Acts 1:1-9
The outline of a sermon preached at Barclay Church, Edinburgh by Dr Robin Plant
1 June 2003

The Message of Jesus’ Ascension

Introduction

Last Thursday was Ascension Day. Not being a public holiday, it is easy to miss. Yet the Bible and the Christian creeds unambiguously affirm that Jesus’ departure from earth and return to heaven is a vital, distinct part of the Christian gospel: 1 Tim. 3.16, “he was taken up in glory”; Apostles’ Creed, “he ascended into heaven”. Not that Jesus went ‘from the grave to the sky’, as one popular Christian song has it; rather (Acts 1.1-9), he rose, appeared to his disciples over forty days, and then ascended. So what is the meaning of Jesus ascension for us?

It is Jesus who Reigns!

We need not doubt that the way Luke describes Jesus’ ascension – ‘vertically’ – reflects what the disciples saw (vv.10-11). But Luke is not implying that heaven is somewhere you can reach if you fly high enough: “What happened at the Ascension was not that Jesus became a spaceman but that his disciples were shown a sign.” (Packer);¹ that the Jesus who was born in Bethlehem, who walked the streets of Judah, healed the sick, suffered and died, was now exalted to the supreme place of authority, honour and power (Acts 7.56).

Application:

• We live in increasingly uncertain and anxious times. But however chaotic and evil, our world is not outside the rule of Jesus, and he will have the final word.

• Many people accept the presence of something transcendent in our universe, but want to leave room for different interpretations of what that something is. But the message of the Ascension is that ‘the ultimate’ is not an idea, or an unknown god, or a plurality of gods, but Jesus of Nazareth, whom God has raised.

It is the Crucified Jesus who Reigns!

The gospels show that when Jesus was raised to life, it was to a qualitatively new life (1 Cor. 15.42-43; Phil. 3.21).² Before his death, Jesus’ body (like ours) was limited and weak; after his resurrection, he was unrestricted by time and space (Lk. 24.31, 36; Jn. 20.26). Yet it was still Jesus; the way he spoke, the way he broke bread, and the scars on his body left no room for doubt. And when he ascended to heaven, he carried the marks of his suffering and crucifixion: “Those wounds yet visible above, in beauty glorified.”

Application:

• It is Jesus the crucified who stands before the Father to represent us and intercede for us. However guilty we may feel (and be), therefore, there is no reason why we cannot come before God today and be accepted.

• To affirm Jesus as universal king might be thought oppressive, even dangerous. It would be, were it not for the fact that this Jesus is also the one who gave himself to death for us (Rev. 5.6). “The very heart of the biblical vision for the unity of humankind is that its centre is not an imperial power but the slain lamb.” (Newbiggin).³