This morning we have shared the table together, remembering and rejoicing in the crucifixion of Jesus. We find grace and hope there and in the resurrection of which we have sung. Grace because Jesus died in our place and for our sins, and hope because we know that death does not have the last word. In the resurrection, Jesus showed that his power extends even to the last enemy, that is, death.
In this story of Jesus’s life, we fast forward 40 days to the day that he ascended to heaven. 40 days (approximately) after Easter is Ascension Sunday, which this year was May 17th, 2026. In this story of the Ascension, we find hope.
I was reminded this week of, if you remember the scene in The Lord of the Rings. Okay, you with me? Some of you are with me for the first time ever. The Fellowship of the Ring at the Council of Elrond, when they’re trying to decide what to do with the ring.
Elrond waxes poetic about how men have failed for thousands of years. Gandalf at one point says, “It is in men that we now must place our hope,” which was a shocking thought because of how hopeless men had been. However, in the Ascension, we actually see that hope renewed. We see it vindicated because it’s not in men generally, but it is in one man (the God-man, Jesus), in whom we hope.
The Ascension of Christ has been called one of the least taught and least understood doctrines in the Bible. I think that’s probably a fair assessment. Relative to other doctrines, I would say the same thing about me. I’ve known very little of the ascension of Christ except the fact of the Ascension, but definitely not all its benefits. However, the Ascension of Christ is central to Christian hope in Jesus. Who he is and what he holds next for us gives us hope in life and death.
So would you join me as we seek together to—with our hearts and minds—understand what happened at the Ascension and what it means for all of Christ’s followers, and especially how it can encourage us in this time of heaviness and grief.
I’m going to answer two questions: What happened at the Ascension? And what are the benefits of the Ascension? Just those two questions.
The Heidelberg Catechism was written in the 16th century, and we read from it here on occasion. It’s a grouping of questions and answers that are intended to teach Christian doctrine. Even though it was written in the 16th century and the 21st century, it is likely one of the most frequently read and quoted Reformed Confessions texts worldwide.
The Catechism helps us understand the ascension of Christ. So I’m going to read this question, question 46, and I’m going to read the answer. You don’t have to do that. I’ll invite you to do that later. But for now, it answers the question, “What happened at the ascension?” So here’s the question, and I’ll read the answer:
Q. What do you confess when you say, he ascended into heaven?
It answers this way:
A. That Christ, before the eyes of his disciples, was taken up from the earth into heaven, and that he is there for our benefit until he comes again to judge the living and the dead.
The catechism is based on the eyewitness testimony of the apostles and their writings in the gospels and Acts. The apostle Luke writes the most in his two books, Luke and Acts, on the ascension of Christ. So I want to read those verses to you at the end of Luke and the beginning of Acts. Luke 24, beginning in verse 50, says,
“And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God” (Luke 24:50-53).
And then Luke writes in Acts 1:6-11,
“So when they had come together, [this is post-resurrection] 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 1:6-11).
What these passages describe (and others like it) is that Jesus, when standing on the earth after his resurrection, left the earth in his body, passed through the heavens (through the sky), into heaven while his apostles watched it.
It wasn’t that—Luke is very specific, because of his purposes—it wasn’t that they turned their heads for a moment, and when they looked back, Jesus was gone, and so they assume that he did whatever and they described it. He emphasizes that while they were looking at him, they watched him leave the earth, pass through the sky, and into heaven until he could be seen no more and was obscured by a cloud.
When you think about Luke’s purpose in writing his gospel and in writing the book of Acts, it makes sense that he would include the most detailed account: His books are written to Theophilus.
He wrote to Theophilus, he says, to give Theophilus surety, to ground his hope into something that is not a fantasy. It’s not a fable, but is an actual event, the events in the life of Christ, this being one of them, that Jesus, in his body, ascended into heaven. He was raised into the presence of God while his followers observed it and wrote it down.
We need that same hope, that we worship a living Savior who reigns from the throne of God. It doesn’t look like Jesus reigns. Doesn’t always look that way, does it? When we experience heartache and loss and difficulty, it’s easy to say, “Are you reigning, Jesus?”
