The Goodness of the Ascension

with our Presbyterian denominations campus ministry called Reformed University Fellowship.

And so it's a real delight to serve on your behalf.

I always like to tell people that RUF is your ministry.

As members or as participants with Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church,

it's your involvement on a college campus.

And so it's really a delight to work with you for the faith, long-term, short-term,

and of our college students.

I'll just give a quick update.

RUF, we're having a great summer.

We're studying defeaters this summer in our Tuesday evening,

which are the feelings, the thoughts, the narratives that we feel like maybe would make Christianity feel unbelievable or implausible.

And so we're looking at some of those and why are they not defeaters?

Why does Christianity hold up to them?

And then the more exciting thing is that we have in the last week, week and a half,

formed our first student leadership team, which is really exciting

because our goal in RUF is to not just me doing ministry to students,

but equipping students to do ministry to students

because then they go into churches when they graduate, hopefully,

and they know they're gifting and they're ready to serve.

And so that's the dream.

So please pray that the Lord would bless that student leadership team

as we start game planning for the fall,

as we start looking to meet new students.

My wife is going to be on maternity leave during the fall,

which is like the college version of Christmas and Easter slammed together.

So I will be also on paternity.

And so that's not great timing, but we'll be ready for it.

So please pray for those things.

So turn, if you will, in your Bibles to John chapter 16.

John 16 · chapter mention

John chapter 16, or I think it's printed in your bulletin as well.

John 16 · chapter mention

We're just looking at one verse today.

And this will be our starting place, our anchor,

but we'll pivot around to a couple other places throughout the Bible.

And I will read our text for us, and we will dig in.

This is God speaking to us in John chapter 16, verse 7.

John 16:7

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.

It is to your advantage that I go away.

For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you.

This is God's word.

Would you pray with me?

Father in heaven, we pray now that as after we have sung,

asked you to be present with us, confessed, given, greeted one another,

all these things that you give us for a worship of you,

that you would now send your spirit to us

in the only and special way that your spirit can come to us.

That these words would be more than just a lecture,

more than filling the air,

but that they would be the spirit warming our hearts to you,

each one of us in the unique way that we need on this day.

You would be glorified, and your kingdom would be built.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

So most of us, if we've grown up in a church,

we're comfortable or familiar with a little process,

a little thing that we do most Sunday mornings

where we confess our faith.

We stand up in front, we stand or whatever.

We just did it when we read the Catechism,

and we say, hey, this is something that we believe as Christians.

This is a part of the Christian faith.

And one of the ways that we have,

Christians have done this for years,

thousands of years across the world,

is the Apostles' Creed.

It's what I'll call the lowest common denominator

that every Christian everywhere believes.

I believe in God the Father, maker of heaven and earth.

I'm sure I've done it with you here at Shine Mountain Press.

And it's the creed, the creedal statement,

the confession of faith that all Christians across time,

around the world, say, we believe this.

And I say it myself, I believe it,

but there's one line that stands out to me.

As I'm going along, I say, yeah, this makes sense.

This is great.

I understand this.

There's a line that says,

he suffered under Pontius Pilate, talking about Christ,

was crucified, dead, and was buried.

He descended on the hell.

On the third day, he rose again.

And then it says this.

It says, he ascended into heaven.

And for a while, I've always stopped,

and I've said, this made the cut.

This was so important that it made it

into the lowest common denominator

of every Christian faith across time.

He is this thing called the ascension

that we don't talk about very much

in the Christian tradition.

We believe it.

We say it's super important, but what does it mean?

What is this ascension that we are talking about?

And so today, what I hope to do

is to sort of squeeze some meaning out of the ascension.

See why is it good, and see why, in particular,

it ministers to a particular hole or thin spot

that I experience often in my faith,

and that I bet you experience in your faith as well.

And so we'll ask, what is the ascension?

And what does it mean, and why does it matter?

And my major claim, I would argue the Bible's major claim,

is that Christ's ascension offers true comfort

to the Christian and reason for trust

in the non-Christian, for the non-Christian.

