Jesus is King (Luke 24:43-55) (5/17/26)

Here's one of those times I spoke of earlier

Christ is risen All right, we're gonna try this

again because the day is ascension Sunday I'm

gonna say Christ is risen and you're gonna say

he is ascended Christ is risen Excellent let

us now pray Almighty God grant us such faith

and your only son our Savior who is ascended

into heaven, that we may live each day with our

hearts and spirits fixed on Him as King and Lord

of all. We ask now that you would make the words

of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts

pleasing and acceptable to you for the sake of

Jesus Christ, our King and Lord. Amen. Again

now let us hear our gospel reading Luke 24 beginning

with verse 44. and of course this is Jesus. Then

he said to them, these are the words which I

spoke to you while I was still with you, that

all things must be fulfilled which were written

in the law of Moses and the prophets and the

Psalms concerning me. And he opened their understanding

that they might comprehend the scriptures. Then

he said to them, thus it is written, and thus

it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and

to rise from the dead the third day. and that

repentance and remission of sins should be preached

in His name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.

And you are witnesses of these things. Behold,

I send the promise of my Father upon you, but

tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you have

been endued with power from on high. And He led

them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up

His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass

that while He blessed them, He was parted from

them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped

Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

And were continually in the temple, praising

and blessing God. And it finishes with the word,

Amen. This is the truth of Almighty God. Receive

it in your hearts. There's three things that

I want you to think about as we look at this

passage. And that is Christ ascended is the setting

of all things right. Christ ascended is the setting

of all things right. Secondly Christ ascended

is an assurance. Christ ascended is an assurance.

And finally Christ ascended means that we live

as His vassal. Christ ascended means we live

as His vassal. And if you don't know what a vassal

is, we're going to get to that shortly. 40 days

after Christ's resurrection, He ascended from

the earth to the right hand of the Father. 40

days after resurrection Sunday was this past

Thursday. So this Lord's Day, we commemorate

Jesus' ascension. Jesus was raised up on the

cross. He was raised up from the dead and is

raised up to the right hand of the Father. Now

we all understand that the right hand has historically

always been the place of authority and power.

It emanates from the throne, but the right hand

is from which all authority for that throne comes

from. It is fitting that our Lord and Savior

Jesus Christ's mission for the redemption of

his people and for all of creation Begins and

ends in heaven it is actually anchored in heaven

and This is one of our insurances our lives are

not anchored to this world but to heaven Our

lives are anchored in this way in his ascension

Jesus is crowned as King over all things, thus

setting right order and purpose in all of creation.

From creation, man was made to rule over the

world and all that was in it. And our first covenant

head, Adam, who was given dominion over all creation

and told us to do it and be free to fill the

earth. And in this, he failed. covetously seeking

to preserve his own life and disobeyed at a tree.

Jesus the second Adam and our covenant head of

the church sought the redemption of men to his

death and obeyed even on a tree. Jesus did not

fail but was raised for the glory of God and

praise God for our benefit. Jesus loved God and

obey God, trusting the Father to raise Him up

in vindication and seat Him at His right hand

with all authority in heaven and earth. Now every

person in history is subject to Jesus whether

or not they think so. The world and everything

in it is His. All that we have been given to

us As vassal lords, we will give an account for

what we have done with what God has bestowed

upon us. Now, kids, you say, OK, I'm going to

explain vassal lord in just a second. But God

gives us things we're responsible for. And children

out there, young people, your number one thing

for you. To show your kingship under King Jesus

is to joyfully obey your parents Right away and

take care of all that he has done for you You've

already been baptized his name has been placed

upon you every week. You come in confess the

Lord and confess your sins Dearly beloved everyone

has a king they follow the only question is Which

king do they follow whom? Do they serve? Webster's

1828 dictionary, and as I've told you before,

you can consider that the dictionary of the Bible.

But it defines a vassal as a tenant who holds

land of a superior and who vows fidelity and

homage to that superior. As a Christian, we have

been delegated authority for all that God has

bestowed into our care. And we are to do this

with fidelity and homage to King Jesus. And as

you recall from last week, Jesus said to his

disciples in John 14, right? And that means not

just to his disciples, but to all of us in the

church, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

In Ephesians chapter 2 we see and hear that God

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

has raised us up together and made us sit together

in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the

ages to come that He might show the exceeding

riches of His grace and His kindness to us in

Christ Jesus. Because of the work of King Jesus

we are raised up with Him in heavenly places

and sit together with Him so that God may what?

