Let's hear from that Word of God, hear the voice of our Savior now. Our text this morning comes from Psalm 24, and really we'll be focusing primarily on verses 7 to 10, but let's read the entirety of the psalm, beginning in verse 1. Again, this is the Word of God to us, let us receive it as such. Psalm 24, verse 1. A psalm of David. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob, Selah. Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? the Lord of hosts, he is the king of glory. Selah. Let's pray once more and ask for the help of God, help of his spirit as we consider this portion of his word. Our Father, our God, we've already prayed that you would speak to us now, that you would bless your word to us to continue your work within us. We pray indeed that you would feed us by your word as your word is often spoken of in the word itself as bread, as that which sustains us and gives us strength and life. We pray that this word would be sustaining bread to us today. We know that it is sustaining bread to us because it is by your word that you communicate to us more of the One who is in Himself, the Word, who is the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ Himself. We long to see more of Christ. We long to learn more of Him. We long to remember Him and what He has done. We long to feed upon Him by faith. that we might know that true spiritual life, and that it might be sustained, Father, that we might persevere until the end and hold fast to him. And so feed us with your word, feed us with Christ now. We pray this in his name. Amen. Well, as I mentioned last week, and for those of you who are joining us in this series, we're actually just taking the scriptural texts that are the basis of Handel's Messiah, that great oratorio that just is all about Christ, is all about the Messiah, that promised Savior. And we've been working our way through those scriptural texts to see what do those passages really mean? What are they really communicating to us? And we've come through the sections on the prophesying of the birth of the Messiah, to his birth and into his life and his healing and his ministry, his teachings, on through then his sufferings and his death. And then last week, as he said, made another turn and considered his resurrection. There in Psalm 16, that God did not leave his soul in hell, nor did he let his Holy One see corruption. He raised Christ up. And as I mentioned last week, we far too often, when we tell the story of Messiah, when we think about the story of Messiah, we end it too early. Yes, we'll talk about his birth, his life, his ministry, his teachings, his suffering, his death, but far too often we kind of leave him in the grave. We fail to go on to mention that he came back to life. He rose again in victory over sin and death and hell. That is a key part of the good news. I was actually just listening to a lecture that was given by a gospel minister at a secular university, and so the crowd was very hostile to him, but there was question and answer time at the end. And I don't know exactly what point the questioner was trying to make, but you could tell he was trying to trap the speaker somehow. And he said, so you believe that Jesus actually existed, that he lived and that he died? And he said, well, yes, I believe all of that. He says, so Jesus is dead. He's like, well, no, we Christians believe there's a little bit more to that story. Christ came back to life. But then, you know, and actually I was testing my girls on this yesterday. You know, we've obviously gone over the story of Christ many times, but, you know, asking them, of course, they know, thankfully, that Christ came back from the dead, that he rose again. And then I asked them, well, so where is he? And the answers were kind of interesting. Where is he? And so the story doesn't even end there, right? Well, if he came back to life, well, what does that mean? Does it mean that he lived for a while longer and then died again? Does it mean that he is still somewhere roaming around on this planet? Well, no, the story of the Messiah goes on and the next stage, the next chapter of that story is His ascension right? That's what we confess. That's what you believe that he yes, he died. He was buried. He rose again And then he was with his disciples for a period of time teaching them instructing them showing himself to many but then He ascended. And it's interesting, and maybe perhaps not entirely our fault that we don't give as much attention to the ascension as we should, perhaps. We don't think about it maybe as often as we ought to. But really, if you read the Gospels themselves, and I actually had to go and look at the ends of the Gospels this week just to remind myself, how many of the Gospels actually mention the ascension of Jesus? How many of them actually do it? Because, I'll give you a hint, most of them, three out of four, really end the story of Christ with him still alive and speaking with his disciples and teaching them and instructing them. He comes back to life, they all mention the resurrection, but then it ends. There's actually only one of the four Gospels that specifically mentions the ascension of Christ, and that is the Gospel of Luke. And then Luke also mentions the Ascension again at the beginning of Acts. But look at that, just because there's really actually very little detail that we are given concerning the Ascension. At the end of Luke's Gospel, Luke 24 and verse 51 just stated sort of matter-of-factly, no real detail given, while he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. That's it. It was carried up into heaven. He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And then if you look at the beginning of Acts, Which is again just sort of the second volume of the gospel of