Behold You King - Ascension

[0:00] Please flip it open to Acts chapter 1. If not, don't worry, it's going to be up on the screen, and I'm going to be reading it out. But we're just going to read the account that Luke wrote of Jesus' ascension.

[0:30] I should say as well, if any of you need any water, there's a couple of bottles here, and we can get some for you.

[0:45] It's quite hot in here, isn't it? Acts chapter 1. In the first book, O 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.

[1:07] He presented Himself alive to them after His suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

[1:19] And while staying with them, He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said, You heard from Me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

[1:35] So when they had come together, they asked Him, Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

[2:04] 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?

[2:26] This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven. Amen. Lord Jesus, we know that You know that You are aware of everything that we are doing today.

[2:45] You are in Your rightful place, the right hand of God. And we are here today because of You and because of what You have done for us, Your suffering, Your death, Your resurrection, Your ascension, and because of Your faithful followers followers who are Your witnesses.

[3:07] Lord Jesus, we pray that we would be faithful to You today, that as we think about Your Word and talk, please help me to speak faithfully.

[3:21] Help us to think truly of You. Please help us by Your Spirit, we pray, both to speak and to understand.

[3:31] May You be glorified in our midst. Amen. Well, if I were to ask you which event in Jesus' life you know the most about and which you know the least about, what would it be if we were to pick four great events, His birth, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension?

[3:54] Putting the first event, that which you know most about and have heard taught the most, and then the last, that you know least about and have heard taught the least. How would you list these four events?

[4:08] The incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension. Probably for most of us, we probably know the most about the crucifixion. The Gospels are written towards His passion.

[4:23] Churches often use the line from Paul's letter to the Corinthians as a motto, we preach Christ crucified. I don't know if I've ever seen any churches with the motto, we preach the Word become flesh, but it's true.

[4:38] Or we preach Jesus resurrected. Never seen that motto, but it's true. Or we preach Christ ascended. The funny thing is, each of these things are also spoken about by Paul in that very same letter.

[4:52] For instance, chapter 15, Paul also says that Christ is preached as raised from the dead. There's a motto.

[5:05] And so, we do preach Christ crucified, but if that's all we do, we truncate the Gospel into that one thing. We miss so much of who Jesus is and what He does.

[5:17] So, it's inevitable. Any one of us are going to know more about one than the other, but we mustn't reduce the Gospel to just one of these events. In fact, separating them is artificial.

[5:30] Jesus' crucifixion is not the whole Gospel, although it's a vital part. It's artificial to separate any of these things into parts. And so, as much as you might like texts like John 3.16, John 3.16 is not the summary of the Gospel.

[5:45] It's a wonderful truth wonderful, something that we should proclaim on the mountaintops, but it's not the whole truth. On the other side, I'm guessing the ascension of Jesus is an event or doctrine we know the least about, or have heard the least about.

[6:02] One of the reasons that I can say that is both my own experience and also in the church calendar, the other three are very, very well remembered and taught.

[6:14] The ascension has fallen away. Not many Reformed or Protestant churches have an ascension day anymore. And so, it sounds Catholic, it sounds Anglican or high church, but it is a central Christian doctrine without which we have an incomplete view of Jesus.

[6:35] Really, without the ascension and understanding what it is, we have an incomplete view of Christ and we have a confused sense of what He is doing presently.

[6:47] Now, I will readily admit that I've really enjoyed studying this subject over many years, but there's still a lot that I have to learn and there's still a lot of things that I cannot quite grasp and there's still a lot of mystery.

[7:01] And so, doing this is not merely to fill gaps. It's not just to fill in some of the gaps in our theology, but for two particular reasons.

[7:13] I want to ensure that as Christians and as a church that we proclaim the ascended Christ. We proclaim the ascended Christ. And then secondly, simply just to help us think about and wrestle with the implications of that.

[7:27] So, here's a question. Does Jesus' ascension leave the church with an embarrassing problem? We preach about Christ, we talk about Christ, we tell people to come to Christ, but Christ is nowhere to be seen.

[7:42] Is that an embarrassing problem for the church? From our vantage point, it might seem like the head of the church is not around. Where on earth is Jesus?

[7:53] Well, He's not on earth. He's in heaven. Now, what does it mean to say that Christ is in heaven? Again, even in our culture, we have different ways of understanding what that means.

