The King Ascended
“And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.”
Today I am not directly writing about Matthew 1, but I am writing about something which Matthew 1 points to. We know thus far that Matthew 1 can be split into 2 sections; first, the genealogy of Jesus, which tells us that Jesus is the long-awaited Son of David who is the true King. Secondly, Matthew 1 tells us the story of Jesus’ birth.
Jesus was born as a man, but as we all know He wasn’t merely a man, He was also God. He was fully God and fully man, now if you can wrap your heads around this, then you know much more than I do. The incarnation of Jesus (The second person in the Trinity being born a man) is one of the great mysteries of the Bible. However, even though it’s a mystery to us, it is so important and has so much application.
Above is the final passage of Luke’s Gospel. It talks of Christ’s ascension, now we hear quite a lot that Jesus died on the cross, we hear even less that Jesus rose from the dead, but we hear very little that Jesus ascended into heaven. But Christ’s ascension is very important. I will talk a little of what this means now, but again this is massive, and I have little space left to write.
Jesus’ ascension speaks of Him leaving earth, and His rising into glory (1 Tim. 3:16), where He would be seated at the right hand of the Father (Heb. 1:3-4), and this speaks of Him having all power and authority over heaven and earth. It speaks of Jesus sitting upon His throne, reigning over all creation, as I said, this is massive. Jesus has risen and ascended into heaven, is seated in glory and rules the universe.
And I want to note, that Jesus, even though in heaven, is still the God man, which has the most wonderful implications, one being that Jesus is our High Priest who can sympathise with us in our weakness, for as a man He was once weak (Heb. 4:15). And it means that He prays for us on our behalf right now as our High priest and that’s why we are saved (Heb. 7:25), and He will pray for us for all eternity, and that’s why our salvation is assured. Jesus is praying for you, and that is why you’re saved, that’s incredible! If you at this moment are doubting your salvation, if you have fallen into habitual sin, cry out to Him, “Pray for me Jesus”, and turn away from that sin and look to the glorious King seated on high, and run to Him, for He welcomes you as one of His beloved.
If you think at this moment, with all that is happening in the world, and in your personal life, “where is Jesus?” Well, He is seated upon His throne in glory. He rules with complete control, He rules with compassion, He rules with justice, He rules with infinite joy, for He knows that soon His people will join Him in glory. Soon His people will look at Him, the blazing fire of delight and will be consumed by His wonderful joy, and in that moment we will be glorified by Him (1 John 3:2).
Jesus reigns! Trust Him, He’s the Good King who knows what He’s doing. Whilst at this time, and in the future, “we may be crushed by the heavy affliction of this world, be reminded that it’s weightless in comparison to the eternal measure of God’s glory” (Beautiful Eulogy, Weight). Whilst we wait to see the risen King Jesus, let us gather together and worship Him, for no longer do we gather around a manger, but now we gather around a throne.
