It’s the week leading up to Pentecost, the giving of the Spirit and the birth of the Church.
Jesus is risen! He is risen indeed! For forty days Jesus visits with His disciples, teaching them about the coming Kingdom and His soon departure: the Ascension.
“The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”
Acts 1:1-3 (NKJV)
“And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen.”
Luke 24:50-53 (NKJV)
Ascension brings anticipation: twofold. 1) Jesus’ earthly ministry is accomplished and His heavenly ministry can begin, and 2) The promised Comforter will soon arrive and empower followers of Christ to carry on the mission of Christ.
The disciples marveled at His resurrection, and now they’re left to wonder at His departure. They are not distraught, however (as we might assume they could be). Rather, Luke’s Gospel ends by describing them as being filled with great joy and praising God. Only having spent little more than a month with their Master after His resurrection, they are emboldened to carry on His great commission, eagerly awaiting the One who would give power from on high and enable them to preach everywhere (Mark 16:20).
When Jesus is received up into Heaven, He is seated at the right hand of God (see Mark 16:19; Hebrews 1:3). It’s a statement of finality and completion. What does one do when they arrive home after a hard day’s work? They sit down! Done. Jesus tells His disciples that all authority has now been given to Him as a result of His cross-tomb-rising success (Matthew 28:18). He can now begin His heavenly ministry of interceding on behalf of the saints.
“Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”
Romans 8:34 (NKJV)
“Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
Hebrews 7:25 (NKJV)
“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
1 John 2:1
Jesus tells His disciples that it’s to their advantage for Him to leave in order that He might send “the Helper” (John 16:7-15). Indeed, the early stages of God’s Kingdom arrive through the coming of the Comforter (i.e. the Holy Spirit). What an irony for the disciples to ask Jesus about setting up His Kingdom on earth now that He’s been raised from the dead (Acts 1:6)! Responding to their premature question with graciousness, Jesus describes the enterprise for His Kingdom to come through the power of the Spirit by the actions of His followers (Acts 1:8). Though not as the disciples perceive in that moment –assuming He is about to dismantle the Roman Empire, but certainly those who believe in the Son of God by the power of the Spirit of God through the efforts of the followers of God will be brought into the Kingdom of God.
“And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
John 20:30-31 (NKJV)
Glorify. Train. Engage. 