Beloved congregation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it's a day in God's providence that we just celebrate the marvel and the wonder of King Jesus. The marvel of the Lamb with seven horns and all of his great strength, seven eyes powerfully filling and motivating the earth through the power of his Holy Spirit, who together with God the Father is worshipped there by the throne. Where is he? Revelation tells us this morning that Jesus is in heaven. that he is in heaven true God and true man that by his flesh we can understand that that transformed flesh is now acceptable in the eyes of Almighty God we reject this afternoon, the whole understanding of of Gnosticism or of Greek philosophy that the body is bad and that the soul is good and that the whole reason for life is that the spirit wants to get out of the body and in so we can either serve the body in a hedonistic pleasurable way serving our lusts eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die, or to be stoic and to stand up and overcome the lusts of the flesh to live good, right and pure lives. No, no, we join all of that together. When God created Adam out of the dust and he brought that soul and breathed into him, Adam was a good human being. Death is the separation of what God joined together. and in time Jesus Christ will come again and bring our souls and our bodies together unless we're standing on the earth in which case we will be a complete transformation renewal right after the image of Jesus Christ who is true man and true God the beautiful Savior and so we go from the cemetery where we talked about Jesus Christ crucified dead and buried descent into hell and then we're still in the cemetery we hear now that he is resurrected but now we need to go beyond the cemetery we need to live and breathe in the renewal and the marvelous wonder that Jesus Christ is alive he is Lord he is risen from the dead in a earlier decade An ancient Chinese man was quoted as saying that the greatest thing that he understood about the New Testament, he had read every holy book, he's read all the Chinese philosophy, he said the most interesting thing about the New Testament is not that a virgin had a baby, and not that the Son of God took on human flesh, and not that Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. He said, you know the most amazing thing about Christianity? This is interesting, I thought. It's that God dwells in people like you and me. No other religion in the world has this, he pointed out. I thought that was really astounding, and if I think about it, What religion? Islam? God doesn't live in you. In the New Age movement, you are God, but God doesn't live in you. In Buddhism, you're moving to become like God. But in Christianity, a perfect God chooses to dwell in imperfect people through the power of becoming a human. Jesus is a human being in whom God dwells. wanting to become like God we made a mess of everything God becomes like a man to bring everything back to its proper order and now Jesus Christ is moving as we sang or heard as we walked in the church as the Lord of Harvest sending forth reapers starting with those 12 or those 11 disciples moving that on to the church, giving them the authority to forgive sins and not to forgive sins, giving them the keys of the kingdom, the preaching of the Word and the discipline of the Word and Spirit, and through His power, He is exercising His dominion in all the earth. How do you know? Is Jesus Christ on the earth in bodily form? Well, not in terms of His particular body, but he is on earth in terms of your body. 1 Corinthians 6, flee sexual immorality. Do you not know that you, plural, and then individually are the temple of the Holy Spirit? How could this happen? Well, Jesus says these words to the disciples before the cross, but now I go away to him who sent me. And yet none of you asks me, where are you going? because I have said these things to you sorrow has filled your heart nevertheless I tell you that it is to your advantage that I go away if I do not go away the helper will not come to you but if I depart I will send him to you do not cling to me Mary do not cling to me I need to go to God and he will be your God I need to go to the Father and He will be your Father. Jesus Christ ascended to the Father for the advantage of His people. First of all we'll see the joining together of heaven and earth and then we'll see the joining together of God and man. So let's go to the beginning. So the Catechism lays out for us what we would call a systematic theology. It gives to us a topic and then gleans for us from the Scriptures answers about this topic. What do we believe about the ascension of Almighty God? But you also are biblical theologians, and we also want to study the Word of God. What is going on if we move from Genesis towards Revelation? And I hope we're not too redundant from this morning, but very quickly, as we sang from Psalm 8, what is man that you were mindful of him, that you have given him dominion over all things, though you have made him a little less than the angels? Well, we know that that happens in Genesis chapter 1, where God says, let us, the Trinitarian God, speaking in plurals, make man in our image, in the image of God. He made him