[8:09] It might sound just like another Christian way of talking about what happens after you die. Is that what's going on? Did Jesus just die and go to heaven because that's what you do?

[8:21] Is it playing into this kind of Greek Platonic view of heaven and spirituality? This Greek view of heaven was if we could only shake off the physical and material world, we would be free in heaven, in a spiritual world, free from all the problems of the physical material world.

[8:44] But that's a Greek way of thinking. That's not a biblical way of thinking. Is heaven an abstract place of disembodied spirits floating about among the clouds?

[8:55] It's not. But we struggle to think about what heaven might be like. You see, the problem with this view of heaven, which is a Greek Platonic view of heaven, is that when Jesus ascended, Jesus ascended with a very physical body.

[9:11] It wasn't merely his soul that went into heaven, nor did the disciples see a ghost after his death. He was raised with a new body, a very physical body, a body that was the first of its kind, and yet was incorruptible, immortal, and an eternal body that was not made for this world.

[9:30] In Luke 24, Jesus even had to eat a fish to prove that he was not a ghost. Luke, I am flesh and bones. Touch me, feel me, give me a fish and I'll eat it.

[9:41] Do ghosts eat fish? Do ghosts eat food? No, they do not. Luke 24, read it for yourself. And so, in Acts chapter 1, Luke writes that following the resurrection, he spent 40 days with his disciples, presenting himself alive by many proofs.

[10:03] Jesus not only ascended in a physical body, Jesus entered heaven in a physical, human body, albeit a new and glorified body, but physical and human.

[10:16] I'm sure most of us know this. But how often do we really stop to think about that? Do we realize that our views about heaven can at times be shaped by a culture that's more influenced by Greek philosophy than biblical theology?

[10:34] Just for a moment, think, what do you think heaven is like? What is heaven like? As we consider the ascension of Jesus, firstly, I want to say a little bit about where Jesus went, and then just a couple of things about why he went there.

[10:51] And so, where did Jesus go? Into heaven? What does that mean? Isaiah 66 says, the Lord says, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.

[11:02] What is this house that you would build for me? Talking about the temple. All these things, heaven and earth, my hand has made, says the Lord. And so, firstly, when we think about heaven, we shouldn't think about God and his infinite, eternal form outside of creation.

[11:23] Heaven is a created place. It is God's space, and earth is our space. But they were always supposed to overlap. Heaven is the place where God rules from, and earth is his footstool where he rules over.

[11:37] But they are both real places. We see from this that heaven and earth are in some way made to interact. Heaven and earth are made by God's hand, which is far superior to any earthly place.

[11:52] Bells Hill Baptist Church made by human hands. The temple, Jesus' disciples said to him, Look, Lord, look at that. Is that not magnificent? Made by human hands.

[12:06] What are you going to build for God when he made the heaven and earth with his own hand? So, the tabernacle, the temple, made with human hands. And that's important to remember that.

[12:19] There's a theological point in there. But heaven is not some abstract place void of any senses or feelings or physicality. It's just different.

[12:31] Surely it's more necessary for a throne to be physical and solid and real than it is for the footstool of a throne to be physical and real and solid.

[12:42] Heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool. We experience the footstool. It would be silly to think that the throne is less real, less physical, less solid.

[12:55] Do you see that? I'm not saying that this has to be taken literally. It's more about where God rules from and what God rules over. But still, it would be strange for the throne to be less real and more abstract than the footstool because the throne is more superior than the footstool.

[13:13] It would be rather presumptuous for us to think about this present experience in our earthly body is all that there is. This is not all that there is.

[13:26] We even know on earth that that is not true. For instance, in the animal kingdom, humans have three cones in their eye that we can see color with.

[13:38] Three cones. There are some creatures that have more than three cones that see more color than us. There are creatures that have less and see less color than us. For instance, a creature that only sees in black and white, does that mean that that is all the world is?

[13:56] We know that the world is made of color. So, we know that there's a range to the human experience that doesn't represent all that there is.

[14:08] For instance, we see all the colors of the rainbow, but we don't see all the colors of the rainbow because there are many things that we don't see. We don't see infrared. We don't see ultraviolet. In fact, when we were out looking at the aurora borealis, you can see this thing going on in the sky, but you can't quite see all the colors.

