Acts 1:6-11
Eph 1:18-23
The Ascension 29 MAY 2014
The New Testament records how Jesus died on what we now call Good Friday
and how He rose from the dead on what we now call Easter Sunday.
I prefer to call it Resurrection Sunday,
1. because the word Easter is not in the Bible, and
2. because the word Easter is derived from the name of the pagan god Ishtar.
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Then the New Testament records how the risen Jesus spent 40 days
teaching His disciples, the apostles, on how to spread His teachings,
and build His church;
and then He physically ascended into heaven,
where He is now, seated at the right hand of the Father,
and from whence He shall return,
at some time in the future.
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40 days is 5 weeks and 5 days
so the Ascension is always celebrated on the 6th Thursday after Resurrection,
i.e. Easter, Sunday.
Next Thursday will see many Christians
gather for a special service to celebrate the Ascension,
to thank God for Jesus' incarnation, teaching, death and resurrection
and prepare themselves for His 2nd Advent
by repenting of their sin
and asking God to keep them strong in faith
whatever the world, the flesh and the devil throws against them.
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The Ascension meant a lot to Jesus;
it meant He had completed His mission on earth,
His period of humiliation,
and could return to His Father
and His state of exaltation,,
and that He could send the Holy Spirit on the first believers,
to equip them to spread the Gospel from Jerusalem, through Judea
and to the ends of the earth.
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What does the Ascension mean to us?
I t hink it is sad that many Christians give little heed to it
compared to Christmas or Easter or even Pentecost/Whit Sunday.
Even worse, many otherwise faithful and believing Christians
seem embarassed to talk to unbelievers about Jesus
rising up and disappearing into the sky.
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It does take faith to believe that,
and share it with people outside the church,
who might be prepared to believe in some sort of God,
but Jesus physically rising up into the sky ….......................!!!!!!!!!!
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But if we believe the Bible;
if we believe in the virgin birth and Incarnation,
and if we believe in miracles and healings,
and if we believe Jesus rose from the dead;
why should we have problems in believing the account in Acts 1 verses 6-11?
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There can be no neutrality about Jesus.
We cannot simply pick and choose from what the Bible says about Him,
believing what is comfortable to believe
and putting to one side those that are more difficult.
The Ascension is in the Bible
and the event is proof that we are dealing with more than a man.
Through His literal and physical ascent into the heavenlie,
defying gravity and lack of oxygen,
we see that Jesus was not only a prophet, but God in the flesh.
In MP162 Graham Kendrick wrote:
'From heaven you came, helpless babe,
entered a world, Your glory veiled, ….
this is our God, the Servant King.
He calls us now to follow Him
and bring our lives as a daily offerng
of worship to the Servant King'.
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Our Lord’s ascension was a climactic, glorious event;
it saw His exaltation to the right hand of the Father,
from where He originally came to earth through Mary.
Paul writes, “He who descended is the very One
who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe” (Eph 4:10).
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Jesus humbly came to this earth; born in a stable;
He descended to a sin-racked planet, and even went to the gates of hell for us.
But 40 days after His resurrection He is seen returning to glory.
It’s important that we believe the account in the Bible is literally true,
and Jesus did not, as Mormons believe, sail to America.
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Luke, a doctor, a learned man,
not someone easily taken it by liars or exaggeraters
tells us it took place “before their very eyes.”
Just as with the Crucifixion and iResurrection, there were eyewitnesses to it!
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It was a historical event.
It was a unique and spectacular moment!
The Bible tells us that Jesus ascended bodily.
This means that He took into the Father’s presence
the evidence of His sacrificial death,
the holes in His hands, feet and side.
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Hebrews 9:12 says, “through His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place,
and with it He secured our salvation forever.”
His sacrifice was accepted: divine justice was satisfied,
then, 'mission accomplished',
the Saviour was received home
as a beloved Son returning from a long and hazardous journey.
