Sermon Tone Analysis

! Introduction

            On my computer screen, I have a picture of the church the way it used to be.

Now, almost every day, I walk down to see how they are making progress and each week, Benny gives us an update and it is amazing to see the progress that is being made.

Think back a few months to the meeting we had when we decided to do the building project.

I always am amazed at the way things happen and come together and the huge changes that come.

We sit in a church meeting and that event and the decision we made there have caused something that is a huge upheaval and costs all kinds of money and creates a great impact.

One event - a quiet church meeting - has great implications for all kinds of people for months to come.

Thursday of this coming week we commemorate an event that also was quiet and perhaps even obscure, but has had major implications for millennia ever since.

Jesus stood with his disciples and taught them as He had done many times before.

All of a sudden a cloud came down and he was taken from their sight.

It seems like a small thing, a quiet thing, no big splash, but it is a great thing with huge implications.

We don’t celebrate ascension very often, perhaps because we see it as such a small thing, but we should.

Perhaps next year, we can have a service on ascension day instead of thinking about it on the Sunday before.

The event which happened is far too significant to miss.

Marva Dawn says, “Ascension Day is the perfect church holiday because the world can’t steal it.”

The world has stolen Christmas with Santa Claus and Easter with the Easter bunny.

But a Thursday celebration of an event that seems to hardly register on the calendar would not be stolen by them.

Not only would the world not be interested in it, it is also important to celebrate because of its great significance.

It is one of the main events in the life of Jesus which has to do directly with our life today.

At Christmas we celebrate that he came into the world.

But Christmas is past tense, he is not a baby any more.

At Easter we celebrate his death and resurrection.

Easter is past tense in the sense that Jesus isn’t on the cross or in the tomb or even on earth appearing to his disciples any more.

Ascension, however, is totally present tense because Jesus ascended to the Father and that is where He is now.

The Old Testament had prophesied that Jesus would ascend.

In Psalm 68:18 we read, “When you ascended on high, you led captives in your train; you received gifts from men, even from the rebellious— that you, O LORD God, might dwell there.”

Jesus also prophesied that he would ascend.

In debate with the religious leaders, he indicated that he would return to the Father.

In John 7:33 we read, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me.”

Later when he was encouraging his disciples just before he was crucified, he said in John 14:28, “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’”

There are two passages in the Bible which speak of the event of his ascension.

Many other passages speak of the reality of his being with the Father and also of the meaning of that event but only Luke 24:50 - 53 and in Acts 1:6-11 - 40 describe the actual event.

In Acts 1:6-11 which has the most detailed description, we learn that he was with his disciples.

These were his last words to them in which he told them that they should expect the coming of the Holy Spirit and that they would be empowered to witness for Jesus.

Then, he rose up from the earth and went up in a cloud.

As they stood and watched, two angels encouraged them that he would return.

Other passages in the Bible tell us that when he ascended, he went up to a position of authority in the presence of God.

In Ephesians 1:20, 21 we read, “God…seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.”

What does it mean to us today that Jesus ascended and is reigning in heaven?

!

I. Jesus Is Interceding For Us

            Why is it so significant and so amazing that Jesus ascended to the presence of God?

What is the presence of God like?

We have a number of Old Testament stories that tell us that the presence of God is an amazing, holy place.

It is light, it is purity it is perfection, it is unmarred by spiritual, moral or any other kind of pollution.

That holy presence was communicated when Israel was at the foot of Mount Sinai to receive the ten commandments.

God told them that anything that would touch the mountain would be immediately killed.

When God came down on the mountain and spoke to the people, he came down in a cloud to obscure his amazing presence.

When he spoke, his voice thundered and the purity, power and majesty of the voice so frightened the people that they could not stand it and asked that Moses would speak to them instead of God.

The holy presence of God was communicated when David decided to move the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem in order to give it a more permanent home.

The story is recorded in II Samuel 6.

