Thursday, May 27, will be Ascension Day.

The Church Order of the Christian Reformed Church calls for a worship service on that day in commemoration of the glorious ascension of our Lord to heaven.

Rev. Morris H. Faber, writer of this Ascension Day article, is a Christian Reformed Church minister living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After serving three congregations, Rev. Faber taught Bible at the Grand Rapids Christian High School from 1952 until his retirement in 1973.

“When He ascended on high . . . He gave gifts to men” (Eph. 4:8). When we read these words we are in the New Testament. However, they appeared centuries before in the Old Testament. So in David‘s day and since then the Old Testament saints read them in Psalm 68:18. What we wonder is how those readers understood them.

Maybe, however, they understood them to refer to David himself, the author of the Psalm. He ascended Mount Zion many a time and there he both received and gave gifts, like government, power, riches, honor, and peace. So if the Old Testament saints understood the words in this way, they didn‘t do half bad either. And even if some understood those words in both those ways, they didn‘t do half bad so far.

However, none of those understandings is anywhere nearly complete, for the Old Testament words are Messianic. That is to say, the verse refers to the Messiah, to Christ. Hence no understanding of it and its meaning can possibly be complete unless it sees Jesus as the One in whom alone they find their fullest and greatest meaning.

Jesus ascended on high, ascended to heaven, and when He did He both received gifts and gave them to men. The complete list of those gifts would have to include more than is given in Ephesians 4. It would have to include the miracles, healings, helps, governments, and tongues of 1 Corinthians 12:28. Also the faith, hope, and love of I Corinthians 13. Also the Spirit’s fruits of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance of Galatians 5:22f. Also the mercies, kindness, humbleness, forbearance, forgiveness, thankfulness, and singing of Colossians 3:12–15. Also the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption of I Corinthians 1:30. And also finally the gift of the Holy Spirit Himself promised in John 14:16. It is only for convenience that we here and now limit our consideration to Ephesians 4:11, where the gifts are all men and women.

1. The first named arc the apostles.

There are twelve of them, unless we add Matthias and Paul as we should do. Then the list swells a bit, reminding us how God gives good measure, shaken down, pressed together, running over (Luke 6:38). These apostles were a notable group comparable to the remarkable prophets of the Old Testament. These apostles were called by Jesus in order to be with Him, to go about with Him, to cast out demons, to heal the sick, and to preach the gospel (Luke 9:1). Their marks of qualification were that they had traveled around with Jesus, could do miracles, had seen the resurrected Christ, and were directly called by Him. Their great future is that they will occupy a throne apiece at Christ’s return and so with Him judge the twelve tribes. Their greatest function was that upon them (and the prophets) the Christians and the church arc built, with Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. Such is what we are told in Ephesians 2:20, and it explains very briefly how they constitute a gift of Christ ascended, a gift to His church. How can they constitute the church‘s foundation?

It cannot be because the apostles were such special men physically or morally or artistically or intellectually or even religiously. It must be in what they preached and taught—their doctrine! Remember how in Matthew 16 the subject came up of, Who do you think Jesus is? Then it was that Peter answered for all twelve, “Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said, “Upon this rock [of confession] I will build my church.” So there we have the foundation of the church, the apostolic confession, expanded later in the Apostles’ Creed.

2. The second named gift is the prophets and prophetesses.

They are referred to several times, especially in Acts. Chapter eleven says that there were some of them in Jerusalem who went three hundred miles north to Antioch. There one of them named Agabus predicted a famine, and when it came to pass the disciples in that city all pitched in to send a famine relief to the saints in Jerusalem and Judea. None less than Barnabas and Saul delivered the contribution. The same Agabus later foretold in Acts 21 the imprisonment of Paul at the hands of Jerusalem Jews. This prediction by the Spirit was made in Caesarea where lived Philip the deacon who had four daughters all prophetesses. What we wish we had is some more details of all these prophesyings’ contents, but not many are given us. We are certain that more was included than predictions alone. Biblical prophecy is never limited to predictions.

