ASCENSION DAY – THE FORGOTTEN CHRISTIAN FESTIVAL?

As a choir boy, I used to enjoy the early morning Ascension Day service – standing up on the roof of the church singing God’s praises! This tradition continues in many Oxbridge Colleges to this day. Ascension Day, this year falling on 9th May, is 40 days after the resurrection. It marks the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, as He dramatically ascends into heaven. You can read about this in Acts 1:1-11.

A church member recently asked me, “If Jesus had done his job: dying for the sins of the world, and rising to new life again, why didn’t He stay around?” It is a fair question. There are good reasons why Jesus ascended to heaven, but we should not infer that this means that God is not doing anything on earth anymore!

In the Acts 1 reading, two specific commands are given to the disciples:

DON’T STARE!

There is a gentle rebuke: don’t gaze up into the skies, wistfully willing Him down. That stage of Jesus’ ministry is over. The physical Jesus may be hidden from view, but Jesus is still very much alive. The Bible explains his ongoing ministry in this way:

☛ He is our PROPHET – empowering the Church. He speaks with God’s authoritative voice, directing and guiding His Church, most particularly in the Bible;

☛ He is our PRIEST – He has taken the once[1]for-all sacrifice He made on the cross and is presenting it before the Father. We should be grateful that He has atoned for sin, and also that He is ever interceding for us;

☛ He is our KING –  He will come back to judge all people at the end of time. Who knows when? Only the Father knows that date. But the Holy Spirit has been sent (that is Pentecost), in order that God’s work will go global, and His Church will have power to make Him known in every generation. Ascension tells us, we must not gaze idly up into the sky. Rather, we should be glad that Jesus has ascended to His Father, to continue His work from heaven.

DO SHARE!

Those angelic messengers encouraged the disciples to remember the commission which Jesus had given them: to continue doing all the things Jesus was doing on earth, in the power of His Spirit.

They, and we, are to be witnesses to everything Jesus did and everything Jesus said. And like good witnesses, we are charged to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The Gospel will then spread from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria to the ends of the earth (including Virginia Water!). Jesus’ message is good news for all nations.

One of the key messages of Ascension Day is the reminder that Jesus’ activity can be witnessed on earth. It is not by looking into heaven, but by seeing His body – The Church – at work. We are His mouthpiece, His hands, His feet. It should be the case, that when people look at Spirit-filled believers and hear them testifying about Jesus’ saving work, they meet with Jesus… His body on earth! That is a big challenge for the Church – and we certainly do not do it perfectly. But I hope that you will find Christians acting a little bit like Jesus and commending Him in what they say and do.

IT’S MORE THAN HOT AIR!

Years ago, when I was Vicar in Wimbledon, we had an Ascension Day service. At the end of the service everyone inflated a Helium balloon (in the days when we were less environmentally aware of the potential damage they might cause!) and attached a message about Jesus, before letting them loose. It was a great encouragement to hear responses from people in the far-flung corners of the UK saying that they had seen the balloon and read the message!

Filled with the Holy Spirit, we are let loose across the world! God’s people are to go to the ends of the earth with a wonderful message of Good News! That is why Ascension Day matters. Do be in touch for more information. Yours in Christ, Simon Vibert Simon.vibert@cc-vw.org