Showing posts with label Ascension. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ascension. Show all posts

Monday, May 13, 2024

The Fullness of Him Who Fills All in All

And God put all things under Christ’s feet, and gave him to the Church as head over all things. Now the Church is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:22-23 NET).

This passage is packed with stunning revelation. Not only that God has placed all things under the feet of Christ crucified, risen and ascended to the right hand of the Father. Not only that God has given Christ as head of the Church, and that the Church is, consequently, the body of Christ. Not only that Christ fills everything in every way. But this: The Church is the fullness of Christ.

Earlier in Ephesians 1, Paul tells us what God’s mysterious will and good pleasure is, which he purposed in himself and which is perfectly accomplished in Jesus Christ:

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace  which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth — in Him. (Ephesians 1:7-10)

Christ has not merely come at the end of time, he is himself the end of time, the fullness of time, the meaning and purpose of time. In him, God gathers together all in heaven and on earth — everyone and everything — bringing all into union, with Christ as head (anakephalaiomai). At the end of the chapter, we see Christ placed far above every rule, authority, power and dominion, far above every name that could ever be invoked. This is the Ascension. 

God has given Christ to the Church as the head (kephale) over all things. Paul specifically has in mind the relationship of head and body. He speaks of Christ as the head of the church, and of the Church as the body of Christ. Likewise, since Christ is the head of all things, what does that say about all things in heaven and on earth but that all is, in this way, the body of Christ.

Christ fills all things, in every way, with himself, and Paul declares that the Church, the Body of Christ, is that fullness which fills all in all. Being filled with Christ in every way, everything in creation is finally revealed to be the body of Christ, which is to say, the Church. This is what the end of time looks like. Fr. John Behr puts it very well for me:

I can no longer see the Church as a select group of people called out from unbelievers. Rather, the Church is the whole of Creation seen eschatologically; from which we already see islands in the present, called out from “the world” (in the negative sense).

Friday, May 10, 2024

Christ Has Ascended — And We With Him

Forty days after our Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, and in the fullness of his humanity and his divinity, he ascended into heaven. Paul speaks of this in the wonderful prayer he makes for the Church in Ephesians 1: that we may know the wonderful anticipation to which God has called us, that we may know the riches of the glorious inheritance God has in us, and that we may know the unfathomable greatness of his power for us. He tells, here and elsewhere, about that great power, and we see the glory of our Ascended Lord Jesus:

That Same Power,
The Mighty Strength
God exercised when He
Raised Christ from the dead
And seated him at the
Right hand of the Father
In the heavenly realms,
Far above all rule,
Far above all authority,
Far above all power,
Far above all dominion,
Far above every name—
The Name above All Names.

God has placed
All Things under his feet
And given him to the Church
To be head over All Things
In Heaven and on Earth,
To the Church,
Which is His Body,
The Fullness of Him
Who Fills All Things
Everywhere.

Through the Incarnation, Christ united divinity with humanity, God with humankind, and became Human Being, of which we all partake and by which we are all now defined. Because of the Incarnation, the death of Christ has become our death, too. The resurrection of Christ has become our resurrection, too. And the ascension of Christ has become our ascension, too, the ascension of All Humankind. 

Only a few verses later, in Ephesians 2:6, Paul declares, “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” Christ has ascended into heaven, and we have ascended with him. This is not future promise but accomplished act and present reality. It is the good news of the gospel.

Thursday, May 28, 2020

The Cross As Glorification

Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. (John 7:38-39)
It was the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. For the first seven days, the priest processioned from the Pool of Siloam to the temple and poured out water at the base of the altar. As they went, they sang words from the prophet Isaiah, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). The Hebrew word for “salvation” is Yeshua, which is the name Jesus.

Now it was the eighth day, the greatest day of the feast. Jesus stood up among the crowd and in a loud voice announced that whoever believes in him, rivers of living water would flow from within them. The significance of these words on this occasion would not be lost on them. The rivers of living water would be water from the “wells of salvation” — water from the wells of Jesus.

John the Evangelist tells us that Jesus was speaking of the Holy Spirit. But those who believed in Jesus had not yet received the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet been given, and the reason for that is that Jesus had not yet been glorified. The giving of the Holy Spirit happened at the Feast of Pentecost, and is vitally connected with the glorification of Jesus. But what is the glorification to which John referred, and when would it occur?

We see something of it in the next chapter, when Jesus addresses a group of Pharisees who were challenging him. He said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me” (John 8:28).

The Greek word for “lifted up” is hypsoo, which means to elevate, or even to exalt. The “lifting up” to which Jesus referred is the cross, the crucifixion the Pharisees and Jewish leaders who would soon insist Jesus be put to. They wanted to elevate Jesus on that wooden instrument of death, but it would be an elevation they had not expected — if would be an exaltation. For in that lifting up of Jesus, they would know that Jesus is the Son of Man, and that he does not do anything on his own but does and says whatever the Father has taught him. It would be the exaltation of Jesus and the revelation of the Father.

In John 17, on the night before his crucifixion, after speaking to his disciples about the Holy Spirit and of what would come, Jesus prayed to the Father, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you” (John 17:1). “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5 NKJV).

