The Ascension of a Prophet
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Today we will be looking at the Ascension of a prophet.
The Day that celebrates the Ascension just passed.
It was Thursday.
Some churches make a great deal about it,
and others don’t even mention it.
Others don’t even mention that Jesus ascended to heaven.
But the ascension of Christ is super important.
Through the ascension,
Jesus is building his church,
interceding in heaven,
and reigning over all.
For our time,
let’s open our Bibles to
“You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.”
As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two.
Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it. “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.
The company of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching, said, “The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.” And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.
and then,
I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.
Let’s pray.
Christianity depends on the good-news story of Jesus Christ.
When we share the good-news story,
as we all should be doing,
we typically talk about the birth of Jesus,
maybe some of the miracles and teachings of Jesus,
then the death and resurrection of Jesus.
But we rarely talk about the ascension.
We talk about Jesus rising from the dead during Easter,
but...
if he was rose from the dead,
where is he now?
We say he is alive,
but where is he?
The ascension plays a critical role in explaining where Jesus is at and why he’s there.
The ascension speaks about Christ going up from the earth into heaven,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of the father.
And it’s something we should all think about when we think about the good-news of Jesus.
...
Part of the good-news is that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father.
...
Without this view,
we are missing a significant part of Christ’s work.
If Jesus didn’t ascend,
his work was incomplete.
Without the ascension,
there is a massive hole in the story.
We need the ascension,
and we need to talk about it.
And the fact that we don’t talk about it now
is quite embarrassing.
Douglas Farrow said,
It is remarkable how little mention the ascension gets these days. Once it was seen as the climax of the mystery of Christ.… Today it is something of an embarrassment.
...
As I said before,
the ascension is neglected.
We usually skip over it when we talk about Christianity.
We say Jesus did great things,
he died,
he resurrected,
and he’ll be back.
But we really don’t talk about the ascension and what he is currently doing.
Maybe part of the reason that we don’t really talk about it is that the story of the ascension of Christ only occurs in two places.
One is in Luke, the passage we read,
and the other is in Acts.
Perhaps another reason that we don’t talk about the ascension is that
the ascension is just weird.
Like, Jesus resurrected from dead.
Cool, he’s in his body alive.
And then he left to go to heaven?
Like, no Jesus, stay here in your glorified body.
Most of us would think that
it would’ve been so much better if Jesus had stayed in his glorified eternal body
than if he had gone to heaven.
Imagine how easy evangelism would be!
I would just be like,
Hey Jesus has resurrected,
he’s actually walking in Jerusalem right now,
look at this video.
If he had stayed,
it would also be more comforting, I think.
Like because we can’t see God’s comfort,
we have to trust.
But imagine if Jesus didn’t ascend.
Imagine if he had stayed.
Imagine if he could physically comfort us through our sorrow.
Imagine if we could see him listening to us as we pray to him.
Now, we might close our eyes to pray, believing God hears us.
But imagine if we could see Jesus as we talk to him.
The ascent of Jesus just looks bad.
Why did Jesus even go up?
Wasn’t the ascension enough?
Did Jesus have to go up, have to ascend?
It all just seems weird,
especially since we know the laws from astrophysics and Newton.
We know about gravity.
But yet Jesus ascended into the clouds,
without a NASA spacesuit or rocket ship or jet pack.
How is this even possible?
Like okay,
healing and the resurrection make sense in terms of being tools of restoration.
But why go to heaven, Jesus?
Wasn’t the resurrection enough?
All of these questions are valid.
We need to unpack the ascension.
And the truth is that
The work of Christ was not complete until he ascended to the right hand of the Father.
Although there are only two accounts of the ascension in the bible,
there are a significant number of references to the ascension.
Look, Jesus predicted the event
“You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
This language of the son of man comes from Daniel 7:13-14,
a passage that was written centuries before Jesus,
which spoke about the ascension.
“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
Jesus, the Son of Man, went to the Father.
Jesus repeatedly said that he was going back to the Father.
The ascension is also referenced throughout the first sermons of the church.
In all five messages Peter preached,
he either explicitly or implicitly preached about the ascension.
The ascension is also important because of where it is placed within history.
The ascension occurs between the work of Christ and the work of the Spirit through the church.
The ascension serves as a hinge.
It transitions from Jesus to the church.
Therefore,
the church in its creeds,
its statement of faith,
would regularly refer to the ascension.
