Feast of Ascension, 2004

Throughout the ancient Near East, the ascension of a king to his throne was a time for celebration and giving of tribute. During the coronation festivities, it was expected that anybody with clout should offer a gift to the new sovereign, even if they opposed the new King. You gave a gift, whether you wanted to or not. Psalm 68:17-18 reflects this: “You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men, Even from the rebellious…”

The Lord is pictured in Psalm 68 as a conquering King ascending to His throne on Mount Zion amidst throngs of angelic chariots. Upon His ascension He receives the tribute of His vanquished enemies. The New Testament says the same. King Jesus has been given a name above all other names, so that every knee bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord (Phil. 2:5-11). Both the Old Testament and the New Testament are in agreement: the first obligation of all people is to render tribute to Christ and confess Him the Lord of the universe. According to Psalm 2, the first act of repentance toward the enthroned Son of David is to kiss Him, lest He be angry (Ps. 2:12). As the King of kings and Lord of lords He is the source of all authority in Heaven and on earth (Mt. 28:18), ruling over an everlasting kingdom. Christ’s current reign is the subject we want to examine tonight on this Feast of Ascension. Seated in Heaven, what kind of authority does Jesus exercise on earth?

Let’s first survey some of the different ways that people comprehend Christ’s Kingdom. Certain strands of pietism restrict the reach of the kingdom of God to the sphere of personal piety, to the inner life of the soul. They read Luke 17:21: “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you” as the complete statement on Christ’s rule. The kingdom is within, it is mystical and experiential, and that is all one should expect.

Liberation Theologians hold that the kingdom of God has to do with victims of imperialism, colonialism, and rapacious capitalism. They see the kingdom of God in the liberation of the poor and oppressed by means of confrontation and even violence against the capitalist oppressors. The kingdom of God is achieved to the extent that a Marxist political program is implemented. Feminist and gay liberation movements think along similar lines.

Others curtail the scope of Christ’s kingship by equating the kingdom with the institutional Church. It is possible for both Catholics and Protestants to be guilty of this. This view holds that only the clergy and missionaries engage in “full-time kingdom work,” and that the laity are involved in kingdom activity only to the degree that they are engaged in Church work. True, the Church is the center and focus of the Kingdom, but the kingdom is larger than the Church. It extends to all civilization. The Church does not get directly involved in literature, art, and science, but she so saturates the minds of her members with biblical principles that each person applies his Christian worldview to the vocation in which God has called him.

Dispensationalists restrict the kingdom in a unique way. They relegate it to the future. If they ever get around to praying the Lord’s Prayer (most don’t pray it), the petition, “Thy Kingdom come” means for them, “May the millennium not be long in coming. Heavenly Father, please hurry up the secret rapture, and seven-year tribulation so the kingdom can get up and moving at the Second Coming of Christ.” This view connects the kingdom with a totally future Jewish millennium. The Kingdom is currently absent. Satan rules the world, not the Lord Jesus. Only after the seven-year tribulation when Jesus returns in bodily fashion to establish a worldwide Old Covenant kingdom from the temple in Jerusalem can we talk of a true kingdom of God on earth. In the meantime, the Church is doomed to increasing apostasy and decay.

Liberalism and the social gospel movement, on the other hand, attaches the name “kingdom of God’ to political action that brings about human equality. The kingdom of God is realized on earth to the degree that the Church successfully follows the latest political fads of the secular left.

These examples illustrate that the permanent temptation of Christian thinking is to find ways of restricting the scope and hope of Christ’s lordship. What is the more biblical and traditional way of seeing it?

Just before Jesus ascended into Heaven He announced to His disciples, “All authority has been given Me in heaven and earth.” Notice that He said, “all authority” not just partial authority. Nor did He state that His earthly authority would be put on hold until the Second Coming. He didn’t qualify His current dominion. The all in “all authority” has to be taken seriously. The authority is not merely spiritual or heavenly; it is spiritual and physical; heavenly and earthly. Jesus’ authority encompasses political leaders and nations as well as families and individuals. Psalm 2 draws an explicitly political conclusion from the fact that the Son of God reigns from Zion: “Now therefore, O kings, show discernment, take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence, and rejoice with trembling; do homage to the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled” (Psalm 2:10-12). The meaning is clear: all rulers are to worship and serve Christ Jesus (Ps. 72:10-11, 17). The Prophet Daniel foresaw the Son of Man, taking the imperial throne of Nebuchadnezzar. More, Daniel foresaw the Son of Man, at His ascension into Heaven, crowned the King of kings, receiving dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him” (Daniel 7:13-14; Jer. 27:6-7; Ez. 26:7; Dan. 2:37). In Revelation, the Holy Spirit inspired St. John to declare that the kingdoms of the world had already become the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever (Rev. 11:15).

