Good Morning Friends,
Well today is ‘Ascension Day’ according to Catholic Calendars and I did not want to neglect it for like Jesus’ birth, baptism, temptation, transfiguration, crucifixion, resurrection, the ascension is one of the most important events in His life. It marks the day of Jesus’ coronation. So, get out your Bibles and turn to the last chapters in Luke and read the Word. It is interesting to me that not all of the Gospels record this event. John says little about the ascension of Jesus, aside from Jesus’ conversation with Mary at the tomb that it had yet to happen. Interesting, John ended his Gospel, saying, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” Matthew ended his Gospel with Jesus gathering with His disciples on a mountain in Galilee. He issued the Great Commission and then promised, “And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.” Mark ended his Gospel with a speech similar to the Great Commission in Matthew, and then he wrote, “After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.” It is Luke the careful historian who gives the most ink to the ascension of Jesus. Some ponder, having read the accounts, if there were two Ascensions. The last chapters in Luke read like the resurrection and ascension happened the same day. Early Christians apparently celebrated the Ascension on a Sunday. Nothing says that Jesus could not come and go as he pleases, and he did say he would return, so why not multiple times. Acts 1 clearly indicates that the Ascension occurred 40 days after the Resurrection. In previous devotions I have connected the message of the Ascension with our own deaths, a time when we certainly would like the presence of Jesus with us. so, think of Jesus on the cross telling the thief that on the day of their death, they both would be in Paradise. And maybe that is why people are uncomfortable with the Ascension. It makes them stare down death. But if you are uncomfortable with this reality, you are making a mistake. Maybe we do not like goodbyes or maybe we really do not want to acknowledge Christ as King or have trouble believing that Jesus defies gravity. But, if we gloss over its truth or worse deny it, we rob ourselves of an important doctrine, for without the Ascension, the work of Christ would be incomplete. So, What Does Our Belief In the Ascension Tell Us About Ending Well?
Scripture: “A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me.” Then some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying to us, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” They said, “What does he mean by this ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Are you discussing among yourselves what I meant when I said, ‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’? Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy.
John 16:16-20 (NRSV)
In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away.
Acts 1:1-12 (NRSV)
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church ,which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Ephesians 1:17-23 (NRSV)
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
Ephesians 4:1-13 (NRSV)
And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.
Mark 16:15-20 (NRSV)
When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
Acts 1:9 (NRSV)
Thanksgiving for Victory
To the leader. A Psalm of David. In your strength the king rejoices, O Lord, and in your help how greatly he exults! You have given him his heart’s desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah For you meet him with rich blessings; you set a crown of fine gold on his head. He asked you for life; you gave it to him— length of days forever and ever. His glory is great through your help; splendor and majesty you bestow on him. You bestow on him blessings forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence. For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved. Your hand will find out all your enemies; your right hand will find out those who hate you. You will make them like a fiery furnace when you appear. The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath, and fire will consume them. You will destroy their offspring from the earth, and their children from among humankind. If they plan evil against you, if they devise mischief, they will not succeed. For you will put them to flight; you will aim at their faces with your bows. Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength! We will sing and praise your power.
