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Scripture Reading: Acts 2:32-33, 36; 4:10-12; 5:40-41; Phil. 2:9-11; Eph. 1:20-23; 4:7-12
Very few Christians have ever paid much attention to the ascension of Christ. Of course, even the attention that has been paid to the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ has not been adequate. When people talk about the incarnation or the birth of Christ, it is always in a very shallow way. They celebrate His birth at Christmas and recall a child born in a manger to be their Savior. Most Christians did not see, and still do not see, that the incarnation of Jesus is much deeper than that.
What is the real meaning of the incarnation? It is the bringing of God into humanity. The incarnation of Jesus brings in the mingling of divinity with humanity. It is deeper than merely the birth of a Savior. For four thousand years after Adam was created, God was God, and man was man. However close God may have been to man at times, God never mingled Himself with man until the incarnation. The incarnation of Jesus brought God into man and formed a mingling of divinity with humanity. Almost two thousand years ago, four thousand years after Adam’s creation, there was a man by the name of Jesus. That man was the mingling of divinity with humanity. Through Him God was in man, and man was in God. There was such a mingling. This is the deeper meaning of the incarnation of Christ.
Then we come to His crucifixion. The crucifixion of Christ means termination. The cross of Christ terminated everything! It terminated sin, Satan, the world, and you and me. The crucifixion of Christ put an end to every negative thing. All that was sinful, old, rotten, fallen, corrupt, devilish, demonic, and satanic was ended by the cross of Christ! Most Christians only realize that the cross of Christ accomplished redemption. That is true, and we are very much for the redemption of Christ on the cross. But the crucifixion also has a deeper meaning. It terminated every negative thing.
What then is the meaning of the resurrection of Christ? The resurrection of Christ is a new beginning with a new creation. The crucifixion of Christ terminated everything, and His resurrection originated everything new. The cross of Christ terminated all the old, negative things, and the resurrection of Christ brought forth a new start. It was a new start not only in creating power but also in generating power. Christ’s crucifixion terminates, and His resurrection germinates. Everything old and negative has been terminated by the crucifixion of Christ, but that was not the end. The end became the beginning. Christ’s crucifixion was followed by His resurrection. The termination was followed by germination. The resurrection of Christ was, and still is, a real germination.
After His resurrection Christ ascended to the third heaven to God the Father. As we have seen in the last chapter, the best word defining the ascension of Christ is inauguration. The ascension of Christ was His inauguration. By being exalted to the right hand of God, He was inaugurated into His office. He was not elected by you and me; He was selected by God.
Before the ascension Christ was the Redeemer, the Savior, and the Author of life, yet He was not inaugurated. It was by His ascension that He was exalted by God the Father. Satan did his best to bury Jesus in a tomb, but God raised Him up! He not only raised Him up but also highly exalted Him to His own right hand. The right hand of God is the peak of the universe. Satan tried to put Jesus down, but God raised Him and highly exalted Him to His own right hand. This is the ascension, the exaltation, the inauguration, of Christ. In this exaltation God declared to the whole universe that the man Jesus is now the Lord of all! “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we all are witnesses...Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you have crucified” (Acts 2:32, 36).
It is not that God is the Lord of all but that a man by the name of Jesus has been made the Lord of all. God has made Him the Lord of all. He is also the anointed One, the Christ, as well as the Author, the Originator, and the Savior. God has put all things under His feet. He is the Head. Nothing is above Him. Rather, He is above all; all things have been put under Him. He is the Lord of all, the Anointed of God, the Author, the Savior, and the Head of all.
What is the purpose of this? Why has God made Christ all these things? Very few Christians know the significance of Christ’s ascension. It is clearly revealed in two portions of the book of Ephesians. The first is in chapter 1: “Which He caused to operate in Christ in raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come; and He subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all” (vv. 20-23).
This portion of Ephesians tells us that God raised up Christ and exalted Him above all, putting all things under His feet, and giving Him to be Head over all things to the church. Therefore, we must see that the ascension is for the church. The ascension is to build up the Body of Christ.
Then in Ephesians 4 we are told that Jesus, in His ascension, first received all the gifts from the Father and then gave these gifts to the church for the building up of the Body: “To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Therefore the Scripture says, ‘Having ascended to the height, He led captive those taken captive and gave gifts to men’...And He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ” (vv. 7-8, 11-12).
When Christ was inaugurated to be Head over all things to the church, He received all the gifts to give them to men for the building up of the Body. Most Christians have never seen the ascension of Christ in a full way because today’s Christians do not pay much attention to the church. Some feel that as long as people are getting saved, it is good enough. I agree that it is good to be saved, but simply to be saved is not sufficient. Others say that after being saved, we must be spiritual. I also agree that this is good, but to be spiritual still does not reach God’s goal. God’s goal is not merely to have people saved or to be spiritual. God’s goal is to build a Body for Christ.
