Tag Archives: Ascension Day

Wait Ten Days

From Ascension Day to the Day of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit in power and in Person was ten days we now know. What was happening during those ten days?

In Jerusalem

In Jerusalem, the disciples of Jesus were waiting as instructed.

“Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” Luke 24:49

They had been despondent, since their paradigm of Jesus being the Messiah, a conquering king, was crushed at the crucifixion. The resurrection appearances, and the forty days since with Him appearing to them in intimate situations, and to over 500 at once, had them reenergized and expectant, with their paradigms again in transition to the Truth they beheld and touched and heard from Jesus Himself. Proverbs says, “hope deferred makes the heart sick.” But hope had been restored, and the adventure wasn’t over apparently, it was about to shift into a higher gear. Maybe they remembered now Jesus telling them before the crucifixion, “It’s better for you that I leave you, so the Holy Spirit can come.”

“These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” John 14:25

They might have even wondered, “Might this power come at the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot—Pentecost)? Our Master often does things on the Jewish feast days!” Indeed His most important life events seemed to be predicted and choreographed to the holy feast days given to Moses by God for the people of Israel some 1600 years before Jesus appearing.

But alas, they wait. For just what, and what it will look like, they do not know.

In Heaven

In Heaven, what was happening? The writer of Hebrews answers this question in part for us at the beginning of his letter. “After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” (Hebrews 1:3c) The writer of Romans tells us, “There Jesus is interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34) And we’re told from that position of power at the right hand of the Majesty of Heaven, “He upholds the universe by the word of his power.” (Hebrews 1:3b) Powerfully Jesus continues the work of our redemption from heaven in the earth.

In The Fullness of Time

In the fulness of time, in this case ten days after Jesus Ascension, on the Feast of Weeks, fifty days after Passover, known as Shavuot (weeks) in Hebrew and Pentecost ( fifty days) in English, the promise of Jesus to his disciples would be fulfilled as the Holy Spirit would be sent to tabernacle with Jesus’ disciples, endue them with power, and dwell with them as recorded prophetically centuries earlier by the Prophet Joel, and after the fact by Luke in Acts chapter two.

“This time of year marks the start of the wheat harvest and the end of the barley harvest. Shavuot also marks the time that the Jews were given the Torah on Mount Sinai.” BBC

Without too much difficulty one can see that this first Pentecost after Jesus resurrection was a deeply significant chapter change in God’s plan for man, resulting in a different type harvest and with God giving a new revelation from Heaven for men, this time not from Sinai, the mountain of God, but Jerusalem, the City of the Great King. And writing His laws no longer on stone or parchment, but internally, upon His believer’s hearts, dwelling with them. Immanuel — “With us is the Mighty One.” (Isa 7:14, Col 1:27, Eph 3:20, and many more.)

This first Pentecost would be remembered and celebrated as the birthday of the church.

The over arching lesson might be, that we should all wait for God to endue us with power from on high, and then go forward following Him in that strength instead of our own.

To be continued…

“His disciples didn’t understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy. But after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered what had happened and realized that these things had been written about him.” John 12:16 NLT

“Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me;” Acts 1:4 NASB

“Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.” Acts 2:33

Happy Ascension Day 2020

“Ascension Day is the 40th day of Easter. It occurs 39 days after Easter Sunday. It is a Christian holiday that commemorates Jesus Christ’s ascension into heaven, according to Christian belief.” timeanddate.com

Honestly it’s hardly thought of or mentioned in most of the largest denominations of the Christian faith in the USA. I grew up in the largest US denomination and it wasn’t mentioned or celebrated. And as I learned this morning, it’s a national holiday in the largely Muslim nation of Indonesia!

How can this be?! 🙂

Anyway, the non denominational Bible Church we attend in our new city as of a year ago has been reading together the New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs this year in an organized fashion following the ancient, liturgical church calendar. So we are all aware today is the 40th day of Easter and the end of Eastertide, a period of celebrating the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Isn’t it amazing, as I pause to think about it, that the Risen Lord, having brought to a close the most important chapter in His redemption-of-mankind story, didn’t just immediately return to the beautiful, glorious, powerful, peaceful side of His All Powerful Father? Wouldn’t you have?

Instead He lingered for forty days and spent some additional special moments with certain followers and groups of followers. I suppose because He loved them. And it was part of His plan that they know for sure He was Risen from the dead, by and in the power of the Holy Spirit Who He promised to send to them as they now waited obediently in Jerusalem. It would be only ten more days, the Day of Pentecost, but I doubt they knew when He would come and what it would look like.

So up until then, 39 days since His Resurrection, He had appeared here and there, and according to some of them, speaking for all of them I’m sure, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as He opened the Scriptures to us.”

Very understated, and humble, like He always was, there were 10 times or more in all: in the garden to Mary Magdalene first, to the disciples at supper that same evening, in the Galilee on a certain mountain and by the sea, and finally in Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives, from where He ascended up into Heaven and out of their sight.

“Following His Resurrection from the dead, Jesus made a number of appearances to his followers—no less than ten of these are recorded in Scripture. Beginning on Resurrection Sunday, He “showed himself alive . . . by many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3, KJV) and instructed His apostles and many other followers periodically for forty days. He then ascended from Mount Olivet, near Jerusalem, while the apostles watched (Acts 1:9–12).”

“Paul included a summary statement in 1 Corinthians 15 that provides information about these appearances and others unrecorded in the Gospels or Acts.”

“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. (1 Corinthians 15:3–7)”.

answersingenesis.org

Ascension Day marks the 40th day after Jesus Christ’s resurrection, according to Christian belief.
©iStockphoto.com/Jorisvo

I hope you can take some time today to mediate on these events, and especially the Ascension. They show us much about our Lord, Redeemer, and King. The Lover of our souls.

Happy Ascension Day 2020!!