Ascension day is almost ignored in the church year. Seldom do we read of a Reformed Church having a service on Ascension Day, a Thursday night. In our Church Order the churches agree to commemorate the birth, death, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ as well as the pouring out of his Holy Spirit. Christmas, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Pentecost are important days in the church year. We commemorate these important moments in the life of our Lord Jesus. Ascension Day, however is somewhat of an orphan. It is almost ignored. It seems unimportant and not much attention is given to it. Why is this? Is it perhaps because the story is rather un-dramatic and unsentimental when compared to the other high points in the redemptive history of the Lord Jesus?

The Other Four⤒🔗

The Christmas story is so gripping! The child is born in a rough stable and laid in a manger. The Lord of glory has an animal’s feeding crib as His. The story of the shepherds grabs our attention. The poverty of Mary and Joseph and the Child is accented by the glory of the heavenly hosts singing in the fields of Ephrathah. The Magi come and worship. Herod murders the infants. The Passion narrative is also full of tension. First comes Good Friday and the suffering and death of the Lord. We read of His betrayal and arrest, His trial and the beating and the mockery. He was crucified. Darkness descends on Jerusalem and an earthquake shakes Mt. Zion. His foremost friends abandoned him and so He was buried by two secret followers, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Again at the Lord’s resurrection, there is an earthquake. We know the story of the soldiers who fall down as if dead. An angel descends like lightning! The gospels tell us of the women at the tomb and of the miraculous appearances of our Lord. Pentecost also is attended by great signs, tongues as of fire and the sound of a mighty rushing wind. People, filled with the Holy Spirit began speaking all sorts of languages. These four moments of redemptive history are packed with great excitement and emotion.

Not Noteworthy?←⤒🔗

In comparison the ascension story does not seem very noteworthy at all. The Lord Jesus and His disciples were walking along. They headed out of Jerusalem and came to the Mount of Olives. There as their master spoke to them He was taken up into heaven. It doesn’t seem to fit the pattern. It is just a quiet, gentle story. The ascension however, is one of the great high points in the history of redemption. This is a tremendous moment. There right before the eyes of His disciples the Lord Jesus Christ ascended up into the heavens. With His hands outstretched He blessed them. The churches are right in placing this along with the other four high points of redemptive history in the Lord Jesus’ life.

He Blessed Them←⤒🔗

Those outstretched hands must have left a great impression on the disciples. It is not just incidental information that the Lord was blessing the disciples as He left. The Lord did not turn His back on the disciples. No, as He departed He blessed them. Blessings streamed from His hands – rivers of blessing. By ascending in the sight of His disciples He showed that His task here was completed. He did not just disappear. Rather, in full view of the church He returned to His Father as He said He must. He went to His Father in heaven so that He might apply His benefits to his people – to all those whom the Father had given Him. Here everything was completed. The Lord would not have left if His task on earth was unfinished. He went to heaven not to abandon His church but for the benefit of His church. He testified to this by raising His hands in blessing over the disciples as He left them.

His Exaltation←⤒🔗

Leaving the earth also meant that for the Lord Jesus all His humiliation had come to an end. His humiliation began with His incarnation, His holy conception and birth. All His life was one of humiliation. He was beset with all our weaknesses. He took upon Himself our sins. He who had no sin became sin for us. Throughout His life He suffered. On the cross He suffered under the wrath of God. His humiliation reached its lowest point in the grave. There He was dead, a cold corpse. But then He rose! He rose with a glorious body. His exaltation began. But that exaltation could not be fulfilled here on the earth with its sin. For those 40 days from His resurrection to His ascension He had a glorified body, but yet He lived among sinners. He had to be raised up above the earth. He had to pass through the heavens.

Upon the Clouds←⤒🔗

When we read in Acts 1 that a cloud took Him out of their sight we should not think that as the disciples were looking up into heaven watching Him go up, a cloud got in the way, as if the cloud blocked the view. No, not at all. A cloud took Him away. He rode upon the clouds of heaven. In the Old Testament it is God who rides upon the clouds.

Think of Psalm 68:2 in the Book of Praise.
"Lift up your voice and sing aloud / To Him who rides upon the clouds."

Again we sing in Psalm 68:12:¹
"Unto the Lord sing praises, / To Him who in the heavens rides, / Who in the ancient skies resides, / From whence His voice He raises."

And in Psalm 18:4² we sing: "On wings of storm and wind the Lord descended."

In Psalm 104:1 ³ "Clouds are thy chariot, storms lend thee their pinions."

Isaiah 19:1 says the same: “Behold the Lord is riding on a swift cloud.” ⁴

The ascension is amazing testimony to the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the God, the Lord God, of the Old Testament. He is the one and same God. He is the one who comes to the help of His people. He is the one who rides in judgment on the enemies and oppressors of His people. Jesus Christ is God alone! And His ascension points up that fact. There is no humiliation here. Only exaltation.

The Son of Man←⤒🔗

Speaking to His disciples He is taken up with hands outstretched; blessing them He rides the clouds like a chariot. A cloud took Him out of their sight. This is the picture of Daniel 7:13:

I saw in the night visions and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like the Son of Man and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

This is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Son of Man. (That is the Lord’s favourite title for himself – the Son of Man.) And He rode the clouds and was presented to the Ancient of Days. He is presented to His Father and He received the kingdom.

He Will Return←⤒🔗

This is the comfort of the Lord Jesus Christ’s ascension. The Old Testament points to this day. The Lord went up to heaven, riding on the clouds for He is God of God, Lord of Lords, King of Kings. From there He will return again – riding upon the clouds of heaven. He will ride them as His chariot when His kingdom is completed. And He shall reign forever and ever.