As the Lord allows, this coming Lord’s Day morning I will continue my series on “A Survey of Bible Doctrines” with sermon #13 entitled: “Christology – The Ascension and Present Ministry of Christ!” With all of our excitement about the resurrection of Jesus (and we should be excited about the resurrection of Jesus) and His imminent return, the ascension of Jesus back to His Father and His present ministry as our Great High Priest are often overlooked. This ought not to be!

So, my remedy for this unhappy situation is to preach a sermon on these topics – this coming Sunday morning!

Ascension to heaven is a vitally important thing. So important, in fact, that other religions have copied the idea. Both the Muslims and Mormons teach that the founder of their religion was ascended up to heaven. I am sure there are others religions that make this claim for their leaders also.

But we know that Jesus did ascend back to heaven from the Mount of Olives forty days after His resurrection. He ascended in the presence of many of His disciples. It was at that time He gave them the last reminder of “The Great Commission” and we are told that they were so awe struck by that sight that an angel of God had to chastise them for not leaving right away to begin their work!

That “Great” work is our work; and it is the greatest of all work – bringing the lost to Christ and then leading them to become fully devoted followers of our Lord! It is not only vitally important that we understand that Jesus did ascend to heaven; it is also important that we fully understand what He has been doing since that time and what He is doing now.

Jesus is – right at this very moment – serving as our Great High Priest in heaven! He will continue to do so until the time of His return.

The work of a Priest, and especially the High Priest, was two-fold: he was to represent God to man and man to God. This is what the Lord Jesus is doing now. His first great work to represent us to God was to offer to God a spotless sacrifice as an atonement for the sins of those who repent of our sins and trust Him as our Savior. The sacrifice Jesus brought to the heavenly Temple was Himself – the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

His second work as our Great High Priest is to mediate the New Covenant. He is not, as were the sons of Aaron, a merely human priest who had to first sacrifice for his own sins; He is the mediator of a “Better Covenant” bought by a “Better Sacrifice.” Since a “Covenant” demands two parties – we, as the other party, have at least four responsibilities to Him:

First, we are commanded to draw near to him!

Second, we are commanded to hold fast to our confession!

Third, we are commanded to encourage one another!

And Fourth, we are commanded to continually and increasingly meet together!

As we more fully understand what He is doing for us right now, we will be better able to respond rightly by doing the four things for which we are responsible to Him. I hope that you will read over these verses; think over these notes; get prayed-up and fired-up about meeting with God and His people on Sunday.

I hope to see you Sunday with a smile on your face, your Bible in your hand, and your family and friends by your side…