Dennis Tuuri

Sermon text is found in Mark 16 verses 19 and 20. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Mark 16:19 and 20. So then the Lord Jesus after he had spoken to them was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

Let’s pray. Lord God, we thank you for this text. We thank you for its simplicity, power, and significance. Help us, Lord God, by your Holy Spirit to understand it, to be transformed by it. May we be your courageous joyful people as a result of this text. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated. We come today to the concluding act of what we might call Easter tide. If you begin with Lent, it’s preparation for Easter. Easter and then the church calendar goes through Easter time beginning with Easter of course resurrection Sunday. We went through then a series of sermons on the post-resurrection appearances of our savior and today we conclude the post-resurrection appearances with a discussion of the ascension. This text tells us about the ascension.

Is the microphone working? Okay. Yes. Back there. Okay. Sounds funny to me for some reason. Okay. This text and what it contains is the simplest account. There’s only maybe two or three accounts of the ascension. This is the simplest of them and really the most significant because it ties together the ascension and the session which we’ll discuss in a few minutes.

The ascension is arguably the most important festival of the church year. It is also arguably the most important date and time of all human history. Remember, we’re talking about a historical event here, not an idea, not a concept. Jesus ascended bodily from this earth into heaven. And that event, that historical event that we celebrate today is arguably, as I said, the most important event of all history.

R.C. Sproul actually said that he was troubled by a text regarding the ascension, a series of texts where it says that Jesus said, “I have to go away. It’s better for you that I go away than that I stay.” And that’s hard to understand because we always want Christ’s presence with us. We want to be with Jesus. We want to go to Israel and see where he walked.

And then the Luke version of the ascension tells us that the disciples after the ascension didn’t go home. They wouldn’t go back to Jerusalem moping from the Mount of Olives. They went back rejoicing with great joy. Why? Well, hopefully as we think about the ascension today based on God’s word, you’ll have that similar great joy for what happened over 2,000 years ago on that particular day at that particular time—this tremendous event.

This began a series of studies by R.C. Sproul about this event. And he at the end of this study wrote this: “I am now convinced that no single event in the life of Jesus is more important than the ascension. No, not even the cross or the resurrection. It is dangerous—Sproul, who doesn’t like to say things dangerously—it’s dangerous business to assign relative values to the episodes of Christ’s life and ministry. But if we underestimate the significance of the ascension, we sail in perilous waters.”

So there’s a sense in which the events of Christ Easter tide are a single event. There’s certainly that perspective. Certainly a cross is important. Certainly the resurrection is important. But the ascension has particular significance, I think, and Sproul thought this as well. And I think he’s right. I think you could make a case that it may be should be seen as the most important event in all of created history.

Now, I think it’s particularly important for us for two reasons. One, because the church has to a large extent ignored the ascension. You know, maybe it still has the date on the calendar and some things are talked about it, but really it’s kind of ignored. And one reason it’s somewhat ignored is that it doesn’t fall on a Sunday, right? It’s celebrated 40 days after the resurrection. So it’s always on a Thursday. So this is the first Sunday after the commemoration of the ascension, 40 days after resurrection Sunday.

So maybe that’s one reason. But somehow it’s connected. I think this idea of the lack of significance placed upon the ascension to the idea that what Christ came to do was forgive us of our sins and that’s it. The ascension tells us that something else is going on in what happens in the death and resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So first an emphasis on the ascension is particularly needed in our day because the church has ignored the implications of the session of Jesus Christ at the right hand of God the Father and what that’s all about—what human history is now and the significance of it particularly for humankind.

Secondly, it’s important because this is what the world doesn’t really want to hear about ever: the ascension and session of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah, baby Jesus at Christmas time we can probably engage in some of that singing and that’s good. And then Easter—well, we don’t know if he rose from the dead, but it’s a nice thing and we can combine it with other myths and things and it’s good because then he goes away and we don’t have to think about it. It’s just this abstract event, this resurrection. But the ascension of Jesus Christ and the implications of it—his reign at the right hand of the Father over every power and authority—no, that’s a bridge too far for the secularist.

And we live in a particular time when men denying the session of the Lord Jesus Christ try to impose their session, their government, their rule over all of humanity and all of the world. We never totally deny what God says. We twist it and turn it because we’re made in the image of God. We have creativity. We have recreativity. Our thoughts are always analogous. So our sin twists reality. And so rejecting the ascension of Christ, we live in a day and age today when in this country and across the world for the most part men are attempting to build their own sessions, their own absolute government.

