As we observe the incarnation of the Messiah, Jesus, during this Christmas season, we’ve been on a journey through some of the Messianic Psalms. We began in Psalm 8 where we saw the humility of Jesus that was demonstrated by His incarnation and his crucifixion. We then continued on to Psalm 88 where we saw how Jesus suffered on our behalf in order to satisfy the wrath of God that we deserved. Two weeks ago the message was a lot more upbeat as we examined Psalm 16 which pictured the resurrection of Jesus that empowers us to live on the path of life and experience fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.
We’ll continue our journey in Psalm 68. Since it is such a long Psalm – 35 verses to be exact – we won’t have time to examine it in detail, or even read the entire Psalm. Hopefully you’ve already done that on your over the past two weeks, but if not, I really want to encourage you to do that this coming week.
By now we shouldn’t be surprised that this Psalm, like all the Messianic Psalms we’ve looked at so far, operates on two levels. So here’s how we’re going to tackle our passage this week:
• We’ll start with a brief look at the Messianic application that is found in Ephesians 4
• Then we’ll examine Psalm 68 in its historical context
• Finally, we’ll be able to return to Ephesians 4 and make some practical application for our own lives.
I think once we go through that process, you’ll see why we need to proceed in that manner.
Messianic Application
Once again we’re not left to wonder about the Messianic application of this Psalm because Paul applies it directly to the Messiah, Jesus in Ephesians 4. I’ll begin reading in verse 7:
But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says,
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”
(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
Ephesians 4:7-12 (ESV)
The bolded verse that I have put a box around in your bulletin outline is the verse we’re going to focusing on this morning. In that verse, Paul quotes from Psalm 68, but as we’ll see in a moment, there are some issues with the way he uses the verse.
But for now, what I want us to see is that…
• Psalm 68 is a picture of the ascension of the Messiah, Jesus
After his birth, suffering on our behalf, crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus only stayed on this earth for 40 days before He ascended to the right hand of the Father. And both Ephesians 4 and Psalm 68 help us to understand just why that event is so significant.
We’re going to come back to Ephesians 4 shortly, but let’s take a look at our text from Psalm 68 first. Even if we had time to look at that Psalm in detail, it is actually much more helpful to take a step back and look at the overall message of the Psalm. So let’s start with a broad outline of the Psalm.
Outline of Psalm 68
Overall Theme:
The triumph of God over His enemies and His ascent to His throne
I. Prologue (vv.1-6)
• The wicked perish and the righteous rejoice (vv. 1-3)
• A call to sing praise to God (vv. 4-6)
II. God descends to deliver His people in the past (vv.7-17)
In this section, the Psalmist recounts how God delivered His people from slavery in Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land. It is significant that in that section, there are two references to God giving gifts to His people:
• In verse 10 He is describes as providing for the needy.
• In verse 11, He gives the word
III. God ascends to His Throne (v.18)
You will note that verse 18, the one that Paul quotes in Ephesians, is right in the middle of this Psalm. As we’ve seen in other Psalms, in Hebrew poetry this serves to emphasize this verse and to identify it as the central idea in the Psalm. We’ll come back to this verse in just a moment.
IV. Present Deliverance and Provision (vv. 19-20)
As a result of ascending to His throne, God is now in a position to deliver and provide for His people in the present. He is the God of salvation who daily bears up His people.
V. Future Deliverance and Provision (vv. 21-35)
In this last section, the focus is on what God will do for His people in the future. He will deliver them and judge their enemies. And all his people will be part of a procession that comes up to worship Him as He sits upon His throne. It is significant that in verse 35, God is once again pictured giving gifts to His people – in this case power and strength.
We’re now ready to focus on verse 18, the central idea in the Psalm, in some more detail, but as we do that, we have to still keep in mind the overall structure of the Psalm that we just looked at.
You ascended on high,
leading a host of captives in your train
and receiving gifts among men,
even among the rebellious, that the LORD God may dwell there.
Psalm 68:18 (ESV)
I’m going to enlist your help here for a moment. I want you to look at verse 18 and compare it to the way Paul uses it in Ephesians 4 and see if you can identify some potential issues. I’ll put them both up on the screen so you can see them both at once. [Wait for answers].
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”
Ephesians 4:8 (ESV)
You ascended on high,
leading a host of captives in your train
and receiving gifts among men,
even among the rebellious, that the LORD God may dwell there.
Psalm 68:18 (ESV)
That’s right. There are two apparent discrepancies here:
• In Psalm 68, the pronouns are in the 2nd person –you - but in Ephesians 4, they are in the 3rd person – he.
• Psalm 68 refers to God receiving gifts and Ephesians 4 refers to Jesus giving gifts.
As I prepared this message, I read all kinds of commentators’ ideas about how to reconcile these differences, but in my opinion, most of them can be dismissed pretty easily if we keep in mind the overall theme of Psalm 68 and also how a Jewish rabbi like Paul would use the Old Testament scriptures in his teaching.
