Search
Scripture Reading: Acts 2:36; Rev. 1:5; Acts 5:31; Heb. 5:10; 7:3, 7:22; 8:1-2, 6; 1 John 2:1; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 5:4; 2:25; Eph. 1:20-22
I. In His ascension Christ being made:
А. Lord — the Lord of all, to possess all, after He brought His humanity into God in His resurrection — Acts 2:36.
B. Christ — God’s Anointed, to carry out God’s commission for the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy — v. 36.
C. Leader — Ruler of the kings (Rev. 1:5), to rule over the entire earth.
D. Savior — to save God’s chosen people through His sovereign rule over the earth in their environment — Acts 5:31.
E. The High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, without father, without mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life — Heb. 5:10; 7:3; 8:1.
F. The Minister of the new covenant — to minister all the riches of the bequests of the new testament — v. 2.
G. The Mediator of the better covenant — the Executor of the new testament bequeathed to us by His death — v. 6.
H. The surety of the better covenant — the guarantee and the pledge of the new covenant for its fulfillment — 7:22.
I. The Advocate — the Paraclete, the Comforter, the Patron, the One who is at our side to help us, to take care of us and our case, to intercede for us, to give us counsel, and to console us — 1 John 2:1.
J. The great Shepherd — the Chief Shepherd, to take care of God’s flock and be the Overseer of our souls — Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 5:4; 2:25.
K. The Head over all things to the church — Eph. 1:20-22.
In this chapter we want to see the move of God in man in the ascension of Christ. Most Christians pay their attention only to the ministry of the Lord on earth when He was in the flesh. His earthly ministry is basic and foundational. In those three and a half years the Lord laid a good foundation for God’s redemption, God’s salvation, God’s economy, and God’s building up of the church, the Body of Christ. But we all know that once the foundation is laid, something needs to be built upon it.
Upon the foundation laid in the Lord’s earthly ministry, all the additional works are to be done in His heavenly ministry. This heavenly ministry is the Lord’s work in His ascension. When we use the term ascension, we are not just referring to His ascending but to His stay in His ascension. The term ascension covers the span from the ascending of the Lord to His descending for His second coming. At least approximately two thousand years are covered in the span of the Lord’s ascension. Where is Christ today? Actually speaking, He is in ascension. To say that He is in the heavens is too shallow. We have to learn to say, “The Lord today is in His ascension.”
When He was crucified on the earth, He stayed in His crucifixion for six hours, from 9:00 A.M. (Mark 15:25) to 3:00 P.M. (Matt. 27:45-46). In the first three hours He was persecuted by men for doing God’s will. In the last three hours, beginning at 12:00 noon, He was judged by God to accomplish our redemption. He was in His crucifixion for six hours, but after His resurrection He ascended to enter into His ascension.
His ascension is a big realm of His work for building up. From His incarnation through His crucifixion, He only laid a foundation of God’s plan. During that period of time there was no building up. Before Pentecost even the leading apostle, Peter, was not built in. He was saved and was with the Lord in the foundational work, but he was not in the building until the day of Pentecost, which was the beginning of Christ’s move in His ascension.
In the beginning of Christ’s move in ascension, He poured out Himself as the economical Spirit to start the building up of the church. That was the beginning of Christ’s heavenly ministry in the building, not in the laying of the foundation. This building is still going on today and will continue until the end of the last seven years of this age, the end of the last week referred to in Daniel 9:24-27. The second half of these seven years will be the time of the great tribulation, at the end of which Christ will descend from the heavens to the earth. At that time His heavenly ministry in His ascension will be finished.
The Lord’s work for His new creation is in three stages. The first stage was for about three and a half years while the Lord Jesus was on earth. We may include incarnation as a part of the Lord’s work. At the Lord’s crucifixion just before He died, He said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). At that time He finished the work of His all-inclusive death by which He accomplished redemption.
The second stage is the stage of His work from His ascension to His descension at His second coming. This is the age of grace for the building up of the church. This may be called the church age. Revelation 11 reveals that when the Lord descends in His second coming, He will take the earth with all the nations, making them a part of the eternal kingdom of God (v. 15). At the sounding of the seventh trumpet at the Lord’s second coming, not only will the great tribulation end, but also this age will close (16:17), the mystery of God will be finished (10:7), and another age, the age of the kingdom, the millennium, will begin.
The age of the kingdom, the millennium, beginning from His descending to take the earth, is the third stage. That thousand-year period will conclude God’s holy work for His new creation, and the New Jerusalem will be consummated. After the one thousand years God’s work in the age of the old creation to gain His new creation in full will be ultimately finished (21:5-6). Then the new age of the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem will be for eternity. In that eternal age there will be no work, just rest. That will be an eternal Sabbath with no more work.
