Take it away, brother. Well, thank you, Pastor Jerry. It's a real joy to be with the dear Saints at Berean again, even though it's via Zoom or whatever the platform is. I'm glad that we can be together. Thank you for the opportunity to teach during this time, and I want to Praying about this, my mind and heart kept being drawn back to this very thing. And I wanna speak to us tonight on the ascension of Christ and its significance for us. And so to begin, I'd like to read Acts chapter one. If you have your Bibles, you can turn with me to Acts chapter one. And I'm just gonna read three verses this evening. Acts chapter one, nine through 11. And this is the word of the living God. Now, when he had spoken these things, while they watched, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into heaven? this same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word and give us ears to hear. Let's pray. Great God, our Father, we thank you for your word. which is a more sure word of prophecy than if the Lord Jesus was standing here in our very midst this moment. We thank you for this self-revelation that you have given to us, whereby we may know what to believe, how we are to live, and what we are to do. And so tonight as we gather here as this visible church of Jesus Christ, often many of us are on These modern social media platforms, we are gathered in the name of Christ and we ask your blessing upon us. Help us and instruct us in every way for the good of our souls, for the glory of the lamb, and for a further means of extending your kingdom and bringing poor perishing sinners to repentance and faith in Christ. In the name of Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen. You know the background of Acts chapter one, of course, it's the four Gospels. And the four Gospels, each ends with the ascension of resurrection. and ascension of Christ. And we know from 1 Corinthians 15, one through four, that the gospel is how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, was buried and rose again the third day, according to the scriptures. But a vital part of the exaltation of Christ is his ascension. The old theologians would speak of the ministry of Christ in two phases. There was his humiliation, which began at his conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary and carried through with his incarnation. God, the second person, co-equal, co-eternal, co-substantial with the Father and with the Spirit became flesh. From that point on, his whole ministry until his resurrection was considered the period of his humiliation, which was the fulfillment of Isaiah 53. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. When we see him, there's nothing about him that would cause us to desire him. He's like a root out of dry ground. And that's how the natural man or woman sees Jesus today, but when the Spirit of God comes, opens our hearts, opens our minds, that we believe we see a beauty in Christ. But from the time of his conception in the womb of the Virgin until his resurrection, that period of time, the older theologians, especially the church fathers, spoke of it as his time of humiliation. his time of exaltation began with his resurrection. And we often think of his resurrection and his being seated at the father's right hand and his coming again, which are vital parts of his exaltation. But there's something that I think so often we overlook and that's his ascension. And It's surprisingly spoken of more than what we realize in the New Testament. And yet so often we give so little attention to it. Here he is in Acts chapter one. He is gathered at Bethany with his 11 apostles. He gives them the great commission. And suddenly before their eyes, and I've often thought about this, suddenly he begins to defy his own laws, his laws of gravity. And this resurrected, glorified Jesus begins to rise and defying his own laws of gravity. And the writer of Hebrews says he passes through the heavens. He goes through the first heaven through the second heaven into the heaven of heavens, the first heaven being the earth's atmosphere, the second heaven being the universe that we can see into the heaven of heavens, the very throne of God himself. And you can only imagine the amazement that was in the minds of the apostles. Now, let me ask you this question. Why did the Lord Jesus, after he had conquered our greatest enemy, death, via his resurrection, why did he not extend his power and rule here on the earth until he had conquered the whole earth? Why did he defy his own laws, especially the laws of gravity and ascend into heaven? Why didn't he stay here? Why didn't he exert his kingly rule and establish a physical earthly kingdom? Well, that leads us to the question, what is the purpose and the theological significance of his ascension? The answers are not just found in one place in the Holy Scriptures. It's referred to in the Old Testament. I don't have time to deal with that tonight, but it's especially clear in the New Testament And it's scattered throughout a number of places through the New Testament. And what I wanna do tonight is consider very quickly, I'm not gonna be any longer than two and a half hours tonight, 11 reasons, I'm being facetious, 11 reasons for the ascension of Christ. And so let me quickly go through these for you. And if Pastor Jerry would like these, once I get home, I can send them to him. And if any of you would like the notes, I would be happy to give you the outline form of these notes. But let me quickly go through the first significant of his ascension. And let me remind you, he ascended bodily in