1 00:00:00,733 --> 00:00:06,700 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. 2 00:00:08,433 --> 00:00:15,233 Dear holy bride of the risen and ascended Christ, last week we had the 3 00:00:15,233 --> 00:00:20,500 last clause of the second article of the Apostles Creed. From thence He will come 4 00:00:20,500 --> 00:00:27,633 to judge the living and the dead. That simple future He will come somewhat 5 00:00:27,633 --> 00:00:32,666 simplifies the Latin there a bit which is something more like He is going to 6 00:00:32,666 --> 00:00:37,833 come, He's about to come. He will come, yes, but there's a little bit more of the 7 00:00:37,833 --> 00:00:45,600 present drawn into this. Our Lord is now poised to come to judge the living and 8 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:51,233 the dead. And in today's portion of the Apostles Creed going back that one step 9 00:00:51,233 --> 00:00:57,333 we get that present tense come out very strongly. He ascended into heaven and 10 00:00:57,833 --> 00:01:05,400 sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. Yet that also kind of 11 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:10,966 simplifies what's going on in the Scriptures there appropriately Scripture 12 00:01:10,966 --> 00:01:17,133 proclaims Christ's session, his being seated at God's right hand usually in 13 00:01:17,133 --> 00:01:24,233 kind of the past tense but in such a way as we know he remains seated. Having 14 00:01:24,233 --> 00:01:32,566 made purification for sins says Hebrews 1, he sat down at the right hand or 15 00:01:32,566 --> 00:01:38,166 Hebrews 10 when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins 16 00:01:38,166 --> 00:01:45,333 again His work on the cross He sat down at the right hand of God. Christ sat down 17 00:01:45,333 --> 00:01:54,066 and remains seated He was enthroned and remains enthroned. Likewise our Ephesians 18 00:01:54,066 --> 00:02:00,766 reading the Father exerted his mighty strength by raising Christ from the dead 19 00:02:00,766 --> 00:02:08,133 and seating Him at His right hand. His work of redemption done the risen 20 00:02:08,133 --> 00:02:15,133 ascended exalted Christ has taken His seat and now sits enthroned at the right 21 00:02:15,133 --> 00:02:30,633 hand. The seated one remains seated no one can unseat Him He sits. Ascended sits. 22 00:02:31,866 --> 00:02:40,466 So we have to ask where is the seated one now? What's He doing now? How you 23 00:02:40,466 --> 00:02:44,266 answer these questions is the difference between the real presence of 24 00:02:44,266 --> 00:02:51,766 Christ and the real absence of Christ. Between God with us in Christ whom you 25 00:02:51,766 --> 00:02:58,566 the bride of Christ are one flesh with, baptismally united with Him and 26 00:02:58,566 --> 00:03:05,666 alternatives that don't bear thinking about. So that first question where is He 27 00:03:05,666 --> 00:03:12,200 now? Has He gone away to some other place to return only later in the future at 28 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:18,466 the end? Is the right hand of God where He's seated some far-flung place high 29 00:03:18,466 --> 00:03:25,766 above the fray? Is God as Bette Midler sang back in 1990 watching us from a 30 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:36,466 distance? No. We picture hHm on the throne at the Father's right hand just as 31 00:03:36,466 --> 00:03:43,300 Psalm 110 presents Him. This is the most cited of Old Testament texts in the new 32 00:03:43,300 --> 00:03:49,300 so we should take notice of it. Sit He says, sit at my right hand until I make 33 00:03:49,300 --> 00:03:55,100 your enemies a footstool for your feet. And when we do, when we picture Him this 34 00:03:55,100 --> 00:04:02,133 way, we know Him to be here. For where else are His enemies but here in this 35 00:04:02,133 --> 00:04:08,066 world? Here where His enemies, the devil, the world and the sinful nature he came 36 00:04:08,066 --> 00:04:13,800 to crucify in His own body wreak havoc and disorder on God's good creation. 37 00:04:15,266 --> 00:04:21,066 That's where you find Him. Not in a galaxy far far away, not in a divine 38 00:04:21,066 --> 00:04:28,000 refuge away from this world, away from you, but here reigning over all things. 39 00:04:29,466 --> 00:04:36,466 Reigning over what is properly His. Heaven is His throne and earth is His 40 00:04:36,466 --> 00:04:44,066 footstool. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The Father has, as 41 00:04:44,066 --> 00:04:49,733 St. Paul testified in our reading earlier, seated Him at his right hand far above 42 00:04:49,733 --> 00:04:54,400 every ruler and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named 43 00:04:54,400 --> 00:05:02,500 and subordinated all things under His feet. Everything except Him who put all 44 00:05:02,500 --> 00:05:11,466 things under his feet. Where is the right hand of God? Where Christ is now seated? 