Readings: Psalm 110:1-5; Acts 1:1-10; Ephesians 1:15-23; Luke 24:44-53

The Ascension does not feature in Christian vocabulary like the Resurrection, the Incarnation, or the death and burial of Jesus do.

My goal in this sermon will be to try and explain to you what the Ascension is and its significance in your life as a believer in Jesus Christ. The scripture readings I have used are not the ones appointed for this day, but rather they are from Thursday—Ascension Day.

The Ascension of Jesus Christ—or Ascensio Iesu in Latin—in simple terms—refers to the physical departure of Jesus Christ from earth to heaven. Prophecy in the Hebrew tradition of Jerusalem told of the One who would come to restore the fortunes of Israel by suffering, dying, resurrecting, ascending, or glorification. This glorification involves taking a seat at the right hand of his Father and reigning over his creation (See Luke 24:26).

The Lord says to my lord:

“Sit at my right hand
   until I make your enemies
    a footstool for your feet.” (Ps 110:1)

The One who sits at the Lord’s right hand is Jesus. In total agreement with the Psalmist, Paul also says “And God put all things under Christ’s feet, and gave him to the church as head over all things.” (Eph 1:22)

The Ascension: Downward Extension

The first thing I will say about the Ascension concerns its mysterious operation.

When Christ was taken up to Heaven, the Father released his promised gift to all his people. “On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.” (Acts 1:4) This gift is the Holy Spirit. Still, in this very text, Jesus tells his disciples why its important that they wait for this gift. “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.” (v 8)

What does Jesus mean when he says that they will witness? In Luke 24:47, he elaborates (I will start at verse 46 for context), “[He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,] and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” We can now see that the downward extension of the Ascension is the Holy Spirit’s power to preach the gospel of repentance for the forgiveness of sins for both the Jew (in Jerusalem) and the Gentile (the ends of the earth).

The downward extension of the Ascension of Jesus focuses on the power to witness. Indeed, we see that when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples, they were clothed with power that Peter’s first sermon stirred the hearts and minds of 3,000 people who repented and joined the Christian community.

The Holy Spirit’s power also clothed the disciples with faithful courage to live and die for the truth of the gospel. Stephen, the first Christian martyr chose Christ over the threats of the high priests. The apostles continued to witness in the reality of persecution, imprisonment, violent storms at sea, and poisonous snakes.

I will say one more thing about this power to witness: it radically transformed hearts, won over egotistical despots like Paul, and committed pagans at Corinth, Ephesus, and Thessalonika. The power of the gospel softened hearts, evaporated pride, and turned rebellion into obedience. In short, it turned the world upside-down.

That is the downward extension of the Ascension of Jesus. Now, the Upward Extension.

The Ascension: Upward Extension

This relates to the significance of the physical body in the economy of salvation.

What you need to understand is that in ascending the throne of heaven, Jesus is glorified as a human being. The Jesus who sits at the right hand of his Father is a living, breathing human being with flesh, bone, muscle, hair, nails on his feet and fingers, and even scars. He is also God—fully God and fully human. The technical term for this reality is Hypostatic Union—the union of Jesus’s humanity with his divinity (see the Athanasian Creed).

So, the Jesus who ascends the throne of heaven is not an immaterial spirit shooting through the clouds to a destination above there, no. He is a human being like you and me. “ While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.” (Luke 24:51) Paul in Ephesians 1:20-21 points out that the Jesus who was resurrected is the one at the right hand of his Father in the heavenly realm. The resurrection here is bodily.

Something we don’t talk about often is the significance of the body. It was created by God who remarked that it was good. Our Saviour had to put on a body to accomplish our redemption. Incarnation, from Latin Incarnātiō, literally means ‘to be made flesh’ (see John 1:14). Therefore, the upward extension of the Ascension of Christ is the entering of the physical body into the heavenly realm.

Now, this begs the question: what does all this mean to you and me? Let us delve into that.

What has this got to do with you?

Two things.

1. The Downward Extension and the Believer

Last week we saw that Jesus told his disciples that it was good for them that he goes to his Father. This is significant because Christ’s physical presence on earth limited his power and ministry to a few villages near Jerusalem, in a particular epoch. But after the Ascension, his ministry would transcend geographical borders and time.