male and female. He made them. Why did God make Adam, and then Eve, in his image? so that they could fulfill what's called the cultural mandate. Have dominion over the earth. Be fruitful and multiply and fill it. I give to you the earth. I give you the food that you need so that you can do your work, and I give you the material that you need so that there's something to work with. I am God. Rule the planet for me. That was the plan of Almighty God in terms of His expressed, revealed will. Adam and Eve have dominion over the earth. They are to dominate it. I know that language can be tough in our world of environmentalism and green theology. But if we really think about it, the domination is God is saying, I want you to see my domination and explore this earth. Adam and Eve didn't need to go to church as we understand it. They didn't need the Bible as we understand it. The image of God was within them. They weren't perfect in the sense that they had achieved perfection in everything, but they were going to learn to work with the creation. In all of it, they would see God. There would be nothing negative, nothing consequentially that would bring deterioration or brokenness. God's rule would be done through them. But they wanted dominion over themselves. They wanted the creation, and they wanted the kingdom without the king. They wanted the image of God and the power of God without God. This didn't come from them, it seems, from within themselves, because the devil tricked them into it. The devil deceived them into it, and we've been dealing with that the rest of our lives. All of us deal with that. We're born With that natural tendency, I know what makes me happy. I know what I want to do. I want to be free. I just heard a song from that. I'm easy. I'm easy like Sunday morning. I want to be free. Just me. And yeah, how many people want that liberation of individualism? And of course, that can't work for marriage. that certainly can't work for family, that can't work for community, and we're seeing the horrible results of that kind of thinking. Adam and Eve fell. They lost the image of God. They were now estranged from God. Heaven and Earth now had a curtain, so to speak. where God would come and dwell with them and speak with them and speak about the great and beautiful things of the truth of all of that was broken. So God had to step in. God in his grace says I'm going to make a promise. I'm going to make a covenant with you. I am God and I am going to save the people. Why is that? From before the foundation of the world God had decided that he was going to save a people and one day they would have dominion over the earth but not before his son would come and his son would take on human flesh that the son of God would be called Jesus the son of Mary that the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, would become prophet, priest, and king for us in a human form, so that authority would be given to Him. And in the Gospel of John, in John chapter 12, it says that all authority had been given to Him. Knowing that all authority had been given to Him, He now goes to the cross. And why does He have to go to the cross? Because in the day you eat of the fruit, you will surely die. And Adam, the earth, is going to bring up thorns and thistles. And I think many of you know that, those of you who garden. Those of you who want to keep your lawn neat. We simply see weeds all over the place and we see the brokenness of that. I was just telling somebody, my wife used to work at a nursery and there was four young men and every time they picked up their hose to go out weeding they would say, thanks Eve. We made a mess even of the creation. That's how bad it is. And then what happens? In the day you eat of the fruit you will surely die. Adam, from dust you are, and to dust you will return. You were to have dominion over the earth, but when you and I die, when you put this body into the ground, the dust will have dominion over it. And I'll just go back and turn to what it was before. What a hopeless estate. What a brokenness. You see there the separation of body and soul. You see the separation of God and man. And then God says, no, I'm going to bring you two together and you're going to have a child. And that child is going to defeat Satan and crush his head. Calls Abraham, the Lord of harvest, sending forth reapers. Abraham, come on out. You and your old wife are gonna have a child and you're gonna be a blessing to the world. Isaac, and then Jacob. And we heard this morning about Judah. One from Judah and then one from David. From the shoot of David, from the root of Jesse. And then we see all of that coming together and then Jesus is born. And Jesus takes his place on the earth. And he takes on human flesh. And he lives among us in the state of humiliation. He's laughed at, he's ridiculed, people are filled with scorn over him. He knows what it's like to be exhausted. I think of you young moms and you train your children. How frustrated do you get when they don't listen? Dads, when your kids just don't understand you can't do that. Jesus walked for three years with these hard-headed disciples. Three years of it. Moms, you think you can go to Jesus? He knows. Dads, do you think you can go to Jesus? Oh yeah, he