the title of John's message this morning is home to glory with that in mind which you turn with me to the gospel of Luke the very end of the gospel of Luke to the 24th chapter beginning with verse 50 Luke 24 50 and then also turn to Philippians chapter 2 Beginning with verse 5 and hold your place there and we'll read that after we read these four verses at the end of the gospel of Luke When Jesus had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany he lifted up his hands and blessed them the disciples and While he was blessing them he led them and was taken up into heaven and Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and they stayed continually at the temple praising God And now turn with me to Philippians chapter 2 calls letter to the Philippians chapter 2 beginning with verse 5
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus Who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped But made himself nothing Taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and Being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name That is 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 This ends the reading of God's holy Inspired and inherent word Let's return to the passage we read with David just a few moments ago from Luke chapter 24 And also turn over to Philippians chapter 2 I will warn you ahead of time You need to have your Bible open in front of you if you don't have one with you This is not one of those mornings when you can get along without it Take one from the kids if you're not used to working through scripture It will I will try to tell you where those scriptures are Because we're going to be in several different scriptures this morning folks We're then over three years ago we opened our Bibles and we read from Luke chapter 1 the first few verses and we started going through Luke verse by verse episode by episode and And It's taken us over three years to get here this is the last message from the gospel according to Luke for us during this study But what a message it is not because I'm preaching it you know far better than that but because the subject I must confess to you I was telling one of our elders before the worship That I have had to Do some confession before the Lord this week and I will confess to you That this is a subject of which you should have heard From me many many many times and you haven't I Think I can say without hesitation that this is the most neglected doctrine and the preaching in the evangelical church in this country But I cannot think of one that is more important You say what could that be? Well, you're going to see this morning would you bow your head now and pray with me? Would you just take a moment and ask God to open your eyes? I can't do this the subject just any subject in this book is far Beyond me and every Sunday morning we bow at this time and I pray and I said Lord. I can't do this I can't change anyone's heart. I can't speak so that anyone will be changed from inside out But this morning especially this subject is far far far far beyond My words and if you knew my heart I want to tell you about because I'm so excited, but there's a part of me that just wants to go sit down Because the subject is so far beyond human words One day we shall see it and we will understand then Would you pray with me right now and ask God to open your eyes? And ears and open your heart right now all of us. Let's pray our Father opened our eyes To see His Majesty And to see His glory in His name Amen Home to glory We've come to the end Where are we in the story the ascension? Do you know that when we refer to his ascension we do not simply mean he is rising from the ground? Heaven you know some people would say well back in those days. They thought heaven was up and we understand now it's another dimension But they thought heaven was up and so he ascended that's We read in the first chapter they were talking with him and he gave them this last message and he began to send it to heaven Remember the angels came down said why are you gazing up into heaven the same Jesus? Well so coming like manner well We use the word ascension The lesser meaning of it is his rising physically from the ground to go to heaven the ascension of Jesus the term And our classical reform Christian theology refers to his exaltation in heaven He ascended to the throne in glory of heaven
Did you know that there's a day on the church calendar called ascension day? It's a day of Christian celebration When's Christmas? Everyone knows that When is Easter? We all know weeks ahead of time before Easter arrives When is ascension day? Bet you don't know that This year it was on Thursday, May 9th In 2003 ascension day will fall on Thursday, May 29th Folks There is a sense in which that day should be celebrated more than Christmas or Easter
So why don't we celebrate? I don't think I know all the reasons yet But I think one reason is because In celebrating the incarnation we're seeing something that's coming our direction The Son of God became flesh and we see him coming into the world At Easter we see him coming forth from the grave in the ascension What happens happens on the other side Out of our seeing out of our hearing
But we need to think about it Because scripture from beginning to end that song we read it to call the worship that great song Remember we read it ought to be read dramatically lift up your heads. Oh you gates be lifted up You ancient doors that the king of glory may come in do you know that's about the ascension of Christ It's all for sure Some of you remember being in the European or Pacific theater during World War 2 That numbers To our loss becoming fewer and fewer When you were in the South Pacific when you were in Europe as a soldier What did you want most what did you think about more than anything you thought about home And you wanted know you yearned you lived to go home Read the gospels. It's very interesting. I hadn't seen it before this study in Luke Read the gospels and each gospel the closer you get to the end The more you hear Jesus speaking about going home Interesting isn't it and what happened at his home going what happened at his exaltation What happened in his ascension should powerfully affect our lives every day some of us are