“Continual Blessing”
[Luke 24:50-53]
May 10, 2009 Second Reformed Church
This morning, we continue our look at what happened after the Resurrection. We remember that Jesus appeared to the disciples and gave them proof and assurance of His Resurrection: He allowed them to touch Him and look at His Wounds – to see that He was alive, in His Physical Body, and He also ate with them to prove that He was not a ghost.
Jesus also went through the entire Old Testament and showed them how He fulfilled the Scripture concerning the first coming of the Savior and why He had to endure the suffering He endured in order to give salvation to all those who would believe in Him Alone for salvation.
Then Jesus told His disciples that He was calling them to preach the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness to the whole world – first in Jerusalem and then throughout the world – not just to the Jews, but to all people. That call remains on the Church until Jesus returns.
Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until power came upon them – the power to be able to do all that God had commanded them. That power would come upon them in the form of the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. And now every Christian has God the Holy Spirit within him or her – to remind us of what Jesus said and to help us to understand all that God has taught us in the Scripture.
This morning, we come to the end of the first volume of Luke’s work – the second volume being Acts. Luke ends his Gospel in a way that suggests a sequel, and, Lord Willing, we will look at Acts beginning next Sunday.
In these final verses, we learn four things:
First, we learn that, after Jesus led the disciples to Bethany, He lifted up His Hands and blessed them. Jesus, the Holy God, graciously blessed His sinful followers – and Jesus continues to bless all those who believe in Him: being a disciple of Jesus is a blessing – it is to live in a state of blessedness. You and I and all those who believe in Jesus Alone for salvation are blessed.
Paul explains some of what that means: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mysteries of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
“In him we obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed him were sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:3-14, ESV).
What blessings have we been blessed with? To begin with:
We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing – including the fact that God chose us to be His before the foundation of the world, and He has promised that we shall be holy and blameless, like Jesus, at the end of the age.
We have been blessed in God loving us so much that He adopted us through Jesus Christ, according to His Eternal Purpose – which brings praise and blessing to God for His Glorious Grace. God has made us brothers and sisters of Jesus – co-heirs with Him – and now that we are co-heirs with Christ, we glorify His Grace. You and I are sons and daughters of God – the God Who called all things into being and preserves them by His Power. We only, of all the created beings, call God, “Father.”
We have been blessed by being redeemed through Christ’s Blood. We have been forgiven for our sins through Christ’s Blood. We have been credited with Christ’s Holiness through His Blood. He has lavished His Grace upon us – He didn’t just give us a little here and a little there – no, Jesus dumped bucket after bucket of grace over us. (To put it crudely.) And we have received wisdom and insight, so that we might understand the mysteries of His Will. God inhabits us and makes us understand His Word – the believers of the Old Testament wished that they had the insight from God to understand all that we can now understand on this side of the cross.
We have been blessed through the assurance and the promise that Christ gives us that God has a Plan, and He is carrying it out, exactly as He planned. And in the wisdom of that Plan, we and all things are being united to Christ – we look forward to the restoration and perfection of ourselves and the rest of the Creation.
We have been blessed, as sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus, in being promised that there is an inheritance for us, which we shall receive in God’s Time, in accordance with the counsel of His Will, so that our hope will be fulfilled, to the glory of Christ. The future is set, and it is glorious for the Christian. We have received the Holy Spirit, and He is the guarantee of our inheritance, that God would receive the glory.
If these are some of the blessings we have received through Jesus, how ought we to live? We ought to have joy, ought we not? By looking at ourselves and our world through the light of the blessings of the Gospel, we can have joy at all times and in all places.
Most of you know that I have sarcoidosis, which is, at present, an incurable disease. I would prefer not to be ill. I would prefer not to endure the pain I have. But, I have joy through Jesus Christ, because this illness is not an accident, but something God has given me to mature me and teach me and to help me in my ministry to you. And, I have joy, because I know that after I die, I will be raised again, and when I am raised, this body will be perfected and disease-free. On that day, I will be a glory to God, and I have joy because I know that is true and certain.
