I wonder how many times in the course of a day you ask yourself the question, what time is it? You may not you may not be Explicit or avert in that but a glance at the watch or a glance at the clock Is asking that question? What time is it? Kids tend to ask that question periodically through the course of the school day They're looking to 2 30 or 3 or 3 30 and the time when they get out Some of you may be looking this morning
Asking yourself the question, what time is it when do we get out the time is an interesting thing We're locked in it. We can't stop it. We can't speed it up It's a significant though most of the time Unconscious sort of a reality for us It's not at the level of consciousness. It just sort of passes by except there are these interruptions and these Intrusions and who can explain why they come when we want to know what time it is Now if we had passed on the street last Thursday We had just passed one another and I'd asked you what time is it you might have given me the Time of day Or if I'd said what day is it you might have given me the day in the week Thursday Or you might have given me the date in the month May 9th I think it was you may have given me the year 1996 But how many of us if Asked that question last Thursday Would have said well I can tell you what time it is it's 1015 or 1125 or 258 But let me tell you the really significant thing about this day This is a sentient This is 40 days after Easter
This is the day when Jesus Blessed is disciples and in their view in their seeing as He blessed them was lifted up out of their view and into heaven and And first day is the day of Carnation First day is the day of Enthronement Thursday's the day 40 days after Jesus was raised and 10 days before he sent the promised Holy Spirit And because he ascended and because he was crowned king and because he was enthroned He received from his father all of the fullness of the kingdom and because he was enthroned He could send the spirit 10 days from now at Pentecost and at Pentecost we received the spirit who was a down payment a pledge the first fruits of our final inheritance The spirit resident within our hearts commissioned by the father and son sent after his coronation Is our great comforter and the one who reminds us that the day is coming when everything that Jesus has purchased for us will be our This is ascension How many of us said all of that this past Thursday let me tell you something ascension matters to John McBride
ascension matters to John McBride and I don't say that Because there is some romantic notion about the ascension of Christ and the union of his beloved with him and the sure and certain Hope which they have Those are not romantic notions Those are real and those are the substance of our faith
John McBride died on ascension day. We mark time differently as Christians We think of time differently as Christians God thinks differently about time than we tend to What is today for God? What is today for God Is today Game three between your land of magic and the Atlanta Hawks today for God is the Lord's day Today for God is the day of resurrection Today for God is the Lord's day Sabah The day when as New Testament believe Christ's victory over sin and death The day when we as Old Testament believers did leave everything aside all of those distractions including that basketball game and Come apart from the world and cross a threshold pass from one world into another world entering into Not the fullness of but a real taste of the Sabbath rest which awaits the people of God It's a different day for God It's a different day for us God marks time differently than we do and he's given us this weekly reminder this periodic reminder That there's something greater. There's something bigger. There's something Exalted. There is something which yet awaits us and that marking of time is all over in the Old Testament scriptures There were weekly Sabbaths and those weekly Sabbaths were days of rest Days to come apart from blood and sweat and tears But in addition to that there were festivals regular festivals in the life of Israel. You've probably heard me talk about this before It was an agrarian society and they had these seasons in which certain things were done and in the spring of the year They planted and then there were the first fruits and then there was the final harvest But each one of those seasons every one of those periods of time was infused with redemptive significance Every one of those seasons memorialized great activity Great promise for the people of God so that the springtime became Passover and
First fruits became Pentecost and the final harvest became tabernacles and the celebration of the final in gathering Every year the people of God would celebrate God's redemptive activity they had these reminders throughout the course of the year and in addition to that Get this one Not only was every seventh day a day of rest every seventh year was a year of rest
And every 50th year was the year of Jubilee and the slaves were set free and the prisoners were released And everybody got to go back to his homestead Everybody got to go back to that parcel of ground which for some reason he may have lost But they got to go back and reclaim it and sap their homes again They got to return to the place of their ancestor
Everywhere you look in the Old Testament time is marked differently and there are these festivals and these celebrations and these Deliverances and these liberations
Friend of mine Calculated It's interesting to remember this Calculated that if you were to take a seven-year cycle of time in Israel And were to include all of the feasts and all of the festivals and all of the Sabbaths and all of the rest of that That stuff over the course of seven years the average person in Israel would have worked in a given week four and a half days That was the average work week
Now to be sure it came in bunches it came in clusters But on average They worked four and a half days a week and what were they doing the rest of the time Celebrating You know there's only one fast You know Old Testament is real one fast And the rest of it is festivals
And there are times when God commands the people to mark time in this way by setting apart a portion of their income I get this they're to set apart a portion of their income and they're to use that income For celebration for festival to purchase wine It's in the Bible and foods
And they're to delight themselves as Isaiah says in chapter 55 They're to delight themselves in fatness the fatness and fullness of the land
We have this idea that God is a cosmic killjoy that he's a scrooge of some kind That he's this sour and dour and prune-faced sort of a fellow You've seen that keystone beer commercial Maybe you haven't look for it You know where the guy takes a sip of bitter beer And his face scrunches up and he becomes this prune-faced sour looking guy And we have this view of God that he's that way and nothing could be farther from the truth
God commands his people to be festive and this marking of time differently Is a recognition of God's redemptive activity which leads to festival and celebration and great joy And when Jesus is lifted up out of the sight of his disciples. How do they go back to Jerusalem?