Luke Again, the axe and this is key kind of the axe not of the Apostles but the axe of the risen Christ through his Holy Spirit But also mentions this because of course it begins with a little bit more of his instruction But then in verse 9 and when he had said these things as they were looking on He was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight Again, that's stated very simply. It's kind of undramatic, right? It's almost, you could think, maybe somewhat anticlimactic, right? He comes back from the dead in this big, dramatic fashion, and then how does he ascend into heaven? I mean, you would expect with angelic trumpets, right? With the divine voice again, with the heavens parting, and this big, glorious display as the victorious risen Christ ascends to his father's right hand. But no, it's really just quiet. It's private, right? It's just his own disciples standing there on the mountain. They watch him. He rises. We don't know how quickly. It seems somewhat gradually. They watch as he goes, and then a cloud obscures him from their view, and he's gone. He's ascended. He's no longer physically present. That's, again, one of the things we've been noting time and time again in the Upper Room Discourse there in John 13 to 17, how often Christ emphasizes the fact that he's no longer going to be with them bodily. He is going to his Father. And when he went to his Father, this was it. This is the ascension. Quiet, undramatic. Again, we might think kind of anticlimactic. So what was the significance of the ascension of the Messiah? And how can we really understand the true meaning and the true nature of it? If it was lacking in this sort of grand display as narrated in the Gospels, Well, really, that is just kind of from the earthly perspective, right? From the perspective of the disciples themselves. And I don't doubt that's how it happened. But it's just from the earthly perspective, from the physical plane, that was how the ascension happened. But there are other places in scripture that give us what I would argue is a more heavenly perspective of the ascension of Christ. Viewed from heaven, what did this ascension look like? And one of those places in scripture that I think gives us that more heavenly perspective is here in Psalm 24. Gives us an idea of what took place after the cloud hid Christ from the disciples' eyes. Psalm 24 has long been interpreted as a prophecy of the Messiah's ascension. It's long been understood that. I don't know how many times you've read Psalm 24 in your life. I don't know if you've ever made a connection between Psalm 24 and the ascension of Jesus Christ, of the Messiah. But this is really obviously in the place where this text appears in the libretto of the Messiah, Handel's Messiah. That's how That was being interpreted, right? It's right after his resurrection, and the next verse that is quoted, the next verses are Psalm 24, 7-10. It's evident they were understanding that as a prophecy, as a description of the ascension. So let's give our attention to these verses now, especially verses 7-10, and see whether and what they reveal to us about the ascension of Christ, and then certainly what that means for us. We'll begin, as we must, and as I've been doing in many of these passages, especially these Old Testament passages, we need to begin with the original text. We need to begin with its original setting, what it meant when it was first written, and then ask ourselves, can this have further significance as well? But when we do that, when we look at the original text, look at the original setting, we see first of all here a description of God's triumphal ascent into the earthly Jerusalem. That's what's being described here, I would argue, and I'll argue that in a moment. But God's, Yahweh's, triumphal ascent into the earthly Jerusalem. Again, this is what I believe is the original context. I said last week, and I've said many times before, we always have to be a bit careful in making assumptions as to very specific original settings and contexts for the Psalms, right? If we're not given explicit information, we need to be a little bit more humble in trying to make those assumptions. However, sometimes there is a very likely candidate that's, you know, for the original setting, the original purpose, the original use of these Psalms, given what we know about Old Testament Israelite worship, and what we can see by comparing other ancient Near Eastern cultures and how they would worship, how they would use some of these hymns and songs that they would use, because there's lots of them from the ancient world, lots of other hymns that are written to false gods, but they were used in specific liturgical contexts, so specific acts of worship. And we can see that in a number of psalms, like Psalm 2, for instance. It's been pretty definitively proven by comparing other types of ancient Near Eastern hymns that that was a coronation psalm. that it would have been a psalm that was probably used at the coronation of each new Davidic king. Now, of course, it goes far beyond the Davidic kings themselves, and that was what it was supposed to do, but it would be used in that sense. And then it would probably not just be used, but it would probably be used in maybe an annual sort of reenactment of that coronation. There was a lot in ancient Near Eastern religion, a lot in Old Testament religion of reenactments. I mean, just the annual Passover feast, they would reenact these things, reenact the killing of the lamb and the escape from Egypt. All those things were supposed to bring those events back to their mind and they would reenact them using specific psalms, specific words. Others, like the Psalms of Ascent, that's Psalms 120 to 135, of course that's specifically given to us there, they