If there are those of you who are questioning your faith,

or maybe don't yet profess faith in Christ,

the ascension offers true comfort

for those of us who are Christians,

and reason for trust for those of us who are undecided.

And I hope that I can persuade you

that the ascension is good news.

It's not just an add-on.

It's not just something that we wonder about

in the Apostles' Creed.

It's actually good news,

and that it is inseparable from God's saving work

in your life and in our world.

And so we'll look at this in three main ways

if you're a note-taker.

First thing we'll look at is,

is it really better that Jesus goes away?

Is it really better?

Second thing we'll look at is,

it indeed is better.

It is better that Christ goes away.

And third, so what?

Monday morning comes, so what does this mean?

So first thing we'll look at, is it really better?

And I want to try and create for us,

at least in my heart,

what often feels like a little problem

when I start thinking about at least the ascension,

maybe even my own Christian life.

If you remember from Acts chapter one,

or the end of the Gospels,

Jesus has just been raised from the dead.

He has appeared to the disciples.

He has appeared to many of his other followers.

First Corinthians tells us up to 500 other people,

and he's shown himself for who he is,

the risen Messiah, God himself,

who has done this incredible act of power over death.

And then in Acts one, he leaves.

He leaves.

And it tells us throughout the Gospels

that the apostles are confused.

They're sad.

They're nervous.

They're scared.

And there's this moment where he ascends into heaven,

and they're just standing,

looking up into the sky saying,

what just happened?

We thought we had this Jesus figured out.

He died.

He came back to life.

He's going to now bring his kingdom.

He's God.

He's the Messiah.

It's going to happen.

And then he leaves.

And there's this incredible deflation

that you can feel as Jesus goes into heaven.

And these angels appear and say,

yes, he's gone.

He told you he was going to go.

And I can imagine that first moment of them saying,

uh, that's disappointing.

We wish Jesus was here.

And I think I'm often in that same position

with the disciples.

I wish Jesus was here.

The problem, it's a problem that I think

that most of us as Christians feel,

and I'm pretty sure that if you're not a Christian

or you're non-Christian neighbors,

definitely feel it.

I wish Jesus was here.

First, for those of us who are Christians,

how many times have you thought in your devotional life,

I mean, this would be so much easier

to connect with Jesus

if he was just sitting on the couch with me,

talking to me about the Bible,

rather than me having to cut through my phone

and my fatigue to try and have a quiet time?

How many of us have experienced the real pains of life,

the traumatic moments of life,

and have felt,

I wish Jesus was here to make sense of all of this?

I think of Mary or Martha when Jesus' friend,

their brother, dies,

and they come to him and they say,

Jesus, where were you?

If you had been here,

our brother would not have died.

And then, well, Jesus does come three days later,

but he comes and he raises him back.

And I think of the painful moments in my life,

perhaps in your life,

why did my father have to die this way?

Or why did my child have to leave the faith?

Why did we have to have a miscarry?

And if Jesus was here in this world,

I could ask him this

and maybe begin to make some sense of it.

Or on a less acute level,

just think about daily wisdom.

Jesus, how should I navigate faith and my job

when I have a difficult boss?

Help me think through this.

Or how should I raise my kids in 2023

when it's such a strange time to be a parent?

How should I navigate this crazy world

of faith and politics, Lord?

I don't understand.

Just simple confirmation of my faith.

Often I feel like many of us are Thomas

who would say it'd be so much easier for me to believe

if Jesus was just here and I could touch him.

We feel the absence of Jesus in our lives.

Let me try and illustrate this way.

A couple, about a year ago,

a little over a year ago,

my mom passed away.

And one of the things that I miss particularly

is that my mom was a really accomplished cook.

If you ever knew her,

you probably had some of her food.

She was particularly good at cooking

like Mediterranean cuisine.

And I love cooking myself.

That's something she passed on to me.

And so I'll be often cooking.

And when she was alive,

I would call her and I'd say,

hey, I'm doing this and I'm trying this.

And what should I do?

And she would go, oh, this is easy.

Put this in, try this technique.

And it always turned out really well.

And so now as I'm cooking,

there'll be moments where I will say,

I miss mom.