So this text is important. We’re going to deal with it by just looking at the various phrases of the text.

First I’ll talk about the phrase “so then the Lord Jesus”—this description of Lord Jesus I’ll talk about that—so lordship and ascension.

Secondly, we read “after he had spoken to them” in verse 19 of Mark 16. After he had spoken and the text draws our attention to what we’ve talked about for the last four or five weeks. So we’ll talk about that a little bit again.

Third, “he was taken up into heaven”—that’s the ascension, right? Taken up.

Fourth, “he sat down at the right hand of God.” This is the session. And I think this is the only place where those things are tied so closely together—ascension and session. You know, the word session comes from the word meaning to be seated, to sit. And so that’s what it means. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. And so we’ll talk about the session then, and specifically, we’ll talk about king, priest, and warrior.

And then the last verse of the text in verse 20 says “they went out and preached everywhere and the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.” So this talks about the relevance of the ascension and session for us and Christ’s presence. Even though he is ascended, his location is at the right hand of God the Father from whence he waits until all the enemies are made his footstool and then he returns.

So we’ll see about the relevance of us and the presence of God. So that’s the plan: five simple points going through these five phrases of Mark 16:19 and 20.

Okay, let’s begin with verse 19, the first phrase: “So then the Lord Jesus.”

And I don’t want to make a big point of this, but it is interesting as you study the scriptures. This name “Lord Jesus”—do you remember seeing it much? No, not up to now in the gospel accounts. It’s only mentioned twice, I think, in the gospel accounts: here and in Luke 24:3, which says “when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.”

So “Lord Jesus” is used here post-resurrection and in connection with the ascension. The term “Lord Jesus” is used post-resurrection in Luke 24. And there’s something significant about that. I think there’s a reason for that. Now it is true that Acts 1:21 tells us this: “One of the men who have [been] looking at the qualifications for the apostles—it had to be one of the men who accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us.”

So there’s a description of the pre-death and resurrection and ascension Christ Jesus, and it does refer to him as Lord Jesus. But that term is not used until it’s post-resurrection. Then here in Mark in relationship to the ascension. So what you might say? Well, it’s interesting because it brings to mind Philippians 2:9 through 11. “Therefore, God has highly exalted him.”

Well, now I think that the doctrine of the ascension, the fact, the historical event of the ascension of Christ is the most obvious relationship to this particular phrase. God has highly exalted the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, in our verse, it didn’t say that Christ ascended. It said he was taken up. There’s a nice old illuminated prayer book produced in the 9th century and it has this scene of the ascension in the midst of the letter C, and he has Jesus in the middle. He has a hand coming down to lift Jesus up. And that’s the way that the accounts describe it.

It doesn’t say Jesus flew off. You might get that from a lot of the stories these days. But what it says is he’s taken up. And so the Father’s activity is involved in this. But in any event, this is the exaltation of Jesus by the Father.

So that’s what’s going on. Another interesting fact of that drawing is that on either side of Jesus there are angels and there are these three staffs with crosses at the top and it’s on a little hill and the disciples are there. So there he’s depicting in one little scene the fact that Jesus’s death, his crucifixion, his resurrection and ascension all were on the Mount of Olives. And so the cross at the top of the ruling staffs held by two angels and Jesus is a reminder of his death.

The Mount of Olives then becomes the place of his ascension, and it was. And so you know, even in terms of church architecture as we look at what we do here on the Lord’s day service we enter into the heavenly places and we consider things from a heavenly perspective. The chancel is a reminder of that. And so long term the idea of the beautification of the sanctuary is this representation into the throne room of God.

And yet most churches have central significance to the cross and really frequently no reference at all to the ascension. That’s interesting. Now you can say it’s sort of implied—the cross is empty. But it’s still an earthly deal, right? It’s kind of makes you think we’re on earth still. And the idea with worship is representations of heaven. So he nicely put together the idea of the cross and its significance. And yet that significance is now turned into rule and authority. They’re ruling staffs and this taken up by the Father—the exaltation of Jesus.

