The Mission of the Ascension

Now the disciples are on the Mount of Olives and they are watching as this same Jesus rises up from the earth into these same clouds from their sight. The glory of God surrounds them. Christ Jesus is rising from them and His arms are stretched out towards them. He is offering them a blessing. Just before this ascension into the clouds of glory... those very clouds on which He will one day return to us... He promised them that he would upon having ascended send the Holy Spirit to them to fill them with power. As a result of this experience they (the church) began a life of worshiping Jesus, living under his blessings, and prayerfully receiving the fullness of his Spirit.

This is the life of the church,
• We Worship Christ as our Lord and God;
• We live under the blessings of His grace, His love, His enablings to be like him;
• We are a people of Prayer who ask God for and receive from Him the fullness of the Holy Spirit – We can do nothing of value in the world with out the Holy Spirit who comes to make Jesus real to us... to bring us into a perpetual encounter with the living Christ.
Now one last thing… As the disciples stared off into the heavens where the Lord had gone from their view, two angels came among them with one last message. “Men this same Jesus who has departed from you will return in the same way in which he has departed.”

They shake the mist from their eyes and they recall that they have work to do.