Ascension Day is the 40th day after the celebration of Easter. Through History, on this day, the Church recalls the ascension of Christ into Heaven and celebrates His triumphant rule over all Creation as the Victorious Priest King who has been invested with all authority on heaven and earth.
Interestingly the Ascension was celebrated for centuries in the early Church with Pentecost as one festival. During the end of the 4th century the Church eventually recognized them as dates to celebrate two festivals. One honoring the Ascension. One honoring Pentecost.
Of course we remember that the Ascension of the Lord Christ is a necessary aspect of the narrative of the Gospel. We confess the Ascension of the Lord Christ when we confess the Apostles Creed.
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
Too often we so focus on the Cross of Christ that we forget the subsequent Redemptive acts following the Cross — the Resurrection, the Ascension, the co-Regency of the Lord Christ (Session) and the Kingly distribution of the Divine gift of the Holy Spirit upon His people (Pentecost). So, in no way diminishing the luster of the Cross work of the Lord Christ we spend some time on Ascension Sunday speaking to the importance of the Ascension of the Lord Christ, while at the same time seeing the relationship between Cross and Crown.
We first note that the Ascension of the Lord Christ was a enthronement reality. In the enthronement ceremony of the Ancient world what was being affirmed was the Sovereign and rightful rule of the King. We find included in that rightful rule of the King also the theme of judgment because the king was enthroned to judge over his people.
Psalm 96:10, 97:2, 8, 98:9, 99:4
So, when we celebrate Ascension Sunday we are celebrating that Christ is a sovereign King who rules over the affairs of the nations. Indeed, in the Gospel narrative the Ascension of the Lord Christ is the explanation of how God’s reign is incarnated on earth among men.
Luke’s Gospel, for example, very quickly brings us to the Baptism of Jesus, which Jesus describes as a royal anointing (Luke 4:18). In point of fact when, upon Baptism, the Lord Christ hears the Father’s words, “You are my Beloved Son,” there is a echo of the enthronement Psalm of Psalm 2 coming through.
“You are my Son, today I have begotten you …”
So, at the beginning of Christ’s ministry Jesus, as David’s greater Son, is recognized as King, but His enthronement does not come until after his Crucifixion and Resurrection in His Ascension. That there is such a delay between his anointing and His enthronement should not surprise us since there is precedent for that in the OT. David is chosen by God and anointed by Samuel years before he is finally enthroned as King.
Luke describes the Resurrection and Ascension as Jesus’ divine royal enthronement. In his sermon at Pentecost Peter uses the Psalms to show how the Resurrection and Ascension represent the fulfillment of the God’s Promise to David that His seed would forever rule.
Luke cites Psalm 16:8-11 and explains that the Lord has fulfilled David’s prayer for preservation from death not in himself, for he died, but in Jesus who is raised from the dead (Acts 2:24-31).
He then draws on Psalm 110:1 to show how the Lord establishes Jesus as King at his right hand in his Ascension (Acts 2:32-36); through the Ascension Jesus is enthroned at the right hand of God. Though Jesus was “anointed” as king in his baptism, it was only in his Resurrection and Ascension that he was elevated and installed as king.
This exaltation and enthronement becomes a theme again a few chapters later in the book of Acts when Peter says,
(Acts 5:29-32 NKJV) But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. {30} “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. {31} “Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. {32} “And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
So, the Ascension of the Lord Christ — His enthronement — was to the end that the Nations would move in terms of His Sovereign rule and authority, and Peter speaks as one who is under the authority of a King who compels him to disobey lesser authorities who rule contrary to the Ascended King’s Law Word.
That the soon Enthroned and Ascended King intends to bring God’s rule to bear on earth is seen in Jesus last recorded words in Matthew 28,
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Jesus, as the Ascended one, who has been given a name above every other name, now sits at the right Hand of the Father to the end of the fulfillment of all that the Gospel intended to accomplish which is the ongoing extension of His now established rule. In His Ascension God has set His steward King as regent over the nations until His enemy nations are made His footstool.
Now none of this truth denigrates the message of the Cross. In order to come underneath the rule of the King one must understand their rebellion against and alienation from the Ascended King. Only the atoning death of Christ can answer that rebellion and alienation. However, once that rebellion is forgiven because of the finished work of Christ and the alienation set aside so that we are now adopted as co-heirs with Christ we now are part of the Kingdom of God and walk in terms of His law Word — a law word that will hold sway over everything once His enemies are made His footstool.
We should say a few words here to elaborate.
There are those in the Church who want to talk about Christ’s Kingship as if the Kingdom of God is going to be reflected absent the proclamation of the Cross of Christ. It is as if they believe that the current Kingdom of God will be participated in by men who never understood God’s just wrath against sin yet were brought into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross. This will never do. The Cross is the center of our proclamation because it constantly reminds us of our only solution for sin and our only standing before God. We can not participate in God’s building up of His Kingdom apart from the Cross.
However, on the other hand, there are those who never want to move beyond the Cross to the resurrection and the ascension. Christ is King NOW and just as His humiliation was seen in space and time History, so His exaltation will be embodied in space and time History as He triumphs by His Gospel over the nations until His enemies are made His footstool. There are those who warn against the dangers of a over-realized eschatology and in doing so they are warning against a theology of glory where the humility of the Cross is ignored. This is a profitable warning.
