The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
THE ASCENSION
The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
THE ASCENSION
Golden Text: “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” (Is. 53:4)
Lesson Plan:
1. The Last Appearance of Jesus - The Completed Proofs of His Resurrection (Acts 1:1-3; also read
Lk. 24:50)
2. The Two Powers for the Redemption of the World (Acts 1:4, 5, 8)
3. The Long Process of Redemption (Acts 1:6, 7)
4. The Ascension - Christ’s Continued Life (Acts 1:9, 10; also read Lk. 24:50, 51)
5. The Promised Return of Jesus - His Final Triumph (Acts 1:10, 11)
Lesson Setting:
Time: The Ascension, May 18, A.D. 30.
Place: The Ascension was from Mt. Olivet near Bethany. Their place of meeting was an upper room in
Jerusalem.
Research and Discussion: During how long a period did Jesus occasionally appear to His disciples? What was the purpose of this period? What was the “Promise of the Father”? What did the disciples expect in their thought of “Restoring the Kingdom to Israel”? Why did Jesus close His bodily career by the Ascension? The promise of return.
Introduction: This lesson is so important that it should not be omitted in your study. And it is pertinent for any ‘season’ or any day of the year because it completes the whole cycle of the Life of Christ, beginning with His birth. He came from heaven, and returned to heaven on Ascension Day. All between is the fruitage of God’s gift to mankind, filling our hearts with joy.
Scripture Reading: Acts 1:1-3 (also read Lk. 24:50)
1. The Last Appearance of Jesus - The Completed Proofs of His Resurrection
Paul reports the appearance of Jesus to James the brother of John, probably at Jerusalem (1 Cor. 15:7). Whether there were others we do not know.
Jesus, at the close of the forty days (Acts 1:3): “On the day in which He was taken up” (Acts 1:2), met His disciples at Jerusalem for the last time, and after He had given His final commandments “He led them out as far as to Bethany” (Lk. 24:50) on the Mount of Olives. He had shown “Himself alive after His passion” (Acts 1:3) – old English for suffering and His death on the cross. “By many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3), ‘“infallible proofs” is one word in the original, and signifies ‘proofs by sure signs.’ R.V. simply “proofs,” the technical use of the Greek word, “convincing certain evidence” (Knowling). The word “proofs” used in the R.V. is not nearly as strong as the Greek word. “The Greek word signifies some sign or token manifest to the senses, as opposed to evidence given by witnesses” (Cambridge Bible). The single Greek word, translated “infallible proofs,” is used frequently by Plato and Aristotle, denoting “the strongest proofs of which a subject is capable – an irresistible proof” (Schaff). “Used by Aristotle (Rhet. i., 2) for proofs that carried certainty of conviction with them, as contrasted with those that were only probable or circumstantial” (Ellicott, also Thayer’s Greek Lexicon). “The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the best attested fact in history” (Lyman Abbott). This complete proof has been an essential element in the progress of the Christian religion. The fact that Jesus was alive after His crucifixion was essential to the certainty that Jesus was the promised Messiah, proclaimed in the Old Testament as an everlasting King, whose reign should never end, the Savior and Redeemer of men. All the hope and faith of the apostles were built upon this fact. It was impossible to build up a kingdom with a dead king, a mere memory. Behind the apostles must be the living Teacher, Master and King; the One they had known, loved and trusted. They must present a living Savior, a present help, One who could be loved and served, One who could be everywhere present, with all power to help, or why should the people believe on Him? The first thing in the new kingdom was The King.
