In the sermon last week we talked about Jesus Christ as the God Who Was. We discussed how the Jews of Jesus’ day had certain preconceptions of the coming savior, how they were looking for a certain type of Messiah—either a glorious Messiah or a powerful Messiah . . . or for that matter how some weren’t even looking for a Messiah at all—but that their preconceived notions of a Messiah were so much different, so much smaller, than the real thing that they missed out on the real Messiah, Jesus, when He made came on the scene.
What did Jesus do? Well, the words of faith that we just confessed in the 2nd Article of the Apostle’s Creed tell it nicely: And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell.
Now, this is good stuff, isn’t it? I mean, we talk like this all the time: unbelievers ask us how we can have such peace, and we tell them, “Because Jesus died for me.” We tell them about what Jesus did, we tell them about the God Who Was, and that’s good and that’s right . . . but do we ever tell them about the God Who Is? Do we ever stop to think or to talk about what it means to say that we have a living God?
One of the questions that must be asked of any sermon is “So what?” I don’t mean that we should ask that in a rude manner, but simply as it stands. “So what, preacher? You’ve told us some good things about Jesus, you’ve told us about the Gospel . . . but now what? How does this fit into my life today? So what?”
So what? Why does The God Who Is matter? Because as the God Who Is, Jesus Christ is REAL. “Well, sure!” you say, “Of course he’s real! It’s not as though He’s some fiction of our imagination, or something!” Of course I know that, but I mean (holding up the sermon sheet) Jesus is REAL! He is Resurrected, Enthroned, Ascended, and Living!
If Jesus Christ is an IS and not merely a WAS, then He has got to be REAL. How do we know He is REAL? To get the answer, let’s look at the remainder of that 2nd Article of the Apostle’s Creed.
After we confess that Jesus Christ descended into Hell to proclaim His victory, we say that on “The third day He rose again from the dead.” So the first letter, the letter R, stands for resurrected. The story of Jesus Christ doesn’t end on the cross or in the tomb, because the grave wasn’t strong enough to keep Jesus Christ down. In the Apostle’s great sermon to the crowd on the day of Pentecost, Peter says in Acts 2:23-24, “23 This man [Jesus] was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”
Okay, that’s good . . . but what’s the question you’re supposed to ask? “So what?” Well, I’ve got an answer for that. The Apostle Paul tells us that that a dead God—a Jesus Christ who was NOT resurrected—results in a pointless faith, a worthless faith. In 1 Corinthians 15:12-14 “12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” A God who is, a God who is resurrected from the dead, gives meaning to our faith, it makes the object of our faith—Jesus Christ—someone worth believing in.
Let’s continue on with the Creed: “ He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven.” Stick with me, now . . . we’re going to do something just a bit crazy . . . we’re going to take the letters out of order. So the first letter R stands for “resurrected” and the third letter stands for “ascended.”
Christ’s ascension into Heaven is recorded in the first chapter of the book of Acts. Acts tells us what happened that day, but it doesn’t tell us why. For why, we can turn to the book of Hebrews.
The book of Hebrews tells us that the ancient Israelites worshipped God in the tabernacle, the temple, but that tabernacle was just a copy—an inferior copy—of the real sanctuary in Heaven. And when Jesus ascended into Heaven, He entered into the real tabernacle and took up His role there as the High Priest of that Heavenly sanctuary.
Hebrews 9:23 says, “24 For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence.” Earlier in that same book, in chapter eight verse two, the author tells us that Jesus serves in that sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord. The Old Testament system of priests and sacrifices and The Temple has been taken over and fulfilled by Jesus Christ.
Okay, so you understand that Jesus Christ now serves as the High Priest of the true, heavenly sanctuary, but the question you’re supposed to ask is . . . “So what?”
So what? The answer to the “so what?” question for the resurrection was that it makes our faith meaningful; but the answer to that question for the ascension of Jesus Christ is that it makes our faith certain.
In the Old Testament the people had the covenant of God, but there was a problem: the people weren’t faithful to the covenant. In Hebrews 8:7-8 the Bible says, “7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 8 But God found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” The problem with the old covenant was that the people still sinned! So what was needed was a covenant that fixed that problem once and for all.
So the fix for sin and the answer to “so what?” is found in Jesus. Remember that Jesus ascended into Heaven, where He took up His role as the High Priest of the true, heavenly sanctuary, and in Hebrews 7:21 the writer says, “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, 'You are a priest forever.'" 22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.”
We have a better covenant, and because of Jesus’s ascension, He serves today and forever as the guarantor! It would not be possible for Jesus to guarantee God’s covenant of salvation by grace alone if He had not ascended into Heaven. A God who is, a God who ascended into Heaven, gives certainty to our faith, a knowledge that what is promised in Jesus Christ will always be true.
Okay, so we’ve done the first letter—R for resurrected—and the third letter—A for ascended—and now we can step back to the second letter. The Apostle’s Creed continues on like this: He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” To say that Jesus Christ sat down at the right hand of God the Father Almighty is to say that Jesus Christ took His rightful place on the Heavenly throne: He is enthroned.
