Question 13. What ascension is meant in John 20:17? Please explain that verse in connection with Matthew 28:9. R. B., L.
Ans. The Lord refers to His new position at the right hand of God. His ascension took place forty days after He rose from the dead. When He died, His spirit went to the Father to whom He commended it; but that is not ascension. “David is not ascended” (Acts 2:34); but he is “absent from the body and present with the Lord.”
Ascension is the Lord taking His place as a man at God’s right hand.
John 20:17-23 is an unfolding of the privileges of believers during the time the Lord is seated there. Mary had known Him as the Messiah, now the sheep of the Jewish fold are brought into the new position; and therefore she is told not to touch Him (2 Cor. 5:16). It is not now setting up the Kingdom in Israel. It is a new relationship, their position is changed. Redemption has brought them into new blessing. He sends the message to “My Brethren”. “I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God.”
This testimony gathers the disciples together, and Jesus came into their midst bringing news to them of the peace that He had made. What new joy this gave them.
Again He said “Peace unto you,” and sends them as the Father had sent Him, breathing on them as the risen One the more abundant life promised, John 10:10; and the Holy Spirit, that they might bear the message of love to others.
John 20:24-29; and Matthew 28:9, point to the future when, the church having been caught up, God will begin to deal with Israel again. Some will then believe before they see their coming Messiah, but the mass will not believe, till He comes on the clouds, when “every eye shall see Him,” then Israel will say like Thomas, “My Lord and My God.”
Question 14. Explain the difference between “Kingdom of God,” and “Kingdom of Heaven.” M. G.
Ans. It is the same kingdom under two different names. “Kingdom of the Heavens” is the rule of heaven upon earth. “Kingdom of God” is what it is relative to God. Matthew only calls it the “Kingdom of the Heavens.” The Holy Spirit uses him to describe its dispensational aspect.
Compare Matt. 3:2; 4:17 with Mark 1:14-15; Luke 4:43.
Compare Matt. 5:3 with Luke 6:20.
Compare Matt. 10:7 with Luke 9:2; 10:9,11.
Compare Matt. 18:3; 19:14 with Mark 10:14-15; Luke 18:16-17.
Compare Matt. 19:23-26 with Mark 10:23-27; Luke 18:24-29.
Compare Matt. 18:3 with John 3:3. Compare Matt. 11:11 with Luke 7:28. Compare Matt. 13:11 with Luke 8:10.
The Jews rightly expected a King to reign in power over them, but as they did not repent, this has been postponed. Now, it is a kingdom in patience and suffering; the King being rejected and absent from the earth. In this form it is spoken of as the “Mysteries of the Kingdom.”
Matthew 21:43 tells it was taken from the Jews, the children by natural birth as a nation, and given to others, who received it by the seed being sown in them.
Matthew 22 explains when it commenced; Matthew 22:2 is the message to the nation of Jews before Christ died.
Matthew 22:4 is the message to them after Christ rose from the dead and went to heaven. In Acts 3:12,26 the nation is set aside; Jerusalem is destroyed (Matt. 22:7) and the message goes out to the Gentiles (Matt. 22:9-10). Matthew 24 and 25 show its ending in its present form.
The Son of Man will come and claim it as His Kingdom, while the heavenly saints, caught up, will shine as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father (Matt. 13:41,43).
The principles of Matthew 5, 6 and 7 will prevail then, except that Christ will not be rejected then. Matthew 5:11 shows their application now.
The “Kingdom of God” leads us to think of what suits God’s character. In Acts and the Epistles it is what belongs to Christ’s new place as man exalted to the Father’s right hand, “Not yet all things put under Him.” The Kingdom in power was postponed: a Kingdom in patience and suffering now taking its place (Rev. 1:9).
Matthew 13 unfolds in seven parables what is going on now in a two-fold view; the external state of which man is responsible, and the hidden thing, as viewed from the point of God’s sovereign grace, and which is indeed the fruit of His love.
It changes at the coming of the Son of Man to a Kingdom in power, when the King shall reign in righteousness, when in Israel’s land, “They shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord:’ for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest” (Jer. 31:31,34; Heb. 8:11-12).
Question 15. Please explain 1 Corinthians 15:21-22. N. S. C.
Ans. “For since by man came” (consequence of Adam’s sin) “death,” “by man came” (consequence of Christ’s victory over death as man) “also the resurrection of the dead.” “For as in Adam all die” (death is entailed on his race), “even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (those in Him share in His triumph over death).
The resurrection of the saints is what is before the mind of the Spirit; the resurrection of the body, not the impartation of eternal life to our souls.
1 Corinthians 15:26 alludes to the resurrection of the wicked in the destruction of death and hades.