Demonstrate his exceeding riches of grace and

his kindness to us in Christ Jesus We are co

-heirs with Christ Jesus Now of course the idea

of a king can be appealing a good king anyway

Right a good king will lead and restrain evil

And we enjoy that idea that our king that is

Jesus, is Lord over all things. And we look forward

to the great eschatological end of history as

described in Philippians chapter 2, where all

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

of mankind since creation with their knees bowed

and all their tongues confess that Jesus is Lord,

that Jesus is truly the King. We know that on

that day Jesus will be in fact vindicated over

all men. And in that day, it will be demonstrated

that Jesus is Lord, both by actions, a bended

knee, and by words, confession of their mouth.

Now when we look around us, what do we see? We

see raging neighbors and godless, raging nations

and godless neighbors who serve other kings.

Some of who are actively plotting and conspiring

against God and His anointed Son. his church.

Sometimes we even publicly hear them declaring

that they will break their bonds that constrain

them and cast away God's control over them. They

live as if Jesus is not King. They live as if

Jesus is not Lord over all men and all creation.

We as God's people must not fall into the same

snare. We must beware that Jesus is both our

Savior and King right now in our lives. The Christian

life means both confession and forsaking sin.

The Christian life means that Jesus is in charge.

We are truly vassals to King Jesus. He has called

us by His grace found in the work of Christ Jesus.

given the responsibility in these world. And

we are called to fidelity and homage to our King.

So part of this is you have to realize it's all

given to him. How does God work out his authority?

How does he work out all of his enemies being

put under his footstool, being put under his

feet? He works that out by his mighty hand through

his church. So we are called to fidelity and

homage to King Jesus. Our gospel reading today

records the account of Jesus' ascension. It tells

of Jesus' explanation of the scriptures that

they were all about them. If you want to be a

good vassal to King Jesus, you need to know His

word. You need to be continuously listening to

it, reading it, discussing it, teaching it. And

most importantly, because don't let this be an

intellectual thing, but may it be a thing of

your action, taking God's word and doing it.

Jesus tells them that in their understanding

of the scriptures, they are to take the gospel

message of which they're eyewitnesses by their

preaching to the whole world and by their way

of life. And it becomes a declaration. to all

nations. Our lesson reading from Acts chapter

Acts 1 · chapter mention

1, which just as a note, is the second half of

the Gospel of Luke. Beginning in Acts chapter

Acts 1:9

1 verse 9 says, now when Jesus had spoken these

things while they watched, he was taken up. And

a cloud received him out of their sight. And

of course, then they're looking steadfastly.

This is a real important thing to make note of.

This word received. into the cloud means with

extreme to receive a person in this way is to

receive them with great hospitality. Jesus brought

into God's presence to his throne room, not just

as if, okay, he's floating on a cloud going over

here. No, no, he is brought and given and brought

in under God's great blessing and hospitality

and placed at his right hand. The second thing

that we see here is it tells us that they were

standing there gazing up at the heaven. The gospel

is not about you feeling good about what Jesus

is doing. I mean, I can only imagine what that

was like, standing there watching Jesus go up,

watching the cloud open up, which is referencing

the glory cloud of God that we see in the Old

Testament leading the people of God. Jesus goes

up there. I can imagine how great that is. People

of God, you can't go around saying, man, I feel

so good about my faith. No, we have a calling

to go and proclaim that gospel and live it as

vassal lords to King Jesus. All of this that

is happening in Acts and in Luke here fulfills

the vision of Daniel chapter 7. Here this is

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

Daniel speaking. He says I was watching the night

visions and behold one like the son of man Coming

with the clouds of heaven he came to the ancient

of days He came to the ancient of days and they

brought him near before him then to him he was

given dominion and glory and a kingdom People

of God why was this dominion and glory given?

It says, Daniel goes on, that all peoples, nations,

and languages should serve Him. And what level

of authority is given Jesus at His ascension?

It says this, going on in Daniel, His dominion

is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass

away, and His kingdom the one which shall not

be destroyed. Jesus' ascension is the culmination

and coronation where He He both reigns and makes

intercession for his people. Elsewhere we see

in Revelations chapter 12, we see the summary

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

of Jesus' life. Here now, beginning of verse

1. Now a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman

clothed with the sun and moon under her feet,

under her head a garland of twelve stars. Then

being with child, she cried out in labor and

in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared

in heaven, behold a great fiery red dragon having

seven heads and ten thorns and seven diadems

in his head. And his tail drew a third of the

stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.