[14:31] But a camera can because a camera can take light in different ways than we can and can present it in ways. But even then, when you look at the photo afterwards, you're only seeing the colors that your cones allow you to see.

[14:44] You know, we're limited. We see a range. Our hearing, we have a range of hearing. There's some animals that hear more frequencies than we do. Children, children experience more frequencies than grown-ups do.

[15:01] You know, that's why we can put up with our squeals and shouts. And so, there's a range. We already have a sense of the invisible.

[15:14] Gravity. Gravity is the reason you're sitting in your seat right now. Gravity is the reason why you find it difficult to get out of bed in the morning. Gravity is a colossal power that holds the universe in order.

[15:28] Colossal power. We experience it every single day, yet we don't see it. We do not see it. So, we have this sense of things that are invisible, yet very real.

[15:40] Heaven's not so much a non-physical or immaterial place as it is another dimension. Now, atheists will think about there's no such thing as God, but they'll explore other dimensions and other worlds.

[15:56] It's not less real. Another dimension is not less real than this one. And we know that because these words that I've got printed out here are printed out in two dimensions.

[16:10] Two-dimensional world is like on paper. You can imagine a 2D world being shapes and lines and stuff like that.

[16:21] It's not less than a 3D world. Can you imagine if you were living in a 2D world of shapes, triangles, squares, lines, and you thought, this is all there is.

[16:33] And yet we know compared to a 2D world, a 3D world is miles more than what a 2D world is, is it not?

[16:45] Incredibly miles more. And if you were to have a 3D world interact with a 2D world, if you pushed a ball through a piece of paper, somebody living on that piece of paper would only see a circle getting bigger and smaller, but a different dimension.

[17:02] We already know these things. We know these things. So our dimension is three dimensions. Creation is made up of things that are visible and invisible.

[17:16] It's made up of different dimensions and different things. Colossians says that by Jesus all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

[17:30] And Jesus himself is the image of the invisible God. Jesus makes God visible to our eyes. Does that mean that we can see Jesus but God's invisible so he's not there or he's far off somewhere?

[17:44] Absolutely not. Jesus is God but he's visible to us. Some things are visible and it's not that God becomes more real when Jesus takes on flesh.

[17:57] He accommodates himself. He actually lowers himself to accommodate us in our 3D visible world. So, some things are visible, other things are hidden from our eyes.

[18:14] Sometimes throughout history, for some people in some instances, God has removed the veil, as it were. But more than that, God has so designed things in this world and the visible things to give us a picture of things that we cannot yet see.

[18:30] So, in Exodus, Moses ascends the mountain and is covered in a thick cloud and God shows him a pattern for the tabernacle. Now, we are still to go through this in Exodus but if you know the book of Exodus, you know that it's a lot of details, a lot of precise details about how the tabernacle should be set up.

[18:50] And it's very important God commands Moses to follow these precise instructions and don't deviate from them. Now, it's not because God is pedantic about details for the sake of it.

[19:01] It's not just because he's picky about how he likes things. It's because the tabernacle that Moses builds on earth is actually a copy of something that he has shown up the mountain.

[19:15] God shows him something and says, do it precisely like that? And so, in Hebrews, the book of Hebrews talks about this. Hebrews 8, it says that every high priest was appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices.

[19:29] They serve as a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to build the tabernacle, he was instructed by God saying, see that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.

[19:45] Likewise, in Hebrews chapter 9, it says, it was necessary for the copy of heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

[19:59] For Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands. Where are the holy places made with hands? That's the temple, which are copies of the true things.

[20:10] But Christ entered into heaven itself, the true thing, the thing that the temple is modeled after in order that he would appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

[20:21] Things on earth, like the tabernacle and the temple, were copies of something not less real but something far more real, something more original, something more true and heavenly.

[20:35] Moses then ascending into the mountain, being covered in a cloud, approaching God on behalf of the people, is a preview of Jesus ascending into heaven, into the true temple as the true high priest to approach God on our behalf.

[20:50] So the temple, the holy place, the holy of holies was not the real thing. It was very real, but it was not the real thing. Now think about this.

[21:01] Have you ever heard or seen a reenactment of something, maybe a war thing or a reenactment? A reenactment is an enactment of something that happened.

[21:13] These things in the Old Testament and these physical places were as such a preenactment, a preenactment of something that Jesus would do in somewhere that is far more real that these things were just a copy of.

[21:28] The true holy place is not on earth. The true sacrifice is not an animal. And Hebrews 10.4 says, it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

[21:41] All these things were preenactments. Now take a moment to think about that. How something as real and solid and magnificent as the temple was just a copy, a copy of something that was more real, something true.

[21:58] Think about how things made with human hands are actually copies of things made with God's hands. One of these days, these things will be visible to us.

[22:10] One of these days, it will be experienced and be very, very real. And it will be like waking up from a dream. As I said, we looked into the sky the other night and saw the northern lights.

[22:25] Strange phenomena right above my house, something you rarely see. More than that, my eyes couldn't even detect all that was going on above me.

[22:35] My camera could capture some of that, but it was fascinating to see what was happening above my head without really seeing all of what was happening above my head.

[22:48] And so, even today, in this very moment, 11.38 on a Sunday, there are things above and around us that are happening that we are completely unaware of.

[23:02] One day, they will break in and we will see them. It's only a matter of time. And so, the place where Jesus went is somewhere more real than we can imagine.

[23:12] And he went there for a good reason, a reason that should bring us confidence and joy. And while we cannot see the reality of that place right now when he returns, he's going to return in the same way that he left.

[23:24] And so, I just want to move on to just two reasons why he had to go there and not remain here. Just two reasons. If you're like me, perhaps, you think at times it might be easier to have Jesus with us.

[23:37] I think in some ways it would strengthen my faith and that is just my weak human thinking. I think God knows actually what would strengthen my faith. But me and my weakness, I think if I saw Jesus, it would strengthen my faith.

[23:52] We can read the Gospels and know that that's not true. Many people saw him. But sometimes we think like that. Wouldn't it be terrific? I just think it would be terrific to see Jesus.

[24:05] It would be terrific. So maybe you think like that. How amazing to be with him, to walk with him, just have, to have him as our pastor instead of me.

[24:16] I mean, all of you can say amen to that. To just sit in a church where Jesus is the pastor, everything would be great. Except we've read the Gospels.

[24:27] We know that's not true. We know that people are going to be people. But I certainly think it would be great just to sit under Jesus. And part of the way to do that is sitting under his word.

[24:38] But one day, one day the great shepherd will appear. But in actual fact, you know, what we do, it would be great to bring people to Jesus and say, there he is.

[24:52] But what we do when we bring people to Jesus in the way that we do it just now, it's only a matter of time. because we are bringing them to Jesus until we see him.

[25:04] And so, I just want to give us two reasons. But before I give us two reasons, a quick and very imperfect illustration to help us understand this. Now, think of the presidency in the United States.

[25:15] And think of, prior to the presidency, there is this campaign where people are running for the office. Right? There's different candidates running for office. Now, if you imagine the campaign staff, right, the campaign staff spend time with the candidate and they work together to campaign, as it were, to help him run for office.

[25:40] And they are spending time with him, they are doing work with him, they are up close and personal. But at some point, when he becomes president, he needs to take office.

[25:51] He needs to move into the White House and get to work. It's not that he's withdrawing. He withdraws from the general public, but he doesn't withdraw to just go off and disappear and rest.

[26:04] He withdraws to take his position and to run the country from there. Imperfect, I know. Prior to Jesus' ascension, his disciples experienced him like they were on campaign with him.

[26:18] But when the time came, Jesus had to take office. He had to take office. He didn't ascend because he needed a rest while the Holy Spirit takes over.

[26:30] That's not true. He ascended to take office. His work on the cross may be finished, but he's still working. He's ruling. He's subjecting. He's advocating and much more.

[26:42] He left the earth, but not to hide. He didn't leave the earth to hide from humans. The earth is just the footstool. He left to go to the throne, to take office in heaven.

[26:55] He must take office. Peter says this in Acts chapter 3. Peter says, heaven must receive him until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

[27:08] Heaven must receive him. So the first reason thinking about that, he must take office, the first reason is that the sacrifice made at Passover must be taken into the holy place.