These prophet(esse)s had revelations from God These they were able to add to the Old Testament and to use for explaining Old Testament Messianic passages. Such revelations, we feel sure, were of great benefit to the church while the New Testament was in the making. The benefit was increased, too, by the exhorting and preaching done by the prophet(esse)s. The nature thereof may be inferred from I Corinthians 14:3, where Paul says that “he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort.” The high value of all this is suggested to us when we notice that the prophet(esse)s are listed right after the apostles and constituting with them the foundation of the church.

3. The third named gift is the evangelists.

Named examples are Philip the deacon and Timothy. In the second epistle to the latter, chapter four verse five, Timothy is exhorted to “do the work of an evangelist.” That work appears to have been that of going to different places as a missionary to the unconverted and a minister to the converted. In the former respect Philip is noted as being in or near Jerusalem, Samaria, Gaza, Ashdod, and Caesarea. In the last named place he had a house, so presumbly he took up permanent residence there.

The other evangelist mentioned, Timothy, is presented as serving an established church as. well as transferring from one place to another. To judge from the exhortations given him, Timothy‘s work consisted of preaching, reproving, exhorting, and watching against errors. These details remind us that developing a saint may take more work than would converting a sinner. It is just like the good Shepherd to give gifts for both tasks, thus loving His people to the end (John 13:1).

4. The last named group given by Christ consists of pastors and teachers.

Right at the start the combination shows us that they ought not to be separated so that some present the gospel, others teach, and neither does both. As John Vande Water put the two together forty years ago, so would we: “Reject the distinction that is often made between ‘Gospel’ and ‘Doctrine.’ Though Mission preaching must be simple, earnest, and persuasive, mere exhortation without instruction will make also this kind of preaching superficial and stale.”1

The combination of pastors and teachers also shows us that Christ desires total care for His church. This desire may further appear from the fact that this combined group is the only one of the gifts to have remained in the church from the beginning through the centuries. It may be seen today in the faithful and devoted work of elders and ministers in local congregations. How much we owe to faithful elders and deacons! Recently I heard of a young lady in the church who expressed hopelessness and helplessness in view of the devil’s control of the world. In such despondency Christ’s ascension and its gifts should yield us both hope and help. For at the end of Christ’s ascension was a throne that meant sway over land and sea. We should distinguish between the God of the world and the god of this world (Bandstra). And the ruler over all exercises His rule for the benefit of the church, this partly by means of the ascension‘s gifts.

How sad thus that the ascension is so much disparaged, alike by being denied on the one hand and ignored on the other. The Scripture of Ephesians 4 shows and even underscores the actuality and the indispensability of Christ’s ascent. It does so in saying that “when He ascended on high He led captivity captive.” The meaning of that strange expression is clear from its occurrence in two other passages.

In Isaiah 14:2 we read, “they shall take them captive, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.” And in Judges 5:12 we read, “Arise, Barak, and lead captive them who held you captive.” The meaning in each case is to lead captive what held you captive. Now what held captive Christ‘s people is sin, death, the devil, and demons. These are all defeated by Christ, and the proof is Christ’s ascension. That ascension is a triumph, a victory, one over all the forces of evil.

The giving of gifts is Christ’s showing of the fulness with which all His people share in the triumph. So the ascension should he remembered as an indispensable part of Christ‘s work of redemption, not one whit less so than His very death or resurrection. Tn fact, that last does not mean that Christ’s soul lives on, period. Nor does it mean that His body came alive again, period. Nor that it rose to a level with the surface of the earth, period. It means that His body came back to life and rose up from the grave even to heaven‘s height! “It is Christ . . . that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God” (Rom. 8:34).

And so to “every one of us is given the gift of Christ” (Eph. 4:7).

To you and me?

1. Miracles in Forgotten Streets, Eerdmans.