knows. All of you in leadership. All of you are frustrated with other human beings. I'm an imperfect man frustrated with imperfect human beings. What is it if I was a perfect man frustrated with imperfect human beings? Because then I actually would be right, not just thinking that I'm right. Do you think Jesus knows who you are? Do you think Jesus understands? Heaven has come down to earth in the form of Jesus Christ who takes on human flesh. perfect human flesh, sinless human flesh. God so loves the world that he gives his only son, John 3, 16, that you and I might have eternal life. He dies that we may have forgiveness of sins. He hangs there on the tree, my God, why have you forsaken me? And he dies. A horrible, awful death, not so much just because of the cross, as horrible as that is, but God forsakes him. because of what you did and what I did. Ah, dearest Jesus, how was thou offended? What wondrous love is this, O my soul? This is your God. This is his plan. This is why Jesus needs to come to earth. But after the third day, he rises from the dead. He bursts through that hard rock tomb. They have to open the tomb for the women to see in because they can't look in themselves and Jesus isn't there. He isn't there because He rolled the stone away. He isn't there because the angels rolled the stone away. He isn't there because He is transformed. Paul talks about that in Philippians chapter 1, that we will have bodies that will be like his transformed body, like what Peter and James and John saw on what we call the Mount of Transfiguration. It is a glorified body. And just in case we didn't believe it, just in case we needed some evidence, Jesus appears. And he appears to Mary Magdalene. She looks at him. What is it about him that in his resurrected state he has not shown his glorified state? We don't see the lamb with seven horns and seven eyes or that amazing picture of Jesus Christ in Revelation chapter 1. No, we see a transformed, resurrected, but still very earthly human Jesus. And she thinks he's the gardener. The angels have told her he's not here. Why are you weeping? He's alive. But she doesn't have that faith yet. She can't see it. She can't understand it. We were talking at lunchtime about Jesus and the way Jesus works and the way God works. What would you do? if you could show yourself, if you wanted to prove that you were resurrected. And I said, well, why wouldn't Jesus just show up in front of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and say, hey, Caiaphas, he internally combusts and he burns alive, and everybody says, hey, yeah, Jesus is here, he's alive. To which my daughter said, it's a good thing you're not Jesus. But it's an interesting thing to think about, isn't it? Why didn't he go to the Pharisees? He didn't. And he didn't go to the Sadducees, and he didn't go to Pilate. He went to Mary Magdalene, a woman, a woman who loved him, a woman who was given freedom from her ailments and from her sin through him. And all he has to say is, Mary, ah, teacher. Rabboni, and she holds him, and she hugs him, and I think I would too. Just lay at his feet. Don't go away again. We have just been through so much pain, so much sorrow. We thought we would never see you again. I'm sorry we didn't listen to you, but now you're here. And the disciples that we learned from Acts, and even the disciples later on, they're still thinking this resurrected Jesus is going to have an earthly kingdom, and he's going to have a worldly kingdom, and he's going to show Pilate what for, and he's going to show the Pharisees and the Sadducees what's going on, and he will rule, and they'll have their place with him, and it'll be grand and glorious, because somehow we always want a kingdom down here. Somehow we always want ours here. That's what the health and wealth and prosperity gospel is all about. You can be rich now. You can be healthy now. You can have it all now. No cross, only triumphant. It's like, no. No, Mary, you need to let go of me. Because I need to go to my Father. I need to change position. I need to change geographical position. I have come to the earth. human form after my resurrection but I must go to be with my father in heaven and I love that language right it's the language of Naomi and Ruth your God will be my God your father will be my father Jesus is going to go for your benefit Jesus is going to go to heaven to build his kingdom, to restore humanity, to bring earth back to heaven, and then ultimately to join heaven and earth again. He's gonna go to heaven because in his physicality as a human being, he can be in one place at one time. So, 2 Samuel 7, it actually says that, where God says through Nathan to David, your son and my son will share the throne. Well, now it's happened. But for whatever reason, a lot of people think that that throne's gonna be in Jerusalem, and it's no, it's going to be in heaven. The son of David is sitting on the throne of Almighty God in heaven. And then if you put Revelation 5 with those seven eyes, Jesus is seeing, controlling all events of all the world, gathering together all the elect so that they may be taken care of. Because look what he says when he appears to those men. He says, peace to you. Isn't that beautiful by the way? Jesus is so