Radio Talk given 16-5-99

What happened to Jesus? Where is Jesus today? Do you ever wonder about that? We celebrate His birth at Christmas, we have Good Friday commemorating His death, Easter Sunday to remember that He rose from the dead, He became alive again .... but what happened to Him after that?

Well, He made a promise after He returned from the dead. He said to His followers: I will always be with you even to the end of the world. A very bold promise, I would say. Who of us could ever make such a promise, or Which one of us could ever make such a promise come true. It's OK to say it, but what happens to one happens to all of us, sooner or later we go the way of all flesh, we die, yes we do.

Jesus made a promise: I will never leave you. So, then where is He. Have you seen Him in Albany? Have you heard that He talked to someone in China or Iraq or the USA perhaps. No you haven't. He isn't here anymore.

The Bible tells us. He rose from the dead, He visited many of His followers during the next five or so weeks, He even saw and talked with 500 of them in Galilee at one time, but then, forty days after His miraculous resurrection on Easter Sunday, He led His little group of close disciples out of Jerusalem, past the garden where He had sweated blood, past the hill on which He had been crucified past the little town of Bethany where His good friends Lazarus and Mary and Martha lived, on to a little hill, talking to His disciples all the while, giving them His personal last instructions. At the top of the little hill He lifted up His arms, blessed His people, and rose up from the ground, defying gravity with His glorified body, rising higher and higher into the air. The disciples stood there, dumbfounded, staring up at Him until finally a cloud took the sight of Him away from them.

Where did He go? There was no doubt in their mind about that: He was now doing what He had told them before: I go to be with My Father and your Father, to heaven. And if any of them were unsure about what was happening, they were suddenly addressed by two angels who told them that this Jesus, whom they had seen go into heaven, would one day return in the same manner.

This was ASCENSION! The Lord went back to where He originally came from, to heaven, to be with God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. The Son returned to the Father after He had completed the work He was sent to do, to pay with His body and blood for the sins people had committed, to restore the world lost in sin and misery back to the Father again by His payment as our substitute. This was Ascension, a day of victory and triumph for our Saviour. What a return awaited Him when He came back in heaven. The Father made Him sit at His right hand, gave all power and authority over the whole of creation now to His Son, to rule this world, to lead it and the people He had bought with His blood from now to the great and glorious day of His return on the clouds, just as the angels said to the bewildered disciples.

Jesus, He is the King of creation. He is seated at His Father's right hand. All things are in His control. Nothing happens without His will and direction, everything is now geared towards the final victory over satan, death and hell. Everything that happens, and we so often have our questions about what goes on in the world and in our own lives, but there is no doubt about it, everything that happens is for the benefit of the Church, the people of God, the people who truly believe in Jesus Christ. He is calling them out of the darkness to His marvellous light, He is leading them to the great day of His wonderful return the day of judgement, the day on which He calls all His faithful children home to Himself, the day on which all things will be made new. What a day that will be.

But what about His promise? If He is now in heaven, hasn't He broken His solemn promise never to leave His people, His church chosen to everlasting life? Is He a disappointment after all, not to be trusted?

Friends, I am glad that this is not true. He is reliable, ever to be trusted. All may fail but He never fails us.

No, bodily He is not with us, let no one fool you if they say they have seen Jesus. With His body He is now in heaven. He went bodily as the first one so that we may be sure that His believers shall follow Him there. He is there to prepare a place for them.

But He said more: He promised that He would send His Spirit so that through His Spirit He would always be near His people. Bodily even the Lord Jesus can only be in one place at a time. But with His Spirit He can be everywhere at the same time,comforting, strengthening, teaching His people from all tribes and tongues and nations,gathering His Church from East and from West, from the ends of the world.

He knew, that would take time. It is now nearly two thousand years since Jesus ascended into heaven. He is showing a lot of patience in His calling all men to repentance and faith rescuing them from the darkness of sin, leading them into the light of His love. Through His Holy Spirit He is hard at work, also today in Albany. People must hear His Word of salvation and peace, people must be confronted by His truth. Wherever faithful messengers spread His message, the Holy Spirit is powerfully working, Yes Jesus is keeping His promise and people experience the rich truth: My Saviour has not left me, He is with me day by day. And one day I will be with Him, when with body and soul I will stand before Him, welcoming Him back, eagerly looking forward to being close to Him forever, singing His praises, living and working under His blessing hands.

Ascension day is a bit of a forgotten day in our country. What a pity, it is such an important day in the chain, that leads from Christmas, via Good Friday and Easter, to the New Testament present day Church and, eventually, to the last day.

Our Saviour, when He told His own, that He ere long would leave

These blessed words of comfort spoke, lest they, and we, should grieve:

Let not your hearts with anxious thought, be troubled or dismayed,

Believe in God, believe in Me, And trust My gracious aid.

I to My Father's house now go, where many dwellings are.

As I have told you there I will a place for you prepare.

For one day I shall come again To take you unto Me

Where I, your Lord and Saviour am, there you shall also be.

I am the way, the truth the life. There is not any one

Who shall to God the Father come, Except by Me, the Son.

May God bless this message.

P ‘t Hart

Last modified: September 11, 1999