The Ascension – Timothy Keller [Sermon]

Chapter 1 of Acts, verses 1-2. In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven. After giving instructions to the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen, after his suffering he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

So when they met together they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

And he said to them, "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth."

And after he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.

"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk from the city.

This is God's word. Now, at the end of the Book of Luke, uh, who also wrote this book, the book of Acts, at the end of the Book of Luke, he mentions the Ascension of Jesus Christ. And here, in the beginning of chapter one of Acts, he also mentions the Ascension of Jesus Christ.

Now, there are three events in the life of Christ that get an awful lot of publicity. There's the birth, the death, and the resurrection. And we have very widely, uh, recognized holidays. We have Christmas, we have Good Friday, we have Easter. And if you can go into the Hallmark greeting card store, uh, your local pharmacy, you can find cards for those three events of Jesus Christ. But you're going to have a lot of trouble finding an Ascension card. Uh, I've been looking, and, and actually, you know, Ascension is, is usually, if, when it's observed in the church year, it's 40 days after Easter. And, you know, I can't find an Ascension card. But it's so important. Here's why.

Listen. Just as it is ridiculous to build a beautiful house if nobody lives in it, and just as it is ridiculous and no use, uh, preparing this incredible beautiful meal if nobody ever eats it, and just as it's silly to build a wonderful bomb to, to blast through a mountain so that you can build a road, it's ridiculous to build a bomb without a detonator. So the birth, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ are of no use without the Ascension. For the Ascension is the detonator for everything else.

Jesus Christ did. The Ascension is that which takes what Jesus Christ was and did on Earth and releases it into the universe and into your lives with all of its healing power. Let me just look with you this morning at the power of the Ascension, the nature, what it is, and the meaning of the Ascension. What difference it makes. Okay? The power, the nature, the meaning. Okay? The importance of it. You know what it is and what it means.

First of all, for a moment, just for a moment, the power of it. When the angels look at the, uh, apostles, as soon as the Ascension is over, they see the apostles standing and they say in verse 11, "Why do you stand looking?" Now, why would, why were the angels doing that? The angels were making a gentle rebuke. Why? The apostles understood the Ascension as meaning the absence of Christ, and the loss of his leadership, intimacy, and his protection. And because they thought it was that, they stood there. They were, they were, they were sad. They were bereft.

Now, here's what the angels are saying. The angels essentially are saying, "If you are not filled with glorious activity and confidence, if you're standing, if you're, if you're stuck, if you're in inactivity, unless you're filled with glorious joy, you don't understand the Ascension. The penny has not dropped." In other words, the reason these, the, the angels were after the disciples is that the doctrine of the Ascension hadn't detonated yet.

Now, you know, actually, it's interesting. I'm glad we have Luke and Acts together because you see here in Acts, it says they returned to Jerusalem. But in Luke, uh, at the very end, the last verse, Luke mentions how they went back. And Luke 24:52 says, "And then they worshiped him." See, the penny did drop. Listen. "And they returned in great joy, staying continually in the temple, praising God." See, they went back into the world like thunderbolts. And if we aren't going back into the world today and on Monday like thunderbolts with his glorious joy, if we're, we don't get it yet.

The, the Ascension detonates everything else Jesus does, not only in reality, but actually, I would say, mentally and spiritually too. Not only does the Ascension actually do the opposite of what the apostles thought, the Ascension does not, the Ascension is not the absence of Christ. It's the, it's the increased and heightened presence of Christ. The Ascension is not the, the loss of his leadership, intimacy, and protection, but the magnification, infinite magnification of it. And not only is it true that the Ascension actually detonates everything else that Jesus does and applies it, but it's also spiritually true. Unless you have an understanding of what this means, unless you have a faith sight of Jesus Christ ascended at the right hand of the Majesty on high, you won't live well. You'll be standing, you'll be staring. And the angels said that's utterly inappropriate.

You see that Garrison Keillor? We heard him on the last night on the radio. And he says, "If, like last night, he said, 'If life doesn't break your heart at least once a day, it shows a real lack of imagination.'" Now, listen. That is true. And therefore, what are you going to do? There are only two things to do. You can either numb your heart, you can either kill that imagination, you can stop thinking. Or else you can get a source of glorious joy that doesn't numb your heart or blind you to the brokenness of the world, but lifts you up through it. Now, what are you going to do? You need the Ascension. You must get hold of it. See the power of it. That's the first point.

