Forty days had passed since their sorrow was expelled by His appearance to them on resurrection day. In addition to “many infallible proofs” that He was indeed alive, Christ’s followers received teaching about the kingdom of God. But the Lord was on a timetable. Pentecost was approaching. The time for Him to be “taken up” into heaven had arrived.
His teaching about the kingdom was certainly on the disciples’ minds on the day of His ascension. They asked Him, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Act 1:6).1 Maybe they reasoned that the time had finally come. Christ, the prophesied Son of Man, was about to “sit on his glorious throne” (Mat 19:28) and establish the Messianic Kingdom on earth. They were right about the throne, but wrong about its location. The fulfillment of Psalm 110:1 was mere moments away, when the Father would address His Son upon His arrival into heaven, “Sit thou at my right hand.”2
The Vicinity of His Ascension
Luke tells us that the ascension took place from the Mount of Olives in the vicinity of Bethany, just outside Jerusalem (see Luk 24:50 NIV; Act 1:12). This location would have future significance. The disciples were told after Christ ascended, “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Act 1:11). That coming will occur when the Lord sets up His Messianic kingdom on earth. “And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem” (Zec 14:4).
The Validity of His Ascension
Although Luke is the only Gospel writer to record the ascension narrative in any detail, he is not the only writer to mention it. Mark’s longer ending reports the ascension (16:19). Peter refers to it in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost (Act 2:34-36) as well as in his first epistle (1Pe 3:22). John includes a reference to it in his Gospel, when the Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene (20:17). Additionally, both Paul (e.g., Eph 1:20-23; 4:8-10; 1Ti 3:16) and the writer to the Hebrews (e.g., 9:24; 10:12) acknowledge the reality and significance of the ascension. Of course, all eleven disciples were also eyewitnesses to the Lord’s ascension and could be consulted in the days which followed. Just as there were many who saw the risen and glorified Lord, so there were witnesses to His glorious ascension.
The Visibility of His Ascension
Christ’s followers were not all receiving some simultaneous vision or having an ecstatic experience. They watched the Lord Jesus ascend with their own eyes. Luke notes that they “beheld” the event and that “a cloud received him out of their sight” (Act 1:9). They “looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up” (v10) and were “gazing up into heaven” (v11). They saw with clear vision the ascension of the Savior. Notice also that He did not suddenly vanish, leaving the world one moment and arriving in heaven the next. It appears that some of His post-resurrection occurrences ended with His vanishing (see, e.g., Luk 24:31), but this was radically different. And the ascension is the only thing that explains the sudden end of His post-resurrection appearances.
So, the disciples watched as He left them. They not only saw Him but they saw a cloud – “while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight” (Act 1:9). Perhaps it was the Shekinah, the visible representation of the pleasure and presence of God, the cloud Moses encountered on Sinai, the cloud which guided Israel in the wilderness, the cloud that lay over the tabernacle and filled the temple, the cloud which Ezekiel saw departing over the east gate, the cloud that overshadowed Moses and Elijah at Christ’s transfiguration and out of which could be heard the Father’s voice, “This is my beloved Son.”3 Now the cloud received Him approvingly and the disciples could see Him no longer. But His ascension was visible. They saw it all.
The Vindication of His Ascension
The ascension validates the claims of Christ. We have already pointed out that the cloud received Him, yet another indication of heaven’s approval of His finished work. But note Luke’s use of the passive voice in the two verbs translated “was taken up” (Act 1:2,9). This seems to imply the action of the Father who took Him up, thus vindicating Christ’s claims. Remember also that the ascension fulfills the Lord’s words spoken to the members of the Jewish council, “Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God” (Luk 22:69). As He took His seat on His heavenly throne, His claim to be the Son of God (see v70) was confirmed once more. And we must not rush past the significance of where the risen Lord is presently seated. His ascension was not just a departure but an arrival, an arrival to the most exalted position in the universe: Christ has “gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him” (1Pe 3:22). Paul agreed with Peter: God “raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Eph 1:20-23).
The One who was dishonored on earth, being spit upon, scourged, stripped, struck and spiked to a tree, has been greatly honored in heaven, completing the journey which took Him All the Way to Glory. “God has given the highest place to the Man to whom earth gave the lowest place. He is not just exalted but highly exalted, not only above all but far above all. God could not honor His Son in any higher measure.”4
To Him whom men despise and slight,
To Him be glory given;
The crown is His, and His by right
The highest place in heaven.5
Fitting Responses to the Ascension
It is helpful to notice that when our Savior ascended, His followers responded in at least four ways. First, Luke says “they worshipped him” (24:52). And so should we. The One elevated to the highest place in the universe is worthy (and alone worthy) of our worship.
Second, Luke tells us that the disciples “returned to Jerusalem with great joy” (v52).6 When He told them He was leaving them before He died, they were filled with sorrow. But now that the Lord had died, was risen and ascended, they rejoiced once He departed! One of the reasons for their joy was not only what the ascension meant for Christ, but what it would mean for them. He had told them that the Holy Spirit could not come until He had departed (Joh 16:7). Now that He had departed, they would know that very shortly they would be “endued with power from on high” (Luk 24:49).
A third response by the Lord’s disciples was their arrival “in the temple, praising and blessing God” (v53). Note that the disciples are “blessing” God. This is the third use of the word in four verses. Christ “blessed” them first (24:50,51), thus guaranteeing the success of their mission. Now they bless God, being witnesses of the Lord’s ascension. Thus, Luke ends his Gospel in the same place where it began – in Jerusalem in the temple (1:9). He began with a man in the temple who could not bless (1:22), but ends with a group of men in the temple who could bless. And they had great reasons to do so!
Luke’s account in Acts gives us one more response to the ascension. Fourth, and quite obviously, the eyewitnesses became effective witnesses. At first, the disciples’ attention needed some refocusing. As they stared into the skies, two men in white apparel (angels) appeared to them with this message: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?” (Act 1:11). The implication is that they needed to get to work. They had seen the ascension, but it was over now. The Lord did not need stargazers but witnesses. And they did get to work. Shortly thereafter, on the Day of Pentecost, they received the Holy Spirit and became “witnesses unto [Christ] both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth” (v8). How thankful we ought to be that this was one of their responses to the reality of the ascended Lord, or we would never have heard the gospel ourselves.
Worship, joy, praise, witnessing – all are appropriate responses to the Lord’s ascension. He is worthy. How are we responding?
1 Bible quotations in this article are from the KJV unless otherwise noted.
2 Ten days later, Peter stated in his sermon that Psalm 110:1 had now found its fulfillment in the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ (Act 2:34-36).
3 R. Kent Hughes, Luke Volume 2: That You May Know the Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1998), 423.
4 A.J. Higgins, “The Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ” (Truth & Tidings, January 2023, Vol 74, No 1).
5 Thomas Kelly (1769–1855)
6 Both Christ’s birth and ascension produce joy in the Gospel of Luke (2:10; 24:52).
