The Ascension of Christ - Prophet, Priest & King

 

Ascension 2024

 

Acts 1:1-11 (page 1092)

Luke 24:44-end (page 1062)

 

This week for our school church assembly here, the topic was “What is Christianity?”

And I explained to the children that of course the word “Christ” is not a surname, as we might imagine, but a title or job description.

Like many of our English surnames, like “Baker” or “Smith”, “Christ” tells us who Jesus is, what he did.

 

I brought some olive oil to the assembly on Tuesday to help us think about the meaning of the word “Christ”.

“Christ” is the Greek translation of the Hebrew “Messiah” and they both mean “anointed one”.

 

Just as our own king was anointed at his coronation, in the Old Testament they anointed prophets, priests and kings as a sign that they were called and marked out by God, equipped with God’s Holy Spirit for their God-given roles.

 

So Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one is our prophet, priest and king.

 

This little book by Patrick Schreiner considers the ascension and what it means for Jesus as prophet, priest and king and I’m going to take a few moments just to plagiarise it for you now.

You might say this sermon could save you £12.99, or it might inspire you to buy the book!

 

Jesus’ ascension is a key moment and a crucial hinge in the life of the Messiah.  

The ascension is the climax and fulfilment of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

God the Son come from heaven and returned to heaven as the God-Man.

Jesus’ ministry to V shaped: from heaven, to earth and back to heaven again.

 

It is as the ascended Christ, that Jesus pours out his Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

 

The ascension confirms and continues Christ’s saving work.

Christ’s atoning work is done and proved by his resurrection and ascension.

And the ascension brings in a new phase of Jesus’ saving work.

Jesus’ saving work for us continues in heaven, and, following the ascension, the next thing in Jesus’ diary after Pentecost is the consummation of all things.

It is from his throne in heaven that the incarnate, crucified, risen, ascended Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead.

The ascended Christ will come again.

 

So let’s think briefly what the ascension has to say about Jesus’ three-fold office for us.

How does the ascension relate to Jesus’ ministry of prophet, priest and king for us?

 

First, then, Jesus as prophet.

As the ultimate prophet, Jesus perfectly speaks the word of God to us.

If we had more time, we could say something about Jesus as a new and better Adam, Moses and Elijah.  

Jesus is the full and final, and authoritative, revelation of God: God’s last Word.

Jesus is himself the Word or self-expression, the revelation of God the Father.

Jesus doesn’t just give us information about God:

He is himself the Truth, the Message:

He is God come in the flesh.

Jesus and the Father are one.

To see Jesus is to see God.

To know Jesus is to know God.

 

The ascension underlines Jesus’ identity and authority as the perfect prophet.

He is enthroned in heaven.

 

And even as he ascends he teaches his disciples about the Kingdom of God.

They want to know if he is going to restore the kingdom to Israel now.

But Jesus tells them they can’t know about the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

Jesus’ ministry as prophet isn’t about giving us a detailed blueprint or timetable to obsess about.

Jesus doesn’t download a chart of end-times prophecies to us.  

Rather, Jesus makes God known.

And he does have a plan which he reveals:

The Apostles, and the church which follows them, are to be prophet-like too.

They have a message, an announcement of good news, to take to the nations.

Jesus’ ministry as the ascended prophet continues now through his church in the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

Jesus’ ministry as prophet is actually enhanced by the ascension.

The first disciples felt the loss of Jesus’ physical presences acutely, no doubt.

But he prepared them for his departure, telling them it was better that he goes.

Jesus’ ascension is for their good and for the good of the church.

Now that Jesus is ascended, the Spirit is poured out on the whole church.

As Peter says, quoting from the Old Testament prophet Joel in Acts chapter 2, now your sons and daughters will prophesy, young men and old men; God will pour out his servants on both men and women and they will prophesy.  

Jesus now ministers through all his people.

Jesus’ ministry is no longer confined to one time and space but the church can take the prophetic message of Jesus to every tribe and language and people and nation.

You no longer have to strain to hear Jesus on a Judean hillside.

You can hear him in every church or whenever you open your Bible.

