Seize the Moment – Day 434
Confident Humility!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, May 25.
Can God use you to do great things for Him?
Joseph is still in prison and the Pharaoh has a dream that no one can interpret for him. The chief cupbearer, having forgotten about Joseph in prison for the last two years, remembers and tells Pharaoh about Joseph’s ability to accurately interpret dreams.
Pharaoh calls for Joseph in Genesis 41:15-16: “‘I have had a dream, but no one can interpret it; and I have heard it said about you, that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.’ Joseph then answered Pharaoh, saying, ‘It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.’”
This is the opportunity of a lifetime and Joseph seemingly deflects attention from himself. Our culture would have us update Joseph’s resume with something like this, “A reliable track record of interacting with dreams, including two successful interpretations with high government officials in Pharaoh’s court.”
But that’s not what Joseph does. Instead Joseph shows confident humility! God responds by giving Joseph not only a right interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream, but wisdom on how to apply the dream to the nation.
Listen to Pharaoh response from verses 39-40, “Since God has informed you of all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you are. “You shall be over my house, and according to your command all my people shall do homage; only in the throne I will be greater than you.”
Joseph is a great illustration of Jesus’ promise from Matthew 23:12, “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.”
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is simply thinking of yourself less.
Seize the moment and walk in confident humility.
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Seize the Moment – Day 433
Faithful when Forgotten!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, May 24.
Have you ever been forgotten? Maybe you were excluded or passed over or not recognized?
Everyone wants to feel included, to be remembered, and to be appreciated, but can you continue to live a faithful life even when you have been forgotten, passed over, or shelved?
In Genesis 40, Joseph is still in prison and he approaches two inmates—the chief cupbearer and the chief baker—who are looking especially dejected. Each had a dream the night before and they had no one to interpret the dream for them.
Joseph faithfully replies to them in verse 8, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell it to me, please.”
After interpreting both of the dreams, the chapter ends in Genesis 40:20-23:
Thus it came about on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief cupbearer to his office, and he put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand; but he hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
Joseph was correct in his dream interpretations, but his faithfulness was rewarded by being forgotten by the chief cupbearer. As we will see in the next chapter, it would be two long years before the cup bearer keeps his promise.
How do you think Joseph responded? Would Joseph remain faithful, even though he had been forgotten and left in a prison for two more years?
How would you respond? Would you be bitter or get better? That is always the choice!
Seize the moment and remain faithful to God, even if you feel shelved, forgotten, passed over, betrayed, or abandoned.
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Live Like a Champion – Week 21
The Promise of the Holy Spirit!
John 14:26 (NAS95)
Reader: Acts 2:1-13.
It’s Pentecost Sunday and today we are going to learn about the importance of not only the historical event of Pentecost as just read in Acts 2, but also of the ongoing promise of the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ gave us.
The play of the week is “The Promise of the Holy Spirit!” The memory verse for this promise is John 14:26,
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
I want you to listen to Jesus’ clear teaching on the Holy Spirit so that you can hear this promise in the fullness of Jesus’ teaching. From John 14:16-31 Jesus taught,
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.”
Jesus gave us this clear teaching, along with other teachings, on the Holy Spirit. From Acts 1:4-5, immediately before His ascension to the right hand of the Father (please listen to last week’s sermon if you have not yet listened to that important teaching on the Ascension of Jesus Christ), Jesus promised that His followers would be baptized in the Spirit:
“Gathering them together, [Jesus] commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, ‘Which,’ He said, ‘you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’”
This is not the first time the followers of Jesus heard this invitation to be baptized in the Spirit because the baptism of the Spirit is not a secondary event to salvation itself, it is the very nature of salvation itself—the Spirit of God is our inheritance—the presence and power of God dwelling in us, the Giver of new life transforming us into a Temple of the Holy Spirit and inviting us into the eternal fellowship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by allowing us to participate in His divine nature. This is what it means to have salvation and it should never be reduced to some secondary work of sanctification in our lives. The Son removed our sins from us through His sacrificial death on the Cross so that God could live in us through His Spirit!