Okay. So going back to Philippians 2: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”

Okay. Now we always think about this. So we think about the past. Jesus was his name. And so Jesus is the name that’s above every name. And there’s certainly the text seems to have that connotation. Although the translation about giving him every name says “in order that before the name that Jesus bears, every knee should bow.” What is the name that Jesus bears is the question. Is it just Jesus or is it, as in Mark 16:19, “Lord Jesus”?

And here the text goes on to say that the exaltation leads to the confession not just of Jesus as savior but the confession is that “Jesus Christ is Lord.” The ascension is about Jesus becoming Lord—Jesus being enthroned on the right hand of the Father. Okay? Not the second person. He’s always been with the triune God ruling. But Jesus the humanity now has taken its place in the context of the ruling authority in heaven, and that’s the significance. And so Jesus is “Lord Jesus”—what Mark 16 addresses him as—in the context of a description of the ascension.

So the ascension is linked to lordship.

The next phrase is “after he had spoken to them”—just a brief pause comment here. It’s interesting to consider and just remember the text wants us to remember: we know some things that Jesus spoke to the disciples, right? They were in graduate school, they’d been discipled. Now they had 40 days of instruction, things regarding the kingdom. And it’s interesting to me to think about how often what he’s doing is restoring them.

You know, the afternoon of the resurrection, he’s on the road to Emmaus with the two disciples and they’re all downcast. They thought it might he might have been the Christ and now they’re kind of given up on the idea. And he rebukes them—you know, he calls them foolish—and then he instructs them. And then he shares his presence with them and manifests himself in a meal. He’s restoring them. We talked about the significance of rebuke two weeks ago. Well, it is significant and important, but you know the whole point is restoration. And Jesus had to do that with the two disciples.

Later that evening he meets with the rest of the apostles. And as we saw in Mark’s account, he rebukes them for their unbelief and hardness of heart. Failure to believe results in actions that are not consistent with what we should be doing. And so Jesus rebukes them, but he restores them. The Luke account tells us that he spoke peace to them. He ate fish just to assure them that he had a real body, okay? He tells them it’s all right. Don’t be fearful, right? That’s the other account in John’s gospel. He tells [them] not to be fearful, to be at peace. He’s restoring them.

So he’s not just rebuking. He’s rebuking to a particular goal of restoration. And then the next week, right, Thomas comes back. I want to see him, too. And I want to see him and touch him. And Jesus again, you know, says, well, you know, “Blessed are those who haven’t seen and yet believe.” He gives Thomas a quasi rebuke as well.

Jesus is all about restoring Christians, believers in him, who have been shaken in their faith. And so the ascension is a reminder that what happens here is results in the complete restoration of all the elect. And it’s preceded by a restoration to particular ministries. I think it’s important for us in the church—here in the church of Jesus Christ in a particular manifestation—we’re all you know going to have hearts of unbelief and that become hard-hearted at times. And if we’re going to speak in the name of Jesus to each other—peace, if we’re going to speak at times rebuke, at times encouragement—that should not be seen as abnormal. That’s the normal life of the church—Jesus restoring people to successful ministry for him.

And that’s of course what ends up happening. The end of the story—after they’ve been restored and he ascends—is: do they leave doubting again? He’s not there. No, they leave rejoicing, blessing God in the temple, is what the version in Luke tells. So Jesus spoke to them and he spoke to them in that manner.

Three: he then was taken up into heaven. This is the ascension. The doctrine of the ascension comes out of texts like this, but it’s not a doctrine—it’s an actual event. He was taken up, okay? The Father exalts Jesus, as we just read from Philippians.

The Church of England in its 39 Articles, Article 4 says this, “Of the resurrection of Christ. Christ did truly rise again from death and took again his body with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of man’s nature, wherewith he ascended into heaven, and there sitteth until he returned to judge all men at the last day.”

Excellent summation—that Jesus took his resurrection body, flesh, bones, the whole nine yards. Takes his humanity, his transformed and glorified humanity into heaven at the right hand in the throne room of God. This ascension is about a bodily ascension. It’s not some specter. It is the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Rushdoony puts it this way: “The ascension is the visible passing of Christ from earth to heaven in the presence of his disciples. The visible passing from earth to heaven in the presence of his disciples and recorded for us here on earth.”

Now we should expect this. The scriptures had all kinds of [examples]—you know, the movie The Exorcist that came out many years ago and people were so offended by it and there was offensive stuff in it and even more offensive stuff in the book. But you know the purpose of the movie was to show that this priest who had doubts would only be faithful to God and have those doubts restored if he be restored by working in the context of the institutional Catholic Church by participating in an exorcism.

