Focus: As Jesus bodily ascends into heaven to begin his reign over all, we receive an enormous benefit: our flesh is in heaven.
Function: To encourage the people to draw strength and joy from Jesus’ bodily ascension.
Text: Acts 1:1-11
Some of you attended a funeral this past week. You buried the corpse of a loved one. Others were confronted with news of relatives or friends having had surgery or being diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses such as, for example, certain forms of cancer. Some of us make regular visits to chiropractors to flex sore muscles and align a misshapen skeletal structure.
Others, in particular children and young men and women, have been pushing their bodies to athletic achievements: you moved around on the soccer field like a champion player; or you ran around the track in record time. You pushed yourself to the limits and you relished the vitality and adrenaline rush in your body.
Surely, our health and the vitality of our bodies are very important for us in daily living.
That’s why I am “go-hung” about Jesus’ ascension into heaven. For when Jesus bodily ascended into heaven, he began his reign over all, and we received a wonderful benefit: our flesh is in heaven. There is a now a direct connection between our bodies here on earth and our flesh in heaven. And that connection makes all the difference as we go through life and deal with all its beauty, frailty, and especially with its misery and death.
The book of Acts begins with the spotlight of attention focused primarily upon Jesus’ activities during those 40 days following his resurrection from the dead. In verse 3, Luke spells out what some of these activities are: “After his suffering, (Jesus) showed himself to (the apostles) and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.” So, for 40 days Jesus revealed himself as the resurrected Christ and spoke about the rule of God. Then he bodily ascended into heaven.
The golden thread woven throughout Jesus’ activities during those 40 days is the thread of kingship, of God’s heavenly reign here on earth. When Jesus began his preaching ministry on earth, he proclaimed the kingdom of God. Now, at the end of his earthly ministry as Jesus is getting ready to be crowned in heaven as King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus is still talking about God’s kingdom.
In fact, the rule of God leads to some specific instruction for Jesus’ disciples: (vs. 4) “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” God’s heavenly rule will be applied here on earth once the Spirit of God would come to the apostles and to us. “Wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit,” is Jesus’ command.
The rule of God also leads to a particular question by the disciples: (vs.6) “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” The disciples were thinking about the nation of Israel in bondage to the Roman empire. The disciples were hoping that God’s rule would lead to Israel’s political freedom. But Jesus’ has a two-fold response: The first one is “none of your business.” Listen: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.” The second one is “God’s kingdom concerns all of the world.” Listen: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
The
instructions to the disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit and to get ready for
declaring God’s rule to all the earth as Jesus’ witnesses now climax in Jesus’
bodily ascension into heaven. In order for the disciples to be royal witnesses
in the world, Jesus now ascends into heaven to be crowned as sovereign king
over all creation. For as Jesus bodily ascended into heaven, Scripture tells us
that Jesus is enthroned or seated at the right hand of God the Father. Today,
Jesus is “…far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and
every title that can be given…And God placed all things under his feet and
appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the
fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (Eph. 1:21,23).
The bodily ascension, then, as described in Acts 1, is a divine moment. How do we know? Note that Luke implies this in the way he describes Jesus’ bodily ascension. Listen: (vs.9) “After (Jesus) said this, he was taken up before their very eyes….” Luke uses the passive voice, suggesting that Jesus’ bodily ascension involved heavenly or divine action. No human being assisted in Jesus’ ascension. There were no rockets to lift him up; there were no spaceships or helicopters playing “lift, hide and seek” with Jesus.
There is only one other option: Just as God’s Spirit raised Jesus from the dead, so the Spirit of God took Jesus into heaven. Jesus’ ascension is a divine moment.
We see this also signified by the presence of the cloud. The text says that “…a cloud hid him from their sight.” In the Bible, clouds play a very prominent role in revealing the presence of God. For example, when Moses and the Israelites trekked to the Promised Land, a Pillar of Cloud by day, and a Pillar of Fire by night led them through the desert. Later, when Solomon dedicated the temple in Jerusalem, the cloud of God’s heavenly glory descended and filled the temple.
And again, later, when Jesus was
transfigured and was speaking to Moses and Elijah in the presence of Peter,
James, and John, “…a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the
cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to
him’” (Matthew
17:5).
Clearly, the cloud at Jesus’ bodily ascension points to the very presence of God in heaven. We are looking at a divine moment, because the cloud signifies God’s heavenly presence.
There is one more clue: the sudden presence of “two men dressed in white” points to Jesus’ ascension as a divine action. Just as two angels from heaven (dressed in white-signifying heavenly glory) showed up at Jesus’ empty tomb on the day of Jesus’ resurrection, so now we witness the presence of two messengers from heaven.
