"Ascension -- Who Cares?" Sermon: Psalm 47:1-9 (manuscript)

“Ascension – Who Cares?”

(Psalm 47:1-9)

May 24, 2020 YouTube

            Christmas!  Immanuel!  God with us!  Baby in a manger.  Shepherds.  Magi.

            Easter!  Christ is risen!  The stone is rolled away.  Jesus has conquered hell and death and sin.

            Ascension Day.  Well.  Jesus went back to Heaven.  Who cares?

            Remembering that Jesus ascended back to the Father forty days after His resurrection tends not to be treated with the excitement of Christmas or Easter.  This is Ascension Sunday.  Should we care?

            Luke tells us:

“In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, ‘you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’

“So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’ And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven’” (Acts 1:1-11, ESV).

            Jesus physically rose from the dead and physically ascended back to His throne at the Right Hand of the Father.

            One of the Psalms that we associate with Jesus’ Ascension is Psalm 47.  This is one of the seven enthronement psalms which talk about universal rejoicing in the universal reign of God.

            We see, first, all humans are called to rejoice that God is King.

The sons of Korah write:

            “Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!”

            All humans throughout time and space are called upon to clap their hands, to shout to God, to shout with loud songs of joy.  This is raucous rejoicing.  Everyone is to give everything they have in rejoicing – in singing songs of joy – to God.

            Why? 

            We are given three reasons.

            First, “For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.”

            We are to rejoice that God is King because He is the fearsome King over all the earth.  Our God is great and terrible.  He is the Holy God Who cannot stand sin in His presence.  He is the God Who causes Isaiah to come undone in His presence.  We remember that Isaiah pronounces a curse on himself for finding himself in the presence of God because he knows he is a sinner before the Holy God and God would be righteous in damning him eternally right then and there to the fullness of God’s Wrath.

            We rejoice in this fearsome King because He has provided One Savior for all those who will believe.  The authors of the Psalm looked forward to that Savior.  And this Savior, Jesus, makes us righteous and holy before God, so we do not need to fear Him.  Rather, we rejoice in Him for the just substitution of Jesus for all we who will believe, and we are in awe of Him.

            Second, “He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet.”

            The sons of Korah look back on the history of Israel and God’s deliverance of her again and again – how God freed her from oppressors – from Egypt, the Assyrians, Babylonians, Medo-Persians, and on and on.  As we have seen in Isaiah, even though Israel needs to be taught and disciplined, God keeps His promise that a remnant will remain.  The chosen of God will be saved. 

            Paul writes, “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (I Corinthians 15:25, ESV).

            And again, “And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23, ESV).

            We rejoice in God as King because He has put all of our enemies under His feet – He has subdued them and punished them – and He will put all of our enemies and His – under His feet – in the end, all those who never believe savingly in the Savior will receive the full Wrath of God in eternal Hell.

            Understand, we rejoice in God our King not for the sake of the suffering of the lost, but because God is King, and He saves a people for Himself out of the lost.

            Third, “He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah”

            We rejoice in God our King because before Creation, He chose a people for Himself – and He cannot lie or break His promise.

            Paul puts it this way:

            “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has 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 to himself as sons 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 mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

“In him we have 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 to 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 in him, were sealed with the promised 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).

God, the King, chose a people for Himself from before the Creation, and we are sons and daughters of God now and forever, with an inheritance that can never be taken away, because of the work that Jesus did to save us.

            All humanity is called on to praise God our King because He chose a remnant and made them His sons and daughters through the work of Jesus, our God and Savior.

            Second, all of humanity is to praise our God, the Sovereign King.

            “God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm!”

            Here we come to the allusion that refers to the Ascension – “God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of the trumpet.”

            How did the sons of Korah understand this?

            The shofar – the trumpet – was blown in ancient Israel for a number of reasons:  war, gathering for holidays and fasts, when God gives the Law, and for the anointing of the King (https://hoshanarabbah.org/blog/2012/05/15/when-was-the-shofar-blown/).

            We saw that this is an enthronement psalm, so the sons of Korah would have understood this as God being enthroned and anointed – recognized – as King.

            Similarly, Jesus ascends back to His throne at the Right Hand of the Father – so He is again enthroned and anointed – recognized – as King.

            Paul writes, “He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:10, ESV).

