Up with Jesus!
President GW said good-bye to the nation in his famous Farewell Address. In it, he included:
…Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion, and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labour to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man ought to respect and to cherish them.
In 1983, the U.S. House of Representatives quietly dropped a fifty-year-old tradition. The tradition involved the annual reading of George Washington’s farewell address on his birthday. Democrat and Republican leaders decided it was useless to continue to read the lengthy address to a mostly empty chamber. “It’s too bad,” said a GOP aide, “but it’s time for this to be consigned to the dustbin.”
Stated “The Calgary Herald”: “In past years, it was almost holy writ that the address must be read. Through war and storm for half a century, a member of each chamber has been chosen to read the address.” Declared the newspaper heading, “Nobody listens to Washington’s farewell address.”
A parallel to this has taken place in the Christian church. Fewer and fewer believers are listening to Christ’s farewell message. To His disciples, Christ gave clear instructions - to go to all nations with the Gospel and there to make disciples. Then, He ascended to His Father.
The most important events in Jesus’ life certainly include His birth, baptism, temptation, transfiguration, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. We tend to overlook His ascension and let the resurrection overshadow it. Yet, the ascension is a critical part of God’s plan.
Jesus spent forty days making believers and instructing His disciples. He told them to make disciples as they went throughout the world (Matthew 28:18-20). Among the last things He told them was to wait in Jerusalem for power. Listen to His conversation with the disciples in Acts 1:4-8 (NKJV):
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Following this interchange, Jesus ascended back to His Father. Angels urged the disciples forward and described His return. Let’s continue in Acts 1:9-11 (NKJV):
9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, 11 who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
Much like we do when we visit our loved ones, Jesus reviewed the things He accomplished on His visit and what they needed to accomplish in His absence. He promised to stay in touch with them and told them of His plans to see them again.
Jesus ascended in plain sight of His disciples and anyone on the Mount of Olives. If you let your imagination wander, you can imagine the disciples staring into the skies as Jesus ascended. No wonder they had to be shaken into reality by the two “men” in white. They had never seen anything like this, and perhaps they imagined Enoch or Elijah as they watched Him depart.
Luke describes Jesus’ ascension in his gospel in Luke 24:50-52 (NKJV):
50 And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. 51 Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen.
Some scholars believe that the way Jesus blessed His disciples with the priestly blessing which is described in Numbers 6:22-27 (NKJV):
22 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them:
“The LORD bless you and keep you;
25 The LORD make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
26 The LORD lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.” ’
27 “So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”
Although Aaron and future High Priests addressed large crowds with this benediction from the LORD, they did so in the singular. The LORD promised to bless each individual. As those disciples heard the Lord Jesus bless them, they anticipated a personal blessing from Him.
The disciples received a personal gift of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the coming days. As Jesus promised, the Spirit came at Pentecost while the 120 waited for His power to come. That day God changed His address from the Most Holy Place in the temple to the hearts of believers.
The ascension was the culmination of the eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ resurrection. Perhaps it was here that more than 500 witnessed His renewed presence. He had descended into the grave, rose from the dead, and then returned to the Father.
The disciples saw Jesus ascend, but Stephen saw His destination. As Saul of Tarsus and his gang of thugs assaulted and proceeded to stone him, he received a gift from the Lord. Stephen declared in Acts 8:56 (NKJV):
“Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
In Hebrews 1:3 (NKJV), the writer tells us about Jesus’ current place with God. He wrote, “. . . when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” The writer pictures Jesus’ place of authority at the right hand of His Father and a place of rest from His labors. However, Stephen saw the Lord standing, not sitting. Jesus expressed His awareness of and concern for Stephen as he suffered for the gospel.
Jesus IS in heaven with the Father, but He is aware of our struggles on earth. In Revelation, He addressed the “seven churches of Asia” and their issues. Jesus knew what they were facing and how they were responding. He gave appropriate correction and encouragement to those who needed it.
Knowing that Jesus is aware of our circumstances gives us a sense of comfort. In Psalm 145:18 (NKJV), the writer reminds us that God is near when he stated:
18 The LORD is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.
The ascension may make us think Jesus is removed from us, but He is ever-present with His people, as He said in Matthew 28:20 (NKJV), “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” He does not abandon His people.
Jesus not only ascended to heaven in the physical sight of His apostles, but He has also ascended in His status. The writer of Hebrews points out that Jesus is higher than the angels and has become a more excellent High Priest than Aaron. He has achieved the priestly status of Melchizedek and led in the formation of a new priesthood. Consider Hebrews 7:1-3 (NKJV) as an introduction to the comparison of Jesus and Melchizedek.
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” 3 without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.
Jesus was from the tribe of Judah and could not be a Levitical priest. However, He is our High Priest in the same way Melchizedek was for Abraham. Jesus is also King of Salem or Peace. Salem would become Jerusalem, the place where Jesus will reign. He is both the King and the High Priest, as was Melchizedek.