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On the day Jesus ascended to Heaven,
40 days after His Resurrection,
His followers stood on the Mount of Olives grief-stricken.
Imagine the ups and downs of their emotions.
On Good Friday they would have been as downcast as any human could be,
but then came their amazement and joy on the First Day of the following week,
and then, glory, 40 days with Him,
and then He ascends into heaven,
leaving them downcast again.
It took two angels to reassure them that this was part of the eternal Plan,
then Luke’s Gospel says that they “returned to Jerusalem with great joy”
(chap 24:52)
where they waited for the Holy Spirit to come upon them.
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St Augustine reflects this benefit to them, and us in a prayer:
“You ascended from before our eyes,
and we turned back grieving, only to find You in our hearts.”
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No longer limited by time or space, through the Holy Spirit,
Jesus is present in us, wherever we go.
He is our constant Companion,
but probably, like the disciples, we really wish Jesus hadn't gone.
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We often feel distanced from Him,
as if we were among the people looking up into the empty sky,
wishing Jesus was here with us.
But even though we may not feel His presence,
we are assured that He will never leave or forsake us!
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Often, especially in times of need, we ask ourselves, “Where is God now?”
Where was He during the Holocaust?
Had Jesus remained on earth,
He’d be around to answer our questions and resolve our nagging doubts.
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'Where is Jesus now?'
the honest enquirers, and the mockers ask,
to which we reply Jesus is now seated in the heavenly Holy of Holies
at the “right hand” of the Father,
the “right hand” being a poetic way of signifying the place of highest honour and authority.
There was no greater honour among earthly kings
than for a trusted advisor or queen to be seated at their right hand.
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The right hand is also the place of power and majesty.
The Ascension is described in the book of Psalms with battle imagery:
“When You ascended on high
You led captives in Your train and received gifts from men” (68:18).
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40 days after His resurrection,
Jesus returned home as a mighty conqueror
who had accomplished all that the Father wanted Him to do.
Before Jesus died on the cross, He said, “It is finished.”
These words would be to His Father
as well as to those gathered at the cross.
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Our Lord’s ascent is proof of His victory over sin and death
and assures us that we too can overcome sin and death.
Whenever we feeldiscouraged,
which the devil loves,
it's good to remind ourselves that we are on the winning side!
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So, what is Jesus doing now, at this very minute?
He is working for us, interceding for us, putting a word in for us;
hearing and responding to our prayers
as they accord with the Father's plans and purposes.
Why? Because we are His people.
Ascended on high, He is our Mediator, Advocate and great High Priest
of a quality that no prophet or even angel or archangel
could adequately represent us with.
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John Calvin wrote, “Jesus has entered heaven in our flesh, as if in our name.”
In a sense, as Paul writes, we are seated with God
“in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6).
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We might never get the chance to talk to the Queen or PM or FM,
but we can go Higher, we can pray to the King of the Universe,
Who is not dead, but risen, and ascended on high.
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That is wonderful, but even better,
The fact of Our Lord’s ascension
assures us that one day, and through no merits of our own,
we too will be taken up to Heaven,
either when we die,
or at the Rapture if it occurs beforehand,
and even as we speak, the risen and glorified Jesus is there
preparing a place for us.
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Many people fear death,
yet for believers, death is no longer something to worry about.
The process of dying maybe, but not the fact of death,
because we have the prmise of an eternal home, signed in blood.
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One day He’ll call us to cross over to Glory
and join Him in His Kingdom.
In the meantime, we have to wait, and serve Him, and pray, and witness,
and yes, often experience pain and hardship.
What is called 'The theology of the cross' is a very real thing for many.
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If we look down, and around, everything looks bleak
but if we look up, like the apostles
that Luke wrote about in Luke 24 and Acts 1
we can see where He has gone
and be assured that one day He will return,
if we don't meet Him in heaven first.
Amen and the peace of God be with you all.