If we have never been saved, there is no peace until we are saved. We who are saved have all experienced this peace. But after we receive peace through salvation, we find that we are still short. We received peace, but we also obtained hunger. So we begin to pursue after Christ in order that we may grow. The more we grow, the more hungry we get. It is because we are short of the church. When the Lord finally leads us to the church, we find that the hunger has disappeared. We are satisfied, and we are home! This is God’s goal. When we come to God’s goal, we are satisfied. Before we came into the church, we did not have satisfaction. But today as the church people in the Lord’s recovery, we do have satisfaction. Hallelujah! Here we have the sense within that we have hit God’s goal, the recovery of the proper church life.
The ascension is the inauguration of Christ for the producing and building up of the church. Most Christians think that after the Lord was crucified, He finished His work. That is true. John 19:30 tells us that the Lord said, “It is finished!” But we must realize what was finished. God’s redemption was finished on the cross but not the building up of the church. We cannot add anything to the redemption that was accomplished by Christ. That was completely finished. But the building up of the church had not started by that time. The Lord has two kinds of work. One is the work of redemption, and the other is the building up of the church. The first kind of work was finished at the cross. But the second was not started until after the ascension, on the day of Pentecost. The Lord finished the redemptive work; therefore, He was qualified to be the Builder of the church. Only Christ is the right person to build the church. Because He accomplished redemption, He was qualified. So God exalted Him to His own right hand. This exaltation is God’s ratification. God ratified the crucified and resurrected Christ. By exalting Him to His right hand, God fully approved of Him.
In the whole universe God has a great project to accomplish: that is, to build the New Jerusalem. No other project could be greater than this. Who has the qualifications for such a building work? Christ! He has been fully qualified. All the highest educational degrees on this earth mean nothing. God’s great project requires much more, and only Christ has the qualifications.
Who defeated Satan? Christ! Who put him to the end? Christ! Who bruised the head of the serpent? Christ! Could you do it? Who took away all the sins of the world? Christ! Who conquered death? Christ! Who took a tour in Hades to see what death could do? Christ! Who entered Hades and resurrected from it? Christ! Who could meet the requirements of God’s righteousness? Christ! Who can meet the holy requirements of God? Christ! Who can meet the requirements of the glory of God? Christ!
Only Christ is qualified. We are short of all the requirements. All the degrees on this earth could not qualify us. Only Christ has all the divine degrees. Whatever God required, Christ accomplished. Therefore, God fully approved Him.
Then on the day of the ascension God declared the inauguration of Christ. He was inaugurated into His post. Now He is the official Redeemer. Now He is the official Savior. Now He is the official Author of life. Whatever He is, is official, and whatever He is doing is official. Praise Him! He is the only One who is qualified to carry out God’s great project of building the New Jerusalem.
Has Christ accomplished redemption? His ascension says, “Yes!” Has Christ dealt with the serpent? His ascension says, “Yes!” Whatever Christ did was approved by God in His ascension. Now He is seated at the right hand of God. He is more than qualified. He is fully approved by God. Now He is the greatest Operator to carry out God’s divine project of building the New Jerusalem. He is the Builder. Hallelujah!
Have you ever realized that Christ is a qualified Builder to carry out God’s project of building the New Jerusalem? Christ has accomplished the work of redemption. Now He is operating to build the New Jerusalem. God’s intention is to obtain the New Jerusalem. Today’s church life is just a small miniature of the New Jerusalem. This is God’s project. Who can carry out such a project? Only Christ!
To complete this project there is the need of four basic things. First of all, there is the need of the stones. The New Jerusalem could not be built without stones. The wall of the holy city is built with jasper and has twelve foundation stones (Rev. 21:17-20). Praise the Lord that we all are the living stones for His building (1 Pet. 2:5). The second need is that of life. The New Jerusalem is a matter of life. In the New Jerusalem there is the tree of life and the water of life. Then, third, there is the need of the Spirit. For God’s project we need the Spirit. Finally, the fourth need is that of the technique, the skill, to build such a tremendous building. This is the gifts. For such a building, we need the stones as the materials, the life, the Spirit, and the gifts.
We are the materials. In the last chapter, I mentioned how in eternity past, God the Father in His foreknowledge chose us and marked us out. But in time we became fallen. God’s marked-out people became fallen. Therefore, Christ came to accomplish redemption for us and brought us back. In John 17:2 and 6 we see that God the Father gave all His chosen ones to the Son. Even before the Son redeemed us, God gave us all to the Son.
