The Ascension of the Glorified Christ (Lk ) WestminsterReformedChurch.org Pastor Ostella November 10, 2013

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1 The Ascension of the Glorified Christ (Lk ) WestminsterReformedChurch.org Pastor Ostella November 10, Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God. Introduction The Gospel of Luke ends with a very brief, even abrupt, statement of the departure of Jesus from this earth along with a brief statement of the response of the disciples to all that happened. The brevity gives simplicity to the account leaving only a few things for comment but, interestingly, Luke presents us with an interpretation of the ascension by his literary structure. As we will see, his arrangement of the events of Luke 24 gives us an important way to view the ascension and the future work of the glorified Christ. So, we will cover two things: a summary of the ascension narrative, and an interpretation of the narrative (guided by Luke as commentator). I. Summary of the ascension narrative In sum, we can hang our thoughts on three hooks: the tip of the arrow, blessing, and worship. A. The tip of the arrow The tip of the arrow refers to Luke s goal as a narrator. The ascension of the glorified Christ has been his explicit goal ever since chapter 9 where the journey to Jerusalem began. In 9.51, Luke says, When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. He set His face like a flint to go to the holy city to be rejected by the leaders, killed, be raised from the dead, and be taken up to glory. So chapters 9 through 24 sail like an arrow to this target, the ascension: he parted from them and was carried up into heaven (24.51). So, in a real sense these final four verses are the tip of an arrow. The shaft of this arrow is chapters 9-24 and the feathers on the shaft are chapters 1-8. We can see this from the opening of the book: Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught (1.1-4). Note how the shaft of the arrow, the full narration of the things accomplished, relates to the concluding remarks of our Lord in Luke 24. The things that have been accomplished are the things Jesus taught in word in deed while with the disciples. Jesus made the apostles and others eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. Now these things are taught to Theophilus and to the entire church beyond him in the post-apostolic age. Presently, Jesus is the nobleman who went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return (Lk 19.12). It was necessary according to the Scriptures that the Christ suffer then enter into the glory of this kingdom (Lk 24.26). So, here Jesus was carried up into heaven. His far country is a heavenly one. He is with God and will remain absent in a bodily way until His return. The ascension is the tip of this Gospel arrow. B. Blessing The parting blessing is a benediction. We do not know the specific content of this prayer for, and pronouncement of, God s blessing, but we do know that the act of blessing places the hearer into the care of God. Luke cites the gesture of lifting up the hands that symbolized the bestowal of God s blessing. It is a priestly action like that of Aaron: Then Aaron lifted up his hands

2 2 toward the people and blessed them, and he came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings. 23 And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out they blessed the people, and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people (Lev ). This is the great blessing: to have the glory of God revealed to His people. What a marvelous blessing of the glorified Christ to the church in its beginning and thus for the entire time between, to know the God of glory and the glory of God. C. Worship Accordingly, Luke tells us that the posture and outlook of the disciples is now strong and focused: And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God (Lk ). If you think back through the Gospel of Luke, you have to recognize that worship of Jesus is not typical. For the disciples, this is the only place where it is said that they worshiped Him. Such was the humiliation of our Lord in which His place as God in the flesh was not fully recognized and He was not given the honor that He is due. As He said, He must first suffer in great humiliation before He is exalted and enters into His glory. The fact of this worship at this juncture in the narrative is a testimony all its own to the resurrected and exalted state of Jesus the Christ. So now, after the ascension, the disciples fully embrace the reality of the resurrection of Jesus in a new glorified body. Therefore, to worship they add simple obedience by obeying His instruction to return to Jerusalem to wait for the promise of power from on high. Moreover, they go back in obedience with joy, even great joy. Now their fears have been calmed and their minds opened to understand the Scriptures about the person and work of the Christ. So with great joy, joy in abundance and intensity, they obey the Lord and return to the city where, notably, they were continually in the temple blessing God (24.53). They continue to worship the risen Lord Jesus Christ sight unseen; they do so in the temple. This worship is in transition because the temple is about to be cleansed and transformed in a decisive way to be replaced by new temple worship as foreshadowed when Jesus overturned tables and cleansed the temple. II. Interpretation The interpretation I refer to is that of Luke, the narrator. Significant here is the truly remarkable fact that he bonds resurrection, first day, and ascension together. This is his way of making connections that ground and justify the worship of Jesus to the end of the age. An outline of three things will guide us through this interpretation: Sunday, inauguration day, and Sunday- Sabbath-Day. A. Sunday In Isaiah 52, the exaltation of God s righteous and wise Servant is promised in tandem with His suffering for His people. It has to be of great interest to us to discover that Luke informs us that it was on the first day of the week, Sunday, that the suffering Servant entered into His glory (Lk 24.1, 44). Lest you miss the important truth here, let me say this another way. Luke presents the discovery of the empty tomb of Jesus, His appearances alive from the dead, and His ascension as Sunday occurrences. Noting this fact, it is also true that in the second volume of His narration, Luke clearly separates these post-resurrection events by forty days: He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father (Acts 1.3-4). In Luke 24.49, we have the command to wait in Jerusalem: behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. However, without missing a beat, Luke moves to the ascension: Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51 While he blessed them, he parted from them

