The Ascended King
The Son: Meeting Jesus through Luke • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Opening Comments:
Opening Comments:
Journey with me for one last time in our two year plus journey through Luke’s gospel to Luke 24:50-53. (Pg. 832)
107 times, we have walked through this book together. We’ve followed Jesus from the announcement of His birth, to His sinless life, to His miracles, to His teaching, to His rejection, all the way to the cross and the empty tomb. Now here we stand in the final moment of Jesus time on earth as he ascends into the clouds.
Let’s read God’s transcendent word together.
50 And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them.
51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.
52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
53 and were continually in the temple blessing God.
Introduction:
Introduction:
The verses we have just read feel so brief compared to the length of Lukes Gospel in totality, but yet they carry so much meaning packed into them as they bring Luke’s entire gospel acount into focus as Jesus’ earthly ministry reaches its appointed end.
Jesus, the messiah, who was:
Announced before His birth,
Praised by an angelic army,
Worshipped by shepherds and magi,
Who taught with authority,
Forgave sins,
Cast out demons,
Healed the sick,
Gave sight to the blind,
Made the lame to walk,
The blind to see,
Raised the dead,
Who set His face toward Jerusalem,
Died in the place of sinners,
Rose again on the third day;
Now ascends into glory, with his work accomplished, to take His place at the Father’s right hand.
PROPOSITION: The ascension of Jesus confirms who He is and completes His saving work, leaving His people to live in light of His reign.
TRANSITION: So as we come to the end of our journey through Lukes Gospel, these final verses show us two truths that help us feel the gravity of the ascension and all that it means.
1.) The ascension shows that Jesus has completed His work and entered His glory. (vv. 50–51)
1.) The ascension shows that Jesus has completed His work and entered His glory. (vv. 50–51)
A.) He ascends from a meaningful place in redemptive history
And he led them out as far as Bethany…
Bethany sits on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, just outside Jerusalem.
It was a place where Jesus was welcomed when Jerusalem often rejected Him. It was the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. And where Jesus brought Lazarus back to life after being dead for four days.
Now it becomes the place where Jesus departs having conquered death Himself.
There is also a place of great eschatological importance.
As it’s the very place where it is prophesied the Messiah will one day return to when he comes to defeat the forces of evil.
1 Behold, a day is coming for the Lord, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst.
2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle.
4 On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.
Bethany isn’t a random location, it’s Jesus acting in deliberate manner tying his past work to his future return. All of it being a part of God’s grand design for redemption.
B. He departs as the true Priest blessing His people
Noting about the life and ministry of Jesus was accidental, not only was the place meaningful but notice Jesus actions:
And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them.
Back in the Old Testament, every time the high priest would finish the sacrifice for a sin offering, he would raise his hands and bless the people. This began in Leviticus 9:22 with Aaron the first high priest.
Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings.
But this isn’t the only time a priest would do this. In Numbers 6 we have what is called the Aaronic blessing which is the blessing the priest would pray over the people of Israel.
24 The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
The raising of Jesus hands, to bless his people is demonstrating that the sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins has been made.
He was the sacrifice. He is the Lamb who was slain. But, that is not all he is.
Jesus is standing there on the Mount of Olives as both the sacrifice and the great High Priest of His people.
He freely offered himself once for sin.
12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh,
14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
…But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
But now, here he stands with arms stretched high, over his people offering to them the priestly blessing as the true and better high priest.
The book of Hebrews over and over again, not only describes Jesus as the one and only sacrifice but it also details how he is the one, true and better high priest.
23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office,
24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever.
25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.
28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.
C. He ascends in blessing and is received into glory
While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.
While Jesus is in the act of pronouncing blessing, he begins to ascend into heaven.
Acts 1:9 tells us that a cloud took Him out of their sight.
Throughout Scripture, especially in the book of Exodus the presence of God is often marked by a cloud.
In Exodus 13 a could follows Israel in the wilderness by the day.
In Exodus 16 the glory of the Lord appears in a cloud before the people.
In Exodus 19 God comes in a thick cloud to speak to the people from Sinai.
In Exodus 33, the cloud would stand at the door of the Tent of meeting to speak to Moses
In Exodus 40 the presence of God filled the tabernacle in the form of a cloud.
It filled the temple in 1 Kings 8 as Solomon dedicated it to the Lord.
So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.
The right hand is a place of authority. Where Jesus is now seated on his throne.
21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church,
The very throne where one day all will bow before him.
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.
2. The ascension confirms everything Jesus claimed is true
2. The ascension confirms everything Jesus claimed is true
A. It confirms His identity
Throughout Luke’s Gospel, Jesus said and did things that only God alone could say and do.
In Luke 5, He forgave sins. To which the scribes replied Luke 5:21
…Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
In Luke 6, He declared Himself Lord of the Sabbath.
He raised the dead in Luke 7 and Luke 8.
From there He commanded demons, and they obeyed Him.
He spoke to the wind and the waves, and they obeyed Him.
He healed disease with a word.
In Luke 19, He declared that salvation had come to Zacchaeus’s house.