Now, secondly, so you look at where the angels say, "Why are you standing?" If you understood, you'd be backing like a thunderbolt. All right? Secondly, what is the Ascension? What is the nature of the Ascension? What is it really? Uh, what do we mean when we say Jesus ascended? And I guess we can start right off realizing that the word "ascended" even in English really has a double meaning. Evidently, someplace, I, I should have looked it up, but I forgot to. I didn't have time. Somewhere, there really is a throne of England, isn't there? Isn't there a chair someplace? And every, you know, any king or queen who's crowned is crowned on that chair. So there's somewhere there's a throne of England. And even though I'm sure that tourists can't do this technically, you could walk up the steps and ascend to the throne. Well, what does the word "ascend" mean? It means to spatially walk up the steps. And, you know, can you ascend the throne of anybody here? As long as you can get through the security guards, you could, you can ascend to the throne of England. On the other hand, you would know that spatially sitting down in the chair wouldn't do a thing. Because the word "ascend" is spatial language to describe something much deeper. To ascend to the throne of England means you change your relationship to all the people of England. You change your relationship to all the nation of England. To ascend to the throne means the spatial is really just a figure. And therefore, let's say here's what, what is the Ascension of Christ? On the one hand, it is not space travel. Let me tell you what it's not. It's not space travel. Yuri Gagarin, remember who he was? Checking your age. He was the first cosmonaut. I was 11 when he went into space. It was a big deal. And when he came down, he mentioned, and this was put out, that he, he was the first person in space, first man in space. And he said, "I looked, and there was no evidence of heaven or God." And of course, you see biblically, we know this, that God does not live in the heavens, because the word "heavens" in the Bible means the sky. It means not just the atmosphere, and not just the stratosphere, but the universe itself. And, and you see biblically, God does not relate to us the way a man in the attic relates to the people on the first floor. But God relates to us the way Wendy Wasserstein relates to the people in her new play, the characters. God, because see, when Wendy Wasserstein, who's just written a new play, *American Daughter*, I don't know enough about it to use this illustration any further, but she created a universe. And the only way the characters in her play could know anything about her is only and only if she writes herself in. She lives in a whole other realm. She's in a whole other realm. She created that realm. And they can only know what she wants to reveal to them. Okay? They're not going to find her by, by running around the stage or going out into the, into the back.

Reason that you and I know anything about God is because he wrote himself in. The author wrote himself into the play, Jesus Christ. But when Jesus Christ ascended, it doesn't mean he went into another part of the stage. It doesn't mean he went into another, spatially, you know, another part of the universe. But rather, it doesn't say he was taken up into the heavens. What does it say? Look, verse two. What does it say at the end of chapter 24 of Luke? "He was taken up into heaven." Which means not that he went to live in a different part of the universe, but he now has a new relationship to the universe. He took upon himself a body. He became human, so he understands what it's like to be human. He lived a perfect life in our place, so he fulfilled all the requirements that God wants for anybody in his, in the law. He died and rose again from the grave, which means that he defeated death. Now, instead of staying in time and space, where if he was in time and space, he can only exist at one spot in space and at one point in time at a time, right? Or he goes out of time and space. He's not taken up into the heavens. He's taken up into heaven. And the Bible tries to get it across by saying he's now on the throne, which means that now he has a position by which he can take everything he was and everything he did. He's our Shepherd, he's our substitute, he's our mediator, he's our sacrifice. And now he has a relationship with us so that he is able to take and apply the benefits and the glories of what he did everywhere, all over the place, anywhere.

See, come with me on this. You remember when Mary grabbed hold of Jesus? I made a reference then, and I'm back again. Mary Magdalene, when she saw Jesus, held him. Now, what did Jesus say? Let me tell you what he said. Literally, he says, "Mary, don't hold on to me, I am ascending to my Father." Now, when you first read that, you think, "What? He's saying, 'Mary, don't touch me. It's taboo. You know, you'll, you'll melt or something because I haven't gone to my Father.'" You know, when you first read it, it seems sort of hocus-pocus. There's something about Jesus you can't touch me as I ascend to the Father. We know that's not true because you'll see in Luke 24, you'll see in Matthew chapter 28, that women grab hold of him. He says nothing. He's fine. Thomas, he actually says, "Come and touch me." So that can't be the problem.

