John Piper, in a sermon, “The Ascent of Joy” Text: Luke 24:50-53
O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. We believe, Jesus, that you died for our sins, rose on the third day, ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on high, and that you are coming again. I beg of you, help us to see and feel what that means: that you will be revealed in unspeakable cosmic glory, that you will roll up the sky like a scroll and throw it away, you will cleave the earth and sweep it clean with worldwide judgment, and you will make a new heaven and a new earth in a universe of righteousness and holiness. For before you, all the nations are as dust, and lighter than dust; in the scales they go up. Our biggest bombs are like caps in your pistol; our computers are the tinker toys of heaven. O God, have mercy on our blindness; forgive us that we are so easily enamored by the big, the novel, the flashy works of man and so little awed by the power at work in Jesus Christ. Frustrate the god of this world and tear the veil apart that we might see the worldwide, indeed the universal, significance of the ascension of our Lord Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen….
…Jesus Christ is the king of the universe, and there is nothing Satan can do about it. But he can do this: he can try to put a veil over your mind so that a hundred things, which will all pass away, seem to shine more brightly than the kingship of Jesus. Resist him firm in your faith! Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. He will take the veil away that you might see the ascension of Jesus for what it really is: the homecoming and coronation of the Son of God, the validation of the sufficiency of his sacrifice for sin, the inauguration of his eternal intercessory work, and his installation as the sovereign God-man over all the enemies of the church. O, that we might always be a people who worship Jesus and make our way obediently to Jerusalem rejoicing and saying continually:
Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And forget not all the benefits of his ascension!
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