The hour had now come for the Father to glorify the Son and the Son to glorify the Father. It was the hour when the Son would be lifted up and the Father revealed. It was the hour of the cross. The Resurrection and the Ascension are part of that same movement, but they each in their way show reveal the glory of the cross. It is not merely because of the cross but in the cross that Jesus is “highly exalted” (hyperypsoo a compound of hyper and hypsoo) and given “the name that is above every name” (Philippians 2:9).

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

The Paradox of Descending and Ascending



In my last post, we looked at the Cross as Ascension, particularly in the Gospel of John. There we saw Jesus speaking of his death on the cross as being “lifted up.” The Greek word is hypsoo, which means to be elevated, and can even mean exalted. “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” Jesus said (John 3:14). “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).

It is at the cross that Christ, the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world, is“lifted up” from the earth; it is there also that he “draws” all to himself — surely this describes his exaltation. Is this not what the apostle Paul describes it in Philippians 2:5-11, the paradox of descending and ascending?
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Here we see the descent: Christ, thoroughly divine, “made himself nothing” or “emptied himself” (NET) — the Greek word is kenoo, to make empty — taking the very nature of a servant, participating fully in human nature. As humankind was created in the image and likeness of God, now God in Christ took on human likeness, to become what God intended for humankind to be. This is the Incarnation.

Thus joining himself with humankind, subject to mortality, it was necessary that he should “humble himself” (make himself low) and become obedient to death, so to deliver humankind from death. And it was necessary that he be put to death by the hands of wicked men, so to deliver humankind from wickedness and sin. Christ became obedient even to death on the cross, and by that was “lifted up.”

Here we see also the ascent of Christ: God “exalted him to the highest place.” The Greek word is hyperypsoo, a compound of hyper and hypsoo, the latter being the word Christ used of his crucifixion — this is Christ highly exalted. Further, God gave Christ the “name that is above every name.” As Theodoret of Cyrus observed, Christ “did not receive what he did not have before but received as a man what he possessed as God.”

Jesus was given the highest name so that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Is this not what Jesus said would happen? “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

We tend to think of the descent and ascent of Christ as two different things. First, he goes down, down, down, then subsequent to that is raised up, up, up — two movements with a u-turn in between. But I don’t think that is necessarily what Paul is describing here, because he is exhorting us to have the same mind toward each other as Christ has toward us. Is that so we may one day be glorified, with servant humility as but a means to that glory? Surely not.

Christ’s humility was not a means to glory but the very expression of divine glory. For God is love, and it is the nature of love to give and serve. God loved the world by giving us the Son; the Son did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life for us. When we see the humility of Christ in his deep descent, we are not seeing the divine glory in recess but, rather, most fully revealed. The lower Christ descended into the depths of the world, to redeem it, the more his glory was made manifest, and in that way, Christ was seen to be highly exalted.

The paradox of the descent and ascent of Christ, then, is this: It is not two different things but the same thing. His descent into the earth is simultaneously his ascent into heaven — and us with him.

Thursday, May 21, 2020

The Cross As Ascension


We often think of the Cross, the Resurrection and the Ascension as three events instead of  one. They seem to be separate in time; each is given its own day within the space of forty-something days. But Christ is eternal, and in the Incarnation, not only is humanity joined with divinity but time is joined with eternity, and what appears separately in time is one in eternity. In the Gospel of John, Cross, Resurrection and Ascension are one continuous movement. (See also, Cross and Resurrection As Singular Event.)
In John, being lifted up refers to one continuous action of ascent, beginning with the cross but ending at the right hand of the Father. Step 1 is Jesus’ death; step 2 is his resurrection; and step 3 is the ascension back to heaven. It is the upward swing of the “pendulum” which began with the incarnation, the descent of the Word become flesh from heaven to earth. (NET Bible, study note at John 4:13)
We can find several references to ascension in John’s Gospel, but they cast it as crucifixion. We see this early, in John 3:
No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven – the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (John 3:13-15 NET)
Jesus speaks of descension from heaven and ascension into heaven — a downward movement (katabaino) followed by upward movement (anabaino). We may think of the descension as the Incarnation, the Logos of John 1 becoming flesh and dwelling among us — God condescending to join in union with humankind — and the humiliating death of the cross, with the descent from the cross into the grave.

But when we come to ascension, we find something unexpected. It does not begin with the resurrection but with the cross. In John 3, Jesus, understanding the Scriptures as speaking of himself, refers to the story of Moses “lifting up” the serpent in the wilderness (Numbers 21:4-9) and makes a comparison (indicated by “just as”). The point of comparison is lifting up: Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness; Christ must be lifted up. The Greek word is hypsoo and means to elevate or exalt.

In the Numbers 21 account, when the people turned away from the LORD, venomous snakes passed through the people, killing many. When the people turned back to the LORD, Moses was instructed to make a bronze serpent and mount it on a pole. When anyone who had been bitten would look upon that serpent, they would be healed and saved from death.

