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Scripture Reading: Acts 1:9-11; 2:22-24, 32-36; 3:13-15; 4:10-12; 5:30-32; 7:55-56; 10:36b; Heb. 1:2-3; Phil. 2:9-11; Eph. 1:20-23; 4:7-12
Our burden in these chapters is to continue to see the wonderful person of Christ. In the previous chapters we have seen Christ in the four Gospels. That brought us from the incarnation to the resurrection of Christ. We have seen how Christ was the incarnated One, and eventually He became the resurrected One. Now we want to continue to see the wonderful person of Christ in the Acts and Epistles.
After the four Gospels we have the book of Acts. In the first chapter of Acts, the main thing is the ascension of Christ. Here we see how the disciples saw Christ ascending up to heaven: “When He had said these things, while they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him away from their sight. And while they were looking intently into heaven as He went, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them, who also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you beheld Him going into heaven” (vv. 9-11).
Many Christians know that Jesus ascended to the heavens after His resurrection, but not many know the real meaning of the ascension of Christ. We all know the meaning of His crucifixion and His resurrection. However, it would be very difficult for us to explain the real meaning of the ascension of Christ. In the Bible the ascension of Christ is a great thing. In all the above verses there are some main points concerning the ascension of Christ. By putting them together, we will see the significance of Christ’s ascension.
First of all, the ascension of Christ means His exaltation. After He was resurrected, God highly exalted Christ. Man had killed and even buried Christ in the tomb. But God raised Him up. Moreover, He not only raised Him up from the grave but highly exalted Him. “Therefore also God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should openly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11). Through His ascension Christ has become the One who is far above all. He has been exalted far above all principalities, powers, might, and dominion, and above every name that is named. This is true not only in this age but also in the age to come: “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” (Eph. 1:20-21). This means that in the whole universe, nothing is above Christ. Everything is under Him. He is far above all! Hallelujah! We all must see that Christ is the One who is far above all.
Another point is that by being exalted far above all, He was made the Lord and Christ: “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 2:36). He was also made the Leader, which means the Prince and the Author, and He was made the Savior: “The God of our fathers has raised Jesus, whom you slew by hanging Him on a tree. This One God has exalted to His right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins” (5:30-31). By being exalted, the Lord Jesus was made the Lord, the Christ, the Leader, and the Savior. Of course, we may say that He was the Savior already. Why then was He made the Savior by being exalted? We must realize that before His ascension He was the Savior but not officially. He was officially made the Savior by being exalted. By His ascension He was made the Lord, the Christ, the Leader or the Author, and the Savior.
In the Lord’s ascension and exaltation to the highest, He was given a name that is above all names, a name to which every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. The name is Jesus. Some may argue that the name Jesus was given to Him at the time of His birth. Why was He given the same name at His ascension, the name to which every knee should bow and every tongue should confess? Again, the name given to Him at His birth was not so official. At His ascension the name Jesus was made more official. Before His ascension, officially speaking, “Jesus” was not a name that was above all names. It was by His ascension that God declared to the whole universe that the name of Jesus is above all names: “Therefore also God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should openly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11). This is a kind of declaration, announcement, and proclamation to the whole universe. All the universe has to know that God has officially made the name Jesus above all names.
The fourth point is that in His ascension Jesus was positioned to receive all the gifts from the Father and to give the gifts to His believers. This is for the building up of His 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” (Eph. 4:7-8, 11-12).
Before the Lord’s ascension, He could give the gifts, but in a sense, He did not have the official position to do it. By His ascension He was officially positioned to receive all the gifts from the Father and pass these gifts on to His members for the building up of His Body.
The last point which we must see concerning the Lord’s ascension is that all things were put under His feet, and He was made the Head over all things to the church: “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” (1:20-23).
By considering all these points that we have mentioned, we see the real meaning of the ascension of Christ. The ascension of Christ is really the inauguration of Christ. When a president of the United States is elected, he does not officially take office until the day of his inauguration. According to the legislature, he must be inaugurated. Before his inauguration he has been elected the president, but it is not official. It is not until the day of his inauguration that he officially becomes the president of the United States.
On the day Jesus was born, He was our Savior, but it was not official. There was no inauguration. Even after Christ was crucified and resurrected from the dead, it was not announced to the whole universe. Not until the day Jesus was exalted by the right hand of God to the highest place in the universe did God make the declaration. It was at this time that God inaugurated Christ into His post.