I wish I could call her

and ask her what I should do in this moment

because she's just,

she was just more useful than YouTube, right?

That life is harder in her absence.

And I think that I feel the same way with Jesus.

That when our confession of faith says

he descended into heaven,

or I mean, sorry, he ascended into heaven,

it feels like a downgrade.

How about for you,

those of you who are still searching for in Christianity,

or maybe your friends or neighbors,

for this one, it seems like

this is a real downgrade in faith.

I often hear people say,

man, Jesus seems like a compelling person.

He was so moral.

He was such a great teacher.

But I just wish I was here.

I wish he was here

and I could ask him some of the questions I have.

And not only that,

it seems awfully convenient for you Christians

to say that Jesus was God

and then he died and then he left.

That's awfully convenient for you.

It's pretty far-fetched.

It's nice for you to be able to say

that he's God and he's not here.

You can't prove it now.

So maybe for some of you

who are searching spiritually,

it feels like believing Christianity

just feels untenable

because the founder of the whole thing's gone.

He's not around, presumably.

We can't see or touch him.

And I would, frankly,

I would challenge sort of your empirical need

to touch Jesus

because there were plenty of people

who did touch Jesus

and they still killed him.

They still didn't believe him.

But I empathize.

I resonate.

Christianity can feel hard to believe

when our founder isn't around.

Many of us,

here's my overall for this,

is that many of us operate under the desire,

maybe unspoken,

maybe even unacknowledged,

until this moment

that I wish Jesus was here.

The ascension feels like a downgrade.

It feels like a liability

to the Christian faith.

It's not that great.

And if that's you,

if that's resonating with you,

if you're a Christian or not,

I understand.

I feel it myself.

And I'd be happy to listen

and think with you about that.

But we'll move on here.

The overwhelming message of the Bible,

and this is what our text tells us,

is that it is to our advantage

that Jesus goes away.

That we are better off

that Jesus has left us.

How can that be?

Well, that's what we'll look into here.

So our first point is,

is it really better?

Is it better that Jesus leaves?

Second point, it is.

The overwhelming weight,

momentum, force of the Bible

is that it is better

that Jesus ascended into heaven.

And the answer is the ascension.

The doctrine and theology of the ascension.

Because what we have to understand here

is that the ascension is so much more

than Jesus just leaving earth.

The ascension is so much more

than Jesus no longer being present to us.

Because the ascension

is the final and ultimate vindication

of who Jesus is

and what he has done for his people.

It's the final proof

that Jesus is our redeemer,

as we confessed earlier today.

In the ascension,

the Bible does not just mean

that Jesus was just reabsorbed

into the divine,

like a drop of water in the ocean.

It's that when Jesus died,

he came back to life

with the same recognizable physical body

that he had.

And in that physical body,

he went to a place

that is somehow outside of our space

and time physical reality,

but is still present.

And then he sat down physically

on a throne

as the risen and reigning king.

That Jesus went physically and spatially

into a place called heaven

and physically and spatially

sat on a throne.

That means that Jesus is outside

of our space and time dimension,

and yet he's still involved

in our space and time dimension.

That's the ascension.

And what does this mean?

Well, a great theologian

from years ago wrote this,

a guy named Herman Bavinck.

He says this.

Listen carefully.

Carried up into heaven,

therefore, he, this is Jesus,

withdrew his bodily presence

from our sight,

not to cease to be present

with believers

still on their earthly pilgrimage,

but to rule heaven and earth

with more immediate power.

As his body was raised

up into the heavens,

so his power and energy

were diffused

and spread beyond

all the bounds

of heaven and earth.

Let me try and illustrate it this way.

How many of you

have a floodlight

over your garage?

How many of you

have a floodlight

over your garage?

If that floodlight

was just a few inches

off the ground

and you flicked

on that floodlight,

how much of your garage

and driveway

would it illuminate?

Not very much.

And so it's not useful at all

when you need the light

to flood over

the whole garage

and the whole driveway.

But when that floodlight

is way up high,

15, 20 feet high,

when you flick that light on,

it casts light

over your whole driveway

and you can see

what is in your front yard.

That is what Christ's ascension is,

but on a spiritual level.

