The Overcomer Trust

  • Overcomer Literature Trust
  • Swindon
  • Wiltshire


Email Us

 

‘The Ascension of the Victorious Saviour.’

By Alan Greenbank.

 

The Son of God’s visit to this earth was a brief one. He was only here, amongst His creatures, for some thirty-three years. Throughout that brief period He knew that He had been sent by the Father for a specific purpose. Even as a boy, He said to His anxious mother, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2 v49). Later, He expressed the same sense of purpose when He said, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19 v10), also, “The Son of Man did not come to be served...but to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10 v45), and, “I am the good Shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (John 10 v11).

In the same way that the Saviour expressed a specific sense of purpose, He also knew that He would return to His Father once the redemption of His people had been secured. We get a small insight into this in John 13 v3, “Jesus knew . . . that He had come from God and was returning to God . . .”. We also have His own words when speaking to the dispirited disciples in the upper room, “Now I am going to Him who sent me”, “In a little while you will see Me no more, and then after a little while you will see Me”, and “Because I am going to the Father” (John 16 v5&17). When the disciples seemed unable to grasp this, their Master expressed it in unequivocal terms, “I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father” (John 16 v28).

Shortly after speaking those words the Lord Jesus was arrested, suffered the indignity of the sham trials, the awful treatment by the brutal Roman soldiers and the crucifixion, where He was made sin for us. (2 Corinthians 5 v21). There He became the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world (1 John 2 v2). After six hours on the cross, He breathed His last, having commended His spirit into the hands of the Father.

His bruised, battered body was taken from the cross and laid in the unused tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, but God raised Him from the dead on the third day. He then showed His disciples that He was alive by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days, until the time in which He was taken up (Acts 1 v2-3). The setting was the Mount of Olives. The human witnesses were the eleven disciples. From their point of view it was all very simple. The Lord ascended and a cloud received Him from their sight (Acts 1 v9). But if we use our sanctified imagination, we can try to envisage the same event from heaven`s point of view.

Thirty-three years earlier God’s eternal Son had left His place of eminence at the right hand of the Father. He had gone to a world where He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53 v3). He had gone to make a way for sinful human beings to be reconciled to the God of heaven, Who is of purer eyes than to behold evil (Habakkuk 1 v13). To accomplish this, He had lived a sinless life throughout the period of His earthly sojourn. He was tempted in all points as we are, yet was without sin (Hebrews 4 v15). 

Then as the sinless Substitute, He had borne the guilt of all who would subsequently believe on Him, and suffered the punishment that they deserved. He trod the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of God (Revelation 19 v15). Just before He died, there came a cry of triumph from His lips, “It is finished!” Three days later the Father raised Him from the cold tomb to show that He was completely satisfied with all that His Son had done. He had accomplished all that the Father sent Him to do. Singlehandedly He had taken on the fight against Satan, sin, the powers of darkness, death and hell. And He emerged as the all-powerful Conqueror, the undisputed Victor. He had trodden down principalities and powers, and made a public spectacle of them. (Colossians 2 v15).

And now it was time for Him to return to the heavenly realm, to assume His position of power and authority at the Father’s right hand. As the cloud encompassed Him, taking Him out of sight as far as His disciples were concerned, did the massed angelic choirs sing the words of Psalm 24? “Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in!” Open up you heavenly gates! Make way for the Conqueror! He returns from the fight! And did part of the choir sing the question, “Who is this King of glory?” and hear the refrain from the other part of the choir, “The Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battle!”

In my imagination I see the great gates of heaven swinging wide open as the Saviour ascended. I picture the hosts of angels lining a pathway to the throne of God, excitedly welcoming the returning Prince of Glory. He is none other than the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, but now with the battle behind Him, He is coming to claim the highest place that heaven affords.

He stooped to the depths when He died on the cross but God has “highly exalted Him and given Him a Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2 v9-11).

There are a number of scriptural references to the fact that the Saviour sat down when He ascended back to heaven. For example, “But when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10 v12). It is interesting to note that there was no chair in the Old Testament tabernacle or temple. The priests in those days never finished the round of sacrifices, “Every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices . . .” (Hebrews 10 v11).

Whenever we think of Jesus, seated in heaven, it reminds us of the total security of our position. Our faith is in the finished work of Christ and there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8 v1).

Thank God for the Saviour’s birth. Thank God for His life, His death and His blood which was shed, and thank God for His resurrection from the grave and for His ascension. I wish I could gather together a choir of a million Christians and add the heavenly choirs to them. Having considered the great truth of our Saviour’s ascension I would love to hear the massed choirs singing,

“LOOK YE SAINTS, THE SIGHT IS GLORIOUS, SEE THE MAN OF SORROWS NOW!

FROM THE FIGHT RETURNED VICTORIOUS EVERY KNEE TO HIM SHALL BOW.

CROWN HIM, CROWN HIM, CROWN HIM, CROWN HIM!  CROWNS BECOME THE VICTOR’S BROW!

 

HARK THOSE BURSTS OF ACCLAMATION! HARK THOSE LOUD TRIUMPHANT CHORDS.

JESUS TAKES THE HIGHEST STATION, O WHAT JOY THE SIGHT AFFORDS! 

CROWN HIM, CROWN HIM, CROWN HIM, CROWN HIM!  KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS!”

 

     *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *