[0:00] And we pray this in His name. Amen. And we're going to read together a couple of short passages, both from the New Testament.
[0:11] First, the book of Acts, chapter 1, page 1092, if you're using a church Bible. Acts, chapter 1, we're going to read the first 11 verses, and then after that we'll go to Philippians, chapter 2.
[0:24] So this is Acts, chapter 1, and this is God's Word. In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day He was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles He had chosen.
[0:42] After His suffering, He presented Himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
[0:54] On one occasion, while He was eating with them, He gave them this command, Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift My Father promised, which you have heard Me speak about.
[1:04] For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Then they gathered round Him and asked Him, Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?
[1:16] He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
[1:33] After He had said this, He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.
[1:47] Men of Galilee, they said, Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.
[2:00] And then in Philippians chapter 2, it's wonderfully rich theology to address a really practical need within the church in all times and places.
[2:18] So Philippians 2, it's on page 1179. We're going to read from verse 5 to 11. Listen, Amen.
[2:56] So we're going to return to the ideas within those texts.
[3:23] in just a few moments. But first, we're going to sing a hymn that we've learned in the last few months, Hail to the Lord's Anointed, which again reminds us of the position Jesus has in heaven.
[3:37] So again, let's stand together to sing. Hail to the Lord's Anointed, His reign on earth begun He comes to break oppression To set the captives free To take away transgressions And rule in equity He comes and succors speedy
[4:37] To those who suffer wrong To help the poor and leading And build the weakly strong To give them songs for sight Their darkness turned to light Her soul's condemned and lying Were precious in His sight We shall come down like showers Upon the fruitful earth Of joy and hope like flowers Spring in His path to birth Before Him on the mountains Shall peace the herald come
[5:39] And righteousness in fountains From hill to valley flow Kings shall fall down before Him And gold and incense spring All nations shall adore Him His praise all people sing To Him shall prayer unceasing And daily vows ascend His kingdom still increasing A kingdom without end For every foe victorious He on His throne shall rest From age to age for glorious
[6:42] A blessing and a bless The tide of time shall never His covenant remove His name shall stand forever The name to us is life The name to us is life The name to us is life The name to us is life The name to us is life And now we're going to turn to Psalm 24 on page 555 If you're using the church Bible As we're working our way through The Apostles' Creed The Apostles' Creed We get to consider this evening Jesus as the exalted King of glory The one spoken of in anticipation here Psalm 24
[7:43] The earth is the Lord's and everything in it The world and all who live in it For He founded it on the seas And established it on the waters Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord Who may stand in His holy place The one who has clean hands and a pure heart Who does not trust in an idol Or swear by a false God They will receive blessing from the Lord And vindication from God their Saviour Such is the generation of those who seek Him Who seek your face, God of Jacob Lift up your heads, you gates Be lifted up, you ancient doors That the King of glory may come in Who is this King of glory?
[8:31] The Lord strong and mighty The Lord mighty in battle Lift up your heads, you gates Lift them up, you ancient doors That the King of glory may come in Who is He?
[8:49] This King of glory The Lord Almighty He is the King of glory Amen Let's begin with the crowning of the King I don't know how many of us watched King Charles' coronation But if you can cast your mind back a little You might remember that in Westminster Abbey, at a certain point in the coronation ceremony A question is asked It goes something like this I present to you your undoubted King Will you do him homage?
[9:32] You give him homage You give him honour And the response of the Abbey at that point Triumphant cheers of a saint Well the great theme of the Bible Is that the Old Testament and the New Testament Are presenting to us Jesus as God's Messiah King And so the key question then for our lives Is if this is God's King And that's undoubted Do we honour Him?
[10:05] To use the language of Psalm 2 We are called to kiss the Son To use the language of Philippians 2 To gladly bow And for our tongues to confess that Jesus is Lord So we're working through the ideas of the Apostles' Creed And this one deals with Christ ascending and taking the throne of heaven as the exalted King We believe He ascended into heaven And is seated at the right hand of God the Father Jesus is King of heaven Today Jesus is King of heaven Why does that matter?