The entire age of grace is the time of the Lord’s ascension. He is in the heavens doing a lot, but today’s Christians do not pay adequate attention to this part of Christ’s ministry. Today He is both in the heavens seated at the right hand of God (Rom. 8:34) and in us (v. 10). This is very mysterious. He is in the heavens in ascension, and His presence within us is in the ascension. Today we are in ascension. We are not earthly persons but heavenly persons. Philippians 3:20 says that our commonwealth, or citizenship, is in the heavens. We are the heavenly citizens, so we all are in ascension (Eph. 2:6b).
Christ is in ascension both in the heavens and in us, and His heavenly ministry is working, is going on, at the same time in the heavens and in us. Christ as our High Priest is praying for us (Heb. 7:25). He is interceding for us both in the heavens and in us. Today He is always doing the same thing at the same time both in the heavens and in us. Television is a good illustration of this. If something is taking place in Hong Kong, we can see it on television at the same time here in the United States. Christ is working in the heavens, and at the same time He is working in us according to the heavenly television. This is God’s move in man in the ascension of Christ, so it is also God’s history.
God’s history is from eternity past to eternity future, and we have been included in His history. When we repented and confessed our sins at the beginning of our Christian life, God was involved. If God had not done anything, how could we have repented? Our repentance was motivated by His operation. He operated, He motivated, and then we repented. God’s motivation plus our praying was our repentance. When we confessed our sins, God was there working. If God had not been working, we could not have confessed.
We were regenerated, but it was the Triune God who regenerated us. We were born of the Triune God, and from that day we became His children. A little child’s life is wrapped up with his mother’s life. The mother and the infant live together. The infant eats, and the mother feeds. Without the mother’s feeding, how could the infant eat? Thus, we can say that the history of the mother is the history of the infant. In a similar way, the history of God is our history. Today most Christians see this history only from their side. They do not see it from God’s side. They do not see that their history is one with God’s history.
Now we want to see the statuses of Christ in His ascension. Because Christ is doing so much work, He has to be a person with certain statuses. If we are going to do anything, we need a status. Even a little child sent to a preschool becomes someone with a certain status. When he enters elementary school, he has another status. At each stage of his education, he arrives at another status. When he eventually gets a job, he has another status. At one time he may be a junior accountant, but after working for ten years, he becomes a senior accountant. Christ has many statuses, which He gained in His ascension. The New Testament gives us a clear record of the Lord’s position for His ministry. With every position He has a status. In this chapter we want to point out eleven statuses of Christ in His ascension.
In His ascension Jesus was made Lord (Acts 2:36). He was made Lord of all to possess all after He brought His humanity into God in His resurrection. As God, He was the Lord already (Luke 1:43; John 11:21; 20:28), but He became flesh and put on something that was not the Lord. Humanity was not a part of His lordship. As a man, Jesus was made the Lord in ascension. Today a man in the heavens is the Lord. The Lord is the One to possess all and to govern all. Acts 10:36 says that Jesus is Lord of all. This indicates that He is the Lord of all peoples, both the Jews and the Gentiles. The Bible also shows that He is the Lord of everything, including the entire creation. He possesses all.
The Lord gave Israel the good land in the Old Testament, but Israel was not faithful to fully possess that land. Today there is a quarrel concerning whom the Golan Heights belongs to. We need to see that the Golan Heights belongs to the Lord. The whole earth is the Lord’s (1 Cor. 10:26; Deut. 10:14; Psa. 24:1; 50:12). We may think that the land where our house is or where our meeting hall is, is our land. But it is the Lord’s land. The whole earth with its fullness is the Lord’s.
When I was younger, I preached the gospel sometimes by asking people, “Who is your Lord? To whom do you belong?” A teenager may think that he belongs to his parents, or a wife may feel that she belongs to her husband, but we should declare that we belong to the Lord Jesus. In human history, only Jesus is the Lord. Mohammed is not the Lord, nor is Buddha the Lord. Confucius is not the Lord. Jesus is the Lord. In His resurrection Jesus brought His human part into God, and He was made the Lord in His ascension.
As God’s sent and anointed One, Jesus was the Christ from the time that He was born (Luke 2:11; Matt. 1:16; John 1:41; Matt. 16:16). But after thirty-three and a half years, when He ascended to the heavens, God officially made Him the very Christ of God (Acts 2:36). When Christ entered into His ascension, God officially made Him the Christ, the anointed One of God to carry out God’s economy.
Acts 5:31 says that Christ was exalted to God’s right hand as a Leader, and Revelation 1:5 says that He is the Ruler of the kings of the earth. Napoleon considered himself to be the leader of Europe. Eventually, however, he was exiled, and he acknowledged that Jesus was above him and belonged to a different class. He admitted that he founded his empire upon force as a mere man but that Jesus founded His empire upon love and was more than a man. Even Napoleon said that he was convinced of the divinity of Jesus Christ. The real Leader and Ruler of Europe and of the entire world is Jesus.