Certainly to the eyes of those first apostles, they would have had opportunities to question that as well, to wonder if Jesus is enthroned. Yet they saw him ascend to heaven and sit at the right hand of the throne of God and reign. Today, just like then, he continues there in God’s presence and he reigns.
I’d summarize it this way: What happened at the ascension? Jesus departed bodily from earth into heaven, where he is now present with God the Father at his right hand. Jesus is at the right hand of God today in his resurrected, immortal body, reigning from the throne of heaven.
I like the way pastor and scholar Ligon Duncan says this. He says,
“If you ask me, ‘Where is Jesus?’ I’m going to tell you, ‘He’s at the right hand of the heavenly Father.’ And if you ask me, ‘Where is the right hand of the heavenly Father?’ I’m going to say, ‘It’s where Jesus is.’”
He goes on to describe the fact that we can’t know the exact locale. We don’t exactly know where that is. We don’t know where he is locally, but we know that he is present there. Where he is, is where the Father’s throne is, and where the Father’s throne is, is where Jesus is. He’s there. There is a man who is at the right hand of the heavenly Father right now, and his name is Jesus Christ.
Jesus’s followers today experience his presence through his grace and his Spirit. We do not experience his bodily presence. His body is in heaven. That’s what the ascension is. That’s what it is. May we know that Christ ascended into heaven in his body and is there today.
Now, what are the benefits of the Ascension? What are the benefits of the Ascension for us who, in this day, and especially with the events that we have experienced, need a word of encouragement and hope? You might rightly ask me, “Why this now?” “Nice, but how is that going to encourage me? What comfort is there? What encouragement and what hope?”
I want to say to you, brothers and sisters, that those, in fact, are some of the benefits of the Ascension. I want to go through those with you. We’re going to start with the Heidelberg Catechism again. Question 49 talks about the benefits of the ascension.
This time, I’m going to read the question, and I’m going to ask you to read the answer back to me. Okay, you ready? Okay, good. It’s a good warm-up time: midway point so that we’re all still awake. Here we go.
Q. How does Christ’s Ascension to heaven benefit us?
Answer with me.
A. First, he is our advocate in heaven in the presence of his Father. Second, we have our own flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that Christ our head will also take us, his members, up to himself. Third, he sends his Spirit to us on earth as a corresponding pledge. By the Spirit’s power we seek not earthly things but the things above, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand.
That’s a tidy summary and worthy to be memorized, but I want to unpack that a little bit more. I’m going to give you four benefits of the Ascension that I hope and have been praying for you, that would encourage you and give you hope today, regardless of the circumstances that you find yourselves in. So here they are, the four benefits:
1. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit.
Benefit number one is that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit. Look at John 16:4-7 with me. This is Jesus talking to his apostles before the crucifixion. He says,
“But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 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” (John 16:4-7).
Jesus is describing here that his Ascension, his going away, is the triggering event that will send the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to his followers.
I take Jesus to mean this (essentially): You can either have me in my body right here in one place at one time, or I will go away, and I will send the Holy Spirit, who all Christians in all places can have simultaneously. It’s better for you if I leave and send the Spirit, the Helper, the “Paraclete,” the Comforter.
Then go back and look at Acts 1 again. In Acts 1, before the passage that I read a few minutes ago, Luke records,
“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” (Acts 1:4b-5).
Pentecost (pente = five) is 50 days after the resurrection. The Ascension is about 40 days. So about 10 days after Jesus leaves, the Spirit comes in Acts 2 at Pentecost. That’s what’s happening here.
If Jesus ascends, he will send. So he ascends, and he sends the Spirit to His followers. Jesus says, “Go, Holy Spirit.” We say, “Come, Holy Spirit.” We need the Helper, we need the Comforter. We need the one who dwells among us to bring all those things.
That’s one of the benefits of the resurrection. Because Jesus ascended, those who follow him have the real presence of the Holy Spirit in them, the third person of the Godhead, bringing us help and comfort. That’s the first benefit.
2. Jesus reigns as King.
The second benefit is that Jesus reigns as King. This is a big one because the Ascension is a step to the enthronement of Christ. It is a witness to his reign as he ascends to the throne, beside the throne of God, where he sits at God’s right hand and reigns. When he ascends, he takes the seat of power at the right hand of God, and from the seat of power, he dispenses the Holy Spirit to his people.