From the beginning of the New Testament, the baptism of the Holy Spirit was distinguished apart from the baptism of John. John the Baptist’s baptism was a means of preparation for the coming of the Lord, a purification of oneself in preparation for the coming of the Lord in Christ Jesus. Listen to John the Baptist make this distinction in Matthew 3:11,
“As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (cf. Mark 1:7-8 & Luke 3:16).
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the baptism of Jesus, which is the only form of New Covenant baptism that Jesus commanded His disciples to conduct immediately before His ascension to the right hand of the Father when He gave us the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20:
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
This issue is often confused by people misapplying the early church history book of Acts. The early church leaders dealt with this confusion, making a distinction between the baptism of John and the baptism in Jesus’ name. Acts 11:15-18 is a powerful illustration of the importance of understanding how yoked our justification in Christ is with the baptism of the Spirit. Listen to Peter give a first-hand witness of the work of the Spirit after Pentecost and in the early church among non-Jewish people, called Gentiles:
“And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.”
Pentecost is both a one-time historical event recorded in Acts 2 and the beginning of the age of the Church—the promised fulfillment of Jesus Christ who fulfilled the Old and ushered in the New Covenant, to which the baptism of the Spirit is a fulfillment of God’s promise to His people from Joel 2:28-32:
It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the Lord has said, Even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.
We will be in the age of Pentecost until we experience the fulfillment of God’s Word and the return of Jesus.
Until that Day, we are to walk in the Spirit. As we learned last week, the ministry of the ascended Lord Jesus Christ, right now, is to intercede for us at the right hand of the Father until He returns. Simultaneously, the Father and Son have baptized us with the Spirit so that our eternity would be secured and we would carry in our very person the same anointing that the Messiah Himself had: the Spirit of the Living God! The same power that rose Jesus from the grave lives in you and me—the Resurrection power of God is in us!
Paul teaches us in Galatians 5:16-26 what it means to live our lives in the Spirit:
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.
When the power of the risen Christ comes upon the Church of Jesus Christ through the promised coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is keeping His promise to His followers that He will always be with us and that we will become like Him. Jesus’ ascension did not leave us alone in this world. He promised to not leave us as orphans and He kept His word!
God came upon His church at Pentecost in a new and different way than Jesus’ incarnation at Christmas. We don’t live in the age of Christmas where Jesus’ uniquely incarnated God’s Presence on earth; rather, we live in the age of Pentecost where God now incarnates in each of us through His Spirit living in us. Jesus has ascended and will come again, but until that time, the Spirit of the Living God indwells the Church of Jesus Christ in fulfillment of the words of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ and the earliest church teachings.
God is with us! We are not left as orphans! The promise of the Holy Spirit is ours in His fullness!
“This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.”
God is with us through His presence and power living in us! May God be exalted in and through His Church!
As we move to prepare ourselves to respond to this message and invite the Spirit of the Living God to move upon us and work in our hearts and minds, allow me to pray over you the ancient prayer of the Apostle Paul from Ephesians 3:14-21:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
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Seize the Moment – Day 431
Today’s hymn focus will be “The Comforter Has Come”
John 14:16 (ESV)
“And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Helper,
to be with you forever,”
Frank Bottome was born in Derbyshire, England in 1823. In 1850, he moved to America where he entered ministry in the Methodist Episcopalian Church. He began writing hymns and, while the circumstances that inspired this hymn are unclear, it was written during a time of great spiritual awakening.
While this hymn is celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit, it is also a proclamation of the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to have God send the Holy Spirit to comfort and dwell within us. This allows the Holy Spirit to do His work in glorifying Jesus Christ in our lives.
The Comforter has come! The Comforter has come! The Holy Ghost
From heaven, the Father’s promise given. O spread the tidings ‘round
wherever man is found. The Comforter has come!
It’s time we wake up and know that the Holy Spirit is more than just a comforter, like a warm blanket. He is also the One that is walking with us and working in us so that we can bring glory to God in everything we do!
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The Comforter Has Come
Wherever man is found,
Wherever human hearts and human woes abound;
Let every Christian tongue proclaim the joyful sound:
The Comforter has come!
