God is the judge of all the earth. Again, we read a passage like Psalm 110 even. Again, so often spoken of in the New Testament about Jesus, and it's very clear that the king here whom we're talking about will defeat his enemies. It's kind of similar to language that we would find in Revelation 19, where Jesus shows up on a white horse, and with a legion of angels goes and defeats all the proponents of evil.
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Well, we do a few things. One, all of this bathed in prayer, clothed in prayer, we labor in hope, believing that the Lord will right all of these wrongs at some point in the future. We call out abuse. We name evil specifically. We work to eradicate these atrocities with the Holy Spirit's strength. But we also pray this prayer. And I think it's fitting to pray this, not on a day when you're just feeling tired, but especially in particular when we're feeling the weight of evil. This prayer that is really almost the last word of God in the New Testament. It's not the word of God. It's a word that John says. If you read, it's the last word in the Bible. Revelation chapter 22, verse 20. Even so, come Lord Jesus.
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This should break our hearts, but we look forward to the day when Jesus will come and make all things right. And this is what the angels told Jesus. Again, we go back to Acts chapter 1. We think in Acts chapter 1, Jesus ascends into heaven, and we have this commission from him. Go ye therefore into all the world, making disciples, beginning in Jerusalem, and going to Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. We have this great commission from Jesus.
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This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way you saw him go into heaven. He's going to come back. This is our hope. Remember, hope is that expectation we have of what God is going to do in the future. It means, how is he going to come in the same way? He's going to come bodily. He's going to come visibly. And he's going to come with angels. Again, to defeat the powers of evil. And whenever Jesus defeats evil, what does it also mean? It means that he saves his own.
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We praise God because, as 1 Thessalonians 1, 9 and 10 said, We turn to God from idols to serve the living and the true God. And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead. Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. We wait for his Son. All the while we pray, come Lord Jesus.
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The Lord's Supper is like the hors d 'oeuvres of the wedding feast of the Lamb. Go read Revelation 19, and you see this picture of a bridegroom coming to have a feast with his bride. And the bride, we're told, is the church. And there's going to be a banquet there. That's the image the Bible uses of what it's going to be like whenever we're with him. And the Lord's Supper is like the hors d 'oeuvres. It's just a foretaste. Especially if it's just a little crackers and juice. I mean, imagine a feast compared to that. It's going to be great. But we pray for the Lord to come now.
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And the older I get, I'm not very old, but the older that I get, the more eagerly I pray that prayer. Stuff happens. Stuff happens in your own life. Stuff happens in the world. And it's heartbreaking. Sometimes it happens at such a pace that you can't even keep up with it in your prayers. You don't know how to pray. But we pray this prayer. Come, Lord Jesus.
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We also take comfort in the fact that because Jesus went to be with God in heaven, he sent his spirit to us. The spirit groans for us. Even when we don't know what words to say. Because Jesus sent his spirit to us.
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