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Scripture Reading: Luke 1:78-79; 2:8-14, 32; 7:41-42, 50; 10:25-37; 15:3-32; 17:20-24; 24:27, 44-53
I. The Man-Savior’s ascension was His inauguration into His heavenly office through the process of creation, incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection as God and man, as the Creator and the creature, and as the Redeemer, the Savior, and the life-giving Spirit, to execute God’s administration and to carry out God’s New Testament economy — Luke 24:44-53; Acts 2:36; Heb. 2:9; 12:2.
II. Christ in His ascension transcended Hades (where the dead people are being held), the earth (where the fallen men are moving against God), the air (where Satan and his power of darkness are acting against God), and all the heavens (where Satan can go) — Eph. 1:20-21; 4:8-10; Heb. 4:14; 7:26.
III. There is a transmission from the ascended and transcending Christ to the church (Eph. 1:19-23); His transcending transmission includes all the rich dispensing of the Triune God (vv. 3-14):
А. Such an all-inclusive transmission brings us into union not only with the incarnated, crucified Christ but also with the resurrected, transcending Christ; in union with this transcending Christ, we have surpassed all the negative things and transcended above them all — vv. 21-23.
B. The transmitting of the transcending Christ is to transfuse into the church, the Body of Christ, what the Triune God has accomplished, attained, and obtained for the heading up of all things in Christ — vv. 10, 19, 22-23.
C. The transcending Christ’s transmission also brings us into Christ’s heavenly ministry in His twelve statuses, which He has attained and obtained in His ascension, as the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ — Phil. 1:19:
1. The Lord of all — Acts 2:36a.
2. The Christ of God — v. 36b.
3. The Leader of all the rulers — 5:31a.
4. The Savior — v. 31b.
5. The High Priest — Heb. 4:14-15; 7:26.
6. The Advocate — 1 John 2:1b.
7. The Intercessor — Heb. 7:25.
8. The Mediator of the new covenant — 8:6.
9. The surety of the new covenant — 7:22.
10. The Life-giver — John 10:10b.
11. The Comforter — 14:16-17.
12. The Lamb-God — Rev. 22:1b.
IV. In His heavenly ministry in ascension, Christ is serving us by dispensing Himself as the reality of the New Testament jubilee into us for our enjoyment — Heb. 8:2; Luke 4:18-22:
А. Christ served us in the past, still serves us in the present, and is going to serve us in the future — Mark 10:45; Luke 22:26-27; 12:37 cf. 9:54-56; 19:10.
B. In His heavenly ministry in ascension, Christ as the life-giving Spirit is serving us by dispensing Himself into us for our experience and enjoyment as revealed in the Gospel of Luke in the following aspects:
1. He is the rising sun from on high, to shine upon those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace — 1:78-79.
2. He is the Savior of fallen mankind for God’s good pleasure — 2:8-14.
3. He is a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of God’s people Israel — v. 32.
4. He likens Himself to a moneylender, who forgives all His debtors graciously to receive love from them — 7:41-42, 50.
5. He portrays Himself as the good Samaritan, taking care of the fallen and law-stricken sinner with compassion, healing him with the Spirit and the divine life, and putting him into the church — 10:25-37.
6. He is a Sheep-finder, coming to the wilderness of the world to find the lost sheep and bring it back — 15:3-32.
7. He is the best robe of righteousness, prepared by God for the returned sinners to be justified by God — v. 22; Jer. 23:6; 1 Cor. 1:30.
8. He is the fattened calf, the portion of the life supply prepared by God for the believing sinners to be satisfied inwardly — Luke 15:23; 1 Cor. 1:9.
9. He is the kingdom of God as a seed sown into the believers to develop into God’s kingdom; such a kingdom is within the believers in the church — Luke 17:20-24; Mark 4:3, 14, 26; 1 John 3:9; Rom. 14:17.