Just as Moses elevated the bronze serpent on the pole, Jesus says, so the Son of Man must be elevated, and the instrument of that elevation would be the cross. Jesus had just been talking about descension and ascension? Which one was he now speaking of by this comparison of himself with the lifting up of the serpent? Well, we can say it is descension; is it not the cross to which he is referring? Indeed it is. Yet Jesus speaks of it as ascension, being lifted up, elevated, exalted. In John 12, Jesus again speaks of it as exaltation:
“Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. (John 12:31-33)
Is this descension, or ascension? By his words, Jesus showed the kind of death he was going to die, death by crucifixion. And yet those very words speak of him as being “lifted up,” elevated, exalted. For the world was about to be judged, which is to say, there was about to be a world-changing crisis (the Greek word for “judge” here is krisis) that would set things right. The old death-dealing way of the world was about to be condemned, and the living, life-giving Christ would prevail. The “prince of this world” was about to be driven out, exorcised.

The cross is the exaltation of Christ because it is his judgment on the world, casting out darkness and death and the devil. It is his rule and reign that is exercised, and in a singular way, dramatically changing the world forever. It is ascension, and humankind, joined with Christ through the Incarnation, is ascended with him — to the Cross, to the Resurrection and to the right hand of the Father.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Ascension and Pentecost

But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. (John 16:7)
It is more than appropriate that Ascension and Pentecost occurred just ten days apart. It was necessary in order to bring heaven and earth together. Jesus, the God-Man, fully human as well as fully divine, ascended to the throne as King of Heaven and Earth. In him, humanity is eternally and irrevocably a part of heaven. But that is only half of the story. The other half is Pentecost. On the night before he was crucified, Jesus spoke to the disciples about the coming of the Holy Spirit:
I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever — the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:15-18)
Jesus would be going away. Yet, paradoxically, he would also come to them. He would not leave them on their own, as orphans. The Father would be sending the Holy Spirit — the Advocate, the Helper, the Comforter — not only to be with them, as he already had been, but to be in them. And so Jesus himself would be not just with them but in them, because the Spirit of God, who is the Holy Spirit, is the Spirit of Christ.
You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:9-11)
Because of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, Paul can speak of Christ himself dwelling in us, for it is the life of Christ that the Spirit ministers to us: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Elsewhere Paul speaks to us of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). The Lord Jesus dwells in us by the Holy Spirit.

This could not have happened if King Jesus had not first ascended to his throne. For both the Ascension and Pentecost are part of the victory of God and the reconciliation of heaven and earth. Jesus the God-Man ascended to heaven and the Spirit of God descended to earth. As the Holy Spirit does his work and all the enemies of God are put under the feet of King Jesus, the connection between heaven and earth will be made complete and, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:28, God will be “all in all.”

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Ascension and Redemption

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. (Hebrews 1:3)
The Ascension of King Jesus the Messiah to his throne at the right hand of the Father shows that the problem of sin has been fully dealt with. He has done everything that needs to be done about it. The author of Hebrews speaks about it in several ways in his letter — as atonement, as forgiveness, as ransom or redemption — but here at the beginning, he gathers it all up in the word “purification.” In Jesus the Messiah, we are made pure before God.

This is very much a manifestation of the kingdom of God and therefore very much a part of King Jesus being “taken up in glory.” Paul makes the connection for us in his letter to the church at Colosse, telling how God has “rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).

The Ascension of the Messiah demonstrates that the power of sin has been broken, for he is now King over all of heaven and earth. The cross and resurrection is the victory over sin, death, the devil and the “principalities and powers” — the demonic influences that lurk behind every evil empire and culture — they have all received the “death blow.”

We have not yet seen the end of it, though, because we are still living in the time when the victory of Christ is being worked throughout, and the enemies of Christ are being put under his feet, so that, in the end, God will be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:25-28). How is he accomplishing this? Through his body, the Church, by the power the Holy Spirit. That is the point of Pentecost, which followed ten days after the Ascension and is why Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that changes us, and through us, changes the world.

Friday, May 15, 2015

Taken Up in Glory

Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory. (1 Timothy 3:16)
Luke records that Jesus was “taken up to heaven” (Acts 1:2) and he depicts the event for us in Acts 1:9-11, where Jesus is “taken up” before the eyes of the apostles. In his letter to Timothy, Paul uses the same Greek verb for “taken up,” lambano, that Luke used in Acts 1:2.

“Taken up to heaven” and “taken up in glory” both refer to the same thing: The Ascension of King Jesus the Messiah to the right hand of the Father. This event, though often neglected by many Christians, is a very important part of the “mystery” about which Paul now writes in his letter to Timothy. And it is from this mystery that we discover the source of “true godliness,” which is the restoration of our God-likeness or God-centeredness; that is, our reconciliation with God.

Though we often think of a mystery as something hidden, every mystery is eventually revealed. In the New Testament, mystery is about what has now been revealed to us in the Lord Jesus. It begins with the Incarnation, when God became a human being and dwelt among us — Jesus “appeared in the flesh.” It finds its completion in the Ascension, when Jesus was “taken up in glory.” Paul describes both aspects in his letter to the followers of Jesus at Philippi.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)
It is important to understand that when Jesus was “taken up in glory,” it was by no means a departure from his “appearing in the flesh.” That is, he did not give up any of his humanity but remained fully human as well as fully divine. It is as the God-Man that he ascended to his throne at the right hand of the Father, from which he rules over heaven and earth. This is truly a mystery for us to dwell on: The King of the Universe is both God and man. And in this, God is reconciling all things in heaven and on earth to himself.