Now consider Jesus’s words, some of his last words before he ascended, in Matthew 28:18. Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” This post-resurrection glorified Jesus says to his followers, “I hold all authority in heaven and earth.”
We go on to that because he says, “Go therefore,” to his disciples, “to all nations, and take the good news to them.” But you have to stop and first realize what he just said: He has all the authority on earth and in heaven. It’s His. It is concentrated in Him. He is being enthroned as the King who reigns.
This means that there is nothing in heaven or on earth that exists or functions outside of the reign of Jesus Christ. He is sovereign, and he is gracious, and he holds all things together, Colossians 1 says. When Christ ascends to heaven, he takes his place at God’s throne and reigns.
Even death is allowed to exist under the sovereign and loving reign of Jesus. When Jesus defeated death, he took the keys of death and hell, and even death is allowed to have some activity under the power and reign of Jesus. He allows it to function according to his plan and according to his glory.
There is not one molecule that exists in all heaven and on earth that is outside the reign of Christ. Every good and every ill, every healthy cell and every cancerous cell, every blessing and every storm exists under the reign of King Jesus. He is on the throne, and he reigns.
This is why Job can say, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21b). And why Paul writes in Philippians 2,
“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, [Why? Because all authority has been given to him in all heaven and earth.] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).
This is the Savior, brothers and sisters, whom we serve: a crucified, yet risen and ascended, reigning King. He is the one whom we believe in and trust. If not, we have no hope. But because he reigns, we hope.
That means every good and every ill that we suffer is ordained by our Savior and exists under his reign. Because we know his heart and his character and his attitudes towards us of grace and mercy, we can even receive those things with thanks and trust.
The ascended Jesus reigns. We must preach this truth to ourselves. We must preach this truth to ourselves when times are good so that when times are bad, we don’t forget that Jesus hasn’t left the throne.
We must remind ourselves when we think we don’t need it, because when the day comes when we really need it, we will fall back on that truth that Jesus Christ reigns. That’s the second benefit of the ascension.
3. Jesus will return.
The third benefit of the Ascension is that Jesus will return. Is that good news or is that good news? And we all say, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.” Jesus will return. He hasn’t set everything right now. He hasn’t made everything right so that there are no problems, but he will. He will return.
I love those verses in John 14 that I read first this morning. We can believe—we can trust Jesus—that in his leaving, he goes to prepare a place for us. Then he says, “I will return to get you, to take you to myself.”
He had to go. He had to ascend into heaven so that he could prepare a place for his people in heaven. And if he is preparing a place for us, he will come again. That’s his promise from his lips.
Now look back at Acts 1. Jesus ascends to heaven, the apostles are staring into heaven, straining to see Jesus. Luke says a cloud blocked the view, and they’re straining, trying to find him. Then there appeared two men beside them in white apparel.
Now, the reference to their clothes being white apparel is not Luke pointing out that they’re wearing white before Memorial Day. It’s indicating that they are angelic beings, that they’re heavenly beings, as we see over and over again in the New Testament (just as the two strangers who appeared at the resurrection).
They asked a question: Why do you seek the living among the dead? These two strangers appear at the Ascension, and they ask a question: Why are you gazing into heaven? Why are you watching what’s going on here? Why are you just standing there staring into heaven?
It’s kind of a rhetorical, somewhat critical question that’s followed by a promise. The promise is that this Jesus will come back the same way you saw him go: from heaven, through the sky (through clouds perhaps), back to earth to get us people.
19th-century Bible scholar Alexander summarizes the question and promise this way:
“Instead of stupidly and idly gazing after one who was no longer visible, they should rather show their love to him by instantly obeying his farewell commands and trusting his repeated promise to return.”
We don’t hear anything more from those men. Nothing else is said about them. They say to the disciples, “Snap out of it,” essentially. It’s like they’re just staring into heaven, and they’re like, “Okay, guys, snap out of it. Remember what Jesus said, now get to work. He’s going to come back. You don’t have to stare. He’s coming back. In the meantime, get to work in his kingdom.”
The promise is this: Just as the resurrection is the first fruits of our resurrection from the dead, so the Ascension is the first-fruits of our ascension.
