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Living with the Ascended Lord
Living with the Ascended Lord
Luke 24:50–53
May 31, 2020
When we began our study of Luke’s Gospel on November 21, 2017, I described it as a journey. Matt, Chris, and I have journeyed through the text, considering its language, context, grammar, historical background, cultural particulars, theological implications, biblical theology, and many gospel applications. With us, you’ve read, memorized, pondered, asked questions, worshiped, and applied almost 27 months of studies in Luke to your lives. We’ve faced life together as we studied this Gospel, with ups and downs, great joys and deep griefs, struggles and triumphs, disappointment and elation, weakness and remarkable strength, gatherings and quarantine. We’ve found applications in the text week-after-week to the details of our daily walks. Now we conclude with the ascension of Christ, which one writer called “an organizing principle for the reading of Scripture.”[1] In other words, the often-neglected doctrine of Christ’s ascension[2] serves as a cohesive element to understand the broad scope of the Bible.[3]
What is the ascension of Christ? It’s the divine act by which the God-man ended His post-resurrection appearances and physically left this world for the other that never ends.[4] For our study, we need to frame the way that the ascension weaves a tapestry throughout Luke’s Gospel in at least a dozen particular ways. We’ll look at five of them while the rest is in the manuscript.
(1) Luke starts off in the temple with Zacharias offering incense but muted by the angelic visitor for his unbelief in the predicted birth of the Messiah’s forerunner (1:5–23). Luke ends with the disciples in the temple praising God unmuted at the Messiah’s completed mission.[5]
(2) Zacharias prophesies of God raising up the Kingly Savior in David’s lineage, while the ascension declares redemption accomplished, and Jesus exalted as Davidic King (1:68–71).
(3) Luke 4 pictures Satan tempting Jesus to worship him, while the ascension shows the disciples worshiping Jesus as the true and living God (4:1–12; 24:52).
(4) Jesus spoke of His return in glory with the holy angels in Luke 9:26; now He ascends to be with the Father and the angels in glory, awaiting His return.
(5) Luke narrates the ascension as Jesus’ aim when determining to go to Jerusalem to suffer and rise (9:51); chapter 24:50–53 emphasizes that He completed His aim.
(6) Jesus told the returning Seventy not to rejoice that the demons were subject to them but to rejoice that their names were written in heaven. In the ascension, He bodily departs to the very heaven He had spoken of (10:20; 24:51).
(7) Jesus corrected the bad theology of the Sadducees by declaring that God is the God of the living not the dead, and then bodily ascended to appear before God as exalted (20:37–38; 24:51).
(8) Jesus quotes the royal Psalm 110 describing His exaltation as Lord which took place via the ascension, and then demonstrated it by the disciples worshiping Jesus as Lord (20:41–44; 24:52).
(9) The prediction of seeing “the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” is predicated in the ascension (21:27; Acts 1:11; cf. Dan. 7:13; Rev. 1:7).
(10) References to the kingdom, particularly in 22:28–30, where Jesus described real people eating and drinking at His table, and His disciples sitting on thrones to judge Israel, happens due to the bodily ascension of Jesus, awaiting that heavenly feast (24:51–52).
(11) Before the Sanhedrin, Jesus declared, “But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” That’s ascension and enthronement language; the same kind of language used extensively about Jesus in Hebrews (22:69; Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 10:12–13; 12:1–2).
(12) When Jesus gave the Great Commission to the disciples, He instructed them to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come in power; that divine promise of power in the Person of the Spirit would follow His ascension (24:49; Acts 1:8; 2:1–4).
Wh[...]
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By South Woods Baptist ChurchLiving with the Ascended Lord
Luke 24:50–53
May 31, 2020
When we began our study of Luke’s Gospel on November 21, 2017, I described it as a journey. Matt, Chris, and I have journeyed through the text, considering its language, context, grammar, historical background, cultural particulars, theological implications, biblical theology, and many gospel applications. With us, you’ve read, memorized, pondered, asked questions, worshiped, and applied almost 27 months of studies in Luke to your lives. We’ve faced life together as we studied this Gospel, with ups and downs, great joys and deep griefs, struggles and triumphs, disappointment and elation, weakness and remarkable strength, gatherings and quarantine. We’ve found applications in the text week-after-week to the details of our daily walks. Now we conclude with the ascension of Christ, which one writer called “an organizing principle for the reading of Scripture.”[1] In other words, the often-neglected doctrine of Christ’s ascension[2] serves as a cohesive element to understand the broad scope of the Bible.[3]
What is the ascension of Christ? It’s the divine act by which the God-man ended His post-resurrection appearances and physically left this world for the other that never ends.[4] For our study, we need to frame the way that the ascension weaves a tapestry throughout Luke’s Gospel in at least a dozen particular ways. We’ll look at five of them while the rest is in the manuscript.
(1) Luke starts off in the temple with Zacharias offering incense but muted by the angelic visitor for his unbelief in the predicted birth of the Messiah’s forerunner (1:5–23). Luke ends with the disciples in the temple praising God unmuted at the Messiah’s completed mission.[5]
(2) Zacharias prophesies of God raising up the Kingly Savior in David’s lineage, while the ascension declares redemption accomplished, and Jesus exalted as Davidic King (1:68–71).
(3) Luke 4 pictures Satan tempting Jesus to worship him, while the ascension shows the disciples worshiping Jesus as the true and living God (4:1–12; 24:52).
(4) Jesus spoke of His return in glory with the holy angels in Luke 9:26; now He ascends to be with the Father and the angels in glory, awaiting His return.
(5) Luke narrates the ascension as Jesus’ aim when determining to go to Jerusalem to suffer and rise (9:51); chapter 24:50–53 emphasizes that He completed His aim.
(6) Jesus told the returning Seventy not to rejoice that the demons were subject to them but to rejoice that their names were written in heaven. In the ascension, He bodily departs to the very heaven He had spoken of (10:20; 24:51).
(7) Jesus corrected the bad theology of the Sadducees by declaring that God is the God of the living not the dead, and then bodily ascended to appear before God as exalted (20:37–38; 24:51).
(8) Jesus quotes the royal Psalm 110 describing His exaltation as Lord which took place via the ascension, and then demonstrated it by the disciples worshiping Jesus as Lord (20:41–44; 24:52).
(9) The prediction of seeing “the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” is predicated in the ascension (21:27; Acts 1:11; cf. Dan. 7:13; Rev. 1:7).
(10) References to the kingdom, particularly in 22:28–30, where Jesus described real people eating and drinking at His table, and His disciples sitting on thrones to judge Israel, happens due to the bodily ascension of Jesus, awaiting that heavenly feast (24:51–52).
(11) Before the Sanhedrin, Jesus declared, “But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” That’s ascension and enthronement language; the same kind of language used extensively about Jesus in Hebrews (22:69; Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 10:12–13; 12:1–2).
(12) When Jesus gave the Great Commission to the disciples, He instructed them to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come in power; that divine promise of power in the Person of the Spirit would follow His ascension (24:49; Acts 1:8; 2:1–4).
Wh[...]