The apostles creed says,
“He ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
The Nicene Creed says,
“[Jesus] ascended into heaven. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”
The first council of Constantinople
“[Jesus] ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, from where he will come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.”
And the list goes on and on.
Evidently, the ascension is a vital component to the Christian faith.
As my professor wrote in his book on the ascension:
The ascension not only confirms Christ’s work but continues Christ’s work.
He once labored on the earth; now he labors in heaven.
We don’t have time to speak about all of the implications of the ascension and its significance.
But I do want to see the implications of the ascension through the lenses of Jesus being a prophet.
When Jesus ascended,
a prophet ascended.
And when Jesus, the prophet, ascended,
he did not lose power.
He did not pause his prophetic task.
Instead,
when Jesus ascended,
he gained prophetic power.
And also through the ascension,
Jesus has empowered his people and unified them for his prophetic work.
Jesus gave his Spirit to his people and authorized them to further his prophetic work.
Because Jesus ascended,
Christ’s prophetic work has been advanced into a higher gear.
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Okay, so all this talk about Jesus being a prophet may seem foreign to us.
While Jesus was more than a prophet, he was still a prophet of God—not less.
Yes, people saw Jesus as the Son of God.
The church has seen Jesus as the true God and true man.
For most of church history,
the majority of Christians saw Jesus as the second person of the Trinity.
He is God of God.
He is God, fully God.
He is the Christ.
The Messiah.
However, the ordinary Jew would have first thought of Jesus as a prophet.
And the Gospel writers, who were mostly Jews, depict Jesus as a prophet.
In fact,
Jesus would refer to himself as a prophet.
When he spoke about people from his hometown, Jesus referred to himself as a prophet.
And they took offense at him.
But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.”
The crowds referred to Jesus as a prophet.
They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.”
And also in Matt. 21:11
The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Jesus was a prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.
He was like Daniel,
and Malachi,
he was like Isaiah,
and Ezekiel.
Jesus was a prophet.
And his ministry and teachings were prophetic.
N. T. Wright said that
Jesus arrived “like the prophets of old, coming to Israel with a word from her covenant God, warning her of the imminent and fearful consequences of the direction she was traveling, urging and summoning her to a new and different way.
Jesus was a prophet.
And the ascension of Jesus confirmed, authorized, and endorsed that Jesus was a prophet.
Well, okay,
what are prophets?
Not like modern days prophets,
but real biblical prophets.
Three things:
1. Prophets were empowered by God’s Spirit,
2. proclaimed the word of God,
3. and performed signs and wonders.
The prophet Moses had the Spirit rest on him according to Numbers 11:17
I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.
According to this verse,
God’s spirit would go to others.
Other prophets like Ezekiel had the Spirit.
As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.
The prophet Micah
But as for me, I am filled with power,
with the Spirit of the Lord,
and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob his transgression,
to Israel his sin.
Prophets were filled with the presence of God to speak the word of God and perform signs that pointed God’s attestation of their ministry.
And boy,
did the prophets preach.
Moses,
who was not an eloquent speaker,
was given the Spirit so that God would speak through him.
Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.
Prophets would speak what God had to say.
And they said God’s words intentionally.
The prophet Isaiah
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
He said, “Go and tell this people:
“ ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
Isaiah was called to go and tell God’s people the word of the Lord.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
“Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”
God had appointed Jeremiah as a prophet,
but Jeremiah was like,
I am too young to speak.
But God touched his lips and gave him words.
But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.
Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth.
I have put my words in your mouth.
God inspires prophets to speak what he wants them to speak.
And God empowers them to do signs and wonders.
The signs that we see in Exodus,
the ten plagues,
were in part to demonstrate to Israel that Moses was God’s prophet.
You could check out Exod 4:1-9,
where Moses asks what if people don’t believe him,
then God shows him signs.
Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”
Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,” he replied.
The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. “This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”
Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow.
“Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
Then the Lord said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”
The prophet Elijah also did beautiful miracles.
He raised a widow’s son,
caused rain to cease,
and called fire from heaven.
Prophets did not only have the spirit,
did not only speak God’s word,
but they did signs and wonders.
There were great prophets.
But there was still a sense that a better prophet would come.
Moses hoped in Deut 18:15
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.
A prophet would be raised.
And we now know that that prophet is Jesus.