Jesus still speaks his word the Bible to us from heaven as it comes to us on his Spirit.

 

The ascended Jesus pours out gifts on his church and gives them apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers that the whole body might be prepared for works of service and be built up in unity and maturity.    

 

Jesus continues as our ascended prophet.

 

Second, Jesus as Priest and the ascension.

Jesus is our mediator, or God-between with God who represents us to God and God to us.

He intercedes for us and brings us into the presence of God.

He is the God-man, chosen from among his brothers.  

He gave himself as the ultimate sacrifice for sin.

More than that: he was the new Temple.

It is to Jesus that we come to meet with God and to be put right with God.

 

The Old Testament priests were deficient in at least three ways.

First, like us all, they were sinners.

They had first to offer sacrifices for their own sins.

But Jesus was the only sinlessly perfect human being who ever lived.

He was the spotless lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Jesus is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens (Hebrews 7:26).

 

Second, the Old Testament priests kept dying and needed to be replaced.

But Jesus lives for ever as our risen, ascended high priest.

He is a priest for ever.

His priesthood continues, as does his indestructible life.

He ever lives to intercede for us.

 

Third, their sacrifices were deficient.

Of course the blood of sheep and goats could never really take away sin.

The Old Testament implied that the sacrifices didn’t really work because it said they had to go on being offered over and over again.

The Old Testament priest could never say his work was done.

But Jesus said “It is finished” on the cross.

Jesus offered himself – the perfect human being – as the perfect once for all sacrifice for human sins.

Jesus could sit down in heaven, his sacrificial work completed.   

 

And the ascended Christ ever lives now in heaven to intercede for us.

The earthly temple, the Bible tells us, was only a copy of the heavenly temple.

And Jesus has entered the heavenly tabernacle – the true and ultimate Holy of Holies, the throne room of God - there to present his once for all finished sacrifice before the Father.

Whenever we mess up, Jesus can plead his blood.

“Yes, Father, I know our people keep failing and rebelling, but they are our people for which I died. Doesn’t my blood more than cover all their sins?”

 

 It’s appropriate, then, right at the end of Luke’s Gospel, as we look towards the ascension of Christ, that Jesus should lift up his hands and bless his people.

“And while he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.”

And they worshiped him with great joy, praising God.

Jesus our great High Priest blesses us.

 

And we too, as a Holy Nation and a Royal Priesthood, are in our own small way given a share in Christ’s ministry as ascended priest.

We are to seek to be lights in the world to shine for Jesus the Light, to bring the nations to God, to pray for the needs of the world and to be a blessing to others.

We present ourselves as living sacrifices, pouring out our lives in response to Jesus’ great finished work for us.

 

Third and finally, Jesus is ascended as the world’s true king.

 

Of course Jesus has always been the world’s true king.

But Jesus’ ascension is his coronation, his enthronement.

The prophet Daniel had foreseen it as one like a Son of Man came on the clouds of heaven into the presence of God the Ancient of Days and was given authority, glory and sovereign power.

All peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (Daniel 7)

 

Now a human being is on the throne of the universe.

God’s plans for Adam to rule the world under God are fulfilled in the God-Man Jesus Christ, The Second Adam.

Jesus was faithful where all other human beings were unfaithful.

The serpent is crushed and Jesus is victorious, and all of creation will be renewed and put to rights under the loving rule of King Jesus.  

 

And so now king Jesus claims his crown rights over the whole world.

As the risen Jesus said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him and therefore we are to go and disciple the nations, knowing that Jesus is with us. (Matthew 28)

The Spirit empowers us to take the good news to the world.

 

And one day, this same Jesus will return.

Jesus the king will then be Jesus the judge.

 

And so Jesus’ followers are not to stand staring into heaven but to get on with their mission of sharing the announcement of Jesus the king.

 

As we rejoice today in the ascension of Christ, may God give us grace to live in the light of all that Jesus has done, does and will do as prophet, priest and king.

And all glory, honour and power and praise be to God the Father, his ascended Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

 

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Simon Vibert’s blog

 

https://metamorphe.wordpress.com/2024/05/01/ascension-day-the-forgotten-christian-festival/