The Comforter has come, the Comforter has come!
The Holy Ghost from heaven, the Father’s promise given;
O spread the tidings ’round, wherever man is found:
The Comforter has come!
And hushed the dreadful wail and fury of the blast,
As o’er the golden hills the day advances fast!
The Comforter has come!
To every captive soul a full deliverance brings;
And through the vacant cells the song of triumph rings:
The Comforter has come!
To wondering mortals tell the matchless grace divine:
That I, a child of hell, should in His image shine!
The Comforter has come!
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Seize the Moment – Day 430
Hard Work and Honesty!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, May 21.
What are some of your greatest witnessing tools?
Genesis 39:2-3 narrates Joseph’s life as a slave: “The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Now his master saw that the Lord was with him and how the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hand.”
Joseph worked uncompromisingly hard for his master and was above reproach with all of his master’s possessions and affairs. In a scandalous turn of events, Joseph was framed and thrown into jail because he would not compromise his integrity, but even in jail Joseph’s hard work and honesty testified of his God.
Joseph had every reason to grumble or dispute, but instead he got back to work and he brought glory to God!
Genesis 39:22-23 testifies to Joseph in prison: “The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it. The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph’s charge because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made to prosper.”
Joseph is an illustration of God’s command to every believer from Philippians 2:14-15, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.”
Seize the moment and shine brightly with your hard work and honesty. Whether you are working to financially support yourself or your family or volunteering to make a difference in your community or church, never forget that you are there to shine as a witness of God’s glory!
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Seize the Moment – Day 429
Judah, Tamar, and Jesus!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Thursday, May 20.
Genesis 38 interrupts the story of Joseph to tell the story of Judah, one of Joseph’s older brothers. Interestingly, it was Judah in Genesis 37:26-27 that saved Joseph’s life, but led him to be sold into slavery to the Egyptians. Ironically, in Genesis 46:28, Jacob chooses Judah to lead the entire family to Egypt where Joseph waited to save them all from the seven-year famine.
Did you know that Genesis 38 is important also to understanding the genealogy of Jesus Christ?
In Matthew 1:3 we read: “Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar.” Do those names mean anything to you?
Who is Tamar? She is his daughter-in-law and the disregarded widow of Judah’s deceased first and second sons, Er and Onan, who was withheld from his third son, Shelah.
Genesis 38:27-30 captures the birth of these famous twins to Judah through Tamar.
It came about at the time she was giving birth, that behold, there were twins in her womb. Moreover, it took place while she was giving birth, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.” But it came about as he drew back his hand, that behold, his brother came out. Then she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” So he was named Perez. Afterward his brother came out who had the scarlet thread on his hand; and he was named Zerah.
Revelation 5:5 describes Jesus as “the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah.”
This is one of the triumphant names of Jesus, but have you read recently the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38? Birthed through sordid details of this ancient story came the One who rescued all of humanity from their sins.
Seize the moment and trust God with your past, present, and future. Truly, our God gives beauty for ashes!
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Seize the Moment – Day 428
Faith in the Pit!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, May 19.
Do you have a favorite Bible story?
Genesis 37 begins my favorite Old Testament story—the story of Joseph! This is a long story, one that will take us to the end of Genesis. It is my favorite story because I know how it ends. I don’t envy Joseph for the events of his life, but I do deeply desire to live my life faithfully, like Joseph, trusting God no matter how dark the circumstances of my life.
The story begins with Joseph as a teenager, seventeen years of age. God entrusted him with great responsibility at a young age—God gave Joseph dreams. Listen to Genesis 37:5, “Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.”
Joseph was young and inexperienced and he didn’t know how to steward this responsibility at first. In his youthfulness, he did not show discretion and his brothers hated him and were jealous. But Joseph remained the favored son of Israel.
It was from this position of power that Joseph had to fall in order to become the man God would use to rescue the future nation of Israel.
Unfortunately, the formation process of the great people of faith very often starts at the bottom of a dark pit.