Just as in the Incarnation, when the Son of God humbled himself to become human, so also in the Ascension, humanity is glorified with the Lord Jesus. In other words, when he was taken up in glory, we were taken up in glory with him. Paul speaks further of this in his letter to the followers of Jesus at Ephesus:
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7)
Being made “alive with Christ” is about the new resurrection life we have now in him (and which will one day be followed by the resurrection of our physical bodies from the dead). But being “raised up with Christ” is about our participation with the Lord Jesus in his ascension, for we are “seated with him in the heavenly realms.” His ascension is our ascension, his glorification is our glorification and his place at the right hand of the Father has become our place, too.

The great mystery that begins with the Incarnation and ends with the Ascension is the source and substance of the reconciliation of heaven and earth and the new life centered on God.

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Taken Up Before Their Eyes

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.

“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11)
It had been forty days since the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He had been with them during that time, teaching them about the kingdom of God, about the “promise of the Father,” and about the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God.

Then, after all this, “he was taken up before their very eyes.” What a stunning event this must have been for the disciples to witness, and apparently one that took them by surprise. They stood there looking intently into the sky even after Jesus disappeared into the clouds. When Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit, it likely tipped them off that Jesus was going off somewhere. But they were probably not expecting it to be like this.

So they stood there gazing upward, we don’t know for how long. They had to be brought back “down to earth” by the angels, two figures dressed in white who suddenly appeared beside them. “Why do you stand there staring up into the sky?” the angels said.

That seems like a very odd question. Had the angels arrived too late to witness the amazing thing that had just happened? Did they not know what was going on? But of course they did know, and now they were going to help the disciples understand — whenever God or his angels ask us a question, it is not to gather information but to bring revelation.

The angels continued: “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” Just as surely as they had seen Jesus taken up into heaven, he would come back — and in the same way. He had suddenly been hidden by the clouds; he would suddenly appear again upon the clouds.

In the Bible, the imagery of God riding upon the clouds is about God coming in judgment, to set things right in the world. Jesus ascended to heaven, all authority having now been given him in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18), and took his place at the right hand of the Father, the place of ruling and reigning. When he came again “with the clouds,” it would be the fulfillment of the kingdom. The prophet Daniel spoke of this:
In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14).
It was all about the kingdom of God, just as Jesus had taught them all along. And now the coming of the Holy Spirit was at hand, who would empower them to proclaim the good news that Jesus, the Anointed One of God, was now King over all. So they returned to Jerusalem to wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon them, just as Jesus had instructed.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

How the Kingdom Comes

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8)
Shortly before he ascended to heaven, the risen Lord Jesus told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem, where they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. This caused them to ask, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (There is a connection between this baptism and the kingdom — see The Kingdom of God and the Pouring of the Spirit.)

They were asking a question about timing but the answer they received was not what they were expecting. Jesus took it in a very different direction. The times and dates were set by God’s authority. In other words, it was none of the disciples’ business. God works his plans in his own time, and we don’t have to consult a calendar before we can trust him that all will be well.

So, it was not a Yes that Jesus gave them. But then, it was not a No, either. They were asking about the when of the kingdom, but the answer Jesus gave was about the how:
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Yes, when King Jesus comes again, he will judge the nations by the gospel. That is the point of the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25. The nations will be judged according to whether they have received or rejected “the least of these brothers and sisters of mine,” that is, his disciples. But in the meantime, he sends his disciples out into the world to be his witnesses in all the world, to proclaim that Jesus is King and make disciples of all nations (see Matthew 28:18-20). All who believe the gospel of the King will be prepared for the return of the King.

This great commission Jesus gives his people is empowered by the Holy Spirit. Luke, who is the author of Acts, records these words of Jesus in his account of the Gospel:
This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high. (Luke 24:46-49)
This “power from on high” is the same as the “Spirit poured out on us from high,” that Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 32:15). The Holy Spirit “clothes” Jesus’ disciples with power to give witness concerning Messiah to all the nations. As we see throughout the book of Acts, this power is expressed through the boldness of their proclamation, as well as through the healings, miracles and exorcisms which demonstrate the reality of King Jesus the Messiah and the presence of his kingdom.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

The Kingdom of God and the Pouring of the Spirit

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:1-5)
For forty days after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples several times and talked to them about the kingdom of God (see Forty Days of Kingdom Revelation). One day, he told them to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the gift the Father promised. The gift he was speaking of was the Holy Spirit. Jesus had spoken to them before about him and the ministry he would perform (see, for example, John 14 and John 16). Even John the Baptist had taught from the beginning that, although he baptized with water, the one coming after him would baptize with the Holy Spirit. Now that time was at hand, mere days away.

As Jesus spoke of this, the disciples gathered around him and asked, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). It may seem odd that Jesus was speaking about the Spirit but the disciples were asking about the kingdom of God. Were they suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder? Why were they interrupting Jesus and, seemingly, changing the subject?

The reason is that, as Jews, they understood quite well that being baptized with the Holy Spirit had very much to do with the kingdom of God. The coming of the Spirit and the coming of the kingdom were both eschatological (that is, “end time”) events and were linked together. The presence of one indicated the presence of the other.

