The apostle Paul begins at the very top. When he says that Jesus has ascended to be higher than all the heavens, we’re not hearing about yet another rising world power which has no enemies left to defeat. Well, at least not at that time!

But there comes a time for all earthly kings and generals and presidents and any other power here below. They won’t last forever here below. Because that’s exactly it – they are here below! There’s only one King up above – the same King who has won the supreme war of all by the power of His love.

What it Meant then⤒🔗

It’s helpful here to understand what it would have meant to those original hearers of Paul’s words. They lived then knowing the might of the Roman Imperial Forces. They heard and saw those generals who so often returned victoriously, bringing behind them, in their triumphant processions, all the captives and the riches of the conquered lands.

From the Scripture they had then, the Old Testament, this would recall the times when Israel’s great kings, like David and Solomon, returned from their annual battles. When they had finished conquering those the Lord had set out for them to defeat, they would return. Then they would rule over their kingdom, bringing the law to all that was theirs.

This is what we see in verse 10. A verse which is part of the picture Paul has painted of Christ’s ascension from verse 8. The verse which decisively shows where Christ is now.

1. The King sits on His Throne←↰⤒🔗

In a world where so much seems to be going wrong, the churches are in decline, and moral values are at an all-time low, we could almost wonder where it is all going to. No wonder many Christians become taken up with believing that things have to get a lot worse before the Lord returns, because they sure aren’t getting better! Reading and hearing some of them, they talk more about the devil than the Lord! If anything goes wrong, the devil gets the cop. Many televangelists show that.

God’s Word tells us that this shouldn’t be so. Instead of seeing reds under the bed everywhere, and so living in that constant state of fear, Christians, of all people, are to live knowing that Jesus has won.

This is the message of the ascension of Jesus Christ. While we know Pentecost as the time when Christ gave His Spirit in fullness upon His Church, it was something He could only do because He had taken up His throne. This is where Jesus will be until He returns on those clouds of glory.

But this time, He will sit on His throne with a crucial difference from before. That difference is because of what He has done in between. He who has now ascended, did that because He had descended to this lowly earth. The King of Kings walked on this planet, virtually unrecognised, so that many would come to see and acknowledge Him for who He truly is!

The kings and emperors of this world strut this world’s stage for their few years of fame and fortune. You can’t hear enough of them while they’re here – but then they’re gone, and it’s as if they never were here! The King of Kings didn’t strut, and now it’s as if He was always there – because He is! And in Him, so are we.

There are people who play politics so that they can end up on the winning side. Many a time in history has seen the demise and sometimes death of those who ‘followed the leader’ and lost. How different to the One Whom we follow! Christ Jesus has won. And He won through death! The death that took Him through hell!

2. The King sends those He has known←↰⤒🔗

Many of the world’s powers have been just that – powers. All they did was defeat and destroy. Some of the world’s powers, however, brought peace and order after they conquered. Even after those powers become defeated, what they set up has remained because it was useful. We can think of the Roman Empire and her roads and aqueducts and viaducts. We can think of Napoleon and how through him the Dutch now all have surnames (some interesting ones, too)!

Those empires used much of what they had taken over to benefit everyone. While they may have taken treasures back to Paris or Rome, they believed they had a responsibility to put something back. Something that would benefit everyone.

If that’s what an earthly empire can do, how much more can the King of all kings achieve! His reign is the very best – and it’s never ever going to stop! He who has all the blessings is the One Who’s going to give them all out.

And you know how He does this? He who has thousands upon thousands on the heavenly hosts at His disposal; He who can just say a word and tip the whole world upside down; He who controls the whole universe; how does He do this?

It’s through you and I, brother, sister. It’s we through whom the most powerful force this world has ever known is even right now – this very moment – ruling this world for Christ.

How? By the Word of the Lord. The Word Jesus quoted to refute the temptations of the devil in the desert is what we are to bring to the wilderness of this world. The Word which goes from the King.

This is where verse 11 comes in: “It was he – Jesus Christ – who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers...” They bring His Word – in a special way.

We know from other scripture that we’re all meant to know the Word and put it into practice. But how do we ourselves learn that Word?

Let me illustrate: We hear a lot of talk these days about the value of education. In fact, society has placed so much expectation on education that it can’t believe it’s not doing what they expected. They thought education was the answer to all our problems. Whether it was job opportunities or promiscuous sexual practices – whatever – education would fix it.

It hasn’t though – things have only got worse. That’s not because of education per se, but because of the type of education. That’s why it has to be a good education to give you the right breaks.

