Jesus Ascends to Heaven: What now cont’d

          He ascended into heaven, where He now sits at the right hand of God the Father –

          Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 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 up 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 1:9-11)         

     When Jesus had risen from the grave, He spent some time appearing to those He chose to show Himself to and then was taken up into the heavens “in a cloud”. I don’t know what that looked like, but I bet it was cool. I can only imagine how those that had walked really close with Him felt. They had already lost Him once and gotten Him back, and now He’s leaving again.

     So why did Jesus have to leave? Why was it so important for Him to ascend into heaven? And what has He been doing for the last two thousand years or so? Let’s look at the first question: Why did Jesus have to leave? He answered that question Himself when He said:

           And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.  4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”          John 14:3-4

and

          “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’  6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.  7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.
NKJVJohn 16:5-8

     and

Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.      Rom 8:34    

    

     Several other things could be said and shown here, but these three reasons are the most important things to remember and look at. Jesus had fulfilled the purpose of His life – to seek and save the lost, to reveal the Father and to destroy the works of Satan and take back what he had stolen. Now it was time for Him to take again what was His before He took on the appearance and limitations of “mere man-ness”. It was time for Him to return to the throne of grace, and sit at the right hand of the Father. The bible says this of His return in Ephesians 1:19-21

and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.

     So we see that Jesus had to ascend into heaven to take His rightful place again at the right hand of the Father. And now he is preparing a place for us to live eternally. He also spends every hour of every day interceding for us to the Father. Every single time we mess up He looks to the Father and says “My blood covers that”. What an awesome thing His death, burial and resurrection did for those who have received salvation and His lordship!

     Finally, He had to go up to the Father in order for us to be able to receive the Holy Spirit – the third part of the Trinity. It is so hard to comprehend that is was “to our advantage” that the Son of God was leaving this world in the physical sense. Most would think that having the Lord Jesus here on the earth in the flesh would be more advantageous. But Jesus said that it was more important for the Holy Spirit to take His place.

     The Holy Spirit is the helper, the comforter and the voice of the Father on the earth now. And He speaks only what He hears the Father speaking and shows us what the Father is doing – just as He did for the Christ while He was here on the earth.

     In the old testament, the Holy Spirit would “come upon” people in order to empower them to accomplish something. But the new testament brought the time where the Holy Spirit would actually permanently abide in our hearts – our inner most man. We will discuss this more in the third section of this book.

     Jesus had to ascend so that we could be empowered, protected and provided for during our walk here on earth.