Ascension Blessings!

“After all of the final details, something happened.  A cloud of glory appeared and I suspect it was the same cloud that used to reside in the Holy of Holies.  This is God’s cloud.  This cloud came down from Heaven and it lifted our Lord Jesus Christ off the ground.  And it carried Him into the sky out of their sight and into Heaven where he took his throne.  This is the ascension.   And our Lord Jesus Christ is still there in Heaven.  Theologians call this time His present session.  That is, He sat down at God’s right hand where He must reign and rule until He comes again.   This is what we see in the book of the Revelation.  We have magnificent creatures, seraphim and cherubim,  angels, glorified men.  These people and angels are numbering in the millions and millions surrounding the throne and paying tribute to the One Who sits on it.  He is at the same time the Lamb Who was slain and the Lion of the tribe of Judah. 

So what is the ascension?  It is the Lord’s rise to glory at His Father’s right hand.  We urge one another to exalt the Lord.  And we ought to exalt the Lord, because God has first exalted Him.  You can praise me more than I deserve.  I can lift you up higher than you belong.  But  it’s impossible to lift the Lord Jesus Christ up higher than He belongs because there is no higher place than Heaven and right there at the apex of all things sits the King, our Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ, 40 days after His resurrection and 10 days before Pentecost, ascended to God’s right hand.  That’s the doctrine; that’s the fact of the ascension.

The ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ is essential to theology and the believer’s life.  Thus we need to understand not only what happens but what it means…  well, according to Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost this chiefly means: Jesus is the King.  Not that He will be the king someday or at the second coming or if you want him to be king or if you accept him as your personal Savoir.  But what Peter is saying is that in ascending to God’s right hand and sitting on the throne that Jesus is the King.”

-          - Michael Phillips, 

in his ascension sermon, which I STRONGLY recommend to you