What is it? What he's trying to say is, "Mary, you don't understand. You're afraid to let go of me. Let go. Let me ascend. And if you let me ascend, you will never be able to lose me again." Mary, if I stay here, I will have to be at one, one spot at a time and at one point. See, one spot at one point at a time. But Mary, listen, if I ascend, they'll never, ever, ever be able to take me from you. They could, they can chain you up, they can lock you into the deepest dungeon, they can put bars on the doors, and I will be closer to you than ever. Mary, if I ascend, then what I am now is released explosively throughout the world. Mary, if I ascend, if you let me go, you'll never lose me. And so, what really the Ascension doesn't mean he went to a different place in the heavens. It means he went into heaven. So now everything he was and everything he is is detonated into the whole world.

Thirdly, see. Okay, first of all, see the power of it. Secondly, see the nature of it. He's now at the throne of God. But you say, "Okay, that's kind of exciting and, and sort of, you know, powerful, but what does it mean?" Okay. And I won't let you go without telling you that. See, thirdly, lastly, what does it mean? And here's what it means. In verse 11, the angels explain the meaning of the Ascension. And they say, "This same Jesus, that you see leaving, is coming back." Why? He'll come back the same as he left. Why? He's not evaporating. Because where he is, he's the same.

Now, you know that hymn that we sing sometimes? It's a John Newton hymn. And at one line it says, "Jesus, my brother, Shepherd, friend, my Prophet, Priest, and King." Now, traditionally, Prophet, Priest, and King is the way that we look at the Bible and see all the things that Jesus Christ did. And we organize them. We say he was this incredible teacher, incredible prophet. He brings the truth that sets us free. He was an incredible priest because when people got near him, they met God, and he opened the way to God. And he was a tremendous king because he was our liberating leader. And now, you see, when he ascends, his prophet-ness, his priest-ness, his king-ness become cosmic. They become available to everyone, and they are applied everywhere. And in a sense, see what they're trying to say is, he's still a prophet, the same Jesus. He's still a priest. He's still a king. But now it's been changed. It's been released. It's been exploded. It's been magnified. And let me show you what that means for us.

Number one, first of all, this text in particular, because Acts shows us what the Ascension means for the fact Jesus is a prophet. And Hebrews shows us what the Ascension means for the fact that he's a priest. And the book of Ephesians shows us what the Ascension means for the fact that he's a king. And there's so much to look at. But what I'm going to try to do is give you just a, a taste of each and show you practically speaking what it means. Especially this first one.

See, first of all, Jesus is gone. Our teacher is gone. That's terrible. What a teacher Jesus was. Nobody spoke with his wisdom. Nobody spoke with his authority. You know, they were always saying, "What authority?" A teaching with authority. But most of all, nobody ever spoke the truth that liberated. There's a place in John chapter 8 where he says, "Continue in my word. Continue in my truth." And the ultimacy of my truth, and the beauty of my truth, and the authority of my truth, and the wisdom of my truth will set you free. You see, Jesus' word was a kingly word. And when people gave up the right of self-determination, and they came in underneath Jesus' word, they were liberated. They, they experienced liberation. Just like a sailboat isn't, just like a train isn't free when it's in the water, but when it's on the track it was built for. Just as a fish isn't free when it's on a track, but on the, in the water that it's built for. So when you come under the, the power of Christ's teaching and word, you experience what the old prayer book used to say, that "His service is perfect freedom." And you begin to experience what John Donne once said, "I except you enthrall me, never shall be free." Now, that's liberation. That's incredible liberation. But Jesus is gone. Bye-bye. There he goes. So now, how in the world is Jesus' teaching ministry continue?

Well, now, some people would say, "Well, there's the Bible." Yes. And, you know, boy, I hope nobody wants to say, wants to hear me say, uh, that that's not enough. But that's not how God does it. The teaching ministry of Jesus Christ continues. You can see it. First of all, look up in verse one. Luke mentions to Theophilus that he's about to write him another book, the book of Acts. He wrote him the Book of Luke. Now he's going to write the book of Acts. In the Book of Luke, he says, "What he says in the Book of Luke, does he say, 'I told you what Jesus did and taught, and now in this book I'm going to show you what the church did and taught?'" No. What's he say? He says, "In my first book, I wrote you what Jesus Christ began to do and teach." And that must mean that Luke is saying that in the book of the Acts, through the church, I'm going to show you what Jesus Christ continues to do and teach.

