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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Dr. Wes Bredenhof > The ascended Jesus stands ready to welcome believers into heaven | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) Psalm 68:1,8 Hymn 84 Hymn 38 Psalm 47 Scripture readings: Acts 6:8-7:8, 7:51-60 Text: Acts 7:55-56 |
Beloved congregation of Christ,
Someday each one of us is going to meet Jesus. How does that make you feel? For some people, it causes them a great deal of anxiety. They’re worried about meeting him, scared of meeting him. That’s understandable for someone who isn’t a Christian, but there are also Christians who fear meeting Jesus.
Before the Reformation, the Church actually encouraged and fostered this fear. During that time, when you’d walk into many church buildings, the first thing you’d see would be an image or a statue of Jesus. It was always Jesus looking harsh and fearful, coming to judge the living and the dead. That picture of Jesus was meant to produce anxiety in people. They were to be so afraid of Jesus, that they wouldn’t dare approach him. Instead, people were taught to approach Mary. Mary was gentle and meek. Mary was a kind mother and you could go to her and she’d listen to you. Then she would go and speak with her son for you.
Thankfully, the Reformation rediscovered what the Bible says about Jesus. He is gentle and lowly. He is compassionate. Jesus is a sympathetic High Priest who cares about believers. He is the Good Shepherd who loves his sheep. You can come to him in faith and prayer and he’ll never turn you away. If you trust in Jesus, you have nothing to fear from him. That’s why our Heidelberg Catechism asks in Question 52, “What comfort is to you that Christ will come to judge the living and the dead?” The answer is great, but the question already assumes that there is comfort and that’s a correct assumption. Believers have comfort in thinking about meeting Christ. He has ascended to heaven for our benefit and he’s going to return for our benefit too. There’s nothing at all to be anxious about.
That’s what God is revealing to us here in our passage for this Ascension Day too. Not only does Stephen see the ascended Jesus, but so do we. We get to share what God revealed to him, so that it would comfort not only him, but also us. When we have faith in Jesus Christ, we can be sure that our meeting him in person for the first time is going to find him welcoming us with open arms and a tender heart. So I preach to you God’s Word this evening and we’ll see how The ascended Jesus stands ready to welcome believers into heaven.
We’ll see what it means that Stephen saw:
- Jesus, the Son of Man
- Standing
- At the right hand of God
Before Christ ascended into heaven in Acts 1, he told his disciples that they would be his witnesses starting in Jerusalem and then working outwards to the end of the earth. After he ascended into heaven, that mission started almost immediately. At Pentecost, Jewish people from all over the Roman Empire were gathered in Jerusalem and they heard the gospel. Acts 2:41 tells us that just on that one day, over 3000 people believed and were baptized. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the church’s growth was explosive. And that only continued in the days following.
By the time we get to Acts 6, the church in Jerusalem had become huge. The work of charity in the church became unmanageable for the apostles. So they called the church to select seven men who could oversee the work of charity, while the apostles would continue to preach and pray. Among the seven chosen was Stephen, “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit,” as it says in Acts 6:5.
Stephen did great signs and wonders. He performed miracles through the power of the Spirit. That got the attention of the Jews. They started arguing with him about Jesus. When they couldn’t get anywhere with their arguing, they developed a plot against him. They said he had blasphemed. Just like happened with Jesus when he was falsely accused, they dragged Stephen in front of the Sanhedrin to face this charge. The Sanhedrin was the Jewish religious court.
Most of chapter 7 is taken up with Stephen’s defense in front of the Sanhedrin. We hear a man remarkably grounded in what the Bible taught. Stephen rehearsed the basics of the story of redemption. He highlighted the ways God worked in the past and the ways his people often tried to frustrate his purposes. Then at the end of his speech, he brought it all to bear on the situation at hand. He told the Jews that they were just like their fathers, persecuting the prophets. They were stubborn and stiff-necked. They refused to listen when God spoke to them. That’s exactly what the unbelieving Jews were doing in Stephen’s day too. They refused to believe in the Saviour God had sent.
And when Stephen said that, it was like lighting the fuse on a stick of dynamite. Things were about to blow up. Stephen would become the first Christian martyr. But before that happened, God gave him a special revelation of Jesus in heaven. This was to encourage him to remain steadfast in the face of the hatred and persecution of the Jews.
