Today we are celebrating Ascension Day which fell three days ago on Thursday, forty days after the resurrection. Now I’d like us to consider the ascension as the essential ‘third movement’ of the completion of Jesus’ work – death, resurrection, and ascension.
I found this confirmed in my reading this week, as the gospels, Acts and Peter’s and Paul’s letters also see Ascension Day as a third movement of the completion of Jesus’ work as the Son of Man.
Here is just a sampling of how Scripture refers to the importance of the Ascension, then we’ll conclude by looking at what that means for us.
In Peter’s Pentecost speech from Acts, the climax of what God has done in Jesus is not the resurrection, but Jesus being ‘exalted to the right hand of God’ (Acts 2:23).
In support of this, he quotes today’s Psalm, v.1 of Ps 110, the most quoted Psalm in the NT, with its imagery of ‘the Lord’ (messiah) taking his seat at the right hand of ‘the Lord’ (Yahweh, the God of Israel) (v.1).
It is central to Paul’s teaching in his letters to the churches. In Philippians 2, Paul’s great hymn to Christ, he omits the resurrection altogether; “he became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place” (2:8-9).
It is as if the movement from death to life to glory, in resurrection and ascension, are one movement. In John’s account of the resurrection, Jesus tells Mary not to hold on to him because he has ‘not yet ascended to the Father.’
Its notable I think that the gospel message she is given for the disciples is not ‘I am resurrected,’ but rather, ‘I am ascending to the Father’ (John 20:17).
Jesus is saying here, I think, that even though I have been resurrected and have become the first-fruits of eternal life for all people of all times, this great event is not over yet. It won’t be over until I have ascended.
Luke divides the work of Christ into two, that is Luke’s gospel and the book of Acts which he also wrote. We are right at that point today: the end of the Luke’s account of the gospel of Jesus, and the beginning of Luke’s account of all that happened because of it, through it, and for it.
Now the hinge that Luke uses to separate the two books is not the resurrection, but at the point of the Ascension. Just as our reading from the beginning of Acts says in vv.1-2: “In my former book, Theophilus, (that is Luke’s gospel), I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven.”
It’s easy to miss what is happening in the Ascension. In fulfilment of all Scripture, not least in Daniels’s prophecy (Dan 7:13-14) regarding the Son of Man, which is by far the most common way Jesus referred to himself:
“I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”
This is not about the second coming, but Jesus’ ascension.
Jesus uses the language of ‘one like a son of man’ to refer to himself. The dominion that will not pass away is the very Kingdom of God where we have our citizenship now and always will have, not just in the next life.
This is the third movement of Christ that began on the cross – our ability to now dwell in God’s kingdom with Christ, to whom has been given all authority, glory and sovereign power.
Paul’s letter to the Colossians is all about the absolute supremacy of Christ in the heavenly places because he has now ascended and is now in the very fulness of God with all authority, power and glory given to him.
Paul tells us that when Jesus ascended, he caused us to be raised with him and seated with him in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:4-7) – now. Already.
Jesus said that until he returns to the Father, the promised gift of the advocate, the great Holy Spirit could not come. Because he is now ascended; the Holy Spirit now proceeds from the fulness of the Father and the Son into our redeemed, sanctified, servant hearts
By ascending to the Father as the ‘Son of Man’, Jesus, the first fruits of eternal life, is claiming the full victory for us, the children of God, over the power of evil in our lives. How does he do that?
Through the forgiveness of all our sins. The wiping out of all in us that separates us from God.
Why does he do this? Because the Father and the Son love us so much they want to come and make their home with us. They are light in whom there is no darkness. So for them to dwell with and in us, we, too, must be children of Light.
We become children of light when our sins are forgiven, which brings us back to the beginning of this movement of Christ – to the cross at Calvary. Because the Son of Man has ascended – he is now not just the Messiah, but Lord and God.
So what does all this mean?
Well firstly, authority. Jesus is enthroned with the Father. It is because of the Ascension that the lamb who was slain is seated with the one on the throne and shares his worship (Revelation 4).
It is in the Ascension that, as Jesus says in the great commission in Matthew 28:18, that ‘all authority has been given to me’.
It is this authority that meant the first martyr, Stephen could be confident that he is held by a higher power, even to the point of death—his final vision is of Jesus ascended and seated at the right hand of God.
Secondly, it’s about the supreme value of our humanity – our humanness. In the incarnation, God enters human existence. In the Ascension, that humanity is taken up into the presence of God and will never depart from it.
Because of the Ascension, we have a High Priest interceding for us who is not unable to sympathise with our challenges, dilemmas, suffering and weakness (Hebrews 4:15-16).
This is what guarantees our eternal life, as our life, our very breath and heartbeat, has been taken into the ascended Jesus when he and the Father make their home with us.
Thirdly, it means that we have now been given great responsibility, but also the power we need to exercise this responsibility, which we will speak more of next week at Pentecost.
The Ascension marked the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry; he has now given us responsibility to continue this work, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is not distant or indifferent, but he has delegated his own power and responsibilities to us and is always with us.
That’s why we, the Church, are called the body of Christ.
And finally, the ascension is about the faithfulness of God. Jesus, ascending in the clouds to heaven promised that he will return ‘in the same way’, as our reading from Acts promises (Acts 1:11).
It is interesting to note that in the New Testament, Jesus’ return is never called the ‘second coming.’ They don’t pair Jesus’ return with his first coming as a baby human (what we call the incarnation).
In the New Testament it always paired with what we celebrate today – the Ascension. So he will come again in ‘the same way’ as he ascended. Because of his proven faithfulness to us, on that day we will reign with him as co-heirs with him, in the Kingdom of Heaven that has no end.
When he will wipe the tear from every eye and there will be no more pain or suffering as death will have been defeated never to rise again. Let me pray …