Dr Paul Allen

The ascension is a neglected doctrine in most churches today. But historically this has not always been the case. Throughout most of the life of the church, the ascension has been valued and prioritized. It’s a contemporary tendency to see the ascension as a mere accessory to the life of Jesus , as something that is perhaps elegant and even useful but ultimately unnecessary. If we look at history, we can find encouragement for reclaiming ascension doctrine for our lives. A VINTAGE DOCTRINE In the fourth century, both the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed emphasized the ascension as much as the resurrection. The ascension, like the resurrection, is a historical event, was seen by many eyewitnesses, and has massive implications for our relationship with God . The Heidelberg Catechism in the sixteenth century asks an important question: “How does Christ’s ascension into heaven benefit us?” (Q&A 49). The answer is threefold: first, Jesus is our advocate before the Father; ...

One of our first thoughts, when we hear someone claim to have witnessed a miracle, is that there might be some sort of natural explanation - because miracles are not the norm in nature. In the Gospels , we are told there was a similar response relating to Christ’s resurrection. When the Jewish priests were told the report of the empty tomb, they spread the tale that Jesus’ disciples had stolen His body (Mt 28:12–15). Even believers reacted this way . When Mary Magdalene initially saw Jesus , she made a natural assumption, supposing He was the gardener ( Jn 20:10 –15). When the disciples heard the report of the women who had gone to Jesus’ tomb, they thought the women were spreading rumors or false tales (Lk 24:11). Later, when they saw the risen Jesus, these same followers thought they were seeing a ghost or hallucination (Lk 24:36–43). Throughout history many have had similar responses regarding Jesus’ resurrection, attempting to come up with naturalistic theories to explain away...

Jesus himself seeks God ’s glory as his highest end 1. Jn. 7:18 —“He who speaks from Himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the one who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” 2. Jn. 12:27–28 —“Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour?’ But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Thy name. There came therefore, a voice out of heaven: ‘I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.’ ” Edwards points out that this utterance of Jesus came as he reflected on his impending journey to Jerusalem and the inevitable sufferings he was to face there. He writes:   “Under this distress of mind, in so terrible a view, he supports himself with a prospect of what would be the consequence of his sufferings, viz. God’s glory. Now, ‘tis the end that supports the agent in any difficult work that he undertakes, and above all others, his ultimate and supreme end. For this i...

One of the many statements that the Bible makes concerning itself is that it is a living Word. In Philippians 2:16 Paul calls it the “word of life.” Hebrews 4:12 says, “The word of God is living and powerful.”  Here in 1 Peter 1:23, it is “the word of God which lives and abides forever.” There are no more significant statements that refer to the Bible than these. It is through this living Word that we are born again and made alive spiritually. And it is through the living Word that we grow up into Christ. The Word of God Is Alive and Produces Life The Word of God is the only thing we know of, apart from the Trinity itself, that is alive in an eternal sense. In the world around us the things we call “living” are really dying. What we call “the land of the living” is probably better called “the land of the dying” because wherever you look, death is doing its work of decay and destruction. In the final analysis, death is the monarch of this world. Against this background of ...

Anytime God is about to do something amazing in our lives, He calls us to consecrate ourselves to Him. That pattern was established right before the Israelites crossed the Jordan River and conquered the Promised Land .    “ Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.” Here’s our fundamental problem: we try to do God’s job for Him. We want to do amazing things for God. And that seems noble, but we’ve got it backward. God wants to do amazing things for us. That’s His job, not ours. Our job is consecration. That’s it. And if we do our job, God will most certainly do His. Before I tell you what consecration is, let me tell you what it isn’t. It’s not going to church once a week. It’s not daily devotions. It’s not fasting during Lent . It’s not keeping the Ten Commandments . It’s not sharing your faith with friends. It’s not giving God the tithe. It’s not repeating the sinner’s prayer. It’s not volunteering for a ministry. I...

One of the most important events of the life of Christ was His ascension. We celebrate His birth, His life, His transfiguration, His atoning death on Good Friday, and His resurrection. But all of these events moved Jesus inexorably toward that moment when He would be lifted up from this planet, not simply to rise to heaven but to go to His coronation, His crowning as King of kings and Lord of lords. Immediately following Jesus' ascension comes His session. If I were to ask you, "What's the session?" you might say that it is the group of elders of your church who meet to establish policy and carry out discipline in the church. That's true, but the ultimate session is the session of Jesus; it refers to His seating at the right hand of God. Various views have emerged in church history regarding the concept of the kingdom of God. Some believe the kingdom of God is totally future, that it doesn't exist at all now, not even in part, until the return of Jesus at...