The strength of what I'm about to tell you, the strength about of this biblical teaching is so strong that some places translators don't even let you see it because they think if you read it, it would, it would, it would surprise you. It would confuse you. For example, in the book of Ephesians chapter 4, verse 20 and 21, you're going to read this: "You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. You heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus." Now, Paul is talking about the fact that he's talking to the Ephesians. And he's reminding them of how they got converted. The Ephesians lived in Asia Minor. And he says, "You heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Christ Jesus." And he's referring to the fact that that there was preaching that happened, and they heard it, and they were converted. In the Greek, it doesn't say "in the original Greek," it does not say "you heard of him." It says, "you heard him."

Up in Ephesians 2:17, he's right to the same people. Paul says, "He himself came and preached peace to you who were far away and who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father." But by one Spirit. Now, follow me here. Jesus Christ never went to Ephesus. Jesus Christ was never in Asia Minor. How in the world could he say that Jesus Christ came and preached the word to you? How could he say in in Ephesians 4, "you heard him"? You see, the translators all stick a little preposition in there, and they say, "you heard of him," because they figure somebody's going to read that and be confused. The Bible minds no words. If you're a Christian and you tell somebody else about Jesus Christ, the Jesus Christ of the Bible, they hear the voice of Christ through you. You're the teachers. We're the teachers. We have that same liberating power.

In verse six, the apostles say, "When will you notice?" They say, "Will you now establish the kingdom?" But in verse eight, what does he say? "But you will be my witnesses." Now look, verse six, they say, "Will you?" And Jesus says, "No, no, no, no, no. Will you? You, when are you going to?" "No, no, no, no, no," says Jesus. "You're my representatives. You're my witnesses. You're the teachers."

Now, somebody says, "How in the world could this be?" Let me, can I push you a little further? You know that place where Jesus Christ says the greatest prophet in the history of the world was John the Baptist? There's never been a greater prophet than John the Baptist. And then he says, "The least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." Now, that might mean a number of things, but it's got to at least mean this: Are you a Christian? You say, "Well, I'm a pretty weak Christian." Doesn't matter. Jesus says, "The least in the kingdom of God." Somewhere, you know, we make jokes about this around here. Somewhere someplace, there has to have been, and or maybe is now, the weakest Christian in the world. I mean, somebody has to be. Somebody has to be the weakest, the dumbest, the, you know, the, somebody has to be the least in the kingdom of God. I mean, just, it just stands to reason. I mean, somebody's got to be. Jesus says, "It doesn't matter. You're a greater prophet than John the Baptist." Why? I'll tell you why.

When Jesus Christ appeared, and we saw this when we went through the resurrection narratives, and we went, we saw this when we went through Luke 24, Jesus continually showed them something. And you know what it was? It was the Gospel. He continually took them to the Bible and he opened the Bible and he says, "It's all about me." When he was dealing with the, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, he says, he says, "He opened their minds to see everything in the scripture was about him." When he met with the disciples in the upper room at the end of, of Luke 24, it says, "He showed them that everything in the law, and the prophets, and the wisdom literature, in the Psalms was about him." He spent 40 days showing them what John the Baptist didn't know. And what nobody knows until the prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ from the right hand of God hits you. Until Jesus Christ came to the disciples, they, they thought the Bible was about them. They read the story of David and they said, "David killed Goliath. I need to be like that." See? "I mean, every story. Moses, I need to be like that. Look at this prophet, look at this priest, look at this king. I need to be like that. I need to be like that." And they, there are two ways to read the Bible. You can read the Bible if it's all about you. Every part of the Bible is about you, how you need to live, what you must do if God's going to answer your prayers and favor you. Or Jesus Christ showed up and says, "No, no, no, no, no. You don't have to. You have to understand, I am the real David. I am the real Prophet. I'm the real Priest. I'm the real King. Everything in the Bible's about me. I am the real hero."

The gospel is not, "Try your best to live according to these words, and then God will favor you." The gospel is that Jesus Christ came and lived the life you should have lived, died the death you should have died, and has opened the way to him so that when you trust in him, you are completely, you're completely accepted by the Father. And so when you understand that, it means suddenly the whole Bible's about, not about you, it's about him. And when you know that, you know something John the Baptist doesn't know. And that changes everything. That changes everything. When you understand the gospel, and not only the Bible, but all of life looks different. And when that happens, you have not only received the prophetic ministry of Jesus Christ, he's illumined your mind to see the gospel, but you turn around and give it to other people. And that frees people. "And you are my witnesses. You are my representatives." That's the first. Jesus Christ's prophetic ministry keeps going on through us.