And so one of the points of the movie was the importance of the body of Christ, the church. And that’s where we have our doubts resolved—is in the body of Christ. This young priest, when you first meet him in the movie, he’s walking up a hill at a university. He’s going up this hill, and then the next time you see him, he’s coming up out of the subway up the stairs, and then the next time you see him, he’s going up the stairs to the girl’s house who is demon-possessed.

Now this is a movie, and the movie is self-consciously preparing you for the story of the priest’s death. It—the movie doesn’t want you to think when he dies that he’s dead. It wants you to realize that because he’s a faithful follower now of Jesus Christ and a member of his church fully participating, that this man will ascend just as Jesus ascended. And so they set you up for that with scenes of his ascension leading up to the scene of his death.

Well, the same thing’s true. The Bible—you know, from beginning to end—has this perspective of up. You go up to worship in the Old Testament. You go up to Jerusalem, right? Even men are going up. Enoch is translated. Elijah is taken up. Kings, when they’re when they’re put into office, they are going up into the office. So “up” and of course at this church ascension is a word we frequently use about our worship because the so-called burnt offering of the Old Testament—Leviticus 1, first chapter of Leviticus—is actually the Hebrew word means to ascend. It’s the ascension offering.

In union with Christ we ascend with him in the context of the worship of the church at the very beginning of the service. We ascend. A text that I don’t know why I’ve never read this text before in relationship to this, but Judges 13:20 says this: “It happened that as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground.”

These are the parents of Samson. The angel of the Lord comes to announce his birth and to strengthen them for a knowledge of what’s going to happen. And the angel of the Lord ascends in the flame. That’s a nice visual representation of this idea that ascension—going up—is really one of the most dominant themes in the Bible. And so it’s this idea of ascension. The whole burnt offering isn’t about death so much as it’s about the transformation of the thing so that we, like the angel of the Lord, can go up in flame and worship, so to speak. We ascend to be with him.

So this ascension of Jesus, his bodily ascension in a transformed body, but still a human body, is about this physical going up. It’s the culmination of all of those wonderful pictures of ascension given to us in the Old Testament.

Now it can be said that the ascension is the way whereas the session is the goal. It is the end, okay. So ascension describes Jesus going up. But what for? Why is he going up? Well, Mark, as I said, is the only place that draws it so tightly. The very next phrase, the fourth phrase of our text, is “he sat down at the right hand of God.”

So he goes up. The ascension is a means to an end. The end is the sitting at the right hand of God the Father—sitting in session. Again, the word meaning to be seated.

1 Corinthians 15:25 tells us that from this place he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. So the ascension of Jesus involves the beginning of the session of Lord Jesus at the right hand of the Father. The session will continue throughout the rest of human history until Jesus returns. And the session is about putting all things under his feet. You’re either happily subdued to him or you’re crushed under his feet, but all things are put under his feet. And this is a process over time. Real time, real historical events are going on. And Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father really sitting there, really ruling from that place.

And this is the doctrine of the session. 1 Peter 3:22 says that he has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to him. As our text from Mark indicates, he sits at the right hand of God and all things are put under his authority.

Matthew 28, the Great Commission, anticipates this. Jesus says that all authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth, and that authority begins to be exercised at the right hand of God as a result of the ascension. So the doctrine of ascension or the session rather is the perpetual presence of our Lord’s human nature in the highest glory of heaven at the right hand of God the Father. So that’s what the doctrine of the session is, and this is what determines human history.

This is the greatest and most significant political act in human history. You know, Jesus leapfrogs over Caesar, right? All the other authorities of his time and of any other time. And he now is seated at the right hand of God and all authority—not just on earth, the Caesars, the Obamas, the whoever it is—not just on earth, but all authority in heaven and on earth is under Jesus. It is the great statement of who is in charge.

Lord Jesus in his humanity and of course still deity is the ruler of all things. A tremendous truth that once believed can do nothing but produce joy. Well, it can produce some questions as well. In that case, why is it so tough? But once we fully believe it, we don’t get hard-hearted. We don’t have hearts of disbelief. We believe that Jesus is reigning at the right hand of the Father.