It is Jesus going to

the highest place,

not just in our world,

but beyond our world

and diffusing

the whole universe

and beyond

with his power.

Christ's ascension

is not Christ

abandoning us,

but actually helping us

from heaven

in a bigger

and broader way.

And the Bible shows us

that Christ has done this

in three ways.

We talked about this.

This is funny, actually.

Matthew and I

didn't plan this.

This is just God

being good to us.

We talked about Jesus

as our Redeemer.

And we say that Jesus

is our Redeemer

in that he has three hats

or three offices

that he wears.

The prophet

and the priest

and the king.

And Matthew said,

hey, you can go read

the confession

or you can stay in here

and I'm actually going to

peel those back

a little bit.

So that Jesus redeems us

from the guilt of our sin

in our misery,

sin-soaked world

by wearing three hats

by accomplishing three offices,

prophet, priest, and king.

So as prophet,

Jesus guides us.

He guides us.

As priest,

he brings us close to God

and as king,

he wins for us.

As prophet,

he guides us.

As priest,

he brings us close to God

and as king,

he wins for us.

And the crucial point

is that those three offices

did not just happen

while Christ was on earth.

They are happening now.

In his ascension,

Christ is executing

his office as redeemer

as prophet, priest, and king

right now

in his ascended,

sitting on the throne

in the presence of God,

ruling over all things

as redeemer.

So let's look at these three things.

That it says,

so first we'll look at king.

Ephesians 4 says that

when Jesus ascended on high,

he led a host of captives

and gave gifts to men.

The way the Bible,

one of the ways that Jesus is pictured

is in his ascension

is as a victory parade.

As a king who is having

a victorious rule

over his enemies.

And the image that Paul has in mind

in Ephesians 4

when he talks about

Christ's victory parade

is the ancient Roman Caesar

when he had conquered

in military victory,

in military war.

So the Caesar marches

through Rome

and he's leading

all of the people

that he had triumphed

in front of him.

And he's coming behind him

as all the loot

that he had gotten

in the battle.

And then he goes up

and he sits down

on the throne

and says,

I am king

over the known world.

And he gives the loot

and the bounty

to his friends

and says,

thank you for helping me.

Jesus' ascension,

Paul says,

is the same idea

but on a cosmic

all-time scale.

That Jesus is the king

who has ascended

into heaven

and is ruling

and reigning

over,

as our confession says,

all his

and our enemies.

And this is incredible

because listen to what

Herman Bovink says

one more time about this.

This blows my mind.

He says this,

the ascension

is a bigger triumph

than the resurrection.

The ascension

is a bigger triumph

than the resurrection.

It is Christ's triumph

over the whole world,

over the laws of nature,

over the gravity of matter,

triumph over hostile,

diabolical,

and human forces.

Did you hear

what Bovink just said?

He said the ascension

is the bigger triumph

than the resurrection.

We think the high point

of the Christian faith

is Jesus coming back to life.

But no, Bovink says,

it's Christ ascending

into heaven

to rule and reign.

The ascension shows us

that Jesus is king

over everything.

And it makes sense then

as king over everything,

he should go to the place

where he can be

and rule most effectively.

When the president

of the United States

is elected,

he does not say,

I'm going to go down

to Pueblo

to be the president.

No offense to those

of you who are Pueblo,

but long live

the Pueblo Colorado Springs

tension.

He goes to Washington, D.C.

He goes to the place

where he can most effectively

rule his domain.

And in the same way,

Christ as king

goes to the place

where he is most effective.

Second, Jesus is our priest

in heaven.

He's our best priest in heaven.

So Jesus, as our priest,

he goes and atones

for our sins on the cross.

He is the one who dies

so that his blood

both covers over our sin

and washes clean

the pollution of our sin.

And he intercedes then

for us before the Father.

And Romans 8 says

that Jesus right now

as the ascended priest

is in the presence

of the Father

interceding his blood

on our behalf.

That he is constantly

before the Father,

the judge,

saying,

I have completed

the work that you gave me

to clean and cleanse

my people.

And it's the difference

between if you have a lawyer,

a lawyer zooming

into your court appointment

and showing up in person.

