The Ascension

"And He led them out as far as Bethany,

and He lifted up His hands and blessed them.

And it came about that while He was blessing them,

He parted from them. And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy,

and were continually in the temple, praising God."

Luke 24:50-53

Luke ends this book with the dramatic account of Jesus return to His Father in heaven. Now that we have gone through the book of Luke I suggest you begin a careful study of his next book, Acts. Acts 1:9 picks up where Luke 24:53 ends: "And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was departing, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them; and they also said "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven."

Can you imagine the thoughts and feelings of these men as they watched their Savior return to His Father as He had told them He would do? It must have been an amazing sight and one that was indelibly imprinted on their minds as they walked through the rest of their lives and faced the trials and hardships He had told them about.

The next time Christians will physically see the Lord Jesus is when He returns to rapture us into heaven. I Thes. 4:16-18 says "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord." That imminent return is the Christians great hope.

Jesus told the disciples to go back to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit to indwell them as the Father had promised and they were obedient. When that happened they would receive power and become witnesses for Him throughout the world. That is our mission today as we wait for His return. We know that those disciples were faithful in carrying out the mission they had been given. I pray that same faithfulness will be true of you.