And that’s a lot more than words. In fact, you have the ultimate break of all because it’s the Lord Himself, by His Word and Spirit, Who taught you. That’s what apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers do. They are the way through which all the blessings in Christ become lived out in His Body – the Church.

In the New Testament Church, this point was literally true. The apostles were all eye­witnesses to the Lord Jesus Christ. They had known Him in His ministry, or, like Paul, met Him in an another way later.

But how about now – two thousand years on? There are no apostles or prophets nowadays, because the foundational work has finished. Just like the twelve sons and grandsons of Jacob were foundational in Israel’s history in the Old Testament, so the apostles were for New Testament Israel – the Church.

As the focus in the Old Testament was on God’s covenant in working through the twelve tribes, so the focus in the text isn’t on the apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers either. Our eyes are firmly fixed on God’s Word, which comes through them to all in Christ’s Body. To quote another apostle, Peter, it is the Word which stands forever (1 Peter 1:25). So it is through the cluster of gifts involved in proclaiming God’s Word that God’s people are prepared for what they were meant to do all along.

How does the Church of Jesus Christ make sure that the Word is being proclaimed? Isn’t it through the ordained offices of the Church? The elders of the Church are not only to supervise the preaching and teaching of the Word, but to teach it too, as Paul says later in his first letter to Timothy chapter 3. The Lord still sends those He has known. It’s through His Body, the Church, that certain believers are recognised for their gifts – the gifts which Paul speaks of here, the gifts of pastoring and teaching.

Just as it was the early New Testament church which set apart Matthias in Acts 1 and the seven deacons in Acts 4, so today the Church must continue putting faithful men in the offices of the Church. We do it according to God’s Word and in dependence on God’s Spirit.

Fellow believer – think about this. How did you come to have your heart convicted? Was it through reading the Bible – the Bible which is the apostolic and prophetic word preserved for us today? Maybe it was the preaching in a worship service? Or did it strike you at a Bible Study with your fellow believers? Perhaps it happened when Christians showed themselves to be a living Bible?

Didn’t it seem as if you had found something precious? Like a diamond set in the finest gold, it sparkled in the depths of your soul.

3. The King brings His rule to His own←↰⤒🔗

This is what verse 12 brings into focus. As the opening words of the verse says – the pastor-teacher is “to prepare God’s people for works of service.”

Notice that? What? Who’s going to do the work? God’s people. Not the minister, not the Session, not the Board of Management, not the Ladies Fellowship – much as they each and others do so much! – but all God’s people. The work of ministry belongs to every believer!

That’s why the word “prepare” is itself so rich here. On the one hand, it speaks of the feeding that the flock of the Lord needs in order to minister. This is the food Peter spoke of to the believers in his letters, “Like new-born babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1 Pet. 2:2f)

That’s why the elder’s calling is to make sure that God’s Word is consistently and thoroughly proclaimed! Woe betide the minister if he starts on a hobby horse! That’s exactly why Paul told Timothy, “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage ­ with great patience and careful instruction.” (2 Tim. 4:2)

On the other hand, the word “prepare” has the sense of cleansing. The business of preaching is to comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable. The truth is very comforting and enlightening, but it should also really bug us! It gets into our hearts and lives and really upsets us. The elders aren’t here because they’re popular! They’re here to make you hear ... God!

It’s only the Word of God which can teach a new Christian the difference between the flashy and keen zeal operating in the suave power of our sinful nature, and the quiet commitment of a Spirit-filled life which faithfully does its task, whether someone is watching or not. It’s as each of us is hit by the devastating impact of God’s Word “that the body of Christ may be built up.”

This cannot be shouted loud enough! Unless you are shaped upon the anvil of Scripture, the body of the Church in your place will be stunted. That’s why verse 13 goes on to say that the preaching of God’s Word must go on “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of God.” In other words, you’re going to need preaching until either Christ comes back, or He takes you up in death!

Until that time, we need to be found busy doing the Master’s will. Jesus isn’t bringing us under His rule if we’re busy doing our own selfish thing! That’s not keeping in step with His Spirit. And it’s a direction which is disastrous.

But you do know when this King is ruling over you. Then your attitude is like these words of Paul, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (3:12.)

Believer – He is the King! Bow down before Him! Confess what Paul wrote earlier in Ephesians 1, that “God placed all things under Jesus’ feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” (v22f.)

Believe Him and live in Him by listening to Him. Be there when He speaks. Don’t you be found absent when the citizens of His Kingdom cry out, “Long live the King!”