How could we help today, after focusing on this truth of the scriptures? How could we help but leave joyously? Everything is subject to the rule and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you don’t like politics, you don’t like the ascension because the ascension produces a political act. Jesus Christ at the right hand of God the Father ruling over all things. These are historical realities. This is not concepts, ideas, paradigms. This is a historical reality, the ascension and the session. And the historical reality is that Jesus now rules over all things.

Now, it isn’t just that. We also know the scriptures tell us that Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us at the right hand of God. So he’s ruling over all things and bringing history to its culmination. And in the context of that, he’s also interceding for us. So you know, sometimes we wonder why our lives [are] like this. We remember that Jesus is interceding. Remember the picture of this as well: after the feeding of the 5000, he departs. They go down, down, down. They go out in the sea in the midst of the difficult night, and then we have the storm. And Jesus has been watching them all night, praying for them.

As he prays to the Father, he prays for them and he then rescues them in the morning. So our lives may look like we may not experience the reign of God, but we have this thing pictured in the storm at the sea that now is permanent reality. Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the Father ever living to make intercession for us.

So the session of Christ is being seated and has a kingly aspect and it has a priestly aspect. Now churches have stressed the priestly aspect, not so much the kingly aspect, the political aspect. And so it’s important that we make those corrections, but we certainly don’t want to lose the fact that Jesus Christ has appeared in the presence of God for us.

Hebrews 9:24 puts it this way: “Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us.”

Romans 8:34: “Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God. Ascension and session—who also makes intercession for us.”

So ascension and session has to do with both the kingly and priestly offices of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there’s a third function, I think, and really it’s a subset of being a king. But Psalm 110 tells us another aspect of what this kingly rule of Jesus at the session is all about. It says this:

“The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.’ The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments. From the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand.”

So we have ascension, kingship, and priesthood. And what is he doing at the right hand? “He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the whole earth. He will drink from the brook by the way. Therefore he will lift up his head.”

Jesus Christ’s session means he is also a warrior king directing the affairs of his warfare from heaven itself. He sits at the right hand of God. His—he doesn’t wait passively. He is actively involved in the government of the world, and he is making war against all those who refuse to lovingly submit to his loving care for them. He makes war against his enemies.

Psalm 2: God says, “Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the Lord has said to me, ‘You are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give the nations for your inheritance, all the ends of the earth for your possession.’ And what’s the application verse? ‘Now therefore be wise, O kings, be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear. Rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is kindled. But a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in him.’”

It is from one perspective not a kingdom of peace that Jesus rules over at the right hand of the Father. It is a kingdom involved in warfare. Now got your attention, right. Yes, there is peace but peace ultimately is God’s order in the world. Peace is the goal of the session of Jesus Christ. But one of the means he uses to attain that goal is warfare because there are ethical rebels filling positions of power and authority on this earth, and Jesus will make war on them.

The French Revolution—how should we make a good society? Well, let’s just kill off four or five million of our citizens. You know, the argument amongst the leaders of the French Revolution was not “should we kill millions.” It was “how many millions should we kill?” Well, some thought 4 million was the perfect population for France and on that we got to kill everybody else. Some thought 8 million. Now that’s the extension of what meant an ethical rebellion to Christ. That’s kind of the worst case example out there of what people do. And the Lord Jesus Christ makes war against those who, rejecting his providence, his government, establish their tyrannical government in the context of this world.

Jesus makes war against them. So the ascension is important for the church today to recognize that warfare is what’s going on in history. Now, as warfare is carried out, the rod comes out of Zion. The word of God comes out of the church, and the apostles starting at Jerusalem in Zion, right? They bring that message. It’s a warfare that’s accomplished with the word of God, but it’s warfare nonetheless. And unless we understand that, we put ourselves in peril of ourselves receiving the judgments of the king.

All right? All right, the last point is the relationship to us. “They went out and preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them.”

And what we see in the ascension is not just an important teaching for us about Jesus and what he’s doing. As important as all that is, the ascension is the key to our identity. It is key to our identity. Our identity is not saved sinners. That’s part of who we are. But that’s not the end of it, okay? The end is not the cross. The end is the session. Jesus Christ’s ascension to the session and our ascension with him.