a glorified body, in the same body in which he was resurrected. And there is a man in heaven. And that's why Paul could say, that there is only one God and only one mediator between God and man. And he uses the specific word anthropos, the man, Christ Jesus. He is the God-man, co-substantial, co-glorious. And I think there's a battle raging that we cannot back down from, that in the essential or ontological trinity, there is no subordination. Any subordination is in the economical trinity. But here he ascends as the God-man into heaven. What was the first reason? It was to mark the triumphant culmination of Christ's work on the earth. It's interesting in John 20, verse 17, Jesus as Martha is either, there's debate here whether she actually clings to his feet or whether she is getting ready to, but Jesus says in the translation I'm using, do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father and to my God and your God. The ascension would mark the triumphant culmination of Christ's work on the earth. Christ did not fail. He has never failed. And as I mentioned Tuesday in my talk on Calvin, God doesn't try to do anything. Christ never tried to do anything. Whatever they set out to do, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, they accomplished. And Christ accomplished redemption. Donald Guthrie in his New Testament theology says this, resurrection without ascension would leave many essential aspects of Christian truth unaccounted for. And so the first thing, it marked the triumphant culmination of Christ's work on earth. Secondly, his ascension initiated exaltation and enthronement. And what do I mean by enthronement? Christ had to take his rightful place on the throne of power at the right hand of God, showing equality with the Father. And Philippians 2, 5-11 reveals Christ is highly exalted and given the name above every name to make known his sovereignty and mediatorial lordship over all the universe. He is not waiting to be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And so many times when we speak of Christ, and I am working on a book on this, it's going slowly, but I'm working on a book on the Lamb and the book of Revelation. What is the book of Revelation all about? I believe it's about the Lamb. It's not about the, It's not about the antichrist. It's not about the rapture. It's not about the millennium. It's not about the 144,000. It's not about a bunch of other things. It's about the lamb. It is the unveiling, the apocalypsis of Christ. And so when you come to the book of Revelation, we often speak of Christ, and you'll hear it. You'll hear it in songs. You'll hear it in hymns. You'll hear it in conversation of people, and they'll speak of Christ who was and is and is to come. And I want to submit to you, and I'm not trying to be picky or parsnickety here, but that is not correct. When you read the book of Revelation, he is described as who is and was and is to come, because he is the eternal I am." And He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He's not going to just become that when He comes back. He is. When He comes, He shall show, reveal what He is at this time. And He, the present position of Christ sharing the very throne of God the Father, reveals to us many things. Notice he's not at the feet of the father. He's not below the father. He is at the right hand of the father. And this should be a great source of encouragement to us, his people. He is enthroned. And one of the things, the great thing about Calvin more than any of the other reformers is that he articulated the threefold office of Christ, or the offices of Christ, prophet, priest, and king. And he is king now. And I remember growing up in the churches, the Southern Baptist independent churches, you know, you gotta, you can have Jesus as your savior, but you gotta somewhere or another make him your Lord. And I've said so many times, you can't make Christ Lord. Yeah, God the Father did that 2000 years ago when He raised Him from the dead. We come and bow and submit to His Lordship. He is, and it's interesting that after the resurrection, approximately 500 times, the title is not just Jesus, the Savior Jesus, or the Savior Jesus Christ, it is the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Over 500 times from the time of his resurrection throughout the New Testament. Much more I could say, I've got to quickly hasten on. Thirdly, what is the significance of the ascension of Christ? To begin a second work of making intercession for his people. His first work was his work upon the cross, where he made complete satisfaction, complete atonement, where he made redemption, propitiation, reconciliation, accomplishing it for us, and thus being our intercessor, going in between God the Father, holy, thrice holy in all of his being, and us fallen sons and daughters of Adam. And his cross was the great intercessory work. But his ascension leads him into the second work of making intercession for his people. The writer of Hebrews, which by the way, not trying to be controversial, but we know is Paul, right? Anyhow, that's an aside. But the writer of Hebrews makes it very clear, Hebrews 6, 19. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus having become high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. In Hebrews 7.25, we often use this as an evangelistic verse, and I have no real problem with using it to sinners. But in its context, it's for the people of God, where it says, therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. He is at the Father's right hand, making intercession for us. Augustus' top lady put it so beautifully in his hymn, yes, I to the end shall endure, sure as the promise is given. More happy, but not more secure, are the glorified saints in heaven. They're more happy than we are, but they are not more secure than we are, because Christ is making intercession for us. even at this moment. And that's why when I finish this teaching, we pray. We can come boldly. Though we're simultaneously justified and sinful, as Luther put it, we still can come boldly into the throne room of God's grace and seek grace and blessing on us. Fourth significance of his ascension to signify the fulfillment of his divine mission. Isn't it interesting, we're told he took his seat. And of course, what does Hebrews 10, 11 through 14 say? And every priest stands ministering daily, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin, they only postpone God's judgment for a period of time. But this man, actually the original language of the New Testament says, but this one, it's not taking away from his humanity, but it's very specific. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, what did he do? He sat down at the right hand of God. You look at the tabernacle, you look at the temple, there are no chairs there. The priests are moving about constantly. There's a flurry of movement. There's no place for them to rest. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. From that time, waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. He sat down to signify the fulfillment of his divine mission. Fifthly, the significance of the ascension is seen in the bestowment of the gift of the Holy Spirit. And some of our dear dispensational friends would like to remind us of John 7, 37, where Jesus at the feast, the great feast, the Feast of Tabernacles, where he says, come unto me all you who thirsting out of your living innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. This is fake of the Holy Spirit because the Spirit was not yet given. And many think that the Holy Spirit was not active in the Old Testament. And I would say just the opposite. He was very active in the Old Testament. From the moment of creation, he brooded over the waters, he hovered over the waters. And if you wanna read something that will just thrill you, read in the works of B.B. Warfield, the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. Wonderfully rich stuff. But the Holy Spirit, while active in the Old Testament, was restricted almost exclusively to the nation of Israel, though there were a few Gentiles that were called and brought in. And though God's vision was for the nations, including the Gentile nations, even until the end of the earth, the work of the Holy Spirit, which was far more than most even contemplate, was restricted in the Old Testament, and he would not come in all of his fullness until Christ was glorified. Pentecost took place after the Ascension, and it was a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel. Now the Spirit of God is poured upon all flesh. Not just, like he said to the Syrophoenician woman who came to him and asked him to heal her daughter, and he said, Don't you know I'm only come to the lost sheep of house of Israel? She said, yes, Lord. Yes, so true. But even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall off the tables. And he said, wow, I've never seen such faith like this. Be it according to your faith. And so he pours out the Holy Spirit. And we who are born again, we have in dwelling within us this great earnest of our redemption, the Holy Spirit. And there's much more that I could say about that, but I've got to quickly hasten on. And then, sixly, to become the head and fill up all things. And if you, I'm sure sometime Pastor Jerry will get around to it, but these, and from Isaiah 40 through Isaiah 59, there are these, what's called the servant songs of Isaiah. in which God introduces, it's almost as if he summons all the nations before him. And he says, let me introduce to you my servant. And he is called the servant of the Lord, Isaiah 52 and so on, Isaiah 53, these wonderful servant songs of Isaiah. And the father had appointed him to become the head of all things. This is spoken of in Ephesians 1, 20 through 23. which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. And he doesn't stop there, and it says in verse 20, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. And he put all things under his feet, present tense, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in and all." Christ is the head and he fills up all things. Ephesians 4, 9-10. Now this, quote, he ascended, what does it mean but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. I don't have time to develop that tonight. I'll leave that with your pastor and other brethren. Donald Guthrie makes this observation. The filling of all things by Christ is therefore the gathering up of all things into his own perfection, a kind of mystical cosmic, which could be achieved only by the exalted Christ. And what we need, you know, it's so easy. As we look around today, we listen to the news if you watch the news. you can immediately become despondent, discouraged. But I wanna say to you, brethren, tonight, there's no cause to be. Jesus is still at the right hand of the Father. The Father is still on the throne. God is working out his eternal decree and purposes. And though things may look dark, in the words of of Hugh Martin, the missionary to Persia, present-day Iran, a mullah said to him, if you're Jesus's King of Kings and Lord of Lords, why hasn't the kingdom of Islam submitted itself to it? How did Hugh Martin