"The Benefits of the Ascension" Sermon: Ephesians 4:1-16

"The Benefits of the Ascension"
[Ephesians 4:1-16]
May 20, 2007 Second Reformed Church

During Jesus' last week on earth, He told the disciples, "'Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

"'I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you'" (John 16:7-15).

Later that week, Jesus was crucified, died, and then rose from the dead. Forty days later, He ascended back to His Throne. We remember His Ascension this morning and consider why it was necessary -- what its benefit is to us who believe.

In the first three chapters of Ephesians, Paul explains, among other things, that since we who believe have been adopted as sons by God the Father, and since we are then, co-heirs with Christ, and since we have receive His Salvation, and since we have been marked by the Holy Spirit as belonging to the Father, then we understand that, through the Ascension, we have a Mediator with God the Father, and the Holy Spirit has been sent to indwell all of us who believe.

Paul wrote, "For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus" (I Timothy 2:5). Jesus stands before His Father, as our Advocate, our Lawyer, Who both takes on Himself the punishment for our sin, but also credits us with His Holiness, so our sin is imputed to Him and His Righteousness is imputed to us, and we are made right with and to the Glory of God.

Paul also wrote, "Or do you not know that Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price" (I Corinthians 6:19-20a). All Christians have God the Holy Spirit dwelling in us that we might glorify our God Who bought us for His Glory.

Therefore, in this morning's reading, Paul says that all Christians, Jews and Gentiles, and let us add for today: black and white and Asian and Hispanic and all races, and Reformed and Baptist and Pentecostal and Charismatic and Methodist and Presbyterian and all denominations, all Christians ought to live in the unity of the Spirit.

Does Paul mean that our differences should be ignored, that they aren't important? No. Do he mean we should do away with denominations? No. What Paul is saying is that, through the Spirit Whom Jesus and the Father sent after Jesus' Ascension, all Christians, all believers, past, present, and future, ought to recognize that we are one in Christ, through the Spirit, and we must interact with each other in humility, gentleness, patience, and love.

Understand, this church is part of a Reformed denomination, the Reformed Church in America. I am a Reformed minister. My understanding of the Scripture is that of the Reformed tradition. That is how I understand it; that is how I teach and preach it. However, I have a friend who is a Methodist minister, and I have a friend who is a Presbyterian minister, and I have friends who are Reformed ministers -- of several denominations, and while we don't agree with each other on every item, we do agree, and we are united in the Truth that salvation is through Jesus Christ Alone, through faith alone, by grace alone, to the glory of God Alone, and we believe the Scripture -- the Bible -- Alone.

Denominational differences are important in this sense: either someone's interpretation is right, or we're all wrong. Yet, we are called to search the Scriptures, to know our God. So, we ought to know what we believe and why we believe it. We ought to stand for the differences were believe in, yet, in humility, gentleness, patience, and love, we ought to welcome all believers -- all Christians -- as brothers and sisters.

Everyone who believed in the Savior Who was to come, and everyone who has believed in Jesus since His Incarnation, is united together, in one body, figuratively, with Christ as our Head, and we are united in one body, that is, in Salvation in Jesus Alone. We are united in the belief that Jesus and Jesus Alone saves us and makes us right with God, we are united in the one baptism for the forgiveness of sins, through which we are buried with Christ and then rise again, and we are united in God being the Father of all believers -- He Who is greater than us, He Who works through us to accomplish His Will, and He Who lives in us, to change us, for His Glory.

Paul quoted, "'When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.'" In ascending, Christ has completed our deliverance from slavery to sin and gives each person -- every one of us -- gifts through the Holy Spirit. Each one who believes is forgive and made holy, as we have seen, and each one is also given gifts to be the person and do the good works that God has called us to do. Some were called "to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers," some lawyers, some entrepreneurs, some housewives, some teachers, some civil servants, some nurses -- each of us has been called and gifted by God for a purpose. God has equipped us for ministry, wherever God has put us and gifted us to be. And as we live out our call, we build up the body of Christ -- as the fingers and lungs and legs and kidneys and each one of us in the Body work well, doing what we ought, we come to full health, full unity, in faith in Jesus Alone, in the saving knowledge of the Son, in the maturity into Christlikeness -- which continues until the day that Jesus Returns and receives us into His Glory and the New Jerusalem.

But -- the devil and his angels and false teachers don't want us to be unified, they don't want us to grow. Paul says that we are like ships, out on the Sea of Galilee, who sail along by the gentle wind of the Gospel, but when the violent winds of false doctrine come, we are tossed to and fro with them, not knowing what to believe, not knowing how to respond, being fooled by their craftiness and deceit.

And Paul tells the Ephesians -- and us -- that we cannot be little children any more. We cannot neglect our salvation. We cannot be lax in knowing our God. We cannot just say, "Oh, I'll just believe the minister; I'll just believe the elders; I'll just believe that funny guy on the t.v. who asks me for money so I can win big with God." No We ought not be fooled, but we ought to grow up.

Christ is our Head. We have been given the Holy Spirit -- He Who indwells us. Christ is our Mediator, our Advocate on high. We have been given gifts to use in the Church, for each other, to the glory of God. And the Holy Spirit enables us to do all the good works that God calls us to do. We have no excuse.

The author of Hebrews wrote, "About this I have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil" (Hebrews 5:11-14).

What then are the benefits of the Ascension? Christ is now our Advocate before the Father. He has made all of us His forever. And He has given us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and with Him, gifts to do the Will of God, the ability to know Him better, and to grow into the Image of His Son.

Now, we are called to act, in response to those things -- to the Good News. Shall we answer the call of God on our lives? Will we strive to do all those things God has set before us? Will we live in love and peace with our fellow believers? Will we learn how to defend the faith and then defend it against false teachers? Now is the time to grow up and grow into the Image of Christ.

Let us pray:
Almighty God, it has been all too easy to continue in the milk of our faith and neglect the meat. Revive us and cause a reformation of heart that we would, as the Apostle says, "work out our salvation with fear and trembling," in love and to Your Glory. In Jesus' Name, Amen.