45 00:05:12,266 --> 00:05:17,833 Everywhere. As the Formula of Concord puts it so well, the right hand of God is 46 00:05:17,833 --> 00:05:24,233 nothing else than the almighty power of God which fills heaven and earth. And 47 00:05:24,233 --> 00:05:29,066 best of all that means that the right hand of God is where you and I live and 48 00:05:29,066 --> 00:05:36,266 move and have our being, not some other place. The place He's ascended to, where 49 00:05:36,266 --> 00:05:46,500 He sits, is where we are. Strange as that sounds. From the youngest age Christians 50 00:05:46,500 --> 00:05:52,100 of all stripes know that God is everywhere. But Christ's ascension means 51 00:05:52,100 --> 00:05:58,100 something more. He lives and reigns everywhere as true God but also as true 52 00:05:58,100 --> 00:06:04,366 man. The formula puts it this way, alluding to our text, but now since he 53 00:06:04,366 --> 00:06:09,000 ascended into heaven, not just like some other saint but in the words of the 54 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:14,966 Apostle, far above all heavens that he might truly fill all things, He is 55 00:06:14,966 --> 00:06:22,433 everywhere present to rule not only as God but also as man from sea to sea and 56 00:06:22,433 --> 00:06:32,666 to the ends of the earth. Not only as God but also as man. As man? So what? What 57 00:06:32,666 --> 00:06:37,766 difference does that make? It makes all the difference. It's the difference 58 00:06:37,766 --> 00:06:43,800 between Christ as your refuge and Christ as an onlooker. Between the church's life 59 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:50,800 and preservation with her Lord, our life and preservation, and its opposite 60 00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:58,366 without Him. Christ's presence everywhere to rule and also as man means he can 61 00:06:58,366 --> 00:07:04,500 bring divine gifts from the Father to flesh and blood, you and me. We need not, 62 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:09,966 we cannot, ascend to Him to apprehend the gifts He has won and somehow bring them 63 00:07:09,966 --> 00:07:16,133 down. No, He has ascended, strange as it sounds, to where we are that he might 64 00:07:16,133 --> 00:07:21,700 bring gifts to us. The Apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, pastor-teachers 65 00:07:21,700 --> 00:07:24,566 and all the gifts that He gives to us. 66 00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:33,233 Christ's presence everywhere to rule also as man means the real presence of 67 00:07:33,233 --> 00:07:39,500 Christ in the Lord's Supper. It means real tangible absolution in your ears 68 00:07:39,500 --> 00:07:47,866 and in your mouth. Christ's presence everywhere to rule also as man means He 69 00:07:47,866 --> 00:07:53,400 stands before you, bringing the Father's very own absolution and blessing to you 70 00:07:53,400 --> 00:07:59,100 just as surely as your own pastor stands before you, whom he has authorised to 71 00:07:59,100 --> 00:08:09,500 declare it. Christ's presence everywhere to rule also as man means He can and 72 00:08:09,500 --> 00:08:17,000 has baptismally united you to Himself as a member of his body. He has become one 73 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:23,066 flesh with you, holy bride. You who have foretasted the marriage feast to come. 74 00:08:23,666 --> 00:08:29,933 You whom the Father has raised up with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly 75 00:08:29,933 --> 00:08:36,200 places in Christ Jesus. As Paul says just a few verses later, you who have been 76 00:08:36,200 --> 00:08:40,966 given the highest of places at His table beside your heavenly bridegroom. 77 00:08:42,866 --> 00:08:52,300 Ascended, He comes to you and elevates you to where He is. So yes, it makes a 78 00:08:52,300 --> 00:08:58,300 difference. Christ's presence everywhere to rule also as man means that you can 79 00:08:58,300 --> 00:09:04,066 say as we did this morning, I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, true man is 80 00:09:04,066 --> 00:09:12,866 my Lord here and now. He's redeemed me that I may be His own, live under Him in 81 00:09:12,866 --> 00:09:21,866 His kingdom for real and serve Him for real. Since He lives and rules to all 82 00:09:21,866 --> 00:09:30,100 eternity where I am here. It means you can say this is no figment of my 83 00:09:30,366 --> 00:09:39,300 imagination, this is no projection of my mind, this is most certainly true. Well 84 00:09:39,300 --> 00:09:46,433 what about that second question, what's He doing now? Does He sit mean we should 85 00:09:46,433 --> 00:09:50,800 picture Him reclining in an easy chair, enjoying a well-earned break after His 86 00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:57,866 hard redemption work? Well again, no. On the one hand His being seated does mean 87 00:09:57,866 --> 00:10:03,966 His redemptive work is complete. It is as He said from the cross, finished. 