And the dragon stood before the woman who was

ready to give birth to devour her child as soon

as it was born. She bore a male child who was

to rule all nations with a rod of iron. and her

child was caught up to God and is thrown. Remember

in the scriptures that the sun, the moon, and

the stars are often symbols of earthly leaders.

Who are these leaders? Well, Satan spurred Herod

to devour Jesus. Satan spurred the high priests,

Herod and Pilate, to kill Jesus. In Christ's

death and resurrection, Satan and all those who

conspired and took counsel together We're defeated

Then Jesus was caught up to the right hand of

the father to rule the nations with a rod of

iron And that of course reminds us of Psalm 2

Jesus God says I've already he laughs at everyone

conspiring Because he's already set his on the

throne. He's gonna rule with that iron rod And

that sounds harsh at first But remember, there

is grace found in Psalm chapter 2. It says this

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

at the end of Psalm 2. Now therefore be wise,

O kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth.

Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the sun, lest he be angry, and you perish

in your way, when his wrath is kindled but a

little. Blessed are all those who put their trust

in Him. There at the very place where God establishes

the authority of King Jesus, He extends grace

and mercy to the repentant. We can be subject

to King Jesus and trust in Him and we will be

blessed. The ascension is the glorious coronation

of Jesus and He ascends into that cloud. And

all of this a great joy It is a great joy. What

a great assurance and comfort it is to the church

Our King sits on the throne of heaven and all

authority in heaven and on earth has been given

to him Because Jesus is king there is an ethic

for you and I his church and This ethic is for

us to live as his vassal You see all of you were

baptized into Christ this remote reminds us of

Romans 6 We were baptized into Christ Jesus and

we were baptized into his death Therefore we

were buried with him baptism into death That

just as Christ was raised from the dead by the

glory of the father Even so we also should walk

in the newness of life. We are called to walk

in the newness of life To walk in obedience to

the word taking responsibility for all that God

has given us to His glory. As servants of the

King, God is calling us to newness of life, and

that is an ongoing maturing in Christ. From our

baptism, we are to live knowing that we're not

just living for the King, but we are to be in

Christ, to be conformed to God's standard in

our daily lives. in every single realm that God

has given you. Again, children, look up here.

What realm has God given you? What kingdom? Joyful

obedience to your parents. Calling on the Lord

Jesus. Believing God's word. Keeping your rooms

clean. Keeping things tidy when you're told to.

I'm okay with you playing and having a good time

making a mess. Then what do you do? You clean

it up. Because God has given you that realm to

care for. That extends to you parents, too. The

condition of your house, the condition of your

yard, right? If someone were to die today and

they walked in your place, would they know you

were a Christian? Listen. We must understand.

that we are to be conformed to God's standard

in every single realm that God has bestowed to

us in the sovereign providence. And that's really

important. You see, how many of you guys are

happy with every particular area of your life?

All of them. Right? You like them all? You need

to understand something. Those hardships, that

is God's providence for you. and He's given you

a realm and a responsibility in it. We must evaluate

our heart motives, our life actions, and our

words to God's plumb line. Dearly beloved, Colossians

chapter three reminds us of this, says it in

a different way. It says, if they were raised

with Christ, seek those things which are above

where Christ is sitting at the right hand of

God. Again, you have this. understanding Christ

set the right hand of God you've been raised

with him it says set your mind on things above

not things on earth for you died and your life

is hidden with Christ Jesus now this is really

important right when he says your life is hidden

in Christ Jesus that means your salvation is

held by his authority your life and the hard

providences, and the good providences, and all

the things He has given to you, all that is secured,

hidden in Christ Jesus. And then it says, when

Christ who is our life appears, then you will

also appear with Him in glory. You'll be addressed

and held to account for this. Therefore, put

to death Your members which are on the earth,

that is, he's talking about sinfulness, fornication,

uncleanness, passion, evil desires, and covetousness,

which is idolatry. God here tells us that we

are raised with Christ. And because we are raised

with Christ, we need to seek the things that

are above where Christ is sitting at the right

hand with all authority, power, and dominion.

So we are to live each day knowing and believing

Jesus is King with actions consistent to our

petition for God's will to be done on earth as

it is in heaven. I want to say that again. Weird

to live each day knowing and believing that Jesus

is King with actions consistent with our petitions

for God's will to be done on earth as it is in

heaven. This can only be done because we died

in our life. is hidden with Christ in God. We

are told that we must put to death or mortify

our sins. And there are three ways that we mortify

our sins. Three ways. First is conversion. Galatians

chapter four tells us that our conversion, Christ

has delivered us from reigning sin and we are

no longer in bondage but delivered from our sins.

