A Window into Heaven

A Window into Heaven
A Study of the Ascension of Christ
Luke 24:50-53
March 30, 2008

What are we missing?
• Missing out because of lack of interest…
• Missing out because of tendency to dismiss desire…
• Missing out because of an anti-physical bias…
– Trying to develop an appetite for a disembodied existence in a non-physical Heaven is like trying to develop an appetite for gravel. No matter how sincere we are, and no matter how hard we try, it’s not going to work. Nor should it.
– Randy Alcorn in Heaven

Mark 16:19-20  “Then after speaking to them, the Lord Jesus was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the accompanying signs.”

Luke 24:50-53  “Then He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. And while He was blessing them, He left them and was carried up into heaven. After worshiping Him, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they were continually in the temple complex blessing God.”

Acts 1:9-11  “After He had said this, He was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. While He was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen Him going into heaven.”

1. The Ascension validates our need for place…
• “While He was going, they were gazing into heaven…”
2. The Ascension validates our humanity…
• “lifting up His hands he blessed them…
• “a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have…”
• Jesus is forever “one of us”
3. The Ascension inspires us to rest & live in grace…
• Mark 16:19-20  “Then after speaking to them, the Lord Jesus was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the accompanying signs.”
• Hebrews 4:9-10  “A Sabbath rest remains, therefore, for God’s people. For the person who has entered His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His.”

• Hebrews 10:11-14  “Now every priest stands day after day ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. He is now waiting until His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified.”

4. The Ascension fills us with hope & anticipation of our resurrection…
• Luke 24:52  “After worshiping Him, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they were continually in the temple complex blessing God.”

“All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness. The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it, or else, that it was within your reach and you have lost it forever.”
-C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain