Seven Things We Need to Know about the Exaltation of Christ

Seven Things We Need to Know about the Exaltation of Christ

Good Morning Friends,

Apparently some American skiers (and their ski-boots) were making lots of noise after hours in this Austrian hotel, so the management posted this sign: “Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the boots of ascension.” This is not what we would expect to read. So too we may be surprised and confused by the story of the Ascension regardless of the translation. Friends, because the church holiday of Ascension comes up in a few weeks, because it is often glossed over it in the liturgical year, because we celebrate it like no other church holiday, or really do not know how to celebrate it, I thought we should connect the dots so that we might better understand the pilgrimage. Friends, there is a connection between Jesus being lifted up on the cross and the lifting up of his Ascension into heaven, the birth of the church and Jesus’ return. So, today as I contemplate the Songs of Ascent and our journey I try and unpack what it means for us that God has both created and become a whole new nature that is not an escape from this world but something that transcends time and space in a way that glorifies humanity through the humanity of Jesus. Today I hope we better understand how God has through the Ascension repackaged a new reality. Today we look at the Seven Things We Need to Know about the Exaltation of Christ.

Scripture: Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them.  While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.  And they worshiped him, and
returned to Jerusalem with great joy;

Luke 24:50-52 (NRSV)

But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.”(When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?  He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.)

Ephesians 4:7-10 (NRSV)

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:14 (NIV)

Message: The story of the journey that pilgrims made to Jerusalem each year is captured for us in the ‘Songs of Ascent’ (Psalm 120 to 134). These fifteen psalms were sung by Hebrew pilgrims as they went up to Jerusalem three times a year for the great worship festivals. Jerusalem was the highest city geographically, and so they were called the ‘songs of ascent’ because the people literally had to go up to get there! While Jesus was “going up” to the Holy City, where his own “exodus” from this life was to occur he undoubtedly sang them. The ascent was not only literal, it was also a metaphor: the trip to Jerusalem acted out a life lived upward toward God, an existence that advanced from one creation to another in developing maturity. The significance of the Ascension, the reason the Apostles returned to Jerusalem “with great joy…the Exhalation of Christ is about connecting these seven things:

1. There is an unfinished task. Christ’s glorification is to become manifest in us.
2. There is an amazing message we are to receive knowing of His position of power.
3. His intercession and protection is the truth of an unquestionable love.
4. His provision of spiritual power gives us an unshakable testimony.
5. His distribution of gifts becomes an unstoppable force.
6. His preparation of a place for us engages us in the unfailing promise
7. His commission to extend his rule includes us in an unmistakable plan

Friends, the Ascension, the Exaltation event is like the link of the chain that connects Jesus’ earthly life to the life of the Church in the life of the Holy Spirit. The Ascension of Jesus into heaven acquaints us with this deeply consoling reality on our journey that our humanity has already been taken to God. He is now present in every space and time, close to each one of us. In this way Christ has opened the path to us. This is the invitation. Friends, we will never understand the nature of the church until we look through the cloud of the Ascension, through the cloud at Pentecost to the cloud of Jesus’ return. What Paul described as the “upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Friends, maturity is about growing into the rule of Christ.

Pray first we realize that the Ascension does not point to Jesus’ absence, but tells us that he is alive in our midst in a new way. Pray second we realize that we have an Advocate in Christ and that we are not be afraid but to turn to him to ask forgiveness, to ask for a blessing, to ask for mercy! Pray third we experience Jesus as the one eternal High Priest who with God the Father intercedes forever in our favor. Pray fourth we realize that Jesus defends us from ourselves. Pray fifth that we realize that we are never alone. Pray sixth we entrust our lives to the only one who can save us. Pray seventh that we become empowered to extend His kingdom.

Blessings,

John Lawson