Preaching the Ascension of Jesus Christ

For those of you who may be unaware, this upcoming Lord's Day is Ascension Day, and even though I do not follow the church liturgical calendar in my preaching, my senior pastor asked me to preach on the Ascension. I agreed to do so for at least two reasons: (1) I have always wanted to preach on the Ascension and planned to do so, and (2) the Ascension is a neglected doctrine in the church today, and I must honestly admit that I am unable to answer some questions about the Ascension in my own thinking. In any event, church calendars aside, I was eager to comply with my pastor's request.

As I have studied the Ascension in depth over the past week or so, I have been amazed at the variety of texts that touch upon this important aspect of the work of Christ. Before my study, I knew that Luke 24:50-53 and Acts 1:9-11 were the major texts. If I really thought things through, and you caught me on a good day, then I might also add Mark 16:19, though a disputed text, and John 20:17. Indeed, Paul assumes the ascension when he speaks of Christ at the right hand of God, as head of the church, as Lord above all, etc. He also explicitly refers to the ascension in Ephesians 4:8-10, which is often avoided because of the controversy over the meaning of his "descent" (earth, hell, etc.) and the alleged misquotation of Psalm 68:18.

Interestingly enough, Calvin seems to make Ephesians 4:8-10 a central verse in his thinking about the Ascension, especially verse 10b, which says, "...that he might fill all things." We also find discussions of the ascension in Calvin's treatment on the Lord's Supper in order to contest the assertion of Luther and others that Christ can be physically present in the bread and wine while remaining at the right hand of God in his physical body. In any event, when you think about the Ascension of Christ, there are many texts to consider (probably more than you ever imagined): Matthew 26:64 and parallels, John 3:13, John 6:62, John 13:3, many references in John 14-17 (going back to the Father, etc.), Acts 2:33-36, Ephesians 1:20-23, Hebrews 1:3, 9:24 and about a dozen other places in Hebrews, 1 Peter 3:22, and others.

With respect to the OT, the Ascension is almost always connected with Psalm 110:1, and in Matthew 26:64 (cf. Gospel parallels, too) Psalm 110:1 and Daniel 7:13-14 are merged into one picture.

The author of Hebrews uses Psalm 110 to establish the fact that the Christ is not only an ascended King (110:1), but he is also an exalted Priest (110:4).

In the book of Acts, I would say that the emphasis is upon Jesus as ascended king, and in the book of Hebrews the emphasis is upon Jesus as ascended high priest. So when considering the Ascension, it is also important to think about the three offices of Christ: prophet, priest, and king.

As you can see, the more you study of the Ascension of Christ, the more you realize that your mind is inadequate to understand the glory of this aspect of his exaltation (Reformed Theology distinguishes four stages of the exaltation of Christ: Resurrection, Ascension, Session, and Second Coming).

Now what does this have to do with preaching? Well, it means that when we preach, we should always be selective. No matter what I preach this upcoming Lord's Day, I will not be able to preach everything there is to preach on the Ascension, which is good news and bad news.

It is good news because it means that this truth is that rich, but it is bad news because it means that I can only preach about 15% of what I have studied and learned over the past week.

Second, this also means that when preaching the key events of Jesus' saving work, it is difficult to preach a strictly expository sermon. In other words, it is much easier to preach a textual, thematic, theological sermon. This is not a sin, but it may bother some who are committed to strict verse by verse exposition. However, and this is especially true if you are preaching on a narrative text like Luke 24 or Acts 1, the narrative demands to be explained and applied, and since this is the work of the epistles and other NT documents, we should not be afraid to use them to illumine the Scripture when necessary.

Let me provide an example. When I preach from Acts 1:6-11, I will talk under one point about the fact that Jesus ascended into heaven in order to prepare a place for us in heaven. However, when you read through those verses you will look long and hard to find that truth, except for one fact. That fact is the observation that Luke tells us that Jesus went into heaven, which causes us to think, "Why did Jesus go into heaven? Did he tell us?" So in order to understand why, we need to look to Jesus' words in John 14:2. Now here is the key. We would not do this in an exegesis in a critical commentary, but we would and should do this in an exposition in a sermon. We do this to elucidate the meaning and significance of the Scripture. Here I am elucidating the significance, not the meaning, but it is a good thing to do in an exposition. So, when preaching on the saving work of Jesus, we will need to be thematic in order to provide a complete picture.

These are just some thoughts that I have entertained this past week in sermon prep...

Ten Reasons I Give for Why I Am Not Gossiping (When I Really Am)

"And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell." -James 3:6 (ESV)


1. "I am seeking counsel."
2. "I am venting."
3. "I am making a prayer request."
4. "I would say this to the person's face (lie)."
5. "I am talking to my wife and I can't keep secrets from her."
6. "This is true."
7. "I am warning him so that he does not fall into the same kind of temptation."
8. "I am making conversation."
9. "This is public knowledge (lie)."
10. "This information is pertinent to the story I am sharing."

What is on your list?

Abusing the Love of God - Another Example

Rembert G. Weakland was an archbishop in the Roman Catholic Church, but his career came quickly to an end (2002) when a man whom he had paid $450,000 to keep his mouth shut about their romantic involvement, appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America," claiming that Weakland had "raped" him. His story can be read here.

Archbishop Weakland was already a liberal voice in the RCC before his early "retirement," but after he resigned from his position as archbishop, he became even more outspoken against the church's teaching on homosexuality.

Interestingly enough, in an article from the NY Times we read Weakland's rationale:

"If we say our God is an all-loving god,” he said, “how do you explain that at any given time probably 400 million living on the planet at one time would be gay? Are the religions of the world, as does Catholicism, saying to those hundreds of millions of people, you have to pass your whole life without any physical, genital expression of that love?”

Well, no Christian is surprised by Weakland's rationale. In fact, sinners have been (ab)using the love of God since the Fall. However, it is an abuse of the love of God to use the love of God as an excuse for sin. I wonder if the Arminian sentimentalism of the love of God has contributed to the use of the love of God as an excuse for sin... Just some food for thought.

John Piper Speaks Prophetically Against the Sin of Abortion

This is awesome. Listen here. John Piper says, "No, Mr. President, we stand for the sanctity of human life because human life is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Christians should weep for America because pro-life legislation is quickly overturned by our new President. Make no mistake about it. Mr. Obama is the strongest pro-death candidate ever to set foot in the White House. And make no mistake about it. The God of glory THUNDERS. May God help us all!

No Place for Truth

I never cease to be amazed at the constant disregard of absolute truth in the news media. This evening I read an article about the Hubble Space Telescope. In the article, I was shocked by the following sentence:

"In Hubble's photos, believers witness the hand of God, nonbelievers see astronomy in action, and artists discover galaxies worthy of galleries."

Now, when I read this sentence, I make the following observations:

1. The sentence avoids making any absolute truth claim whatsoever.

2. This is accomplished by placing a greater emphasis on experience.

3. In doing so, the sentence trivializes the reality of absolute truth.

Moreover, this sentence is strange. Think about the list of spectators: believers, unbelievers, and artists. Well, I suppose we can learn one important lesson from this sentence. In a postmodern world, truth is only found in "the eyes of the beholder." Clearly, there is no place for truth in the news media.

Sermons

My sermons are now available online. The website is still under construction, and the most recent sermon is from November. But you should be able to access the sermons soon. You can listen here.