Jesus’ farewell—a blessing

"The disciples watch as Jesus ascends into heaven"

From Standard Bible Story Readers, Book Two 

 


TODAY’S SPECIAL: Luke 24:36-53

TO CHEW ON: “And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass while He blessed them, that He parted from them and carried up into heaven.” Luke 24:50,51

According to Luke, Jesus ascended into heaven as He was in the middle of blessing His disciples. This is a detail I’ve never noticed before.

I went on a little search for other places God blessed people:

• God’s blessing came early, before the fall, when God blessed Adam and Eve: 

“Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” - Genesis 1:28.

• God pronounced blessing again on Noah, repeating some of the same blessings He pronounced on Adam and Eve. To that blessing He added a bit about the uniqueness of human life (a blessing, we might call it) in the form of a warning:

“ Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.
“Whoever sheds man’s blood,
 / By man his blood shall be shed;
 /For in the image of God
 / He made man”  Genesis 9:5,6

• God blessed Abram:

I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” - Genesis 12:2,3

• God blessed Jacob. After wrestling through the night with a Man, Jacob asked for a blessing. He received a name change (from Jacob to Israel) and a blessing - Genesis 32:26-29.

• God blessed Mary, Jesus' mother-to-be. An angel visitor said this blessing:

““Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”[ - Luke 1:28.

• Jesus blessed the children - Mark 10:15

• Jesus blessed Peter after he answered Jesus’ question: “‘But who do you say I am?’” with “‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” Jesus’ blessing:

“'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.'” - Matthew 16:17-19.

• And here Jesus blessed His followers as He left them - Luke 24:50,51. 

I wonder what He said. Maybe something like the wonderful Aaronic blessing from Numbers 6:24-26?

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
 The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.”’

Whatever it was it struck a good note, for the disciples left the spot of His last presence on earth, not with the tears of mourning we would expect from people who had just said goodbye to their dear friend, but with “great joy.” Their next days were characterized by "praising and blessing God."

Does Jesus’ blessing echo down to us? Are we similarly blessed [consecrated to God’s use, caused to prosper, made happy, favoured by God]?

I believe we are. Let’s live today with joy, praise, and worship in the light of Jesus’ ascension blessing on us!

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You for this account of Your ascension on the high note of Your favour. Help me to claim and live in Your blessing as mine today. Amen.

MORE: Ascension Day

Today is the day the church celebrates the ascension of Jesus into heaven. The liturgy for the day begins with this collect prayer:

"Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen."

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Forty-day seminar

"Jesus appears to His disciples" - Alexandre Bida

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Acts 1:1-11


TO CHEW ON: "…to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." Acts 1:3

How I would love to have been present in the room with the disciples during Jesus' post-resurrection teaching sessions!

Matthew describes the disciples meeting with Jesus on the mountain in Galilee. He left them with the assignment we call the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).

Mark describes Jesus meeting the eleven disciples for a meal when he rebuked them for not believing the word of previous eye-witnesses. Mark ends His gospel with another version of the Jesus' Great Commission - Mark 16:15-18.

Luke's gospel has the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus where Jesus says to the two (after they have told Him their tale of grief over Jesus' death and disappointment over dashed hopes that He would have redeemed Israel): "'O foolish ones … Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?'" And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them an all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself" - Luke 24:25-27.

When these same two disciples hurried back to Jerusalem to tell the others, Jesus appeared among them and again ended up teaching: "He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures" - Luke 24:45.

And here in Acts, author Luke talks of Jesus "speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God."

Even so, some didn't get it. For they ask, "'Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?'" Jesus' answer gently turns their attention away from immediate national concerns to the next step. It's not your business to know what God has planned, he tells them, but you will receive Holy Spirit power to witness to Me everywhere (Acts 1:7,8).


Jesus' teaching does eventually sink in. I know of no record in the New Testament or tradition that tells of any of the eleven disciples defecting from faith because the political scene didn't change.Their protegé Paul, who wrote many of the New Testament books, was clear on the place of Jesus in the continuum of God's plan and explained it explicitly. So it's obvious that these disciples came to understand what Jesus was talking about. Still, it  would have been wonderful to hear Jesus explain it firsthand.

The challenge to us is, do we believe the rich body of evidence we have? Do we take advantage of the many resources that help us coordinate the Jesus of history with the Jesus of prophecy? Do we understand our place in history? Or would Jesus' rebuke of some His disciples of having hard, unbelieving hearts, way too often fit us?


PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for Your rich word—the story of Your plan to save humankind from sin. Help me to understand  it, believe it, and myself become part of the story of the kingdom of God. Amen.

MORE: Ascension Day

Today the church celebrates the ascension of Christ into heaven. The Ascension Day liturgy begins with this collect:

Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Promise—kept!

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Acts 1:1-11

TO CHEW ON: "And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the Promise of the Father, 'which,' He said, 'you have heard from Me.' " Acts 1:4

Here Jesus, in His last goodbyes to His disciples, gives them some explicit instructions . They are not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for the "Promise of the Father." What is this "Promise of the Father"?