Full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven. Now remember he’s in the Sanhedrin, inside a building. So he isn’t looking up into the clear blue sky. There’s a ceiling blocking that view. But somehow God made it possible for Stephen to see into the heavenly dimension. No one else saw it but him.
Verse 55 says he saw the glory of God. No human being in this age can see God and live. But in both the Old Testament and New Testament we read about some people who did catch a glimpse of the glory of God – for example, we think of Moses on Mount Sinai and we think of the disciples at the Mount of Transfiguration. The fact that God revealed his glory to Stephen puts him in a category of unique individuals in the Bible. Stephen would have known that and it would have been reassuring to him. God doesn’t reveal his glory to individuals with whom he doesn’t have a friendly relationship.
But it gets better. Stephen also sees the one in whom God has revealed not only his glory, but also his grace and truth. He sees Jesus.
Notice how in verse 55, the Son of God is mentioned as “Jesus.” It’s not “Christ,” or “Christ Jesus” or “the Lord Jesus Christ.” Just “Jesus.” Also notice how in verse 56, when Stephen describes what he’s seeing, he says that he sees “the Son of Man.”
The personal name of the Son of God is “Jesus.” As you may recall, the name means “Saviour.” Before he took on human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Son of God didn’t bear this name. It’s a name uniquely connected to his humanity. When the Son of God took on a human nature, he also took on this personal name “Jesus.”
The term “Son of Man” is also connected to the humanity of the Son of God. The term “Son of Man” originally came from Daniel 7. It’s a term that refers to the Messiah, the Christ to come. The figure described in Daniel 7 combines human and divine characteristics. So Jesus frequently described himself as being “the Son of Man.” And here Stephen describes him like that too – in fact, this is the only place outside of the Gospels where Jesus is called the “Son of Man” in the New Testament.
Why does it matter that Stephen’s vision of the Son of God is expressed in these terms emphasizing Jesus’ humanity? It’s an encouragement for him and for us. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he didn’t stop being a human being. Even right now in heaven, he is still a true human being. If you were there in the flesh, you could put your hand on his chest and you could feel his heart beating. He still has every physical characteristic that makes us human, except for the weakness and mortality of our bodies here. He has a glorified body, but it’s still human. But that also extends to other aspects that make us human too. One of the most important is that he still has a human heart in the spiritual sense of the term. He still has compassion, love, and pity for his followers. When Stephen gazed up into heaven and saw Jesus, he didn’t see a frown on his face. He didn’t see a scowl or any look of disapproval whatsoever, he saw compassion and kindness. He saw love.
Brothers and sisters, if God would grant us a peek into heaven right now, if we’re following Christ, we would see what Stephen saw. We would see his heart of love reflected in how he looks upon us. Not a grimace, not disappointment, but tender mercy. When we meet Jesus, this is how we’re going to see him. Thus, Stephen’s vision would have reminded him and it reminds us that there’s no need to be anxious or fearful of our Saviour.
So Stephen saw Jesus, the Son of Man, and he saw him “standing.” This is repeated twice, in both verses of our text. This is remarkable because of how many other times Scripture tells us he ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. There are numerous examples of that and several of them are found in Hebrews. So why do all these other passages say he is sitting at the right hand of God, we do we confess that even in the Apostles’ Creed, and yet Stephen sees him standing?
There’s obviously something exceptional happening here. When Scripture says he sat down at the right hand of God after ascending into heaven, it’s telling us that his redemptive work on our behalf was finished. The High Priest in the Old Testament was never allowed to sit down in the temple because the work of atonement was never finished. But Jesus our Great High Priest has finished paying for our sins and therefore he’s able to sit. That work is finished and what Stephen says here isn’t contradicting that.
You see, just because he’s able to sit, doesn’t necessarily mean that he must sit all the time moving forward. After all, the Bible tells us he will return to judge the living and the dead. Is he going to stay sitting for that? No, obviously he is going to get up in order to come back to earth. So he’s not under any obligation to remain seated at all times.
So why would Stephen see him standing? What was exceptional about this situation? Stephen was about to die and come to the Lord. Jesus knew that. Let’s say you’re sitting in your house and someone comes to the door to stay with you. It’s normal that you stand up and go to welcome them. That’s what’s happening here with Stephen seeing Jesus standing. Jesus is standing ready to welcome Stephen into heaven. That would have been a comfort and assurance to Stephen as he was about to face death. These people hated Stephen and wanted him gone. Jesus loved Stephen and wanted him present.