And these divine messengers drive home the point that Jesus’ bodily ascension is not only a divine moment, but also a critically relevant moment for you and me.
This relevant moment should catch the eyes of those of you who have a practical bent and are inclined to pay attention to Scripture only when it seems “relevant” to you. Well, pay attention, because the bodily ascension of Jesus is of enormous benefit to us: our flesh is in heaven. And the angels at Jesus’ ascension are turning our antenna of daily living in a certain direction. Listen: “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” In other words, as Jesus has bodily ascended into heaven, the disciples (you and I included) now must do our living with an eye on Jesus’ final coming at the end of time. Every day, one eye is on Jesus’ heavenly rule here on earth; and the other eye is on Jesus’ final, glorious coming when he will make all things new.
Jesus’ bodily ascension, then, is a divine and a most relevant moment.
But now we must ponder Jesus’
bodily ascension. The Bible tells us that God is Spirit and that God
reveals himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God, then, is Spirit. When the
eternal Son of God entered our world through divine conception in the womb of
the virgin Mary, however, the eternal, divine Son of God took on flesh. Jesus
became both: truly divine and truly human. The Son of God became a Son of Man.
He became one of us, except for sin. This is what Christians celebrate at
Christmas time: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God….The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among
us” (John
1:1,14).
Now what happened to Jesus’ resurrection body as Jesus’ ascended into heaven to be crowned King over all? Did it evaporate into space? Did Jesus go into heaven without our humanity, our flesh? Did he go back to the same form or mode of existence as pure Spirit or Word of God before he took on our flesh? Or did Jesus take our human nature, our humanity, our flesh with him into heaven?
Folks, it was not a
spook or ghost or some immaterial Christ who went to heaven! It was Jesus in
his resurrection body. And that means that our flesh is now in heaven. Our dust
is in the very presence of God, bundled up and held together in the
resurrected, ascended Lord Jesus Christ.
I like the way some Christians have expressed this astonishing truth and benefit: (cf. The Incarnate God, p. 198) “Christ is risen, and his body is a glorious body, a body that is full of light…After the resurrection, the body of Christ is no longer subject to the laws of nature, for death is inscribed in these laws and they lead all men to sin. The resurrected Christ no longer dies, and his body radiates with light, just as he showed to his apostles on Mt. Tabor at the Transfiguration. On that day, Christ revealed himself for a moment in his glory, manifesting his divinity.” You know what this means? When Christ bodily ascended into heaven, Christ placed our humanity, our flesh at the right hand of God, where Christ is seated on the throne as King over all.
Here is the
astonishing significance of our flesh being in heaven: Where Jesus is in
the flesh, there we are as well. No, I am not dreaming this up. Jesus
himself teaches us this truth when he prayed in the Upper Room that all his
followers may be one “…just as you, (Father) are in me and I am in you.
May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I
have given them the glory that you (Father) gave me, that they may be one as we
are one: I in them and you in me” (John 17:21).
And the apostle Paul tells us likewise: where Jesus is in the flesh , there we are as well. Listen: (Ephesians 2) “(God made us alive with Christ)…and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus….” Physically, we are here, in this sanctuary. Yet, we are also with Christ in heaven. How can that be? Simple: Jesus has bodily ascended into heaven. Now our flesh is in heaven.
Christians in the past have echoed this wondrous benefit of Jesus’ bodily ascension by saying: (Lord’s Day 18) “We have our own flesh in heaven—a guarantee that Christ our head will take us, his members to himself in heaven.” This is not so hard to understand. Most of us realize that Adam is our first parent, our head. We originate from Adam and our fallen, sinful condition is linked to Adam. When it comes to our human nature, Adam is our head and we are his members. And thus we are under condemnation of sin.
But here is the good news: The risen, ascended Christ is the second Adam: Linked to him by faith and by the workings of his Holy Spirit, we now have our life and identity firmly anchored in Christ. The ascended Lord is our head, our source of eternal life; and we are his members. Our salvation and eternal life is secure and secured, because Jesus has bodily ascended into heaven, so that where he is, we may be also.
Do you see now why we take great comfort and strength from Jesus’ bodily ascension? God so values our flesh or humanity! Each one of us, in every stage of life today, must deal with the vigor but also frailty of our bodies. There are moments we thrive and excel with our bodies, and there are many moments we feel the power of death at work within us. And as we grow older, we endure and suffer old age and face the wreckage of sin, sickness and death. All of our bodily frailty, all of human suffering, however, is overcome and overshadowed by this glorious good news: Our flesh is in heaven. Jesus has bodily ascended into heaven. And thus our eternal future—eternal life lived in the body or flesh on the restored, renewed creation is guaranteed.
Glory be to God as it was in the beginning, is now and always shall be: world without end. Amen.