Chapter one, we'll read from verse nine. 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. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. All right, so in our studies, we are working our way through the book of Acts. We're just really getting started, and we made it as far as these verses in chapter one, nine through 11, and then I've stopped us here, and we've been camped here for a while. And what we've been doing is kind of a mini-series within the larger series in the Book of Acts on the ascension of Christ. And I did so, I chose to do so for a couple of reasons. One, just the great significance of the ascension, and two, the I think what I can only describe as the lack of attention paid to the Ascension in general Christian teaching, Bible teaching. It's not that the Ascension has been entirely disregarded or ignored, but if you consider the great events of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus, and of course, the two great ones that we focus most of our attention on are the the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus and then the resurrection, the Ascension gets not nearly as much attention as those two key elements of the Gospel. And yet the Ascension has an essential element to it, and there are aspects of the Ascension that have not gotten sufficient attention. So what we've done We have this will be the eighth and I think the final study we're doing on the Ascension and then not next week because we have our Easter service, but Lord willing in a couple of weeks we will Continue to work our way through the book of Acts and we'll move on beyond verse 11 But what we've done so far in these eight studies is we've looked at the Ascension as it was just briefly described here in chapter one, which is the Ascension through the eyes of the apostles that were there that day on the Mount of Olives, observing it, where their perspective is a sure and certain testimony because they were eyewitnesses, but what they were witnesses to ended at the cloud, because as Jesus was lifted up from the earth, he was taken up into a cloud, and as he entered the cloud, that cloud being the Shekinah glory cloud of God's presence, as he entered the cloud, he left their sight, and their eyewitness observation ends at that point. But his story doesn't end at the cloud. As we studied it from their perspective, we then moved on from the opposite side of the perspective. Instead of looking from the surface of the earth upward through the eyes of the apostles, then we spent a couple of weeks looking at the ascension from heaven's perspective, what heaven was looking at as Jesus returned to heaven itself to be reunited with his father and to be enthroned upon the throne of God. And then what we've done since then is we've looked at what I've identified as 12 essential elements of the ascension, the 12 significant reasons why Jesus had to ascend. We've covered nine of those. I'm going to try to cover the last three today. The first nine are this. He ascended to be reunited with the Father. He ascended in order to be restored to the glory that he had enjoyed with the Father before he ever incarnated. He ascended in order to secure permanently, forever, a place for us in heaven. He ascended in order to lead a host of captives, those Old Testament saints that were waiting for him at Abraham's side. He led them into heaven with him as the first human being to ever enter heaven and them immediately following after him. He ascended in order to send the Holy Spirit, and of course, when we get to chapter two, we're going to be focusing a lot of attention on the significance of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He ascended in order to fill all things, the entire universe, as the head over all things, the one who is in charge of all things. He ascended in order to give special spiritual gifts to his church. both leadership gifts that are intended to equip all of us and then gifts to each one of us individually so that we can all fulfill our own assignments in his kingdom. And he ascended in order to prepare for the second coming. And then finally in our last study, he ascended in order to be exalted as Lord over all. Now that leaves for us three reasons for his ascension, and the three reasons that we're going to try to cover today have to do with the three great leadership roles that the Lord revealed in Old Testament Israel. Those three great leadership roles that are found woven as recurring themes from the beginning of the Old Testament through to the end of the Old Testament are the roles of prophet, priest, and king. And we should expect, since all three of those roles, and we've studied this before, and that is that these roles were chosen by the Lord and installed by the Lord repeatedly throughout the generations of Israel's history as not just practical leadership expressions of the Lord's authority at that moment in history, but each one of those roles, as they were fulfilled by different individuals in the Old Testament, were all intended to, symbolically, as spiritual types, to point forward to Christ. So all of the true prophets of the Old Testament, in some important sense, point forward to Christ as the ultimate prophet. All of the Old Testament Levitical priests, and especially the Old Testament high priests, point forward to Christ as our great an eternal heavenly high priest. And of course, all of the kings, and this is primarily through the expression of the godly kings, the ones that