Psalm 21 (NRSV)
He entered once for all into the holy place, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
Hebrews 9:12 (NRSV)
Message: The gospel writer Luke, who also wrote Acts, is renowned as a careful historian. When he recorded the Ascension, he rooted it in its historical setting by recalling the place of the event – at Bethany…the place Jesus called home. It was a very real event in history, with witnesses, but also a mystery in the sense that it is beyond the scope of our human experience. The Ascension takes us into the realm of the supernatural and signals the ending of a chapter in his earthly life. Here the Resurrection and the Ascension are milestones in the process whereby Jesus finally enters the glory of God. The Jesus of Earth becomes the Christ of heaven. This is a historical event but also a spiritual one with two timelines. Just as death and the grave could not hold Jesus, so the Earth could not hold him. When the time came for him to return to his Father the event is marked in history and mystery as to whether Jesus ascended twice. But it is the beauty from the spiritual perspective of the Ascension of Jesus that helps us to see how it is possible for him to be close to each one of us in every part of our lives. And that is very practical and moves us to act in the Spirit we have been given and in the structure of what remains in our life together in service to our Lord. In a very practical way, the Ascension reminds us of the Future Coming of Jesus to judge the world and our need to be ready to give account of our stewardship. We are not to stand looking up to heaven all the time but are encouraged to continue the work of our Lord realizing Christ’s Spirit will never leave us. Easter is incomplete, Pentecost is impeded if Jesus did not Ascend to heaven. Our Lord’s ascension is a climactic, glorious event, it is His exaltation to the right hand of the Father. Jesus humbly came to this earth; He descended to a sin-ruined planet and went even to the gates of hell for us. Now He is seen returning to glory. It’s important that this event is described in the Bible. Luke tells us it took place “before their very eyes.” He wants us to know that something tangible, something real took place. Just as with the Resurrection, there were eyewitnesses to this historical event. It was a unique and spectacular moment! They saw the cloud take their Master to His heavenly home; this cloud was an OT image of the presence and glory of God, first seen in the wilderness wanderings of the Jews in route to the Promised Land. And the Bible tells us that Jesus ascended bodily. This means that He took into the Father’s presence the evidence of His sacrificial death—His own scarred, bloodied, wounded flesh. Just as the blood of the Jewish Temple sacrifices were brought into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement and sprinkled upon the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant, so Jesus ascended to Heaven as both Priest and Sacrifice.
And So, like the disciples, we really don’t want Jesus to go. We can feel detached from Him. We can find ourselves looking up into the blank sky, wishing Jesus were closer to home. Even though we may not feel His presence, we are assured that He will never leave or forsake us! Yet the ascension is admittedly can be a struggle for us in times of trouble. Yet the Ascension is no minor episode, it is the Coronation Day for Jesus, and the promise of Jesus fulfilled that He would go and prepare a place for us. Though often overlooked, the ascension completes Jesus’s earthly mission and signifies his rule as heavenly king. It occurs forty days after the Resurrection and marks the completion of the Father’s mission assigned to Jesus. It is important because the Ascension marks the shift in Jesus’ role and the role of the disciples. For now, Christ has all authority and arbitrates with all sympathy as our mediator from heaven even as the gift of the Holy Spirit begins to empower the evangelistic actions of the disciples that Jesus emphasized just before he went up and they went out. The ascension of Jesus has similar implications for our lives. The Ascension grounds us in the coming of Jesus’ spiritual presence, even as we begin to grasp that we in time will no longer be confined to the limitations of this life and may from time to time get a glimpse of the new life we are to lead. Here it becomes clearer that the sacred and the secular can no longer be separated…the Holy of Holies has been opened. Things have forever changed. This message shares one of the most important truths in scriptures. Friends, we know He rose, but we also know which way He went during His departure, and we know the direction in which we have been pointed until his return. Scripture cannot be said to rule out the possibility that there were two Ascensions of Jesus, one on resurrection Sunday and another one several weeks later. In support of this last idea, it is often pointed out that Luke 24 and Acts 1:3 was written by the same author and that therefore two Ascensions are more probable than an inconsistency in the accounts. The Ascension of Jesus and the thought that there is more than one ascension gives us hope that we too might end well. This event reassures Christians of their hope in the promise of eternal life and for now the ongoing intercession of Jesus with us in the redemptive work of God. Ultimately the Ascension teaches us that ending well involves recognizing Jesus’ authority and the completion of the work that prepares us to experience His presence in Heaven with our own ascension. Friends, maybe we should not be so concerned about the chronology of the events. Then again, maybe the third time’s the charm.
Pray we realize that Jesus reigns now and with us and in us bringing us closer to heaven when we pray. Pray we acknowledge him as the Son of God and the King of Creation but also a man showing us the way. Pray that we appreciate that he kept his Word. Pray we follow the route and Way he has provided for us. Pray that His Kingdom is established in our hearts. Pray we live boldly and confidently and strategically knowing that our labors in the Lord Jesus are not in vain. Pray we realize that we have hope of a glorious future. Pray that though Jesus’ throne is in heaven we still find him in our hearts. Pray we believe that Jesus came from above and will be coming back for us. Pray we be effective witnesses to Jesus who sits on the right hand of God the Father. Pray we realize that the Resurrection and the Ascension form two parts of one continuous movement resulting in the glorification of Jesus. Pray we be inspired by the Ascension of our Lord Jesus and what it means for our eternal happiness. Pray we believe in the power of Jesus Christ.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 