But we might also warn against a eschatology that is under-realized and one that diminishes the Ascension of Christ. We might warn against a theology that requires defeat and insists that the victories gained by the ascended Christ are only “spiritual” in nature. We might warn against forgetting the enthronement and Ascension of our Lord Christ and His intent on making his very real enemies into very real footstools. We might warn against a theology that closes the door to God’s reign on earth being made manifest so that all the Nations flow into the Mountain of the Lord’s house (Isaiah 2).
What might we say next of this Ascension we affirm and celebrate?
The Ascension belies an objective state of affairs.
Listen to this morning’s text again,
Acts 2:29 “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,[e] 31 he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.
34 “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself:
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
35 Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”’[f]
36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
What we seen here is that the Ascension gives ontological objectivity to our Preaching and our message
We’ve tried to teach from this pulpit, many times, the the Christian faith is capital T transcendent TRUTH. This flies in the face of the post-modern age which deceptively tries to suggest that truth is person or community variable. In other words, we live in times that desires to suggest that if truth exists it only exists consistent with the narrative or story that any individual or group determines to spin.
Peter’s Sermon, in appealing to the Ascension of Christ puts an end to that nonsense.
Peter insists (and the book of Acts everywhere breathes) that this is an objective state of affairs that obtains and that objective state of affairs (Christ ascended and enthroned at the Right hand of the Father) requires all men everywhere to repent (Acts 2:38).
This objective state of affairs is a Universal reality. Christ ascended and so ruling is the way things are. When proclaiming the Gospel we are not primarily speaking of people entering into a personal relationship with Jesus the way that one might decide to go steady with a boyfriend or girlfriend. When we proclaim the Gospel we are primarily speaking of the Ascended one who rules over the affairs of the Universe to the end of restoring all things so that His enemies are made His footstool. Listen to the way St. Paul characterizes that Dominion in Ephesians 1. St. Paul can speak of
the exceeding greatness of God’s power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
So when we herald Christ we are heralding a objective ontological Cosmic reality. In the death of Christ, Christ defeated all enemies and implemented the Reign of God by brining in a new creational age wherein He intends to set all things aright so as to establish God’s New World Order — God’s Kingdom. This is what the Ascension of Christ bespeaks. Because of Christ’s ascension the age to come has invaded this present wicked age under the instrumentation of the obedient Church, which has been filled with the Spirit of Christ, as gifted by the Ascended King, so that the Church is eager to do good works, unto to the end of being the aroma of Christ unto a world that will be converted by the presently established reign of the ascended Christ.
In the language of the Theologians this is part and parcel of the Christus Victor motif (Col. 2:15). Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension is God’s testimony that He has triumphed over all enemies — foreign and domestic. When you combine this Christus Victor motif with the current reign of Christ over all nations and spheres you get the Gospel. Because of the active obedience of Christ in resisting the Devil and because of the passive obedience of Christ in the work of the Cross, the pretender to the throne of this world (the Devil) has been defeated — the Strong man has been bound — and because of the 2nd Adam’s work, Adam’s seed has had paradise restored — in principle.
You see then that the Ascension compels us to speak of a Gospel that has global implications. In St. John’s language (12:30f) Christ has been lifted up (a double entendre referring both to the crucifixion and the Ascension) and the consequence is that the ruler of this world is cast out. All men everywhere are now commanded to repent for Christ’s new creational age to come has come. This is the Gospel.
One last word on this Ascension Sunday.
Consistent w/ Federal Theology what is predicated of the Covenant head is predicated of His people.
Christ has ascended and so Federally and Covenantally speaking we have as well.
Compare Ephesians 1:20 w/ 2:6
20 which the Father worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
2:6 — Speaking of believers
6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
The good news for Christians is that we died with him, were resurrected with him (Romans 6:4f, Col. 2:13) and have ascended with him (Eph. 2:6) so we are Kings and Priests unto Sovereign God under Christ (I Pt. 2:4f).
On this Ascension Sunday we are thus to be reminded to increasingly become what we have been freely declared to be because of our identity with Christ. We are a people who are now part of the new Creational Kingdom and as denizens of that new Creational Kingdom we are to become what we have been freely declared to be — Preists and Kings unto the Nations.
Conclusion
After this rousing of a Ascension Sermon we have need to be reminded that there is a “not yet” that must be spoken in the context of all this “now.” We are not what we once were but we also are not yet what we shall be. But even here there is great hope. Yes we continue to struggle against sin, and with the remnants of the Adamic nature that clings to all of us, but because Christ has Ascended and sent forth His Spirit we have great hope that we might mortify the old man while vivifying the new man so that we walking increasingly consistent with God’s royal Law Word.
But beyond all of our personal need to grow in the Grace and Knowledge of the Lord Christ the Ascension of our Lord Christ reminds us also of a King whose rule is Cosmic (Romans 8:21). The Ascension of our Lord Christ reminds us of His intent to subjugate His enemies via the Gospel proclamation that includes both their opportunity to appeal for peace and reconciliation based on the finished work of Christ AND the fact that the finished work of Christ is good news of a Victory that covers the world and so will convert the nations.
