Ascension Day - 2 June 2011 |
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Today is Ascension Day, and next Sunday is Ascension Sunday, when we celebrate Jesus’ ascension into heaven and his enthronement at the right hand of God the Father (Acts 1:9). The significance of this day becomes clear if we recall a few things the Bible says about the enthronement of God’s King:
This King, the Lord Jesus Christ, has received from his Father not only wisdom and knowledge, but also riches, possessions and honour unlike any other king before or since. The angels worshipping around the heavenly throne are pretty impressive, but none of them has ever heard God the Father say, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,” or “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” All angels, authorities and powers have been subjected to him, for on his robe and on his thigh this name is written: King of kings and Lord of lords.
This King has remembered to be faithful to his people – to Abraham and his descendants. According to his promise, he will gather the lame and the afflicted and rule from Mount Zion over the house of Jacob forever.
Yet it is too small a thing for him simply to raise up the tribes of Jacob. He has become a light for all the nations, to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. He is the King of the world, and all nations will turn to him and be saved – after all, he alone is God, and there is no other. Every eye will see the salvation of our God.
All the kings of the earth will fall down before him; all nations will serve him; every kingdom will gather to worship him; the families of the peoples will ascribe to him glory and strength. As they finally grasp what so many of the rulers of our age have failed to understand, kings will rise up from their thrones and princes will bow down in his presence. They will gasp in awe as his dominion stretches unbounded from sea to sea, enduring as long as the sun; and as one by one the tribes and peoples remember and turn to him and worship before him and glorify his name. Who will not fear and glorify his name now that his righteousness has been revealed?
There will of course remain some who rage against him, taking their stand against the Lord and his Anointed One. But their plots are in vain, for his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom that will never be destroyed. Every kingdom opposed to him will be shattered into pieces; every nation that does not serve him will perish; every land that resists him shall be laid waste. All things have been placed under his feet, and one way or another all people will in the end serve him – either willingly or unwillingly – for the kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our God and of his Christ.
Yet in an unexpected twist of events, this King does not rule alone. He invites his people to rule with him. The kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken; our rule shall last for ever, and all dominions shall serve and obey us.
If you find that thought a little surprising, then cast your mind back: was it not from the mouths of babes and infants that he established strength? Didn’t he choose the foolish to shame the wise and the weak to shame the strong? Surely you can remember that motley crew of notorious sinners and semi-literate manual labourers whom he appointed as his disciples to testify before kings – and somehow they just knew what to say. And if that weren’t enough, remember that the best people to resolve disputes in the church are those regarded as “of little account,” and that one day all of us will judge angels.
In any case, the Kingdom is not established by might or by power, but by God’s Spirit, and the promise that we will inherit the world comes through the righteousness of faith. Don’t worry, because that same power by which Christ was raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of God in the heavenly places is also at work in us who believe. And by this power he is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine.
But don’t let all this go to your head. God doesn’t need your help, but your humility. He’s got a perfectly good throne in heaven, and an increasingly glorious footstool on earth – what kind of house could you build for him anyway? But this is the one to whom he will look: the one who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at his word.
And if we will but tremble before him, we might just catch the odd glimpse here and there of the ever-growing kingdom of our risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps we’ll hear people saying, “Come on, let’s go to the house of God, so that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” Perhaps we’ll see nations beating their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Perhaps we’ll watch as he fills the hungry with good things; as he defends the cause of the poor of the people; as he gives deliverance to the children of the needy. Our exalted King Jesus just loves to bring down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the humble. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, for he will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and uphold it with justice and righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.
We’ll see all this if we let the law sound forth from Zion, and the word of God from the New Jerusalem. We’ll see it if we set out to disciple the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We’ll see it if we teach others to observe everything he has commanded us, and if we ourselves remain committed to do the same. For though he is enthroned in heaven, he has not left us alone on earth. He is with us always, to the very end of the age.
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Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Minister's Blog