You can also have this joy, by looking at yourself and your circumstances through the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You will still have pain and disappointment and suffering, but, as you understand it in the bigger picture of what God is doing and what Jesus has done for you, you can have joy – not a phoney smile, but a deep, abiding peace in the knowledge of the Sovereignty of our God.
Second, Luke tells us that Jesus ascended back to His Throne – and we’ll look at this in more detail, Lord Willing, as we look at the book of Acts. For today, let us understand that in the Ascension, Jesus completed the Work of Salvation.
Paul wrote, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11, ESV).
And the author of Hebrews wrote, “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1b-2, ESV).
Theologians talk about this as the humiliation and the exaltation of Christ: The Son of God willing left His Throne and descended to earth and was born as a human being, suffered, died, rose, and ascended back to His Throne. The Ascension completes the cycle of the Work of Christ. The completion of Jesus’ Work is not Christmas or Easter, but the Ascension.
Keep this in mind, and if the Lord is willing, we will look at this in more detail soon.
Third, Luke tells us that the disciples worshiped Jesus. The doubt the disciples previously had was now gone: they believed in Jesus whole-heartedly, and they fell down before Him and worshiped Him.
Now, if you were a Old Testament Jew or a modern Christian, how would you answer this question: “Who is to be worshiped?” Lest we forget: “You shall have no other gods before me. ... You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God and a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:3, 5-6, ESV).
Who is to be worshiped? God, and God Alone. The disciples worshiped Jesus, so they understood Him to be Whom? God. The disciples worshiping of Jesus is a confession of their belief that He is the One, Almighty God.
I have a friend who gets mad at me when I say that Jesus is God. She always says, “Jesus is not God, He’s the Son of God.” I’ve tried to explain that confusion: her argument would be like saying, I am not a pastor, I’m a man. “Son of God” is a title that Jesus has, but in His Being, He is God. As we talked about the Trinity, we saw that there are Three distinct Persons, but Each One of those Persons is the Same One God. So, Jesus is God – in His Being, in His Substance, in His Essence, and He is the “Son of God” in His Person, just as He is also the “Prince of Peace” and the “Son of Man,” etc.
So don’t think you are blaspheming God the Father by calling Jesus God. Jesus is God and the Father is God and the Holy Spirit is God, and the Three Persons are the One God. Jesus is not the Father, but He is the Same, One God as the Father. That is the mystery of the Trinity. But Jesus is God. And we are right to confess Jesus as God and worship Him as God, just as the disciples did.
And fourth, Luke tells us that the disciples returned to Jerusalem “and were continually in the temple blessing God.” That does not mean that they were in the temple every minute of the day and never left. What it means is that they were there whenever worship was occurring and that they believed and lived out the fact that our Triune God is always worthy of worship.
That worship did not just take place in the temple as a worship service, though. They also worshiped God by going out and telling others about the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness. Mark wrote, “And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs” (Mark 16:20, ESV).
As Christians, we ought to find ourselves drawn to the things of God and to the worship of God. We ought to find ourselves desiring to be in His Presence with our brothers and sisters, worshiping Him, proclaiming Who He is and what He has done. We ought to find ourselves joyfully compelled to be in worship as often as possible and to tell others about Jesus and His Gospel.
Do you love Jesus? Do you love His Church? Do you want to be in His Presence, in worship? Do you want to commune with Him – fellowship with Him? Then look at yourself and your life through the lense of the Gospel and see how blessed you are. Understand that Jesus has finished the Work of Salvation. And worship Jesus, our God and Savior. Come into the sanctuary as often as you can and work to bring others with you. Tell them who Jesus is and why that matters – why you see things differently as a follower of Jesus Christ. And give continual blessing to our God, for He is worthy.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for blessing us beyond our comprehension. We thank You that the Work of Salvation is Yours Alone and You have completed it. We thank You for letting us know that You are a Triune God and only God could save us from the debt of our sin. We thank You for this Church, for this company of saints with whom we join together and worship You. We thank You for the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, for Your Presence in the Sacrament, and for the blessing of Your Grace that we shall receive as we receive the elements. We ask that, in all things, You would make us a glory to Yourself. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
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