were faithful to the Lord and honoring to the Lord, all of the kings of Israel pointed forward to the kingship of Christ that would be revealed in the new covenant. So in that sense, what we should expect is that in the ascension of Christ, we should see some important elements on display in the connecting between those Old Testament symbols and the New Testament realities and fulfillments that we find in Christ. it's absolutely important to see the Ascension's role because it's in the Ascension that we see the fulfillment, the finality of what all of those pointed forward to. So let's take a look at each one of these three roles as it relates now to the fulfillment in Christ. The first one is prophet. Now turn with me, if you would, to the Gospel of John. We're going to start in John chapter 14. Now you know that when Jesus was on the earth in the three years, the three plus years of his public ministry, that whenever Jesus opened his mouth and words came out, that the words that he spoke 100% reflected and rightly represented the Father's heart and mind, will and purpose for his people. So much so that at the beginning of the Gospel of John, back in chapter one, we won't turn there, but you're familiar with this, Jesus is introduced by John in his Gospel as the Word of God who incarnated as a human being. that Jesus was so identified with God's communication to humanity that one of his names is the Word of God. So every time he spoke, he spoke as a true prophet of the Lord. Prophet simply is a role in which God chooses a representative human being, and through that one representative human being, for whatever moment in history that that prophet is ministering, God is pouring his word, his will, his revealed knowledge through that prophet to the people of God. And each one of the prophets of the Old Testament, Moses being generally considered the greatest of the Old Testament prophets. We know, of course, that John the Baptist, who's later identified by the Lord Jesus as the ultimate and greatest of the Old Testament prophets. But all the prophets between Moses and John the Baptist, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and all of the, what are called just because of the size of the books of their prophecy, the minor prophets, each one of them spoke the Word of God, but they each spoke the Word of God in part, not in its entirety. Whereas when Jesus communicated the will and words and purposes of God, he did so entirely. He was the full revelation of what God wanted to communicate to mankind. But let's read this portion in John 14. This is, of course, taken from the Last Supper exchange between Jesus and his disciples. And we'll read from verse 25 and 26. Jesus knows, more than the disciples do at this point, that he is about to go to the cross. He's going to die. Then he's going to rise again from the dead. He's fully aware of what's about to happen to him. And then he's going to have this short period of time that we've studied at the beginning of our Acts study, which is a 40-day time period between his resurrection and ascension, where he will spend time and continue to communicate the word of God to his disciples. But then at the end of that 40 days, he's going to leave. He's not just going to leave his disciples, he's going to leave this world entirely and he's going to return to heaven. The question is, did the prophetic ministry of Jesus conclude during his ministry and time here in this world? So John 14, 25, Jesus says to the disciples, these things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. All right, so Jesus is introducing a coming ministry to his disciples. That coming ministry is the arrival and the new level of activity of the Holy Spirit in their lives and in this world. And he compares and contrasts his own speaking ministry during his public ministry time here in this world with the coming ministry of the Holy Spirit. He spoke while I was still with you, and the Holy Spirit is going to begin to speak and continue to speak after Jesus is gone. But Jesus, in these two verses, connects the two ministries, his own speaking ministry with the coming speaking ministry of the Holy Spirit. And the connection is this verse 26, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. So Jesus frames the entire coming ministry of the Holy Spirit in the context of the Father being the one sending the Spirit, but as the Father sends the Spirit, how does he do so? He is going to, as Jesus describes, and this of course all took place on the day of Pentecost, The Father is sending the Spirit in the name of Jesus. Now what does that mean that he's sending the Spirit? The Father is sending the Spirit in the name of the Son. It means that the Holy Spirit's ministry is an extension of God the Father, and the Holy Spirit's ministry is an extension of God the Son. So that both Father and Son are actively involved in the expression of the Holy Spirit's ministry when he arrives. So that as he begins to teach, the Holy Spirit now being the teacher on earth, so to speak, It's not that the Father has his own ministry, and the Son has his own ministry, and the Holy Spirit has his own ministry, and they're all kind of loosely related or loosely connected, but they're all directly and immediately connected and involved with one another. So that whatever the Holy Spirit is saying, he's saying in the name of the Lord Jesus, meaning it's actually the Lord Jesus speaking through the Holy Spirit. So what Jesus is telling his