[27:21] And we know from Hebrews, we know that the temple was just a copy. He must take the sacrifice into the most holy place. Jesus is the true spotless Passover lamb, and Jesus' crucifixion fulfills Passover, but his ascension fulfills the day of atonement.

[27:41] And that was the one day of the year that only one person could enter the holy of holies. Just the high priest could enter one day a year. And before entering, he had to make an offering for his own sin.

[27:54] And then he would take the offering for the sins of the people. And tradition says that he would go in with a rope tied around his waist. Because if he dies when he's in there, nobody's going in after him.

[28:05] But they'll pull him out. And so the sacrifice needs to be taken into the holy place. So the book of Hebrews tells us that Christ is a greater high priest for many reasons.

[28:17] Many reasons. Firstly, he doesn't need to atone for his own sins. He is sinless. Secondly, he doesn't need to offer the blood of animals, but he offers his own blood without blemish through the eternal spirit.

[28:32] Thirdly, he doesn't enter a copy of the holy place, the temple, but he enters heaven itself, and he was the only one who could. Fourthly, unlike the priests who had to offer sacrifices repeatedly every year, he offers one for all time.

[28:48] Fifthly, unlike the priests who were prevented from continuing their office because they died, Jesus, the one who conquered death, holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

[29:02] And sixthly, he's the only one worthy and able to approach God on our behalf because he himself is the Son of God. So he's a greater high priest and he must take office.

[29:15] It would be wrong for him to remain on earth. He must take office. Jesus said to his disciples in the upper room, it is to your advantage that I go because if he stayed, there would be no atonement.

[29:28] It's not just that he dies on the cross. It needs to be taken into the most holy place. So he takes office as our high priest. He must enter the true holy place.

[29:40] He must appear before God on our behalf. The ascension into heaven is necessary not just for him but for us. And because of this, because he did this, because he is where he is, we are able to draw near with confidence.

[29:59] If he was not there, we would not be able to draw near with confidence because he always lives to make intercession for us. He's standing before the Father pleading your case and my case.

[30:15] It's good that he ascended into heaven for he went where no human could go and to the true holy place before God. He went not with the blood of animals but presenting himself as an offering for our sins.

[30:27] And to this day, at this very moment, he is pleading your case before God. And he's not pleading as a servant but he's pleading as a son before his Father in heaven. The second reason is that Jesus is Lord.

[30:41] He is the Messiah. He is the true and promised King. And so, our series, this is the last of it, Behold Your King. Interestingly, the writer of Hebrews points to a chap called Melchizedek because Israel, Israel never had a priest serving as king or a king serving as priest.

[31:03] These offices were separated. And the true king would come from Judah and the priest would come from Levi. But there was a priest and a king who was before that system and his name was Melchizedek.

[31:21] He was the king of Salem and the priest of the Most High. This dual role is referenced in the very psalm, the very psalm that is the most quoted psalm in the New Testament.

[31:35] Does anyone know what the most quoted psalm in the New Testament is? Psalm 110. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

[31:47] It's an ascension psalm. The Lord said to my Lord, the most quoted psalm in the New Testament is about his ascension, funnily enough. And verse 4 of that psalm says this, The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

[32:08] He is a king and a priest at the same time. Jesus must take office as a priest in heaven. He also must take his office as heaven's king. Not only heaven, but to rule from heaven over the entire cosmos.

[32:23] He's not stopped working since Calvary. He is not just trying to hide. He must take office. And so Paul, a former enemy of Jesus, said in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

[32:38] And Peter says in 1 Peter 3, Jesus Christ has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

[32:49] So when you went to sleep last night, Jesus was subjecting his enemies. And when you woke up this morning, Jesus was reigning over the heaven and the earth.

[33:04] And even now, at this very moment, there is no corner of the cosmos that Jesus is not sovereign over. He is completely sovereign. Although we can look around and we can see in this world that people do not regard his rule, we can look around and see that people do not acknowledge his sovereignty, that doesn't make it any less true.

[33:28] Jesus is patient. One day, every eye will see and one day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Jesus is patient.

[33:42] The gospel is a gospel of peace, offering people terms of peace before the king comes and takes over and rule. So this is our king.

[33:53] He must take office. He must enter his glory. Even after he was raised, he hadn't yet entered his glory. The forty days that he spent with the disciples, he hadn't yet ascended.