3 3 and was carried up into heaven (50-51). These events are so bonded together that some commentators feel forced to deny that verse 51 refers to the ascension. They suggest that what we have here is a disappearance of the Lord like the one that occurred at Emmaus. Clearly, that will not do because here Jesus was carried up into heaven (51) and this corresponds with the ascension recorded in Acts 1.9: he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. So, it appears that Luke places the ascension on resurrection Sunday at the same time that He places it forty days later. Luke is not being inconsistent; instead, he is being purposely ambiguous. We get an important impression from the connection of things in Luke 24: the resurrection and ascension make up a single historical-redemptive event that happened on the first day of the week. Thus, Luke 24 becomes increasingly more precise as events unfold. Follow me as I read some highlights. In verse 1, the women find the tomb empty on the first day of the week. On that very day, our writer tells us (in verse 13) that Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Then, after Jesus left them, they immediately in that same hour, (v. 33) returned to Jerusalem and reported their conversation with the risen Jesus to the apostles (34-36), and As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them (v. 36). Next, we have a narration of events one after another in quick and uninterrupted succession: and Jesus said to them (v. 38), and when he showed them His hands and His feet (v. 39), and while they still could not believe He took the fish and ate it (vs ), and He explained the Law (v. 44), then He opened their minds (vs ), and He led them out as far as Bethany (v. 50), and it came to pass, while he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven (v. 51). The report of the reponse of the disciples is likewise immediate and tightly woven: 52 and they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God (52-53). Many things are packed into this unusual, peculiar, special, and unique Sunday. B. Inauguration day The impression is created that on resurrection Sunday all these things took place, including the ascension! This does not teach that these things really took place on that first day but it causes us to see all that Jesus did on that day as part of His ascension glory. Put another way, resurrection day is a day of ascension; it is Christ s exaltation to glory. His resurrection sealed and guaranteed His ascension; all that Christ has as ascended Lord He has from the day of the resurrection, from that Sunday. Not surprisingly then, the NT speaks of the resurrection of Christ as His exaltation to the throne on high. Thus Peter says that He became Lord and Christ and was exalted by God when God raised Him from the dead (Acts 2:36). Of course, the ascension did not take place literally on the first day of the week. Forty days are compressed into this Sunday to make a theological statement in a symbolic way. It is Luke s statement that explains the worship of Jesus, something that has not been the practice of disciples, even the apostles, during the days of our Lord s humiliation. This symbolic day gives us a picture of the exalted Lord at work; it gives us insight into His work in heaven as ascended Lord. By the ascension, a man comes to share the throne with God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. Understandably then, the first day of the week, Sunday, is a special day loaded with symbolism and theology. It is the inaugural day when the Son of Man received the kingdom as promised in Daniel 7.14 (I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed).