The entire earth today uses the same calendar. According to history, the one whose calendar you use is the one to whom you are in subjection. If any used the calendar of a certain king, he would have to be under the rule of that king. Today all the peoples on the entire earth are under Jesus Christ because they use His calendar. Even the atheistic countries use the calendar of Christ. When you use one’s calendar, you admit you belong to that one. Now we are in the year 1993, but the globe has not existed for only 1993 years. It has existed for only 1993 years in the status of Jesus. Jesus’ birth has become the landmark of the calendar of all the peoples on earth. He is the Ruler of the kings of the earth to rule over the entire earth. Revelation 19:16 says that Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
Acts 5:31 says that Jesus is not only the Leader but also the Savior to save God’s chosen people through His sovereign rule over the earth in their environment. His being the Leader is related to His authority, and His being the Savior is related to His salvation. He rules sovereignly over the earth with His authority so that the environment might be fit for God’s chosen people to receive His salvation (cf. 17:26-27; John 17:2). Without His being the Ruler, we could not have believed into Him to receive Him as our Savior.
I was born in China near the beginning of this century. For many years the people of China knew nothing about Jesus. If the world situation had not been under the Lord’s ruling, the gospel could not have gone to China. The Lord in His sovereignty governs the whole earth to regulate everything for all His chosen people. Although I was chosen by the Lord before the foundation of the world, I was born in China. How could I hear the gospel? It was through the Lord’s arrangement of the world situation.
Because of the Lord’s sovereign arrangement of our environment to save us, we have become heavenly citizens. Our nationality is heavenly. The Lord is the Leader and the Ruler of the whole earth. Based upon this, He can be our Savior. Through His sovereign ruling, He arranged for us to be born at a certain time and at a certain place so that He could save us and make us His heavenly citizens. Many of us were born in different countries and at different times, but today we have become fellow citizens in the kingdom of God (Eph. 2:19). Our King, Christ, arranged everything for us to receive Him as our Savior.
In His ascension Christ is the High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life (Heb. 5:10; 7:3; 8:1). As the eternal Son of God, as the perpetual High Priest, Christ has no genealogy (John 1:1). This is His divine aspect. But as the Son of Man, He does have a genealogy (Matt. 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38). His divinity as the Son of God constitutes Him as our eternal High Priest, so He can pray for us both in heaven and in us.
In His ascension Christ is the Minister of the new covenant (Heb. 8:2) to minister all the riches of the bequests of the new testament. A testament is a legal, official agreement full of bequests. One bequest of the new testament is the forgiveness of sins. The following bequest is the giving of the divine life so that we may be born again to be God’s sons. These are just two of the many bequests in the new testament. A bequest is an item of the promised things given according to the testament, the legal, official agreement. God’s forgiving of our sins is His fulfilling of one of the bequests that Christ’s death has bought for us. God gave us His life so that we could be born again. This is another fulfillment of a bequest in the new testament. All the items of the blessings of the new testament are bequests, and Christ is the Minister of the riches of these bequests.
Not only is Christ a Minister to minister the riches of all the bequests to us, but also He is the Mediator, the Executor, to execute all the bequests of the new testament bequeathed to us by His death (v. 6).
Christ is the surety of the better covenant (7:22). This means that He is the guarantee and the pledge of the new covenant for its fulfillment. The Lord is the Guarantor and also the guarantee of the new covenant. He is the surety, the pledge, that everything in this covenant will be fulfilled.
In His ascension Christ is our Advocate (1 John 2:1). As the Advocate, He is the Paraclete, the Comforter, the Patron, the One who is at our side to help us, to take care of us and our case, to intercede for us, to give us counsel, and to console us. He takes care of everything concerning us. The Greek word for advocate can also refer to one who offers legal aid like an attorney. Christ, of course, takes care of our case in every aspect. Today we have both the Lord Jesus in the heavens and the Spirit, the Comforter (John 14:16), within us as our Advocate, who takes care of our case.
Christ is the great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd, to take care of God’s flock and be the Overseer of our souls (Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 5:4; 2:25). A shepherd of actual sheep cannot do anything to help the sheep in their souls. But today Christ shepherds us by overseeing our souls. Our soul is the part of our being that needs the most shepherding. Our body is troublesome, but the most troublesome part of our person is our soul. To deal with others in a proper way, we have to take care of their soul. If a husband cannot take care of his wife’s soul, he is a defeated husband. Our soul is our inner being, our real person. Our Lord, as the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls, shepherds us by caring for the welfare of our inner being and by exercising His oversight over the condition of our real person.
Christ’s shepherding of us is a part of God’s history. As the Advocate, He prays for us, and that is God’s praying, so that is God’s move in us as a part of God’s history. The move of God in Christ within us in His ascension is a part of God’s history in His union with man.
In addition to all the above items, Christ is also the Head over all things to the church (Eph. 1:20-22). Today it seems that in the universe there is no head. But, actually, Christ, the ascended Savior as the Lord of all in the universe, is the Head over all things to the church. His being the Head over all things is related to the church. So He is the Head of the church. Hence, He is quite qualified, quite capable, to take care of the church in every way to meet the church’s need in different situations. This is also a part of God’s move in Christ’s ascension.