Scripture Reading: Acts 1:4, 5, 8
2. The Two Powers for the Redemption of the World
There are two powers by which the world has been changed – (a) The power of the ‘ever living Christ,’ the Son of God, who lived a heavenly life, taught divine truth, did divine deeds, was crucified for our sins, and rose from the dead. In Him we have a Leader, an Example, and a Cause, the greatest in the world. Not only ancient, but modern Christians and the 21st Century churches of Christ need to know ‘what’ to do and ‘how’ to do it or else even zeal may work unintentional evil, as when men sought unity, compelling it by persecution. Is it possible for good men to do wrong, while trying to gain good ends? (b) The power of the Holy Spirit inspiring us to work for the Leader and the Cause. We need inspiration, earnestness, a living, burning motive-power within us.
v 4 ... “Not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father.” It was ‘the’ promise, as being the greatest, most important, all-embracing promise. The Holy Spirit promised by Joel (2:28, 29; see Acts 2:17, 18); and by Isaiah (44:3).
v 4 ... “Which ... ye have heard of Me.” This promise is alluded to in Luke 24:49, and found in John 14:16, 26; 15:26. “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.” He was the power by which 3,000 were converted under the preaching of Peter (Acts 2); the power that convinces men of sin, and righteousness, and judgment; the power that is a well of living water springing up to everlasting life, in their own souls.
v 5 ... “Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.” Filled with, surrounded by, abiding in, permeated with, consecrated through, the Holy Spirit, “as the element in which baptism is performed” (Dr. Hackett).
v 8 ... “Then ye shall receive power,” all the kinds of power needed to convert the world to Christ, to God. The apostles were like the wires, the Holy Spirit like the electric current flowing through the wires, enabling them to give light or carry sound.
Illustration: Parable of the Venetian Glass – “A friend once showed me a goblet of Venetian glass, but at first sight it needed all the glamour thrown over it by the name to make it an object of interest. No doubt it was at least three centuries old and perhaps it had figured at Bogia banquets held in some grand ducal palace, where through all the mirth and music, death lurked in a floating rose-leaf, but to the eye of sense it looked like nothing but plain common glass. My friend held it up to the light and suddenly the dull glass was transformed – it was a transfiguration of the inanimate. Sparkling with all the hues of the prism it seemed as if it had caught to hold fast forever, when it came all molten and glowing from the furnace, every radiant hue, sapphire and emerald and jasper – the light of all those gleaming stones that St. John saw in his vision of the New Jerusalem. “And herein, dear friend, lies a parable for you and me. However dull and common-place our lives may look in the eyes of men; if they are only brave, earnest, Christ-filled lives, when the light of eternity flashes upon them they will be transformed. Every grace and virtue will shine forth in its iris-colored radiance, and all the hidden glory will stand and virtue will stand revealed of a vessel most rare and precious, fit for the Master’s use” (E.E. Flagg).
v 8 ... “Power after that the Holy Ghost has come.” They were to wait in Jerusalem for a time till the Holy Spirit came upon them. They needed more training; they needed to be equipped by the Spirit of service. They needed time for all these teachings and strange events to gradually crystallize in their thoughts, and for their souls to be consecrated anew, and open to receive the influences of the Spirit, hence they spend the next ten days in prayer and confidence. The people needed something of the same process of gradual preparation. To have begun preaching too soon would have been like sowing seed on frozen ground. The rays of the dawning of the Lord’s church would soon shine, when on the day of Pentecost Peter would at last preach the first gospel sermon, saying, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit ... Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them” (Acts 2:37-41 NKJ). However, the disciples still did not fully understand, expect or recognize all that Jesus meant in His statement and they were not fully aware of what was soon coming. But, now they waited in Jerusalem. There are times when it is our duty to wait; not in idleness, not in sleep, but in prayer, removing all hindrances from our hearts, doing every duty close at hand. No time is lost in sharpening the scythe; the prelude on the grindstone makes a quicker harvesting. Tuning the instruments is the way to the best music.