Jesus promised, when he defeated death and broke free from the tomb, that all those who die in Christ will be pulled from their graves when he returns. In the same way, Jesus, by ascending to heaven, is telling us, “I will return, and you will ascend with me.”
He did it, and he plans to take us with him to ascend into heaven with him. Even if we precede his return in death, we can be assured that we will ascend with him. Because of the Ascension, the third benefit is we know he’s coming back. Just like that.
4. Jesus advocates to the Father for us.
The fourth and final benefit that I’ll cover today is that Jesus advocates to the Father for us because he’s ascended. Jesus advocates to the Father.
Today, there is a man with a human body (the God-man Jesus) who speaks your name, O Christian, to God the Father. There’s a man who stands in heaven and advocates to Almighty God the Father for you. Hebrews 4:14-16 says,
“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16).
There is a man advocating to the Father for you. Therefore, you can rest. You can rest. We have our flesh, we have a person like us, our race (the human race) who stands before God and advocates for us in heaven. That’s what he does.
I think we have a hard time picturing that, perhaps. I think it’s because we have a hard time picturing the immaterial world at all, because we are such people of flesh. We are used to this skin and bones and flesh, so to imagine heaven or the unseen places almost seems unreal.
Have you ever felt that way? It’s, I think, our post-enlightenment mindset that is so materialistic. I don’t mean a lover of money in this case. I mean materialistic, like material things, things we could touch. Those things seem the most real to us.
Last week, when Peter was talking about the Sadducees and the resurrection — The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection— Peter said, because of their rationalistic mindset. It’s the same idea. It’s a false belief that whatever can’t be proven with scientific methods isn’t real. What you can’t see and observe isn’t real. But the Bible tells a different story.
The Bible talks about flesh and blood and talks about things that exist outside of flesh and blood that are just as real. In fact, based on the witness of the New Testament, I expect that as we gather here together today, that there are unseen presences in this room with us as well. I’m not trying to freak you out. I’m not trying to get spooky.
The Bible describes the fact that when God’s people gather to worship, there are angelic beings who watch with wonder because they can’t worship the same way, because they have never been bought by the blood of the Lamb. But those of us who have been bought by the blood of the Lamb worship in a completely different way because we have experienced sin and grace (the grace of the Lamb), and they watch with wonder. So I expect that they are here today and that we can’t see them, but that does not mean they’re any less real.
You have this over and over again in the Bible, where every now and then God peels back and lets you see what’s going on in the unseen realm. Do you remember those stories? There are some really powerful ones and beautiful ones in the Old Testament.
One of the dumb ones is when Balaam is riding his donkey to go curse God. Do you remember this story? His donkey lies down on the road, and he starts beating his donkey because it’s being stubborn (turns out there were two donkeys in this story). He starts beating his donkey, and his donkey won’t move.
It says, finally God opened his eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the roadway with a sword drawn. God had let his donkey see that the angel of the Lord was there, and it was like, “I’m not going there. Our life is in danger.” But Balaam didn’t know it until God opened his eyes. Of course, that was after God also loosened the tongue of the donkey, and he started talking to him: “Do you not see what I see?”
You have these moments where God peels it back a little bit and lets us see what’s actually happening, which is way more than this materialistic way.
In the same way, I think we have a hard time imagining what heaven is like in the immaterial world. But know this, oh Christian, that in the immaterial world, there is a very material being. His name is Jesus.
He is a man, just like every other man in this room, except that he is in a resurrected, immortal body. But he is a man, he is the God-man, and he stands or sits at the throne of God and speaks your name with his mouth, just like you have a mouth and tongue and teeth. He is there.
With all the criticisms and failures of human men in the past and the present, the solution is not to get rid of men and put our hope in someone else. It’s to put our hopes in the right man.
There is only one man who will never fail you. There is only one man who gives us hope in this life and in the next. His name is Jesus, and he is the one in whom we hope. That man today is alive in his body at the throne of God, advocating for you and me.
Early Wednesday morning, Karen Hubbard went to be with the God-man, Jesus. And when you die, you will also go to a man named Jesus who waits for you beside the throne of God.