Now, what are the implications of that? The implications of that are vast. I'll just run off a few. I'm not going to do much on the priest and king, though I will mention it. I just want to open up one of these things, one of these incredible implications of the Ascension of Jesus Christ. First of all, if Jesus Christ is ascended, and now we have the prophetic ministry, or he's doing it through us, we are his witnesses. He's still speaking to people. When we tell people about the gospel, they hear the voice of Jesus. That's what the Bible says again and again and again. We've got a prophetic ministry greater than that of John the Baptist. Doesn't mean that you and I are better people than John the Baptist, more courageous than John the Baptist, more eloquent than John the Baptist. Absolutely not. Nobody in this room is more eloquent than John the Baptist. Nobody, not even the guy with the microphone, not close. But it doesn't mean that you don't have a greater prophetic ministry than John the Baptist. You do.

What are the implications of that? Number one, we better be tremendously humble. You realize what it means to be representatives? That should just knock you down into the dust. Jesus Christ didn't just say, "Love one another." He was a great prophet because he embodied loving one another. How are you and I doing? You see, they came to Jesus and said, "Will you?" And he said, "No, no, no, no, no. Will you be my witnesses? Will you be my representatives?" Do people at the office say this about you? They say, "Well, that person, she says she's a Christian, but, you know what? When something goes wrong in a deal, she, she makes sure everybody else thinks the other, her partners did it, that her partners were to blame. When she lets somebody go, she doesn't really sit down and talk and listen to them. She just, you know, she's out of, she doesn't come to work that day. She, and you, you get a notice in your box. When she's selling something, she spins it. She doesn't really tell the client everything. She's just like us." Is that what they say?

See, this should humble us down in the dust. "When will you?" "No, no, no, no, no." Jesus says, "I'm ascended, and now you are my hands and my feet." And when the, see, what, when you are ugly, really ugly, you're telling the world he's ugly. Because the Ascension means that we are the way through which he reaches. That should humble us down. But secondly, it should raise us up, because we have authority. We've got something that will change anybody and anything. You know, Kathy and I, when we were, when we were very young Christians, we, like typical young Christians, we were intellectual snobs about a lot of things. But one of them was Billy Graham. We thought Billy Graham was kind of a rube. 20 years ago, 25 years ago, we actually, we were at school together, and, and he came and spoke at our school. And we were amazed by the authority. When he spoke, there was an authority just float out, and we were knocked over. One of my heroes, George Whitefield, was a great preacher in the 18th century, a great preacher. Uh, and one time he was preaching, and he noticed that he was sort of losing people's attention. In fact, he noticed one person over here, I think it was, had fallen asleep. Fortunately, nobody has right now. And, he looked over there, and he suddenly lifted his foot up, and he came down with this huge sound. One, one of my favorite stories. And the person woke up. And he says, "I did mean to do that. I did. He says, 'If I had come here in my own name, with my own message, you can take your ease and every so often prop an eye and say, "What hath this babbler to say?" But I have not come with my own message. I have not come in my name. I've come in the name of the Lord of hosts, and I must, and I will be heard.'" There's authority there. Why just him? Why George Whitefield? Why Billy Graham? What about you and me? Well, we're not eloquent. It's not got the eloquence. The eloquence isn't the stuff. When Jesus says we're greater than John the Baptist, it cannot possibly mean that we're more eloquent. But we've got the truth. And we've got a truth that liberates. And there should be an authority. We should open our mouths. We shouldn't be afraid. But we should be as humble as all get out, because we know that we rep, we have to embody it too. There's this great authority, this great humility. If you've got one and not the other, you don't understand the Ascension. You don't understand the privilege of what, what it means that Jesus Christ has left and delegated this to us. And you understand the power of it, but you also understand the challenge of it. Isn't that amazing? Of course, that's amazing.