[10:40] Why is this truth important? How does it help faith? Why does it matter that in the Psalms We have this reality of God's King being praised And everyone being called and commanded to honour Him?
[10:54] Why does it matter that in the book of Revelation We have the songs of heaven praising the Lamb who sits upon the throne, our King Jesus? How can it be, think of it slightly differently, that Jesus in John chapter 16 will say to His anxious disciples Knowing He's about to leave, to die, to rise, to ascend to heaven How can He say it's for your good that I am going away?
[11:21] How can separation from the Lord Jesus be good news? Well, only if He ascends the throne of heaven So two simple questions as we think about this One, where is Jesus now?
[11:35] Secondly, what is Jesus doing now? Simple questions with profound answers Where is Jesus now then? First question If we were to ask the New Testament, ask Jesus Himself The answer is clear If we read when He was on trial You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the mighty one Matthew chapter 26 verse 64 In Acts chapter 1, what did we just read of?
[12:03] We read of the disciples witnessing the ascension Jesus being taken up And Peter is one of those eyewitnesses In Acts chapter 2, as he preaches at Pentecost Will declare, Jesus is now exalted to the right hand of God And so the clear testimony of the New Testament is Jesus ascended, exalted to the right hand of God He's ascended to heaven The place where God dwells The place where God's will is always done The control center of the universe Jesus goes up To sit upon the throne To take the right hand of the Father The place of power and authority So that tonight we can understand And begin to marvel at the fact that The physical, risen, glorified Jesus A man of a certain height A man of a certain weight Physically sits on the throne of the universe The kingdom of the universe
[13:04] Is king over this world Is king over his church Is lord and king over us all I want us to think about Psalm 24 To think about how it speaks to us of Jesus The king of glory And to think about how that fits into the story of the Bible Psalm 24 When it was originally composed and used Was likely sung when the ark of God Representing God's throne, God's rule When the ark was taken up to Jerusalem To be seated in the tabernacle And also it seems most likely that Psalm 24 Would be sung whenever the ark of God Returned to Jerusalem after God and his armies Had won a victory in battle So the ark would be carried up the hill to Jerusalem The ark symbolizing God the king of glory Returning home and he is welcomed
[14:08] And he is worshipped by his people That's the picture we have in Psalm 24 When we sing it, and we'll sing it And as we close, we'll sing And we do sing, New Testament believers Sing to Jesus, the ascended, the exalted king of glory And so what we're going to do is We're going to think about it briefly In its original setting And then we're going to see how it applies to Christ So if you have your Bible, Psalm 24 Look at the first two verses there The earth is the Lord's and everything in it The world and all who live in it So there's where we begin God is creator, God is owner of everything He founded it on the seas The seas, pictures of chaos and trouble He brings order out of chaos When he creates this world that he now owns God is the creator Then there's this interesting turn In the next few verses That follow logically God is the goal
[15:10] God is the goal of life And that's introduced by way of tension Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord Who may stand in his holy place Entering into God's presence Was the great hope and the promise That God offered to his people How might we enjoy life with him?
[15:32] It's the great promise The great goal of the covenant God with his people That's why he redeemed Israel from Egypt That's why he calls his people out To be a holy people That we might enjoy life and fellowship with him That's the great promise But then there's also that great tension Well, who may ascend?
[15:56] Did we hear the answer in verse 4? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart Who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god Who is clean?