v 8 ... “And ye shall be My witnesses.” The Gospel is built on facts, not theories. The gospels are the summary of the witness of the apostles. They were written many years after the apostles began to preach, and are the story that had been told many hundreds of times by these witnesses. And still the power of preaching and teaching is not in arguing, but in witnessing, declaring the truths known and tested by experience. All Christians are to be witnesses testifying to the reality of religion, to the fulfillment of the promises, to the living presence of Jesus, to His power to save from sin, to guide by example into righteousness and support in trouble. The Christian bears witness: (a) By his words, for there is much which can be made known only by expressing what Christ has done within him. (b) By his life and character, showing a well-known specimen of what Christ does for a man. His family life, his religion at home, the way he does his business, his conduct in public affairs and social life, all are witnesses as to what Christ has done for him, and can therefore do for others. (c) By his love and estimation of what Christ has done for him, by what he is willing to do and to give for the spread of the Gospel throughout the world. Lift up Christ and He will do the drawing – too many preachers lift themselves up and as a result they don’t draw anything.
We Need One Another: Christian fellowship is not the superficial social event the word sometimes signifies in churches these days. Neither is it some mystical association existing in the mind of God, without practical consequence to us. It is the space-time nearness we have to one another, the purified interactions we share with one another, the mutual concern we have for one another’s welfare, and the practical involvement we have with each other, encourage the ‘living out’ of the things we say we believe. It is as if the best answer to the question, “How do I become a Christian?” were essentially the same as to the question, “How do I become an artist?” or “How do I become a surgeon?” One should be able to say, “Go to the person who is already about that task to learn from, observe, and imitate him/her.” Reading manuals and learning the rules isn’t enough. One needs to be able to go where experienced, competent, and wise practitioners of the art are found. There is a discipline and craftsmanship to their process that develops newcomers over time. One can’t simply follow his feelings but has to be initiated into a highly specialized skill like brain surgery or sculpting or spirituality over time under the oversight of skilled practitioners. Fellowship begins in the fact that we are “baptized by one Spirit into one body” (1 Cor. 12:13). It is affirmed when we see one another across the table of Christ and “discern the [one] body” (1 Cor. 11:29). It is manifest to the world when we live in unity, harmony, and love for one another. Skilled practitioners who have come to know God and whose lives are being lived in the power of the Holy Spirit are the best persons to train novices in the art of holiness. By virtue of God’s presence and activity within it, the church is greater than the sum of its human parts. It is the living body of Christ. His spiritual body? Yes, but His fleshly presence as well. He has no eyes to see, feet to approach, mouth to speak, or hands to serve this generation of human-kind, unless we see them in their true situation, go to them in their distasteful settings, speak to them with our stuttering mouths, and serve them with our inept hands. Occasional flashes of brilliance or showing up at just the right time or doing something that genuinely makes a difference will be God’s activity through us. And that is why we need each other.
Scripture Reading: Acts 1:6, 7
3. The Long Process of Redemption
v 6 ... “When they therefore were come together” on the Mount of Olives (v 12), referring either to the assembly mentioned in verse 4, or to the gathering again at the place of the ascension after they had walked there from Jerusalem.
v 6 ... “They asked.” Kept asking, “the imperfect denoting a repetition of the question” (M.R. Vincent).
v 6 ... “Lord, wilt Thou [R.V. ‘dost Thou’] at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” As promised again and again in the Scriptures. Israel was then subject to the Roman power. They probably imagined that the world would be converted to Judaism, and that Jerusalem, the holy city, would be the resort of all nations, the center of light and power and religion for the world. They probably had no conception of any other way in which the hopes of the Jews and the promises of the Bible could be accomplished.
v 7 ... “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons.” To know the exact time of a great epoch or moral change is impossible at the time of its coming, any more than one can tell by observation the time of the coming of spring or summer. This is true of every great moral and intellectual movement, as the renaissance, the transition from the mediaeval to the modern world, the Reformation, etc.
v 7 ... “Times [the duration of future periods of church history, or] seasons,” critical periods, occasions of special importance, the marked epochs in the development of the kingdom of God.
v 7 ... “Which the Father hath put [or placed] in His own power” or authority. Kept within His own absolute disposal; the dates of which He will make known when He sees fit. This was the wisest possible plan of God. From the apostles’ standpoint it would have been impossible for them to understand the movements during their progress. It would have been of no use to them if they had known. It would have taken their thoughts away from their work, and interested them in useless questions. This is justified by the apostolic experience as shown in the second epistle to the Thessalonians. The false views of the immediate expectation of the second coming of Christ led to idleness, disorder, and scandals. Dr. Stokes, in ‘Expositor’s Bible,’ gives two instances from church history, one in the fourth century and one in the tenth.