Before this inauguration date, and even before the forty days when the Lord was with His disciples following His resurrection, Jesus had a secret ascension. In the morning of His resurrection He went to the Father. John 20 tells us that on the resurrection morning Mary the Magdalene began to touch Him, but the Lord told her, “Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (v. 17). Then on the evening of the same day He openly showed His disciples His hands and His feet and bid them to handle Him (Luke 24:39). Therefore, He must have had a secret ascension to the Father on that same day. This is why He told Mary to tell His brothers that He ascended to His Father. But this was an ascension in a secret way. Nobody saw it.
Forty days later, Jesus had the public ascension. It was universally open. All the disciples saw Jesus ascending and the angels declaring that He would return in the same manner. It was this declared ascension that was the inauguration of Jesus. By His ascension Jesus was inaugurated into His post. Then everything became official. He became the official Savior.
Now we know the meaning of the ascension of Christ. It was His official inauguration. First of all, He was made the Lord. As God, before His incarnation, the Lord Jesus was the Lord already. But after His incarnation, this very God became a man. God was the Lord, but man was not. Yet the Lord became a man, and this man was crucified on the cross, buried, and resurrected from the dead. It was at this time that the man Jesus became the Lord. For God to be the Lord, there is no need of any kind of inauguration. But for a small man from a lowly town in a despised country to be made the Lord requires a real inauguration. He was not made the Lord as God. As God He was Lord already. Now this man from Nazareth was inaugurated to be the Lord of all.
Peter, preaching on the day of Pentecost, said, “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 2:36). Peter not only preached Christ as the Savior but also as Lord of all. He never realized that Jesus was so great before the ascension. By the ascension he realized that the very man Jesus, whom he had been following for three and a half years, had been inaugurated to be Lord of all!
Peter also declared on the day of Pentecost that Jesus was the Christ. He was made both Lord and Christ. In Matthew 16 Peter had said that Jesus was the Christ: “Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). However, at that time, Jesus was not officially the Christ. The word Christ means “the anointed One.” The anointed One is also the appointed One. God anointed this man, which means that God appointed Him. Christ was God’s anointed and appointed One. This appointment was made official by the ascension of Christ. By the ascension God officially appointed Jesus as the Christ.
Christ was anointed and appointed to accomplish God’s eternal purpose, which is to build up His temple, the New Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! God appointed Jesus to do this, and this appointment was made official by His ascension. When Jesus ascended on high, God made the appointment official. In this way God told the whole universe that this is the very One whom He has appointed to accomplish His eternal plan. So Jesus became God’s Christ officially at His ascension.
But this is not all. He was also made the Leader, which means the Author, the Originator. All the things of the old creation had become old and useless to God. Now God has a new creation where everything is new. By His ascension Jesus was inaugurated to be the Author and Originator of everything new. He is not only the Author of life but of everything.
Suppose we went to Jeremiah and asked him to tell us the meaning of a member of Christ. He would say that he simply did not know. If we were to ask the same thing of Moses, he also would not know. And if we were to ask Adam the meaning of an apostle, he would not know what we were talking about. This is because an apostle is something new. An evangelist is something new. A member of Christ is something new. They did not have any of these things in the Old Testament.
So many things in the church life today are new. These new things have been originated by Christ. God inaugurated Christ into a post to originate so many new things. Ephesians has many terms pertaining to many new things. Elijah, David, Moses, and Adam did not know any of these things, but today the smallest one among us knows them all. This is why Jesus told His disciples that the least in the kingdom is greater than those in the Old Testament (Matt. 11:11). We are bigger than Moses, David, or Elijah. They were in the Old Testament before the coming of the new Originator. After them, Jesus was inaugurated as the Originator, the Author, to originate so many new things. Hallelujah!
One day Andrew brought his brother Peter to the Lord Jesus. Immediately, the Lord Jesus told Simon that his name was Cephas, meaning “a stone.” This was something new. In God’s old creation, every man was made of clay. But in God’s new creation, something more is originated by Christ. We must be a stone because Christ Himself is a stone. Later, Peter said, “This is the stone which was considered as nothing by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner. And there is salvation in no other, for neither is there another name under heaven given among men in which we must be saved” (Acts 4:11-12). Jesus was a stone, so He made all of us stones. This is something new. He is the Author. He is the Originator.
