Thank you for listening to Covenant Fellowship Lake Dallas Weekly Sermon. Covenant Fellowship is located at 625 Lake Dallas Drive in Lake Dallas, Texas. For more information and resources, you can visit our website at CFLD.org. That's CFLD.org. Now for our message today, here is Pastor Raymond Harper. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Amen. In your bulletin you have the reading for today, Psalm 24. Psalm 24. It's also in set page 791 in the Trinity Hymnal. It is a beautiful psalm, and I picked it for a specific reason today, which you will find out soon enough for. All right. All right, Miss Tiffany. What are you doing, Miss Lethe? Are you causing stirring out there? Look at her. Jay, I need to... We'll chat later. All right. Psalm 24, page 71 or 792, or in your bulletin, you will read the bolded and italicized and underlined. I will read the rest. And here now, again, the Word of the Lord as we read together. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. Who may ascend the hill of our Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God his Savior. Lift up your heads, O you gates! Be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Lift up your heads, O you gates, lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in. You may be seated. Amen. He is the King of Glory. Father God, You are the Great King, and Your Great King, our Savior, is greatly to be praised. You have exalted Jesus with great triumph to be Lord over all things. And yet, you did not leave us comfortless, but sent your Holy Spirit to strengthen us. Lord, may we labor for the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord. He who lives and reigns with you in the Spirit, one God now and forever. Our precious Savior Jesus, you left The disciples that you might send, the Holy Spirit, to be our advocate and our strength, our comforter and our guide, grant us the spirit of truth to proclaim to the world that you have risen from the dead. Eternal God, You've given Your Son authority in heaven and on earth. Grant that we may never lose the vision of His kingdom, but serve Him for all times with hope and glory, crying out, Maranatha. Come, Lord, quickly, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. No chillin' church today. There ain't no chillin' teacher. So, no chillin' church. All right. I know, I can sense this. I feel it all the way over here. All right, I am going to be reading from Genesis 3, 1 through 15. It's in your bulletin, or you can turn to the passage in the Scriptures. Genesis 3, 1 through 15, sin entering the world. I will tell you also, by the way, while you're turning to this location, that next week we will be starting a new section in Sunday School. We're probably going to be talking about God the Father. We've already talked about God the Son. We talked about the Word of God. Very interesting conversations today and throughout this Word of God subject time. I hope that everyone walks away from this at least thinking a little bit differently about how other people see the Word. We certainly need to have more understanding in God's kingdom on both sides, on all sides, not just both, on all sides. We don't accept heresy and we don't accept blasphemy, but in all things that we can, we want to show charity and understanding. You should all be there now. We are now reading the inerrant, life-giving Word of God, starting in verse 1 of Genesis 3. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God has made. He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you'll not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees in the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, who told you you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, the woman who you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate. Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this that you've done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you've done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all the beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord endures forever. You may be seated. Here it is, the moment upon which the sin of man happens, the downfall of man, the time when Adam brought us all into this sinful condition such that we might need a Savior. And it's interesting as you read through this that there's a couple of things that you can take out of it. Remember the hermeneutics class I just did? You can look at this in several different ways. The physical, literal way this happened. It's happened the way it's written here. Now, what about this anthropomorphic model of God walking through the garden? Well, obviously, God is a spirit, so His presence is being described in this manner. What about the serpent? What did he look like? You can get really wrapped around the axe on these things, but what you can miss is, while this happened and we don't understand all the nuances of how it happened, there's some very real things we can understand here. First off, God said, don't eat of the tree. That's pretty straightforward. Satan said, don't believe that lie. You can eat of the tree all you want. It's interesting that the very first thing that Satan calls into question is God's judgment. That's the very first thing he questions is God's judgment and His goodness. And what does he do? He does something very important here. He waits till he leaves alone. Eve's all alone. She's out in the garden. She's hanging out. Maybe she's putting in some cinnamon basil, which I love, and she's hoeing around the tree or whatever she's doing, and Satan sees her and says, hey, here's an opportunity. They're separated. The two of them aren't together. And a lot of patriarchal guys want to make a lot of hay out of how bad the woman is here, but I'm going to give you a little something that's going to change your mind on that. Eve's out there, and she's by herself, and Satan walks up, and what does he do? Now, the way the question is phrased in the Hebrew is, while he's just asking a question, it is a question with somewhat of a cynical bent to it. Really? Has God said, you can't do this? I mean, really? What does He say? He says, does He actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? Well, first of all, that's a blatant lie. God never said it. But it's the way in which He says it. He wants to pull Eve out to see where she's at, if you will. And so he says, did God really say that? So what is he calling, he calls into question, he says, you shall not die if you eat this. He calls into question the judgment of God. But first he calls into question what? The goodness of God. God put you in this garden and he says you can't eat any trees. No, no, no, we can eat of the trees, just not this one. Oh, he's holding out on you. Satan's tactics never change. They're always the same. Satan comes down and he works on the people of God the same exact way every time. Did God actually say, Jay? Come on, he didn't mean that. I'm just picking on Jay because he's looking at me right now. Did God actually do this? Did God actually do that? This is the fundamental mistake is that she answered him. What does James say? Resist the devil and he'll flee. She didn't resist him. She engaged in conversation. And once she did this, Satan knew he had her. And she kind of agrees with him. He is being a bit unfair, isn't he? He knows that we'll be just like him if we just eat of this tree. So we're going to eat of the tree. That's not fair. He can't be better than us. 1 John. 1 John 2.16 says what? Here's the things of the world that will finish you off. Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, pride of life. So what happens in this encounter with Satan? First she does what? She looks at the tree and sees that it's good for food. The lust of the eyes. The eyes looking at this and going, you know what? And suddenly that tree takes on a dimension it never took on before. Wow, this tree has the best fruit in the garden. I never noticed it before. So the lust of the eyes. You've got to have that. Got to have that. It'd be good for food. Lust of the flesh. It would gratify me to do this. That's why God doesn't want me to have it, because He knows I'd like it. And the pride of life. If I just do it, I'll be as smart as God. These things never change, my friends. But here's what's interesting. I told you I was going to give you ladies a little something to argue back to the patriarchal guys. Remember the patriarchal guys would say things like, it's all woman's fault. That's why women are this and that's why women are that. Eve was tempted by the serpent. Adam made it without temptation. Whose fault is this now again? You ever think about that? She's tempted by the serpent. She walks up to Adam and says, hey, this guy said it was pretty good. You ought to try it. Okay. We're still like that. Guys, we're not the smartest tool in the shed sometimes, right? Hey, I don't know. Gloria said it's good. Okay. But what happens immediately? Their eyes are open. And you know what they see? They see their disobedience to God. What they see is shame. They see sin. They see things they've never seen before. And now, they can't change that. They're now trapped there, in that place. They can't get away from what they have done. Now, they try to fix it, don't they? We'll just sow a few fig leaves together and we'll wear them. Works. The works of man. I'm going to... Yeah, I made a mistake, but I'm a pretty good person. I'll just sow enough leaves together that God won't notice that I've done this. God doesn't accept them. You notice that? He doesn't accept them. I didn't read it all here, but as you read on in Genesis 3, He looks at their works and He doesn't see what He needs to see. He sees failure and rebellion. And man himself recognizes this failure and rebellion. How do we know this? Adam's hiding. Don't tell me man doesn't know when he's sinning. My friends who are lost as a goose, don't know anything about the Bible, they always justify their sin. They know they're sinning. They're justifying it. And it's the same is true here. So they're trying to justify it. They're making fig leaves up. God comes down and says, what'd you do? Notice the blame. I didn't want to eat it. It was Eve. You know, you gave me Eve. I just want to remind you, God, of a small fact. I was fine here by myself. You gave me the woman. Eve says, well, you know, I was just minding my own business and the serpent came up and he did this. You see how it's always justifiable, isn't it? It's not my fault that I've done this. It's somebody else's fault. And man hasn't changed there either. You see somebody kill another person with a soup spoon and they say, well, I was raised in a very bad environment. Okay? And that justifies this sin? How does it justify it? So what we see here is, in Genesis 3, is this pattern of man's rebellion against God, Satan's temptation, man's rebellion against God, man trying to justify himself through his own works, and shifting the blame constantly. It's never my fault. God does not accept their work. As a matter of fact, what does God do to fix the problem temporarily? He kills animals, sheds their blood, covers them with these animals. Now what a barbaric thing. Oh my goodness, that can't be real. That's just a barbaric thought. God's making a point here. Somebody has to pay for this sin. I'm going to pick an innocent, shed its blood, and you'll be clothed with its skin. Right here in Genesis 3 he begins to set into motion the idea of atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Right there he says, your works will never get you there. Take those fake leaves off. He is going to demand the sacrifice of an innocent. And by the way, who does the killing? God. Isaiah 53. So this is a vital part in the passage. Now, he wraps up our reading today as he curses the serpent, and he's going to put enmity between him and the woman, between the offspring and her offspring. And to this day, don't we see that? The offspring of Satan, the offspring of those who are antichrists, and the church. Look at the persecuted church around the world. Look what goes on. There's enmity here between your offspring and offspring. But ultimately this proto-evangel, this first announcement of the gospel says something really key. He, notice it's not just generic here, He, specifically He, the seed of the woman, will crush your head, will crush the power of the serpent, will kill the serpent, the hater of mankind's soul. But In the process, his heel shall be bruised. He shall take a wound, a wound unto death. Isn't that interesting? That God says, your works will never get you there. It's going to take My work. And My work is going to require the sacrifice of an innocent. And oh, by the way, this innocent will crush, ultimately, this promised deliverer, who is the innocent, will crush the head of the serpent, of the enemy. But the enemy will get in a bruising of the heel. This is really important because in today's passage we're talking about the resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ. So Jesus died on the cross. Really? He didn't swoon. You don't swoon from what He went through. You die. But yet He lives again. So here in Genesis, there's a couple things I want you to take away from this. First off, we deserve what we get. Were Jesus not to come into the world and we all were sent into damnation for rebellion against God, we deserve that. I mean, we can blame shift all we want. You can listen to Robert Shuler and all these other guys blame shift all you want. They've started it with Adam and Eve, didn't they? It's not my fault, it's somebody else's fault. But that's inexcusable. It's a rebellion against God. So that's the first thing. We would deserve it. But God in His mercy, shows us that he will provide the covering and ultimately lays out the covering will be this Messiah who will die and live again. This is what you take out of this. By the way, let me talk about grace in the Old Testament. A lot of people want to say, there is no grace in the Old Testament. There's grace in the New Testament. God was mad in the Old Testament. God's mad in the New Testament. God says, when you eat of this, you will die. They didn't die. Why didn't they die? Because God's going to make a way for them to live. That's grace. God would have been perfectly justified to walk in and go, you know what? This experiment didn't work out. I'm just going to wipe it all out. And I'm going to start over. I'll just start with a different group of people. Matter of fact, in some Jewish thought, and even in some Gnostic thought, there was another person involved here. I don't know if any of you know who this person might be. Her name would be Lilith. Lilith in, this is mysticism, this isn't Bible, Lilith rejected God's rule over her and rejected Adam's rule over her. She was the first feminist, hardcore feminist. And some people actually say she was the one that caused a lot of these issues. So a lot of people want to reinterpret this and shift the blame around a lot. They want to play that game of, you know, it's not me, it's not us, it's not, no, no, it's somebody else. It's Hitler. It's Manson. It's all them. I didn't do any of this stuff. But God clearly here puts it right on Adam and Eve, doesn't he? Because you've done this stuff, this is what's going to happen to you. And by the way, you're cast out of the garden for this. Now the beauty of this is the first Adam is cast out of the garden and into the wilderness. The second Adam brings us from the wilderness into the garden. So that's what's going on here in Genesis 3. The very, very first mention of the promise of salvation. All right. Call to confession today. Ephesians 2, 4 through 7 says, God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us. By the way, in the context of Genesis 3, why does He love us? Because He does. It's nothing you've done. It's nothing I've done. He loves us. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. That is an amazing statement. Even when I was dead, when I was that rebellious guy, listening to Black Sabbath, playing in a heavy metal band, shaking my fist at Christians, trying to corrupt the morals of Christian women, even when I was there, God, in His infinite wisdom, knew and loved me and would bring me into the fold. How amazing is that? I was unlovable. See, for me, this isn't a theory. For me, this is experiential. I was unlovable. Now, some of you maybe were never unlovable. I made a history and a career of being unlovable for quite some time, but yet God loved me. And this is why, by the way, I try to show mercy and charity to others who are struggling with things because I was there and I'm no better than them. All right, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, we do pray that you would remember your mercy, remember your love for us. Remember that even when I was lost in trespasses and sins, dead in them, damned, you loved me and you brought me to you. And Lord, for your sake of your goodness, we pray that you would forgive us of the sins that still so often permeate our lives. Lord, we think, at least I think, that I have arrived, that somehow I have escaped, achieved the escape velocity for sin, and then I find myself in it again. With Paul would say, why do I do the things I don't want to do, and why don't I do the things I ought to do? Well, it's because I'm a wretched man. But thanks be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you. that You don't leave us in our sin, that You don't leave us in our fallen state, but truly, Lord, You sent Your Son that He might redeem us and lift us into the heavenlies, even to the very right hand of the Father. Father, even this week, maybe even today, we have sinned. Not even maybe, we have sinned. Lord, help us to hate our sin as you hate our sin, and help us to strive to be evermore made in the image of your Son, Jesus Christ. Forgive me of the animosity that I show towards others or the pride that I show towards others. Forgive us, Lord, for uncaring hearts towards our fellow man. Forgive us for the arrogance of comfort, temporal comfort, while our brothers and sisters around the world in the church struggle. Lord, help us to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, our blessed Savior. And we pray these things through and because of the name of our great High Priest, Jesus Christ, whoever lives to make intercession for us. Amen and amen. And Jeremiah says, I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and their rebellion against me. What good news this is that we have been forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. Amen. You can remain standing and turning your Bibles to Luke 24, the 36th verse of Luke 24. It is going to be the last page, probably, unless you're Arlen or Jay. It might be on your last screen, but it'll be on your last page in the book of Luke. I've got to tell you, I'm not as impressed, Arlen, with you as I am with Jay, because Jay and I are roughly the same age, and he can actually read on that little screen. Me? Not a chance. Luke 24, we're going to start in verse 36. We'll read through the end of the Gospel of Luke. So here now, the life-giving, precious, inerrant Word of God. And if anyone needs a Bible, please raise your hand. We have people ready to bring you a Bible. As they were talking about these things, what things? Well, we remember the people on the road to Emmaus, Cleopas and the other disciples had just come in and told them what they'd seen. So as they're talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, peace to you. But they were startled and frightened and they thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts? I love that, by the way. Jesus just appears from the dead and he's like, what's the problem? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have." And when he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they were still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, have you anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it before them. Then he said to them, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sin should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. You're witnesses of these things and behold I'm sending the promise of my father upon you. But stay in the city until you're clothed with power from on high. Then he led them out as far as Bethany and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them he parted from them and was carried up into heaven and they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God. May the Lord bless the reading of his word. You may be seated. Father God, you are the king, the great king of all creation. We pray now that you would open our hearts to your spirit and open our minds to your word and lead us on the paths of Christ, your son. All praise and all glory be yours forever and ever. Amen and amen. We're at the very end. You guys lived to see it. Takes me years to get through the text with you, but I hope you'll come away from Luke with a better understanding than you entered Luke with. I certainly have. I never read any, I never preached or any book in the Bible without coming away with stuff I never realized. Even in this last week, there are things in here that just really struck me. But where we find these guys is what's happened. Well, the women had had that event at the tomb, right? They'd gone to the tomb. They'd found it empty. Apparently, Peter had seen the risen Christ. And now these two disciples rush into the room and they say they've run into Christ. They've encountered the resurrected Jesus. And all of the other disciples are kind of sitting there going, we're not so sure that you guys haven't been into some bad food. I mean, it was just inconceivable to them that this would happen. Now, before we're too hard on them, think about you and I. If we had the reality of their situation. Jesus had been terribly scourged. His body had been beaten into a pulp. He'd carried a cross up a hill. They might have even witnessed crucifixions before. To think that a person who had gone through all of that might be able to walk to Emmaus, forget appearing alive, be able to walk the seven miles to Emmaus, it's just, it's incomprehensible. How could anyone survive what Jesus had been through? See, they're probably still thinking he survived. They're not thinking he died and was raised. They're thinking, how did that happen? Hi, Andy, are you looking at me for a reason? Okay. Anytime he does this, I want to make sure I'm not doing something wrong. Now, I am sure that some of the disciples could have maybe envisioned a staggering, bloody Jesus that somehow survived wandering about the tombs, but this is not how He's being presented here. What do you mean He was walking with you? What do you mean that He looked okay? What's going on here? They probably thought that these people were hallucinating. Or maybe that there was a ghost that had appeared, you know? But a physically raised, triumphant, unbowed Jesus? Nuh-uh. We're not buying that. So this is why, again, I go back to those who say, well, the resurrection never happened, people were hallucinating. They just wanted it to happen so bad that they thought it would. Even when Jesus shows up, they're not thinking it's happening. They're thinking it's a hallucination. And by the way, the other thing that modern man makes the mistake of is they assume that these disciples are simpletons. Oh, they just believe in anything. They've got this gullibility. They don't understand the world of science. They believe in all kinds of supernatural stuff we know is not true. They probably believed in