I'll give you one other implication of the Ascension. One of the things that bothers me the most, and probably bothers you the most, one of the most difficult things about living a Christian life is the idiocy and foolishness of other people who are Christians, or at least say they're Christians. Every week you read of somebody who says they're a Christian who says something in the newspaper, and it makes you want to resign. Just resign the faith. Resign the church. I want nothing to do with that. And you know what? I understand something. St. Augustine says at one point. St. Augustine has this great quote where he says, "He says, 'The clouds peel with thunder that the house of God will be established throughout the world, yet these frogs sit in their marsh and croak. We are the only real Christians.'" What he's saying is, there's a tremendous danger, and it's a huge danger, that people look at the other parts of the, of the church, other people that say they're Christians, and we see idiocy, and we see inconsistency, and we see foolishness, and we say, "We're not like one of them. We're not them. Oh, no, no. Just us. We, we're the real Christians. Just a few of us, three or four or five maybe in the whole world. You know, we don't say stupid things. We're not this. We're not that." You say, "We're not liberals. We're not conservatives. We're not this. We're not that." I hate all that sort of thing.

Listen. Nobody, nobody has had his reputation manhandled like Jesus Christ. Nobody has been more abused for the sake of his followers. Yet Jesus Christ left and said, "You're my representatives." He was not afraid. He was not afraid to say, "I want you to bear up my name." And if he's not afraid to identify with us, we should not be afraid to identify. And we, we need to be as patient, so patient, with the idiocy of Christians. We need to be willing to say, "Yes, they're my brothers. They're my sisters." Because Jesus did. I mean, look at this. In verse six, Jesus spent 40, 40 days teaching them, and he's about to leave. And they say, "Will you establish the kingdom?" Now, which, first of all, went to show that they believed it was going to be a political kingdom, and it was going to be a Jewish kingdom. Jesus Christ turns around in verse eight and says, "I'm talking about Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the Earth. I'm talking about not one cultural group having the kingdom, but all people everywhere." Now, verse six, 40 days, and they still, you know, really are making some pretty big mistakes. What does Jesus do? Does he say, "I'm going to have to stay and do it myself?" No. Listen. If Jesus Christ trusts imperfect people to carry his message, and if he's willing to identify with them, then we have to. We've got to be patient with each other. We've got to be willing to own it up.

And somebody says, "Well, why would Jesus do that?" G.K. Chesterton makes a great case. He says, "The main evidence against the truth of Christianity is the life of Christians." The lives of Christians. Far and away the strongest evidence against God, the strongest evidence against Christianity, the strongest evidence against Jesus Christ is the lives of us. So you say, "That's right. Why did Jesus do it?" But you see, you could say it that way, and I love G.K. Chesterton, but he's wrong in a sense. Because Paul says, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that the treasure is not from us." Here's what that means. The church has moved forward. The church is, is bigger than it's ever been. The church right now is the largest human institution in the world. In some ways, the church is spreading so rapidly, so many parts of the world. Uh, the church, in some ways, is stronger than it's ever been. And yet Christians are idiots. We are. Don't you see the idiocy of Christianity? Sure, it's evidence that Christianity isn't true. But even more so, it's evidence that the Ascension happened. Because of, in spite of our idiocy, the gates of hell have not prevailed. You see?

Do you understand what it means that because he's ascended, we have that prophetic ministry? Now, you know, my time is up, and I promised I was just going to open that up. If Jesus Christ's prophetic ministry is ours, that that means we have to be culturally sensitive. We're going to go to all Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the Earth. We're supposed to be patient with other Christians. We're supposed to be humbled into the dust. We have to look at our lives. We, and yet we have to realize the power and authority that we've got. Isn't that amazing? But two other things, just, just to close up. Go to the book of Hebrews sometime and take a look and see what the implications of the Ascension are for the priesthood of Jesus. Because it, it tells us in the book of Hebrews, especially Hebrews chapter 9, that what he did was he went into the presence of God to stand there on our behalf. Jesus Christ is a priest. But when he went to heaven, oh my.

In Acts chapter 7, Stephen is about to be executed. And as he's about to be executed, and you know, it's very, that is the ultimate test of character. How can he take death peacefully? How can he take death without flipping out and fritzing out? And, you know, how he took death? He looked up, and we're told he suddenly saw the majesty of God and Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of God. He got a glimpse of the Ascension. And he got so excited, he says, "I see the glory of God and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." And then he was executed. And as he was executed, he said, "Father, forgive them." And then he fell to his knees and he says, "Father, I give you my spirit." And then he died. Where did he get that kind of power? Where did he get that kind of peace? Where did he get that kind of forgiveness? I'll tell you, intellectually, he might have known that somehow Jesus was a savior. But when he got a faith sight of the Ascension, the ascended priest Jesus Christ, his advocate standing before the Father, that what the Father sees now is the beauty of Jesus, and we in him. Because on Earth they were saying to Stephen, "You're ugly." He knew better because Jesus Christ was his advocate. He was beautiful to God. Because on Earth they were saying, "Condemned." But he knew better because up there he knew that he was utterly acquitted and accepted and ravishingly beautiful to the Father.