88 00:10:04,666 --> 00:10:10,933 There's nothing lacking. All your sin, the sin of the whole world is died for and 89 00:10:10,933 --> 00:10:17,233 buried. Your guilt is atoned for, He has completed what the Father sent Him to do. 90 00:10:17,766 --> 00:10:26,766 He has removed your transgressions as far as the East is from the West. But 91 00:10:26,766 --> 00:10:34,400 what it doesn't mean is that He's idle, now doing nothing. He sits on a throne, 92 00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:41,066 not an easy chair. He reigns over all things, doesn't spectate from a distance. 93 00:10:43,700 --> 00:10:49,866 I will tell of the decree, says the Christ in Psalm 2. The Lord said to me, 94 00:10:49,866 --> 00:10:57,100 You are my Son, ask of me and I will make the nations Your heritage and the ends 95 00:10:57,100 --> 00:11:08,733 of the earth Your possession. And He has asked for you and He has received. You 96 00:11:08,733 --> 00:11:16,266 are His inheritance, He is your refuge, through whom we have access in one 97 00:11:16,266 --> 00:11:27,433 spirit to the Father, who has reconciled you to the Father. Your baptism 98 00:11:27,433 --> 00:11:36,933 guarantees it. Not idle, He is our one mediator between God and man, interceding, 99 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:42,633 pleading for us before the Father who is only too willing to grant His beloved 100 00:11:42,633 --> 00:11:50,266 Son, His every supplication for you and for me. Not idle, He brings the Father's 101 00:11:50,266 --> 00:11:58,433 absolution, His blessing and His Word to us. He is that Word. He gives us 102 00:11:58,433 --> 00:12:03,366 everything He is, His righteousness, His innocence, His blessedness, all gift of 103 00:12:03,366 --> 00:12:12,066 the Father to us. So no, Christ ascended to be present, not absent, to rule into 104 00:12:12,066 --> 00:12:19,166 seed and mediate the Father's gifts by the Holy Spirit, not sit idle. He's 105 00:12:19,166 --> 00:12:25,033 present in both senses of the Word. He reigns now in the present, far above 106 00:12:25,033 --> 00:12:32,733 every ruler, authority and power and lordship, as Lord of all. And He is 107 00:12:32,733 --> 00:12:39,966 present among us, everywhere present to rule not only as God but also as man to 108 00:12:39,966 --> 00:12:49,066 the ends of the earth. Well that's a big deal. No wonder Paul waxes lyrical as he 109 00:12:49,066 --> 00:12:54,266 praises the mighty strength of the Father, extended, exerted through the 110 00:12:54,266 --> 00:13:01,100 exalted Christ His Son. Hear it again, he says, the mighty strength that he worked 111 00:13:01,100 --> 00:13:06,666 in Christ Jesus by raising Him from the dead and by seating Him at His right 112 00:13:06,666 --> 00:13:12,233 hand in the heavenly places, far above every ruler and authority and power and 113 00:13:12,233 --> 00:13:18,433 lordship and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the One 114 00:13:18,433 --> 00:13:25,066 to Come. And He subordinated all things under His feet and He appointed Him as 115 00:13:25,066 --> 00:13:29,466 head over all things for the church which is His body, the fullness of the 116 00:13:29,466 --> 00:13:35,766 One who fills all things in all. What marvelous realities St. Paul praises 117 00:13:35,766 --> 00:13:44,300 here. But go back a step and notice also that his supplications just before are 118 00:13:44,300 --> 00:13:49,800 all about the present. He doesn't ask for future stuff there but for what the 119 00:13:49,800 --> 00:13:58,433 Father would give us now, presently through the present Christ. He prays that 120 00:13:58,433 --> 00:14:04,766 the God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, might give you the 121 00:14:04,766 --> 00:14:10,333 spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of Him and give enlightened 122 00:14:10,333 --> 00:14:14,666 eyes of your heart so that you might know what is the hope of His calling, 123 00:14:15,866 --> 00:14:21,833 what is the richness of the glory of His inheritance among the Saints and what is 124 00:14:21,833 --> 00:14:26,366 the surpassing greatness of His power for us who believe according to the 125 00:14:26,366 --> 00:14:33,966 working of his mighty strength. He prays then that we may know the way things 126 00:14:33,966 --> 00:14:41,133 really are in Christ, our eyes open to what's really going on here, how the 127 00:14:41,133 --> 00:14:47,966 Father exerts in us who believe the same mighty strength that He exerted in 128 00:14:47,966 --> 00:14:55,266 Christ Jesus. Yes the same mighty strength Holy Bride of Christ is at 129 00:14:55,266 --> 00:15:02,766 work in you, to give you His divine life, to elevate you to where He is, to raise 130 00:15:02,766 --> 00:15:11,833 your mortal body when that day comes. And he prays all that for very good reason 131 00:15:12,833 --> 00:15:20,066 because the eyes of our hearts, yours, mine, all people's, are by nature darkened 132 00:15:20,066 --> 00:15:27,033 not enlightened and a belief in the real absence of Christ plagues this dark world. 