The Ascension and You

Many South Africans will remember Ascension Day was a holiday in South Africa before 1994. It was always on a Thursday, and it was one of the annual long weekends. After 1994 the government started reviewing holidays, and Christian holidays came under review. Ascension Day was one of them. At that time, when Ascension Day was being abolished, I don’t remember many Christians raising any objection. If it was Christmas or Good Friday, there will probably have been a lot of noise. Looking back, I think it is sad that Christians did not deem Ascension Day important enough to defend. I conducted a simple survey on Facebook to check how many people know when Ascension Day was this year. Sadly, I found that almost half professing Christians did not know.

Ascension was such a central belief of Christians that it was included in most of the Christian Creeds of the early church. I don’t know if you know what the Creeds are. A Creed is a statement of beliefs. In the early days of the church, before the New Testament was canonized, the Creeds helped as a unifying and doctrinal grounding of Christians. Believers would recite the Creed before baptism, and later during church services as some still do today.

For example, we have what is called the Apostles’ Creed. It was not developed by the apostles, but is believed to have summarized what the apostles believed in. Here is what the Apostles Creed says:

“I believe in God the Father Almighty; Maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit; born of the virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven; and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit; the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.”

In the early church they would recite this when they met. In the Reformed church which I used to attend, we used to recite the creed. At that time I had no clue why we recited that, but today I realize why this is crucial for believers. They have helped the church to preserve doctrinal soundness throughout the history of the church. Some of these creeds were developed after long discussions and debates at Church conferences like the one at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, and revised in AD 381. Others include Chalcedonian Creed (AD 451), and the Athanasian Creed . Almost all of these creeds have one commonality: they affirm the belief in the birth, death, resurrection, ascension and return of Jesus Christ. For the believers in that age, the belief in the ascension was as important as the belief in the birth, the death and resurrection of Jesus.

For most Christians today it is easier to understand why the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus are important. But why does the ascension matter to us today as something we believe in. The ascension event is recorded in Acts 1:9-11 ^“After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”

During the 40 days after his resurrection, Jesus used to appear and disappear to his followers. But on this particular day, he did not just disappear. He was lifted up into the clouds before their very eyes.

But why was it important that Jesus ascended in this way, and not simply disappeared like he did the previous 40 days. If he did not leave this way, there would be stories today about where he is. Some would be saying we saw him here or there. Jesus himself emphasized this point of knowing where he will be and how he will come back. “So if someone tells you, ‘Look, the Messiah is out in the desert,’ don’t bother to go and look. Or, ‘Look, he is hiding here,’ don’t believe it! ²⁷ For as the lightning flashes in the east and shines to the west, so it will be when the Son of Man comes.”(Matt. 24:26-27).

So, Jesus ascended visibly because he would return visibly. In other words, when Jesus returns, no human on earth will not be aware. All humans will be aware. Even those that are asleep will wake up. In fact, believers who are dead will also wake up and join him in the descent.

The passage in Acts also says he was surrounded by clouds as he ascended. Why was that? In Hebrews the believers who had died in faith are referred to as a “cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1). The cloud represented all the believers, because he was ascending with them. Jesus was our representative human. When he was born, we were born in and with him, when he lived, we lived, died, were buried, resurrected and ascended, in and with him. Paul puts it this way, “Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? ⁴ For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives” (Rom. 6:3-4)

Concerning the ascension, Paul tells us, “For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:6). “For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Col. 3:3). So if it is true that we have ascended with Jesus, and are now seated with him at the right hand of God, we will descend with him when he returns. Those who have died in the faith, and those that are in the faith and alive, will together be caught up in the clouds to meet Jesus, and the world will see Jesus descend with all the believers with him. By then they will be transformed into the same body he ascended with, and will share in his glory.

But what are the practical implications of the ascension for Christian believers today? I believe it is found in the passage in Acts 1, “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven?” You see, believers need to have a posture towards heaven where they are seated with Christ at the right hand of God. John says that if we have this belief that we are seated with Christ at the right hand of God in heaven, and have the expectation that he is coming back in glory, we will purify ourselves. “Christ is pure, and all who have this hope in Christ keep themselves pure like Christ.”(1 Jn. 3:3) On the same thought, Paul puts it this way, “aim at what is in heaven, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Think only about the things in heaven, not the things on earth.” (Col. 3:1-2) The ascension reminds us of the return because “he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go” (Acts 1:11). The hope of the resurrection and the return of Christ makes believers to live like kingdom citizens.

It is this belief which spurred the Apostles to forsake everything and pursue the kingdom of God at great cost. It is this belief as captured in the Apostles’ Creed that says I believe in Jesus who “ascended into heaven; and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty”. The same belief made Paul write the following to the Philippians with TEARS in his eyes:

“ Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example. For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth. But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control. (Phil. 3:17-21)

Christians are like the woman who was engaged to be married when war broke out. Her fiancé was sent to war. Before he left he promised her that he will come back, and when he comes back she must be ready to get married to him. After he had left she got the wedding dress done to her size. Since then she started watching her weight to make sure that when her man returns she will be able to fit into her dress. She stopped flirting with other men. Everybody knew she was waiting for her man. Her whole life reflected that. Each month she will go into her bedroom and fit the dress to make sure she has not gained weight. One day as she was busy fitting her dress, there was a knock on the door. She went to check who it was still wearing the dress. As she opened the door, there he was! Her man was back! He could not believe his eyes. Her bride was ready. With tears in his eyes, he said to her, “When I said you must be ready to marry me when I return, I had no idea you will be this ready…”

Like this woman, Christians also await their bridegroom, and as they wait, they live like those who wait, those with hope. The bridegroom says to us: “Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds.” (Rev. 22:12). I don’t know whether when the people in the world look at you they can say, “Yes, this man, this woman, is waiting for her LORD”. We live like people with hope for something.

May the Ascension be a perpetual reminder for you that that this Jesus who ascended into heaven “will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go”. And may that knowledge transform you and how you live your life! AMEN.