Jesus established a new priesthood among His followers. We are the priesthood of all believers and are not restricted to one tribe or group. Peter describes us in 1 Peter 2:5, 9 (NKJV):
5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
Jesus is always superior; after all, He is God. Whatever He does is above what we can or even what the angels can do. Listen again to the writer of Hebrews (Hebrews 7:26-28, NKJV).
26 For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless [or innocent], undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints the Son who has been perfected forever.
Jesus has ascended as our High Priest. He does not repeatedly offer sacrifices. He has no sin and has removed the sins of His followers. No more sacrifices are necessary.
In the opening chapter of his gospel account, Matthew points out that Jesus is the descendant of David, who would be King of the Jews. Let me give you a simple lesson on “gematria,” assigning a numerical value to a name, word, or phrase according to an alphanumerical cipher. The number for David, according to the Hebrew alphabet, is fourteen. As Matthew lists the genealogy of Jesus, he divides it into three sets of fourteen, thus emphasizing the relationship of Jesus to His ancestor in the flesh, King David, the ideal of earthly kings of Israel as he was “a man after God’s heart.”
You would expect that the birth of a king-to-be would come with pomp and glamour, but Jesus came in an ultra-ordinary fashion. His conception of the virgin was supernatural, but He came into the world naturally by birth. As the prophet predicted (Micah 5:2), He was not born in a palace but in a sheepfold in Bethlehem. Mary laid Him in a manger for the shepherds to see (Luke 2). The angelic host announced His birth to the world as one would announce the birth of royalty. Eventually, wise men from the east came to pay homage to Him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Many Bible characters experienced peaks and valleys in their lives. Jacob’s son, Joseph, experienced years of the pit when his brothers sold him into slavery. He went from slavery to prison, and then God raised him to the heights of Egypt as the second in command of the whole country.
In many ways, Jesus' life parallels Joseph's. Jesus descended from the heights with His Father and bore our sins to the depths. He rose from the dead as Joseph seemed to his father, Jacob. Now Jesus sits at the right hand of God as Joseph sat at Pharaoh's right hand.
And one more thing. Joseph's family buried him in Egypt when he died. They carried his bones back to Canaan when the nation left under Moses' leadership. The tomb in Egypt is empty as the borrowed tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, which temporarily housed Jesus' body.
According to Isaiah, the Coming One would not attract people by His looks or physique. He would be an ordinary-looking man. In Isaiah 53:2 (NKJV), he states:
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
Then the prophet continues in the following verse:
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of [e]sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
I have heard that candidates in the world of American politics must portray a specific image. Men generally must be clean-shaven and tall. They can’t appear too young or can’t be too old. Much like “Baby Bear’s porridge,” they must be “just right,” or they do not have a chance to win an election.
Jesus was the ordinary One who became extraordinary. During His ministry, individuals traveled great distances to see, hear, and interact with Him. The same is true today. People from all over the world seek Jesus. We want to know His mind and how to live according to His words. We have raised Him up, not because He is physically attractive or even an articulate speaker (we’ve never heard one of His sermons), but because of who He is.
We are so attracted to Jesus because He is “lifted up.” God lifted Him from the grave and lifted Him in the ascension to heaven to take His seat on high. However, the Romans first lifted Him on the cross as Jesus predicted on various occasions.
Jesus addressed Nicodemus in John 3:14-15 (NKJV) and declared His death.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
Later, He restated His impending death and the positive outcome. John 12:31-33 (NKJV):
31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” 33 This He said, signifying by what death He would die.
The Romans lifted Jesus from the earth on the cross. He died the sacrificial death to take away the sins of the world. The preaching of the gospel with its facts of His death, burial, and resurrection, exalts or lifts Him up. When we lift Him up, He draws us to Himself so we can rise, too. Paul wrote of this in Colossians 2:12 and 3:1-4 (NKJV):
12buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
1If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
The last thing we consider is that we lift Jesus in our worship and praise. Worship is a sacred event for Christians that is bigger than singing a few songs or saying a few prayers. Worship comes from the heart and is observed by an audience of One, God Himself. Consider these quotes from two of our Founders.
Benjamin Franklin:
Let me not fail, then, to praise my God continually, for it is His due, and it is all I can return for His many favors and great goodness to me; and let me resolve to be virtuous, that I may be happy, that I may please Him, who is delighted to see me happy. Amen!
Robert Treat Paine, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence:
“I desire to bless and praise the name of God most high for appointing me my birth in a land of Gospel Light where the glorious tidings of a Savior and of pardon and salvation through Him have been continually sounding in mine ears.”
God raised Jesus from the dead and brought Him home in His ascension. We lift Him up in respect, honor, and praise in our proclamation of the gospel and worship.
Let’s Keep The Light of Lifting Jesus Up Burning!
GodNAmerica.com GodNAmerica@gmail.com 405.361.3123