disciples, and they may not have fully understood all of this that night, but his personal teaching ministry in the presence of his immediate physical body and his involvement with them as a teacher is coming to an end in his death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead and his ascension back to heaven. but he is going to in some critically important way that they don't fully get yet. He's going to continue to speak, but he will then from then on be speaking through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Now let's look at another passage also at the Last Supper. This is a couple of chapters later in chapter 16 of John. And we'll look at verses 12 and 13. This is just now a few minutes later, that same night. Jesus now says to his disciples, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. This is one of the more interesting individual verses in the Last Supper teaching that Jesus gave to his disciples. He has said a lot to them over the course of the last three plus years. They've been with him for all of the teachings that he's done. They were there at the Sermon on the Mount. They were there for all of the public ministry that he's done. And in private, he's taught them much more than he ever taught publicly to the crowds that would gather around him. He would have private, personal interaction and instruction that only the Twelve received from him. But with all that he said, with all that he's taught them, he wants them to understand that he hasn't revealed everything to them that they need to receive from him. I still have many things. It's not like, you know what guys, I've covered 95% of what I wanted to cover with you. There's just a couple of details I haven't had the opportunity to get to. And oh well, my time on earth is coming to the end. I just don't have time to squeeze it all in. What he says is, I have many things yet to say to you that I still want to communicate to you, but the problem is, and there was a problem, there was an issue, the issue is they weren't yet able to bear them. What does that mean? It means they didn't have, at this present moment, the capacity to receive it and grasp it, to understand it. Now, that's all going to change for them on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit invades their hearts. When the Holy Spirit fills them, He's going to grant these 11 men a new capacity to understand the words of Jesus. And the implication of the beginning of verse 12 here is that while he has many things to say and they can't hear them now, they can't bear them now, so he's not going to communicate them now, he will communicate these things to them later. So he's indicating, yes, I've communicated many things to you, I still have many more to communicate and you'll receive those later. The question is, How will they receive them later? Verse 13, he goes on to explain how that's going to unfold in the future. When the spirit of truth comes, day of Pentecost, forward. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority. The Holy Spirit's not gonna come with his own teaching ministry. He's going to come in another's authority, meaning he himself, the Holy Spirit, will be speaking as a teacher in the new covenant era under the authority of a greater one. But whatever he hears, this is the Holy Spirit, whatever he hears, he will speak. And he will declare to you the things that are to come. Now, the clear, description of the Lord Jesus is that all of the Holy Spirit's teaching ministry is going to be a ministry of hearing and then speaking, rather than speaking before hearing. So if the Holy Spirit himself is hearing, who is he listening to? and then communicating, and the indication is what he's communicating after he hears and after he listens is a perfect expression of the one that he's listening to. And the one that he's listening to is the Lord Jesus in whose name he is being sent to continue this teaching ministry. Now this links, of course, let's head back to Acts. And we study this in detail, but just as a reminder, this links to how the Lord, through the Holy Spirit, inspired the book of Acts to be written in terms of how the book begins. We're looking back at Acts chapter one now, verse one. In the first book of Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. Now, again, there's tons in those simple two verses, but we did camp on those and I hope that I adequately conveyed the point of those. But just as a brief reminder, this key word in verse one is the word began. The Book of Acts is an account, along with the Book of Luke, because this is actually, in the first book, is a reference back to the Gospel of Luke, Luke being the author of both Luke and the Book of Acts. But the Book of Acts continues that account. In the first book, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach. And the point of Luke's description here is that the gospel of Luke, and this is true for the gospel of Matthew, the gospel of Mark, the gospel of Luke, the gospel of John, it's true of all four gospels, that the gospel accounts of the public, on earth, personal teaching ministry of the Lord Jesus is simply the beginning of his teaching ministry. and the Book of Acts, and then of course what flows following the Book of Acts is the Book of Romans, all the way through to the Book of Revelation, all of the other New Testament letters. All of those are a continuation of the public teaching ministry of the Lord Jesus. The four gospels are simply the public teaching