The second way that we put our sins to death

is by taking an assessment and sometimes we find

a backlog of unconfessed sins. So we must, as

Colossians 3 says, mortify our sin and walk away

from it. You know, I've used this illustration

before, but our lives are like a garden, right?

And sin are like weeds. They choke out the good

life and the fruitfulness. Ladies and gentlemen,

if you don't look at God's word and run one line

of God's expectations to you, you're going to

have weeds growing all over the place choking

out your fruitfulness, even if you want it to

be fruitful. We must confess our sins. We must

pull those weeds out and then walk away. Don't

do this. Don't pull them out. Have this big pile

sit next to the garden of your life. What happens

there? You keep all your sin on the edge. I guarantee

you a bunch of those weeds lying on the side

are going to jump back into the garden. Pick

them up and throw them away. The third way is

this, is to mortify our son as Don Daly and our

ongoing walk with God. Using the same metaphor

as the garden, we need to go out and Daly pull

those weeds out. Now, this is really done in

two ways. And this is really important. We must

do morning prayers and evening prayers. Our morning

prayers are in preparation for the day. Right?

Lord, these are all things I have to do today.

Bring your blessing. Help me to obey. Right?

And then at the end, you say your evening prayers.

Lord, thank you for your great blessings, your

providence today. Good, bad, hard. Beautiful,

joyous, all those things. Now, Lord, did I live

up to what you asked me to do? Did I act as a

vassal, Lord, in those responsibilities today?

Did I grumble and complain? Am I angry? It's

an assessment at the end. Confess your sins.

It's weeding in the morning and weeding in the

night. I don't know if you've ever had a garden,

but I can tell you, I've gone out and weeded

a garden in the morning early, and then when

I got home at night, there were more weeds there.

In this, we must consider several other things.

One, we have to be moral before God. That sounds

like going without saying. But we must avoid

moralism. Moralism is avoiding things we wish

we didn't have to avoid. wishing that we could

do what unbelievers do. We covet their ability

to sin or their ability to seemingly walk through

ignorance. They seem perfectly fine from our

distance. It's living suspecting that unbelievers

are having a good time and so moralism wants

to put a stop to sin because it is envious. I

can tell you I personally have experienced this.

Moralism is impotent and unable to produce any

good For those in the church we can fall into

sin as God describes in Deuteronomy chapter 8

Deuteronomy 8 · chapter mention

It is the sin of forgetting what God has given

us salvation by means of God declaring them his

people in Deuteronomy chapter Moses is saying,

hey, God made this covenant with you, and God

gives a warning. You know what's going to happen?

You're going to go in. You're going to start

receiving all these blessings. Things are going

to be good and going your way. And then you're

going to start saying, well, I did this. You're

not going to remember what God did, how He pulled

you out of the depths of despair and slavery

and delivered you and provided everything for

you and gave you this land for what? Everything

that he gives you, is it for your glory and for

your benefit, and you think you did all this?

In verse 19 of Deuteronomy 8, God says, then

it shall be if by any means, if any of you, excuse

me, then it shall be if you by any means forget

Yahweh your God and follow other gods and serve

them and worship them, I testify against you

this day that you will surely perish. Right now,

many of you have walked with God for some time.

You've accomplished much by the grace of God.

You come to church every week, and God renews

His covenant with you corporately. And His people,

for you are His people, His corporate people,

for the sake of Christ Jesus. And then you flow

out of church to the outposts of your households.

And there you have personal devotions and prayers

and family worship and podcasts and books. There

is confession of sin in your homes. But sometimes

we fall in the trap of saying, I've done so much

in eradicating sin that we grow complacent. We

act as if we are good and satisfactory in our

fidelity and homage to our King. I want you to

think briefly of King Josiah. Second Chronicles

2 Chronicles 34 · chapter mention

chapter 34 tells the story of King Josiah. Now

many of you know King Josiah was declared a good

king. He wasn't a perfect king, but he was a

good king. And part of that was because he lived

as his father David, who again was not a perfect

king. But he confessed his sins and he went continuously

trying to conform himself to God's Word. And

think about Psalm 119 written. about knowing

and loving and living and walking in God's Word.