How to Be a Church: The church of our Lord has struggled with self-understanding from the first century until now. What is the church? How shall we understand our identity? What is our mission? How do we want to be seen by the world? For the most part, we have focused on theology to define the church. So we have researched and argued over such topics as organization, doctrine, and worship. Serious study of the Bible is certainly the place to begin. But something may still be lacking. Our approach to spiritual things has for the most part not created a church as dynamic as the one you discover from reading the New Testament. That church, after all, turned the world upside down. Here are four terms that could use more discussion and implementation among the followers of Jesus Christ: (a) Togetherness – People need to belong, to fit in, to be accepted. Everyone wants to believe that he or she is part of something significant. Of all people, the church should be able to communicate this message to its members. We have been accepted into the family of God; we must accept one another as brothers and sisters in that family. The church is Christ’s spiritual body, and every member has a function in its health and welfare. (b) Love – The unique bond that holds the church together as a cohesive unit is love. Not guilt. Not fear. Not duty. God is love. Since we have our Father’s genetic material in us, we are learning how to love one another. Existing as an oasis of love in a world of suspicion and hatred, the church is both salt and light to everyone around it. Love casts out fear, intensifies faith, and creates new life. (c) Redemption – Because of its relationship to Jesus, the church is a redemptive body. Christ’s blood flows within His body, just as our blood circulates in our physical bodies. It nourishes and cleanses every part of the body. It creates health and generates energy. In addition, the concern of the members of the body for one another are customary. Wounds are tended gently. Healing is allowed to take place. (d) Attractiveness – In Paul’s metaphor of the church as a “bride adorned for her husband” (Eph. 5:25-27), he is stressing the beauty of holiness that is appropriate to Christ’s people. When the church exhibits such beauty, heads will turn. People who are tired of sin’s ugliness will abandon evil for purity, rebellion for obedience. When we really are an ‘attractive togetherness of redemptive love,’ we will have solved our confusion over how to strengthen the saved and win the lost. A holy self- image will produce confidence and boldness. A winsome presence before a watching world will draw sinners to their Savior. This is the church one finds in the early stories in Acts of the Apostles. It is also the one that people are eager to find in their own experience today.
Scripture Reading: Acts 1:9, 10 (also read Lk. 24:50, 51)
4. The Ascension - Christ’s Continued Life
We now come to the connecting link between the earthly and the heavenly life of Jesus. The same Jesus who lived and taught on Earth, now rules in Glory and Power in Heaven over His Earthly Kingdom.
v 9 ... “While they beheld,” “as they were looking” in R.V., so that they could have clear proof of His ascension; and while He was in the act of blessing them (Lk. 24:51).
v 9 ... “He was taken up,” His final departure, so that they would expect no more of His occasional appearances.
The intentness of their look is stated in this verse: “While they were looking steadfastly” (v 10), denoting a fixed, protracted gaze, the longing gaze of the disciples watching the Lord as “He was taken up” (v 9).
v 9 ... “And a cloud received Him out of their sight.” “The cloud is here, as elsewhere, the symbol of divine glory, and it was also, as Chrysostom called it: ‘the royal chariot.’ (See Ps. 104:3), ‘who maketh the clouds His chariot’ (R.V.). In 1 Timothy 3:16 we read that our Lord was received ‘in glory’ (R.V.)” (Expositors Greek Testament). As Elijah ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire, so “on this ‘royal chariot,’ did the eternal Son of God ascend from earth to the heaven of heavens” (Schaff). It was no doubt at this time that the great change came over His body, “for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. “Behold, I show you a mystery ... we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:51-54).