going to hear a A message about the ascension. I don't know what the ascension is and I know it doesn't have anything to make Doesn't have anything to do with me going to work tomorrow. It has more to do with our lives Then we could imagine Now listen to me there is more written in scripture about the ascension of Christ than about the incarnation. Did you hear it? It really is Why did he put so much in scripture about it because he means more to affect our lives this week right here What happened when Jesus went home to happen Why is it so important let's take a look at this passage and see First I want you to see that he was home and finished Now I'm going to refer to several other scriptures another parts of the Bible As we deal with this subject as a whole this morning in our first scriptures from Hebrews don't try to turn to it unless you know where the book of Hebrews is but it's from Hebrews chapter 1 and the book of Hebrews starts with this great great Praise of the Son of God and listen to the third verse the son In the radiance of God's glory That is the son of God and the radiance of God's glory and the exact Resonation of his being sustaining all things by his powerful word After now here's why I want you to see after he provided purifications of sin when he went home to heaven What did he do after he had provided purification for sins he sat down at the right hand of the majesty Most of the New Testament references to the ascended Christ picture him and see dead Why And remember this is a work of this is not only the infallible inherent word of God. It's not only a book of history But it's literature and there's a specific reason why he's always pictured as seated He's seated because in one sense his work is done His the work of redemption was over listen to Hebrews again after he had provided purification for sins He sat down after the two are linked together Listen to Jesus talking to his father in John 17 It's near the end of the the gospels, right? Jesus is actually like you make a phone call home before you go home and your anxious and you can't stand it You just make you you've got to call home and talk and you talk about going home That's what Jesus was doing in John 17 listen to John 17 4 and 5 I have he's speaking to the father and he says father I've brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do That's what it says and now father since I've completed the work that you gave me to do glorify me in your presence He was saying father. It's time to come home. I am finished here. I have nothing left to do We need folks to see him seated. We need to see him seated We need to be reminded every day that our redemption our salvation has already been secured Our sins have been removed the ordeal that crosses over Our sins have been taken our sins have been judged our sins have been condemned and punished in Christ In terms of the forgiveness of sins folks. There's nothing more to be done Why are you why are you in church this morning? It's not for the forgiveness of sins Why will you read your Bible and pray this week? It's not for the forgiveness of sins Why will you try to live a godly life? It's not for the forgiveness of sins. We sing to him. Jesus paid it all. There's not one cent There's not a piece of the debt left to be paid Let me ask you this one What else would you bring God? What else would you bring God to complete your redemption? Would you bring your children? They're the most precious thing you have or they would you bring your children? For payment for your sin that would not be enough Would you bring your life? Would you die to take away your sin? That would not be enough Would you be a missionary in Burma for the next 50 years? That would not be enough. Would you bring a million dollars to the church every Sunday for the rest of your life to give to feed The hungry children in the world in the name of Christ. That would not be enough In fact god would be offended that you tried to make any additional payment folks. Jesus is seated It's done the work of redemption is over You know sometimes we're asked a question And we know we know the answer, but we can't just get it right and and and Two days later 48 hours later. We said We should have said that our week later. Oh, that's what I should have said That happens To most of us all the time But there's that one occasion isn't isn't there when somebody asked you a question and you've got the answer I mean the Lord just gives you what's that's it and you know you just get the nail on the head That occurred one time one evening when I was sitting at dinner with the family and I was telling them about a Deathbed confession a man who was literally hours away from dying It was a beautiful thing. He really understood the gospel for the first time and he understood He was and he prayed and he confessed his sins and he received Christ and The lady at the table a church member who was really a cynical moralist said to me John do you really think a deathbed repentance does away with a lifetime of sin? And I knew exactly What to say I Said I'll answer your question if you'll answer a man She said what is it? I said do you really think going to church every week and trying to be a good person Will do away with a lifetime of sin
Neither a deathbed confession or a long moral life does away with a lifetime of sin The finished work of Jesus Christ his death and his resurrection That is the only payment and it's a sufficient payment Only his payment takes away a lifetime of sin So it would be a good idea To write a note where you can see it when you go to to seriously pray when you go to pray seriously A note that said Jesus is seated
There's nothing I can do for the forgiveness of my sins
He went home and was finished Home and finished secondly, I want you to see that he went home to prepare look at vert look and again This is outside the box of the scriptures and John 14 is a passage all of us know I go to prepare a place for you In in John 14 to in my father's house are many dwelling places if it were not so I would have told you I'm going to repair a place for you