Do they go back down cast? Do they go back crest fallen?
Look at the text They go back to Jerusalem with great joy and they are continually in the temple praising and blessing God
I'll guarantee you folks John McBride knows great joy right now in the presence of the ascended Christ And Christ really did go up and it is a reminder Of that ascension Which we want so very very much for ourselves Because we want to mark time differently here We want for there to be the weekly Sabbath But we want for there to be a celebration at Advent as well the coming of Jesus And we want for there to be celebration at Easter time the death of Jesus in his resurrection And we want for there to be celebration at ascension because he's gone up into the heavenly places He's been crowned king He's been enthroned. He is seated at the right hand of the Father
And his ascension and session and rule and reign are just as real as this pulpit Just as real as those pews upon which you sit
And if we could ask John McBride he would tell us it is so the ascension is the coronation the enthronement The last in a series of events in the ministry of the life of Jesus
Actually the next to the last because the last is his promised return for you
And when he comes back you will enter into the full enjoyment of everything that he has purchased Now he is king Jesus And it matters for us. How does it matter?
How does it matter for us? What is the significance of this ascension of Jesus
Well in the first place Jesus has gone up into heaven To present himself and his finished work to the Father
for you Sometime this week I'd encourage you to read the letter to the Hebrews And see how many references there are in this letter To the priesthood of Jesus Here are just a couple of them Hebrews 4 14 to 16
Seeing then that we have a great high priest Who has passed through the heavens Jesus the Son of God Let us hold fast our confession But we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses But was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin let us therefore Because he has passed through the heavenlies and into the presence of God There to present himself in our behalf The pure unspotted perfect lamb of God who is without sin Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace That we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Chapter 6 Verses 19 and 20 of Hebrews This hope we have As an anchor of the soul What's your hope folks The elections in the fall a better job amended relationship
What is your hope see these things relate to one another Where is King Jesus and what is your hope They relate to each other This hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast And which enters the presence behind the veil Where the forerunner has entered for us Even Jesus Having become high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek
Chapter 9 one last
one last reference Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens Should be purified with these but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands Which are mere copies or shadows of the true mere shadows But into heaven itself Now to appear in the presence of God for us
Not that he should offer himself often As the high priest enters the most holy place every year with the blood of another But once For all time What is the background of this well the background of this of course Is the old testament sacrificial system and the priesthood and the great culminating event in the life of Israel every year the day of atonement And you remember what happened on the day of atonement that the priest in the midst of the people They saw this every year they watched him do this every year
The high priest in the midst of the people would take a goat. It's in Leviticus 16 Before you read Hebrews read Leviticus 16 He would take a goat And the goat is a symbol Just as a lamb is a symbol The lambs are those upon whom the favor of God rests They are the pure and the undefiled and the helpless and the needy They are the humble You remember Jesus when he sits upon his throne will gather the nations and there will be a separation And he will separate the sheep from the goats and the sheep will enjoy blessedness They will know God's favor they will see him and delight in him and glory in him As he sees them and delights in them and glories in them, but the goats are the objects of God's wrath
And the high priest takes a goat And the goat is slain and the blood from the goat is drained into a basin And the blood is taken into the holy of holies Into the place where God resides where his presence abides in Israel above the chair of them And that blood which represents the life of the one that is slain that blood is sprinkled on the altar And what is the high priest doing he is presenting this slain life
And by the death of this the lives of the Israelites are preserved Jesus takes no goat into the presence of the Father Jesus pleads not the blood of goats but Jesus goes himself into the presence of the Father Jesus goes into the holy place having passed through the heavens having gone behind the veil There to plead himself for you
There to plead his righteousness there to present his blood
There to offer before the Father Not several times but once for all time himself as the perfect, sufficient, complete sacrifice for your sins
Said good enough for you Let me ask you something And as I said to the folks this morning I ask you this Because I have to ask it myself I have to deal with my own heart at this point When you woke up this morning Or when you wake up tomorrow morning
Was it your thought today or will it be your thought tomorrow That if I read my Bible a little bit Jesus will love me more
If I pray for 15 minutes instead of for five minutes Will God be more favorably disposed toward me If I witness to my neighbors which I haven't yet done even though I've prayed for them in this sanctuary for the last two years or three or four years If I finally get around a screwing up my courage enough to engage one of them in a conversation about the gospel Will Jesus be happier with me? Don't think those thoughts Don't view yourselves that way
Do we think that we can go into the presence of God and do a better job of presenting a perfect and complete sacrifice for our sins than Jesus?
