Thoughts on this Eve of the Feast of the Ascension.

When Jesus finished giving instructions to His apostles by the Holy Spirit, He told them to remain in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on High. He promised that they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit; that they would be clothed with power for the life and ministry He was giving to them...to all who would follow Him.

Jesus wants all His followers empowered to truly live the life He died & rose again to give them. The Father, through the Son, was going to pour out His Spirit on Jesus' followers. It would be the sign that Jesus Christ had been glorified again in the Father; seated at the Father's right hand. 

Jesus Christ, our Eternal High Priest, ascended to the Father’s Right Hand and sat down! Doing that confirmed that Jesus’ work of redemption & rescue was complete & thorough. Jesus sat down…a picture of rest; work all done; salvation fulfilled for whosoever would come to Him in faith and receive the free gift of eternal life…a gift given by grace and received by faith.

The King of Kings and Lord of Lords has ascended the throne where all authority in both heaven and on earth has been given to Him. That’s why we go in His Name, with His authority & He does what He has always done...setting people free and filling them with Life, power and peace. 

You know those who live under the rule of a king are called his “subjects”. They are subject to his rule: his word, his decrees, his laws, and his ways of doing things.

Now, think about the Church today in general. It can be rather disconcerting when people look at the church today or its individual members. They may be hard pressed to see evidence that Jesus Christ is, in fact, Lord of it. We tend to be much like the disciples when they asked Jesus, "Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?"

We tend to want to do things our way…the way we have always done them. We seem to want the same accolades the world looks to as marks of success and the evidence of power. People still fight with their Christian brothers and sisters for position, prestige & worldly success. “How big is your congregation?” Or we want our political affiliation to be blessed by Jesus as the “only way”. We tend to forget that Jesus was hated by both the religious liberals & conservatives of His day.

That is a far cry from the Word of our King that whoever wanted to be the greatest in the Kingdom of God should the servant of all…the foot-washer in the crowd. Jesus said that those who followed Him would deny themselves, take up their own cross and would follow Him. It’s not about doing “my” thing, but a complete change of reference in the way I live.

It would seem that we would be engaged in what He was doing rather than doing "our own thing". It would seem that the subjects of King Jesus would be more concerned with justice & mercy for those broken & marginalized by sin that than with self-interest or making a name for our self.

This yearly celebration of Feast of the Ascension is a challenge our assumptions as to how Christian life is to be lived out.  Jesus Christ made it very clear that He expected those who call Him “Lord, Lord” would be doing what He had said. As they went proclaiming the Gospel, in the power of the Holy Spirit they would be feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick & ministering to those in prison…both spiritually and naturally…neglecting neither.

I'm challenged, in light of having no fear of God’s wrath and knowing His eternal love and grace, to look at my life to see how I am actually living the Life He has given me. That Life, eternal Life, is a gift I will never deserve and have received not due to merit, but by grace through faith. The Life each and every Christian has been given is actually the Life of Jesus meant to be lived out in each of us, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ expectation (knowing the power of the Life working in us) is that prisoners be set free, sick people healed, lepers cleansed, demons cast out & the dead raised to new Life in Him.

We have a King whose power and dominion are absolute, eternal and perfectly good. He wants the whole human race to know the effects of His gracious reign. That is why we are called “ambassadors of Christ.” The Lord Jesus intends to make His appeal through us to a world He has redeemed by His blood.

He wants them to know that sin has been paid for, the enemy of our souls has been defeated and the way of returning to God and life as it was always meant to be lived has been opened for all. He wants them to know that they can turn from broken, finite self, turn to Him so that they can be healed, receive life-transforming forgiveness and begin to become all God created them to be.

Jesus Christ is absolute Lord…reigning…eternally good, just and merciful. Our King has prayed for us. He has revealed Himself to us. He has not left us as orphans, confused and lost. It's not about our kingdom...it's about His Kingdom. That gives us incredible freedom! We don't have to "make something up". We just need to follow Him!

It will put us in direct conflict with those who base their standing with God on their moral performance and judge others by their own personal spiritual score-card. It will place us in direct conflict with those who don’t mind Jesus being one of many good moral teachers but hate the very thought of Him being both Lord and Christ…God’s singular answer the whole human race; all of us regardless of ethnic make-up, language, gender, culture or color.

 

You don’t have to act like a religious ass to experience this multifaceted conflict. You simply have to follow Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit’s power continuing the ministry He initiated…that same ministry He first gave to His Church, His people, His Body to continue in His Name. His Kingdom looks like Him. 

People totally unlike Him liked Him. They saw in Jesus Christ that God both knew them through and through, accepted them where they stood & promised that His love would not leave them there…but would transform life, giving it meaning, purpose, peace and a joy that circumstances could never shatter…a wholeness within…an artesian spring of goodness from which to draw every day.

I would bow my knee to such a King…and I have.