Jesus had the Spirit, as we saw at his baptism.
He spoke God’s word,
and did signs and wonders.
The work of prophets were shadows of what the ultimate prophet, Jesus, would do.
Jesus was the prophet who fulfilled the role of the OT prophets while on earth.
And even after Jesus ascended, he was still a prophet,
but a shift occurred.
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In the beginning of our time,
I read from 2 Kings
I read 2 Kings 2:10-15.
“You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.”
As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two.
Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and struck the water with it. “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.
The company of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching, said, “The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.” And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.
There may be some here who are familiar with the story of Elijah and Elisha.
Maybe some of you don’t know the story.
It’s such an interesting story.
Elijah was a great prophet to the nation of Israel.
And the climax of his life was that he was dramatically taken up to heaven in a whirlwind.
Crazy story.
And when Elijah was taken up to heaven,
his prophetic protege, Elisha, who was present,
received a double portion of the spirit that Elijah had.
That is,
when Elijah ascended,
Elisha received Elijah’s ministry and a double portion of the spirit or anointing.
It was a hard task for Elisha to continue to do the ministry of Elijah,
Elijah’s ministry was great in Israel,
but because Elijah ascended,
Elisha had the power to continue the ministry.
Because Elisha witnessed Elijah’s ascension,
Elisha could do what Elijah had done.
After Elisha saw Elijah go up with fire, wind,
Elisha took the cloak of his master,
struck the water,
and it parted in two.
When the people saw Elisha,
they said,
The company of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching, said, “The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.” And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.
The Spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.
Now read this story with the ascension of Christ.
Christ was a prophet like Elijah,
and the disciples were his protegees, like Elisha.
Jesus went up to heaven like Elijah,
and the disciples witnessed the ascent, like Elisha.
The disciples were gazing.
And then the prophet Jesus, like Elijah, gave the Spirit to his disciples.
On the Day of Pentecost,
the disciples received the Spirit of Jesus.
And as Elisha was supposed to continue the work of Elijah,
the disciples are supposed to continue the work of Jesus.
And as people recognized that Elisha had the spirit of Elijah,
people are supposed to recognize that we, Jesus’ disciples, have his spirit!
That we are continuing the work of Jesus.
Jesus was the ultimate prophet.
He had the Spirit.
He preached the word of God.
He performed wonders.
Jesus was superior to all the prophets before him.
He perfectly preached.
And he perfectly made disciples.
He is the prophet who ascended and gave his spirit.
Not just to one individual, like Elijah did with Elisha.
But Jesus gave his spirit to an entire community.
to the church.
That’s why the ascension is a good thing.
Without the ascension, we would not have the spirit of Christ.
No,
all we would have would be Jesus in the physical body.
Which is great,
but it is better to have his spirit in us,
in all of us,
in a more real way.
And through his Spirit,
Jesus continues to preach his word.
The Spirit speaks to our hearts throughout the day.
The Spirit continues to empower us to do the work of God.
If Jesus was here physically,
people would not rely on or appreciate the gift of the Spirit,
or even continue the work of Jesus through the Spirit as we should.
Evidently, the ascension is critical.
Jesus said in John 16:7
But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
It is good that Jesus left.
It is good that Jesus ascended.
It is good because now he could send the Advocate, the Spirit, so that we, a community, can do the work of Christ.
Look we don’t know exactly where Jesus went to heaven.
But heaven is more of a state than a locality.
When Jesus went to heaven,
when he went to the right hand of God,
he doesn’t leave us empty,
he gave us his Spirit.
And through his Spirit,
Jesus is now more present.
It’s inaccurate to say that Jesus is no longer with us.
It’s accurate to say that he is not with us bodily.
But Jesus is with us, through his spirit, in a deep way.
And his Spirit strengthens us to move with life.
To do God’s work.
In and outside of the church walls.
Jesus is present.
The Messiah’s prophetic work didn’t stop at the ascension.
Rather it continued and increased and multiplied.
Jesus filled his people with his Spirit.
Now we have the presence of Jesus.
Now we are empowered.
Now we can be the hands and feet of Jesus.
We are now the body of Christ who, by the Spirit, enacts the will of Jesus on earth.
We have gifts to do the will of God,
and we must use them to bring the kingdom of heaven here on the earth.
The ascension is good news.
We have the Spirit of God.
Let’s pray.
