Do you remember that final verse we looked at this past Easter Sunday, when Mary Magdalene first saw the risen Christ and was told to stop clinging to Him. Jesus told her to go tell the disciples that ?I ascend to My Father and your Father, My God and your God.? But we know that Jesus did not mean right away, He was preparing them for what was about to occur ? Ascension Day!

We tend to miss the significance of the events that occurred after the resurrection. We tend to forget that for forty days He was present in and around Jerusalem with the disciples. In real terms for today that would mean if Jesus experienced resurrection last Sunday and He would not ascend to the Father until May 6! What happened during this time, what significance does it have for what took place next, is the Ascension referred to in prophecy and what implication is there for the church today?

Let's read the account of this in Acts 1: 1-11.

Do you remember that final verse we looked at this past Easter Sunday, when Mary Magdalene first saw the risen Christ and was told to stop clinging to Him. Jesus told her to go tell the disciples that ?I ascend to My Father and your Father, My God and your God.? But we know that Jesus did not mean right away, He was preparing them for what was about to occur ? Ascension Day!  

We tend to miss the significance of the events that occurred after the resurrection. We tend to forget that for forty days He was present in and around Jerusalem with the disciples. In real terms for today that would mean if Jesus experienced resurrection last Sunday and He would not ascend to the Father until May 6! What happened during this time, what significance does it have for what took place next, is the Ascension referred to in prophecy and what implication is there for the church today?  

Let's read the account of this in Acts 1: 1-11 .

I. Before the Ascension, the Disciples Required Preparation.              

We know from reading the Gospels that the Disciples were scattered by the crucifixion. In some cases, like that of Thomas, it took a period of days before he was willing to be present and to believe in the resurrected Christ. We know that Jesus met the disciples by the Sea of Galilee at one point, to be with those who had once believed but now were full of doubts. They had gone back to their old life style, they had gone fishing. The account in John's gospel reveals men who were still very uncertain about what to do with this faith in the risen Christ, even though they had actually seen and touched Him. What I am saying is that the disciples needed preparation and specific instruction, they needed to be encouraged and they needed to be sent. Even today the church needs these same things. Jesus was moving before the disciples in a way that they had never experienced, He was not limited by distance nor doors, nor resources. He appeared to them, He manifested himself to them. Though physical in form and substance His body did not experience the restrictions of time and space.

At one moment in Emmaus, the next in a locked room, on the beach prophetically telling them where to fish even though He already had a fish cooking in front of Him, such were the experiences of the disciples of the risen Jesus. Yet for all this, Jesus was not yet glorified, they did not see Him in His glory'that was still veiled until after the Ascension. Consider some of the areas the disciples needed preparation in:

1.     Preparation in being called to shepherd the sheep. This was especially true for Peter who needed to hear the restorative words of Christ. They were being prepared to make disciples, to care for the lambs.

2.     Preparation in terms of the kingdom, for they were still thinking that Jesus was about to re-establish the kingdom of Israel to a place of world power. In verse 6 they were asking when this would occur? Jesus answered them that the timing for the re-establishment of the kingdom of Israel was fixed, that is, it will happen and will happen by the authority of the Father at a particular time.

3.     Preparation in terms of the reality of His existence, this being especially crucial since He was about to move out of their sight and touch for the remainder of their earthly lives. Jesus was about to graduate the disciples to a faith based ministry. Remember the words of Christ in John 20:29, ?Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.?

4.     Preparation for the empowerment that no man had ever experienced before, the coming of the Holy Spirit. It was an empowerment that signified they had been moved from the baptism of John as repentant Jews, to the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a regenerated Church. The former was personal reformation, the latter the reformation of a body of people called the church, re-birthed into the image of Jesus Christ.

5.     Preparation to go. The disciples were milling about like sheep in a pen, Jesus was about to send them in the power of the Holy Spirit in ever widening circles of influence, even to the remotest parts of the earth. They were being prepared to be sent and to send.

For forty days this is what Jesus did with the disciples. Why forty, perhaps it's because Pentecost was fifty days after the Passover and resurrection, just ten days of silence before they saw him for the last time at the Ascension.

II. Before the Ascension, the World Required Proof.

There was to be no doubt before the accusers of the gospel that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead. There are over 10 recorded instances of times when Jesus met with various individuals and crowds. Over 500 people are recorded to have physically seen Jesus. Had He ascended immediately after His resurrection the dispute of the missing body, that had so captivated Mary Magdalene, would have hardened the ground of unbelief. The forty days were symbolic of the perseverance of God with man, not unlike the forty days of Noah in the ark or the forty years of Israel in the wilderness. God perseveres with man and by this act of His grace? we believe. The perseverance of God underwrites the achievements of man in faith.

III. The Ascension and Exaltation of Jesus Identify the Fathers? Desire.                                           What is it that these two actions of the Father on behalf of His Son, reveal to us as the body of Christ on earth? Consider the following:

1.     It is the Father's desire that Prophecy be Fulfilled. God fulfills prophecy as that which already ?is? in His mind. The Psalms spoke of the Ascension of Christ a number of times; 47:5, 110:1; 68:18. Paul quotes this latter reference as proof not only of the ascension but also of the empowering of the church. The Father had from the beginning purposed the Ascension and the eventual seating of Son at His right hand. The writer of Hebrews quotes Psalm 110 as prophecy fulfilled.

2.     It is the Father's desire that the Son be glorified. This term to be glorified can mean much, it can mean to be seen as He is. We know that three people have seen the glorified Christ: Philip, Paul and John. They saw the blinding brilliance of His glory, a glory that was more than just light, it was manifested holiness. But to see His glory can also mean to see Him for Who He is in terms of His activity. In a fulfillment of both type and prophecy, Jesus has entered into the Holy of Holies as our High Priest. His activity is described in Hebrews 9:10-13; 10:19-22. It is the Fathers? desire that people see that they have a High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for them. And not only Priest, but Prophet and King!  In this is the Son glorified.

3.     It is the Fathers? desire that the church be glorified. That can sound quite blasphemous until you consider it. Jesus wants His church to be seen for what it really is by what it really does. Peter's statements in Acts 2:33, 36 both hinge on the word 'therefore?. In essence he says the Holy Spirit could not have been poured out upon the church until the Ascension and Exaltation. But since He has been poured out, the proclamation of Jesus as both Lord and Christ is now made clear. This is how the church is glorified, as she reveals who she is in Christ by serving Him as Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit.

4.     It is the Fathers? desire that the church ready Herself. Why did the Father send two angels to stand beside the eleven apostles on the day that Christ ascended? It was to tell them and us that as He went so would He return. How did He ascend? Gradually, visibly, physically. In the same way He will come again, even to the same place, the Mount of Olives . The Fathers? desire is that the church live in a state of expectation and readiness. Have a Communion lifestyle.

The ascension of Christ is our comfort that Christ is ever there for us, our call that we now are His hands, feet and voice.  'the dust of earth's mortality is upon heaven's throne.? The way has been opened up.

Rev. Spence Laycock pastors at Church of the Open Bible, Ponoka, Alberta, Canada.
www.churchoftheopenbible.ab.ca