Ascension 2023

Good evening and may you be very blessed on this feast of ascension day!

I turned 41 this year in February which means as you may have done the math and guessed I was just in college when LOTR came out...

I know that is exactly the math I do when people tell me their age. And since then I have been on the front row to watch a lot of epic cinema come out.

Like most people my favorite part is the climax that has been curated by both the writer of the source material and the directing team. But I must say that The LOTR Two towers was my favorite of all those climactic endings. The final Battle at Helms Deep. When the Hero arrives just in time to save the day…Okay enough with the spoilers of a 20 year old movie about a 70 year old book…I should give you chance to go read see it right?

I bring it up only to remind us that the Apocalyptic literature in its day was meant to invoke emotions in and steel the hearts of people in Crisis.

Main Point: The revelation of Jesus Ascension to the Throne in Daniel 500 years before the event is meant to give hope to the people of Israel who are in exile about a promised event. And it should give us more hope now that we know it has taken place.

So we turn to our text today…I am reading out of the ESV

Quick Context the book of Daniel is ;first the narrative of the life of Daniel: a Hebrew exile in Babylon who is God’s mouth piece to the King Nebecannezzar. The second half of the book are apocalyptic visions given to Daniel from God. Daniel has done the math and is expecting that any day the Exiles 70 years will be up and they can return to Jerusalem. But there is also a very low moral in that Jerusalem has been completely destroyed and when the exiles get back they will have to attempt to rebuild, and they will be very small in number,

So it is believed by many including my self, that God has given Daniel this revelation to share with the people to buck them up. to remind them of the promise that God will send a messiah who will defeat God’s enemies and take the throne as ruler over all the nations.

Earlier I said this part of the book was apocalypse..not meaning what we think of with the word, but more that symbols are used to paint the cosmic realities that sit behind the realities we experience in the physical world.

So verse 9: You have the ancient of days. Using the context of the God’s of Babylon “Father of years”. This deity had perfect purity being white as snow. His throne is a chariot, a symbol of Military strength and it is on fire. If you look through the times God appears to the people in the OT fire is usually present.

Verse 10 more fire, and an uncountable amount of people and attendants serving him. And he opens a session of court.

These court proceeding are a little strange. We have the seperation of powers in out government, the president or executive is separate from the courts or the judiciary. Not so with the absolute monarch of yesteryear. The kings had absolute authority, and so be begins the court proceedings by opening the book.

Verse eleven and 12 we see a talking horn on the beast that is defeated…horns where signs of power or of the having of kingdoms. This particular beast with its talking horns is defeated, and its body destroyed. The rest of the beast who served it are also defeated and thier power stripped of them...

The enemies of are being shown here to be destroyed by God and that God is stripping them of their power. and remember that this is being revealed to the people of God in exile who have been defeated by God’s enemies at the behest of God for their rampant disobedience. They are seeing that God is still their advocate. For us defeated beasts might seem strange for the people in Daniels day it gave the vision power.

Verse 13

Clouds = Divinity, Son on man humanity

Presence with the ancient of days, holiness

Verse 14 Given dominion.

Adam has this in Eden and looses it. This son of man gets it back…a new Adam! Where do we read about a new Adam?

Dominion is supra political, meaning it transends over all the political kingdoms of the day, and it will be everlasting.

All this in comparison to a kingdom in Jerusalem that was not everlasting that could not transcend the political forces of the day…that was ethnocentric and only inclusive of all nation and languages.

It should have been clear from the beginning but clearer now that we are looking at a prophetic vision of the enthronement of Jesus Christ

Main Point: The revelation of Jesus Ascension to the Throne in Daniel 500 years before the event is meant to give hope to the people of Israel who are in exile about a promised event. And it should give us more hope now that we know it has taken place.

So what are some applications of fulfilled prophecy that we can take comfort in today and be made more into the image of Christ.

First we need to remember the basic catechism of the ascension. Jesus is the new Adam. A creature…man and the creator (divine) and he enters into the presence of the ancient of days, meaning that we too will be able to enter into God’s presence. The creature can be reunited with the creator in heaven…Jesus is the first and we go with him as heir in Christ.

We live among beasts. When St. John uses the word world what he means is a world that is in rebellion to God. A world that hates the church because they hated him first. In the US for the most part we experience this in a very mild way but then again a very sinister way. The sermons preached in our media are of a relativism that is not compatible with the Gospel. Of a moral freedom that is not compatible with the Gospel. Of a private spirituality that is not compatible with the Gospel. And in the rest of the world the beasts are more bold and our brothers and sister experience property seizures, violence and death. But our sovereign God is no clueless and not defeated, and he will one day settle all things including settling with the beasts.

Point three related to point two we are exiles waiting to return. To live away from Eden away from the presence of Christ is an exile. And one day instead or returning to Jerusalem, Jerusalem will come here. And the Son of man who is seated on his throne with the Ancient of Days will be there and the dwelling place of God will be with men.

Main Point: The revelation of Jesus Ascension to the Throne in Daniel 500 years before the event is meant to give hope to the people of Israel who are in exile about a promised event. And it should give us more hope now that we know it has taken place.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ sits on his throne because of what he endured on the cross. Not only does he pay for our sins on the cross, not only does he give us his righteousness he has victory over all his foes.

Philippians 2:6-11

English Standard Version Chapter 2

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.