In John 14, Jesus told his disciples that he would go and prepare a place for them. His ascension into heaven wasn’t him abandoning them. He was going to go and get things ready so he could welcome them into heaven at the end. For us too, we can be confident that if we’ve rested and trusted in Jesus alone for our salvation, we’re going to be welcomed into heaven by our Saviour. Death isn’t only the entrance into eternal life. It’s also the way to a warm welcome by Jesus into communion with him. Thus there’s nothing to be afraid of, nothing to be anxious about, when it comes to meeting Jesus.
Last of all, when Stephen gazed into heaven, he saw Jesus standing “at the right hand of God.” What’s the significance of that?
Psalm 110 famously speaks about the Messiah being at the right hand of God. There’s a royal background to that language. In ancient times, if you were at the right hand of the king, you were in a position of great honour. The right hand of the king was a place of authority and power.
So when Stephen sees Jesus in this position and announces him to be in that position, that’s saying a lot about Jesus. God is revealing to Stephen and to those around that the man Jesus, even though he was crucified, he has been greatly honoured by God. When he ascended into heaven, he took the highest place possible, the place of greatest honour. Many of the Jews may have thought Jesus to be a blasphemer and false teacher, but God said otherwise. As Philippians 2:9 says, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name…” So what Stephen sees is the vindication of what he’s been saying about Jesus to the Jews.
But there’s also comfort and assurance in this for Stephen himself. Jesus being at the right hand of God also means he has authority and power. That would have been encouraging for Stephen in a couple of ways.
First of all, it would have been encouraging because he could know for sure that even though he dies, Christ lives and reigns. Christ lives and reigns with power. The gospel proclamation may have started in Jerusalem, but it’s not going to end there. Because Jesus has divine power, the gospel is going to go to “all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Stephen’s death doesn’t mean the death of the gospel. In fact, remarkably, if you keep reading in chapter 8 you’ll find that his death resulted in the gospel being propelled outwards. Persecution led to the spreading out of believers. It says in Acts 8:4, “Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.” The gospel isn’t going to stop. It didn’t stop then and it won’t stop now either. Even though people try to resist it, the one who is at the right hand of God is going to ensure his purposes succeed.
But there’s a second way in which this would have encouraged Stephen. Jesus has power and authority over the souls of believers. After we die, our souls leave our bodies. But our souls just don’t wander about aimlessly after we die. There are people who believe that. They believe that the ghosts or spirits or souls of people who’ve died linger around and that we have to do something to send them on their way to heaven. But the Bible teaches that Jesus has power and authority over our souls. When believers die, he draws their souls to himself with invincible power. If you’re trusting in him, you’re taken straight to him, where he’ll welcome you into his presence. He can do this because of the power he has, a power reflected in where he is – at the right hand of God.
Loved ones, the only people who should have any anxiety about meeting Jesus are those who’ve hated him in this life, who’ve been indifferent towards him, have ignored him, and refused to believe in him as their Lord and Saviour. But if you’re placing all your hope for heaven in him, then what Stephen saw should encourage you. Your Saviour has a friendly heart towards you – a heart which reveals that of our Triune God. When you look at Jesus, you see what God is like. So when his appointed time for you comes, when you go to meet God, you’ll be warmly welcomed. The whole experience will be beautiful and joyful right from the very beginning. The gospel promises us this – believe it and be encouraged! AMEN.
PRAYER
Our ascended Lord Jesus,
Thank you for revealing yourself to Stephen and to us as the one who stands ready to welcome believers into heaven. We praise you for your tender human heart towards us. We’re glad that you’re eager to have us where you are, that you’ve gone to prepare a place for us. We worship you for your almighty power. We’re glad that by that almighty power the gospel invincibly goes out to the end of the earth. We’re glad that by that almighty power you will take us to yourself when our time comes. Lord, please work in our hearts with your Holy Spirit to constantly encourage us with these gospel truths. We pray that no one here who truly believes in you would be anxious about meeting you. Should there be any anxiety, we pray you would quell it with your Spirit and Word. We pray that those who don’t believe would feel anxiety about meeting you. We pray you would use that anxiety to make them see their need for you, so they would repent and believe and know your love like we do.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Dr. Wes Bredenhof, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
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