In the Old Testament we cannot find a verse telling us that we must take Christ into us as our everything. But Jesus came with something new. He said that He is the bread of life, and the one who eats Him will live because of Him (John 6:35, 57). This is really new. From Adam through John the Baptist, no man was edible. But now Jesus came and told us to eat Him. He is the real Originator. He not only told us to eat Him but also to come and drink of Him: “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (7:37). This is also entirely new.
The Lord Jesus originated all the new things and passed them on to the church. But the church became degraded and eventually lost everything. So the poor church went back to the old things of the Old Testament, mainly the doctrines and prophecies. But today in the Lord’s recovery, we must come back to the origin. The Lord Jesus is the Author of His recovery. He is the Originator. We did not start the Lord’s recovery. He did!
Today the Lord is telling us to come back to eat, drink, and breathe of Him. These things were not only new to Moses and Elijah; they are even new to today’s Christians. In some places where we have shared these things, we have been rebuked. Some felt that it was terrible to say that the Lord wants us to eat Him today. But this was altogether originated by the Lord Jesus. He was and still is the Originator, and this Originator was inaugurated at His ascension. He was made the Lord, the appointed One, and the Originator or Author.
It was also by the ascension that Jesus became the official Savior. God declared to the heavens, to the earth, and even to the unbelieving Jews that Jesus of Nazareth has been officially appointed by God to be their Savior. Therefore, He was authorized by God to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins: “The God of our fathers has raised Jesus, whom you slew by hanging Him on a tree. This One God has exalted to His right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:30-31). Hallelujah! Our Savior is not a secret Savior. Our Savior today is an official Savior. He was officially inaugurated in the whole universe.
Jesus was inaugurated to be the Lord, the Christ, the Originator, and the Savior. Moreover, He was inaugurated to be the Head over all. “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” (Eph. 1:22-23). Christ is the Head who heads up all things. I may illustrate with my own body. It seems that my two legs support my body, but if you were to cut off my head, my body would fall. It is not my two legs that hold my body, but my head.
The man Jesus was appointed the Head over all things. If we were to take away Christ as the Head, the whole universe would fall apart. He heads up all the universe, not simply to maintain its existence. No, Christ is the Head over all things to the church. He is not the Head over all things for the church but to the church. He is heading up all things to produce and build a church that will be God’s eternal dwelling place.
Once, after a meeting in a certain place, a lady rebuked me, saying that I spoke too much about the church life and not enough about the family life. I told her that she already knows the family life and does not need me to tell her anything about it. I said that the thing she does need is the church life. For years she had been a member of a certain denomination, yet no one had ever told her about the church life. It was too bad that she was so distracted by the family life that she did not care to hear about the church life. In the Lord’s recovery today we are for the church life. I realize that some may argue by saying that the church life needs the proper family life. In a sense I agree, but if you would have the proper family life, you must have the proper church life. If you say that the church life requires the family life, I would say that the family life needs the church life more. Why is it rare to find the proper family life today? Simply because the church life is not known. Anyone who really knows the proper church life will have a proper family life. The Lord Jesus was not inaugurated as Head over all things to the family but to the church.
Praise the Lord for His exaltation. Through His ascension He has been given a name that is above all names. He was inaugurated the Lord, the Christ, the Originator, the Savior, and the Head to the church. Now this Christ has the position to receive all the gifts from the Father. In His inauguration as the Lord of all, as God’s appointed One, as the Originator, the Savior, and the Head of all, He has the position to receive from the Father the gifts for the producing and building of the church. These gifts include all the members of His Body. In His ascension God not only gave the Holy Spirit to this inaugurated One but also all the gifts as His members. He was given all God’s chosen people. Before the foundation of the world, in eternity past, God marked us out to be His chosen ones. We became God’s elect. Then when the Lord Jesus ascended to the heavens, in that inauguration, the Father gave Him all His chosen people, including you and me. Therefore, on the day of Pentecost He came to anoint His Body, His members. We will see something more about this in the next chapter.
We have seen Jesus as a wonderful person, inaugurated into His position as the Lord of all, the appointed One, the Author of everything, the Savior, and the Head over all things to the church! Here in His inauguration He was given the Holy Spirit of promise, all the gifts from the Holy Spirit, and all the members. Then after ten days He came back to produce the church and build up the Body. This is the real meaning of the ascension of Christ.