Jesus had to leave this world in order to be everywhere in the world.

We read through time how the gospel has changed people and arrested souls. But most importantly, how God has used weak, incompetent men and women to expand his Kingdom. During his ministry in Jerusalem, Jesus was scandalous for recruiting the riffraff of his time as his disciples. No one liked tax collectors, not even Jesus’s own disciples. Similarly, being a fisherman was not a profession many envied but Jesus used them all to the chagrin of many of his critics.

Even today, the power of the gospel still draws in the riffraff and those on the margins of society as witnesses. Fierce critics and mockers of the faith like Festo Kivengere were saved and used mightily as Bishop, an evangelist, and a social activist. Sex addicts like St Augustine of Hippo were used by God to lay the foundation for the articulation of the faith. Even as I write this, God is softening hearts, melting hatred, breaking down hostilities, and defeating the wise with his foolishness.

Jesus had to leave this world in order to be everywhere in the world.

One of the most transformative aspects of the gospel in my life happened a few years back. I was exhausted from the demands of society and the need to be right. I remember one time a family member itching to quarrel. She laid out all the reasons why she had a right to be upset which involved bringing up past mistakes that I thought were behind us. As she went on and on, I didn’t say a word. When she realised she was alone in this confrontation, she remarked “you are going to just stand there and not say nothing?” I still didn’t say a word.

What she did not know was that at this point, I was firmly secure in what God knew about me that I saw no need in justifying myself by pleading my case. I was content with being wrong in the eyes of people well knowing that before God, I was firmly secure in the truth that Christ was right before his Father on my behalf. I was not going to try and save myself but rather find rest and comfort in the salvation bought for me with the body and blood of God. The present power of the gospel had radically changed me.

And so, we are given the power not only to witness to the forgiveness of sins, and the removal of guilt but also the reorienting of our hearts and minds to God, and neighbour.

Jesus had to leave this world in order to be everywhere in the world.

2. The Upward Extension and the Believer

Let us talk about the body. The body is used and abused every day. It doesn’t seem like the physical body has that much significance. You will not have to look hard to find ministries that advocate the uselessness of the body compared to the soul. This is called Platonism, not Christianity. Similarly, this week we woke up to the news that the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in the USA had ignored pleas from women who had been sexually abused for years. Some of these women ended up committing suicide. Last year, in my country of Uganda, 54 people were killed for protesting the arrest of a politician.

It seems we have grown so comfortable desecrating, defiling, and humiliating the body that even pleas from those who hurt never move us. The body is sacred (see Gen 9:5-6). God promises that we will resurrect and be given new, imperishable bodies (1 Cor 15:53). Even the church is called the body of Christ (Eph 1:23).

What has this got to do with you?

Well, God promises that we will be glorified with Christ, meaning one day, we will be with him where he is and we will also receive an imperishable body for the perishable one. So, we will not be a bunch of souls floating in the imaginary place called heaven. We will physically be with him, clothed in physical bodies.

For you and me, it is spiritually beneficial that we start envisioning this reality. Yes, you will die and resurrect, not as a paper bag floating in the air, but as a living, breathing, and believing being. Does this truth affect the way you look at yours and others’ bodies? It should.

Otherwise, it would be strange for people longing for a glorified body to go about their business here walking on, spiting, abusing, shaming, fetishising, wounding, and killing other people’s bodies. Neither should we fall prey to the spirit of worshiping our bodies and investing our entire being and eternal security in the appearance of our bodies. I am not saying we should not care for our bodies. By all means, let us clean up, exercise, eat healthy, work on our mental health, etc. In doing these, we affirm together with God that the body, among other creature things, was good (Gen 1:31a).

But this body is temporal. As Paul says, it is perishable. Yet the one we will receive in the resurrection is imperishable. We will also reign with him (2 Tim 2:12). The Ascension of Jesus makes our bodily resurrection sure but also our devotion to protecting, loving, and caring for our and others’ bodies. The Holy Spirit has already equipped us with power for this work.

The Ascension is not the absence of Christ, it is the realisation of Jesus’s entire ministry—the release of all that Christ is and has for us. It is a celebration of victory, the ongoing triumph of God’s Kingdom over the principalities of this world.  

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

Amen.

You can also connect with me on Twitter, Instagram, and/or Facebook.