Let us bow in prayer once more before we look into God's Word. Our Father God in Heaven, we pray that You will prepare our hearts to hear Your Word to us, that we may be humble and that Your Spirit may be active, opening our eyes, opening our ears, that we may see and hear. Father, I pray that you will bless the reading and the proclamation of your word, that hearts may be touched, that your grace may be given to your people, and that we may see more clearly who you are, what you have done for us, and the hope that we have in this life, but also in the life to come. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. This morning we'll be reading from John chapter 14. We'll read the entire chapter. So turn with me there. It's a lengthy 31 verses. So it might be helpful to follow along. John 14. If you're not familiar with the flow of this text, it's in the context of the upper room. Christ has administered the Last Supper and his disciples are asking him questions about what's going to happen next. And so he tells them in John chapter 14, Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I'm going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you with me and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on you do know him and have seen him. Philip said, Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us. Jesus answered, Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father living in me who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth. Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever. The Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day, you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. Then Judas, not Judas Iscariot, said, But Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus replied, If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teachings. These words, you here, are not my own. They belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you, but the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all these things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I live with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. You heard me say, I am going away and in coming back to you. If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father. For the Father is greater than I. I've told you now before it happens. So then when it does happen, you will believe. I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me. Come now, let us leave. If you will also turn in the back of your Psalter hymnals to page 24. Actually, I think it's page 25. We'll read responsibly, Question number 49. The Heidelberg Catechism here is explaining the Apostles' Creed. These couple questions from 46 to 49 are talking about the ascension. So read responsibly with me. How does Christ's ascension into heaven benefit us? First, he pleads our cause in heaven, in the presence of his Father. Second, we have our own flesh in heaven. A guarantee that Christ, in our head, will take us, his members, to himself in heaven. Third, he sends his Spirit to us on earth. As a further guarantee, by the Spirit's power, we make the goal of our lives, not earthly things, but the things above where Christ is, sitting at God's right hand. This morning we're going to see how John chapter 14 helps us to see the benefits of Christ's ascension, even as they are laid out for us in the Hutterberg Catechism. Brothers and sisters, goodbyes are difficult, aren't they? At this time where even the college students are home, the reality is that they will be leaving soon and they will have to say goodbye. Others at other times will have to say goodbye to loved ones, to family or friends. Sometimes it's just for a short time, but perhaps sometimes it's even for the rest of this life. There are times where we say goodbye to loved ones. It's not an easy thing to do. We can struggle with it very, very deeply, knowing that we may not see somebody again. Well, this is what the disciples were struggling with. Christ had been telling them that He must leave. That He must go to His Father. That He cannot stay in this world. So the disciples are in anguish over this. How can our Lord and our Master leave us after three years of spending time with Him? How can He go away from us? We need Him. And so there's questioning. Lord, how can you go? Lord, what will happen? well in this particular passage Jesus takes the opportunity to explain to his disciples even as he is about to experience the most humbling part of his life the crucifixion even as he is looking forward to this the very next day he's telling his disciples to look beyond it to look to the hope that his death burial resurrection and finally his ascension gives to them. So this morning, as we look at Christ's ascension, we're going to look at three things. First, we're going to look at how Christ is our priestly advocate. He's our priestly advocate. Second, how he's a fleshly pledge. And third, how we have a spiritual deposit. So first, one of the benefits of Christ's ascension is that we have a priestly advocate. Christ himself in John 14 alludes to this. He tells us that he, when he is in heaven, will be our advocate. Verses 13 and 14 talk about this. As he says, when you pray, ask anything in my name and it will be given to you. Those are the blessings that we have. The benefits of Christ's ascension as he is our priestly advocate. But as a priestly advocate, we know that there was certain work that had been done in order to make his priesthood perfect. And that depended on a perfect sacrifice. Christ goes to the Father for us because of what he has done on the cross. The end of the chapter also talks about his work and it alludes to the fact that he must suffer and die. John 14, 28 to 31. I'll read these verses again. You heard me say, I am going away, and I am coming back to you. If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe. I will not speak with you much longer, for the Prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me. The Father has commanded Christ to lay down his life to make the ultimate sacrifice so that the sheep, so that the believers in Christ may come to the Father through Christ. So indeed, Christ's sacrifice is a perfect sacrifice. It's made once for sin. It's a sacrifice that enables us to come to the Father. Christ himself in verse 6 says, no one comes to the Father