Ascension, Final Instructions

Ascension, Final Instructions
Luke 24:50-51

50 And [de] he led [exago] them [autos] out [exo] as far as [heos] to [eis] Bethany [Bethania] , and [kai] he lifted up [epairo] his [autos] hands [cheir] , and blessed [eulogeo] them [autos] .
51 And [kai] it came to pass [ginomai] , while [en] he [autos] blessed [eulogeo] them [autos] , he was parted [diistemi] from [apo] them [autos] , and [kai] carried up [anaphero] into [eis] heaven [ouranos] . KJV-Interlinear

50 And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. 51 And it came about that while He was blessing them, He parted from them. NASB

Mark 16:19
19 So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. NASB

There are several other pertinent passages, so I will list them below and then get into todays study following the verse list.

Acts 1:1-5
3 To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. 4 And 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; 5 for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. ' NASB

Acts 1:6-11
6 And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, 'Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?' 7 He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth. ' 9 And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was departing, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them; 11 and they also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.' NASB

Matt. 10:20
20 'For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
NASB See also, Matt. 10:20, Luke 12:12, John 14:17.

Acts 1:4-8
Spirit is given to all believers, Acts 8:14-16, 10:44-48, 19:1-7.

Acts 1:9-11
He will return in His glorified body, accompanied with clouds (Second Advent), Dan 7:13, Matt. 24:30, 26:64, Rev. 1:7; 14:14, just as at His ascension.

2 Cor. 5:10
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. NASB

Rev. 22:12
12 'Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. NASB

We have almost completed the study of the four gospels. Only three lessons to go, counting this one. Then we will move on to another part of the Bible. We eventually will cover the entire Bible. Since we started this verse by verse study several years ago, we have but scratched the surface. But be patient, it will all get covered. Some of the older studies have been compiled into book form, having been edited into our current study format. So those are available if you are interested.

Now, the apostles and many other disciples have been following Jesus from their meeting place in Galilee, down to Bethany and finally to the mount were Jesus will be lifted up before their eyes, into the clouds.

For forty days following the resurrection, He appeared to them and gave them 'many convincing signs.' The signs are not described, but we already know that Jesus performed many miracles during His ministry prior to the Cross. For those three years plus, He healed every known disease to mankind, cast out demons from demon possessed people, repaired or replaced broken or missing limbs. He turned water into wine, walked on water, and raised the dead. These things, and more, were performed nearly on a daily basis for three years, and the apostles and the disciples saw many of them.

Now we are told that Jesus performed many 'convincing' signs. These signs are not described for us, but they must have been dramatic to say the least. Jesus even had to tell the apostles and everyone there, to remain in Jerusalem until they received the indwelling of Holy Spirit, which would come in ten more days at the Feast of Pentecost.

The apostles who were just a couple of weeks prior, scared to death and hiding behind closed and locked doors, now will go to the temple, where they will be seen and heard by the chief priests and elders who executed Jesus. Their fear has all but evaporated. And the chief priests will be rendered impotent with regard to their (the apostles and other disciples) presence in Jerusalem.

They must have been really enthusiastic because of all of this, but Jesus still instructs them to remain in the city and wait for the Holy Spirit. One cannot function in life, even with the proper resources, unless he has the fuel (power) to use them. An automobile is useless unless if it has no fuel. A power tool or kitchen appliance is useless unless it has electricity.

Likewise the Christian life is useless unless we have the power of the Holy Spirit behind us. That means fellowship. As an unbeliever you can memorize the entire Bible, but if you do not believe in Christ, then all you know is useless. As a believer, you can memorize the entire Bible, but if you are continually out of fellowship, then your Christian (spiritual) life is useless. In order to have an effective spiritual life, you must reside in the sphere of fellowship, which means that your life is functioning under the control of the Holy Spirit, rather than under the control of your sin nature.

Jesus gave them their instructions and gave them many signs which drilled home the reality of what they were witnessing, then Jesus Christ was lifted up into the clouds and departed off to heaven for his formal coronation. Along with him went all the Old Testament believers, who had been waiting in the old Paradise, located in the underworld. They all went in a great procession, to heaven and to an new Paradise. And there they await their resurrection which will come after the Second Advent.

Upon arriving in heaven, we have no details of what took place, other than Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father, and formally glorified. We can only imagine the tremendous ceremony which took place. All the Old Testament believers looking on. Huge angelic choirs singing.

We have seen examples of coronations with all the pomp and ceremony, here on earth, but that one in heaven would have far out done all the earthly coronations in history, combined.

Earthly ceremonies are political, fickle, superficial, and temporary at best. The coronation of Christ in heaven was and is the only real and true, and permanent coronation that will ever take place.

When the apostles asked if the Kingdom of God was going to occur 'right now,' Jesus answered them regarding the 'epochs' of time which the Father has 'fixed.' This is a reference to dispensations, or eras of time. We are now in the dispensation of the Church Age. Our dispensation interrupted the dispensation of the Age of Israel, for that era has but seven years remaining.

Our current dispensation will continue until (1) the Royal Family is completed, until (2) the nations are brought into proper alignment, until (3) the last and final generation of Jewish people comes into history. That last generation will be the positive generation which Christ will come to rescue at the Second Advent. All three of these things will happen simultaneously, and when that moment occurs, then the Rapture will occur, and the last seen years of the Age of Israel, which we call the Tribulation, will begin and continue to its conclusion, which is the Second Advent.

At the rapture, all believers will leave this planet earth. We will vanish in an instant and we will meet Jesus Christ in the air, having been instantaneously changed into our resurrection bodies. He will return to earth to collect us, but will not set His foot down on the ground at that time. We will go off to heaven and then spend the next seven years being evaluated and then celebrating our wedding feast.

For the first half of that seven year period (3 ½ ), we will stand before Christ, the Judgment Seat of Christ, and receive our evaluation. For those who have advanced in their spiritual lives there will be reward, honors, privileges, etc. which are appropriate to their spiritual growth. If that growth is non-existent, then the rewards etc. will be very small, if at all. If the spiritual growth is substantial, then those blessings will be substantial. These rewards, crowns, blessings, privileges, honors, etc. are said to be beyond anything we can imagine.

Again, any prosperity here on earth is temporary at best, but in heaven those blessings which are available at the Judgment Seat of Christ, are real, permanent, and will last forever. This is (or should be) your primary objective in life - to advance in your spiritual life to spiritual maturity. The reward, the payoff, is beyond great. You had no say regarding your circumstances of birth in this life. Most likely you were born to a wooden spoon, and not the silver spoon. But in the next life, you have every opportunity to define your circumstances for eternity. And accomplishing spiritual maturity is the easiest thing that one can do.

During the second half of those seven years (the last 3 ½ ) we will celebrate the wedding feast. Satan will be ejected from heaven. He will be thrown down to earth as it were, and on earth there will be the greatest period of turmoil ever in history.

At the conclusion of the Tribulation, Christ will say 'enough' and will return to earth with 'clouds.' We are those clouds, an awesome army of Christian soldiers, all of us riding on our very own white war horses, created just for each one of us. And when we arrive at earth, Jesus Christ will descend onto the planet, and systematically destroy all evil people. They will drop dead right in their tracks.

So the apostles are watching the clouds, up into which Jesus Christ rose and disappeared. When next earthlings see Christ, they will be engaged in an all out war, and they will cower in terror, but only for a moment, then they will all die. All mature believers will be rescued and they will enter into the Millennium, which will be the establishment of Gods Kingdom here on earth.

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