Jesus - Ascended into Heaven

            There are three events in the life of Jesus that get a great deal of attention: Jesus’ birth, Jesus’ death, and Jesus’ resurrection.  These events have holidays surrounding them, and rightly so.  When these holidays roll around, an abundance of appropriate cards can be found at the card stores.  Today, I’d like to draw your attention to an event that does not have a holiday dedicated to it: “Ascension Day."   If you were to visit a card store, I dare say you would never be able to find an “Ascension Day” card.  If I were to ask if you have ever heard a sermon on the ascension of Jesus, I would guess that you have never heard one.  I know I have never heard one. I contend that “Ascension Day” deserves to be counted along with the “big three” (Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection). 

            "Ascension Day" is the day that Jesus finished His earthly ministry and returned to Heaven.  This day is spoken about at the end of the Gospel of Luke (Luke 24:51) and at the beginning of the Book of Acts (Acts 1:1-11).  The day Jesus ascended back to Heaven was around 40 days after He was crucified and raised from the dead.  Many people have never heard of the 40-day ministry Jesus had after He was raised from the dead, but those 40 days were of vital importance.  The Scriptures state that during this time Jesus gave many convincing proofs that He was indeed raised from the dead.  During this time, Jesus powerfully imparted the Holy Spirit to His Apostles.  Jesus also spent these days giving His followers last-minute instructions.  The most famous of these instructions is what we call the “Great Commission” (Matthew 28:18-20). Much was packed into this very short period of time immediately prior to Jesus’ ascension.

            Because of this information and event overload, it is easy to miss the impact and importance of the ascension of Jesus.  Imagine this: how ridiculous would it be to cook a wonderful meal and then fail to serve it?  What value is there in designing and building the most amazing home ever, when no one is going to live in it?  What value is there in building a bomb (for the purpose of blowing a tunnel through a mountain) and forgetting to design a detonator?  Likewise, the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus are of no practical value without the ascension of Jesus.  The ascension of Jesus is the detonator for everything Jesus did.  The ascension is that event which takes what Jesus Christ was and did on earth and releases it into God’s creation and into our lives.  Jesus’ redeeming, ruling, and healing power is set loose because of Jesus’ ascending to His throne in Heaven.  Wow!  That is a lot to propose and assert.  For many, this might be a new and unfamiliar idea.  Join me over the next few weeks as we unpack and explore the Biblical concept of Jesus’ ascension.  Keep looking up!