He went home to repair flakes Last night I turned to Genesis 1 and I read that chapter again I don't know how many times I read it instead of it Hundreds at least maybe a thousand But last night I read it from a different perspective or perspective From a perspective Where I'd never stood before I read it from the perspective that night That Jesus is right at this moment Creating another world for me and for you for my father and for my brother and for my children You know before Adam arrived. What do you learn in Genesis 1 before Adam arrived God and prepared a world for him before he arrived God prepared a world for them Jesus has revisited that idea. He is preparing a place a world for us before we get there Now how's this related to our lives? We saw how Jesus seated is related how's this related to our lives Folks You know what most affects how we live in this world Where we're headed what we think about the next listen to what CS Lewis wrote in mere Christianity quote If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next world It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so in effected in this world in quote But it's maybe the reason that Christians today affect this world for Christ a little more than pagans affect this world for Christians Do you know that most Christians most church members in the United States Effect the world for Christ their neighbor around then they affect it no more than their pagan neighbor affects the world for Christ Why maybe it's because we have the same Pablo view of heaven that the pagans have Listen to what Berkman Russell wrote now. He was an atheist. He didn't believe believe it was that we died and that was it Listen to what he said you don't think this would affect your life What if you thought like this the life of a man that's the life of a man here The life of a man is a long march through the night Surrounded by foes tortured by weariness and pain Toward a goal that you can hope to reach and where none can carry long One by one as they march our comrades vanish from our sight seized by silent orders of omnipotent death Breathe and powerless is man's life on him that all his race the slow sure doom falls pitiless and dark Blind to good and evil reckless of destruction of omnipotent matter rose on a relentless way For man condemned today to lose his dearest friend or family to mar himself Will pass through Those gates of darkness Now let me ask you this what if you read that Well, you got out of bed every morning. What if you read that when you went to bed every night What if you went to work and that was your philosophy? What if you went to work? You know what that's what dominates most of our world
Catalyst a Latin poet wrote a very famous poem That said the same thing much briefer Let us live and let us love and let us value the tales of all steer oh men and a single half penny Suns can set and then return again, but for us When once our brief light sets there is but one perpetual light through which we must sleep a generation Who looks to the next world with that kind of darkness and that kind of despair Do you think they'll live the life Of the person that knows that Jesus is preparing a place for them Listen remember when Europe thought that there was nothing beyond the vast oceans to the west They lived like it they were a world into themselves But when you're discovered that there was a world of the west a new world the life of Europe was changed What they knew was over there affected how they lived it that's exactly what happens to us When we live as if there's only darkness And Christ is not preparing a place for us We'll be a world into ourselves when we discover that there's a new world a world of Christ's preparing The way we live here will be forever and ever changed But it should not only be that don't change how we live That's it should change how we die John Todd was a 19th century minister When he was six years old his parents died But he had a good I everyone needs a good aunt and he had a good aunt And it's pronounced that way
He grew up he left his aunt's home and went into the ministry Years later She was much older and near death and she wrote him a letter full of fear She was being held captive by a fear of death She was a wonderful Christian lady And he wrote these words to her that recorded in the autobiography of John Todd. Let me quote them to you It isn't he's writing to his aunt It is now 35 years since I as a boy of six was left quite alone in the world Dear aunt you sent me a word you sent me word that you would give me a home and be a kind mother to me I've never forgotten the day. I made the long journey to your house I can still recall my disappointment when instead of coming from me yourself You sent your servant Caesar to fetch me I remember my tears and anxiety as perched high on your horse and clean type to Caesar I wrote off to my new home Night fell before we finished the journey and I became lonely and afraid Do you think she'll go to bed before we get there? I asked Caesar oh no she'll stay up for you When we get out of these here woods you'll see her candle shining in the window Presently we did ride out into the clearing and there sure enough was your candle I remember you were waiting at the door and that you put your arms close about me A tired and bewildered little boy You had a fire burning on the heart a hot suffer waiting on the stud After suffer you took me to my new room Heard me say my prayers and then set down beside me till I fell asleep Someday soon dear aunt god will send for you to take you to a new home Don't fear the summons the strange journey Christ can be trusted to do as much for you as you were kind enough to do for me so many years ago At the end of the road you will find a welcome a home
Thanks That's what Jesus is doing right now He's preparing a place This world's a wonderful world in it It'd be hard to describe to a baby in the womb We just have to say to that baby in the way you can imagine the world to which you're To which you're about to be born Jesus is home now preparing a world that's beyond our imagination That should affect how we live here that should affect how we die