By the way, everyone meets Jesus, whether you believe in him or not. Everyone meets him after you die. You will either be ushered to life everlasting or to everlasting death. He is the one who separates. He’s the judge. But for you, O Christian, he holds out life for you and gives it freely. That’s where Karen is today. She has experienced that today. And that is waiting for you.
In Acts 7, you have another one of these pictures where Stephen’s being stoned. Before he dies, as he’s being stoned, God opens up and lets him see Jesus. He says, “I see Jesus standing at the right hand of the throne of God,” waiting to receive him into his care. That’s what’s waiting for you. That gives you hope in this life to know that, behind the things we can’t see, there is a man who waits for you and for me.
I was thinking this week of that idea of vision and what we can see and what we can’t see. I thought of the old poet, Fannie Crosby, who wrote so many hymns. She was blind, and I wonder if her inability to see with her physical eyes is one of the things that gave her such spiritual insight into what’s unseen. Like, you don’t get so distracted by the material world that you’re able to see the immaterial world in a way that perhaps we can’t understand.
If you don’t know who she is, she was a 19th-century poet who wrote over 8,500 poems that were set to music, with over 100 million copies of her songs printed. If you’re old like me, you probably know some of her songs, like
“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine
Oh what a foretaste of glory divine…”
Fanny Crosby was not born blind. She was born with sight, but when she was only six weeks old, she got a cold in her eyes. Her parents called for a doctor (who was a charlatan; he was not a doctor). In order to cure the cold in their eyes, they laid hot mustard plasters on her eyes, which destroyed her sight completely. From six weeks old, she never saw again.
Fanny became a believer, followed the Lord, wrote poems and songs, and as such, she would participate in Bible conferences all over the country.
One regular one was in New York State near Lake Erie. One year at the Bible conference, she said to a pastor friend of hers (whose name was John, Pastor John), “Do you know that if at birth I had been able to make one petition to my Creator, it would have been that I should be born blind?”
You would think it would be the opposite, right? “If there’s just one thing I could have, it would be that I could see.” She says the opposite. She counts it a blessing that she’s been blind.
He was surprised. He said, “Why?” And she said, “Because when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior.”
Then John said, “Fanny, you’ve been blind all your life. You’ve never seen anyone. How will you know who Jesus is?” She’s never even seen a man. How’s she going to be able to recognize Jesus?
She said, “That’s easy. I’ll just walk all over heaven and ask people if I may see their hands. When I see Jesus’s nail print hands, I’ll know who he is.”
Pastor John said to her, “Write that down. Will you write that into a poem so I can set it to music?” And she says, “Nah. It’s late. I’m going to bed.” He’s like, “We have to talk about this later.” She’s like, “I’m goin’ to bed.”
The next morning at breakfast, John went to her and said, “Have you thought any more about what I said?” And she handed him a piece of paper on which her secretary had recorded the words to “I shall know him,” which says:
“When my life work is ended, and I cross the swelling tide,
When the bright and glorious morning I shall see;
I shall know my Redeemer when I reach the other side,
And his smile will be the first to welcome me.I shall know him, I shall know him,
And redeemed by his side I shall stand,
I shall know him, I shall know him,
By the print of the nails in his hand.”
That is a concrete vision of what awaits a person who dies in faith: a Savior who purchased you and is waiting for you and will be there when you pass from life to death. She had this vision of a crucified, risen, and ascended Savior.
Brothers and sisters, may we have that same vision. We have the Spirit. Jesus reigns. He will return, and he advocates for you to the Father today. These are rich truths. Meditating on these will strengthen our minds, feed our souls, and encourage our hearts. May we all do that together.
Lord Jesus, I pray for my brothers and sisters. It has been my desire all this week as we’ve thought about Karen and Peter and prayed for the Hubbard children, their grandchildren, their in-law children…
Then God, as we’ve prayed for my brothers and sisters who are sitting here, that we would be encouraged, that we would be filled with hope. We don’t have all the answers, but we do have the Savior, our ascended Lord.
I pray for my brothers and sisters, Lord, that these truths would be like a shower that is refreshing and cool when we need it most, that the reality of the ascended Christ would encourage us all as we understand and embrace his benefits.
Give us that vision, God. We can’t see all those things, but we need you to give us that vision. We pray in Jesus’s name, amen.
