We Believe: Ascension and Seated
Text: Lk. 24:49-53
Introduction
1. “The most important benefit of the ascension to us is that Jesus is now exalted at God's right hand as our priest, our advocate and our supreme intercessor. Prayer works because he is there to argue for us. Rejoice dear redeemed because your case is settled.” (Rufus Arji).
2. One of the most frequent requests that I get from people is, “will you pray for me?” I wonder how people would respond if I replied, “Jesus already is praying for you!”
3. That is the glory of the Ascension and seating of Christ. He returned to His heavenly home, is seated at the Father’s right hand, and He is interceding for us.
4. Read Lk. 24:49-53
Transition: Let’s follow Jesus from the village of Bethany to His heavenly throne.
I. Ascension and Seating of Christ
A. If someone were to ask you what the most important teaching of the Christian faith was, you might say the crucifixion, the resurrection, or even the incarnation.
1. These would all be fine choices. However, if you were to ask the writer of Hebrews that same question, they would say the ascension of Christ was the most important.
2. In Heb. 6:19-20, it says, “This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. 20 Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.”
3. To say this teaching is the “anchor for our souls,” seems really important.
4. Now, Tina and I have been on our fair share of cruises, but if we had gotten on board and they said, “yeah, we really don’t have an anchor,” I would have said, “nope, let me back on dry ground!” The anchor is a vital part of a ship.
5. So, to call this teaching the “anchor of our souls,” is saying something significant.
B. Furthermore, Luke thought the ascension was so important, he wrote about it twice. He wrote about in Lk. 24:50-53 and Acts 1:9-11.
1. Just perhaps, the ascension tells us something about the continuing work of Jesus on earth.
2. Luke tells us that after the resurrection Jesus spent forty days with His disciples.
3. Why forty days? One possible reason is that in the Bible the number forty is often used to signify “probation,” or “testing.”
4. Second, the forty days after the resurrection corresponds to the forty days that Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert.
5. So, at the end of His time on earth He triumphed for forty days.
6. The resurrection changed Jesus’ body. Before the resurrection He suffered from limitations such as hunger, thirst, fatigue, and sorrow.
7. But after the resurrection, He could walk though walls and just appear at a moments notice wherever He chose.
C. On His last day on earth, Luke tells us, “After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. 10 As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!” (Acts 1:9-11).
D. The Book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus did two things.
1. First, He passed through the heavens. Now, the Bible generally refers to heaven as being “up there,” but astronauts have gone up there and didn’t go to heaven. So, there must be some sort of boundary that humans can’t pass through without divine assistance.
2. Second, He entered into heaven itself. This assures us that heaven is real, and God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are there.
3. Heaven is not a concept, dream, or vision. It’s a place, and Jesus is there waiting for us. This ought to give us great joy!
E. Once a Sunday school teacher asked her class, “Why can God the Father only used His left hand?” The answer is, “because Jesus is sitting on His right hand.”
F. In addition to ascending to heaven, Jesus is seated on the right hand of God.
1. Theologians refer to this as the Session of Christ. Now before you think that all theologians have lost their minds, think of this as court being in session when the judge sits down behind the bench, or congress being in session when they are seated in congress.
2. In being seated at the right hand of God the Father, Jesus is seated in the place of power.
3. First, Jesus is seated at the right hand of God and is given divine authority. Jesus has ascended into heaven to take control of the affairs of the universe.
4. A “martyr named Polycarp in his letter to the Philippians: “Therefore, prepare for action and serve God in fear and truth, leaving behind the empty and meaningless talk and the error for the crowd, and believing in the one who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and gave him glory and a throne at his right hand. To him all things in heaven and on earth were subjected, whom every breathing creature serves, who is coming as judge of the living and the dead.” (Michael F. Bird, What Christians Ought to Believe: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine through the Apostles’ Creed, SECOND EDITION (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2026), 175).
5. Second, we share in the rein of Christ because of our union with Him. We are united with Jesus in His death, resurrection, and exaltation.
6. In the NT we are given this great hope in reining with Jesus over the earth. “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.” (Col. 3:1).
7. Third, Jesus is our High Priest from His heavenly throne. Jesus is in heaven praying for us and pleading for us before the Father.
8. “Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.” (Heb. 7:25).
9. This should not be seen as Jesus pleading to a reluctant Father to be merciful to us, but rather as Jesus presenting His brothers and sisters to the Father, pleading their prayers for them, and asking the Father to keep His eye on us.