home and finished Home he went home to repair he went home to rain Now let's look at philithians the passage we read with dated philithians 2.9 therefore god exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name That is about every name 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 is Lord. What's that? What does that picture? What is it a rain he is raining? What did Jesus say in Matthew 28 18 just before he left All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me folks Jesus went home to rain In the book of Revelation Jesus is represented by many different symbols, isn't he? The lamb the warrior king the lion of Judah But no matter the symbol or title Used to describe Jesus where is he always found where's the lion found where's the lamb found always always always always own his throne raining the book of Revelation Was written to a persecuted church we often lose sight of this it was written to a persecuted and suffering church To remind them that Jesus was right then was there then king of kings and lord of lords the theme of the book of Revelation is Jesus rains There are many Christians who think that their duty in this world In living a Christian life is to establish the reign of Christ. They heard over and over again I'm here to establish the reign of Christ So we might as well be living to make the sun come up tomorrow morning
We can establish the reign of Christ he is raining If you were doing some strange thing and I walked up to you and I said what in the world are you doing it? Well, I'm doing this so that the sun will rise tomorrow morning. I haven't said you're crazy You need to be in this style of nothing you do or don't do has anything to do with the sun rising tomorrow morning Nothing we do as Christians will cross Christ to reign anymore than he already does
We do live in this world praying that the world around us will acknowledge his reign. We do live in this world pleading with the world pleading you need to understand he reigns When Jesus returns he will not be coming To reign he already is ready He will be coming to finally prove to the world once and for all that he indeed is king Right after Jesus said all authority is given unto me in heaven and earth right after he said that what did he say? He said therefore therefore because I'm raining because I am king of kings and lord of lords Therefore you guys and you take the story to the nations you take the gospel to the nations go tell them that they have a savior You go with this knowledge no not just that I'm a savior but no go knowing I'm the king the kings and lord of lords Why was the early church so fearless what was their secret some of us are scared to death to say something of Christ out there Why was the church so fearless were they super Christians did they have halos and and wings did they live somehow in the edge of heaven They were fearless Because whoever came whoever came to intimidate and dominate whatever came to intimidate and dominate those first and second Century Christians had one answer above all and you can read it over and over and over again in their lives They said to Caesar Jesus reigns Caesar It's not you that reigns Caesar You are the king of a petty thief dumb. It's not round that reigns It's not evil that reigns It's Jesus who reigns That's why they were bold they had a being of a risen king
Now understand this We love to walk around saying Jesus is my king and you're sitting there now hearing this and you're saying oh, I love that Jesus is my king He really is Jesus is my lord. He's lord of my I want you to say that is not what this Wake up Jesus was saying something far far wider and deeper and higher
He was saying don't go out and live in the world Saying Jesus is my king you go out into the world as if I am King of all kings king of heaven and king of earth
We have some friends visiting us this week visiting independent from Inverness Scotland from the Smith and Kaladin church there in Scotland We think we have a sister relationship I have I don't travel I like I really do like To stay home you guys at travel all the time say you do that But I've been to Scotland twice and when I'm in Scotland the president of the United States is still my president However in my state there I do not live as if the president of the United States is also president of Scotland
You know that's the way many Christians live though They live as if Jesus is their king and they walk out into the week and they walk into their jobs and wherever they are And they do not live as if Jesus is ruler and king in that world
Folks Jesus is saying to us you don't get My father did not make me king of some small thief them called your heart
He says I'm the king of your life and I'm the king of your life and I'm the king of your life
But there's nothing place on this earth where I don't reign Wherever Any go to any spot on this globe Jesus reigns whether it's in the brothels of Amsterdam or the temples of Vude in Japan Jesus is I and the king of heaven and earth Jesus is not calling us to live as just as if he's our king Jesus is calling us to live as if he's the king overall that is in heaven and on earth And let me tell you when you understand that he reigns you'll live differently He was home and finished he went home to repair he went home to reign and finally He went home to glory Go back to lithium's to nine Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name He gave him all the glory Here is what we did not see when he ascended he went home to glory Now you know when he came here he laid aside his glory in that passage in philippians you read it carefully Had this attitude in you which was also in Christ Jesus who thought a quality of God Something not to be grasped but he laid aside his glory Jesus left all the glory the son of God left the glory of heaven To come to the slums In compulse and Corinthians he laid aside his riches and became poor Now we own all of us no matter where we live we really own And have nice places whether some apartment are a nice spacious home whatever we live In really really nice places here What if this morning you were suddenly transported to a one room of all In calcutta india you have ever been there In that little one room huffle you had no bedroom no stove no refrigerator no changes of clothes And no food you had no money When you stepped out your door you stepped out into a street filled with garbage in the stench of sewage And you were there you didn't have a ticket home you were there for the rest of your life You made a face each day not knowing where you from which your food would come Now knowing how you were going to eat Knowing that that you're a hubble smell the outside smelled your clothes smelled you smelled