Let’s deal first with the difference in pronouns since that is so easy to handle. In Psalm 68, God is obviously the person who is referred to with all the 2nd person pronouns. He is the one who ascended on high in verse 18. In Ephesians, Paul is writing about Jesus in this entire section and consistently refers to Him in the 3rd person. So what Paul is doing by changing the pronouns is to claim that what Jesus did at His ascension is the equivalent of what God did in ascending to His throne. In other words, Paul is clearly claiming that Jesus is fully God. At His ascension He was fulfilling the Messianic meaning of Psalm 68.
The difference between God receiving of gifts in Psalm 68 and Jesus giving gifts in Ephesians 4 is a bit more difficult to handle, but certainly possible without going through some of the gyrations that many commentators have employed in attempting to do so.
We need to remember that Paul was a well-educated Jewish rabbi who would have been trained in a method known as “midsrash pesher” – a method in which the exposition of the text determined the form of the quotation. This particular method is well documented in hundreds of texts found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Paul certainly would have been trained in this method and there is actually evidence of him employing this technique elsewhere in his writings. Paul rarely quotes an Old Testament passage word-for-word.
If Paul did indeed utilize this method, which I believe he did, then he would have been much more focused on the overall meaning of Psalm 68 than just taking one verse out of context and quoting it. While it is true that God, as the victorious king, received the spoils of battle, the bigger picture here is that by ascending to His throne God was in a position to continually give gifts to His people to enable them to live fulfilled lives both in the present and the future.
Since Paul was making the point that by ascending to the right hand of the Father, Jesus was in a position to give gifts to His followers that would enable them to live fulfilled lives in the present and the future, He uses the Old Testament Scripture in a way that focuses on the overall theme of Psalm 68 rather than just quoting the verse word-for-word.
That also helps us to understand verses 9 and 10 of Ephesians 4. Let’s look at those two verses again:
(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
Just as God is pictured as descending to help His people in the past in Psalm 68, Jesus left heaven and descended to the “lower region” which Paul defines here as the earth, in order to deliver us. And then just like God then ascended to His throne so that He would be in a position to continue to be able to deliver and provide for His people, Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father where He is in a position to do the same for each of His followers. Now that’s exciting!
But as always, our goal is not just to understand Scripture. We need to apply what we’ve learned to our lives. So let’s close by focusing on…
WHAT JESUS’ ASCENSION MEANS FOR MY LIFE
There are probably almost limitless applications here, but we’ll limit ourselves to just three:
1. I have been called to do the “work of ministry”
According to Paul, the saints are to do the work of ministry. Just as we saw two weeks ago in Psalm 16, that word “saints” does not refer to some special class of Christ followers. It doesn’t refer just to the pastors and teachers and elders. It encompasses every single Christ follower.
Probably the greatest impediment to the effectiveness of the church in our culture is the idea that as a church we pay the “professionals” to do all the ministry on our behalf. No doubt that idea has grown out of the unbiblical distinction between “clergy” and “laity”. That distinction is never found in the New Testament church in the Bible, but instead grew out of the traditions of man based on a completely erroneous view of what the Bible teaches.
As I mentioned before, the Bible never uses the term “saint” in the singular – it is always used in the plural to refer to all of those who have placed their faith in Jesus. And in Ephesians 4, Paul makes it absolutely clear that every single Christ follower is to be engaged in ministry.
In fact, it is the ascension of Jesus that makes it essential for every single Christ follower to be engaged in ministry. Remember what Jesus told His disciples shortly before His crucifixion:
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
John 14:12 (ESV)
How is it possible for us to do even greater works than Jesus did? Because while He was here on earth, He was limited to being in one place at one time. But now that he has ascended to the Father, He has unleashed a whole army of His followers to minister in His name. He has released all of us into our homes, our workplaces and our community to be ministers.
The implication is that ministry doesn’t just take place inside the walls of this building. In fact almost all of it will occur as all of us live our lives outside these walls. We are to be ministers in our homes as husbands love their wives and wives submit to their husbands and as parents train and teach their children the ways of God and the children respect their parents.
We are to be ministers in our jobs, working as if working for the Lord and meeting the needs of others through our work and through developing relationships with others and demonstrating the love of Christ in their lives.
We are to be ministers in our community, serving the needs of people, being the hands and feet of Jesus in this world. We’re to be ministers by being a blessing to our community.
Isn’t that exactly how Jesus ministered while He was here on earth? He found ways to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of people wherever He was. His ministry certainly wasn’t limited to the synagogues or on the Temple. In fact, very little of it occurred there. Almost all of His ministry was in people’s home or out in the community.
Doing the work of ministry isn’t always an easy task. And since we’re not always prepared to carry out the ministry that Jesus has given to each one of us…
2. The body of Christ is Jesus’ gift to me to equip me to carry out His call
I dare say that most of us have never really thought about the local church in these terms. But that is exactly what Paul is saying. Now it’s great that Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the Father and that right now He is interceding with the Father on my behalf. That certainly gives me confidence in my relationship with God.