patient. You men left me? You took off when I was at my worst moment? When I asked for some prayer in Gethsemane, you didn't help. And now you locked yourself in a room because you're dead scared of everybody. Twice they lock themselves in a room. And what does he say? Peace. As the Father has sent me, I send you. I need to go to the Father because I'm going to send you. Then we get back to what we saw in John 16. I will give you the Counselor. He will fill you with the Spirit. You are going to go into all the earth. But wherever you go, I will be with you because now I am in heaven and from heaven's place I can be everywhere at all time universally because I am God. But I bear your flesh. I carry your blood. I am as human As you are except transfigured, and yet I am more. I am God. Receive the Holy Spirit. Thomas comes, just in case, again, you were wondering. He doesn't believe. And Jesus says, look, here's my hands. Take your finger and put your finger in that hole. It's interesting. When we see Jesus in heaven in his physical form, will we be able still to see those holes? and the wound in his side, in his feet, and the scars. Does that transfiguration, I think, attend for us a light, beautiful, glorified body? Or is it this body that's made perfect, holy, and righteous, and true? I can't wait to get there and see. How about you? But in time, Christ will come, and he will show us, but not before, He uses you and me to do this work, to continue the work of the church. He has now brought heaven down to earth. And heaven is making its way through the earth through the power of the Great Commission. The Holy Spirit is in you. You are the hands and the feet of Jesus Christ. Christianity is the most amazing religion because God chooses to dwell in sinful people and use them to build His kingdom. Praise be Jesus Christ. In Him we have this glory. In Him we have this wonder. How does Christ's ascension benefit you? Third, He sends His Spirit to us on earth as a corresponding pledge. By the Spirit's power we seek not earthly things, but the things above where Christ is, seated at His right hand. How does Christ's ascension into heaven benefit you? We have our own flesh in heaven. Where Jesus is in flesh, probably together with Elijah and Enoch, We one day will be in full body and perfect soul, standing together in the presence of Almighty God in the new heavens and the new earth. But where Jesus is, you can expect that you will go upon your death. And why is that? Because he's our advocate. He is the voice for us. He is our defense lawyer. And every time God sees us, he sees us in the righteousness provided by Jesus Christ, the prophet, who said, these are mine. The king who rules over everything to protect us so that in all things we are more than conquerors. The priest who died for us. And he goes to the father and he pleads our case. And he prays for us. And he knows you. He knows your exhaustion, your sorrow, your persecution, your frustration, your joys, your worship. your love, your kindness. He knows all of it and better than you even know it yourself. And then he's going to come again and from there he's going to join us into the things where heaven and earth and the new heavens and the new earth will be. There won't even be a temple there because God will dwell with man. So Christ has ascended to his father for the advantage of his people. Heaven and earth are joined together because God has become man. And God in Jesus Christ still is the beautiful Savior, Son of God and Son of Man. Adam rules the earth. It's a new Adam. And as a new Adam that is being fruitful and multiplying, he's going forth with the seed of the word of the Lord, and he is spreading that seed everywhere through the church of Jesus Christ, through the offerings and the tithes that you provide for this congregation, through the preaching of the word, through the offering and the tithes that you provide today for Reverend Mitchell Persaud. when we see the excitement and the power and the enthusiasm of young Pastor Leo or Pastor Reese, and we see that that work is going to continue, when we see Jesus Christ on earth doing the work of God. See, that is our answer to the Lutherans, but then isn't Jesus Christ on earth physically? Well, yes and no. Yes, because of you. No, Jesus Christ isn't standing here so that we can see him the way Mary could see him or the way Thomas could see him. But he is standing here in front of me and hopefully me in front of you and us in this world as the physical embodiment. What does the Bible call you among other things? The body of Christ. A man loves his wife as he loves his own body. Just as Christ loved his wife and gave his body up for her that she might become the body of Christ. Again, Ephesians chapter 2. You were all born in your trespasses and sins. you used to live in your former way you conducted yourself in your lust following the prince of the air but you he made alive again and then we go on in Ephesians chapter 2 that Christ dwells by the Spirit in the Gentiles and he dwells in by his Holy Spirit in the Jews and then he brings them together as one new humanity true God true man True God living in us, who are fully human, still sinful, still needing that full salvation. Understanding that we