This was the promise God had made to his people long ago through the prophets. In Isaiah 32, the prophet speaks about the kingdom of God: “See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice” (v. 1). He describes what things will be like until then: “The fortress will be abandoned, the noisy city deserted; citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever, the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks …” (v. 14). But then he speaks of the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit: “... till the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest” (v. 15).

When the kingdom of God came, the Spirit of God would be “poured on us from on high.” So when the Spirit was poured out from on high, this would indicate that the kingdom of God had begun. And now here was Jesus the Messiah, risen from the dead, teaching the disciples about the kingdom of God and telling them that in a few days they were going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of God was about to poured out on them from on high! So they very naturally thought about the kingdom of God.

This raised a question: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” See, in Isaiah’s prophecy about the coming king and the kingdom, and the Spirit being poured out, he also spoke of how God would judge the nations (Isaiah 34). And it was this that the disciples were asking about. Was King Jesus now going to judge the nations?

Israel was still in a sort of exile. Though many Jews had returned to the homeland, they were still under foreign domination, as they had been for centuries. First it was the Persians, then the Greeks, and now it was the Roman Empire that occupied the land. So, the question the disciples were asking, not unreasonably, was whether God was now going to free Israel from the nations.

They were asking a question about timing, but the answer they received was not what they were expecting. Jesus took it in a very different direction … as we will see next time.

Friday, May 30, 2014

For He Must Reign

For He must reign till He has put all His enemies under His feet.
(1 Corinthians 15:25)
In the first half of Psalm 21, we looked at the coronation of King Jesus and the victory of the cross and resurrection, which established His kingdom. Now we shall consider what His reign accomplishes, prefigured in the second half of Psalm 21:
Your hand will find all Your enemies;
    Your right hand will find those who hate You.
You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of Your anger;
    The LORD shall swallow them up in His wrath,
    And the fire shall devour them.
Their offspring You shall destroy from the earth,
    And their descendants from among the sons of men.
For they intended evil against You;
    They devised a plot which they are not able to perform.
Therefore You will make them turn their back;
    You will make ready Your arrows on Your string
    toward their faces.
Be exalted, O LORD, in Your own strength!
    We will sing and praise Your power.
(Psalm 21:8-13)
The first half of the psalm was about the past victories that established the king. The second half is the anticipation of the future victories the Lord would give to the king. Historically, King David had many victories, and the kingdom reached its zenith during the reign of King Solomon, David’s son. But after that, the kingdom rapidly deteriorated and split in two. After a succession of kings, some good but the others mostly bad, the divided kingdom was carried off into captivity and exile.

It became clear that God would have to raise up a very special king through whom God would fulfill all the wonderful promises and expectations given to Israel about the royal line of David. This Messiah King would not only deliver and restore Israel but would rule over the nations and set everything right in the world. The New Testament finds the fulfillment of this expectation in Jesus of Nazareth. Though He was crucified, God raised Him from the dead and established Him as Messiah and Lord over all (Acts 2:36).

For forty days after the resurrection, Jesus instructed the disciples about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). He announced to them that all authority had now been given to Him in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). Then He ascended to His throne in heaven, the place of ruling and reigning, at the right hand of the Father.

When King Jesus comes again, all those who belong to Him will be likewise raised from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20-23). “Then comes the end,” Paul tells us, “when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and power and authority and power” (1 Corinthians 15:24).

In the meantime, then, King Jesus reigns. “For He must reign till He has put all His enemies under His feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25). The Lord Jesus has already been seated at the right hand of the Father, “far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:20-21). And now He is in the process of destroying their oppressive rule and bringing them into submission.

Thursday, May 29, 2014

The Coronation of the King

The king shall have joy in Your strength, O LORD;
     And in Your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!
You have given him his heart’s desire,
    And have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah
For You meet him with the blessings of goodness;
    You set a crown of pure gold upon his head.
He asked life from You, and You gave it to him —
    Length of days forever and ever.
His glory is great in Your salvation;
    Honor and majesty You have placed upon him.
For You have made him most blessed forever;
    You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence.
For the king trusts in the LORD,
    And through the mercy of the Most High
    he shall not be moved.
(Psalm 21:1-7)
This is a psalm about King David. But ultimately, it is a song about King Jesus, the Son of David. And it is also about all those who belong to Jesus through faith in Him (see A Tale of Three Kings in the Psalms).

Psalm 21 is a celebration of the victories God has given to the king. Indeed, they are the very victories that have established the king as king, for by them God has “set a crown of pure gold” upon the king’s head.

As we think of Jesus, the great victory that established His kingdom is found in the cross and the resurrection. By them, God has given Jesus the desires of His heart. Though He despised the shame, Jesus willingly endured the cross, because of the “joy that was set before Him,” and He has been seated at the “right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). The great humility of Jesus led to His great exaltation (see The Humble God-Man Exalted with the Highest Glory).

By resurrection from the dead, God has made Jesus, who was crucified for our sakes, both Lord and Messiah (Acts 2:36). That is, He showed Jesus to be the One whom God anointed as King over Israel and the nations. More than that, by the power of the resurrection, God has seated the Lord Jesus at the right hand of God, “far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:20-21).

Jesus asked God for life, and God gave it to Him — length of days forever and ever! How great is the glory with which God has delivered Him, and the honor and majesty God has placed upon Him. He is most blessed forever, and exceedingly glad with the presence of God, at the right hand of the Father.