[16:10] Who has that pure heart? Who has that undivided and true worship? And of course an honest look at ourselves A look through the Bible reveals Well, that wasn't true of Adam The first man though He was given this wonderful garden to live in And he enjoyed life with God And he was made sinless and perfect He didn't stay clean and pure It wasn't true for the nation of Israel They often turned away from God into impurity And very much divided worship It wasn't true of David The great king The king after God's own heart He certainly wasn't always clean and pure and true Nor is it true of us But there's a wonderful As much as there's great tension There's also great grace There's also great grace Introduced When we remember in the storyline of the Bible That God provided a way
[17:12] For sinful people to be made clean To be washed from sin And in particular God established the priesthood The priests So we can think for example About the Day of Atonement If you want to read about the Day of Atonement Leviticus chapter 16 Well on that day In that chapter we discover lots of things That there was one day per year Where the high priest could enter into God's presence Into the Holy of Holies And we'll think about why that mattered But before that happened Before he entered There were a certain number of things that happened First of all we see the high priest standing before the people Because the job of the high priest was to represent God's people before the Holy God So he is the representative of his people But he's also the mediator Standing between a Holy God and sinful people
[18:14] And to enter into God's presence The priest couldn't just wander in as he was There were certain things that needed to be done He needed to cleanse himself Even the most holy person in Israel was not in and of themselves clean So he needed to cleanse himself He needed to put on his special clothing The high priest's garments Which included that wonderful imagery of the breastplate containing the names of the twelve people The priest would bear the names of the people on his heart As he went into God's presence Sacrifice would have to be offered for himself and for the people Blood must be sprinkled And then and only then could he go in and intercede for mercy and for forgiveness And so the point of the priesthood, the point of the tension of our psalm is clear That to reach the goal, the goal of life with God, we need to be washed We need to be cleansed
[19:31] And that from the inside out It's not just about our hands, our actions We need a pure heart also Well having said that, verse 7 to 10 says to us Not only is God created and goal, God is also the king So we've been following in Luke chapter 19 in the mornings Jesus on this procession up to Jerusalem And we've been getting that sense of excitement that goes with that Well imagine a different scene Imagine the ark of God being carried in joyful procession The priests and the Levites leading the way Nearing the city of Jerusalem Great victory has been won Worship breaks out As the ark approaches, there's this call and response Who is the king of glory?
[20:20] The Lord is The Lord strong and mighty There's joy There's joy in Jerusalem Why? Because it's another evidence for them that the Lord is for us The God who created is the God who has entered into covenant The covenant is the God who has been fighting for his people Who's been protecting his people And not just the Lord is for us, the Lord is with us Ruling from the ark Ruling in the tabernacle and the temple God with his people The goal of the covenant The goal of life The king who goes up To be the centre of authority and worship Is the Lord God Now let's think about how we sing this about Jesus Another psalm that we sang, Psalm 110
[21:27] Anticipated the truth that the Messiah king Would be a priest king In the order of Melchizedek The only person we meet in the Bible who is both priest and king The book of Hebrews says that's fulfilled in Jesus We have this need of a priest who will wash us And a king who will rule for us Jesus is first of all our great high priest He represents us That's the significance of him becoming fully and truly human That's the significance of the incarnation If Jesus didn't become truly human He couldn't truly represent us before God So he represents us perfectly He's also the perfect mediator The perfect person to represent God to man and man to God Because he is truly God and truly human When we think about the clothing that the high priest put on
[22:30] Jesus our great high priest The clothing he put on Bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh Becoming one of us Making his dwelling among us And this great high priest he too wears his people on his heart He loves his people, he loves his church The sacrifice that Jesus offered Not an animal for cleansing He offers himself The great high priest offers himself As the great once and for all sacrifice So that we are washed by his blood And Jesus our great high priest He too intercedes Not just for a time But as Hebrews 7.25 tells us He always lives To make intercession for us He is always pleading our case On the basis of his merits
[23:31] On the basis of his completed sacrifice That question Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord Who may enter his holy place There is one It's Jesus Son of God And because he is pure Because he is clean And because he has acted for us We can come Enter in He is our great high priest But Jesus is also Represented to us in the Bible As our great king He has ascended And taken the throne of heaven And just as here There is praise offered To the Lord strong and mighty The Lord mighty in battle Praise belongs to Jesus Because he has gone To take the throne of heaven Having won a decisive victory In a great spiritual battle We read in Philippians 2