10. As the Father looks at us, He sees us as the churchly children who are one with His beloved Son sitting next to Him.
G. Now let’s look at our text for today. In Lk. 24:49 it says, “And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.”
1. In the Book of Acts, Luke tells us that one of the things that Jesus did in the forty days following the resurrection was that He taught them.
2. The chief thing that He taught them was the necessity of the Holy Spirit.
3. In John 16: 5-10 Jesus said, “But now I am going away to the one who sent me, and not one of you is asking where I am going. 6 Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you. 7 But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. 9 The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. 10 Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more.”
4. Jesus was reminding them that it was good that He was leaving them, because if He didn’t He could not send the Holy Spirit, and they needed the Holy Spirit to accomplish the task He had given them.
5. He told them that they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit; they would be totally immersed in the Spirit’s power.
6. Jesus is the baptizer in the Holy Spirit, and He gives this as an empowerment for us to do what He has commanded us to do.
7. He tells His disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they are filled with the Spirit’s power; it’s that important!
H. Then Luke tells us in v. 50, “Then Jesus led them to Bethany, and lifting his hands to heaven, he blessed them.”
1. Jesus took His disciples out of Jerusalem, to a familiar place to them, a village called Bethany, on the slopes of the Mount of Olives.
2. He was getting ready to leave them, so, He lifted His hands and blessed them.
3. They would no longer be able to walk and talk with Him in person anymore, so, He gave a blessing to them as they waited for the Holy Spirit to come.
I. Then Luke tells us in v. 51, “While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up to heaven.”
1. All of the sudden, Jesus was taken up into heaven from them.
2. One minute He was blessing them, and then in an instant, He was taken from them.
3. Imagine the shock of all of this for them. They had walked, talked, ate, and ministered with Him. Now, suddenly He was gone. They were stunned!
4. In Acts, it says they just stood there starring into the clouds.
J. But then, look at how they responded. In vv. 52-53 it says, “So they worshiped him and then returned to Jerusalem filled with great joy. 53 And they spent all of their time in the Temple, praising God.”
1. Instead of standing there stunned and saddened, they worshipped Him.
2. Rather than whining and complaining that Jesus was gone, they responded in a way that Jesus would have wanted them to; they worshipped!
3. Then Luke says, rather than being filled with sadness, they were filled with joy!
4. They believed what He had told them, that the Holy Spirit was coming, and that they would see Him again one day!
Transition: Now, let’s look at…
II. What This Teach Us
A. The Ascension teaches us that the work of salvation is finished! Jesus did not ascend as a victim but as a victor.
1. “And they sang a new song with these words: “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 And you have caused them to become a Kingdom of priests for our God. And they will reign on the earth.” (Rev. 5:9-10).
2. The Ascension of Christ shows us that His work on earth is complete, finished, done.
3. He came to earth a child, was treated like a criminal on the cross, but He rose from the dead and now returns to heaven as the conquering King of Kings.
4. Jesus came and defeated the devil.
5. Jesus came and defeated sin.
6. Jesus came and defeated death.
7. Jesus came and defeated the grave.
8. And now, He reins victoriously.
9. “Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war. 12 His eyes were like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him that no one understood except himself. 13 He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven, dressed in the finest of pure white linen, followed him on white horses. 15 From his mouth came a sharp sword to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will release the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty, like juice flowing from a winepress. 16 On his robe at his thigh was written this title: King of all kings and Lord of all lords.” (Rev. 19:11-16).
B. The Seating or Cession of Christ teaches us that we have a great intercessor, seated at the right hand of God, praying for us before the Father.
1. “Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. 35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death.” (Rom. 8:33-35).
2. Jesus is seated at the place of honor and power at the right hand of God the Father.
3. All authority in heaven and on earth is given to Him.
4. He rules creation with a mighty scepter.
5. While He is in His place of power, He pleads for us to the Father day and night.
6. Therefore, we have nothing to fear or be anxious about because we know Jesus our Savior, Lord, Healer, baptizer in the Holy Spirit, and Defender watches over us.
7. “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:38-39).
Conclusion
What’s the point preacher? Our Lord Jesus Christ has ascended to the place of power and authority. He is there interceding for us, and one day we will rein with Him. So, don’t be afraid, because nothing will ever be able to separate us from Jesus our Lord. To God be the glory!