Because the ascension is about taking humanity, his glorified human body into the deliberations of the triune God and seating humanity at the right hand of God the Father by our representative head, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are risen in him. We are ascended in him. And so, for instance, in John 20, we see the glimpses of this. Remember, he—Mary tries to hold on to him. He says, “Don’t cling to me. I haven’t ascended yet.” He says, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

The implication of this is all of the elect covenantally through the representative of the Lord Jesus Christ are ascending with him at that historical event that we talk about and celebrate today. And so what do we read in Colossians 3:1-3? “If then you are raised with Christ, seek those things which are above. I don’t think the raising then is related strictly or solely to the resurrection. It’s talking about being raised up in terms of the ascension. If you are resurrected and ascended with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Clearly the text tells us that we are ascended in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our first fruits. Romans tells us this—that he is our first fruit. So what does it mean? He’s the first fruits of all of humanity, all of the elect who in him are ascended as well.

Philippians 3:20: “Our citizenship—the place of our citizenship—is in heaven from which we also eagerly await our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Ephesians 2:6: “He has raised us up together and so we always think you have a resurrection, but he has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

That’s who we are. We are Christians and Jesus is at the right hand of the Father and our basic identity covenantally represented now of the new humanity is in heaven. That’s who we are. And so we engage—we must engage—in the same sort of warfare, in the same sort of intercession, in the same sort of extension of the rule of Jesus Christ over all things through his word.

He in our nature and as our head triumphing over our enemies is seated at the right hand of God the Father.

Athanasius said this: “The term in question, ‘highly exalted,’ does not signify that the essence of the Word was exalted, for he was ever and is equal to God, but the exaltation of his manhood, of his humanity.”

Chrysostom said of his exaltation: “We who appeared unworthy of earth have been led up today into the heavens. Speaking of the day of the ascension: We’ve been led up to heaven. We who are not worthy of the preeminence below have ascended to the kingdom above. We have scaled the heavens. We have attained the royal throne. And that nature on whose account the cherubim guarded paradise today sits above the cherubim. Now man is exalted over the angelic ministers of God as well.”

Our ascension is what is taught here. And as a result of that, we have no reason to fear. We have every reason to be joyous and to acknowledge our basic identity is as the rulers of the earth in relationship to Jesus Christ, our great ruler, our great king.

It is the enemies of Christ who have cause to fear if they do not repent. Jesus’s warfare is at the same time then our warfare. And we, united to our head, follow him. He’ll have the dew of the youth as he moves through the world affecting his reign and bringing all things under subjection to him.

The ascension of Jesus Christ is the exaltation of all the elect in him. Nothing less than that. Man is now restored to communion with God in Christ. And the communion is closer than that of Eden.

Let me read this quote from R.J. Rushdoony and it’ll cause some thought, some provoke some thought in you perhaps. “Prior to the incarnation, men of faith saw God’s hand in history and accepted it. But their sense of desolation and loneliness was expressed by David in Psalm 22. That isolation was experienced to the uttermost by Christ on the cross. And it was ended by his ascension and session.

Man now is restored to communion with God in Christ. And the communion is closer than that of Eden. Man in the person of Jesus Christ sits in session with the triune God in warfare against evil and in judgment over it.”

Now that’s some interesting stuff, and I don’t—you know, it’d be interesting to think about what he says about desolation and loneliness reflected in this altar. But what at the core of what Rushdoony is saying is the historical fact that for the first time on the day of ascension—and this is why I think it has tremendous significance and is the most important event in human history—for the first time on the ascension and session of the Lord Jesus Christ, humanity now has a relationship with God that is closer than when he lived on earth and would be visited by God there.

We now have our citizenship in heaven really and truly. And that was not true for the 4,000 years of history even prior to the fall of Adam. At least I don’t think it was. I think—I think he’s right there. And it’s tremendous significance to us. And this is why it says he’ll send the rod of his power out of Zion, and those—and why the text goes on immediately after the ascension and session of Jesus in Mark 19 to talk then about the work of the church.

“They went back and started preaching the gospel.”

Now we know they waited, you know, 10 days, but they went back and this is what they’re going to do now: preach the gospel. You know, the ascension is the hinge. If you look at Luke’s gospel and then the book of Acts, the hinge point is the ascension of Jesus Christ. The movement from the life of Christ to the life of Christ working through his church is ascension. And that’s where we’re at right now in the church calendar.

Those of you who have been raised in liturgical traditions, you know this. You know that for 6 months you talk about Jesus’s life and then for six months you talk about the life of Christ through his acts of his disciples. And you know the hinge is the ascension and then followed by celebration of Pentecost.