[24:34] That Jesus humbled himself To become one of us He humbled himself To the point of dying on the cross for us And then did you notice Philippians 2 said Therefore Because Jesus was obedient to death Because Jesus went into and won The decisive spiritual battle Therefore he is exalted He is exalted He is exalted because he was victorious Victorious over Satan And sin And death For the sake of his church He is exalted He is exalted having completed His atoning work on the cross So that moment of Jesus' life Where he knew humiliation Leaving the glory of heaven Becoming truly human Knowing humiliation Knowing humiliation Going to the point of death On the cross Now there is that upward curve Now ascended And exalted Now they sing of him in heaven
[25:36] Revelation 5 verses 9 and 10 There is loads of songs in Revelation Whenever there is a new era of salvation God's people sing Well here is a song from heaven Revelation 5 verse 9 You are worthy You are worthy To take the scroll And to open its seals Because you were slain And with your blood You purchased for God Persons from every tribe And language And people and nation You have made them to be a kingdom And priests To serve our God And they will reign on the earth This exalted king The exalted king Is welcomed with joy Into heaven Acknowledged as the one Who has won the decisive victory So that now the goal of your life and mine Is to worship this exalted king To worship Jesus The exalted king of glory To enter into and to enjoy Life with God
[26:38] Just like a royal procession Where we are to enter into the presence of God Just like a royal procession Where we are to enter into the presence of God Because we follow after and we are united to Jesus Our great priest king So that is our first question Where is Jesus now?
[27:03] He is the king on the throne of heaven He is the king on the throne of heaven Our second question What is Jesus doing now? It is also a very important question In Matthew 28 We have what is known as the great commission So this is just before Jesus ascends to heaven And there is many things But there is two truths to think about Jesus said At the very end I am with you always To the very end of the age That wonderful promise That great truth For his people So that we know In reality As Christians Jesus is with us That is always a precious truth For the church In every age In every place But there is one thing That we might Be more likely to overlook Jesus begins the great commission Recognizing I have all authority He speaks to us As one who has authority As king Jesus is with us
[28:07] God with us Jesus is king For us Something sometimes we overlook That right now The same Jesus That the women and the disciples saw On Easter Sunday Is the Jesus who sits physically On the throne of heaven As king So that our risen saviour Our physical glorified saviour Is our physically risen glorified exalted king And our faith actually needs that connection I think Let me suggest four reasons why The first reason is It reminds us Right basically That Jesus our king Is ruling Remember Philippians 2 King Jesus is seated in glory Every knee should bow And every tongue should confess That Jesus is Lord Because His atoning work is finished Because The penalty has been paid
[29:09] Because the price has been paid in full And that matters for us When we think about Jesus Seated on the throne of heaven Our king and our saviour If our faith is in him We don't need to fear the future Because Jesus reigns Having won the victory Over sin and death We see the connection We sing of it sometimes In Christ alone No power of hell No scheme of man Can ever pluck me from his hand For yet not I But through Christ in me No fear I dread I know I am forgiven The future sure Why?
[29:50] Because the price that has been paid So we can live with hope Because a king seated on a throne Is a sign that his work has been accomplished We can also live with hope for the future As we recognise Jesus the light of the world has come The light has broken in The light of Jesus glory has shone Sometimes it can seem like Just a crack of light under the door You know when you are in your room at night And maybe the hall light is on And you see that little strip of light But you know You open the door And the light is going to break in We understand that in this world There is still so much darkness Sometimes it can seem hard to recognise And comprehend the rule of Christ But to read the New Testament We understand that the writers were confident Because Jesus has risen from the dead Because he has ascended to heaven
[30:53] Because he is seated on the throne One day the light will fully dawn And we are invited to live with that same confidence Even as life can seem hard and dark The glory of King Jesus will shine fully and brightly His kingdom will come His eternal kingdom will come And because Jesus our King is ruling We can also live with security As we serve Remember Colossians chapter 3 Colossians chapter 3 We have that invitation To set our hearts On things above Where Christ is To set our minds on the earth To set our minds on things above To recognise that we have died to sin And we now have a life that is hidden with Christ in God So we have eternal security
[31:56] Our life is hidden with Christ in God And that changes the way we approach life Or it can and it should It's going to help us to be ready to surrender our plans and priorities It's going to help us to be ready to suffer for Him Because we know He reigns And we know He is worthy And we know He's got us The King of kings and the King of glory So there's the first, what is Jesus doing now?