Let's say you have

a speeding ticket

and you need to get

a lawyer to defend you.

And you show up

on your court date

at 10 o'clock

and at 10.15

you get a text

from your lawyer saying,

I'm not going to make it.

Here's a Zoom link.

I hope that this is sufficient.

Is that a good lawyer?

No.

You want your lawyer

in the courtroom

right there walking in

saying,

I am here to defend

my client here and now.

Jesus is the lawyer

who shows up

into the courtroom of heaven

and is constantly

interceding

on his people's behalf.

His work is complete

but he is constantly

pointing back

to his complete work

on our behalf.

Jesus is the best lawyer

who goes to the courtroom

of heaven

to intercede

on our behalf.

We want him there.

Ascended as our lawyer.

Lastly,

Jesus is our best prophet

from heaven.

As prophet,

Jesus guides us.

He sends us,

he sends out the good word

and Jesus is our prophet

because he sends out

the good news

of the gospel

to,

as our text says

in just a few verses,

convict the world

concerning righteousness

and concerning sin.

He does this best

from heaven.

He tells us

even in our text

right here

that when he goes

to heaven,

he sends out

the Holy Spirit

who can work

more effectively

on a far greater scale

than even Jesus could

because Jesus was,

as our doctrine of Christ

says,

one man in one place

but the Holy Spirit

can send out the gospel

to all of Christ's elect's hearts,

to all places

at all times

and when Christ

is the ascended prophet,

he is diffusing

and scattering

the good news

of God's saving work

across the world.

As prophet

in heaven,

he is sending out

the good news

that Jesus is redeeming

and restoring

all things

in your life

and in our world.

Matthew 28,

all authority

on heaven

and earth

is mine.

Go

and make disciples.

That's Jesus' prophet.

It's the difference

between digital advertising

and telephone

pull printouts.

How many of you,

maybe when you lost

a dog as a kid,

would print out

a little flyer

of the dog

and go and nail it

to a couple

of telephone poles?

Not an effective way

to advertise.

Maybe three or four people

will see it.

But if you write

on a college campus,

if you do the right

digital advertising

on Instagram,

you can reach

thousands of people

in minutes.

That's what Jesus

as prophet

has done in heaven.

He is the digital advertisement

that is sending out

the news of God,

not on a telephone pole

for three or four people

to see,

but for everyone

to know

that Jesus is Lord

and he is coming

and he is our king

and he will redeem us.

And so these are good news

because we need

a prophet,

a priest,

and a king

in our sin-soaked world

to be prophet

and priest

and king

from heaven.

Jesus is our king

in heaven

because he rules

and defends us.

He restrains

and conquers our heaven.

We are still sinners.

We still do things

that are contrary

to God's law

and so we need

a priest

who is in the courtroom

of heaven

pointing to his finished work

to the Father.

We need a prophet

who is sending out

the good redeeming news

of the gospel,

the power of God

to salvation

to all those

who believe

in our world.

And so friends,

the ascension

is not just

unproductive Jesus

waiting in heaven

until the Father

says and go.

No,

the ascension

is the second person

of the Trinity

perhaps more active now

than he ever has been

for your faith

and for the church.

That is the good news

of the ascension.

It is to your advantage,

to our advantage

that he goes away.

So what?

So what?

How does this,

why does it matter?

Third and final point.

I'll try to apply this

first to those of us

who are Christians

and then to those of us

who are still searching,

those of us

who are not Christians.

So one of the most exciting,

I think,

so what's for Christians

is when we come

to the Lord's table,

when we come

to the sacrament,

the meal

of eating with Christ.

And so I'll try

and explain it this way.

There have been

several different views

of how to interpret

the Lord's Supper

across church history.

Our Baptist friends,

if you're Baptist,

we're so glad

you're here today.

I'm going to try

and explain a little bit

about a little

about Baptist theology

of the Lord's Supper.

But in Baptist theology,

the Lord's Supper

is eating and drinking

to remember

what Jesus has done

on the cross

and nothing more.

We call it

the memorialist view.

We eat and drink

and we feel pious feelings

towards God,

but that's it.

