Our Busy, Busy Ascended Savior
Please stand with me as we go over our current memory Scripture:
Matthew 5:6-8
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
And our memory Scripture “refresher” verse is:
Isaiah 9:6
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder. And His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
Today we will be reading from Luke 24:50-53 & Acts 1:1-11
This past Thursday was Ascension Day which is either 39 days after the day Jesus arose from the dead or 40 days after the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead if you count Resurrection Day.
The ascension of Jesus is just one part of the beautiful plan of redemption that only our incomprehensibly great God could accomplish.
Many times I am amazed as to the way the Lord works things out in His timing. I mean, just think about this … We now have about 40 memory Scriptures in our spiritual arsenal that we can draw upon at various times. And, we rotate through the previous memory Scriptures as “memory refresher verses” as we cycle through them each Sunday.
How excellent is the Lord’s timing that on Ascension Sunday our memory refresher Scripture is a prophecy about Jesus coming to earth as the Son of God and Son of Man; fully God and fully man.
And He did that for our salvation!
I mean, He would have to come to earth before He could ascend back to Heaven, right?
Is our God Amazing or what???? Praise His Holy Name Forever!!!
So, let’s go ahead and read about the ascension of Jesus back to the Father in Luke 24:50-53 & Acts 1:1-11
(prayer for help)
Back right after we were married, Pastor Karenlee worked at IBM in an office that processed changes that the engineers had made to different devices that were being produced in the manufacturing plants.
There were two men and she was one of the two women who worked in that office. The men regularly worked two hours of overtime every day and Karenlee and her co-worker did not.
One day the two ladies decided to keep a log of the work done by each person and what they found was that she and her co-worker were processing ninety percent of the engineering changes with no overtime and the two men were processing only ten percent of the changes with two hours of overtime each day.
Why am I telling you this? Hopefully it will become clear later.
Do you ever think about how confusing Jesus must have been to the Jews of His time? Even their very Scriptures must have caused them to scratch their heads as they studied them.
We have talked about the Shema before, right?
The beginning of the Shema or the daily prayers of the Jews is found in Deuteronomy 6:4 NIV where it says,
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
Deuteronomy 6:4 YLT where it says,
“Hear, O Israel, Yahweh our God [is] one Yahweh.”
The people of Israel firmly believed, and rightly so, that Yahweh was and is One God!
But, they also knew the creation account in Genesis 1:26, 27 where Yahweh says,
“‘Let us (plural) make man in our (plural) image, in our (plural) likeness’ … So God created man in His (singular) own image, in the image of God He (singular) created them; male and female He (singular) created them.”
And we see the same sort of language in Isaiah’s vision in Isaiah 6.
That’s enough to make your head spin, isn’t it?
But, THEN what did they do with the memory refresher verse we have today?
Isaiah 9:6
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder. And His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
Let’s just edit that a little bit to show the headache this must have caused … A Child will be born … A Son will be given … His Name shall be called … THE MIGHTY GOD … THE EVERLASTING FATHER …
WHAT????????????
If I had been an anti-Jewish-religion nut back then I would have definitely pointed these things out as contradictions. Of course, that did not happen because only a few had access to the Torah and the writings of the Prophets. And no one, until Jesus, would have dared to challenge the Jewish spiritual leaders.
When you try to get your mind in that sort of frame it can be very confusing. But now we have it easy. We’re looking back into the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament. But the people at the time of Jesus grew up only knowing the Old Testament and they were living in the advent, the very beginning of the New Testament, the New Covenant.
They did NOT have access to the point of view we have.
OK. Now since we have this great advantage we can see that the Holy Trinity in His full completeness was made up of Yahweh the Father, Yahweh the Son and Yahweh the Holy Spirit from all eternity past. The Triune Godhead always was, is and always will be.
When we read the Old Testament it is easy to think of only the God the Father when we read God or Lord or any other reference to the God of Israel.
We might be tempted to wonder what the Son of God was doing while God the Father was taking care of business in the Old Testament?
Was God the Son sitting on the “bench” waiting to be called into the game like a second-string athlete?
Was He just hanging out and only doing the least he could like the example from Karenlee’s former workplace? Was he like those two guys who showed up every day but didn’t really do much?
No! He was downright busy!
We know that the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity has been busy since the very inception of creation.
John 1:1-3 says,
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made and without Him nothing was made that has been made.”
Well, what else did He do beside create everything?
In the Old Testament there are references to “angels of the Lord”, “an angel of the Lord” and “The Angel of The Lord”.
Most theologians believe that The Angel of The Lord is a Theophany or Christophany which would be a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus. So, what was this Old Testament, pre-incarnate Son of God doing?
We see a Christophany:
- When The Angel of the Lord encountered Hagar the servant of Sarah, Abraham’s wife in Genesis 16:7-12
- When He encounters Abraham in Genesis 22:11-18
- When He appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush in Exodus 3:2
- When The Angel of the Lord appeared at Bokim and spoke to all of Israel about their disobedience in Judges 2:1-5
- When He performed miracles while meeting with Gideon and Manoah in Judges 6:11-23 & Judges 13:3-25.
o Gideon and Manoah thought they would die because they understood that The Angel of The Lord was God Himself.
- The “Angel” accurately foretold future events.
- He destroyed 185,000 soldiers of the Assyrian army in one night (2 Kings 19:35).
- The Angel of the Lord is also found in the early chapters of Zechariah
Was God the Son busy in the Old Testament? Yes, He was. He was not just sitting around waiting to be sent as God the Son / Son of Man.