[32:28] He is ruling Second thing we can say about what Jesus is doing right now Jesus our priest king is interceding Back to Hebrews 7 verse 25 He is able to save completely Those who come to Him Because He ever lives to intercede for them See the connection there?
[32:53] Our confidence of future salvation Rests in our confidence that Jesus is never going to stop Being the high priest that we need Our confidence to enter and to enjoy God's presence Never rests in ourselves It always rests in Jesus and His finished work And His ongoing work His ongoing work of praying for us and pleading our cause So that we understand that His is the hand that opens the door His is the hand that welcomes us in Our security, our assurance rests entirely In Christ alone Christ our priest king who is interceding If our security was to be found in our circumstances If our security was to be found in our circumstances Be very fragile We'd have despair
[33:58] If we don't get the job Or if our health fails us Or if everything seems to fall apart If our security was found in our obedience We'll be on that rollercoaster ride of pride when things go well And utter despair when things go badly But when our assurance rests In Jesus When we look up and we see Jesus on the throne Praying for us Present Himself to the Father as the basis for our acceptance That's unshakable confidence That's humble, unshakable confidence and joy That rests entirely in the truth About Jesus, the exalted king interceding for us What else is Jesus doing now?
[34:51] Jesus, our priest king, is also sending help In Hebrews chapter 4 verses 15 and 16 We're introduced to Jesus, our sympathetic high priest We do not have a high priest who's unable to feel sympathy for our weaknesses But we have one who's been tempted in every way Just as we are, yet he did not sin Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence So that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need Jesus has been tempted in every way But never gave in And never sinned And the wonderful thing is that Jesus wasn't A superman Whose life is entirely different to ours How does Jesus do His ministry?
[35:45] How does Jesus do His ministry? What does the Bible say? How does Jesus do His ministry? He does His ministry in the power of the Spirit How does Jesus live to the Father's glory?
[35:59] He lives to the Father's glory in the power of the Spirit How does Jesus resist temptation? Not because He floats above the ground and is separate from temptation No, He resists real and fierce temptation by the Word of God And the wonderful thing Is that those same resources, the Spirit and the Word Are the resources our ruling King sends to us Our ruling King He rules over us by His Word By His Spirit Our gracious King supplies His Word Supplies the Spirit So we can say no to sin And we can say yes To living obedient, faith-filled lives Our King supplies from heaven From the throne of heaven What we need to live lives of worship We're not left to our own resources To our own grit and determination
[37:02] We're given His presence, His Word And His Spirit There's another thing Jesus is doing now What else is Jesus doing now? Jesus our King Is preparing a home for us I love John 14 Again, Jesus wanting to comfort and minister to troubled disciples Knowing He was about to depart for the cross And there in verse 2 He says, My Father's house has many rooms If that were not so Would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you And if I go and prepare a place for you I'll come back And take you to be with me And I also be where I am The preparation of Jesus Included His going to the cross To pay the penalty for our sin Included His resurrection Included His ascension Includes His ruling from the throne of heaven
[38:06] And having secured this victory over sin and death We have this wonderful promise That our victorious and glorious King He's preparing a home He's preparing an eternal Sabbath rest He's preparing for us to be with Him forever He is preparing to return to make everything new Including His people That's where we're going to be next week But think about that Right now, Jesus, our King who sits on the throne He's preparing a home for us Jesus is the King of glory The Bible records Him ascending to heaven Taking the throne of glory The coronation moment has taken place And God is asking a question of us in His word Jesus Christ is the undoubted King of heaven Will you and I pay Him homage?
[39:07] Do we welcome Him? Will you and I pay Him homage? Do we welcome Him as our King? The one who has gained for us a welcome into life with God The promise of welcome into God's presence Do we serve Him as our King?
[39:32] This one who has served us by His sacrifice This one who serves us by His prayers