And in Him, so are we.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Ascension: Daniel’s Vision Fulfilled

I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14)
Jesus often referred to Himself as the “Son of Man.” This was not merely a way of indicating His humanity but, more than that, has great eschatological significance. It identifies Him in terms of God’s final plan for the world.

In Daniel’s vision, the scene shifts to heaven in verses 13 and 14. The Son of Man is the one who comes with the clouds of heaven and appears before God the Father, the Ancient of Days. This is not the Second Coming, when King Jesus will come down from heaven. This is the Ascension, when Jesus was carried up with the “clouds of heaven” (see Luke 24:51 and Acts 1:9).

In the vision, the Son of Man is given “dominion and glory and a kingdom.” It reaches to all the peoples, nations and languages of the world so that all on earth should serve Him. Matthew’s gospel account does not describe for us the actual ascension, as does Luke’s, but it does show us the essence of it. We see this at the end of the book when Jesus comes to His disciples and announces, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth” (Mathew 28:18). This language portrays the significance of the ascension: glory, dominion and kingdom.

The dominion that is given to the Son of Man in Daniel’s vision is a dominion that last forever. Nothing can destroy it, nothing can prevent it from filling the earth. This is similar to an earlier vision in Daniel, where Daniel interprets the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of a great image that had a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet a mixture of iron and clay. These represented a succession of kingdoms. Daniel vividly describes what happened next:
You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. (Daniel 2:34-35)
The stone “cut without hands” is of divine origin and corresponds to the Son of Man in Daniel 7. It completely smashes the great image — the kingdoms of the earth — and continues to enlarge until it becomes a great mountain that fills the earth. And now Daniel gives the interpretation of this final scene:
And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold — the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure. (Daniel 2:44-45)
This is the kingdom of God, the dominion given to the Son of Man. It cannot be destroyed but will fill the earth and endure forever. Notice that it does not first appear as a great mountain but as a stone. By the end, though, it becomes a great mountain that fills the whole earth. So it is with the kingdom of God and the dominion of the Son of Man. The Lord Jesus has ascended to heaven and been given all authority, glory and dominion. And, in the words of Paul, “He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet,” at which time He will deliver the kingdom to God the Father, “when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power” (1 Corinthians 15:24-25). What has begun with the Ascension will end when King Jesus comes again.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Ascension: The Good News That Our God Reigns

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7)
In Isaiah 52, God speaks of a coming day when He would comfort and deliver His people, establish peace and reign over them. In the Septuagint, an ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word for “brings good news” and “brings glad tidings” is euangelizo (to evangelize) and refers to preaching the gospel. God’s promises was that one day there would come one who would proclaim the gospel, the good news that “Your God reigns.” At the end of that chapter, God speaks of “My Servant,” which is a reference to the Messiah. “Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high” (v. 13). All of this is fulfilled in the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ to His throne in heaven. God has exalted Him, given Him the name that is above every name and made Him Lord over all.

Paul refers to this reality in his letter to the Jesus believers at Rome. In chapter 10, he says, “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (v. 9). Then he explains:
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? (Romans 10:10-14)
This is about the preaching of the gospel. Then he refers to the text in Isaiah: “As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!’” (v. 15). What he describes in Romans 10 is the fulfillment of what God said in Isaiah 52. The good news of the gospel is the announcement that Jesus is Lord.

This proclamation was very politically charged, particularly in the Roman Empire, where Caesar was supposed to be the one who was proclaimed as Lord and King and the one who brought peace and salvation to the world. But the confession of the Church and the good news of the gospel declared that not Caesar but Jesus is Lord.

All who heard Paul preach understood this very well. We can see it in Acts 17, when Paul taught in the synagogue at Thessalonica and announced, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ” (v. 3). Though some of the Jews there believed the good news, many others rejected it. When those who rejected it saw that many Gentiles also believed the gospel, they gathered a mob to go after Paul, who had been staying at the house of a man named Jason. Not finding him there, they dragged Jason before the rulers of the city and said, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king — Jesus” (vv. 6-7).

Indeed, there is another King, and His name is Jesus. All authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth, and God the Father has seated Him at His own right hand. That is the good news, the message that brings salvation to the world.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Ascension: God Has Made Jesus Lord


At Pentecost, fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and ten days after He ascended to His throne at the right hand of the Father, Peter preached to the Jews gathered in Jerusalem:
Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.’” Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." (Acts 2;33-36)
God has made Jesus Lord. That might sound unusual for many Christians because, after all, the confession of our faith is that Jesus is Lord — has He not always been so? How then can it be said that God has made Him Lord?

We often assume that the words “God” and “Lord” have the exact same significance. There are, however, important distinctions to be made. The confession that Jesus is Lord is not merely a statement about His divinity, an identification that He is God. More than that, it has special import in regard to God’s plan for renewing the world, and Jesus’ role in that plan.

Jesus has always been fully divine in His essence. He is the Word who was with God in the beginning, who is indeed God and who “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14). He has always been the eternal Son of God, the Second Person of the Godhead, the Holy Trinity. In the Incarnation, He became fully human, in addition to being fully divine, and it was then that He was called Jesus. But there came a point in history, and in His humanity, when God made Him Lord.