jinns. But what you find in these passages are actually the exact opposite. You find skeptics on par with modern man. The story of the women at the tomb is probably attributed to the women got lost and they walked upon the caretaker, he said something, they misconstrued it, what do they know? And Peter, Peter's so wracked with guilt about his denial, he's a wreck. We can't trust Peter, he needs counseling. He needs to be on Dr. Phil, he can't. He is not prepared. He's not ready to actually be a reliable witness. The women, by the way, women were not even allowed to be witnesses in that day and age. So it's like right away, out of the chute, it's like, oh, you're women, you're not allowed to be witnesses. I love that God used the women to be the witnesses. And I also find it interesting, don't you, that he appears to Simon Peter. What do you think that conversation was like? Hey, hey, how you doing, Peter? So you're back. Were you in the courtyard when I did that? Okay, just checking. And then in comes Cleopas and this other disciple, and now they're talking about seeing Jesus. The disciples are sitting there and they're thinking, is everybody losing their mind? Has grief so consumed everybody that they've taken leave of their senses? Maybe one of them was even saying that. Maybe Thomas is sitting in the back. Come on! Who's gonna believe this? And then in their midst appears Jesus. Imagine how the conversation shifted. And he just appears, he just shows up. And now, as they're ridiculing the women, as they're telling Cleopas, you're all wrong, you're all wet, they look over and they see Jesus. There's probably this stunned moment in time. Is everybody else seeing this? I think of the movie, there's a recent movie, it's not a Christian movie, so understand it's a movie about a Roman, what was he called? It's a movie about a Roman centurion who sees the risen Christ. Risen. And I never forget that scene where he kicks the door in and Jesus is sitting there. He was at the cross, this centurion. He kicks the door in and he just stands there. And he tells all the other soldiers, Go away, nothing to see here, just keep moving. And he just sits there and he's just, that's what it would have been like. It's like, think about this, this is shocking. And then Jesus begins to speak to the disciples. Words of comfort, words of commission. Words of great promise and great hope. The disciples, I love the line in Luke, they go from disbelieving in misery to disbelieving in joy. That's what Luke says. They disbelieve in joy. What does that mean? I cannot believe this, I'm so happy though. It's that kind of emotion. The disciples' lives have been shattered. They're ruined, they're broken, and now all of a sudden, with Jesus Christ appearing in their midst, their lives are beginning to be rebuilt. They're crawling out from the wreckage of their lives, and they're never gonna be the same. An encounter with the living, risen Christ will change them forever. He had defeated sin, death, and the grave. He had borne their sins to the cross, and he lived anew, proclaiming to them that his work was accepted by the Father, No longer did they need to worry about death. Think about that for just a second. These are men and women who are trying to figure out how to get out of Jerusalem without dying and suddenly Jesus shows up and says, you don't have to worry about death anymore. Death has no power. Now these people have a new mission in life. Before they were just trying to get out of town without their faces being put on a milk carton. Now they're commissioned to tell the world this great news that salvation is found in the risen victorious Christ and in Him alone. that he had paid the sins for his people on the cross, repent, they were going to cry out to the world, and come in faith to Jesus, receiving full and final forgiveness of your sins. They're going to go from guys hiding out in a room trying to figure out how to get out of town, to people standing on the steps of the temple proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. Why? Because he showed up. There's power in this event. I can almost imagine Peter in Acts 2 standing on the temple steps proclaiming the gospel. In the back of his mind, the old Peter's saying, what are you doing? You need to sit down and shut up. But the Holy Spirit driving the new Peter forward, and he's just proclaiming. This event is cataclysmic for the church. So let's take a look. As they're talking about these things, he stands amongst them and he says, Shalom. Now my friend Jay and maybe the Andersons, you know that in the Middle East that's a standard greeting. The Arab world might say Salaam. The Jews say Shalom. It's a standard greeting, but it's anything but standard here. I mean, it is not just, hey, how you doing? This peace that Jesus is offering is anything but a traditional greeting. It's a peace that surpasses understanding. It's a peace the world doesn't know about. It's a peace that is rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. When He says, peace be unto you, He's not simply passing the time of day. He's saying, I know where you're at. You don't have to worry about it. It's that kind of peace. It's the peace that quells the fear. Because what? These disciples have been consumed with grief, with fear. How are we going to escape this? What are we going to do? Our lives are... I mean, they're all over the board. Ever since the arrest of Jesus, their lives have been anything but peaceful. Matter of fact, their lives were turned upside down. They were in turmoil. There was no peace. There was only fear. And in the midst of all of this fear, Jesus appears. And it's not just Jesus appears. There's something else if you read the Gospels. The sound of His voice. Remember when he says that to Mary in the garden and she recognizes when he says her name? Jesus had an accent. He had a Galilean accent. Jesus had a tone. He had a familiarity to him. And so Jesus comes into this room and he appears and he, in this familiar voice that they had all grown to know and love, he proclaims peace be to you. Suddenly their hearts flip-flopped from disbelieving in fear and misery to disbelieving in joy. It's the same disbelief, just a different focus. I need to sit down, Jesus. Can I sit down for a minute? But they're not initially filled with peace. What's going on with them? They're startled. They're frightened. Okay, so before you get up on your highfalutin Western Christianity horse, wouldn't you be? Of course you would be. They think they see a ghost. These guys can't believe their eyes and their ears. It's not possible for Jesus to be alive. This certainly doesn't seem to be a group looking for a hallucination, does it? I mean, they're pinching themselves. I don't think this is true. Scriptures don't portray that at all. As a matter of fact, we find them the exact opposite. Even when Jesus shows up and speaks to them, they don't believe it. It's simply his ghost. It's something else. These guys are not hallucinating. They're pretty normal people encountering something fairly abby normal. It's outside their scope. They're not prepared for this. This is very unusual. And he says to them, why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts? I love these lines. It's like Jesus is just like playing the straight man, you know? They're all freaked out. He's raised from the dead and he's like, what's the problem? Man, if you don't know what the problem is, I'm scared. But what's beautiful about this is, he says, see my hands and my feet? It's me. He's not just showing up to do a trick. He's showing up to show them he's the victorious deliverer and he wants them to know that he is alive and real. So he says, touch me and see. As a matter of fact, the Greek word there means actually grasp, grab a hold of me, grab onto my hand. Think about how he should have handled this