A Glimpse of Ascension Day

By: Julius Medenblik, today.reframemedia.com

  

Scripture Reading — Psalm 110

The Lord says to my lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” — Psalm 110:1

This coming Thursday will mark Ascension Day on the calendar of the church. Forty days after Easter Sunday, Jesus ascended into heaven, leaving his disciples to do the work of his church on earth. In today’s psalm reading, we have a glimpse of that day from King David, who wrote this psalm.

Jesus is in the genealogy line of King David. About 1,000 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem (David’s hometown), David gave thanks and praise to God as he wrote this psalm.

Jesus links himself to this psalm in the gospel of Matthew. He asks the religious leaders and teachers, “Whose son is the Christ (or, Messiah)?” They all answer that the Christ is the Son of David. Jesus then asks how that son can be called a lord over King David. To back up his point, Jesus quotes Psalm 110:1, which they know is a prophecy of the Messiah, who would one day sit at God’s right hand. The teachers are silent. They don’t know how to answer. (SeeMatthew 22:41-46.)

The answer is in the fact that Jesus has always been with God the Father. He has always been the Son of God, even before he became the Son of David. As Colossians 1:17 puts it, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

Isn’t it amazing and humbling that the triune God was working out this story from the beginning of time?

Acts 1:6-11 New Living Translation (NLT)

The Ascension of Jesus

6 So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?”

7 He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

9 After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. 10 As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”