4 4 His ascension is the final step in His ascent to the throne of this kingdom. So, we have it in the Apostles Creed: I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. C. Sunday-Sabbath-Day Because it is Sunday that is juxtaposed with the Sabbath day (here in Luke ; 24.1,13) and because Sunday is the Lord s Day in fulfillment of the Sabbath that was the Lord s holy day (Isa 58.13: my holy day; Ex 20.10: the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God) then it is an easy step to conclude that Sunday is a symbol of the celebration of our Lord s exaltation to Sabbath Lordship as King of kings and Lord of lords. During the days of His humiliation, Jesus was not regularly worshipped. Now He is worshipped by His disciples and Sunday has become His holy day. Just as God worked and then rested from creation on the Sabbath, likewise, Jesus worked then rested from redemption on the Sunday-Sabbath. Notably also, God s rest was a cessation from one kind of work (creating the world) to taking up another work, that of providence (ruling the world as Sabbath King in a royal rest). Similarly, when Jesus rested from accomplishing and securing redemption, He took up another work, the work of universal King and sovereign Lord with all authority. So, even His inaugural day of celebration has much work within it: teaching the disciples on the road to Emmaus, appearing to Peter (mentioned in 24.34), appearing to the apostles and others at Jerusalem, and especially, instructing them about His work promised in the Law, prophets, and Psalms while opening their minds to understand the Scriptures. Then, on this symbolic Sunday-Sabbath, He blessed His disciples as He departed and ascended to heaven. At this point, the nucleus of the coming church worships Him with joy, obedience and praise. In their worship at the temple, on this inaugural day of celebration, we have the seeds of new temple worship because the degraded Jewish temple is about to give way to the church as the temple of the living God, made up of Jews and Gentiles from all nations. Granted, in the time of His earthly ministry, emphasis was on our Lord s submission as a son. During His life on earth, Jesus was Sabbath King in humiliation (early on He was already Lord of the Sabbath, Lk 6.5). Afterward He became Lord of the Sabbath in exaltation (Acts 2.36; Rev 1.10). In His arrest, trials, crucifixion, and resurrection the Son of Man became universal sovereign (Dan 7.14) seated at the right hand of Power (Lk 22.69). That Jesus became Lord of the Sabbath Day by means of the resurrection is a profound fact that implies a Sabbath Day for the new covenant people of God after the resurrection and shaped by it. 1 Indeed, Jesus was already Sabbath King when He literally ascended to the throne on high. 1 We need perspective on the transitional and veiled nature of the Lord s earthly ministry, cf. Lincoln, Sabbath 364. Thus, many things that pertain to new covenant worship are left unsaid by our Lord. Just consider the Emmaus account and how He gives us the seeds of communion worship to which He promises the opening of the Scriptures and the burning of our hearts. The full significance of these things will only become clear after His ascension. Accordingly, there is a measure of ambiguity regarding the relationship of the Mosaic Sabbath to the Christian Sabbath. In a word, He revealed Himself as Sabbath King and set Sunday apart as His day (the Lord s Day) by redemptive deed. It is therefore not surprising that the early church continued to worship on Saturday just as is it not surprising that they continued for a time to worship at the Jerusalem temple. The full implications of the presence of the kingdom with its focus on the exalted Christ were worked out over time when redemptive word was added to redemptive deed. This is the case for other things as well; for example, the revelation of the trinity is first by redemptive deed in the coming of Christ and the giving of the Spirit; then its truth becomes imbedded in the NT like salt in the sea. The word of John about the Lord s Day has its roots in the redemptive deeds of Christ on Sunday.

5 5 Thus, His universal sovereign rule over all things was inaugurated on a day in history, a day that bears that mark on it for the rest of human history. Therefore, His day, the Lord s Day is the Sabbath that remains for the people of God (Heb 4.6, 9), and in turn, Sunday is the Christian Sabbath (so the WSC, 59: From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly sabbath; and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian sabbath). Conclusion Consequently, we should give a special place to Sunday as the Christian Sabbath. Regular church attendance has this huge, marvelous, warm, and awesome underpinning (it puts a fire under all that we do on His day in His name!). Today, this day in the weekly cycle, every Sunday, is the holy Sabbath day of Christ. So, we worship Him as ascended Sabbath King and Sabbath redeemer because it is by His blood we are restored from the fall and will attain eternal Sabbath rest that has been promised since the foundation of the world (Heb 4). Because Jesus is given to the church as Head over all things (Eph 1.22), we cannot separate Sabbath from Sunday in Christian worship. After Jesus completed His work of redemption, He became both Lord and Christ by the resurrection (Acts 2.36). As a man He was appointed judge of all men by the resurrection (Acts 17.31); as the seed of David He was appointed to be the Son of God with power by the working of the Spirit in His resurrection (Rom 1.3-4). In other words, on resurrection day Jesus entered into a royal rest. In the image of Isaiah , He sat down on the throne of the heavens and propped His feet on the earth as His footstool where God is putting all enemies under His feet (Heb 1.13). He ceased from the redemptive work of humiliation and became universal sovereign redeemer on that unique day in history. The first day of the week, Sunday, was set apart by redemptive deed because it was the inaugural day of Christ s kingly rule. It became His holy day (the Lord s Day, Rev 1.10; cf. Ex 20.10; Isa 58.13) that we are to remember and keep holy in honor to our Redeemer as Sabbath King. May we fall down before Jesus, the Christ, universal sovereign Lord, and Sabbath King; may we worship the King who is truly Lord of creation and Lord of all nations; may the Holy Spirit grant us clear insight into His place as Head of the church, so that we may honor Him on His holy and delightful day and thereby come to know God better; to the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit forever, amen.