Jesus our Ascended Prophet, Priest and King

On Ascension Day we discover that Jesus did not leave His Church behind, but ascended to reign as our Prophet, Priest, and King, fulfilling everything the Old Testament pointed toward and even now ruling, interceding, and speaking for His people.

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Our Ascended Prophet, Priest and King

One of the hardest parts of reading through the Bible in a year hits right around mid-Exodus into Leviticus. Page after page of priestly garments, ritual washings, bloody sacrifices, and endless instructions for the Tabernacle.

 I’ve heard people joke that February is the killer month in a Bible-in-a-Year plan even though it has the fewest days, because that’s when you start asking out loud: Why on earth do I need to know all this? Why all the blood and priests who never sit down? Today, on Ascension Day, we finally get the answer. All of it was pointing to Jesus. The Ascension is not Jesus disappearing. It is Jesus taking His throne as our Prophet, Priest, and King.

While it doesn’t get as much attention as other Holy Days, the Ascension is essential to the Christian faith because it tells us what Jesus is doing now. Christ’s ascending wasn’t abandoning His Church. He ascended to reign.

This morning I want us to look at the Ascension through the three great offices of Christ: Jesus is our Prophet, Jesus is our Priest, and Jesus is our King. In the Ascension, all three offices reach their fulfillment.

First, Jesus Ascends as our Prophet. In John chapters 14 through 16, during the Last Supper, Jesus tells His disciples that He is leaving them. The thought crushes them. But at the end of Luke’s Gospel, after Jesus ascends into Heaven, the disciples are no longer devastated. Luke says:

And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.

The event they dreaded most happened, yet they are filled with joy. Why?

Because Jesus had opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

(right before the Ascension He) said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, ⁴⁷ and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

That is the work of a prophet. A prophet is not just someone who predicts the future. A prophet is someone who speaks God’s Word faithfully and makes God known to His people. Jesus is the greatest Prophet because He not only teaches the Word of God, but He is also the Word of God made flesh. By ascending into Heaven, He sends the Holy Spirit to His Church so that the Gospel will go forth to every nation.

Jesus was not abandoning them, He was advancing the mission. He wasn’t leaving them in the dark. By sending His Spirit, He was opening their minds by sending the spirit so His voice would be heard to the ends of the Earth.

The Ascension means Christ still teaches His Church.

Second, Jesus Ascends as our Great High Priest. And this is where all those complicated sections of Leviticus suddenly matter. The Book of Hebrews is really one long sermon explaining why the Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus changes everything. Hebrews was written before the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in AD 70. After Jesus died, sacrifices were still being offered daily at the Temple altar. Animals were still dying. Priests were still standing. The rituals never ended. And some Jewish Christians were being tempted to go back into Temple worship as though Christ’s sacrifice were not enough.

But Hebrews says: Absolutely not. Listen to Hebrews 10:11-13:

Every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.”

The priests of the Old Covenant always stood because their work was never finished. Every day brought another sacrifice. Another cleansing. Another reminder that sin still stood between God and man.

For centuries the Temple altars never rested. Blood flowed daily because the debt of sin was never fully paid. But when Christ ascended, Heaven itself declared: “It is finished.” The sacrifice was enough. Sin had been answered. Redemption had been accomplished—once, for all, forever.

Because Jesus SAT DOWN. Though even now, our Great High Priest still intercedes for His people before the Father.

Finally, Jesus Ascends as King. In our reading from Daniel, the prophet sees a vision hundreds of years before Christ was born:

I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed

From earth, the disciples saw Jesus rise from the Mount of Olives and disappear into a cloud. From heaven, Daniel saw what was happening at that exact moment—the coronation.

Same event. Two perspectives. This was not departure.

This was His coronation.

The Father receives the Son and gives Him everlasting dominion over all creation. That is why Paul says Christ is seated

far above all rule and authority and power and dominion” (Ephesians 1:21). And Philippians 2 declares that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow.

Not only someday in the future. Christ reigns even now.

The One who wore a crown of thorns now wears the crown of everlasting glory.

So today we rejoice. As Prophet, Christ still speaks through His Word.

 As Priest, Christ has fully atoned for our sins.

As King, Christ reigns forever at the right hand of the Father over every enemy, every fear, every nation.

So today we can rejoice.

Our Savior is not absent.

Our Savior reigns. Our Savior is enthroned.

And one day, the same Jesus who ascended into heaven will return again in glory. Amen.