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Carried Up into Heaven

Often the gospel is only viewed as Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, but while that is of first importance (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), our salvation could not be possible without the incarnation (the Word becoming flesh and making His dwelling with us) or the ascension.  Several things are possible because Jesus is alive forevermore (Revelation 1:8) and seated at the right hand of the Father.

I. Luke 24:50-53.  Because He ascended, we can have a change of address.  What a beautiful picture it is of the alive Jesus being carried away to the Father.  It’s very similar to the poor man in Luke 16:22.  Both are fully conscious when they ascend, and Jesus tells us He’s going to prepare a place for us (John 14:2-4), something that is done for alive people.  Furthermore, for those who are part of the first resurrection, the second death has no power over them (Revelation 20:6-15).

II. Acts 1:6-11.  Because He ascended, our questions have good answers.  No doubt we live in a time when Christian faith is under attack by scoffers (2 Peter 3:3-4), yet we can give an answer for where our Savior we claim is alive currently is and the work He is doing at the right hand of the Father.  We can also say with certainty that Jesus will indeed return, not to bear sin (He’s already done that), but to bring to the Father those who are eagerly waiting for Him (Hebrews 9:26-28).

III. Hebrews 1:2-4.  Because He ascended, we now have a heavenly advocate.  Jesus told us that unless He went away we would not have certain advantages (John 16:7).  As our High Priest in heaven (Hebrews 8:1-6), He can be a great help to us in our current lives because He was made like us in every way (Hebrews 2:14-18), but He can be a perfect intercessor for us at the Father’s side (Hebrews 7:22-26) as Satan is constantly accusing us before this very throne (Revelation 12:10).

We need Jesus every moment of our lives.  Because He is ascended alive into heaven, our Savior is in a greater position to help us in every need that we have.

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Made Like His Brothers

If Satan wanted to destroy the gospel, how might he do it?  Since he can’t eliminate it, he would allow the story of a baby born and laid in the manger–as long as we didn’t know that baby as our Savior.  As long as Christianity is just one plate on the buffet of world religions and as long as the Word becoming flesh and making His dwelling among us is cluttered with many layers of man-made traditions, then it can exist as a lost and irrelevant relic.  But, Jesus being both fully God to be our Savior and fully man to be sacrifice is essential for the gospel and our salvation (Hebrews 2:14-18).

I.  Luke 4:3-13.  Since God is untouchable, Satan goes after those made in God’s image as we are able to choose sin (Genesis 3:1-15).  So, when God became a man, the devil had to test just how man-like He was, but Jesus remained sinless to His death on a cross.  And because He defeated the one who held the power of death through His own death, we too who are flesh and blood can share in His immortality and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15).

II.  John 8:34-38.  In doing so, Jesus delivered us who were in slavery to the fear of death because it is “Abraham’s offspring” that He helps.  Many thought they were Abraham’s offspring because of physical descent, but Jesus explains that it is those who are obedient by faith that He sets free from the slavery of sin.  It’s those who are sons of God through faith, having been clothed with Christ through baptism, who are Abraham’s offspring and heirs (Galatians 3:26-29).

III.  Romans 3:22-25.  Because He’s fully God, Jesus can be our Savior (Isaiah 43:3-11); because He’s fully man, though, He can be our sacrifice (2 Corinthians 5:21).  He had to be made like us in every way so that He can help us in eternity and here and now (Hebrews 4:14-18).  He is our righteousness and our propitiation for sin, sympathizing with our weaknesses and providing an ever-present help in our need.  And that is indeed good news!

As Satan does his best to dilute the gospel message or clutter it up with so much that is not about Jesus becoming a man to take care of our greatest need, let us uncover the light of the gospel message and let it shine forth.

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O Holy Night!

Like most old hymns, the 1847 French poem that was turned into what we know as “O Holy Night!” is rich in doctrine.  The title speaks of one, but the three verses would indicate four nights and proclaim the gospel from Jesus’ incarnation through His resurrection.

I.  Luke 2:8-15.  The first stanza tells the story of “the dear Saviour’s birth” on the first holy night.  The gospel is announced as “good news of great joy” for “all the people” although only Jewish shepherds go to see what God had done in Word becoming flesh.

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining, It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth; Long lay the world in sin and error pining, ‘Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.  A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn;

Romans 8 describes the world in sin and groaning for the sons of God to be revealed (v19-22), we who are baptized into Christ groaning inwardly awaiting our adoption and redemption (v23-25), and the Spirit interceding for us with groans too deep to understand (v26-28).  So, we sing …

Fall on your knees, Oh hear the angel voices! O night divine! O night when Christ was born. O night, O holy night, O night divine.