were used in a specific liturgical context. And particularly sometimes we get a hint that a psalm was written to be used in a specific worship setting, when there's kind of this back-and-forth kind of dialogue structure to parts of it. For instance, just as one example, Psalm 134. So, Psalm 134 is the second to the last of the Psalms of Ascent. Again, these Psalms that would be sung by the Israelites as they were journeying to Jerusalem, as they were approaching the temple for their annual feasts. And look at Psalm 134. It's one of the songs of ascent. It's near the end. It says, How do we understand this? Well, in that liturgical setting, this would have been sung as the pilgrims are getting to the temple, and here they sing, and they address who? They're addressing the priests. Right? You servants of the Lord who stand by night in the house of the Lord, they're saying, all right, it's time now, bless the Lord, lead us in the worship of Yahweh. And then verse 3 is most likely to be understood as the priests then speaking back to the people. Pronouncing the blessing of the Lord may the Lord bless you from Zion he who made heaven and earth and in a lot of different Psalms we see kind of this dialogue going back and forth and it's most likely that that was used in a specific liturgical setting where the people would say certain things the priests would say other things you'd have different groups addressing one another sort of antiphonally and Well, I think that's what we have going on in verses 7 to 10 of Psalm 24. And again, this is something that has been argued for a long, long time. Right? We see that. There's kind of that dialogue there. Because we read it and we think, oh, this is kind of redundant, and who's speaking this, and what are we saying? It seems strange to us, unless we can understand it in a particular setting. So imagine the setting. The setting has been suggested again for centuries is that this quite possibly was used when it composed for this event and then used when David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem for the first time. Of course, we know that was a major, major episode in the life of David. Of course, we just read that and studied that a while ago. He's leading the procession, he's dancing, he's just filled with exuberant joy. The symbol of God's presence is coming to his capital city, to this chosen city. Finally, it hadn't been in regular use for so long, and yet now the symbol of God's presence is coming to the center of David's kingdom. And so it's possible, and that's what's been argued, that that was the original setting for this. And then again, might have been used in a semi-regular reenactment of that major event. But look at, especially just verses 7 to 10 here. You remember that, of course, Jerusalem was on a mountain. And so whenever it's talked about going to Jerusalem, you go up to Jerusalem because you literally physically have to, you know, go up in elevation to get to Jerusalem. And then the temple area itself, of course, in David's time, the temple was not yet built, yet the site had been chosen and consecrated already, well, would be at the end of David's life. And so the temple then is on a hill that's even further up above the rest of the city. And so I always imagine what it would have been like, you know, in that day to just be traveling and you've come from, you know, miles and miles away and you're coming for the feasts and especially in the heyday of Solomon's glory, the temple itself there standing above the city, you know, shining in the sunlight because it was just Completely coated in gold. I mean your eyes would have been drawn to that temple. But as as you ascend as you go up then verses 7 to 10 would have been used as the procession nears either the gates of the city itself, or maybe even the gates of the temple itself later. And so, look at that, you know, imagine the Ark of the Covenant being brought to the city. And what is it said? Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Right? It's open up those doors, let the king of glory enter into his holy city or again, even into the temple itself, let the king of glory to come in. And then there's a response. And again, it's just sort of a drama being enacted out, but the, you know, the, the, the city guards, the gatekeepers, maybe even the priests within the temple itself, then who is this king of glory? Okay. You've announced the arrival of the king of glory. Who is this king of glory? But is the Lord Yahweh strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle? And then again, lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. And that question once more, just to emphasize the focus of the identity of this King of glory. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. Selah. Now, it's interesting to notice here the emphasis, of course, on God's glory, Yahweh's glory, but it's also an emphasis on His military might and His military victory. And maybe we don't associate that as directly with the Ark of the Covenant as the Old Testament Israelites would have, But from the very beginning, even while they were in the wilderness, whenever the glory cloud or the pillar of fire would go up and would start moving, then they would pack up their camp and they would start to follow. But when they specifically brought the Ark of the Covenant and started moving the Ark of the Covenant after that, what was the cry? What was the chant every time? Go forth, O Lord, and scatter your enemies before you. Right? The Ark was a symbol of God's presence, but a symbol of his military might over his enemies. That's why it's sometimes, you know, the children of Israel would take the Ark of the Covenant with them into battle. And whether or not that was a consistent use, you know, perhaps