But at the same time, I also need something more concrete along with that. I need flesh and blood to help me carry out the work of ministry on a day-to-day basis. Jesus knows that even though He is delivering and providing for us on a constant basis, we also need the help of others to be effective ministers for Him. So when He ascended into heaven, He left us with the gift of the body of Christ in which gifted men help equip us for our ministry.
The fact is that it is just not possible for any of us to be effective ministers on our own. So Jesus has placed each of us into a local body where we have others who can help equip us for the task that God has given us.
Our elders are constantly looking for ways that we can be more effective in equipping all of us to carry out the work of ministry more effectively and after the first of the year we’re going to be making some changes to what we do on Sunday mornings after the worship service that we believe will help all of us to be better equipped to actually do ministry.
But nothing we do as a church is going to be effective in equipping all of us unless we choose to participate in that process. Even if I was the most gifted and smartest preacher in the whole world, there is just no way that listening to a half hour sermon once a week is ever going to be adequate to equip any of us to minister in the lives of others like God desires.
Just think of the example of Jesus. In order to train those who would carry out His ministry after His ascension, He spent almost every hour of every day with them for three years. Now it’s certainly not possible for us to do that, but for most of us, being equipped for ministry is probably going to require living life together in this body to a much greater extent than we are doing right now.
I’m certainly encouraged by some of the things I see going on in our body in this area right now. I’m encouraged by a group of women who meet here every Sunday morning with Chriece Gailey to be better equipped for ministry. I’m encouraged by the women who meet at Billie’s house on Wednesday for Bible study or the group that meets with Susan Hawthorne on Thursdays to pray. I’m encouraged by those who meet together for Bible study over the internet on Thursday nights or the Night Owl group that meets after I go to bed each week. I’m encouraged by seeing those of you who are spending time with others from this body throughout the week to discuss how to better apply God’s Word in your lives.
I’m also encouraged because of the opportunities I have to be personally equipped by others in this body. I am equipped when I spend regular time with our elders, praying and spending time in God’s Word in order to seek God’s guidance on how we as a church can be more effective in equipping all of us. I’m equipped every Monday morning by a group of men who challenge me to dig into God’s Word and apply it to my life. I’m equipped every Sunday morning when I get to spend time with the Worship Team as we prepare for the worship service. I’m equipped when I spend time with other members of this body down at the Gospel Rescue Mission handing out toys to needy children.
But at the same time I’m also concerned because there are so many in our body that have no contact with anyone else in this body other than for an hour or so on Sunday morning. I know that we all have busy lives and it’s not easy to make time to be with other believers so we can be equipped for ministry. But I also know that we all can make time to those things that are most important to us.
So let me suggest some very practical things that you might consider in order to be better equipped to carry out the ministry Jesus has given to you.
Men, if you want to get more serious about your walk with Jesus, one of our elders, Don Gailey, is here every Sunday morning around 7:45 and I know that he would love nothing more than to spend some time with you to help you mature in your walk with Jesus. He’s been praying for a long time for some men that He can work with one-on-one or in a small group to equip them for ministry.
And certainly we’d love to have you join us on Monday mornings at 6:30 for our men’s Bible Study. I can guarantee that if you come on a regular basis, you’ll leave being better equipped to do the work of ministry.
Parents, do you want to be more effective in raising godly children? Starting in February, we’re going to be dedicating one Sunday morning each month to some very practical, hands-on training to help you do that. If you’ll commit to be here during that time, I can assure you that you’ll leave here better equipped to be a minister in your family.
I’m really just scratching the surface here. If you’re serious about being equipped to be a more effective minister for Jesus, then all you need to do is to see me or one of the elders and we’ll help you find an appropriate way to do that. Our goal as a church is to have every member being equipped for and carrying out ministry because…
3. When I do my part, I help build up the body
There is a reason that Paul uses the picture of a body to describe the local church, as he does here in 1 Corinthians:
But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
1 Corinthians 12:18-20 (ESV)
The picture of a body shows better than any other picture that Paul could have used how interconnected we all are as part of that body and how we depend on each other. As Paul continues in that chapter he makes that point like this:
… But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
1 Corinthians 12:24-26 (ESV)
Unfortunately our body, like every local church I’ve ever been a part of is only functioning at a fraction of what God intends because so many parts are not engaged in ministry and are not taking part in the process of being equipped for ministry.
Right now, and in the coming weeks, we really need some people in this body to step up to the plate and do their part for the good of the body. In particular, we need some more help teaching and caring for our children. We need people to work in the nursery and teach Children’s Church and the children’s Bible study classes. When we begin our family discipleship training we’re going to need some people to help out with those children so that the parents who often do that now can have some time to be fed instead of always having to do the feeding. If you would be willing to help out there, please see Don Gailey after the service and he can fill you in on some more of the details.
As a result of His ascension to the right hand of the Father, Jesus is prepared to give you the best Christmas gift you’ve ever received this year. He wants you to have the abundant joyful life that only comes when we carry out the work of ministry, having been equipped by the body of Christ of which He has made us a part. Jesus has done everything that He needs to do in order to provide us with that gift. All we have to do is to receive that gift by doing our part in the body.