They were not careful in the way that they moved the ark and instead of having priests carry it on foot as they had in the wilderness wanderings, they put it on an ox cart.

When the cart seemed about to tip, Uzzah, stretched out his hand to steady the ark and because he touched what he was not to touch, he was killed instantly.

The holiness of God, represented in the ark, was so great that even touching the representation of his presence resulted in death.

The holy presence of God was communicated in the vision of Isaiah who was privileged to have a glimpse into the throne room of God.

That glimpse so overwhelmed him when he saw the living creatures cry out “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty” that he recognized his sinfulness and said, “woe to me!

I am ruined.”

At the ascension, Jesus entered into that amazing presence.

He did so, not because he had a right to as the Son of God, but because He had completed the work of atonement.

Philippians 2 tells of his voluntary humbling.

One writer commenting on Philippians 2 says, “as a man, Jesus did not assert his God-ness, having laid that completely aside.”

But, “In the ascension, Jesus took up again the fullness of his God-self.”

Hebrews has much to say about this exaltation of Jesus.

It picks up on the Old Testament imagery and we read in Hebrews 9:12, “He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.”

What does this teach us?

It teaches us that unlike the Old Testament priests who had to offer sacrifices repeatedly, Jesus died once for all and because he obeyed God to the point of death and because his sacrifice was sufficient, he entered into the very holy presence of God.

That Jesus was able to do that is amazing when we consider that just a few days previously, he had cried, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.”

When Jesus hung on the cross, he had all of the sins of the world thrust upon him, yet just a short time later, he was acceptable in the most sinless, holy place that exists.

How could this be?

It is because He obtained redemption by his death on the cross and so earned the right to come into God’s holy presence.

Last Sunday, we talked about Job who was considered a man of integrity and who considered himself a man of integrity.

In his defence of himself, he often expressed a longing for an advocate.

In Job 31:35 we read, “Oh, that I had someone to hear me!” Job believed that he was a righteous man and wanted someone to listen to his plea.

He desired an advocate, a hearing with God.

How much more do we who are filled with sin need someone who will speak to God for us.

There is no hope unless we have an advocate in heaven.

The ascension is amazing because it tells us that Jesus is just that.

Jesus is the one who has entered into heaven, not just for his own sake, but He has gone into heaven on our behalf.

Hebrews 6:20 says, “Jesus…has entered on our behalf.”

Hebrews 9:24 indicates, “For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence.”

Romans 8:34 also indicates, “Who is he that condemns?

Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”

So here we have a most amazing implication of the ascension.

Jesus is in the holy presence of God on our behalf.

He is up there, right beside God and he is looking down at every one of us and saying to God - that one believes, I died for him, he is OK.(repeat)

It is not our goodness that makes us acceptable to God.

It is the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, his presence at the right hand of God as our advocate that allows us to live in freedom and peace because we have the advocate that Job so desperately wanted.

We have someone who represents us before God and promises us acceptance on the basis of his finished work.

So whenever we feel guilty, or not good enough, all we need to do is remember what Jesus has done and know that He is in God’s presence.

He is there not as our accuser, Satan is our accuser, Jesus is our defender, the one who declares us accepted before God.

That is why we have assurance of salvation, that is why we can walk in peace, that is why we can have confidence with God - all because of the ascension.

!

II.

Jesus Is With Us By The Holy Spirit

            One of the things which happens in many religions is that they need to make pilgrimages in order to come near to the gods, or to have a religious experience.

Hindus come from all parts of the country to visit pilgrimage sites.

There sacred sites to which pilgrimages are made in the four corners of India as well as in other places.

One of the five pillars of Islam is that Muslims who have the physical and financial ability should perform the pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca at least once in a lifetime.

The hajj is distinct from other pilgrimages.

It must take place during the 12th lunar month of the year, and it involves a set and detailed sequence of rituals that are practiced over the span of several days.

All of the pilgrimage rituals take place in the city of Mecca and its surroundings.

Even Jews speak about pilgrimages.