Joseph’s pit began with his brothers’ plot for his downfall, found in Genesis 37:23-24a: “So it came about, when Joseph reached his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the varicolored tunic that was on him; and they took him and threw him into the pit.”
Sometimes we dig our own pit and other times we are thrown in the pit by others, but regardless of how we get there, never forget that great faith is very often developed in the deepest, darkest holes of life.
Seize the moment and trust God no matter how deep or dark the hardships of your life.
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Seize the Moment – Day 427
Love Your Neighbor!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, May 18.
Do you remember Jacob’s twin brother Esau? He is the son of the patriarch Isaac and his wife Rebekah. He feels like a secondary character in the Bible, though, an “also-ran” after Jacob.
Esau is important; he represents the fulfillment of God’s promise to Rebekah. Listen to God’s promise to her in Genesis 25:23: “Two nations are in your womb; and two peoples will be separated from your body…”
Esau is important to God and Genesis 36:9 captures the purpose of this long chapter: “These then are the records of the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir.”
Yes, you’ve got it, Genesis 36 is 43 glorious verses of genealogy of a people who don’t even feel like the main point of the Bible, but are important to God because God always keeps His promises.
God is investing significant time in the Bible to remind us about one of His beloved children.
Esau’s life is the fulfillment of the Genesis 17:6 prophecy to Abraham: “I have made you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you.”
Did you notice the plural—nations and kings?
Esau is the king of the Edomites, where his brother Jacob, whose name was changed, is the father of Israel. Kings have come from the barren womb of Sarah because of God’s miraculous power and covenant faithfulness.
God faithfully loves all of His children. This chapter is not a waste of your time because it practically demonstrates God’s love for all people—even those who feel like “also-rans.”
Seize the moment and love your neighbor as yourself.
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Seize the Moment – Day 426
Power Plays!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, May 17.
The world loves a good power play!
Jacob’s oldest son, Reuben, made a power play after the death of Jacob’s favored wife, Rachel. Whether this had to do with him being the first born of all Jacob’s children or simply the first-born of Jacob’s scorned first wife Leah, we don’t know. But what we do know is that Jacob had just named Rachel’s son, Benjamin, a powerful name meaning, “son of the right hand” and shortly after this Reuben made his move against his father.
Had Reuben finally had enough and took matters into his own hands?
Genesis 35:19-22 records Reuben’s power play:
So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). Jacob set up a pillar over her grave; that is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day. Then Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder. It came about while Israel was dwelling in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it.
Why would he do this? In 2 Samuel 16:20-23, Absalom does the same exact power play in his rebellion against his father, King David.
In both cases, the sons of these powerful men are marked forever by their failed attempts to seize power from their fathers. We can learn from their failures and don’t need to make the same mistakes in our lives.
God warns His people in 1 Peter 5:6-7, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”
Seize the moment and trust God to be the one to raise you up. Power plays may be the way of corporations and politicians, but they should not be the way of God’s people and churches. Humble yourself and trust God to lift you up at the right time.
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Live Like a Champion – Week 20
The Promise of Intercession!
Romans 8:34b (NAS95)
Read: Acts 1:1-11.
Where is Jesus? Right now, where is Jesus and in what state does He exist and what is He doing? Has Jesus returned to a pre-incarnate Spirit-state? Does He live in your heart? For that matter, where and what is Heaven and what would it even mean if Jesus was there right now?
“Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”
In Tuesday’s daily devotional phone call based on Genesis 31 I asked if God still intervenes for His people today as we saw Him do over and over again in the Bible. The answer is a resounding yes—absolutely! The primary way God does it is through today’s promise: God’s intervention is through Jesus’ intercession and that is only possible because of the ascension!
Right now, Jesus is at the right hand of God, in the throne room of Heaven, praying for you! Ascension Day is the crowning event of the ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but is often hidden in the shadow of our proclamation of His crucifixion and resurrection.