II.  Matthew 2:1-11.  A second holy night occurs about two years later but is often confused with the events surrounding the incarnation.  Here’s where the wise men following the star appear.  In this account, Jesus is found in a house, not a manger, to these gentiles’ “great joy,” showing that indeed the gospel is open to all.

Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming; With glowing hearts by his cradle we stand: So, led by light of a star sweetly gleaming, Here come the wise men from Orient land, The King of Kings thus in lowly manger, In all our trials born to be our friend;

Because He’s “King of Kings,” having died for us, we must obey the gospel and live for Him (1 Timothy 6:13-16).  He’s our high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses and help us in our need (Hebrews 4:14-16), letting us sing:

He knows our need, To our weakness no stranger! Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend! Behold your King! your King! before him bend!

III.  Matthew 27:45-50.  The third holy “night” was between 12:00 and 3:00 p.m. when Christ was crucified for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21), and the fourth was when He was resurrected “toward dawn” so we also might walk in new life through Him (Matthew 28:1-6; Romans 6:3-8).

Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is Love and His gospel is Peace; Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, And in his name all oppression shall cease, Sweet hymns of joy in grateful Chorus raise we; Let all within praise his Holy name!

Jesus taught us that everyone who sins is a slave to sin, and only He can set us free (John 8:31-36).  Though He Himself knew no sin, He became guilty for all of our sins at the cross.  Our response should be praise (Hebrews 13:15-16) and song:

Christ is the Lord, then ever! ever praise we! His pow’r and glory, evermore proclaim! His pow’r and glory, evermore proclaim!

Have you obeyed and are living faithfully the “good news of great joy” gained on these holy nights?

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Certainly This Man Was Innocent!

From Gethsemane through Calvary, we can see how Jesus, being fully man, became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him (Hebrews 5:7-9).  Because of sin, man owed a debt to God he could not pay, so God became a man to pay man’s debt to God.  In the gospel, Jesus was fully God to be our Savior, yes, but He was fully man to be our sacrifice.  This is seen in the Centurion declaring, “Certainly this man was innocent!”

I.  Luke 23:44-46.  First, the curtain that was torn.  In Leviticus 16:2-13, Moses was told to tell Aaron that he (and subsequent high priests) was not to just go behind the curtain of the tabernacle (and later the temple) where God’s presence was or he would die.  He needed first to make atonement for his own sins and then enter only once a year with blood to atone for the sins of the people.  The law was a shadow of the reality to come, however, and the man, Jesus, is the perfect and sinless High Priest that now enters heaven itself through the curtain which is His body with His own blood to perfectly atone for man’s sin once for all (Hebrews 10:1-23).  This was the point of the incarnation (Luke 2:10-12; John 1:14-18).

II.  Luke 23:46-49.  Second, the gentile Centurion.  Part of the Roman occupying force, this Centurion, no doubt in charge of a hundred men on crucifixion duty, was carrying out the death sentences for criminals from his superiors and keeping the peace while doing so.  A good soldier who did not get involved with the civilian affairs in this foreign land, he likely was used to the pleas and protestations from the condemned and the crowd.  Never did he see One like a lamb led to slaughter (1 Peter 1:17-19), and though he knew nothing of the Law or the significance of this great moment he was witnessing for him (Ephesians 2:11-16) or the fulfillment of very old prophecies (Genesis 12:13), this Centurion exclaimed what he did.

III.  Galatians 3:11-14.  That Jesus would be born to die for our sins though innocent Himself was predicted (Matthew 1:21; John 1:29) and the result explained (2 Corinthians 5:21).  We all were dead in our sins (Romans 3:23) and had no way to pay back our debt suddenly had a way through a man’s victory at the cross (Romans 6:23) because Jesus took our curse upon Himself on the tree.  He went through a terrible ordeal to do this for us (Psalm 22:1-19), but His work as fully man on the cross resulted in our sacrifice for sins (Isaiah 53:3-8).

Are you, along with the Centurion, certain of this man’s innocence to be the sacrifice for your sins?

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Night, with Ebon Pinion

Loneliness was the first thing God found in His creation that was not good (Genesis 2:18).  Today, it continues to be one of mankind’s biggest struggles and leads us to many sins, addictions, and negative coping mechanisms.  Being fully man, how did Jesus handle loneliness?  A glimpse into Gethsemane reveals the answer.

