Each year, forty days after Easter, the Church remembers the Ascension of our Lord Jesus, when Christ removed his visible presence from us ascended into heaven. The doctrine of the Ascension is based numerous Scripture passages. Acts 1:1––12 (see below), Mark 16:19, and Luke 24:49––51 all narrate the event. John 6:62 and John 20:17 look forward to it. Ephesians 4:8––10, 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 3:22, and Hebrews 4:14 all imply it. The Ascension is also implied in the numerous references throughout Acts and the Epistles to Christ's exultation, for he "sat down at the right hand of God."
Listen to this account from Acts:
"After his suffering, Jesus showed himself to [the disciples]and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: 'Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' So when they met together, they asked him, 'Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?' He said to them: 'It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.' After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 'Men of Galilee,' they said, 'why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.' Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk from the city."
None of this is to say that heaven is literally located directly above the earth, however. That is not necessarily implied by the fact that Christ was taken up or that he ascended. Neither do the words "sits on the right hand of God" mean that this is his actual posture is seated. In disappearing from their view "he was raised up and a cloud received him out of their sight" (Acts 1:9), and entering into glory he dwells with the Father in the honor and power forever.
Our Lord's Ascension comforts us in many ways. Our faith in the future of God's kingdom rests secure in the knowledge that Christ ascended and now is ever and everywhere present. We know he governs and protects his church on earth. Also, on the last day when Christ comes to raise us and all the dead, he will give to all believers in Christ "the redemption of our bodies" (Romans 8:23) and we shall "bear the likeness of the man from heaven" (1 Corinthians 15:49). Finally, the Ascension was necessary so that Jesus could send the Holy Spirit and empower the disciples for mission, as Jesus says in John 16:7: "It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you." It is only ten days later that the Holy Spirit descends upon the first disciples at Pentecost and the Spirit-filled Christian church is born. |