“If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” ( 1 John 1:7). Our 1 John 1:7 passage is a good example of how the biblical books, though addressed to different audiences, present a unified message. Having told us that “ God is light,” John tells us that one way we can be assured of following the Lord is that we walk in the light. As 1 John 1:6–7 tells us, if we walk in darkness we are liars, not practicing the truth. But if we walk in the light, we are cleansed by the blood of Jesus and have fellowship one with another. This is just another way of reiterating the need for Christians to live the holy lives we read about in James 2:14–26, 1 Peter 1:14–16, and 2 Peter 1:3–7. John emphasizes the need to walk in the light because of false teachers who claimed otherwise. These teachers likely were influenced by Gnostic ideas claiming what we do in the body is unimportant as long a...

Prayer is the native language of faith . John Calvin called prayer the “chief exercise of faith.” That’s why when faith is awake and surging in us, prayer doesn’t feel like a burden or an obligation. It feels natural. It’s how faith most instinctively speaks. Throughout the Bible , faith and prayer are inextricably linked. One of the clearest examples is Jesus ’s statement in John 15:7: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, [ask whatever you wish] and it will be done for you.” “Abiding” in Jesus’s is faith—fully believing his words. Asking whatever you wish is prayer. The Bible tells us to “trust in [ God ] at all times” (Psalm 62:8) and to “[pray] at all times in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18), “believe in God” (John 14:1) and ask of God (Luke 11:9). Prayer is the chief exercise of faith. John 15:7 also shows us that God’s Word and faith and therefore prayer are inextricably linked. Faith is a response to God’s word: “faith comes from hearing and hearing through the wo...

“Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.” ( Matthew 5:8 ) THIS is another of the Beatitudes that has been grossly perverted by the enemies of the Lord; enemies who have, like their predecessors the Pharisees , posed as the champions of the truth and boasted of a sanctity superior to that confessed by the true people of God. All through this Christian era there have been poor deluded souls who have claimed an entire purification of the old man, or who have insisted that God has so completely renewed them that the carnal nature has been eradicated, so that they not only commit no sins but have no sinful desires or thoughts.  But God tells us: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 Jn. 1:8). Of course such people appeal to the Scriptures in support of their vain delusion, and apply experientially verses that actually describe the legal benefits of the Atonement. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from a...

English: Ascension of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) How many of us have even heard of Ascension Day? Or perhaps just a sermon about Jesus’s ascension into heaven? It is impossible to overstate the importance of Good Friday, when Jesus died for our sins, and Easter Sunday , when he was raised from the dead — but Jesus’s earthly ministry did not stop there. After the resurrection, Jesus taught his disciples about God’s kingdom for forty days (Acts 1:3) and then he was “taken up” to heaven (Acts 1:2, 11). The cross and empty tomb are at the very heart of the gospel message proclaimed by Jesus’s followers throughout history (see 1 Corinthians 15:1–4). However, for many evangelical Christians and churches, Jesus’s ascension is simply an afterthought to Easter and Good Friday. Here I want to highlight six aspects of Jesus’s ascension or exaltation, in hopes that this significant and climactic event in Jesus’s life will no longer be an afterthought for you. 1. Jesus continues to wo...

English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) There’s only one supreme Lord over all the world, and that’s God . We are told in the Old Testament that this whole concept of dominion was shared with Adam and Eve.  Man was given dominion over the earth to be vice-regents for God, that is, vice kings to represent God’s reign on this planet. Of course, we made a terrible mess out of it, and we were subjected more and more to the power of Satan . That power of Satan was dealt not just a significant blow but a fatal blow by Christ in his incarnation. We’re told, first of all, that God the Father gives to Jesus all authority in heaven and on earth. In his ascension, Christ is seated at the right hand of God , where he is crowned as the King of kings and the Lord of lords . That was a tremendous blow to all worldly or satanic powers, principalities, and spiritual wickedness in high places. So who is in dominion over this world right now? The New Testament is perfectly...