Why Jesus Closed His Earthly Life in this Way: (a) The Ascension was the only perfect and fitting close to the life of Jesus. It was neither fitting that He should die again, nor that He should remain on the earth. The Ascension was at once the natural consequence of all that preceded, and the only sufficient cause of the marvelous experiences that followed. The situation itself pointed to an exit from earthly scenes not by way of mortal dissolution but rather of glorification. (b) The ‘work’ of Christ remained incomplete without the Ascension. It closes the public ministry; it opens the continuation of that ministry in the new age of the spirit. It announces that the great human ‘facts’ necessary to redemption are finished, and that the ‘results’ are henceforth to be increasingly realized. The Ascension stands at the beginning of the fresh spiritual experiences of the Apostolic age. It explains the extraordinary change in the mind of the Apostles. His passing out of earthly conditions must therefore be visible. (c) “The Ascension of Christ is the type of the Ascension of all believers. If Heaven is ‘His’ true abode, it is also ‘theirs’; and this as the natural goal of human nature” (Hastings’s ‘D. of Christ and the Gospels’).
Jesus was Himself the evolution and destiny of man: He was born. He lived a holy life. He died. He ascended to eternal life in a glorified spiritual existence, a victory over death, a realization of His highest ideals and hopes, a continued service for others. And this is the divine plan for the Ascent of Man. (a) We see the blessing and power of our last vision of Christ; not upon the cross, but ascending from Olivet in glory; not in agony of atonement, but in the act of blessing; not in seeming defeat, but in manifest triumph. Thus we worship, not a dead, but a living Savior, to Whom we shall go, with Whom we shall be in glory, and Whom we shall love and serve through endless ages. (b) Thus His children are taught to live by faith and not by sight, and are trained in character and manhood by the responsibility of carrying on His work. The present system trains “governors and governed, kings and subjects, parents and children, teachers and pupils, all alike.” (c) The doctrine of the ascension, with its hope of future glory, with its transfigured Son of Man on the throne, “adds new dignity to life,” for the lowliest shall be changed into the likeness of His glorified body. “It is an ever-flowing fountain of dignity, of purity, of mercy.”
Scripture Reading: Acts 1:10, 11
5. The Promised Return of Jesus - His Final Triumph
v 10 ... “And while they looked steadfastly.” Gazing with great eagerness, longing to understand what it meant.
v 10 ... “Behold [implying suddenness], two men [Angels in the form of men. Compare Matt. 28:2-5 with Lk. 24:4] ... in white apparel.” The brilliant whiteness showed their pure nature, the bright home from where they came, and that they came with a message of hope from heaven, even as angels came with songs and a message at His birth.
v 11 ... “Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?” You are looking in the wrong place for what you want. You need now the eye of faith, not the bodily eye, for your heavenly vision. This is something better for you than you can now see.
v 11 ... “This same Jesus ... shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go,” in power and glory on the clouds of heaven, and the holy angels with Him. The message of the angels to the heavenward gazing apostles has the spiritual effect of challenging every believer to be busily engaged in the service of the Lord, rather than wasting time by gazing into those things which are beyond all human knowledge of them. ‘Shall so come in like manner ...’ This is a heavenly pledge that the Second Coming will be literal and physical as was Jesus’ departure. Also, the manner of His coming will be ‘in the clouds of heaven,’ as frequently stated in the New Testament.“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” But when it comes then “as the lightening cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” It will be like the clouds of glory in which Jesus went up to heaven when He ascended from Olivet. The hope, the joy, the strength, the glory of the church is in this promise of the coming again of Jesus, of the triumph of His cause, of His glorious reign. We are not warring and laboring against hope, but with the certainty of the victory through an ever-living, ever-present Savior, Who is sure to come again. It is this hope that has sustained Christians and the church of our Lord, through conflicts, martyrdoms and opposition of wicked men. They know that their cause shall triumph, that their Savior king shall accomplish the purpose for which He lived and died and rose again.