ministry of the physical presence of the Lord Jesus. And the book of Acts through to the book of Revelation are the continuation of the public teaching ministry, but not in his physical presence, but speaking from heaven through the agency of the ministry of the Holy Spirit as he was working in the apostles to inspire them and cause them to write these accounts for our benefit. It's in that sense that we see Jesus in his ascension fulfilling in an even greater way than he did in his public ministry here on earth, his role as the prophet of God, the ultimate and final messenger of God appointed to communicate the fullness of God's will and purpose and words for his people. Now, The best way I can say it is, all New Testament scripture is God speaking to his people. The four gospels is God speaking directly through Jesus in his physical and personal presence, and all of the rest of the New Testament books that we call scripture, rightly so, are God speaking through the Lord Jesus again, now from heaven, and through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And had he not ascended, we would not have that fullness of ministry in the same way as we did in what we see recorded in the four Gospels. All right, now let's turn from there to the book of Hebrews, chapter four, and we're going to take a look at the second of the three great Old Testament leadership roles that are pointing forward to Christ and in which he he expressed or fulfilled these roles in the ultimate sense in his ascension and that is Jesus as our heavenly high priest. Now the book of Hebrews, we did a study for those who are part of the Thursday night study, we did a study all the way through the book of Hebrews and we went into this in some detail. But Hebrews makes an emphasis on the role of the high priest. And it points out that Jesus could not and did not ever function on earth in the role of high priest accepted and embraced by the people of Israel. Meaning there was a temple of God there in the city of Jerusalem during the time during the ministry of the Lord Jesus and Jesus never walked into the temple precincts and never publicly proclaimed himself as I am the high priest of this temple and and he never walked into the internal structure of the temple, not even one single time. He was in the courtyard, oftentimes, teaching in public, but he never entered into the temple proper. And beyond that, he never entered beyond the veil that separated that structure into two sections, the holy place, and then the final and ultimate room, the Holy of Holies, where only the Ark of the Covenant was. And we know from the Old Testament patterns that God appointed in His law that once a year on the special day of atonement there was to be a lamb sacrifice for the sins of the people. The blood of that lamb was gathered in a basin and it was to be carried by the high priest only this one individual in all of Israel's community could do this. He was to carry that basin of blood into the holy place, and then beyond the holy place, through the curtain, he was to enter into the Holy of Holies, and he was to take a branch of hyssop and dip it in this basin of blood, and he was to sprinkle the Ark of the Covenant, and specifically, the lid that covered the box that Ark of the Covenant was essentially a special and holy box. And there was a lid to that box that functioned like a seat, like a chair. And on that lid, the high priest, once a year, was to seven times, with the blood of this sacrificed pure lamb, this innocent lamb, unblemished, he was to sprinkle the seat of the box. Now there's reasons why all of this was taking place in the way that it did and we've studied all of those details before but Jesus is identified for us in the New Covenant, in the New Testament Scriptures, as the true and greatest and ultimate high priest. But during his time on earth, he never once entered the temple proper. He never went beyond the curtain. He never sprinkled any blood upon the Ark of the Covenant. Why not? Well, he was not born of the tribe of Levi. And only the Levitical priests had the right of access into the temple proper. Aaron being the very first of the high priests back in the days of Moses. And he was of the tribe of Levi, and it was the Levitical tribe that was set apart by the Lord to serve as his priests. And all of the high priests were drawn from or developed from the tribe of Levi. and specifically from the family lineage of Aaron. And so Jesus was born of the tribe of Judah. He on earth did not qualify to function as high priest, and so he never went into the temple in that way. But then we find this passage in Hebrews chapter four, and we'll read from verse 14. Since then, We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin, meaning he is uniquely and fully qualified to serve as our great and heavenly high priest. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Now there's lots of wonderful communication here about the high priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus and how it practically and really applies to our lives in terms of shifting our own status before the throne of God. Turning, transforming really, the throne of God. His appearance at the throne of God on our behalf transforms the throne of God from a throne of judgment to a throne of, as is described here, mercy and grace. And that's one of the great benefits of our relationship to him as our high priest. But I want to point out, back in verse 14, one of the details of how his ministry as high priest is described here. And it's one that would be easily overlooked as you're reading through the passage. Verse 14 again, since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God. This is clearly identifying Jesus as our great high priest. There's no question in terms of Paul's description here. But why does he describe Jesus as, in his fulfillment of his role as high priest, why does he describe him as passing through the heavens? And I described it that way, but it's really past tense rather than present tense. It's not that he's currently passing through the heavens, but from Paul's perspective, it's an accomplished thing. It's a done thing. He passed through the heavens. Well, there's two things that are going on here. One is pointing backwards in the far distant past of Old Covenant history and the symbolic connections that are involved here. And one is pointing backwards to a recent event. And the recent event is this thing that we're focused on, which is the ascension of Christ. When Christ ascended from this earth to the highest of heavens, the throne room of God, He, to get from here to there, he's described as he passed through the heavens. What's the importance of that description? Well, in the old covenant connection that I briefly described a minute ago, On the Day of Atonement, the high priest, the very first one, of course, was Aaron, but this was true of every high priest that succeeded him throughout the generations of Israel's history. The high priest was starting outside the temple proper, outdoors, out in public view. So you have this structure, we can consider like this church sanctuary that we're in this morning, just pretend for a moment like this is the old covenant tabernacle of God or the temple of God and out there in the parking lot is where we all start our journey. And just outside of the front door, there was an altar that was constructed. And on that altar is where the sacrifices for the sins of God's people was offered. And the lamb was slain, and its blood was poured out. And the blood dripped into this metal basin, which captured that precious blood. And then the high priest, starting in the parking lot, outside the structure, in public view, where anyone and everyone could see him, he took that bowl of blood and he entered into the structure. First into the outer room, the holy place. But once he entered that outer structure, what was his appearance in relationship to the people that were watching the sacrifice out in public? They lose sight of him as soon as he enters the structure. As soon as he comes through the front door, it's not like right now, just bear with me, turn your heads and look back. The front door is open. It wasn't like that in the temple. It wasn't like that in the tabernacle. The door was always closed. And so as the high priest entered the structure, the people outside lose sight of him. just like the disciples lost sight of Jesus as he entered the cloud. And the high priest then passed through the holy place and he came to a curtain, which would be about here, separating the room. So you have the holy place with the table showbread and the lampstand and the altar of incense. All of that is taking place there in the main room of the house. But then you have this second and deeper and more inner room, this more private and intimate room, which is the Holy of Holies. And there's only one item of furniture there, and that's the Ark of the Covenant. And in our understanding of the symbolism and the connections, I've shared this with you many times, what does the Ark of the Covenant represent? the throne of God. So the Ark of the Covenant is in the inner room. In our innermost rooms, in our houses, we have beds, right? The most intimate room, we have beds. God's most intimate room, his most inner room, only has a chair. One single chair. Why? God never goes to sleep, never needs to sleep. He's always active, he's always seated, actively engaged in ruling over his creation. and the high priest passed from outside to inside, the people losing sight of him, but he continues to be active after they lose sight of him. It's not that he comes in the front door and then he sets the bowl down and goes, okay, they lost sight of me, there's no point in me doing anything else. What did he do beyond that? He passed through the holy place, passed through the curtain, entered the Holy of Holies, and then sprinkled that blood on the seat of the Ark of the Covenant, which represents the throne of God in heaven. So this wording in Hebrews 4 is highly important in connecting the reality of what Jesus did as fulfillment to the symbolism of the Old Testament. The high priest, represented by Aaron, passed through the structure to get to the innermost room, to get to the throne of God. Jesus passed through the heavens in order to accomplish the same thing. So he is, as he's entering heaven, he is bringing something with him, just like the high priest did not, was not allowed to enter the Holy of Holies empty-handed. What would happen to the high priest if he entered the Holy of Holies empty-handed? He would never leave. He would literally die. And Jesus, just like Aaron, entered the heavenly Holy of Holies while Aaron could only enter the earthly one, but he doesn't enter empty-handed. What did Aaron bring with him into the Holy of Holies? A basin of blood of a pure, innocent, unblemished lamb. And so Jesus, as it's described a little bit deeper into Hebrews, and let's