except through me. Even the Old Testament saints in their rituals and the sacrifices that they offered up, those sacrifices were of no effect except as a reminder of sin. But they pointed forward to the reality of Christ's sacrifice and that it's through Christ's sacrifice that they have a mediator. And it's through Christ's sacrifice that their sins are forgiven. Hebrews is a wonderful book of the Bible that talks about Christ's priesthood. Contrasting it with the priesthood of the Levites. It's a better priesthood. And Hebrews 7, verse 27, talks about this. I'm going to pick it up in verse 18 just so you get a flow of the text. Talking about Christ's priesthood and the sacrifice that he made. The former regulation is set aside because it is weak and useless. The law made nothing purpose, and a better hope is introduced by which we draw near to God. And it is not without an oath. Others became priests without an oath. But he became a priest with an oath when God said to him, The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever. Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. Now, there have been many of those priests since death prevented them from continuing in office. But because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest meets our needs, one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. In verse 27, unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once and for all when he offered himself. Christ is our priestly advocate because of the one sacrifice of his body where his blood was poured out to cover our sins. So what is the result of the sacrifice? The result is that we indeed have a mediator. We have an intercessor, even now in the heavenly places, taking our prayers upon His lips, bringing them to the Father. Christ lives to intercede for us. We saw that even in the passage that I just read. But also in Romans 8. You can turn with me if you'd like. Romans 8, verses 31 to 39. Again, it's a little bit longer passage, so if you'd like to follow along, Romans 8, 31. What then shall we say in response to this? Is God for us? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. How will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died. More than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Christ, our high priest, is at the right hand of God, interceding for us. He did not enter a sanctuary that was made by hands. He entered into the heavenly of heavenlies to the presence of God so that he might always come before the Father on our behalf. And so what this means for us is that when we pray, our prayers are to be offered in Christ's name. When we come to the Father in prayer, we are to pray in Christ's name because Christ, as the mediator, as the intercessor of this better covenant, takes our prayers upon his lips and brings them to the Father that we may have the confidence that they are heard. And so when we pray and we are to pray, we have confidence that our prayers are heard and that they will be answered. Because Christ is pleased to answer them even as he was pleased to lay down his life for us that we might live eternally. Well, another benefit of Christ's ascension is that not only is He our priestly advocate, but He is also a fleshly pledge. Now, we'll fill that out a little bit so you have a little bit of understanding of what that means, boys and girls. Christ is, indeed, our fleshly pledge. Verses 1 through 6 of John 14 talk about this. That Christ Himself will ascend bodily to heaven. He will go to the Father in His resurrected body. Though glorified, it is still the flesh. Boys and girls, we might not think of our physical bodies being raised and ascending into heaven to be with God. But that's the truth. And that's what Christ shows us. Even as His body was raised, even as He ascended physically, visibly, before the disciples, they saw Him go up to heaven. And so, that for us is a pledge that our bodies, too, will be raised. And that we will enter into glory. And our bodies will be glorified. Christ himself says that he goes to prepare a place for us. He goes to the heavenly realms to prepare many rooms. In fact, he says if it were not so, he would have told us. But he does go. He prepares a place for us. But he also says that he goes, but he will come again. The promise is that he will take us to himself. John Calvin says this in his commentary about this passage. In a word, Christ did not ascend into heaven in a private capacity to dwell there alone, but rather that he might be the common inheritance of all the godly and that in this way he might be united to his members. The hope for us is that Christ, our head, will bring us, his body, to himself. And as a fleshly pledge, Christ himself in heaven is a testimony to us, a witness that our bodies too will be raised and that we will live for eternity in glory with Christ. There are some other pictures that help us fill this out. Christ is talked about as the first fruits of the resurrection. Even as he was raised from the dead. There's a lot of fruit trees and such around here. And so we know the imagery here. If the early crop is good, it ensures that the full harvest will be good. And so Christ, as the early harvest of the resurrection, is good in that he has physically ascended. So too, we will be ascended. we will ascend to glory. There's some other pictures too though that assure us of our bodily resurrection and ascension into glory. Christ is the King and we as His servants will be with Him in His kingdom. But on another aspect we are also citizens with Him. We are citizens of this heavenly kingdom and that is the pledge that Christ's flesh is for us. Well, in the same way that Christ is our priestly advocate and that He is our fleshly pledge, He's given us another sign. Another benefit of His resurrection is that we have a spiritual deposit. Not only has Christ ascended so that we have a pledge in heaven, but He's also given us His Spirit so that we might have the deposit of our eternal life here on this earth. Again, we'll look at this and fill this out a little bit. John 14, 16 and 17, show us a little bit about what this means. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. This is the Holy Spirit that's been given to us as a deposit, as a guarantee of our life now, but also of the life to come, the life that we have in Christ Jesus. He's been sent from heaven to assure us that Christ will return and take us to himself. But this spirit is not for everyone. The disciples ask, Lord, why won't you give this, Why won't you show yourself to the whole world? Christ says it is only for those who believe. The Spirit is only for those who believe. So if you are here this morning, if you are not a believer, you are missing out on the benefits of Christ's ascension. You have no promise of the life to come. And in fact, there is death awaiting you. So the call is to repent of your sins, to believe in Christ, to stake your claim because of Christ's blood that was shed for sin. We could think of the deposit of the Spirit in terms of financial illustrations. When we go to buy a car, boys and girls, or a house, we place a deposit down, assuring the seller that we will pay the full amount. And so in a similar way, the Spirit for us is that deposit. He's that guarantee that one day full salvation will come. That we will not be left in this life, but because the Spirit has come, because the Spirit's been poured out, there's assurance that we will be raised, that we will ascend to glory, bodily, to be with our Lord and Savior. But the work of the Spirit is fuller than that. Even as the Catechism shows us, the work of the Spirit is to admonish us, to incite us, to take our thoughts off of this world and to put them on the heavenlies, to think about things where Christ is seated, even at the right hand of God. And so we are to respond to this work, even as He prompts us, as we read His Word, and as He works in our hearts, to respond obediently, to give ourselves to Him. For the Lord Himself shows us how the Spirit works. He says that the Spirit will bring to mind the things that He has taught them. He will show them what Christ has said and help them to understand. The Spirit's role is not to bring new revelation, but to show His believers what Christ has said and to help them understand it. and again, to set our minds on things above. This is a glorious hope. Even in this world, where we're so focused on the visual, we have our TVs, our computers, things around us all the time, visual, sensible things that we see, so that the things that are unseen are often forgotten. But the reality is that we must take heart that the Spirit, though invisible, though not seen, is at work in our lives, sanctifying us, even as He is a deposit, guaranteeing our resurrection and our uniting to Christ one day when He comes again. The benefits of Christ's ascension are for His church. He has given his life so that we may have life. He's been raised so that we may have the assurance of our bodily resurrection. But he has ascended into heaven that we may have the hope of joining him there one day. So that when Christ comes again, we will be joined to him and dwell eternally in the presence of God. And so Christ, as our priestly advocate, intercedes for us until that time. He brings our prayers and our requests to the Father, giving us the promise that they will be answered. He is also in heaven now, a fleshly pledge, assuring us that our flesh, though glorified one day, will be joined with Him in glory forever. That we may not suffer in this life forever, but that He will come again and bring us to Himself. And finally, the deposit of the Spirit assures us again of the hope that is to come. These last two, this fleshly pledge and this spiritual deposit, in and of themselves, point to the fact that there is a greater reality, that the fullness has not yet come, even as a down payment on a car or on a house, shows that there is more to come. So the pledge of Christ in heaven and the deposit of the Spirit shows us that there is more to come, that we will not forever be in this life struggling against the trials and the hardships that we face, but that one day Christ, as He promised, will come, will return to take us to Himself so that we may put off the struggles of the sinful flesh once and for all and that we may have the hope that we will not forever be struggling that we will be joined to our Father in glory and that there we will live with Him in His glorious presence praising Him on this life, in this life, on this earth we have just a taste of this As we gather here to worship, we come together with his saints to praise his name, to sing his praises, to read his word, to see who he is. But one day, when Christ comes again, we will see the fullness of God. We will know what it is to be in his presence. We will know what it is to see his glory and to live with him forever. But that is still in the future. And so now, our lot is to say with the church abroad, the church in this world, come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus, that we may be with you in your kingdom. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we come to you this morning with great confidence, knowing that you, through your Son, have paved the way for the reconciliation of all things. Christ, in this passage, has shown us that though He is leaving, that though He is departing, He will not leave His children as orphans in this world. And so He has given them a deposit. He has given the Spirit to us that we may look forward to something greater. And even as Christ has arisen in the flesh, points to the reality that we too will arise one day with glorified bodies to be in your presence, singing your praises forever. And even now, Lord, we know that because of Christ's ascension, we have a mediator, an intercessor, a priestly advocate, even in your courts, so that our prayers and our requests may be brought to you. And that we have the confidence that they will be heard. That they will be answered. Because of Christ's work. Father, we praise you for this. We thank you for the gospel message that Christ himself has paid the debt for our sins. He has paved the way for our salvation. He has given us the assurance and the hope of a resurrection and a glorification. Father, help us not to lose sight of these things, but to focus our thoughts on things above, to take our thoughts off of the things on this earth and to place them on the heavenlies, even where Christ is seated at your right hand. And so, Father, it is through Christ that we offer our prayers this morning, even as he has told us we ought to do. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.