are not worthy. Understanding that we need the continuing priestly work of Christ. So we've talked about how heaven came to earth and then died on the cross. That is the ultimate priestly work. But what also did the priests do? They mediate. He's our advocate. God is bringing your prayers. So if we take Romans chapter 8, the Spirit intercedes for us with groaning and drivel. There's times when we don't even know what to pray for, and the Spirit motivates. None of us would pray without the Holy Spirit, by the way. You know, sometimes people will say, well, why pray if God knows everything? And if everything's going to happen according to His will, why do we even bother God? Because He moves us to pray. And he moves us to pray because we understand that our infirmity, our humanity, our weakness, that we don't even know what we ought to pray for. And then the Spirit intervenes and then Christ takes those prayers and makes them right and beautiful and proper before Almighty God. So there's this constant stream of communication. coming up towards God through Christ, coming down through Christ towards us through the Word and the Spirit, because God has joined Himself together to man in Jesus, and man by faith is joined together to God in Jesus. True God, true man, our morning star, and one day beloved, He is going to come again. What is Jesus saying in John 16? Whatever you ask for in my name, according to my will, in accordance with my being, whatever you ask, you will receive it. I will give it. I will bring it to my Father in heaven. Don't cling to me, Mary, because I have to go to my Father to bring your prayers and the prayers of the church. Don't keep me down here, Church of Jesus Christ. It's not about the car you drive or the house that you have. It's not about the clothes that you wear or how long you're gonna live down here. But it's so that you can come up here to be with me until I come down and bring heaven to be there with you. Where's your treasure, beloved? What keeps you up at night? What worries you? And it can be very noble things like your children, and you're worried about them. Or how are we going to survive? Or I'm getting older now, and can I retire? And all of these things. This is all going to be gone. This is not our world. We are here to minister in this world. Jesus Christ is moving all things so we can do our work in this world. For who? For Him. Then we'll find blessing, then we'll find joy, then we'll find solace for our souls, and then maybe for some of you it isn't always blessing and joy because of where you are in life, but you will have the power and the strength to overcome or to withstand. Because perhaps Jesus Christ is using you in your weakness of a depression, or of a sorrow, or of a brokenness. He can do that because he's Jesus. He can empower you because he's God, and he knows you because he is true man. Don't cling to me, Mary. Thomas, believe. And then what do we say? Oh, my Lord and my God. By the way, Islam will always tell you that Jesus never said he was the son of God. Well, the word of God certainly says, and Jesus doesn't correct Thomas, does he? My Lord and my God. Yes, Thomas. but you believe because you have seen blessed are those who have not seen first Peter 1 even though you have not seen him you believe in him and you live out of faith for him he's working with you that you will receive the end the salvation of your souls and he will work through us as the body of Christ to bring people into the fold again in light of reading for this sermon and thinking about evangelism more, we're all thinking about it more. But one of the things of evangelism always is, should we do a business model? Should we do a sales model? Should we do seeker-friendly services? Should we have better music? Should we be more cool? Should we be less cool? But at the end of the day, it seems to me from this passage, he breathed on them, and he says, as the Father sends you, I send you. And He sends us into the world to be light of the world. And what is the light? Your good deeds, that you may shine as stars. We, you, are the evangelistic program of the kingdom of God. It's not that these programs don't necessarily help or hurt, but we need to understand that the Lord has planted you to bloom for Him, that He has lit your candle so that you will shine for Him. And whether that be inviting the children of the neighborhood through VBS, we need to be willing to be responsible, to be hospitable, to be kind, to be loving, knowing that this Jesus, who never really got frustrated with his own, and never rebuked his own, was patiently doing the work, calling us into the wonder and glory of his work. And in that work, we will find joy and wonder. And then you know what? There's not going to be enough time to do it all. Not for us, but for Jesus. And he will work with you and through you until your work here is done. And then soon, and very soon, we will all go to see the King. No, Mary, don't cling to me. Go, my brothers, Jesus says. Go, and as the Father sends you, so I send you. And Thomas, oh Thomas, put your fingers in my hands, put your hand in my side, my Lord and my God. Praise the ascended Jesus Christ to the glory of the Father, by the power of the Spirit, holy, holy, holy, amen.