Oh beloved The Lord Jesus who loved you before the foundation of the world and set you apart for himself has offered himself and now Sits in the presence of Almighty God presenting himself for you Presenting the perfection of himself the completion of his work and his shed blood
And there's nothing you need to do There's nothing you need to add
There is no point at which no not one No sense in which the Father of Verses Looks more favorably upon you Because you read your Bible this morning Or you prayed for me I may look more favorably upon you for that
But the Father doesn't need that he has all that he needs In the Lord Jesus I asked the Sunday school class a couple of years ago
What is the impediment the greatest impediment to your growth in the Christian life What's the thing that gets in the way of you making progress more than any other There are lots and lots of different answers and people said Prayer I don't pray enough the scriptures. I don't read the Bible enough I I wish I were more obedient. I I wish I didn't keep committing the same sin over and over and over again I listen to those people who talk about gaining the victory in their lives and I have no idea what they're talking about Because I haven't gained it in mind and I keep wishing that I could
He said many other things and I said nah As good as obedience is and as wonderful as prayer is and as valuable as reading the scriptures is I really don't think that those are the things which prove in the end to be the greatest impediment to our moving ahead in the Christian life
I think the greatest impediment to moving ahead in the Christian life is guilt guilt and the fear which inevitably accompanies guilt Don't you see only only the Lord Jesus is needed
And if we're going to wrestle with something if we're going to struggle with something let's struggle to get to the place Where we rest in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ plus absolutely nothing on my part Not prayer not Bible reading not obedience not witnessing
If we're going to wrestle with something as helpful as it might be to wrestle with praying better and reading the scriptures more And witnessing to our friends. I don't diminish or denigrate or minimize the significance of those things. That's good stuff You understand the problem is the conditionality that we tend to attach to those things We think God will love us more because we do We're going to wrestle with anything. Let's leave that stuff alone for a while
And let's wrestle instead with coming to the place where we rest in the finished work of Jesus plus nothing On my part plus nothing On my part King Jesus the King of the kings And the Lord of the lords Has ascended into the highest heavens and there presents himself as a perfect and sufficient sacrifice for your sin in this moment and forever More now. I know it's important How we live. I know it's important. I read the same Bible you do. I know that we're called the holiness I know we're told to put off in malice. I know we're told to forgive one another as God in Christ has forgiven us I know all that stuff. I know it better than you do. I'm paid to know it better than you
but again together If we're going to rest in anything If we're going to trust in anything if we're going to wrestle with anything God help us to wrestle with coming to the place We're with abandoned We prize the finished work of Jesus and as a result we go into Jerusalem we go to Paris we go to Dublin We go to Paduca, Kentucky. I don't care where but wherever we go We go with the same Thanksgiving and song of rejoicing which is found in the hearts of the disciples after Jesus Ascented and passed through the heavens There to present himself as a high priest and perfect sacrifice for the sins of his people and that is you And that forever Thanks be to God Let's pray Lord Jesus How desperately we need him To know that this is true Help us And I pray that you would liberate us and set our hearts free Sprinkle our consciences that guilt and fear Might be driven far from us How we bless and thank you That you are king and savior to us In your name do we pray? Amen