group and think about how he handles them. How he should have handled him? Well, they abandoned him during his arrest and trial. They denied him. Ain't nobody at the cross but the women and John. Ain't nobody around when I need them. You know what it feels like to have a nail driven through your wrist? This is what I would be saying. What does Jesus say to them? It's me. Peace be to you. This, my friends, strikes at the core of my heart. Because Jesus didn't put their failings in front of them. Instead, he put his victory in front of them. It's a totally different view, isn't it? And now they doubt that they've even seen him. What would Jesus say to them? They failed him on every imaginable level. And yet, he doesn't throw up his hands in disgust and walk out. He knows our frame, that we are but dust. He knows they've been through more than almost anyone in history. He knows that they'd suffered the great despair of believing He was dead. He knows that all their hope was pinned on Him, and now He's killed, and now they're trying to get their heads around this and what's going on. And Jesus, in His mercy, loves them. Do you ever consider that? Do you consider what he should have said and what he did say? This is grace. Hey, Peter, by the way, I just want you to know, I was in the courtyard, bought a bing. You are a toad. This is the kind of thing that we expect out of human beings, but not out of the gracious God, Jesus Christ. He doesn't just leave them to their own devices. The great high priest understands our weaknesses. And so what does he say? I know you can't believe it, but check me out. Check my hands out. Can you imagine? Who's gonna be the first one to do that, right? Barnabas, they don't write about you in the Bible much. Why don't you check out? Because if something happens, you ain't gonna be missed. They go up and they, and imagine the emotion as they, Smell, I mean, just everything, the reality of Jesus being there. It's not a hallucination, guys. I am your rabbi. I am your master. I am your teacher. I've been raised so that you might know that what I've been telling you is true. I've been raised because I'm the promised deliverer who offered his life as a sacrifice for his people. I'm the one who bore the wrath of the Father and now I'm standing before you showing you that he's accepted my sacrifice. Grab my hand. You see the power of this? What a powerful reality. Now, we talked about hermeneutics a little bit earlier. What does this mean to us? Well, it can't mean what it never meant, right? But what does it mean to us? What we see here is a comforting thought that when we go through hard times, when we struggle in our faith, the Lord doesn't give us up. He doesn't give us up to our own fear and our own devices. Like the disciples, He patiently and lovingly calls us back to Himself. He says, grab a hold. Grab onto me and see that I am who I am. He's a great high priest who knows our struggles, who's tempted as we are, but without sin. Just as he deals kindly and lovingly with the disciples, so too does he deal with us when our hearts struggle. When our minds want us to abandon all hope, he calls out and says, take hold of me and see that I am real. We're doing communion today. What a great reality that is, isn't it? We take the elements in, we commune with the Savior. It's like he's saying all over to us again, take and see, I am real. I've really done this. And while they still disbelieve for joy, what a turn of phrase, huh? While they still disbelieve with joy and we're marveling, he said, you got anything here to eat? He wants to make sure they understand he's real. He's driving home, he wasn't hungry, glorified body. What's he saying? I see that some of you are still struggling with this fact that I'm alive. Got anything to eat? He recognizes they're not able to understand this reality. So he eats a piece of fish. And essentially what he's saying is it's real. What you're living through is real. And it begins to dawn on them, this is real. This unspeakable joy is beginning to bubble up in them. This peace that he really brought with him is beginning to happen. How could the disciples go through all of the persecution and die as martyrs, smiling? They'd encountered the risen Christ. What, after that, are you going to do to me? He has given a peace the world cannot give. The Father has raised his Son as the firstfruits of the new creation. All the universe will follow after. And the first sign is the bodily risen Savior who sits before the disciples. The one who has come to bring new life to everyone who trusts. One day all the saints will be raised in a newness of life. I mean, our life as new creations begin when we believe in Christ, but our bodies still get old, don't they? They still decay. They still fail us. One day our new creation will be culminated with the new bodies that we will be given. Bodies that won't grow old, grow sick, grow weary. We won't sin anymore. All of these things will be... What we taste now, partially, will be realized fully. You know, Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 15 about flesh and blood can't inherit the kingdom of God. The perishable can't inherit the perishable. But we shall all be changed. We'll have bodies like his. We live in a creation that's no longer the creation we live in now. The entropic principle will go away. All things will not wind down. And so this promise is made on the basis of Jesus' resurrection. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where's your victory? Oh death, where's your sting? Well the sting is the law, isn't it? But Jesus Christ has defeated that. He's fulfilled that. Or the sting of death is sin, actually. The power of sin is the law. In 2 Corinthians, Paul says, we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. In this tent we grow, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling. If indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we're still in this tent, we groan, we're being burdened, we sin, we grow old, we decay. Not that we would be unclothed, not that we would be some ethereal spirit on a Hallmark card. No, but that we would be further clothed so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God who's given us the Spirit as a guarantee. The Spirit's a guarantee that what's coming is phenomenal. What would it be like to never sin again, to never grow old, to never get sick, to never fail? I look forward to that. The one I look forward to the most is the never sinning one. That's more important to me than all the other ones because the sinning one is the one I constantly struggle with. I got bad eyes. Okay, I can learn to live with that. I learned to figure out how to see without sin. But now we see the Savior's alive. All that he spoke of is true. These disciples' hearts leap in their chest. They are disbelieving in joy. So that's that resurrection appearance. Now, what about that resurrection sermon? What does he do? What did I tell you in Sunday school? Jesus does not let us stand on the fragile, temporal reality of our experience. Because if everybody would have walked out and said, I know it never said this in the scriptures, but we saw him, That's not a very powerful testimony, is it now? You hear that every day. You turn on the TV, you watch one of them televangelists. God told me, and it's not in the Bible, but he told me. Maybe he didn't. So Jesus says, these are my words I spoke to you, I'll stand with you. That everything about me in the law, Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms is fulfilled. Why is that amazing? That three tripartite division of the Scriptures is the entire Old Testament. He said, everything's written about me in the entire Old Testament had to be fulfilled. He does the same thing here he did in the road to Emmaus. Turns him right back to the Scriptures. He doesn't want them to rely on their