The Ascension

Passage: John 14:15-31; John 16:5-16

In The Good News We Almost Forgot, Kevin deYoung points out that the Ascension is one of those doctrines we ignore most of the time. Even though we have an annual service devoted to the Ascension, it’s rarely enough to drive home the meaning and significance thereof. We just don’t give it much thought.
There are good reasons why both the Gospel writer Luke, the authors of the earliest Christian creeds, and the writers of the Catechism highlight the Ascension along with every other aspect of Jesus’ life and ministry. It is as essential to our understanding of God’s redemptive work in Christ as anything else Jesus says and does on our behalf.

Here’s Luke’s account of the Ascension from Acts:
He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:7-11)
From these few sentences we derive a wealth of information. We learn:
-That Jesus is bodily in heaven;
-That in exchange for Jesus’ bodily presence his disciples will receive his Spirit;
-That Jesus will one day return from heaven.
It is significant that Jesus himself predicts this event in two passages from John’s Gospel. In John 14 Jesus tells the disciples that he is leaving, but that he will not “leave them as orphans” – that he will send them the “Counselor” (Greek parakletos), the Holy Spirit. In John 16 Jesus says that unless he leaves, the Holy Spirit won’t come to the disciples. This is a trade they’ll have to live with. Jesus also says that he is “going to the Father” and that “in a little while” the disciples won’t see him, but then “after a little while” they will. This is what the heavenly messengers in Acts are talking about. Jesus has returned to heaven, just as he said he would; that being said, he will one day come back from heaven, too.

What this all means is that while Jesus, our God in the flesh, is in heaven, God the Spirit is with us all the time. We have the gift of his constant presence here and now. We have the gift of a human advocate in the throne room of heaven. And we have the promise of a reunion with our Savior, who will one day welcome us into the very presence of God. Jesus’ ministry of reconciliation is a ministry of going with us and going before us. Jesus takes on flesh and enters our world to be with us. Jesus passes through death for us. Jesus rises to new life and enters heaven ahead of us, paving the way for us to follow. The Ascension is one more inevitable, essential step in the process by which Jesus reconciles us to God.