You don’t take a person who is still alive down from the cross. We often talk about the empty cross and the empty tomb, but we rarely talk about the empty earth. But now that he had risen, he set his sights on heaven and his great reunion with his Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” (John 20:17) Before his death Jesus set his sights on Jerusalem and the cross. When Jesus first rose from the dead and he met Mary Magdalene in the garden, he told her: “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. The night before he went to the cross, Jesus told his disciples: “I came from the Father and entered the world now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.” (John 16:28) Do you see what he did there? Jesus summed up his entire earthly ministry in just two sentences: “I came from the Father and entered the world now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”Īnd oh, how Jesus longed to return to his Father. He took on flesh to live a human life within this human world, and then he died on the cross for our sins. He left the Father’s side to come to our side. God the Father sent his Son, and Jesus left the glories of heaven to enter our broken and sinful world. God is a trinity, and from the beginning of time and even before the beginning of time, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit always lived together in perfect union.īut then the unimaginable happened. Jesus returned to the Father (John 16:28, 20:17)įirst of all, Jesus’ ascension matters because Jesus returned to the Father. Why does Christ’s ascension matter? What does the ascension mean for us today? I would like to share with you from the Scriptures five reasons why the ascension matters to us today. You might wonder: “Why does that matter? I know it matters that Jesus died on the cross, and I know it matters that Jesus rose from the dead, but what does it matter that Jesus ascended into heaven?” Well that is the question we want to answer this morning.
It wasn’t until the fortieth day – which would be this Thursday – that Jesus finally ascended into heaven.
For forty days he continued to appear to his disciples, showing them he was alive and teaching them about the kingdom of God. Well during that same period of time, Jesus was still here on the earth following his resurrection. It’s been five weeks since we celebrated Easter, and a lot has happened since then. Now stop and let that sink in for a moment. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:3) Forty is a pretty significant number in Scripture, and this is another one of its many occurrences. We read in Acts 1:3: “After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. (Read Luke 24:50-53)Īfter Jesus rose from the dead, he spent forty days on earth before returning to heaven. When churches do celebrate the ascension, they usually do so either on the actual Thursday or the Sunday following, but I wanted to take some time this week to reflect together on the ascension of Christ and what it means for us today. We do not normally celebrate Ascension Day as a church, but it is the day which marks the ascension of Christ into heaven. INTRODUCTION: This coming Thursday is the fortieth day after Easter which means it is Ascension Day.
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