Ascension Thursday

Today is Ascension Thursday, the day celebrated as the time when Jesus returned to the place from which He came. I have, for the first time, stopped to look carefully at what some Gospel and Epistle writers tell us about Jesus’ Ascension. I’m doing this, not so much for information purposes, because we all know that Jesus ascended into heaven. This is not even being done to convince you, because many, if not all of us already believe that Jesus ascended into heaven and sits at the right Hand of the Father. This is not even to show how the Gospel and Epistle writers agree on the fact of Jesus’ Ascension, because most of them will have witnessed it first-hand.

No! I’m doing this because I have been told to do it, and in what seems like a meaningless exercise, God’s Supreme, Almighty Spirit, will work the unthought-of, in us. Believe you me, I’m excited and do feel a little like Joshua, asking his army of fighting men, to drop arms, as it were, and march around that stubborn, impenetrable Jericho wall, for a few times, at that. We are, as it were, walking around ascension, each time we read what someone else has written. We are hearing the same things, and seeing the same sights over and over again, yet, with each completion, as with each circumference of the wall made, it will be another tick, for us, as a mark of obedience in faith to God.

O! How faith in action pleases Father God! I know, I believe with no hesitation that God will honour and handsomely reward your faith and mine, in this simple, yet obedient exercise. We are made an hundred fold richer, when the meaning of Jesus’ Ascension is made real, live and active in us.

The Obeying – We Read

Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28: 18 – 20

The Uplifting - We Receive

It is because Jesus has ascended, we are sure that He is with us and will be with us to the end of the age. You are not alone!

The Obeying – We Read

After the Lord had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Mark 16: 19

The Uplifting - We Receive

Jesus is in heaven, enthroned at the Right Hand of God, therefore we know that all Jesus spoke and did, and still speaks and does in us, is in every way fitting us for eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. You have King Jesus with you!

The Obeying – We Read

When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Luke 24: 50 - 51

The Uplifting - We Receive

What a blessing! What a forever, continuing, unceasing blessing! Have you ever thought of the fact that Jesus ascended in heaven while blessing His own so that blessings are never ceasing for us also! You are being blessed even now!

The Obeying – We Read

It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand – with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. 1 Peter 3: 21b - 22