Ascension is the hinge because it prepares us for the first time in history for the acts of the disciples that’ll be described in [Acts]. And this is a great place to talk today because next Lord’s day Jeff Meyers will be here and he’ll begin a series of talks here at in our sermon and also at family camp on Acts—on the work of the church in the book of Acts.

So this is the hinge point: the ascension of Jesus Christ. And it is tremendous significance for us, and it should remind us about our warfare.

As I said, men rejecting this doctrine don’t just say, “Who cares?” They substitute a false doctrine of ascension and session. And what man always does is, like he did at the Tower of Babel, like he did at the French Revolution, like he’s doing now in this state, in this country, he replaces God’s word with his ideas about what that order should be like. He seeks paradise. He seeks blessings. He seeks order. But not on the basis of God’s word, on the basis of his own imaginations.

He rejects the word of God and its description of what we even should be shooting for, right? And secondly, he rejects the gracious government of Jesus and sets up his own—man. Jesus is a man, right? And he sets up his own men to rule over then the world in session.

And what do we have today? It’s not always like this, but in our day and age, it’s scientists. It’s politicians who in conjunction with scientists want to tell you what sort of light bulbs to use. They want to control every aspect of your life. Now we’ve got the Republican candidate Mitt Romney saying, “Yeah, we got to keep those gases at bay.” And so he’s kind of right in there with them, taking making the decisions about every minutia area of your life. How you light your house and how you drive your car and how you get electricity and how that’s governed. All that stuff becomes now power, of course, is what we’re talking about.

And power is controlled by man increasingly tyrannically or at least with the loss of liberty because it’s the session of man at work. You see, the session can’t be avoided. The seating of rulers can’t be avoided. It’s either Christ and his people or the state—or other men will replace it with socialistic world orders. That’s what they do. And if we don’t understand that, then we’re not prepared to enter into dialogue with people because what we’re dealing with is the very warfare that’s described in Psalm 110 and Psalm 2 between Jesus Christ and the enemies of his people.

The humanistic doctrine of the session sees man as the lord of history. And so we have the elite scientific planners who now attempt to govern more and more aspects of the economy, your personal life. And this isn’t a conservative message I’m bringing. This is a message of liberty and freedom or tyranny. And the why in the road is “which session? Which government? Whose providence?” The Lord Jesus at the right hand of God the Father or man himself apart from God’s word and the liberty that’s found in it and apart from the gracious reign of Jesus Christ.

And what they want to do, they want to seize the throne for man, to place man in the place of God, to create a man-centered session over all of creation and history. That’s what men do. And that’s why it’s important for us today. The church is ill-equipped to enter into this warfare if it does not understand the significance of the two sessions that are being talked about: the real historical session of Jesus Christ or the attempted session of man replacing the Lord Jesus Christ.

Rushdoony wrote this: “Unless the ascension and session of Jesus Christ be confessed, men will seek their own ascension into omnipotence and their own session of absolute power over man.” And this is what we’re seeing played out, right? Don’t let it frighten you. Don’t let [it] discourage you. This is what man apart from God and rebellion to God does. He’s always done it—done it for 6,000 years.

Jesus Christ assures us that we don’t have to worry about that.

Again, quoting from Rushdoony concluding comment: “There is no victory possible for men who wage war against God.”

So okay, that’s the good news today. The session of Jesus Christ means that we have great joy because there is no victory possible for men who wage war against God. But Rushdoony went on to say this very important: “But neither is there any hope for men who in the direct line of fire fail to see that a war is on. Neither is there any hope for men who in the direct line of fire fail to see that a war is on.”

That’s true. And that’s why the doctrine, the fact of the ascension and session of Jesus Christ and of us in him as king, priest, and warrior is so essential to the church today.

Let’s pray. Lord God, forgive us for so often not understanding that a war is on. Help us, Lord God, to understand the nature of that war. Help us to engage in it confidently, courageously, and joyfully, knowing that Jesus Christ is enthroned at your right hand and us in him. We thank you that our essential identity now is in union with Christ, our head, our king, our priest, our warrior. And we thank you, Lord God, for calling us to be kings and priests and warriors in our places of influence, in our spheres of authority as well.

Bless us, Lord God, this week with joy, courage, and an awareness that the war has been joined. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.