Three Benefits of the Ascension
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Sermon Outline
- Our Own Flesh in Heaven
- Our Eternal Advocate in Heaven
- Our True Citizenship in Heaven
Scripture: Phillippians 3:17-4:1
Link To:Phillippians 3:17-4:1
Heidelberg Catechism Questions 46-49
XVIII. LORD'S DAY.
- Question 46.
How dost thou understand these words, "he ascended into heaven"?
Answer. That Christ, in sight of his disciples, was [a] taken up from earth into heaven; and that he continues [b]
there for our interest, until he comes again to judge the quick and the dead.
- Question 47.
Is not Christ then with us even to the end of the world, as he hath promised?
Answer. Christ is very man and very God; with respect to his [c] human nature, he is no more on earth; but with
respect to his Godhead, majesty, grace and spirit, he is at no time absent from us.
- Question 48.
But if his human nature is not present wherever his Godhead is, are not then these two natures in
Christ separated from one another?
Answer. Not at all, for since the Godhead is illimitable and [d] omnipresent, it must necessarily follow that [e] the
same is beyond the limits of the human nature he assumed, and yet is nevertheless in this human nature,
and remains personally united to it.
- Question 49.
Of what advantage to us is Christ's ascension into heaven?
Answer. First, that he is our [g] advocate in the presence of his Father in heaven; secondly, that we have our flesh
in heaven as a sure pledge that he, as the head, will also [h] take up to himself, us, his members; thirdly, that
he [i] sends us his Spirit as an earnest, by whose power we "seek the things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God, [j] and not things on earth."
[a]: Acts 1:9;
Mark 16:19
[b]: Heb. 4:14;
Rom 8:34;
Eph. 4:10
[c]: Acts 3:21;
John 3:13;
John 16:28;
Mat. 28:20
[d]: Acts 7:49;
Mat. 24:30
[e]: Mat. 28:20;
John 16:28;
John 17:11;
John 3:13
[g]: Heb. 9:25;
1John 2:2;
Rom. 8:34
[h]: John 14:2;
Eph. 2:6
[i]: John 14:16;
2Cor. 1:22;
2Cor. 5:5
[j]: Col. 3:1;
Phil. 3:20