experience. He doesn't want them to walk away in that fragile grounding of a temporal experience, because what can happen? Well, two years down the road when they're persecuted, maybe I didn't have that experience. But when I can go back to the foundational truth of the Bible and say, no, that happened. It's in here. This reality is going to drive. That's the engine that drives. You'll read the letters in the New Testament. How much of them have quotations from the Old Testament? How bulk of the New Testament writings are Old Testament pointing out how Jesus fulfilled them? How'd that happen? Well, Jesus taught them. they went to Jesus Seminary. It's the only seminary in the world, I don't care, you can name your favorite seminary, I could name mine, all of them have flaws. Jesus Seminary don't got no flaws. You graduate magna cum laude, everybody, with the Word of God in their hearts. So Jesus turns to the Scriptures and He says that, I'm in there. The death, the burial, the resurrection. What would He have talked about? Maybe Genesis 3, 15 that we talked about today. Maybe Genesis 22. Hey, remember how Isaac was dead for three days to his father, but the ram showed up and he didn't have to be sad? Oh, well, let's talk about Psalm 20. Remember, we did this before. He's just opening the words up, and he's saying the entirety of the scriptures speak of this event. He wants them to understand, I told you this, and now you're witnessing what I told you. It's that old adage, tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them. That's an old adage for public speaking. That's exactly what Jesus did. Told them what he's going to tell them, he told them, And now he's going back and saying, this is what I told you. He's instantiating in them that this was always the plan of God. This isn't some late addition. God didn't get painted into a corner, he couldn't figure it out. No, this is the plan of God. The surety of a foundation that's written by God himself. From the Garden of Eden to the ministry of John the Baptist, everything in the scriptures is pointing an arrow at Jesus. The reality that the Messiah would die and yet live was indelibly written throughout the Scriptures. And once again, Jesus makes sure they're steeped in this truth. He knows what they're going to be facing. And he goes on and he opens their minds to understand the Scriptures and say, thus it is written. And he begins to open the Scriptures to them. So it's not enough that they're reminded of the Scriptures, but to truly hear the Scriptures, they need to have something further occur. What do they need? He has to take the veil away. Jesus opens their minds to an understanding of the Scriptures. The disciples need to see the truth of His mission in order to fully grasp the reality of the gospel. They need to have their minds open to see with clarity the promised Messiah. The problem in our society is when people read that, they just open their minds. They don't actually open their minds to Scripture. Christians, I just open my mind and wait for God to show up and drop something in. No, no, no. See, they didn't have an empty refuse basket. No, no. They opened their minds pointedly with the Spirit of God opening the Scriptures to them. Now, also, these are unique people. They're going to bring to remembrance everything He taught. They're going to be writing the text of the New Testament. So they have their minds opened in a way that is going to drive that. But all of us need it. In order to fully grasp the reality of the gospel, you have to have your mind open. Jesus, in a special way, is giving these eyewitnesses an understanding of the Scriptures, and they're going to write the New Testament. That's going to be really key. They're going to write the New Testament. This is where you have to be careful. You and I aren't writing the New Testament. Don't believe guys on TV who said God told them something and they write, you know, first book of Bob. No. But, even though they were uniquely given the ability to do all of this, we also, as believers, still must have God open our hearts and our minds to understand the Scriptures. There are lots of scholars out there who know the Bible way better than me. Way better. They know the ancient languages. They know all the ancient Near East rituals. They know everything. They're not believers. They read the Scriptures and what do they read? La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. Nothing. It's just, it's the Word of God, but the Word of God is a veil to those who are perishing. They deny the truth of the gospel because the truth of the gospel, while it is found in Holy Writ, without the Spirit's work in our lives, we can't see the beauty of the gospel. When I was an unbeliever, I knew all kinds of things about the Bible. I used to love to confound Christians. Ah, what about this? I'm so smart. I saw nothing except for the written word. And don't get me wrong, I'm not discounting the written word, but I'm saying there was no depth to my understanding. I just read it at the surface. I had an agenda and I read it. But Christ opens the minds of these disciples. Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians 1, right? The message of the cross is foolishness, isn't it? It's foolishness to the Gentiles. Why? Because they're intellectual. I'm very erudite and I believe that I'm visible. That's all. I can't see in there what you're saying. I think it's foolish. Why would anybody do that? And the Jews say, ho, ho, ho, no, no, no, Messiah's not going to die, that's a stumbling block for me. Right, it is. It's a stumbling block and it's foolishness to those who are perishing. But to those who are being saved, it's the wisdom of God. God was pleased, he says in 1 Corinthians, through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs, Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks. Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, for the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom. And the weakness of God is stronger than human strength." So here we see the Savior opening their minds to the Scriptures. This should have profound implications on our evangelism. You know, I have seen evangelistic methodologies that scan the spectrum. bait-and-switch, you know. They literally have bait-and-switch witnessing, you know. Promise something really good, get them in there, get them baptized, and then they're on their own. I've seen manipulation. We're going to sing just as I am for the 732nd time, and somebody is going to come up here. I've seen all of these methodologies. You know what we should be doing, though? We should be well-grounded in the Scriptures. knowing them, ourselves, and we should pray that the Lord would send people into our lives whose hearts have been prepared and whose minds have been prepared to hear the gospel. If our evangelism was driven more by our being knee-deep in the Word and in prayer, it would look different. So then after He opens their minds, He gives them a commission to proclaim forgiveness of sins. By the way, it's to everybody, to the whole world, isn't it? Proclaim it to the nations. Go on. The news of salvation was never just for Israel. It was the great honor and privilege of Israel to be God's chosen people. It is the great honor and privilege that the Savior came from Israel. But the message of salvation has always been for all people. How do I know this? Genesis 12. The promise to Abraham that he's going to be a great nation also comes with, all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. How will that happen? Paul talks about it in Romans. The seed who comes through Abraham. All nations will be blessed. Isaiah 49, it's too small of a thing that you should just win over Jacob and Israel. I'm giving you as a light to the Gentiles. And then Jesus concludes and says, you're the witnesses of these things. I'm