            Though Luke does not record a “shout” or a “trumpet” with Jesus’ Ascension, the angels say He will return in parallel fashion.

            And Paul writes, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first” (I Thessalonians 4:16, ESV).

            And so, we remember that our God – our God and Savior, Jesus – is enthroned.

            We will remember that repetition in Hebrew is the way to convey emphasis.  The sons of Korah five times say to “sing praises”!  And they say that our King, the King over all the earth – the Sovereign King – is to be praised for who He is – He is to be praised with the psalm.

            The language that the sons of Korah use tells us that all of humanity is to praise God our Savior musically and with knowledge – with understanding of Who He is.  This is not a blind or haphazard worship – this is a worship of the God we know using the best of our musicality.

So, all humans are called to know God and praise God with the best that we have because He is the Sovereign King.

            Third, our God reigns.

            “God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne. The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted!”

            Our God reigns He reigns over the nations.  Jesus reigns over the nations.  He sits on His holy throne.  The sons of Korah would have seen the throne of God either in the Temple, and/or in Heaven.  Likewise, Christians see the throne of God on earth after the Restoration and in Heaven.

            Also, we see the throne of God – of Jesus – of God the Holy Spirit – in our hearts.  When Jesus ascended, He promised that God the Holy Spirit would indwell every believer and reign over our hearts.  The Holy Spirit is transforming us into the Image of Jesus, our Lord and Master.

            And the remnant God has chosen as His people are the sons and daughters of Abraham – not biologically, but spiritually.  God reigns over all humans – rich and poor, slave and prince, man and woman, but He reigns in a special way over His people – all we who believe throughout time and space.

            Since God reigns over all of humanity and His people in a special way, we exalt God.  We hold our Triune God in high regard, we speak highly of Him and praise Him and rejoice in Him, we acknowledge Him to be the Ultimate Power, the Sovereign King of all, and we rejoice in His Character and Attributes and strive by the power of the Holy Spirit to be like Him.

            Everything was created by God.  Everything is under the Sovereign rule of our God and King and Savior.  And we are His people, so we ought to be a people who burst forth with well thought-out and musical praise and rejoicing.

            God is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God, equal in authority and power and dignity and worth of praise.  And so, when we hear that Jesus has ascended back to His throne at the Right Hand of the Father, it ought to cause us to rejoice and praise and lift up our voices to Him in thanksgiving and awe.

            If we are still unsure and to make it clear, The Heidelberg Catechism, one of our standards of faith explains three reasons why we should rejoice and praise Jesus on Ascension Day (http://www.heidelberg-catechism.com/en/lords-days/18.html):

            First, because of the Ascension Jesus is our Advocate before the Father.  Jesus prays for you and me – He asks His Father on our behalf and for our good.

            Paul writes, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” (I Timothy 2:5, ESV).

            Second, because Jesus ascended as the physically risen Christ, we are assured that on the last day, we will be raised, incorruptible, in our same physical bodies.  God created humans wholly good – our bodies – thought they decay and fail us, our bodies were created good and will be restored and remain physical bodies.

            As Job says, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:25-27, ESV).

            Third, as we have already seen, it is when Jesus has ascended that the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit to indwell all we who believe.  In so doing, we become the Temple of God, and God the Holy Spirit gifts us, grows us, and empowers us to do everything God would have each of us do and be each day.

            Without the Ascension, we do not have the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit as our pledge of salvation, we do not have surety of our physical resurrection, and we do not have the Savior, Jesus – 100% God and 100% man – as our Mediator and Advocate before the Father.

            So, we should care, shouldn’t we?

            We should rejoice that our God is King.  We should praise our Sovereign King.  And we should cry out, “Our God reigns!” And take comfort in His doing all things according to His perfect Will – even working through your life and mine.

            Let us pray:

            Almighty God – Three-in-One, we praise You and rejoice in the Ascension of Jesus to His throne.  We thank You for the lives You have given us to learn to trust and acknowledge Your Sovereign Rule.  We thank You that Jesus is our Mediator, that our bodies are good and we will live on as real humans, and You have gifted us with the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit so we are able to do all You have called us to do.  Help us by Him Who indwells us to trust and to strive to live as You have called us to as we strive to become transformed into the Image of Jesus, our God and Your Son, Who sits at Your Right Hand in Power and Glory.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.