Now, let me just ask you. Let me be very, very, very practical right now. Do you feel ugly? Do you feel like a failure? Do you feel condemned? Are you a Christian? Do you believe in the Ascension to the degree that you understand that verdict up there? To the degree you understand what's going on up there, out there? To the degree that you understand that Jesus Christ as your advocate is before the Father, and therefore you are perfect in him? To that degree, verdicts here will be inconsequential. What people think will be inconsequential. What people say will be inconsequential. People won't be able to make you hate them. People won't be able to pull you down. To the degree you understand the ascended prophet Jesus Christ, what incredible buoyant power. But to a degree you understand the ascended priest, what absolute inner tranquility there will be. Yes, I'm about to be executed. I noticed I'm being shot. Oh, well. I mean, you know, he got so excited because he experienced, in a sense, the gospel. The fact he was being executed was really kind of a secondary issue. And I'm not saying all of us are going to get that kind of sight. But to some degree, you've got to have it now, or you will not be able to go out into the world like a thunderbolt, and your heart will be broken every day.

Lastly, Jesus Christ is ascended king. Of course, because to sit at the right hand, which is what the Ascension is all about, the right hand was the place where the grand vizier or the prime minister sat in any court. And the prime minister was the real executive officer. The prime minister was the one that was really running things. And so here, we know this. Jesus Christ is a human being. He is still a human being. He is the same Jesus up there. Which means the Ascension means that there is a human being ruling the universe. Don't ask me all the implications of that. But we know this: He knows you. He loves you. He knows how you feel. And we're told in Ephesians chapter one that when he was seated at the right hand of the Father, he now rules everything for you. For you. He rules everything for me because my priest and my prophet is also my king. And he is ruling because he's ascended. That means everything that happens happens for me. Of course, we don't understand that right now. A lot of you are saying, "Doesn't seem like that to me." Lots of things seem to be going wrong. Well, God could explain it all to you, but it's a little bit like pouring the Atlantic Ocean into a thimble. He could tell you, you wouldn't be able to get it. What you're supposed to do is realize that Romans 8:28, "All things work together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose," comes to you compliments of the Ascension. That verse means nothing without the Ascension. What it really means is go to Dothan, not Alabama, go to Dothan in in Genesis 37, where Joseph is in the pit and he's about to be sold into slavery, and he's praying, "Lord, save me. Lord, do nothing." And he's sold into slavery. And then go to Second Kings 6 in Dothan, and the city is surrounded, and they're about to be destroyed by the Assyrians, and Elisha prays, and God sends chariots of fire and miraculously destroys the Assyrians. I don't get it. Two prayers, same spot, same kind of basic problem. And what happens? In one case, God, chariots of fire. In the other case, God, nothing. Except if you go to Genesis 50:20, after Joseph, through his slavery, has risen to be prime minister of Egypt, he says to his, he says to his brothers, "You meant it for evil, God meant it for good." And if he knew that, how much more do we know it? How much more can you face life knowing that the one who rules the universe rules it for us?

Do you understand the Ascension? Do you see the ascended Christ? Get rid of the mousy pictures of Jesus Christ you saw in your Sunday school literature. Get rid of them. Paul was a tyrant. Cyprian, the great Bishop Cyprian, was a magician. St. Augustine, the great theologian, was a sex addict. John Newton was a slave trader. So what? Jesus Christ raises his scepter, and down comes all the walls. Down comes all the hard-heartedness. Our Christ is an ascended Christ. Do you see that? Think about that till the joy comes. Let's pray.

We ask, Lord, that you would help us to have something of the vision of Acts chapter 7. Something of the vision of Stephen. Please show us what it means to see you at the right hand of the Father. Help us to have the humility. Help us to have the authority. Help us to have the patience. Help us to have the joy. Help us to have the inner tranquility. Help us to have the, the confidence. Help us to have the peace. Help us to be able to face anything in this life and in history. Help us to see your Son seated at the right hand of the throne on high. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.