sending you the promise of my Father upon you, the Holy Spirit. But stay in the city to your clothes with power from on high. We can't imagine what it was like for them to go out and witness. You know what? There was no mission board waiting for them in Dubuque. There was no, oh, I'm going to talk to the Baptist churches in Peoria. There was nothing. They are going out against the world. There's a reason why they had to wait until they were clothed with power on high. What they were going to do was unimaginable in human strength. They had to be powered by something greater than them. And this is where Jesus promises that the Spirit will come upon them. Stay in the city until it happens. And it happened. It's always important to remember that He empowered them, He enabled them to articulate the message, and He sent them out with the power of the Spirit. If you're not praying before you go and evangelize, if you're not praying before you go out into the mission field, you are not doing it right. Don't just pick up a handful of tracts somewhere and go out and start handing them out. Mission and evangelism is bathed in prayer. Prayer for those who are about to talk to, and prayer for us to have the words to say, and the power to say it, and the courage to say it. And finally, Luke doesn't record all the time between Jesus' resurrection and the time he went up, but we know it was 50 days, or 40 days till he went up, and then 50 days till Pentecost. So this last one is this glorious departure. I know we're running long, but we're gonna get through Luke, and it's gonna be good. He led them out as far as Bethany. Now some time has passed. He lifts up his hands and he blesses them. He blesses them. He parts from them and is carried up into heaven. In Acts it says a cloud separated him from them. This idea of a cloud is the Shekinah glory of God. The very cloud that led and guided the Israelites through the wilderness is the cloud that lifted Jesus up. Remember Jesus saying, glorify me with the glory I had before. Well, this is the exalted train that is lifting the exalted Lord up. So this is what's going on. He's teaching them for 40 days, Jesus you, This is the university I want to go to. You know what? I imagine what would happen to me is I'd be sitting there and about three seconds into Jesus U, I'd go, I can't believe I ever believed that. Scratch that off. We are so proud, aren't we? We get it all figured out. Jesus always corrects that, doesn't he? Yeah, you ain't all out in a ham sandwich, Ray. But he even went up to Galilee. Remember, he went up to Galilee, he met with the disciples. By the way, isn't it poignant that he met with the disciples in the very place where they laid eyes on him three years earlier? Where they were called to ministry, he comes back and meets them there. And what do you think he shared with them? We can't even imagine, right? I mean, it's amazing. What did he share with them? But he prepared them for their mission, proclaiming salvation in Jesus Christ. There's no other way to be justified before the Father except through saving faith in Jesus Christ. Now, think about how radical this is. Nobody ever said this before. The traditional law-keeping of the Pharisees and the religious leadership? Not any good. Pagan rites and rituals? Not going to work. The intellectual, philosophical meanderings of the Greeks? Not going to work. None of these things work. This is their message. All the things you think are important, throw them away. Here's the important thing. Why do you think it's foolishness? Why do you think it's a stumbling block? So he's teaching them this. He is saying, here's the message of the gospel. And again, rooted and grounded in the Old Testament. The truth of it is burning through. But then after 40 days, time for Jesus to depart. Gospel of Luke opens with the birth of Jesus, where the divine God steps into humanity. And the book of Luke closes with divine being taking our humanity into the clouds. It's the whole thing. By the way, in the beginning, Simeon and Anna blessed Jesus at the temple. At the end, Jesus blesses the disciples as he heads into heaven. It all comes together. It's all happening here. When he comes down, man is separated from God by an unpassable chasm. When he returns to heaven, he bears the marks of the cross. which bridged the chasm with his own person. He's fully human, he's fully divine. We don't often contemplate the ascension. It's kind of a lost part of Jesus's ministry. But I really want you to think about the ascension, and I'm trying to go through this quickly, but not too quickly that we miss stuff. First, Jesus ascends in triumph. Like an ancient king ascends to the throne after he vanquishes his foes, Jesus arrives into heaven. He comes into heaven as the triumphant King. That passage we read today was specifically chosen, that Psalm 24 is specifically chosen because every time I read this, I hear Jesus coming into heaven. Lift up your heads, O gates. Be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Well, who is that King of glory? You see Jesus standing there, fully divine, fully human, marks of the cross on Him. Who's 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 is the king of glory. Let me in. Isn't that beautiful? He goes into heaven, triumphing over his foes. He is the triumphant king. He is the vanquishing army of God. He is the one who puts his enemies to open shame. How it worked in the ancient days is the conquering king would ride through the town with his prisoners ahead of him in chains, riding in the chariot, and they'd be bowed down. That's exactly how he goes into heaven. His enemies bowed down before Him and Him riding into heaven. The Philippians. Every knee bows, every tongue confesses Jesus Christ is Lord. It's this triumphant King. Revelation 5, same thing. 5, 1 through 10. The right hand of Him was seated on the throne. A scroll was written on the back and within and no one could open it. And everybody begins to weep and then the angel comes up to John and says, why are you weeping? See the Lamb as if He were slain, who takes the scroll. Jesus arrives into heaven, fully divine and fully human, walks up to the throne, takes the scroll and says, this is mine, the deed for all of creation. And He cracks it open and the end begins. This is the King we saved, served. He is exalted. But not only is He exalted, we are seated in the heavenlies with Him. What does that mean? He has raised dust to the exalted position at the right hand of the Father. No longer is our position as rebellious people forever barred from God. Now our great High Priest wears our humanity forever and represents us in the very presence of God. We have been seated in the heavenlies. Jesus fully human, fully divine in the heavenlies. We now sit there. That doesn't mean right now, this minute. It means I'm represented. You ever heard that term? Represent. Some of you guys have heard that term? That's what Jesus is doing. He's representing. Notice something else. He's blessing his disciples as he ascends. He's already begun his ministry as a great high priest, hasn't he? He is ascending and living to make intercession for us. He's made a way through his flesh to enter the throne room of God. Now he sits in the heavens at the right hand of the Father and he lives to make intercession for us. As Jesus is being lifted into the clouds, what does it say? He begins to bless the disciples. As he's going up, he's blessing the disciples. He might be holding his hands out like the great high priest and as he heads into heaven, he's blessing them. This is what Jesus does now. He lives to make intercession for you and I. When Paul makes a mistake, which I know Paul never does, but if he ever did make a mistake, the great high priest is there. He lives to make intercession for us. We have a great high priest, it says in Hebrews 4, that's