I.  John 17:5-12.  Just before Gethsemane, Jesus points to the fellowship He shares with His Father that He also hopes for us (John 10:30; John 11:42).  Yet, as He gets to the garden, His circle shrinks from eleven (Judas had left) to three to just Him, whose heart was sorrowful to the point of death (Matthew 26:36-38).  They had all insisted that they would stand by Him before He went (Mark 14:27-31), but after they all deserted Him (Mark 14:50).  As He bore the guilt of all our sins on the cross, even the Father would forsake Him (Matthew 27:46).

II.  Luke 22:39-46.  Jesus was fully God, yes, but to be our sacrifice on the cross, He had to face all temptations and struggles as fully man (Hebrews 2:14; Hebrews 4:15).  Having conquered the devil’s snares in the desert at the beginning of His ministry (Luke 4:13), the opportune time came for Satan to try again while all earthly support had been stripped from Jesus–Gethsemane.  Jesus leaned on the fellowship He shared with His Father in prayer, but the answer was a cup of anguish placed before Him that His Father would not remove.

III.  Hebrews 10:5-10.  So, in this body prepared for Him and all alone except for the Father, whose will it was to crush Him for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:10-12), Jesus wrestled in the flesh with remaining a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2) that did His Father’s will or living for His own will.  It is the same choice that is before us as we promised with our confession of ‘Jesus as Lord’ and our baptism to trust and obey.  Yet, is this what we do when life strips us of all earthly comforts and places a cup before us we don’t want to drink?

Do we, along with Jesus who made it possible for us to do so, say, “Not my will, but yours, be done”?

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By Him All Things Were Created

Since the second Person of the Godhead is eternal, what was Jesus doing from creation through incarnation?  The Great Christology of Colossians 1:15-20 tells us quite a lot.  Far from just arriving on the scene for the first time in Bethlehem (Luke 2:11), God says that He alone would be the Savior (Isaiah 43:11) over seven centuries before.

I.  Colossians 1:15.  Jesus was active as the exact imprint or essence of God.  Ask and someone will say that Lincoln is on the penny.  Is he or is that his image?  Jesus backed this concept up with Caesar (Matthew 22:19-21).  Hebrews 1:1-18 further explains this and its necessity for Jesus’ preeminence over all things but especially our salvation.  He was God to be our Savior but man to be our sacrifice.  Though the subject of theophanies in the Old Testament isn’t conclusive that they are Christ and not angelic ambassadors speaking for God, being the exact representation of God would allow for Jesus to be addressed as God if was indeed Him (Genesis 16:10-13, Genesis 18:17-19, Joshua 5:13 — 6:2, Daniel 3:24-25, et. al.).

II. Colossians 1:16.  All things were indeed created through Jesus (John 1:1-18), and so He has dominion over all things as our Sovereign Lord (Romans 9:16-21).  This also means that because of His sovereignty, all things were created FOR Him as well.  Throughout the Bible, God upholds the idea of property rights (Proverbs 22:28, Acts 5:4).  David brings us back to the concept from creation that all things belong to God (1 Chronicles 29:14-16).

III.  Colossians 1:17.  Jesus has also been active since creation (and still is) at sustaining all things.  This means what we often attribute to the laws of nature are really the laws of Christ.  Again Hebrews 1:1-3 deepens our understanding of Jesus’ work.  That means He was upholding the universe while challenged (Matthew 22:18-21), in the garden (Matthew 26:53-54), before Pilate (John 18:36-37), and at the cross (Luke 23:34).  He is sustaining it now while we are here in this chaotic world and for our loved ones who have died in Him.

That Jesus is in control is a comforting thought, especially when we are bombarded by the world’s headlines.  We must put our trust in Him and in His gospel!

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Calloused Hands

Jesus the man, of calloused hands,
Of muscled arms, of work and wood;
The God of sweat and tears and blood,
At the Father’s side, you sit and rein:

Now in heaven, in power and might,
Break open our hard and painful shell
Of sin and self-reliant hell —
Put all our lonely fears to flight.

Pierce the silence — heal the pain —
O Christ who knows sharp solitude,
Whose prayers showed every human mood —
Lord save me from the curse of Cain.

You felt no lack, in perfect want;
With him who sent you, thought as one —
Surrendered glory — God’s will was done —
Raise me to your transfigured Mount.

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The coming of the Lord

By John Henson, Dibrell congregation, McMinnville TN

John 10:7-11

  1. Jesus came that we might have life: John 10:10.
  2. Jesus came that we might have purpose: John 12:23-27.
  3. Jesus is coming again to take us home: John 14:1-3