In making Jesus Lord, God fulfilled in Him the promise He made long ago to His people Israel. It was the promise that He would anoint one who would come redeem Israel, subdue the nations, set everything right in the world and reign forever. Jesus is that “Anointed One” — that is what is meant by Messiah or Christ.

Paul, in his letter to the believers at Philippi, speaks of how Jesus, though being in the form of God, took the form of a servant, in the likeness of humanity. As God who became man, Jesus further humbled Himself to the point of a humiliating death on the cross. But now listen as Paul describes the result of that great, and greatly surprising, act:
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)
God has highly exalted Him. He has given Him the name that is above every name by appointing Him as Lord over everything in heaven, on earth and under the earth — every realm of existence. Paul says it a bit differently in the book of Ephesians, when he speaks of the mighty power of God, “which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:20-21).

Before Jesus ascended to His throne in heaven, He came to the disciples and declared, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). In regard to His divinity and His identity as the eternal Son of God, Jesus has always been sovereign over creation from the very beginning. But in regard to His humanity, He was given all authority in heaven and on earth.

In the time-space continuum of the world, then, there came a moment when God highly exalted Jesus the Messiah, gave Him all authority in heaven and on earth and made Him Lord over all. He appointed Him as the rightful ruler over everything — the King of the world. The Church identifies and celebrates that moment in history as the Ascension.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Ascension: At the Right Hand of the Father


Forty days after the resurrection, Jesus the Messiah, whom God anointed to be Lord over all, ascended to His throne at the right hand of the Father. Today is Ascension Sunday, on which the Church around the world celebrates that great redemptive truth. A simple search through the New Testament for the words “right hand” reveals the enormous significance of this event.
  • But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered and said to Him, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!” Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Matthew 26:63-64)
  • “If You are the Christ, tell us.” But He said to them, “If I tell you, you will by no means believe. And if I also ask you, you will by no means answer Me or let Me go. Hereafter the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God.” (Luke 22:68-69)
  • Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” (Acts 2:33-35)
  • The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. (Acts 5:30-31)
  • But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” (Acts 7:55-56)
  • Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. (Romans 8:34)
  • And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. (Ephesians 1:19-21)
  • If then you were raised 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 on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1-3)
  • Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, (Hebrews 1:3)
  • But to which of the angels has He ever said: “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool”? (Hebrews 1:13)
  • Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)
  • There is also an antitype which now saves us — baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. (1 Peter 3:21-22)
The ascension of the Lord Jesus connects to the messianic meaning of Psalm 110, which is often quoted in the New Testament concerning Him.
The LORD said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion.
Rule in the midst of Your enemies!
Your people shall be volunteers
In the day of Your power;
In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning,
You have the dew of Your youth.
The LORD has sworn And will not relent,
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”
The LORD is at Your right hand;
He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath.
He shall judge among the nations,
He shall fill the places with dead bodies,
He shall execute the heads of many countries.
He shall drink of the brook by the wayside;
Therefore He shall lift up the head.
That day has already come and has already begun to be fulfilled. Jesus the Messiah has been seated at the right hand of the Father, far above all principality and power and might and dominion. “For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.” (1 Corinthians 15:25-26). This work will be complete when King Jesus returns again at the end of history. Then the will of God will be done thoroughly and completely on earth as it is in heaven. “Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power” (1 Corinthians 15:24).

The Ascension of the Lord Jesus also has great significance for all who are His. Just as Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, those who belong to Him are seated at His own right hand. “Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’” (Matthew 25:34). In Ephesians 1, Paul tells of Jesus’ enthronement at the Father’s right hand, but just a few verses later, in Ephesians 2, he speaks of what this means for all who trust in Him:
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7)
God has made us alive together with Christ, raised us up together with Him, made us sit together in the heavenlies with Him. The Greek verbs here are in the aorist tense, which signifies completed action. In other words, this is not merely future promise Paul is talking about, it is present reality. Ascension Sunday reminds us that not only has the Lord Jesus been seated at the right hand of the Father, but in a very real sense, all who belong to Him by faith have now been seated there with Him.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

The Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you — unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
First Corinthians 15 presents us with a solid outline of the gospel. It is the apostolic tradition handed down to Paul, then faithfully handed down from Paul, and received as such by the Jesus believers at Corinth and by the Church at large. It is the message that we are called to believe, the message by which we are redeemed.

There is the crucifixion, the burial, the resurrection. “According to the scriptures” alludes to the Hebrew “backstory,” so these things did not happen in a historical vacuum but speaks of the fulfillment of God’s age-old promise and plan.

Paul then speaks at length concerning the resurrection of King Jesus bodily from the dead. It not just about Jesus, however, but also about us. Because Jesus the firstfruits from the dead, that guarantees our own bodily resurrection as well: “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (v. 20).

There also is the coming again of the King, which is just as much a part of the good news: “But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming” (v. 23). And after that, the Consummation, when everything in heaven and on earth comes together as one. “Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power” (v. 24).

When I was in Bible college, we stopped at the Cross, then on to the Resurrection, but then shot ahead to the Parousia (the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus). It was not until a number of years later that I began to understand the significance of the Ascension — King Jesus rising to His throne. At the right hand of the Father. In Matthew 28, we jumped to the Great Commission, in verses 19 and 20, but paid scant attention to verse 18, where Jesus declared, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” But that is a stunning declaration He made, and tremendously good news. It means that the reign of King Jesus has already begun. Not just in heaven but on earth as well.