Then, when Christ was exalted to the Father at the time of His ascension, the Father made Him to be the Author of life, He gave Him the Spirit, and He gave Him all the gifts. God made Christ the Author of life in order that Christ would take all His chosen people and put His divine life into every one of them. Then He would fill and empower them with the Spirit and make them functioning gifts to the Body. They not only would have the gifts; they themselves would become gifts.
In the Lord’s ascension He was officially authorized and inaugurated into His position, and He was commissioned with the kingship, the lordship, and the headship. After His ascension He came back on the day of Pentecost to put all the materials together. He collected them, He put the divine life into them, and He poured out the Spirit upon them. They received the life within and the Spirit without. Then with this life and Spirit He imparted the spiritual ability to every believer. Therefore, all the believers obtained the life, the Spirit, and the functioning ability. Then eventually everyone, from the least to the greatest, became a gift to the Body.
After the ascension, from the day of Pentecost, Christ started the collection of God’s chosen materials. One was Saul of Tarsus. He was so religious and traditional, and he even persecuted the church (Gal. 1:3-14). But one day while he was on his way to suppress the believers of the Lord, the wonderful Lord came to him, and he was knocked to the ground. The Lord said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:1-5). He was surprised. He had been persecuting Stephen and many other believers on the earth, but not one in the heavens. So he said, “Who are You, Lord?” He did not know who the Lord was, yet he called on the Lord. And he got saved! When he said, “Who are You, Lord?” the Lord Jesus got in! Then the Lord told him that He was Jesus, the One whom he had been persecuting. It was in that way that Saul was saved, gathered, and collected.
The principle is the same with all of us. When we were saved, not one of us had any intention of coming into the church life. In fact, some of us intended to oppose it. Yet the Lord found a way to collect us. Praise the Lord, we were collected! Many among us can testify that just by attending one meeting, we were caught! I do know what the Lord is doing here. He is collecting His material for His building.
About twelve years ago, we were only a handful of people in Los Angeles. Yet we prayed boldly that we would take the earth! If someone had heard us at that time, they would have said that we were crazy. How could such a small group of people take the earth? Yet we were led by the Lord to pray that way. Now the signs are here. The U.S.A. has been taken already! Also, the recovery has gone to Germany, Britain, Switzerland, Denmark, France, Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. This is just the beginning! Christ is collecting all the materials for His building.
Have you been “hooked” for the Lord’s recovery? I have really been “hooked.” Once you are “hooked,” you can never extricate yourself. This is Christ collecting materials for His building. More and more will get “hooked.” This is not just the crucified Christ for redemption or the resurrected Christ for life. This is the ascended Christ collecting all the materials that the Father has given to Him. We can be sure that the Lord has a way to get all the materials He needs.
Many of the young people can testify that after they were hooked for the Lord’s building, they loved the Lord more. They never enjoyed life as much as they are enjoying it now. Surely when the Lord collects us, He will put us into the abundant life. So many people today are talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But the real baptism of the Spirit is to be put into the Spirit. Many times in our meetings we have the real sense that we have been immersed in the Spirit. It seems that we are in the heavens, but we are still on the earth. This is the proper and real experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Once we have been collected by the ascended Christ, it is really hard to get away. I do know of some young people who came into the church life, and after a while they left. But some time later they came back. They testified that they tried desperately to get away, but somehow they could not quite make it. Once we have been collected by the Lord, it is really hard to escape. This is because we have been put into the real enjoyment of the Spirit with the riches of the abundant life.
Once we have been collected, we have the life within, we have the Spirit, and we have all the persons as gifts to the Body. Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. We all have a measure of something of Christ, and all have been given to the Body as gifts. Regardless of how weak and small we are, as long as we are in the church, we are gifts.
The materials, the life, the Spirit, and the gifts are all for the producing and the building up of the Body. This is the work of the ascended Christ to carry out God’s project. He is doing this work right now! Day by day the ascended Christ is collecting the materials, putting His life into them, pouring out the Spirit upon them, and imparting the abilities to them so that they may be gifts to the Body.
Eventually, we see in Ephesians 4 that the gifts are the persons: “‘Having ascended to the height, He led captive those taken captive and gave gifts to men’...And He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ” (vv. 8, 11-12). All these persons are the materials collected, filled with life, empowered with the Spirit, and talented with the spiritual abilities. Eventually, they all become the gifts. These gifts are for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, which is the building up of the Body of Christ. The ascension of Christ is for the building up of the Body! Christ, the wonderful ascended One, has been fully inaugurated by God. He is the Builder to carry out God’s project, which is the church life today and which will eventually consummate in the New Jerusalem in the future. This is the real meaning of the ascension of Christ.