Being enthroned at the right hand of the King means a few different things: it means you’ve got the power of the King at your command—that “right hand of strength” kind of idea. It also means you’ve got the job of counselor or advisor to the king. It means you’ve got the king’s ear.
Now what in the name of Heaven and Earth does Jesus do in His capacity of being enthroned at the right hand of God? If we go back to Hebrews for a minute—that’s such a great book—if we go back to Hebrews 7:25, we read, “25Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” Being enthroned, Jesus Christ now continually intercedes for us.
The “so what?” question seems to come up really early in this discussion, so let me ask you a few questions to help sort it out. First, how are our sins paid for? Right—through Jesus’ death on the cross. So is this intercession done for the satisfaction of our sins, is it done to pay for our sins? Again, you’re right—the answer is “no.” The satisfaction of our sins was accomplished completely on the cross.
The point of Christ’s intercession is not for satisfaction, but for application. Meaning that His intercession on our behalf is not for the payment of our sins (which was accomplished once for all on the cross), but so that that payment may be applied to us. The theologian Francis Pieper puts it this way, “the object of the intercession, then, is the gathering and preserving of the Church.” In other words, if Jesus Christ were not interceding for us, the benefits of the cross could not be applied to us. That’s “so what”: Christ’s death buys you salvation, but Christ’s intercession gets it delivered to you. As the God Who is, Jesus is enthroned at the right hand of the Father, and there He continually pleads your case before the Father, and as a result you are not only brought into the true faith, but you are kept there.
So Christ is resurrected, He is enthroned, and He is ascended. Those all add up to a God who Is, a God who is Living. A God who is living isn’t always a God we can understand, and certainly not one we can control . . . but we can be assured that He is always there for us.
Do you remember the great lion Aslan from C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books? If you recall, last week I told you how Lewis uses the lion Aslan as a way to show Jesus in a fictional story. Narnia is still on my mind--the movie is due out this Friday—and so I’ve got another bit from the third book from the Chronicles of Narnia—called The Horse and His Boy—to illustrate what it means to have a living God.
In this scene a boy named Shasta has run away from his adopted father and now finds himself for the first time in the northern lands. He has become separated from his traveling companions and is now lost on a mountain ridge. He can see nothing, because a strange mist has swirled around him as he travels on. He has suddenly become aware of a very large (and very frightening) creature walking beside him in the mist.
“Who are you?” Shasta said, scarcely above a whisper.
“One who has waited long for you to speak,” said the Thing. Its voice was not loud, but very large and deep.
“Are you—are you a giant?” asked Shasta.
“You might call me a giant,” said the Large Voice. “But I am not like the creatures you call giants.”
“I can’t see you at all,” said Shasta, after staring very hard. Then (for an even more terrible idea had come into his head) he said, almost in a scream, “You’re not—not something dead, are you? Oh please—please do go away. What harm have I ever done you? Oh, I am the unluckiest person in the whole world!”
Once more he felt the warm breath of the Thing on his hand and face. “There,” it said, “that is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows.”
Shasta was a little reassured by the breath: so he told how he had never known his real father or mother and had been brought up sternly by the fisherman. And then he told the story of his escape and how they were chased by lions and forced to swim for their lives; and of all their dangers in Tashbaan and about his night among the tombs and how the beasts howled at him out of the desert. And he told about the heat and thirst of their desert journey and how they were almost at their goal when another lion chased them and wounded Aravis. And also, how very long it was since he had had anything to eat.
“I do not call you unfortunate,” said the Large Voice.
“Don’t you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?” said Shasta.
“There was only one lion,” said the Voice.
“What on earth do you mean? I’ve just told you there were at least two the first night, and—“
“There was only one: but he was swift of foot.”
“How do you know?”
“I was the lion.” And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued. “I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to share where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.”
“Then it was you who wounded Aravis?”
“It was I.”
“But what for?”
“Child,” said the Voice, “I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own.”
“Who are you?” asked Shasta.
“Myself,” said the Voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook: and again, “Myself” loud and clear and gay: and then the third time, “Myself,” whispered so softly you could hardly hear it, and yet it seemed to come from all round you as if the leaves rustled with it.
Shasta had thought he was the unluckiest boy in the whole world, but he didn’t realize that all along Aslan—Jesus—had been watching out for him, that a living God was putting all the pieces of the puzzle of Shasta’s life together . . . that all along God had been working behind the scenes to bring good into Shasta’s life.
It’s not much different with us . . . we go about our lives and never see the hand of God at work, and we think that perhaps He has abandoned us. We have troubles in life, and our eyes are taken off of God and we forget that we have a God who is. We forget we have a God who is REAL.
And all the while our Savior Jesus Christ is working behind the scenes, fulfilling the words of the prophet Isaiah in chapter 61:1-3, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion- to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.”
We have a God who is. He has risen from the dead to give meaning to our faith, He is enthroned at the right hand of God, where He continually and eternally intercedes for us, He has ascended into the Heavenly sanctuary to be the guarantee of our faith. And because He lives, He continues to be a very real presence in our lives today. Revelation 1:8 8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."
Amen.
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