So King Josiah, he goes down and he does great

things. He burns down the high places, people

worshiping God like they wanted. It says that

he went after the idols and the bales. Every

kind of description of the different kinds of

graven images. He took them all. He burned them

up. He threw all the ashes. from all these things

and desecrated him by throwing him into the cemeteries

of the pagans. Man, he even went the extra mile.

And right before he destroyed the altars of Baal,

it says that he killed the prophets of Baal.

They could have repented, but he killed them.

He burned them up, and then threw their ashes.

their bones through their ashes into that cemetery

of the unbelievers. He does all of this, and

then he goes and starts going out and restoring

the temple. Man, we gotta have right worship.

Gotta do this. And he does all this. Now, I would

say that if you look at all the kings throughout

the history of Israel, this guy got after it.

He's trying to do the right thing. And then one

day, as they're restoring the temple, they find

the scroll of the law, and they bring it to the

king, and he reads it. He's like, holy smokes,

it rips and tears his robe. He's rending his

heart. He's caught to the heart because he realized,

in spite of all this stuff that he had done in

honor of God and rightly, he still They still

as the people of God did not measure up and worship

God rightly they weren't walking in obedience

to him You know all of this is to say You know

on how do you guys there for Lord's Day worship?

If this is the center of where everything emanates

out of for the rest of your life. How do you

prepare? We've encouraged you To read the scriptures

ahead of time, we put those out for you. Do you

go to bed in a timely fashion so that you can

get up joyful and not be tired? I'm not talking

about providentially, Henry, your kid wakes up

in the middle of the night and throwing up or

something. No, I'm talking about that. But do

you prepare for the Lord's Day as if it is the

center from which your life comes from? This

is the place where we corporately worship together.

Are you cut to the heart, and like Josiah, make

changes in your daily life, living as a vassal

king to Jesus? Do you make King Jesus the center

of your words and actions about all people, and

to all people? Now, many of you have identified,

and in some cases, you have destroyed some of

the cultural idols of our times in your household.

What are these two ways? That we mortify sin

one we talked about It starts here before you

daily morning and evening in your own household

You must start by assembling and worship with

God's people in Confession and in covenant renewal

which assists with the second those morning and

evening prayers that preparation of the day and

that evaluation of the day I found it helpful

sometimes to keep a little paper on the side

of my bed, because sometimes I'm up late and

maybe it's not a good time. I realized, you know,

that interaction with my coworker, or that person

today, or my child who's already asleep in the

bed, that wasn't good. And you write a note,

you confess it to God, then you go deal with

it tomorrow. Clear the books. Do you ask yourself

how did I live? Did I live as a faithful vassal

or as an independent kingdom? Did I love and

lead my wife tending to her growth in Christ

with an understanding with grace unto fruitfulness

and all that she has to do? Did you obey and

respect your husband in reverence to God? So

that he might be fruitful in his calling to be

formed to be conformed to Christ Jesus? Children

look up here Children are you joyously obeying

your parents right away and becoming fruitful?

In King Jesus For everyone in the room What of

the authorities in your life your bosses? your

church, the police down the street. Those are

all God's providences in your life. Are you in

biblical submission for their fruitfulness in

King Jesus? Sometimes we wonder where sin is

coming from. We think that we have kept our households

from sinful and wicked things and somehow sin

keeps appearing. It is because they were born

of Adam and nothing earthly can put sin to death.

Not traditional values, not peer pressure, not

Christian education. Our only hope is that we

are being kept in Christ, in God. Because Jesus

is risen, ascended, our life is hidden in Christ.

In Christ is freedom, liberation. morality. We

are called to kiss the Son and be subject to

the King in all areas of our lives. In our own

strength we fail. Our sanctification is weeding

our lives according to God's standards set out

in His Word back to that beginning, right? Jesus

explained this is all about me. So here you are.

Everything we do must be anchored in Christ,

His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.

Rejoice! God's grace is for you, saints of God,

because of our Lord and Savior, the ascended

Christ Jesus. Christ ascended! Let us pray. Our

Father, we pray that You would keep us from cluttering

our minds with false hopes, with trying to compel

You or to plead with You to go our own way instead

of Your ordained way, of raising up false hopes

to delude ourselves and others. Grant that our

minds be fixed where our true joys are to be

found, even in Jesus Christ. Grant that our hope

be grounded upon Him and upon Your Word so that

we may see all things clearly and work with knowledge,

and have hope in Jesus our Lord who is King of

all. Amen.