We skip over the triumphant reality of Jesus’ ascension to the right hand of the Father, yet we declare His imminent return in the second coming of Jesus Christ. We leave the “where is He now” and “what is He doing in this present age” kind of unclear. Right now, at the right hand of God, Jesus is praying for you! Here is another way of talking about this: The Holy Spirit, who dwells in you, and Jesus, who is at the right of the Father in Heaven, are speaking with one another and with the Father about you. God exists in a perfect relationship with perfect communication for His glory and our good, for eternity.
Today, I want to teach you the importance of Jesus’ ascension so that you can live with even greater confidence in your daily prayer life and the promises of God for His intervention in your life.
“And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising God.”
“So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.”
“By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”
On the fortieth day after Easter, Jesus ascended (bodily rose, “taken up in glory”) to heaven before His disciples’ very eyes. Jesus did not leave behind his physical body, resurrected in the flesh, glorified in the Spirit, so that He could take His place at the right hand of the Father. No, very importantly, Jesus in His glorified and resurrected flesh, is now at the right hand of God, praying for us!
The ascension is filled with theological significance and practical implications for our faith and practice.
First, for our faith in Jesus and His Kingdom rule, Jesus’ ascension demonstrates the fulfillment of the messianic prophecy—Jesus’ rule will never end. Listen to the ancient prophecy of Daniel 7:13-14:
I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.
Hebrews 1:1-4 affirms Jesus’ fulfillment of this prophecy:
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.
What does it mean that Jesus “sat down at the right hand”? It means that Jesus has the respect and authority of the Sovereign! To be at the right hand is to be the trusted agent of the will of the King. Heaven is the control room of creation from which the Sovereign Creator rules over all things in heaven and earth. Do you know the awesome news? God’s control room is one day coming to earth in the New Heaven & Earth.
Jesus has the authority of Heaven in earthly and heavenly affairs. From 1 Peter 3:22, Peter declares that Jesus “is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him” (cf. Ephesians 1:18-23; Philippians 2:9-11).
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Our relationship with God and our work for Jesus in His Church rest in His rightful authority, not in the authority of any man or denomination. Living and working under rightful authority (headship) is an essential reality and one that God cares very deeply about—not just for His Son, but for all of His children and all of creation, for all time.
Are you living under the authority of Jesus Christ? How far reaching are the implications to your answer?
Second, Jesus’s ascension to the right hand of God is a guarantee of our own bodily resurrection. Our hope is not simply in this life, but for eternal life; Jesus’ resurrection and ascension are essential to our hope and critical to our understanding of this body and its future, along with all creation, in the New Heaven & Earth.
All who are in Christ Jesus are promised participants in His ascension. Paul states this in Ephesians 2:4-7,
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.”
We are no longer bound to this earth, our place in Heaven is already being prepared for us. Speaking of His own future ascension in John 14:1-3, Jesus taught us how this is important for all those who follow Him:
Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
These are the comforting words of Jesus Christ, made possible through His ascension. We can share these words with others because we know Jesus is alive, ascended to the right hand of God, in a place of authority.
Third, Jesus’ ascension means that the One who rules with such great authority from Heaven, prays for us based on His firsthand human experience of temptation and suffering upon the earth.
We don’t have a distant God, but a personal One. The Bible teaches us this in Hebrews 4:14-16,
Therefore, since 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 cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Jesus prays for us continually and His prayers are effective, not only because of Jesus’ authority, but also because of the intimate knowledge of Jesus’ experiences as a person who walked on the earth!
So don’t feel guilty and heavy-burdened if your prayer life is lacking, just remember to never stop starting in your conversation with Jesus, who is already praying for you. What a powerful truth that fuels my prayer life with desire to be with this God who loves me and gave Himself for me. In fact, our very prayer lives are empowered by the presence of God in us, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We are joining in the conversation between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Prayer is sharing in God’s eternal community.
“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
In conclusion and in preparation for next Sunday’s celebration of Pentecost Sunday, with the ascension of Jesus Christ, the stage is set for the miracle of Pentecost, when the power of the risen Christ comes upon the Church of Jesus Christ through the promised coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is keeping His promise to His followers that He will always be with us. Jesus’ ascension does not leave us alone in this world.
“This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.”
God is with us through His presence and power living in us! May God be exalted in and through His Church!
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