133 00:15:29,033 --> 00:15:35,933 How many hold that belief very deliberately and consciously but 134 00:15:35,933 --> 00:15:42,233 sometimes a practical belief in the real absence infects God's people too even 135 00:15:42,233 --> 00:15:48,033 though we know better, even though we confess better. For the unbelieving world 136 00:15:48,033 --> 00:15:53,466 the real absence of Christ is a no-brainer. If Christ isn't resurrected 137 00:15:53,466 --> 00:15:57,100 well He's certainly not ascended and as for the right hand of God and His power 138 00:15:57,100 --> 00:16:03,166 everywhere, this world knows only the rulers, authorities and powers and 139 00:16:03,166 --> 00:16:08,766 lordships of this world. Whether in ancient times and cultures where behind 140 00:16:08,766 --> 00:16:14,233 every king and ruler there lay some God or a pantheon of gods or in the power 141 00:16:14,233 --> 00:16:21,766 politics of our own secular age that thinks that Christ isn't just absent his 142 00:16:21,766 --> 00:16:29,700 non-existent of no consequence. Well then there's the wider Christian world 143 00:16:29,700 --> 00:16:35,566 and how many Christians have been taught or somehow learned that Christ ascended 144 00:16:35,566 --> 00:16:42,666 equals Christ absent. Christ is tagged out of the ring and the Holy Spirit is 145 00:16:42,666 --> 00:16:47,633 tagged into it and taken over where He left off as if the Spirit did His work 146 00:16:47,633 --> 00:16:54,466 apart from Christ in the absence of Christ. Christ whose reign is still 147 00:16:54,466 --> 00:16:58,900 somewhere off in the future and we've still got to wait for it measured 148 00:16:58,900 --> 00:17:07,066 perhaps by some political measure. Well then there's us. What about our sinful 149 00:17:07,066 --> 00:17:13,266 flesh? We struggle too don't we? Even as we confess the real presence of Christ a 150 00:17:13,266 --> 00:17:17,933 practical belief in the real absence can plague us too. It can keep asserting 151 00:17:17,933 --> 00:17:23,966 itself. When the weight of the cross bears down, when all is darkness and 152 00:17:23,966 --> 00:17:31,466 everything tells us that Christ in His reign are distant, aloof and absent. When 153 00:17:31,466 --> 00:17:38,466 we trust these eyes and this darkened heart as though they told us what was 154 00:17:38,466 --> 00:17:47,900 going on. Ah but the cross is exactly where Christ is to be found. Where He has 155 00:17:47,900 --> 00:17:54,000 manifested His reign, wrought His victory, revealed His glory and flexes the divine 156 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:59,266 muscles. Just ask the evangelist John and all the other writers of the New 157 00:17:59,266 --> 00:18:05,233 Testament. So take heart. Christ reigns and triumphs in his saints, in their 158 00:18:05,233 --> 00:18:14,433 sufferings, even in their deaths. What other God is it said, about what other 159 00:18:14,433 --> 00:18:24,100 God is it said? Precious in His sight is the death of His saints. Only the God who 160 00:18:24,100 --> 00:18:29,900 Himself has been there and who has made death the proving ground of His rule 161 00:18:29,900 --> 00:18:37,633 over all things. And so the Apostle mouthpiece of Christ our intercessor 162 00:18:37,633 --> 00:18:46,033 prayed for his first hearers, for us, for Christians everywhere, just as Christ 163 00:18:46,033 --> 00:18:53,266 wills for us. That you may know his hidden reign over all things to be 164 00:18:53,266 --> 00:18:57,633 revealed when He comes again to judge the living and the dead in that last day. 165 00:18:58,566 --> 00:19:04,366 That you may know His authority over every power that is set against God and 166 00:19:04,366 --> 00:19:10,000 His saints and that neither sin, death nor the devil can defeat you who are in 167 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:16,600 Christ because He's already won. That nothing can separate you from the love 168 00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:24,533 and the victory that God has wrought in Christ for you. That you may know 169 00:19:24,533 --> 00:19:30,733 yourself as a royal subject, His royal subject, a member of his body of which He 170 00:19:30,733 --> 00:19:39,433 is head, the church, His holy bride, which He has cleansed and sanctified and made 171 00:19:39,433 --> 00:19:48,633 one flesh with Himself and given new birth by the Holy Spirit. That you may 172 00:19:48,633 --> 00:19:54,233 know Christ everywhere present and reigning not only as God but also as man 173 00:19:54,233 --> 00:20:04,066 for you. Father grant it to us for Jesus sake, Amen. And the peace of God which 174 00:20:04,066 --> 00:20:08,233 passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus now and 175 00:20:08,233 --> 00:20:12,733 forever, Amen. Hallelujah Christ is risen.