And if I'm honest,

I don't think

that that takes seriously

John chapter 6

John 6 · chapter mention

when Jesus says,

unless you eat my body

and drink my blood,

you have no part in me.

I think there's holes in this.

Our Catholic friends,

if you're Catholic,

again,

we're really glad here,

but I would argue

that there's an error here.

Our Catholic friends

would argue

that at the Lord's Supper,

at the Mass,

Christ is re-sacrificed

for our sins again.

And I would argue

that this does two errors.

First,

it shortchanges

the once and for all

atonement

that Christ has done

on the cross

that Hebrews talks about.

But I also would argue,

as Calvin argues,

that it's pulling apart

the dual nature,

the union of who Christ is,

that he is both God

and man inseparably

at the same time.

And it's pulling Christ

down from heaven

and then spreading his body

out throughout

the whole universe.

That's a big problem.

Calvin,

the Reformed tradition

at the Lord's Supper,

says that through

the Holy Spirit,

when we eat

and drink

the Lord's Supper,

the Holy Spirit

lifts us up

to be with Jesus.

Not that we pull

Jesus down

to be with us,

but the Holy Spirit

lifts us up

to commune,

to unite

a little bit more

with our risen

and reigning

prophet,

priest,

and king.

That we are made

to partake

of Jesus' body

and blood spiritually

just as our bodies

are nourished

by bread and wine.

Communion is not

God coming down

to be with us.

Communion is God

lifting us up

spiritually

to be with him.

It's practicing

for heaven.

When we eat

and drink,

even a meager

little cracker

and a small

tablespoon of drink,

we are practicing

for heaven.

And in this way,

Christians,

when you eat

and drink this meal,

you walk out

of this building

more united

to Jesus

than when you came in.

Mysteriously,

I don't understand this.

At the end of his section

on this

in Calvin's Institute,

he says,

I don't understand it,

but I experience it

and I know it's true.

When you walk in

and take the Lord's Supper

and you walk out,

you are somehow

more united to Christ

than when you walked

in this building.

That's true

because of the ascension.

I'll try to make this

practical for a particular

group of people

who I am a part of right now,

which is parents

of young children.

My daughter is four.

Sitting through church

can be hard for her sometimes.

My wife is expecting

another one

in five weeks.

And I read this blog

on Mere Orthodoxy,

a great blog,

a couple of weeks ago,

and it says,

parenting in church

is really challenging

right now.

It's challenging

because it's wrangling

toddlers the whole time

because they're just wiggling

and so it's hard

to pay attention.

It's hard to get them

to pay attention.

But the Lord's Supper

and our doctrine

of the Lord's Supper,

meeting the ascension,

means that at this sacrament,

grace happens to us.

And even in our distraction,

the Holy Spirit

is actively bringing us

into presence.

So even if there are moments

when you as a parent

are like,

I don't know

what the pastor said today,

when you eat and drink this,

God is being faithful to you

even in your distraction,

lifting you into his presence.

And that's true for all of us,

but especially for those of us

who struggle to sit

and wiggle.

Christ's ascension means

that Christ the God-man

is sitting in his throne

and we are united to him

when we eat and drink in faith.

That second,

last thing,

how does this relate?

So what for those of us

who are searching,

who are not convinced

of Christianity yet?

What does this ascension mean?

Briefly,

I think it tells us

that this world

is not all there is to life.

This world is not

all there is to life.

There's a book

by two secular atheist philosophers

named Hubert Dreyfus

and Sean Kelly.

The book's called

All Things Shining.

And as secular atheists,

they try to say

that there's no real purpose

to life.

We're materialistic beings,

ultimately lights and clockwork,

atoms spinning around,

and that there's nothing

really more to life

than physics and chemistry.

And so all you can try to do

is scratch out

some shiny,

sacred micro-meanings

out of a gray,

dull universe.

And that's what they call

it,

All Things Shining.

There's nothing to life.

Just try and create

a little bit of happiness

in your life.

It's depressing stuff.

So tough way

to be a human being.

But if I'm honest,

and if you're here

and you're not a Christian,

I want you to think hard

with me on this.

