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The Ascension of Christ


There are many celebrations and feasts for Christians. The featured feasts are Easter and Christmas. The Ressurection and the Birth of Christ get the most coverage and rightfully so. However, Good Friday which is the Crucfixion; the event when sin and death were defeated and the moment that leads to the Ressurection is often not featured in many churches. Even more obscured is a celebration forty days after Easter, know as Ascent or Ascension Day.

This holiday or holyday commemorate when Jesus after forty days of being with His disciples and giving the Great Commission He ascended into Heaven. This event described in the Gospel of Luke 24:50-5 and Acts 1:6-11. The Ascension is significant for several reasons. Firstly Jesus gives the Great Commision, He says, "Go into the world and preach the Gospel to all creation," and "Go to all nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 28:19). While missions could be said to have begun back when Jesus sent the disciples out two by two or when Jesus visited Tyre and Sidon (Matthew 15:21); this Bible verse is the Missionary verse, the one that compels many to go out into the world and preach the Gospel. The second thing that happened at the Ascension was Jesus proved He was God and floated into the sky and disappeared. This ability to defy gravity reaffirmed for the discipels watching and for those of us who read the accounts  that Jesus is indeed God.

The third important aspect of the ascesion is that it tells us how our Lord will return. In Acts One, the angels watching the disciples say, "Men of Galilee, why are you standing around and waiting? Do you not know that He shall return in the same way that he left? Go forth and be about his buisnesses." (Acts 1:11). This is an important detail that often gets left out of Eschatology and End Times studies. We have blueprint of how Jesus' Return will come about, the details are all there for us in Matthew Chapter 24, Luke 13-14, Thessalonians blank, The Apocalypse of John/Revelation, and Daniel's prophecies. But there is an important detail in Acts 1, which says, "He shall return in the same manner in which he left." (Acts 1:11, cross ref Revelation 1:7); which if you read it says, "After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight." (Acts 1:9-10). So Jesus shall return in the same way that he left and this is revelant for all who keep watch with their lamps for the Lord's Return.

Ascension Day is May 14th this year (today). Take some time to read the passages (they are only some verses) about the Ascent and contemplate the Great Commision and the details of Christ's Return. Do not let this celebration pass by, but enjoy learning more about it.

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