if it was, then when they would return victorious in battle and they'd be bearing the Ark of the Covenant with them, you know, they come to the gates of the city again. And lift up your heads, O gates, open these doors that the King of Glory might come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord mighty in battle, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of armies. Even if they didn't physically have the Ark of the Covenant with them, still it was always understood that if they were victorious in battle, it was because the Lord was with them and the Lord had given them that victory. And so even as they come back victorious after battle, come back to the city, come back to the temple, open the doors that the King of glory might come in, this King, the Lord, the Lord, strong and mighty, mighty in battle. And so this could have been a psalm that was used regularly as there was a return victorious from battle and a sort of symbolic return of the victorious King who was the Lord, who was Yahweh from the battlefield back to his royal throne, back to his holy city, back to his temple. It certainly would have been, it would be difficult to conceive, I think, of a more fitting setting than that. An actual sort of ceremony of procedure of triumphal procession back into the Holy City. And again, we know that this happened in many different cultures. When a king would go forth in battle and he would be victorious, what would they do? bring him back in a triumphal parade. They would parade him through the city announcing his victory. Of course here, who is it that gets the credit? It's not the king. It's not the Davidic king, the human king. It's the Lord. He is the true king and he is the one who is truly glorious and victorious. So I think the original setting, the original context of this, again, whatever the specifics might have been, is a celebration of God's triumphal ascent into the earthly Jerusalem. Into the earthly Jerusalem, literally through the gates of the city, literally up to the doors of the temple itself. So if that's the case, and if that's how it's to be understood, which I think is quite clear, Is there any then legitimate reference to Christ? Can we draw any lines to the Messiah here and understand anything of a further significance in this hymn, in this psalm? And if so, what and how? Well, secondly, I would like to consider Christ's triumphal ascent into the heavenly temple. I believe that's what is being ultimately portrayed here. Christ's triumphal ascent into the heavenly temple. Now we're going to have to take a few steps here. But as I've said, it's long been understood. And again, this is the one thing I always do prefer, as I mentioned a lot of times, older commentators, kind of pre-modern hermeneutics of those commentators, because they weren't afraid to do theology in their interpretation. Now, that's almost anathema nowadays. If you read virtually any modern commentary on Psalm 24, there's gonna be no reference to Jesus Christ at all. There's gonna be no sort of, let's view this in the totality of Scripture, the totality of Revelation, See, where do we see Christ here? There's none of that. You're not allowed to do that nowadays. Although some of the better, more homiletic commentaries are starting to do that. So we're getting a lot of that. There's good biblical theology being done in those. But again, one of the things that's frustrating with those older commentaries sometimes is, yes, they'll make the application to Christ. But they just sort of make it and they just assume it, which I think is okay. But they don't sort of help you draw those lines, take those steps. Okay, well, how do we really get here from here to Christ? But I do appreciate that. It's just sort of assumed for the sake of argument, because that's how they read the scriptures, how they viewed the scriptures. This is about Christ and all in the Old Testament is a type of foreshadowing of him. But what I'd like to do is just maybe dwell on that a little bit more and then draw some of these applications to Christ. So his triumphal ascent into the heavenly temple secondly. We're not helped out directly like we have been with so many of these passages in that there is no direct quotation or clear allusion to Psalm 24 in the New Testament, at least in reference, you know, to verses 7 to 10. The beginning of or the Now, the beginning of verse 1 is quoted by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians, but he's making a different point there, and he's not really closely directly tying it to Christ. So we don't have that clear help, but let's think of several other considerations, and I'd like to move here from kind of the more narrow context to, yes, the broader context. First, within the context of Psalm 24 itself. You know, are we given any indications here that might show us that maybe there's a further horizon that is kept in view here, the horizon of the coming Messiah, and yes, his ascension. Well, I do think so. Look at the psalm in total again. So verses 1 to 2 are, you know, a beautiful description of God as creator, right? And I won't take the time to dwell on some of that imagery, but it's beautiful because God is creator. God is just set up at the beginning. He is the creator. And so everything in this world is his. And everything that's in the world, the world itself, everything that's in it belongs to God because He is the Creator. So you get this high view of the Creator God to begin with. And then in verse 3 comes this interesting question. In light of the fact that this high, majestic, glorious creator God exists, then who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? So here already, we already have this sort of imagery of ascending to the temple, ascending to the hill of the Lord, ascending into the presence of God, right? So who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? You know, if this God is so powerful, so majestic, so omnipotent and is holy, then who can come into his presence? And the answer is given, well, those who are themselves holy, right? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, so outwardly, inwardly, is righteous, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully, He, that one, will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation, such as the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. And so we have this question that's put out there. Who can ascend the holy hill of God? Who can stand in his presence? Well, it's one who is himself holy, who is righteous outwardly and inwardly. And that's what all of the many, many rituals of the Mosaic law dealt with, all of the laws of purity and of uncleanness. It's to make the point that we need inward purity. And David himself understood that. Not just clean hands, not just ritual purity, but a pure heart as well. Inwardly, outwardly, one who is clean, one who is pure. And so there's this question, there's this shift in focus from God as creator then to man, right? You know, okay, then who among humanity can enter into his holy presence? And then in verses 7 to 10 you get the shift again, but there's this focus again on one who is ascending, who is going into the temple, going into the presence of God, right? These gates and doors, of course, are the gates of Jerusalem, the gates of the holy city, and again, quite possibly later, the gates of the temple itself. And we see here in verses 7 to 10, someone is entering that gate. Someone is going into the holy hill of God, ascending to the holy hill of God. Someone is going into God's presence. And who is it? It's Yahweh himself, right? It's the Lord of hosts. It's the Lord mighty in battle. So it's interesting, because in just sort of the imagery of the psalm, as you work through it, you have the holy presence of Yahweh. You have the question, who can go into his presence? And then the answer is, it's Yahweh that can go into his presence. And it's an interesting dynamic, but it's a dynamic we see in many places in the Old Testament, but also in the psalms in particular. Think of Psalm 110. Right? The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Of course, Christ makes an important point about that. Other Psalms, I could list off many, but like Psalm 45, I'll just flip there for now. Psalm 45, that beautiful psalm in praise of the king. All right, talking about the king and ostensibly the Davidic king. But then you get this reference here in verse 6 and following. He's talking about the king. It's clear he's talking about this Davidic king. And yet what does he say? Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companion." And you're like, wait, God is anointing God here? You know, we see this so many times in the Psalms. And so we see it here. We have kind of Yahweh himself coming before Yahweh, before himself. But again, the imagery and what you're expecting in verses three and following is some sort of man who is coming before the presence of God. I think that dynamic is understood best by the understanding this is referring ultimately to the person of Jesus Christ, who, yes, himself is truly man. is also truly and fully God. I can't understand this without a working understanding of the Trinity that yes, there is one God who is fully God who is Yahweh, and yet exists in distinct persons. Right? And so you can have God speaking to God, you can have God blessing and anointing God, you can have Yahweh coming before Yahweh. Now again, I'm not saying that the ancient Israelites understood all of this, but I think that even within the context of the psalm itself, something interesting is going on that ultimately might drive us to a deeper understanding of this psalm. And then to look at the, and I'll do this briefly, but the broader context, one of, I think, the most interesting areas of study in the Psalms going on right now is in just the structure of the Psalms. We look at the Psalter, and we can kind of assume it's just this random assortment of Psalms. There's really no connection between them. But there's a lot of good work being done arguing that, no, the Psalms are arranged, and they're placed in the Psalter very carefully, and that even that arrangement can make some of these broader points. Look at the context of where Psalm 24 appears. Now, the argument has made, and I think persuasively, that there's a section of Psalms here, well, I'll just narrow it down even further, that Psalms 20 to 24, That's five psalms and that they are all kingship psalms. If you look at one theme and how they're grouped together, they're about kingship. Psalm 20 and 21 are about the human king, right? They're about the Davidic king, right? So, you know, whoever that was, there's a prayer for the king in Psalm 20, it keeps in verse. And then, you know, again, further discussion of the human king in Psalm 21. Psalm 23, now again, you think, well, Psalm 23, it's not a kingship psalm. Well, yes, it is. Shepherding was a very kingly thing in the, well, especially in Old Testament Israel. A king was supposed to be a shepherd, especially after David. But then, of course, you have that switch of the imagery. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. And there's a mention of the house. Again, it's kind of focused on Yahweh as king, Yahweh as this kingly shepherd. And then certainly, as we saw in Psalm 24, God as king because of creation, but then king also through his military victory, right? Through his might displayed in battle on behalf of his people. And what do you have right in the middle of these, this grouping of Psalms? You have Psalm 22. of course, which is clearly a messianic psalm. And in many ways, sort of brings together the human king from, you know, the Davidic king from Psalm 20 and 21. And, you know, the center of, you know, the bringing together the Yahweh as king, the divine king in one person and one who then suffers on behalf of his people. Now, again, that's, you know, deserves a broader discussion as well. But I do think that, yeah, in this section of kingship songs, we see the center of it being that Psalm 22, which is clearly, of course, we know from the New Testament, a messianic song that is ultimately about Jesus Christ. And so even in the broader context, you do have this focus on this messianic king, the one who is yes, the son of David, but is also the son of God who is king by virtue of divinity and And then this broadening at the context even further, about as broad as it can go, Again, the whole context of the Bible, the context of scripture, which again, we know is all about Christ ultimately, especially, you know, Christ as Yahweh in the flesh and of all of the Old Testament and all of the Old Testament victories that we read about that Yahweh accomplishes, all of those we understand are just types, they're foreshadowing of that ultimate victory that will be won by Yahweh in the flesh, won by Jesus Christ, won by the Messiah. All of those physical Old Testament victories over physical enemies point forward to Christ's coming greatest of all victories. His victory over our spiritual enemies, over our great enemy, over sin and death and hell, over Satan and all of his angels. And what was it that really marked his victory? Well, certainly his resurrection, but then also his ascension, right? His triumphal entry. And as we understand, his triumphal entry where? Not into the earthly Jerusalem, but ultimately in his ascension, not into the earthly temple, but into that heavenly temple. And that's what we understand. That's where Christ went when he ascended. He went into the heavenly temple, and he ascended. And where did he go? To the right hand of the Father on high, the majesty on high. He sat down on his throne as this king who returns in triumph, having conquered over all of his enemies. He returns in triumph to the heavenly temple. Oh, we could go, but we don't have the time to Hebrews 4, Hebrews 6, Hebrews 7, Hebrews 8, Hebrews 9, and the emphasis that Christ didn't go into the temple made with hands, not that earthly sanctuary, but into the true sanctuary, into the true holy of holies, into the presence of God and sat down at his right hand. It's a direct contrast between entering into the earthly sanctuary with entering into the true sanctuary, the true presence of God in heaven itself. And with that in mind, I think we can appreciate this imagery in this language even more so, thinking about that further horizon of Christ's ascension. His ascension marks that triumphal return to his royal city, to the true heavenly temple. And so when we read there at the end of Luke, or we read there at the end of Acts, and from that earthly perspective, it just sort of, he rises and then he's gone. From the heavenly perspective, what does that look like? Read those verses again and think of Christ, the risen triumphant Christ, entering into the heavenly temple. Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. A truly triumphant, truly conquering King, entering into his holy temple, the true temple. the heavenly perspective of his ascension. I think it's also what we see from a heavenly perspective. And again, we haven't left. I haven't left. I always blame you guys. We haven't left ourselves enough time. I haven't left myself enough time. But Revelation 5, we mentioned this in Sunday school, this passage today, but that's what I believe in Revelation 5 is being described. It's a visionary depiction of the significance of Christ's ascension. Right? There's this scroll and no one has the authority to open it. And so John is weeping. And what is that scroll? I think ultimately representing sort of the, you know, title deed to all over to earth and to history. And there's no one who has the authority to take that and to open it. And what does the angel say, or one of the elders says to John, weep no more. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. And then you have the lamb standing as though he had been slain, but in triumph, and all of heaven and all of creation falling down and worshiping him because he enters in this victory and this triumph. This is the ascension of Christ from the heavenly, true perspective. And that's what I think we have here, and that's what, again, most older commentators have understood. We see here, ultimately, in verses 7 to 10 of Psalm 24, the triumphal entry, triumphal ascent of Christ into the heavenly temple. Well, finally, lastly, we also see, or perhaps not see here, but we can certainly extrapolate from this, our triumphal ascent into the new Jerusalem. Because of what Christ has done here, because of his victory, because of his triumphal ascent into the heavenly temple. And also we then can have hope of our own triumphal ascent into the new Jerusalem. And this is where we come back to that question in verse 3. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? Who is fit to enter into the presence of the holy creator of all that is? Again, the one who has clean hands and a pure heart, the one who does not lift up his soul to what is false, and does not swear deceitfully. Well, we read that and we think, I'm out. That excludes me. I know in and of myself that is not me. I don't have perfectly clean hands. I certainly do not have a perfectly pure heart. None of us have. And so all of us really should come before those gates, come before those ancient doors, and find them eternally barred for us. What we read of there at the end of Revelation, that all who are sinful, who have violated God's law, are shut out of that holy city forever. And we know, even just there in the description of the New Jerusalem, when it descends, it is itself a temple. It's a temple city. The whole city is God's presence. It's all holy. It's all His temple. even though in some ways there's no temple, because, well, God himself is there, so the whole city is a temple, and what does it come down on? On a mountain, on a very high mountain. So who can ascend the holy hill of God and stand in his holy place, especially for all eternity? Who has the right to enter that new Jerusalem? According to the scripture, not us. Not us. But there is one who can, there is one who has, there was one who himself had perfectly clean hands and a perfectly pure heart, who stood in his own perfect righteousness. He had the right to ascend and to enter into the presence of God and yet, He opened that way for us as well. That's what we read in Hebrews. Again, I wish we had time to just read those passages and just dwell on them. But He's entered that way into the Holy of Holies, into God's very presence. He's opened, He's torn that veil. Why? How? Well, in taking upon himself the judgment that we sinners deserve before our unclean hands and our impure hearts. And he himself has accomplished that perfect righteousness that then, again, is credited to us as we trust in him so that we can stand before God as though we had clean hands and as though we had a pure heart and the perfect righteousness of his son, Jesus Christ. When we come before those gates, when we come before those ancient doors, we can expect admittance if we've repented of our sins and if we've trusted in what Jesus Christ has done for us. It's because of what he's done because of his ascension, because of his life, his death, his resurrection, and yes, his ascension, opening up that new way, new and living way into the holy presence of God for all who trust in him. Not because of our righteousness, but because of his. Not because of our might in battle, but because of his. Because he has conquered for us. Well, what does this mean for us, this ascension of the Messiah? I think ultimately it means for us what really the author of Hebrews, the application he draws many times from this knowledge that Christ has entered, that he is at the right hand of the Father, that he is interceding for us there because he has ascended into the Holy of Holies. And that is that we can have confidence. We can have confidence. Confidence, I'd say, in this life, as we remember that our ascended high priest has accomplished perfect atonement for the sins of his people, right? It's not the sprinkling of the earthly shadows with the blood of animals. No, he offered his spotless blood on our behalf in the true temple and the true Holy of Holies and so accomplished perfect atonement has brought about complete forgiveness for those who trust in him. And as our ascended high priest, he is there ever living to make intercession for us. Again, the application the author of Hebrews makes for us, because of that, we can have confidence, we can have boldness to come before that throne of grace, right? To find help in time of need. So we can have that confidence, knowing there's perfect forgiveness and there's ongoing intercession and help and grace for what we need in this life. Confidence in life in this life also knowing that as our ascended King Christ is there at the right hand of the majesty on high ruling and reigning over all things For us for us right over all things for his church We have nothing to fear nothing to fear in this life He is in control of it all. Remember what Christ said at the end of his upper room discourse to his disciples, in this world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. The triumphant conquering king has ascended and he is there at the right hand of God. We can have confidence in this life, but we can also, praise God, have confidence in the life to come, in the next life. As we approach the gates of the new Jerusalem, As we ascend that holy hill of God and come before those ancient doors, we can know, have confidence that we will gain entrance. Again, not because of our own purity or holiness, not because of our own might or power in battle, but because the King of Glory has conquered for us, and He has opened that way for His people. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Who is this King of Glory? He is Jesus Christ. He is the Messiah. He is the risen and victorious and ascended and reigning King. Praise God for that hope, that confidence in this life and in the next. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, again, thank you for, above all, your Son, Jesus Christ, for what he has done in his life, in his death, in his resurrection, yes, in his ascension and his session now at your right hand. And we thank you that as the angel told the disciples as they saw Christ ascend into heaven, that as they have seen him go up into heaven, that in the same way he will come again. Look forward to that day and we long for that day when we will be in the new Jerusalem, in that temple city with him forever, forever acknowledging that we only have a right to be there because of what he has done for us. Help that knowledge to give us confidence in this life. And help us then, as Christ, who is our life, is there in heaven, seated at your right hand, that we might ever set our mind and set our hearts and affections on those things that are above, where Christ is seated, and not on the things of this earth. Thank you for our risen and ascended King. In his name, to his glory, we pray and ask all these things. Amen.