answer that? He said, my friend, you don't understand. The end has not yet come. And when the end comes, even the kingdom of Islam will be forced to bow down to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but for them it will be too late. They will know nothing but everlasting darkness and punishment. Let me quickly hasten on. Seventhly, what is the significance of the ascension of Christ to give gifts unto men? And let me just say this, that by Christ becoming the head and filling up all things, it's Christ that gives meaning to life. We're living in not only a cancel culture, but we're living in a culture of death. Abortion reigns, death is glorified, skulls and crossbones are all over the place. We as Christians celebrate the culture of life. Christ and only Christ can give meaning to life. Here's Paul in the jail in Rome, writing his epistle to the Philippians. Death is imminent. He may be a few hours, maybe a few days away from being beheaded. And what does he say? Oh, woe is me, I wish I could be delivered. No, on the contrary, he says, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain, because Christ is filling up all things. Seventhly, to give gifts unto men. The exalted and enthroned Christ now, after Pentecost, he himself bestows gifts unto men. And Paul expounds this in Ephesians 4, 7-8. But to each one of us, but to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gifts. Therefore, he says, when he ascended on high, you're seeing how many times ascension and ascending is mentioned. When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. And of course there, those gifts were apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors, teachers. And of course, we do not believe that apostles and prophets are any longer active. They ceased with the, I think, the canon of scripture. And even the evangelist has a restriction to it. but the abiding and remaining gift, pastors, teachers. And then from there, different gifts are distributed, and that's a subject in and of itself. Eighthly, the significance of Christ's ascension is to gain access for believers, to open up heaven and obtain a fatherly audience with God for his people. And this whole matter of adoption comes into play. Thank you. I love what Jesus said in John 16, and this Olivet, what became known, what has become known as the Olivet Discourse. As he ends up in chapter 16, verse 23, mean nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full." Christ has ascended to the Father's right hand to gain access for believers and gain access into God's presence safely. And I've argued for so long, for so many years, what was the purpose of a high priest? The purpose of a high priest was to bring God's people into the presence of God safely. You see, all will stand in the presence of God one day. For some, it will not be safe. But for those of us who have believed upon Christ to the saving of our souls, Christ gives us a fatherly, gives us entrance into a fatherly audience with God. That's why we can pray. We can pray boldly tonight. We can ask God to do great, mighty, and wonderful things, which we can't even think or imagine. As Donald Guthrie says, as a result of the resurrection, Christ is declared to be the first fruits of those who are asleep, 1 Corinthians 15, 20. As such, he implicates all believers in his own resurrection and ascension. As he gained access to the Father, so he gained the right of access for all who are united to him. Christ entered into the Father's presence, and now as our advocate, He is there granting us access into the Father's presence via the throne of grace. Ninthly, and I'm gonna finish in five minutes so we can pray. Ninthly, to fulfill an ancient and long-awaited prophecy. And I'm not gonna read this, it's Psalm 24, verses one through 10, This Psalm of David, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell in. And he goes on and talks about God's dominion over all the earth. And then he says, lift up your heads all you gates and be lifted up you everlasting doors. And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? And I can almost hear from Handel's Messiah. The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates, lift up your everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Most Old Testament scholars believe that this psalm was written at the return of the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. and the ark which represented the very presence of God in the midst of Israel is returned. And David is writing, lift up your heads you everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in. But there's also a double entendre here that speaks of the ascension of Christ. He leaves this world after completing his great atoning work and he passes through the heavens, into the heavens, and he takes his lawful place at the Father's right hand, and we're told to lift up your heads, lift up your everlasting doors, the King of Glory is coming in. And it was there, his ascension was there to fulfill an ancient, long-awaited prophecy. Tenthly, or you can go to eight o'clock. Oh, okay, well, I wanna give us time to pray. I can be long-winded, but I'm trying to... My wife, did you see what my wife did? Y'all didn't see that. The 10th is to inaugurate a new age. Not as the new age or movement is called, or the age of Aquarius. See, some of you young folks are so young you don't even remember. But we remember, this is the dawning of the age of Aquarius. Aquarius. Oh, goodness. You remember that, Kathy? Yeah. Yeah. Just never heard your rendition. Well, I mean, I could give a better