pastor of the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. We don't have a high priest unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace in the time of need. He's ascended in victory. He has brought our humanity there. He is our great high priest who lives to make intercession for us. And with his ascension, he has sent his spirit to empower and comfort us. He's not localized. Remember when Jesus went on, he was localized, right? He's in Galilee, zip code, whatever. He goes to heaven and He sends His Spirit, and now His Spirit is poured out on all of His people. He has ascended on high, and now His Spirit is poured out everywhere. John 16, 17 says, I tell you the truth, it's your advantage I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper won't come to you. But if I go, I'll send Him to you. A lot of stuff going on in the ascension. You guys ever thought about that? The Shekinah glory of God lifting the great high priest up who now carries my humanity with him into heaven. Humanity that was barred from heaven had been thrown out of the garden. There's a sword waving in front of it. Now he carries this into the very presence of the Father and says, give me that scroll. This is powerful, powerful stuff. These disciples see this and these men will all go to their death save one. And they'll go to their death gladly. They didn't drag him kicking and screaming. They're like, okay, all right. I mean, Paul would have been a pain, wouldn't he? We're gonna cut your head off. Well, I'm ready. I mean, it's good that I have to stay here now because you guys need me and I'm writing some New Testament books, but I'm ready to go. No, we mean it. We're gonna cut your head off. All right. Where do I put my head? No, you'll die. To die is game. You're making us mad, Paul. There's nothing you can do because I serve an ascended, risen Christ who has defeated the grave. What do you do, cut my head off? All right, I'll get a new one. Closed with R. Ken Hughes' words, the ascension is part of the Apostles' Creed, the third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and he sits at the right hand of the Father. The immediate effect of Jesus' ascension upon his disciples was twofold. They worshiped. That's what Luke concludes his gospel with. They worshiped him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they stayed continually at the temple praising God. With the ascension, all his disciples at last understood, and they bowed in awed adoration. This is where the gospel ought to leave us too. Worshiping the ascended king. They witnessed Acts, Luke's sequel records that their worship flowered into witness to the world and this is where the gospel ought to take us to. Witnessing to a lost world. To God alone be the glory. That is the most amazing ending ever, is it not? Because it's not really an ending. The ending is the beginning and the beginning is the ending. When Jesus stepped into the world, the end began. When he went up, the beginning began. So we now come to communion. And as we come to communion, it is again, as if the Lord is saying, come and grasp me. Come and see that I am real. Come and touch and see that I have done what I have said I would do. This is a great time. I'm so glad Miss Rita's here. She missed communion the last couple of times. I'm glad you're here this time. For it is the great news that Christ has done. everything necessary for our salvation in his life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. He has covered it all off. We are now seated in the heavenlies, and as we take the communion, first off, we take it together. We are the body of Christ. Secondly, we take it and we commune with Christ himself, who is our head. And then thirdly, we are comforted and assured that just as He lovingly drew the disciples to Him, He lovingly draws us to Him as well. Now those disciples had no idea what was coming, did they, on that night when they sat in that upper room and they shared that last Passover. They didn't realize the full extent of the work of Christ. But he says to them, after he'd given thanks, he broke that bread and he said, this is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Now what he had done is he'd broken the pattern of the Seder. So these guys are a little confused now. What are you doing? We don't change things. We Jewish guys, we don't change things. Jesus was giving them vision. He was opening their minds to something greater. This Passover lamb was simply a type of the final lamb, me. His body was broken, but he knew that without the shedding of blood, the remission of sins could not happen. So he says, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood. Take and drink. As we take these elements in, we are communing with Christ in a way that is deep and meaningful. Remember what I said, He's seated in the heavenlies with Him. He's brought our humanity up there, and yet He dwells with us down here. We are in communion with our Savior. This is one of the reasons why we do this. Until he returns again, it reminds us of the great reality of what Christ has done on behalf of his people. It draws us close to our great, exalted, ascended King who rules forever and ever. And may we say, Maranatha, come, Lord, quickly. Father, you are now letting your servants go in peace as you promised, for our eyes have seen the salvation that you made ready in the sight of the nations, a light of revelation for the Gentiles and glory for your people Israel, through Christ our Lord. Amen. And amen. If you ever get a chance when you're in the church, like after the service or before the service or you're just in here, go look over here at these two plaques. It's the word of God. You know what? That's the same Word of God you got in your hands, but it was only 500 years ago, 600 years ago. Different language, same Word of God. Have confidence in the Word of God. That is where you draw your confidence from. I will fail you. Ask anybody who's been with me at any length of time in this church. The Word of God will not fail you. That is our rock that keeps us on the proper direction. So I'm going to close today with a couple of passages about the ascension. First, why do you stand looking up toward heaven, the angel says? This Jesus will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. I can't wait. I don't know about you, but I can't wait. Now would be good. Hallelujah. And he also said, go and make disciples of all nations. I am with you always. even to the end of the age. Praise God for that. Let us be about the work of the Master. Father God, we thank you for the great news of our ascended King. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Worthy is He to be praised. Oh Lord, when we hear that sound of that final trump, that time when you draw all people to you, what a joy it will be to finally and fully live in a way that is not of an offense to you. Every tear wiped away. Lord, we live in the joy of knowing our risen Savior now, but we do look forward to that final culmination. Lord, I look forward to seeing my brothers and sisters throughout the ages who place their trust in the risen Savior. I look forward to a time of worshiping with the entire body of Christ. Oh, Lord, let us long for that day. May these things of this world grow strangely dim as we think on the things that will not rust or be eaten by moths. Give us strength, Lord, to live for you. Empower us, open our eyes and our hearts and our minds to hear you speak more clearly through your word. We pray in the name of the living word, Jesus Christ, amen. And now grace to you and peace from him who is and who was, and who is to come. And from the seven spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth, to Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom, priest to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And amen, you are dismissed.