We have a busy God! God the Father was busy, God the Son was busy and we see God the Spirit busy as well appearing from time to time throughout the Old Testament.
Jesus Himself testifies in John 5:17 that …
“My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working.”
So, what was Jesus busy doing when He was here on earth?
1) He was obeying the will of the Father …
John 6:38
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.”
And, what was the will of God the Father for Jesus to accomplish on earth?
2) To save the lost …
Luke 19:10
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
And just how was He going to do that?
3) He came to bring spiritual light into the world …
John 12:46 NASB
“I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.”
4) He came to bring spiritual Truth into the world …
John 18:37 ESV
“For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world - to bear witness to the Truth. Everyone who is of the Truth listens to My voice.”
5) To destroy the works of the devil …
1 John 3:8b ESV
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”
6) To proclaim the Kingdom of God …
Luke 4:43
“I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God … because that is why I was sent.”
7) To pay the penalty for our sin …
Mark 10:45
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
OK. Now, that is almost too much to take in!
That was a busy three-plus years, right?
And when you add to all of that that He died and rose again it boggles the mind!
We know that one of the last things Jesus said as He was dying on the cross to pay our sin debt was, “It is finished” (John 19:30)
So, Jesus had completed the work that the Father had ordained for Him to do.
Jesus had shown the Light of Salvation.
Jesus had proclaimed the Truth of the way to the Father.
Jesus had proclaimed the Kingdom of God to this lost world.
Jesus had destroyed the work of the devil by taking away the sting of death for those who trust in Him.
Jesus had given His live as a ransom for many and then arose from the dead.
Now, think about this. The Spiritual Light and the Spiritual Truth that Jesus brought was not just for then it is for now as well. Those without Jesus are walking in spiritual darkness, believing spiritual lies and are walking around dragging a spiritually dead soul with them.
Jesus destroyed the work of the devil by making a way for all who will believe on Him to be freed from slavery to sin and to find eternal life through faith in Jesus.
Before we go on to the Ascension of Jesus to heaven I must ask; are you saved? Are you walking in the spiritual light that Jesus revealed or are you still walking in spiritual darkness? Do you know the truth of Jesus or are you still believing the lies of the one who wants to keep you bound in slavery to sin?
As we look at what Jesus has been busy doing since ascending back to the Father keep in mind what He has already done for you and the eternal life you could have through Him.
Ok, so, we have just skimmed over the work of Jesus in the Old Testament and have only glanced at all that Jesus did during His life on earth. And, that brings us to what we are looking at today; the Ascension of Jesus to Heaven and what it means for us.
Is Jesus still busy? If so, what is He doing?
John 14:2 NASB says,
“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.”
Now, this may be something we cannot fully understand but just because we cannot understand something it does not mean that it is wrong or untrue. We know that the Lord created all that is with the word of His mouth. Where is the place His preparing for us? What will it be like?
Here’s an even better question. Are you ready to go there? Have you placed your faith and trust in Jesus for salvation and eternal life? That is the greatest question you will ever need to answer.
So, what else has Jesus been doing since His ascension back to the Father?
1 Timothy 2:5-6
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all people - this has now been witnessed to at the proper time.”
Jesus is now acting as the one and only mediator between God and men. He is the only one equipped to do so and the only one with the authority to do so. He is equipped to do so because He is God Incarnate; fully God and fully man. It is His God nature that gives Him the authority to do so and it is His sacrifice on the cross of Calvary that makes such mediation possible.
Don’t let anyone ever tell you that there is any other mediator. That would make God a liar. Jesus is the one and only mediator had He is right now bust doing exactly that!
1 John 2:1
“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”
Jesus is also busy being our advocate before the Father if we are a child of God. The Lord has made it clear in the Bible that we should not sin, especially if we have been saved, but, if and when we do, we have an advocate with the Father.
One way to look at this is to see Jesus as an advocate Who is advising a law breaker, which is what sin is, it is lawlessness.
And what would the Advocate be advising us to do? He would be advising that we should confess our lawless act of sin, that we should turn away from that sin (repent) and that we should throw ourselves on the mercy of the Court asking the Father for forgiveness.
That’s good advice. Amen? Amen!
And, Jesus is busy doing just that! What else is He busy doing?
He is busy preparing to come back for us!
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18
“According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
“Then, we who are still alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will ever be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”
All I can say to this is “Wow”! Jesus is busy just as the Father is and He has been since all eternity past! Thank you Jesus!
Charles Wesley wrote a song called:
Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise and it goes like this …
Hail the day that sees Him rise - To His throne beyond the skies
Christ the Lamb for sinners given - Enters now the highest heaven
There for Him high triumph waits - Lift your heads eternal gates
He has conquered death and sin - Take the King of glory in
See the heaven its Lord receives - Yet He loves the earth He leaves
Though returning to His throne - Still He calls mankind His own
Still for us He intercedes - His prevailing death He pleads
Near Himself prepares our place - He the first fruits of our race
Lord though parted from our sight - Far beyond the starry height
Lift our hearts that we may rise - One with You beyond the skies
There with You we shall remain - Share the glory of Your reign
There Your face unclouded view - Find our heaven of heavens in You
Jesus has not been busy just to keep Himself busy. All He does is for a purpose and His purpose for you is salvation through believing in Him. Do you?
Conclusion and invitation (if prompted by the Holy Spirit)
Benediction:
Ephesians 6:24
“May God's grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with undying love. Amen.”