read that passage as well, Turn over to chapter nine now. We'll read from verse 11. And just as a contextual backdrop, I won't take the time. because I'm already running short on time, to read the first 10 verses. But if you wanted to in your own time, I'd recommend it. The first 10 verses, which lead to the two verses I'm about to read, the first 10 verses of chapter nine are all about the Old Testament, natural, practical, physical, tabernacle or temple of God on earth. And what Paul is doing is he's drawing connections between these Old Testament structures of tabernacle and temple and a fulfillment of what all of those pointed toward when Christ accomplished his work as our heavenly high priest. So verse 11 of chapter nine, but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, Here he's comparing a lesser and not perfect tent to a greater and more perfect tent. So you have a tent on earth, which is what we call the tabernacle, and it was great because it was identified by the Lord himself as the house of God, but it is not as great as a greater tent. The greater tent is in heaven itself. And the one on earth, while it was as perfect as any structure could be, it's not entirely perfect because it was constructed by human beings, whereas the one in heaven, constructed by God himself. And Paul emphasizes that in the parentheses that we find, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, meaning it's a heavenly reality. Verse 12, Jesus entered once for all into the holy places. What are the holy places? There were two, one structure, two sections, the holy place and the holy of holies. Paul is saying Jesus did exactly that, but it's now happening in heaven or it happened in heaven as he returned. He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, which is what the earthly high priest brought in that basin of blood, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. Now this is one of the most interesting and important, but somewhat mysterious descriptions in all of the New Testament scriptures, this last phrase of verse 12. And it's speaking about what Jesus accomplished as he returned to heaven as the heavenly and great high priest that all of the old covenant high priests could only point forward to symbolically. When Jesus returned to heaven, he thus secured an eternal redemption for us. I say it's mysterious because we know in some super important way, the moment Jesus died on the cross, our redemption was fully accomplished. We know that because the words that Jesus spoke on the cross, actually a single original language word, but we translate it with these three words, it is finished. And you might remember the Greek word that he actually proclaimed, single word, and hear it in a cry of triumph at the end of his suffering. He spoke this word, tetelestai. And it literally translates, paid in full. And so everything that was necessary for our redemption and for our salvation was accomplished there on the cross. And yet, hidden from human view, when he ascended from this, the surface of this planet, entered the cloud of glory, passed through the heavens, entered the heavenly holy of holies, where the true Ark of the Covenant, the throne of God, is established. And Jesus approached that throne, not empty-handed, but as Hebrews describes, through the means of his shed blood, bringing the evidence of the accomplishment of the plan of salvation into the presence of God himself seated upon the throne. He thus, in his ascension, secured an eternal redemption for us. I think the emphasis here is simply this. Yes, Jesus paid the full price on the cross here on earth. and nothing could be added to that price. But then he carried the accomplishment of his sacrifice into heaven so that nothing that ever happens here in this world or on this earth or in history to follow can ever diminish or destroy what He accomplished for us. Our redemption is sure and certain and settled because it is presented by the Lord Jesus as our great and heavenly High Priest to God as He sat upon the throne. All right, the last of these three great leadership roles is one that I'm just going to briefly review because at the beginning of our Acts study, back in the verses above us, we did actually camp also for three or four weeks on the subject of Jesus as King. Let's go back to Acts chapter one. And we camped there because of this description in verse three. Jesus presented himself alive to the disciples after his suffering by many proofs appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. We emphasize in our study in that verse that the time between the resurrection of Jesus and the ascension of Jesus was a literal 40 day time period and Jesus didn't hang out with his disciples 24-7 during those 40 days, but he did appear to them 12 specific times. And in those 12 visits, he spent time to reveal more to them than he had ever revealed to them during his public ministry and the focus of his revelation. And this is part of what he had said to them in the Last Supper. I have many more things to say to you, but you can't bear them now. But in those 40 days, they could bear them in a new and greater way. And so as he speaks to them, he's speaking to them about the kingdom of God. And we focus on what might he have said to them? What could he have been talking about for 40 days? What's so important? And what was so important is the revelation to them that in his ascension, as he returns to heaven, as he sits upon the throne of God, he is