Ascension of Jesus

Introduction: Good morning church. Have you ever had one of those mornings when you walk outside and look up and think, WOW! What a beautiful day! Well, I think today is one of those mornings!

When I was first saved, I got a brand new appreciation for the Sky! Night Sky – wow how could a God who made all those stars know and care about me?

I had a poster on the wall of my room of some clouds that said, “It could be a day just like today” I would sometimes go outside, look at the clouds and think, One day – I’m going to meet Jesus there! now we know that heaven is not reachable by flying past the clouds, No rocket will ever get you there, but it is a real place that exists outside our dimension and our space/time realm. It is the abode of God and of all the saints that have passed away prior to Christ’s return. Incredibly, God has a plan of redemption that encompasses all of physical creation. He is coming to put things right! In that day, God will be with his people and heaven and earth will combine to become the place where God reigns. But until that day comes, we don’t see heaven with these eyes.

Now I say all this, because the disciples got first hand experience of the resurrected Jesus. As brand new – New Covenant believers – people who knew the resurrected saviour. This same group of about 500 disciples had an experience where they were left looking up into the clouds with absolute amazement. One moment, Jesus is talking with them. He blesses them and with little or no warning, he rises up off the ground and begins to move off to the clouds before being received into heaven.

If that wasn’t weird enough, two Angels appear right beside their crowd and tell them to stop wasting their time staring up, they were to get about doing what Christ had told them to do.

I am often reminded that God doesn’t want me to be so heavenly minded that I am of no earthly good. He wants us to be so heavenly minded that we are of incredible earthly good. If you’ve had an experience with God, then you should share it with others so that they too can experience God,

Let’s read this passage I’ve referred to from

6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority

8 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.”

9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “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.”

· No jet pack, no helicopter, he just raised up beyond the clouds. If I were one of the disciples, I’d be rubbing my eyes in pure bewilderment right about here! Why did he leave this way?

Why didn’t he just disappear? Well he’d done that before. I guess they would have been expecting him to show back up again any time at his convenience.

- For 40 days Jesus had been appearing after the resurrection. These days were of immense value to the believers for they established the reality of his lordship. A single sighting of the risen Christ may have been open to question, possible to explain away as a mass hallucination (something that has never happened by the way, no record of a group of people ever seeing the same thing.) These continuous encounters that the disciples had with him removed the doubts of the most skeptical among them and assured them of his power and authority.

After 40 days, this group of believers finally understood why the Messiah had to die and rise again. Now they were ready for Jesus to be the deliverer from Rome that their world view still expected. Will you now restore the Kingdom to Israel? Wrong Question! The disciples were instructed to take the Gospel to the World.

The disciples were just like us. They were concerned about how Jesus would impact on their experience. If it is just about you and yours, or me and mine, then we equally miss the point of Christ’s death and resurrection. Yes Jesus died for you but he also died for the whole world and what hope do our neighbours, our friends, our work colleagues or relatives have of hearing about it if we keep our mouths shut!

· I guess another question I have is Why did Jesus leave? Why didn’t he just stay and help us to do this task? After all, he is alive forever, he will never die? Wouldn’t the job of evangelism have been easier if he was here to show everyone that he is alive? So why not stay? I am sure the disciples felt this too, just like I imagine many of us feel this way.

Hear Jesus reply to Mary Magdalene in

17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

The job is not over yet!

· Gone to prepare a place for us – 2000 years – must be amazing because look what he did in creation in just 6 days!

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

· Jesus’s ascension links earth and heaven. Jesus, came from God’s presence to dwell on earth and share our human nature, now returns to God’s presence taking his human nature with him.

God is a man in heaven forever! Jesus goes to send the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit links heaven to Earth.

In John – If he goes then he will send the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus, He is working in the lives of all believer, He comes from God’s presence to empower Believers,

7 But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.

· but the Holy Spirit also works in the world to bring them to Christ.

8 And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.

The Holy Spirit has come to help us get the Job done.

· Apostles Creed says

He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

This was written for a mainly illiterate people to memorise the summary of the New Testament teachings about Jesus.

tells us

Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

· Seated at the right hand of God the Father

I want you to understand Jesus has always been and eternally is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But in a real sense, the ascension was Jesus Coronation Day! Why did he Go? He was to be crowned!

1 The Lord says to my lord,

“Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”

Phillipians 2

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father

· Christ is victorious and he has defeated death, disease, depression, all kinds of destructive forces that destroy our lives because he beat the Devil on the cross. We serve a victorious Christ – who triumphed -

In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

I love the thought of a victorious Christian Life! One where we reign with Christ in our lives. Where every prayer is answered, every sickness healed and every soul is saved. But this is not the reality of our Christian experience. Many Christians suffer for Jesus, some are even martyred. Be encouraged though, while not every battle is a victory! The War has been won!

Illustration - D-Day – V-Day world war II - Allies landing at Normandy -Germany’s final Surrender

Why was it so important for Jesus to leave and what is he doing in heaven anyway?

· Jesus makes intercession for us

He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.

26 He is the kind of high priest we need because he is holy and blameless, unstained by sin. He has been set apart from sinners and has been given the highest place of honour in heaven.

· The Apostle John tells us that Jesus is our Paraclete in Heaven (our Advocate, our defence lawyer) you’d better get a lawyer son, you’d better get a real good one. You will not get a better defence than Jesus testimony on your behalf. He wins 100% of his cases. He himself is our propitiation – atonement (at-one-ment). He bought off God’s anger against sin through his death. It was all God’s idea – he was angry at sin and not with the sinner!

· Jesus can relate to all of our cares and concerns. He is God and he is Man in heaven, forever, he can relate to our troubles, our fears, our temptations… He has experienced

· Finally, when we hear of Jesus ascension, we are reminded that he will return. – be assured he is coming. Many people get so caught up in the end times teachings with the antichrist, with the seals, trying to work out when Jesus is coming back that they forget the very purpose of the promise is to motivate us to live holy, to bring others to Christ and hold this short life in perspective.

He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen.

Our response should be great gladness and earnest expectancy.

Conclusion and Altar call.

Jesus died to save us

Jesus rose to reveal God’s power over our greatest enemy, death.

Jesus ascended and intercedes for us. Friend, you need a good defence lawyer.

9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

Confession, Belief, Surrender to his Lordship.