Friday, May 6, 2016
Acts 1:9 After He said this, 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 received Him from their sight.
RISEN ... ASCENDED ... RETURNING -- AS HE SAID
A Man leads a group of followers to a hillside on a sunny spring day. If you have been with that group in the last weeks you've heard this Man speak, You've seen those closest to Him touch His hands with awe. He has eaten right in front of you. This is no apparition. This is the same Jesus of Nazareth whom Rome crucified. He is no less human than you or I. But as you watch, He speaks to His followers, and with His concluding words, He raises His arms in blessing, and His body "lifts off." He is rising into the air, levitating, if you will ... 3' 6' 12'. As you watch overhead, He recedes into the distance until, because of a cloud, you can't see Him at all.
Jesus has ascended, not just into the sky, but into heaven. But ... this is impossible.
Any number of laws of nature are being broken. And yet this is what he said would happen. "I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father" (John 16:38).
He said He would die--and He did.
He said He would return to life on the third day--and He did.
He said He would return to the father--and He has.
None of these things were done in secret for a very good reason. Jesus wanted you to know for sure that He can do whatever He says He will. And this is what he says:
"I am going to prepare a place for you. I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day."
And never forget the promise Jesus made just before He ascended: "I am with you always, to the very end of the world."
Of course, that is impossible. Just as impossible as ... ascending into heaven.