one. But when Christ rose from the dead, the last days began. When he ascended to the right hand of the Father and took his lawful place, a new age was being inaugurated. The Spirit of God was poured out on the day of Pentecost, not just upon the Jewish nation, but upon all flesh. This present age is bound by two momentous events, the ascension of Christ and the dissension or the second coming of Christ. Professor John Murray called this the interadvental age or the interadvental period between the first ascension and the second coming. And these are the last days. And this is the new age. And we do not see it as it will be. And theologically it is the now and the not yet. Now Jesus said, if I with the finger of God cast out demons, then you know that the kingdom of God is among you. And Christ ascended to inaugurate a new age. And Peter Toon notes this with the Ascension, the age to come has begun, even though it is only experienced on earth in the present evil age in part through the spirit. What is known now only in part will be known in full after the last judgment that will bring this present age to an end. and we are living in a wonderful age. We are not waiting for the kingdom of God. We who have been saved by grace alone, through faith alone and Christ alone, to God alone be all the glory, have been delivered from the power of Satan and translated into the kingdom of his dear son. We're living in this wonderful new covenant age and Christ ascended to inaugurate this new age. I'm giving you an outline, an abbreviated form, all of these points. And the last one is this. The significance of his ascension was to prepare a place for us. I remember as a young Christian, some of the first verses I learned or memorized was John 14, 1 through 3. Most of us If you've been a Christian for any length of time, you can probably quote these verses. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions, many dwelling places, whatever term you want to use. I still like the term mansion. If it were not so, he says, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also." What a wonderful covenant promise is ours. He ascended to the Father's right hand to prepare a place for us. much more that can be said, but let me just end with just a few points of application. As you think of Christ, I mean, he's so multifaceted, all the way from his eternal pre-existence as the eternal son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, through his virgin birth, incarnation, his life of punctilious obedience to the law of God, his painful and shameful death on the cross, his burial three days under the power and dominion of death. So quickly we bypass the fact that not only is he arisen, but he is ascended. And so don't neglect the ascension. Secondly is the ascended and enthroned one. He is mediatorial Lord of heaven above, earth beneath, and hell below. I love Revelation 118. John saw him. When he saw him in his exalted form, what does it say? He fell to his feet as dead. And the first words of the exalted Lord and Savior to John were what? Fear not. What comfort? Fear not. I am he who was dead, and behold, I'm alive, and I'm alive forevermore, and I have the keys of hell and death. Satan does not have the keys to his own domain. They're hanging at Jesus' right hand. And so he is the mediatorial Lord. Take confidence. Thirdly, Christ's ascension ushered in a new age. That is now, but it is yet to come. It should spur us on to gospel holiness. It should spur us on to true and real evangelism and genuine missions to the ends of the earth. We're not laboring from defeat, we're laboring from victory and triumph. Fourthly, because Christ has ascended and sits at the Father's right hand, never forget we have a fatherly audience with God at any time. We don't have to prepare ourselves, groom ourselves. We don't have to put on our finery. You ladies don't have to put on your makeup and curl your hair or whatever you do. You can come at any moment. And when you say, Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus, that opens up heaven for us. We have a fatherly audience with God at any time. Last point of application, though there's much more that could be said, As he is at the Father's right hand preparing a place for us, he shall one day return to receive us unto himself and bring us into our glorious and heavenly dwelling. And let us remember, and it's so often, and I think of Andrew Bonner, who had a real burden and zeal for the conversion of the Jews. His wife said that he used to get up every morning, and the first thing he did, he had a window facing the east. And up there in the cold highlands of Scotland, she said he would pull back the curtain, and he would look out toward the east, the rising of the sun, and he would say, is it today, Lord? Is it today? And I wonder how many of us get up in the morning and say, Is it today? And he who died, was buried, rose again, 40 days later ascended to the right hand of the Father and is there as the enthroned, exalted, mediatorial Lord, one day shall return. And may we stand before the cross and await that day when heaven and earth shall pass away. and thus prepared to meet him. And we can only meet him safely, covered in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. I only gave you a brief skeleton outline of this. I pray that in some way it was quick, it was hasty. I hope in some way that it will encourage you and embolden you in your praying. Ask God great things. all the while, even before we're expecting great things from it. Pastor Jerry, I'll turn it back over to you now and let you.