10. He is the One prophesied in the Old Testament for the believers to receive through repentance for forgiveness of sins in His death and resurrection; the entire Old Testament is a revelation of Christ, and He is its center and content — Luke 24:27, 44-47.
C. To live in ascension is to live continually in our spirit and discern our spirit from our soul; when we live in our spirit, we are joined to the ascended Christ in the heavens — Eph. 2:22; Gen. 28:12-17; John 1:51; Rev. 4:1-2; Heb. 4:12.
D. We must learn to hide ourselves in the secret place of the Most High, to hide ourselves in the ascended Christ, taking Him as our dwelling place — Psa. 91:1; 90:1-11; John 16:33.
V. In His heavenly ministry in ascension, Christ as the life-giving Spirit is transforming us with the riches of the Triune God so that we may become a “palanquin,” the moving vessel of Christ, the carriage of Christ, the “car” of Christ, for the move of Christ in and for the Body of Christ — S. S. 3:9-10; cf. 2 Cor. 2:12-17:
А. We are rebuilt with the Divine Trinity so that our external structure is the resurrected and ascended humanity of Jesus, and our interior decoration is our love for the Lord.
B. It is Christ as our King Solomon who makes us a palanquin for Himself; our responsibility is simply to offer our love to Him and offer ourselves willingly to Him — John 21:15-17; Psa. 110:3.
C. Our inner being should be “inlaid with love”; loving the Lord will keep us in the realm of having Christ as our humanity, safeguarding our humanity in the constraint of His affection — S. S. 3:10; 2 Cor. 5:14.
D. Through our loving the Lord in a personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual way, our natural being is torn down, and we are remodeled with Christ’s redeeming death (its posts made of silver), God’s divine nature (its base of gold), and Christ’s kingship as the life-giving Spirit ruling within us (its seat of purple) — cf. Rom. 8:28-29; 2 Cor. 4:16-18.
VI. In His heavenly ministry in ascension, Christ is functioning as our great High Priest — Heb. 7:25-26; 8:1-2; cf. Acts 6:4:
А. He is cherishing and nourishing the churches to care for them:
1. He takes care of the churches as the lampstands in His humanity as the Son of Man to cherish them by trimming the wicks and adding more oil — Rev. 1:13; Exo. 25:38; 30:7 cf. Zech 4:12-14.
2. He takes care of the churches as the lampstands in His divinity with His divine love, signified by the golden girdle on His breasts, to nourish the churches with His divine and mystical ministry of three stages — incarnation, inclusion, and intensification — Rev. 1:13; John 1:14; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rev. 4:5; 5:6.
B. Just as the high priest in the Old Testament bore the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on his shoulders and on his heart, Christ as our High Priest is bearing us on His shoulders (His strength) and holding us on His heart (His love) — Exo. 28:9-10, 12, 21, 29:
1. He is “a merciful and faithful High Priest in the things pertaining to God” (Heb. 2:17), a High Priest who is able to sympathize with us in our weaknesses (4:15).
2. Although Christ as the High Priest is taking care of us, we all have our own thought and feeling as to how He should care for us; many times we do not know what is best for us or what the reason is for certain things; only the Lord as the High Priest knows the reason, and His care for us is always positive — Rom. 8:28-29.
C. Ultimately, Christ as the High Priest is caring for God’s need and interests:
1. God will listen to our prayer when our prayer to God is toward Christ, the kingdom of God, and the house of God as the goal in God’s economy — 1 Kings 8:48; Dan. 6:10.
2. No matter for whom we are praying, our prayers should be aimed at the interests of God, that is, at Christ and the church as God’s interests on earth, for the fulfilling of God’s economy — Eph. 5:32; 6:17-18.
D. Christ’s heavenly ministry as the High Priest in ascension consummates in the New Jerusalem, which will be the mingling of divinity with humanity to be the very expansion, enlargement, increase, and expression of the Triune God in humanity forever as the ultimate goal of God’s economy — Rev. 21:2, 9-11.