In other words, the kingdom of God is here and now. By faith in Jesus, the King, we participate in His kingdom here and now. However, though it has already begun, it is not yet completely done. That will not happen until Jesus comes again. Then we will experience it forever when our bodies are transformed or resurrected, and incorruptible (1 Corinthians 15:50-54). In the meantime, all things are currently in the process of being placed under His feet. “For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25).

In view of all this, Paul concludes, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Like the old gospel song says, “Ain’t that good news?”

Friday, November 2, 2012

The Humble God-Man Exalted with the Highest Glory

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)
In the previous section, Paul spoke of the humility of the Son of God who came into the world as a man and manifested the servant heart even to the point of a humiliating death on a Roman cross. Now he shows how the greatness of that divine humility has been revealed.

The world has been turned upside down, or rather, right side up. The fallen world system, under the spell of principalities and powers, delights in what it perceives to be power and greatness, yet esteems humility and love to be the exact opposite of such. But God has revealed that greatness is found in humility and power in love, and He has done this by exalting Jesus with the greatest glory. This was not in regard to His divinity, in which He has always been infinitely glorious, but in regard to His humanity, which is what God had always planned for mankind from the beginning, when He said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion” (Genesis 1:26). The exaltation of Jesus in His humanity also speaks to us about our own humanity.

Paul details this exaltation in his letter to the Jesus believers at Ephesus, where he prays that they might be given the Spirit of wisdom and revelation from God to know
what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:19-23)
All things in heaven and earth have now been placed under the dominion of Jesus the God-man. The principalities and powers, which were disarmed at the cross (Colossians 2:15), must yield to the authority of His name and all it signifies. Paul also tells us that, as believers in the Lord Jesus, we too have been raised up together with Him and seated together in the heavenlies in Him (Ephesians 2:6).

This news is for all the world, and all the nations are invited to come and participate in Him, to know Him in His humility and to glory in His greatness. Before He ascended to His throne in heaven at the right hand of the Father, He gathered the disciples together and said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

God has exalted Jesus so that “every knew should bow” and “every tongue should confess” that Jesus is Lord. This echoes the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah:
Who has declared this from ancient time?
Who has told it from that time?
Have not I, the LORD?
And there is no other God besides Me,
A just God and a Savior;
There is none besides Me.
Look to Me, and be saved,
All you ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.
I have sworn by Myself;
The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness,
And shall not return,
That to Me every knee shall bow,
Every tongue shall take an oath.
(Isaiah 45:21-23)
The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament that was used by the early church, uses the same words about every knee bowing and every tongue confessing that Paul uses in Philippians 2:10-11. What is said of the LORD in the Old Testament, Paul applies to the exalted Lord Jesus in the New.

The language of bowing the knee is not about what is done against one’s will — and it is certainly not to be confused with an enemy having his neck under the foot of his vanquisher. Bowing the knee is honor willingly offered. Likewise, confession is not what must be pulled through one’s teeth. It is freely given, and from the heart. Paul speaks two other times about the confession that Jesus is Lord. In 1 Corinthians 12:3, he tells us that no one can say “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. In Romans 10:9, he says that those who confess “Jesus is Lord,” will be saved.

In the Roman imperial cult of Paul’s day, each Caesar upon his death was considered to have ascended to take his place in the pantheon of Roman gods. This glorification of Caesar to god-like status was called apotheosis, “divinization” or “deification.” Being a Roman citizen, Paul would have known of this belief, as would the Jesus believers at Philippi (remember that Philippi was one of the chief Roman cities in Macedonia). Paul’s words, however, fly very much in the face of it. Where the Romans said, “Caesar is Lord,” Paul boldly declared, not Caesar, but Jesus is Lord. Caesar is not the one who has been exalted to the highest place, but Jesus the Messiah is. Even Caesar himself will bow down in reverence and worship the Lord Jesus. The declaration that Jesus is Lord, which is so central to the message of the gospel, rattled the Roman cages and was one reason why Christians were persecuted as subversives and why evangelism was such a dangerous venture. But it was also a reason for great joy.

Focus Questions
  1. What does the exaltation of Jesus the God-man say about humanity as God intended it?
  2. What do you suppose it means that we are seated with Jesus on His throne in the heavenlies, at the right hand of the Father? Can you see yourself there?
  3. How does the exaltation of Jesus the Son display the glory of the Father?



There is Always Joy!
There is Always Joy!
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Philippi
Bite-Sized Studies Through the Book of Philippians
by Jeff Doles

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Sunday, May 20, 2012

All Authority in Heaven and on Earth


Today is Ascension Sunday. We celebrate the day King Jesus the Messiah ascended to His throne at the right hand of the Father, where He now rules and reigns with all authority in heaven and on earth.

Matthew 28:18-20
Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Mark 16:14-20
Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
Luke 24:46-53
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 are 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, while He blessed them, that 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. Amen.
Acts 1:4-11
And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
1 Corinthians 15:20-25
But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He says:
“When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts to men.”
(Now this, “He ascended” — what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
Ephesians 4:7-16
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ — from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.