Human rulers have limited authority over a limited number of people. This is proper. Due to the Fall, too much power leads to tyranny. Checks and balances are needed such as we find in the Constitution. Jesus, the heavenly King, requires no such limits. He is all powerful and good. His rule is perfectly righteous. There is no person that King Jesus does not claim as His own possession, and there is no area of life in which King Jesus does not issue His commands. The King requires total surrender. He demands a righteousness that surpasses that of the Scribes and Pharisees, a righteousness that takes seriously the jots and tittles of the law, as well as fulfilling the weightier matters (Mt. 5:17-20). Jesus orders not merely righteous acts, but also righteous motives (1 Cor. 10:31, and righteous desires (Mt. 5:21-48). Jesus has authority over the outward man and the inner man, the public man and the private man, the act and the thought. Every facet and moment of the life of each person are lived out under the dominion of the Last Adam. Our duty is to acknowledge His dominion, submit humbly to it, bring our lives into conformity with His demands and call others to do the same.

Not everyone appreciates the claims of King Jesus in these terms. Nothing infuriates secularists more than the application of Christian faith beyond the four walls of the Church, or outside the beating heart of the believer. The Muslim and the secularist share a sentiment: they are willing to tolerate Christians who maintain Jesus as a distant private, invisible, figure who is only good for spiritual fulfillment. But the moment some one reminds governmental officials that the state is under the law of God, and starts providing specifically biblical answers to social issues, up goes the wailing and gnashing of teeth. Sadly, there are segments of the Church that fail to proclaim a coherent, all-inclusive, Christian worldview. That’s a big problem. A true understanding of Christ’s Ascension signifies that the Kingdom of God is destined for triumph in every department of life. Revelation calls Christ the Pantocrator, the ruler of all things. The great Dutch Calvinist Abraham Kuyper put it this way, “There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out, ‘That is mine! This belongs to me!’” Jesus died to redeem the world, and Christianity is sacramental in the sense that a faithful worship of God’s people gradually sanctifies all of creation. The Church thus promotes a vision of a Christocracy in which all the cultures of the world move more and more under the lordship of Christ.

Let us however, not get a self-righteous notion that right theology about the Kingdom of God automatically makes us superior kingdom subjects. A triumphant eschatology can lead to pride. Yes, the King of kings already rules from His throne, and the Church can expect victory, but to achieve that victory the King desires that we focus on ministry, the doing of small, humble things. Our goal is not worldly power. We conquer not by the sword but by the power of love. The Kingdom is best advanced by taking up the cross to follow Jesus, by partaking in the sufferings of the cross, in service to others, and in non-coercive evangelistic outreach.

In light of that, here are a few questions:

How well do you apply Christian principle to your life Monday through Saturday?

Are your daily habits and routines given to the advancement of the Kingdom of God, or do you waste time with TV and dithering?

Do you seek your deepest joy and satisfaction from Christ? Or do you seek your ultimate contentment from something else?

Do you honor the Lord’s sovereign power with prayer and Bible reading, or do you slight the King of kings by avoiding Him?

Do your spending habits exalt His rule and reign, or do you squander money on trivialities, while refusing to tithe, and neglecting to fund Christian missionaries, charities and cultural causes?

Do your attitudes and desires reflect a humble, servant attitude, or do your attitudes reflect self-pity and vanity?

Does your love for God and others manifest itself in a passion to reach the lost, or do you ignore the eternal condemnation of the unchurched?

Do you challenge your mind reading good books and articles, or do you succumb to intellectual sloth, drifting with the spirit of the age?

Again and again Christians find ways of excluding certain dimensions of their lives, and the life of their culture from Christ’s dominion. Again and again we must remind ourselves that Christ is not satisfied with halfway measures, that He claims all spheres of life. A biblical worldview sees Christ seated in the heavenlies, now exercising complete authority in Heaven and on earth. On this Ascension Day may we honor His kingship, and give Him the tribute He deserves.

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