ASCENSION OF OUR LORD
This is the day the LORD hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Acts 1:1-11
Ephesians 1:16-23
Luke 24:44-53
Psalm 47

This is another series with Ascension on May 1.
In verses 36-43 that precede this text relate Jesus' appearance on the evening of the first Easter. He appeared to the disciples who were behind locked doors for fears of the Jews(John 20:19). As Jesus ate with them they noticed his hands which showed He was truly flesh and blood. This appearance and those that followed during the forty days before His ascension confirmed the disciples in their conviction that He had truly risen. These forty days were also a time of instruction, as He informed them concerning His gracious rule, and His kingdom.

44,45--He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms," Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

It is not certain that these verses were spoken in the Upper Room on Sunday evening of Resurrection Day. They may be a condensed account of Jesus' instruction during the forty days that followed. During His ministry and before His suffering death, Jesus had told them about His coming death and resurrection. After their great confession concerning His identify as the Christ and again while they were enroute to Jerusalem for the last time, He had foretold these events. The things written in the Scriptures must be fulfilled because God had spoken and what God speaks is done even when it takes centuries and millennia to come to pass, it must occur.

Jesus is really saying here that all the Jewish Scriptures the OT, were written concerning Him. In saying this He was teaching them and us how to understand the Bible. He provides the key to interpretation by showing us that He Himself is the Key.

Christian friends, Meanwhile, put into practice the teachings you do understand.

Open my eyes that I may see
Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.

PRAY with me: Grant, we pray, almighty God, that even as we believe Your only-begotten Son, our LORD Jesus Christ, to have ascended into heaven, so we may also in heart and mind ascend and continually dwell there with Him. In Jesus name we pray. Amen