[The word "promise" here is the Greek word epangalia. It refers to "both a promise and the thing promised, an announcement with a special sense of promise, pledge and offer" - Dick Mills, Word Wealth, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1516.]

In the next verse, Jesus tells them what this promise is: the Holy Spirit.

What sort of expectation does this raise in the disciples, who are familiar with the law, psalms and prophets (our Old Testament)? Here are some OT scriptures that may have come to their minds, and the expectations they raised:

Isaiah 32:15 - "Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field…" = Fruitfulness.

Isaiah 59:21 - "… this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you…" and the verse continues with a promise = Believing Generations.

Ezekiel 39:29 - "And I will not hide my face from them anymore for I shall have poured out My Spirit…" = a New Intimacy with God.

Joel 2:28 - "I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions" = Supernatural Insight and Communication.

Zechariah  12:10 - "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication…" = a New Favor with Man and Power with God.

As we look at these OT promises, we see that every one of them is fulfilled at the coming of the Spirit on and beyond the day of Pentecost.

• Fruitfulness: 3,000 people become believers after Peter's sermon that day and the church only keeps growing from there.

• Believing Generations: The church that begins on the day of Pentecost continues till today.

• A New Intimacy: Through the Spirit believers through the centuries have assurance of a vital connection to God as His children. Paul and John express this well in Romans 8:16; Galatians 4:6; and 1 John 4:13.

• Supernatural Insight and Communication: Peter refers to the passage in Joel in his sermon, interpreting the coming of the Spirit as fulfillment of Joel's prophecy (Acts 1:16-21). The book of Acts continues with many examples of this: Acts 5:1-11; 8:14-23; 9:10-16; all of Acts 10.

• Favor with People, Power with God: The early church has "favor with all the people" - Acts 2:47 and power when they pray - Acts 4:31.

The wonderful thing is that the same Holy Spirit is still available to us and working in and through Christ-followers all around the world. His presence and activity in our lives is still able to energize us and make us powerful and effective in these ways.

The question becomes: Are we making ourselves available to Him?

PRAYER: Dear Holy Spirit, all of You is available to me but I fear I often don't make all of myself available to You and so I stifle Your activity in my life. Help me to be better at giving myself to You for whatever You would do through me. Amen.

MORE: Ascension Day

Today the church celebrates the day Jesus ascended to heaven--Ascension Day. The day's liturgy begins with this collect:

Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Gone but not for good

"Ascension of Christ" 
Tiffany window Union Congregational Church,
Montclair, NJ, Designer unknown

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Acts 1:1-11

TO CHEW ON: "And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel who also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.'" Acts 1:10-11

Even after Jesus rose from the dead His disciples didn't grasp his plan. For when they were together they quizzed Him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"

It was only after His answer and then His ascension that they finally understood that this wasn't going to be an earthly kingdom He would set up any day now. 

The two "men who stood by them in white apparel"  promised that Jesus would be back, would actually return in the way they had seen Him go. His coming is talked about throughout the Bible. It's in the Old Testament (Psalm 98:9; Daniel 7:13; Zechariah 14:5). Jesus referred to it repeatedly (Matthew 26:64; Mark 14:62; Luke 21:27). And it was the hope of the Apostles (Hebrews 9:28; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; Revelation 3:3).

The early church expected it to occur any day. There was even a wait-instead-of-work controversy that developed because, these early Christians reasoned, why bother working when Jesus will come back any day anyway.

We are still waiting. God's definition of "quickly" (Revelation 3:11) is obviously not the same as ours. But in the meantime, The Bible tells us to occupy ourselves in:

• Readiness - because Jesus' second coming will be unexpected - Matthew 24:44.

• Stewardship - because we will be held accountable for what God has given us - Luke 19:13.

• Waiting - 1 Corinthians 1:7.

• Charitableness - because God who knows things we don't about motivations behind others' actions  and will judge people by His standard of truth - 1 Corinthians 4:5.

• Holy living - so we will be preserved blameless - 1 Thessalonians 5:23.

• Obedience - 1 Timothy 6:14.

• Joyful expectation - because Jesus' glorious return is a "blessed hope" - Titus 2:13.

• Constant abiding - so that we can meet Him without shame but full of confidence - 1 John 2:28.

It's tricky living with one eye toward the sky, the other on the things of earth. But it's also very freeing as we keep in mind how transitory this life is, how we need to travel lightly (both materially and in judgment) and always keep our relationship with God clear, open, and strong - so we will be ready for His return. It could be today!


PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You for this account of Your visible ascension into heaven and the clear promise of Your return. Help me to occupy myself productively and in ways that will please You as I wait. Amen.


MORE: Ascension Day

Today the church celebrates the bodily ascension of Jesus into heaven. The liturgy for the day begins with this Collect:

"Grant, we pray, Almighty God, that as we believe your only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into heaven, so we may also in heart and mind there ascend, and with him continually dwell; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen."

"We Shall Behold Him" written by Dottie Rambo, sung here by Sandi Patty




(The lady Sandi Patty hugs at the end of the video is Dottie Rambo.)

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The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. - Used with permission.