THE HEAVENLY
MINISTRY OF CHRIST
Read and pray: “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” (Acts 2:34–35)
THE CONCLUSION OF THE BIBLE
The Bible has a wonderful conclusion! Of course, its beginning is also wonderful. The Bible begins with God and then with His creation. The center of creation is man, made in God’s image and according to His likeness.
If you analyze it, you will see that the human being was formed specifically in order to be one with God. At the beginning of the Bible the tree of life also appears.
When we turn to the end of the Bible, however, we can see that it is even more excellent than the beginning. This may surprise you, but this end begins with the book of Acts and proceeds directly to the book of Revelation!
When I was young, my mother used to tell us the stories of the four Gospels. After I grew up, I discovered that when Catholic missionaries went from Italy to China, about three to four hundred years earlier, the main books they presented were the four Gospels.
Even in my youth, missionaries in general preached and taught based on those books. Why were the other books of the New Testament neglected? It was due to the lack of understanding and appreciation of the conclusion of the Bible.
Now we are here in Europe in the last part of the twentieth century (These messages were given in Germany in 1980). It is already time to see how the Bible ends. What is the true conclusion of God’s revelation? To see His revelation in creation is easy. To see His salvation is also not so difficult. But to see the final stage of His revelation is not so easy.
There are three main ministries in this final stage. No doubt there are some minor ministries as well, but we will concentrate only on these three major ones.
The first is the ministry of Christ in the heavens. The second is the completing ministry of Paul. Without Paul’s Epistles the Bible surely would not be complete. Yes, much had already been revealed, but Paul’s ministry was necessary for the divine revelation to be complete.
The third is the mending ministry of John. Although Paul had completed the writings, damage came in, and therefore John’s ministry was needed to repair the damage. Paul’s last Epistle was written around A.D. 65; and only more than a quarter of a century after that was John’s last writing completed.
If we want to know God’s present move, we surely need to understand the conclusion of the Bible. (This is not merely one verse or one chapter or even one book. There are more than ten books related to this conclusion.)
THE EARTHLY MINISTRY VERSUS THE HEAVENLY
The Lord Jesus most certainly lived a fruitful life during the thirty-three and a half years that He was on the earth. Most of what He accomplished, however, took place in a period of three years. He spent thirty years preparing Himself and only then began to minister.
Almost everything that is preached and taught among Christians today refers to that earthly ministry. When I was a thirsty young Christian, they taught me that Christ had already finished His work. John 19:30 was quoted as proof.
The Lord’s words, spoken while He was still on the cross, were: “It is finished!” After His death He remained in the tomb for three days. Then He resurrected and ascended to the heavens not to work, but to sit there. Sitting, they explained to me, meant that the work was over. He is now there waiting for God to put His enemies under His feet (Acts 2:34–35).
Is this the true picture? Has Christ already finished His ministry? We must answer both yes and no. Yes, His earthly ministry is already over. His heavenly ministry, however, continues to this day.
The Person of Christ has two aspects, just as His ministry does. While He was on the earth, He was the man Jesus. Since His ascension to the heavens, He is the glorified Christ. His earthly ministry lasted for a limited time, at most thirty-three and a half years.
But His heavenly ministry is eternal; it will never end. It is regrettable that so many Christians pay attention only to the first part of Christ’s ministry. In these messages we want to focus on the second part, which is much more crucial.
God’s intention is to have a church and, eventually, the New Jerusalem. During Christ’s earthly ministry the church did not yet exist, much less the New Jerusalem. The church and the New Jerusalem cannot be seen in the four Gospels.
Only when we come to Acts do we find the church. In Acts, the first book of the conclusion of the Bible, the church comes into existence, and in the last book, Revelation, the New Jerusalem appears.
Yes, in Acts the gospel is preached, but not as an end in itself. The preaching of the gospel has the goal of producing the church. The church is the most important point in Acts. Then, in the last book of the conclusion, the first two chapters concern the church, but in the last two chapters the New Jerusalem appears, the ultimate consummation of the churches.
If we obtain a panoramic view from Acts to Revelation, we will discover that the church and the New Jerusalem stand out above everything else.
The church and the New Jerusalem are brought into reality by the heavenly ministry of Christ, not by the earthly. His earthly ministry accomplished redemption so that the church might be produced; however, an even higher, richer, and broader ministry is necessary for the realization of God’s eternal purpose with regard to the church and the New Jerusalem.
As far as His earthly ministry is concerned, everything is already finished. Redemption was secured by the cross. That consummation, however, only introduced Him into His heavenly ministry. Now He is involved in a ministry of far greater scope than the one He had on the earth.
Do not think that the Lord Jesus is sitting in the heavens with nothing to do! He actually administrates the affairs of the whole universe! In His earthly life He certainly did not do this. He suffered, was persecuted, and eventually went to the cross to accomplish redemption.
Now everything has changed. He has full control. He works for you, for the churches, and even for Germany [the place where these messages were given]!
The title Christ means Anointed. He is referred to as the Anointed of God (Ps 2:2; Acts 4:26). When and how was Christ anointed? It was at His baptism, when the Spirit of God descended upon Him.
There at the Jordan River, right after He was baptized, God anointed Him with the heavenly oil, that is, with the Spirit. That anointing represented His designation by God.
When was Christ “inaugurated”? After being elected (which in our case corresponds to the designation of Christ), a president is inaugurated into office.
Two or three months after the election, there is an inauguration ceremony, when he is then brought into his new office and officially begins his duties.
When did Christ’s inauguration take place? It was at His ascension. When He was exalted to the third heaven, that exaltation represented His “inauguration ceremony” into His official position.
During the incarnation, as recorded in the four Gospels, we find a humble man from Nazareth named Jesus. Today, however, He is gloriously different!
Is our Christ the Jesus of the Gospels or the One who ascended? In the times of Leviticus the offerings people made could be different. Some brought a bull, others a lamb, and still others just two turtledoves. This is a picture that, in our experience, Christ may be great like a bull or small like a turtledove.
He is still the same Christ, but our enjoyment of Him differs according to our knowledge, consideration, and experience of His different aspects.
We have known Christ for too long only in His incarnation. It is time to know Him in His ascension. It is strange that so much emphasis is placed on Christ’s birth. From now on you need to stop looking at the manger and at the carpenter’s house and begin to see Christ enthroned in the heavens!
Is your Christ still in the manger? Do you value the manger more, or the throne? Where is your Christ now? Perhaps you answer that He is in you. Of course I must agree with that, for the apostle Paul declares: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27)!
But how do you experience this Christ who is in you? If you have more consideration for the manger, your experience will be limited to that. But if your greater consideration is related to the throne, this will uplift your experience of Him in the spirit.
When I visited the Vatican, I saw many paintings with the manger. It would be quite reasonable to find a manger in Bethlehem, but why should paintings of the manger have such prominence in other places?
People have the impression that Christ is still related to the manger. They have little realization that today He is on the throne. Their concept of Christ is limited to the incarnation. We need to be delivered from this impoverished concept and begin to see Christ in His ascension.
🌿 Enjoy more:
Hymn 73 – “His Kingdom”
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