In Luke 23, He told the repentant thief, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
Then in Luke 22:69, He said that He would be seated at the right hand of the power of God.
All of those words and actions are what led to His rejection. The religious establishment in Jerusalem branded Him as a blasphemer and demanded he be crucified.
By raising Him from the dead, receiving Him into heaven, and sitting him at His right hand; the Father vindicates the Son by confirming that Jesus is exactly who He claimed to be.
The one who forgave sins truly has authority to forgive sins.
The one who claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath truly is Lord.
The one who said He would sit at the right hand of God has now been exalted there.
The ascension confirms His identity by placing Him in the very position He claimed as His own.
Jesus isn’t just a teacher or a prophet, He is the very Son of God.
B. It confirms His finished work
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Under the old covenant, the priest’s work was never finished. Sacrifices were offered daily because sin was never fully dealt with. There was always another offering to be made, another reminder that sin remained.
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
Jesus sitting down is a declaration that the work has been finished. Nothing more has to be done.
There is no additional sacrifice needed, no further payment required, no unfinished portion left for us to supply.
Jesus is seated because the work of redemption has been fully accomplished.
C. It confirms His present ministry
But, just because the redemption work of Jesus is finished and he has ascended into heaven to take his place at the right hand of the Father, in know way means Christ is inactive.
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.
Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Intercession- means He stands as the representative of His people before the Father.
His intercessory work is the application of the benefits of redemption.
It’s because of Christ that you do not have to stand before God trying to argue your case for salvation, hoping that your effort will be enough.
The case has already been decided. The penalty has already been paid. And the one who paid it now stands as your representative.
Friends, that is where we find the assurance of our salvation. Not on our merit, our consistency, our effort, Our ability to please the Father. My salvation rests on Christ’s finished work and His present position.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Listen to how Luke’s Gospel ends in response to the Ascension of Jesus:
52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God.
The Disciples response to Jesus resurrection and now ascension 40 days later, is
Worship
Obedience
Joy
There is no doubt in their minds anymore. They know exactly who Jesus is. He is the Messiah. He is Lord. He is God robed in flesh.
Their response to the ascension is worshipful obedience, that results in great Joy.
Friends, if we believe that Jesus is indeed who Luke has shown Him to be, then it should have a profound effect on us.
It should take us from careless and light worship, to reverent and humble worship as we bow ourselves before our Lord.
It should take us from partial and selective obedience (which is really disobedience) to making every effort possible to be obedient to Him as my Lord. Not to earn his love or favor, but because we already have all of those things. Our obedience is a reflection of just how much we love him.
And when we are worshipping him properly for who he is and living in obedience to the fact that he is our Lord. That will produce real and abundant Joy in our hearts.
But far too often, our response to Jesus looks nothing like theirs.
We’re flippant about the things God calls holy.
We’re casual in our worship. Distracted by our cell phones, bored by his word, planning what we’ll have for lunch and watching the clock hoping it ends soon.
We’re self-centered in the way we approach church as if the truths of Christ take a backseat to our desires and preferences. What we like. What we feel. What we get out of it. We acknowledge Christ with out lips, but functionally we put ourselves at the center of worship instead of him.
That’s not what you see here. The disciples don’t stand there critiquing the moment.
Well I think Jesus shouldn’t raise his hands like that.
You know, I think Jesus should have ascended from the Temple, not Bethany.
I mean, riding on a cloud, that’s a little showy if you ask me.
They’re not looking at their first century watches, and writing on their slate tablets all they have to get done that afternoon treating Jesus as an addition to their life keeping them from the things they want to do.
No, they know who He is and they take it all very seriously.
I wonder do we?
Where Christ is taken seriously, worship isn’t a formality or what we do when there is nothing better to do. It’s the fitting response of a heart that knows who He is.
Where Christ is taken seriously, obedience isn’t an inconvenience to our life. On the contrary, His word governs because He is Lord.
Where Christ is taken seriously, joy isn’t dependent on everything around us being easy or pleasant. It grows out of knowing that the crucified and risen Christ now reigns in glory, that His work is finished, and that His people are His.
Luke ends His gospel with Christ in full view as He ascends into glory and a people in view whose lives are profoundly different because of Jesus.
From here, Acts begins. The message will go out and church will be built.
But we end here, with a people who worship Christ, obey His word, and live with joy because they know who He is.
Invitation:
Invitation:
If you are here this morning and you do not know Christ, hear what this text is showing you. Jesus did not simply live and die. He rose, He ascended, and He now reigns at the right hand of the Father. You are not dealing with a figure you may take or leave. You are dealing with the living Lord.
Scripture says God now commands all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30–31). Your sin is real, and you cannot remove it by effort or religion. But Christ lived the life you could not live, died in the place of sinners, and rose again. Turn from your sin and trust in Him. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).
And believer, if your worship has grown cold, your obedience has weakened, and your joy has faded, do not ignore that. Those things happen when Christ is no longer kept in view. Bring your life back under Him. Set your eyes on Christ again. “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8).