I don't think

that that actually corresponds

with how most of us live.

I don't think that's existentially,

day to day,

how most of us

go through our lives.

And think about it this way.

Think about some of the most

satisfying moments

in your life.

Sipping a good drink

by a creek

with some friends.

Or the smell of barbecue

on a Saturday afternoon.

I did some barbecue ribs yesterday,

and it was amazing.

Just this extra sensory experience

or sweet rolls

coming out of the oven

on Christmas morning.

Right?

These are moments

that are more than

just biological life.

They're more than just

nourishing our bodies.

Right?

And they point us to,

if you're honest,

they point us to

that there is something

more to this life

than just electrons

spinning around protons.

that there is actually

some good,

true,

and beautiful things

in our world.

And Christ's ascension

affirms

what you already

intuitively know.

It affirms

what you already

intuitively know,

that there is purpose

to this world.

And not only that,

it puts what you

intuitively know

into a place

and a person.

The risen

and reigning king.

And it affirms it

and it puts it

in a person.

It says that there are

good,

true,

real,

beautiful moments

in our life.

And it says it's Jesus

and he is the place

and the person

where all of those things

find their culmination.

He is the one

who is the center

of the enjoyable things

that we all

intuitively experience

in our lives.

So if materialism is real,

the most you can hope

to get out of life

is just as much dopamine

as you can squeeze

out of this world.

And that's all you get.

But if Christ is ascended,

then all of those

joy-filled moments

point us to a place

and a person.

That is Jesus Christ

where the ascension

is both validating

and personifying

the goodness

that you experience.

And without the ascension,

all you have

is to just try

and get one more hit.

And if that's true,

you might as well do heroin

because that's the most

bang for your buck.

I'm serious.

The ascension points us

to the place

where all goodness

is centered.

That is Jesus Christ.

If it's true,

then what you already

intuitively experience

is real.

And I think that's

reason to trust.

I think that's reason

to believe.

I think it's reason

to say Jesus is different

from anything else.

I've covered a lot

of territory today.

I hope you see

that the ascension

is not a liability

to the Christian faith.

it's not a downgrade

for your spirituality.

But it's good news.

It is better,

as Jesus says,

that I go away.

It's to our advantage

because we have

a prophet, priest, and king

who is ruling and reigning,

who is bringing us

slowly and more

but progressively

into the presence of God

and who is sending out

the good news

of God's redeeming activity

in our world.

And that that is

reason to believe.

And it is comfort

for those of us

who are Christians.

It matters,

and I hope

that all of you

can trust it a little more.

Would you pray with me?

Father in heaven,

we pray that you

would encourage our faith,

all of us,

in the unique way

that we need

to be ministered to

by the ascension.

Thank you that Jesus

is not waiting around

in heaven

until he comes back,

but that he is indeed

active right now

bringing his kingdom,

bringing us to the Father,

building his church,

help us to trust that,

bring your kingdom

and be glorified in it.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Would you please stand

for our final hymn?

God sent his son,

they called him Jesus,

he came to love,

heal and forgive,

he bled and died.

He bled and died

to buy my pardon,

an empty grave is there

to prove my Savior lives.

Because he lives,

I can face tomorrow,

because he lives,

all fear is gone,

because I know

he holds the future,

and life is worth the living

just because he lives.

How sweet to hold

a newborn baby

and feel the pride

and joy he gives,

but greater still

the calm assurance

this child can face

uncertain days

because he lives.

Because he lives,

because he lives,

because he lives,

I can face tomorrow,

because he lives,

all fear is gone,

because I know

he holds the future,

and life is worth the living

just because he lives.

And then one day,

I'll cross the river,

I'll fight life's final war with pain,

and then as death

gives way to victory,

I'll see the lights of glory

and I'll know

he lives.

Because he lives,

I can face tomorrow,

because he lives,

all fear is gone,

because I know

he holds the future,

and life is worth the living

just because he lives.

Christians, lift your hands

and receive a blessing

not from me,

but from the living God.

The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make his face

to shine upon you

and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up

his countenance upon you

and give you peace.

Have a happy Lord's Day.

Be well.