multiply that a thousand tensions that transition Multiply that a thousand times and you still will not be near the humiliating transition At the son of God made In the incarnation It's called the humiliation of Jesus Christ There's a huge transition There's a huge transition But what happens here in philippians what happens is at the ascension It's the reverse He goes home to an even greater glory
That's what they didn't see at the man of allis They didn't see the glorious parade of Trump But you know what they talk about it The Roman trial Was the biggest parade of the day It was for Roman generals who had won some of the great great battles of ancient Rome Remember in the movie the gladiator the gladiator the Roman general maximus Did you think it weird that a general would lead his troops in the war remember he he planned the attack and then he was He actually was there leading his troops in battle the Roman general did not stand at the back and watch about he led That was one of the requirements To win a Roman triumph in Rome took to be a part of that parade The general had to be on the battlefield himself He had to be one who planned and executed the battle not his luminance The enemy had to be the another requirement was the enemy had to be completely defeated with few Roman losses Peace had to follow the battle not war The senate had to be notified of victory Then the senate called for a holiday to honor that general He entered Rome in a great chariot wearing a something called the toga picked up It was a purple wrongel robe lined with silver and gold and the great events of the battle were woven into The fabric He wore a laurel reef crown and gold shoes. He held an ivory scepter that had an eagle atop Behind his chariot here's the part behind his great chariot Immediately were the captured generals and leaders and the king of the nation conquered Then came the great treasures The booty the spoils that had been taken from that country And then came the army which had been led by the general this great train for take hours To traverse the streets of Rome Now let me read the visions for eight talking about Jesus Listen this is quite said when he ascended on high he led captives in his train and gave gifts to me and what was Paul say Paul had seen Paul saw with his own eyes The Roman triumph that parade and he used that as a metaphor and he said that's what happened when Christ went home to glory Listen to Colossians 215 and having disarmed the powers and authorities He made a public spectacle of them triumpling over them by the cross He went home to glory and in his train were the conquered Sin was in his frame death was in his frame held captive In his frame was a fallen world redeemed when on the glory facts great great glory Turned with the eight to Romans chapter eight and we're done. This is where you must turn to get it Romans chapter eight What does this his glorification have to do with us? This is the best part His glorification has everything to do with us Romans eight Follow along look at verse 30 and those he predestined he called and those he called the also justified and those he justified What he also glorified just as Jesus went on to glory we will not just go to a home prepared for us We will go to glory
Those people used to say that and we just think well, you know that means that we go home to heaven. Oh, they were saying we go on the glory a glory Now look at verse 35 to whom did all right this? This is why I read it who shall separate us from the love of Christ Now here it is the persecuted church shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword As it's written in scripture for years sake for God's sake we face death all day long We're considered as sheep to be slaughtered We're considered as nothing in this world Was that going to disturb us? No, why won't disturb us in all these things. We are more than caucus There's a train where conquerors going home to glory. We're more than conquerors For I'm convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor demons This present world nor the future nor powers neither height nor death nor anything else and all creation will be I've separated us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus I was saying just as Jesus glorified we will be glorified He was giving this great comfort to his disciples in the middle of the battle when things were dark when they were being killed When they were being accused when they were being threatened on every side He said you know what you're going to be more than conquerors. I wish I could go on The folks it's over we got in I said here this morning with a young lady this battling cancer
She said you'll never know What that meant to me? What's the battle today? Jesus said look at my glory that glory is going to be yours one day and you will go home with sin He'll kept it in your train you'll go home victor over the death where you're seeing
What glory my dad was in the Marine Corps He loved the military He loved the Marine Corps and he used to say I love the glory of being a Marine And then he would tell us he would tell his congregation But folks there's a greater glory than the glory of the Marine Corps
It's a glory that makes the glory of the Marine Corps and the other glories of this world pale in comparison It's the glory Not that Jesus says it's the glory that we shall have When we go home when Stephen was being stunned In the book of Acts remember the first martyr when he was being stained Spiddle was rolling down his face and body Words of venomous hate we're filling his ears as as the world spit out his hatred on Stephen But rocks were being thrown and were cutting his skin and crushing his bones In Jesus gave him the vision He opened heaven and he said Stephen look up here and Stephen looked and he told us what he saw It wasn't Jesus seated Jesus was standing a great warrior was coming home In Jesus stood To give Stephen the glory
Vakes we are frail and we are sinners But I tell you today One day you're going home You're going home