I Believe That Because He Can Fly, I Can Fly Too

5.16.21 Ephesians 4:7–16

7 But to each one of us grace was given, according to the measure of the gift from Christ. 8 That is why it says, “When he ascended on high, he took captivity captive and gave gifts to his people.” 9 Now what does it mean when it says “he ascended,” other than that he also had descended to the lower parts, namely, the earth? 10 He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things. 11 He himself gave the apostles, as well as the prophets, as well as the evangelists, as well as the pastors and teachers, 12 for the purpose of training the saints for the work of serving, in order to build up the body of Christ. 13 This is to continue until we all reach unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God, resulting in a mature man with a stature reaching to the measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 The goal is that we would no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, when people use tricks and invent clever ways to lead us astray. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we would in all things grow up into Christ, who is the head. 16 From him the whole body, being joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows in accordance with Christ’s activity when he measured out each individual part. He causes the growth of the body so that it builds itself up in love.

It won’t be too long and we’ll be celebrating the 4th of July again, a time where people look up in the sky and wait for things to blow up in a beautiful way. I’ve always been somewhat of a grinch when it comes to fireworks. It seems like a waste of money, and fireworks freak my dog out too. We’ve been to one firework show at Bay city, and that’s enough for me. Maybe that’s how some look at the ascension of Jesus as well. What’s the big deal? Is this nothing more than a fireworks show? Watch a guy fly through the air? “Oooh. Ahhh. Ok, let’s go home.” Or is there more to it than that? Well, the short answer is “yes, there is more to it than that.” Paul writes about its importance in today’s text.

I Believe that Because He Can Fly, I Can Fly

Paul first of all reminds us WHO is floating in the air. He writes, “He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens.” Jesus isn’t just some Elon Musk who learned how to fly or figured out how to build a spaceship and escape this world. God chose to come into His world, that WE ruined, to save us. Many parents probably tried to talk their children OUT of going to Vietnam or Afghanistan or Iraq to fight a war they didn’t believe in. They didn’t think it worth the possible sacrifice. God felt it worth the sacrifice to come here.

Prior to the time of Jesus’ birth, there was one special way that He maintained His special presence within the Israelite community, hidden and yet present. God had the Ark of the Covenant built, and he chose to specially dwell in between or hovering just over the angels that were on top of the Ark when it was in the Most Holy Place. So God performed some neat miracles with the Ark. The Israelites saw the Jordan River split in two and the walls of Jericho come tumbling down when they had the Ark.

The problem was that when they finally entered the Promised Land, the Israelites used the Ark as a good luck charm of sorts. They brought it into battle and thought, “As long as we have the Ark with us, (apart from the God who called them to repent), we will win.” So God had to allow the Ark to be captured by the Philistines while it was in Shiloh in order to rid them of that idea and also to call them to repentance. Eventually, the LORD put a curse on the Philistines, so they felt compelled to return the Ark without the Israelites having to fight for it. Finally, after making sacrifices and seeking counsel, David was able to bring the Ark to Jerusalem, which ended up being the capital of Israel for a time. The Bible said that David was dancing in front of the Ark and celebrating! It was a huge deal!

But that wasn’t all! David laid everything out for a more permanent temple to be built. He collected the finest of offerings from the people in order to build the temple. Once Solomon took over for David, he built the temple. The most talented craftsmen put time and effort into building a beautiful building. This was the pinnacle and fulfilment of everything that God had promised up to this point. He had conquested the Promised Land and firmly established Himself there. It was like the planting of the flag on Iwo Jima.