being inaugurated and installed as the king of the kingdom of God from that point forward, stretching all the way to the second coming of Christ. In what theologians have termed, and it's a good term, it's a very descriptive term, the mediatorial kingdom of God, or the mediatorial kingdom of Christ, meaning that he functions during the entire time period between the ascension and the second coming as a go-between, a mediator between God and all of humanity. So that whatever humanity experiences of God, they experience it only and exclusively through the lens of the personage of the Lord Jesus. And he is making himself progressively known in a greater and greater way as king over all. So just as a brief rehearsal, because we did study this in some detail, let's head back for just a moment to a passage that we looked at in depth, but it's a good reminder point, and that's in Daniel chapter seven. Daniel chapter seven. Just as a reminder, as I'm about to read it, this is an Ascension passage that is often with good intentions, but wrong understanding. often taken by many modern day Bible teachers. Older generations of Bible teachers didn't seem to share this misunderstanding like is commonly held today. But this passage I'm about to read is commonly taken to be a second coming passage. Like this is describing the very end of history when the Lord returns in glory and in triumph. And that is going to happen, and that's a sure and certain end of history as we know it. But this passage I'm about to read is not a second coming passage. It's an ascension of Christ passage. So Daniel seven, verse 13. I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man. And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. You've heard me describe that the misunderstanding and why some think this is a second coming passage is they stop reading halfway through verse 13. They read this, behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man, as if it's describing a coming from heaven back to earth at the end of history. But the second part of verse 13 clearly does describe for us that this is not a coming from heaven to earth. This is instead a coming of a Son of Man from earth to heaven. And the only time in all of history where the only one that could rightly be identified as the Son of Man came from earth to heaven is the event that we call the Ascension, the return of Christ to heaven. And we know this because he came to the Ancient of Days. The Ancient of Days is localized, seated upon the throne in heaven. So this is a return to heaven. And when he came, when Jesus ascended, he was presented before the Ancient of Days. This is that formal presentation of here is the one who has accomplished the plan and mission of salvation. And as a reward from the Ancient of Days to the Son of Man for the accomplishment of His mission, this is what happens in verse 14. This is God the Father giving the blessings to the Son because He has fulfilled the great plan and purpose of salvation. To Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Tim, if you wanted to come forward and start getting ready for our last song. Let me just describe, though we studied this in some detail. The big mistake that is commonly involved with the wrong interpretation of this passage is that Jesus is someday going to be a king. that someday is going to be the event of His second coming. And in His second coming, He will establish His throne here on earth, and from Jerusalem will begin to rule over a golden age of world history that has not even started yet, an age known as the millennium, a thousand year period of peace and prosperity on earth, with Jesus ruling over planet earth. And it's understandable how theologians, some of them, have come to that kind of conclusion. But the clear emphasis of this passage, if we rightly understand that this is linked to the ascension of Christ, is that he was given dominion and a kingdom at the moment of his return to heaven. When he was presented before the throne of God, God the Father rewarded him and acknowledged him and blessed him by giving him a kingdom. And that kingdom began then That was the inauguration of his rule and he has continued to rule from that day until the second coming of Christ when it will be finally and fully revealed in its ultimate and fullness of glory as he being the one to rule over all. But don't mistake, just because you have difficulty at times, and so do I, to perceive exactly how Christ is presently ruling, that difficulty for us to perceive does not diminish the reality that He actually is in charge, and He is ruling from His throne in heaven. I'll just end with this quote that I read once before in our Acts study from R.C. Sproul. and his description of this concept is this. A whole new chapter of world history began with his ascension to the right hand of the father, where he is, present tense, enthroned as the king. One of the worst distortions of theology that plagues the evangelical world is the idea that the kingdom is only completely future. There is a future element to the kingdom of God, a fullness and a finality element. But the reality is he rules now as king. He serves now as our heavenly high priest, and he speaks now through the pages of New Testament scripture as the ultimate and final prophet of God, fulfilling all that the old covenant prophets, priests, and kings pointed forward to. It's all about him, and it's all about what he accomplished in his ascension. Let's worship the Lord.