[34:05] But after his ascension, he was different. Paul, on the road to Emmaus, saw a glorious and terrifying vision of Christ. And even John, his closest friend, when he saw Jesus in his glorified state, he fell down as though dead.

[34:22] Jesus is the glorious king of heaven and earth. And he himself said in Luke 19, he told his disciples that his going away was that he would go to receive a kingdom, but he was coming back.

[34:33] So finally, there's more that we could say. We can never get to the end of it. But I want to leave us just with a picture of his ascension from the other side.

[34:46] And then leave us with a question. So quite often, we think of his ascension as just being these couple of verses that say, Jesus went up and went into a cloud. He went up and went into a cloud.

[35:00] It seems anticlimactic. But there is a vision from the other side of that cloud that I want to explore right now, just by reading two portions of Scripture to get a sense of Jesus' ascension as it really was.

[35:16] And we'll see the details of his ascension, not just from the disciples' perspective, but from heaven's perspective. On the clouds of heaven he went, on the clouds of heaven he will come.

[35:31] Just as he said in his trial, when he was asked if he was the Christ, the Son of God, he said, I am. And from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the power of God and coming on the clouds of heaven.

[35:46] But before he comes back on the clouds of heaven, he went into heaven on the clouds. And at his ascension, we are yet to do this, but at his ascension, all of heaven beheld their King.

[36:00] And what a magnificent experience it would have been. And we get a glimpse of that. One day we will behold him in all his glory. But here's a glimpse. Here's a glimpse of his ascension when he came through the clouds and entered into heaven.

[36:15] We're going to turn to Psalm 24. Psalm 24 is an ascension psalm. Psalm 24 says, Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?

[36:26] Who can do it? Who shall stand in his holy place? And then we see a picture of his ascension. Lift up your heads, O gates.

[36:38] Lift up your heads and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

[36:50] Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? Who is this King? He is the Lord of hosts.

[37:02] He is the King of glory. Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This is the reception Jesus received as the King of glory. And then we turn to Daniel chapter 7.

[37:15] Daniel chapter 7. Daniel sees the ascension from heaven's perspective. Behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man. And he came right up to the Ancient of Days.

[37:30] And he was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people's nations and languages should serve him. And his dominions and everlasting dominion which shall not pass away.

[37:44] And his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. The Son of Man who approached the Ancient of Days. Who is he? He is Jesus Christ, our Lord. What an awesome sight.

[37:56] That's where Jesus is. That's what he is doing. Heaven must receive him. He must take his office. He's the only high priest and the true King of kings. And so finally, I want to leave you with a question.

[38:09] And that's it. Let's ponder together because I'm pondering this hard. I was thinking about this hard this week. Just as heaven must receive him, have you received him?

[38:22] And if you have, then a question I think we should press into. In Luke's gospel, at the end of Luke's gospel, after Jesus ascended, his disciples returned with great joy.

[38:36] Now that's a different story from John chapter 14, 15, and 16. Why did they have great joy that Jesus ascended?

[38:47] And my question, really, do you have great joy that Jesus is there and not here? Do you have great joy?

[38:59] And I've been asking myself hard this week, have I got great joy that Jesus is where he is? When people ask me about Jesus and I can't point to him, and I can't show them him, do I have great joy that Jesus is where he is?

[39:13] And if I don't, I'm praying to Jesus to help me understand something the disciples understood, to have something of that great joy. Because we think that if he was here, we would have a more intimate relationship, but no, when he went, he sent his Spirit.

[39:29] And we have access to him far greater than we expect. Do you have great joy that Jesus is where he is? Let us pray that we would understand what they understood in order to give them great joy.

[39:45] joy. And that we would know that he is where he is to prepare a place for us. Not so that he could be with us where we are, but so that we could be with him where he is.

[40:01] Let us press into that joy. Let us press into that joy. Let me pray. Oh, Lord, what magnificent things that we have heard from your Word, and only by your Spirit could we ever understand them.

[40:19] so please, Lord, by your Spirit that you have sent to us, please, by your Spirit that you have sent into the world, would you help us to understand these things. Help us to understand truly who you are and where you are and what you are doing, and help us to have great joy at that, knowing who you are and knowing who we are in you.

[40:43] Lord, we thank you that you are now glorified and we praise you. Amen. Amen. Let us sing.