Thursday, May 5, 2016
Ascension Day
Luke 24; Acts 1 ...He lifted up his hands and blessed them. While He was blessing them, He left them and was taken up into heaven 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."
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Jesus' ascension into heaven was an event with powerful impact. The way Jesus withdrew his visible presence was so remarkable His disciples couldn't stop staring into the sky. Its meaning went far beyond the fact that his disciples were not to expect any further appearances of their risen Master. Jesus ascension spoke to the heart of who He was and what He had done.
We confess: "For us ... and for our salvation ... He came down from heaven." The Son of God became the Son of Man; He was born, lived, died as our Substitute in order to rescue us from sin, death and hell. That was His mission.
He lived the life we were all intended to lead as God's dear children and He did it in the place of every single one of us. Then He willingly took the punishment which we for our sins deserved--all of it.
When we consider what it must have taken to live in unselfish love every hour of every day of His life here; when we contemplate the incredible horror of being punished for every human evil ever, we might well ask:
Was Jesus the God-man able to carry out all he had come to do for us?
Will we live eternally with God in a new universe--a new heavens and earth?
Or will we be separated from God, from all that is good, forever?
Did Jesus get the job done or not?
Jesus' ascension into heaven, His Return to the right hand of the Father, was a dramatic and visually stunning "Mission Accomplished!"
