Jesus Foretold: Ascended Into Heaven (MP 82)

The risen Jesus remained forty days,
With and near His followers on the earth,
Preparing them for the kingdom’s new phase—
Teaching the whole world the gospel’s true worth!
From the Mount of Olives He ascended,
Rising, rising, rising into the air,
His first sojourn among men well-ended;
For His next coming, we all must prepare!
Now, from Gentiles, more Chosen must be drawn;
He rules ev’rything from the throne of God;
Israel’s acceptance of Jesus will dawn,
When He returns, Jerusalem to trod!
Jews and Gentiles both are Abraham’s seed—
Who believe in Jesus and are agreed!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Prophecy Made: Psalm 68:18—“When you [the risen Jesus] ascended on high, you led captives in your train; you received gifts from men, even from the rebellious—that you O Lord God might dwell there.”

Prophecy Fulfilled: Acts 1:9-12—“After he [the risen Jesus] said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white [angels] stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking up into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’ “ (Written in the 1st century A.D.)

Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: Ascended To Heaven”
God came to earth the First time as a man, Jesus of Nazareth, born normally (but of a virgin mother) as a baby. He was the oldest son of a Jewish family. Though born in Bethlehem, He was raised as Jewish boys of that time in the small town of Nazareth, becoming a carpenter like His foster father Joseph. He began His public ministry in Galilee at the age of 30 and was crucified at 33. He arose and stayed with His disciples 40 days in His spiritual body, like the body each of us, saved and unsaved, will receive when we are resurrected as He was. On the fortieth day after His resurrection He ascended back to heaven; He lives today, nearly 2000 years later, and will continue to live forever, as we will, He sits on the throne of God today, ruling all the affairs of the universe and of mankind. He will return to earth at an unknown future date; the next time He will come in power, destroying the enemies of Israel, and will reign on earth for 1000 years.

He accomplished the two conflicting goals of His First sojourn on earth, that of successfully planting the seeds of Christianity and of being sacrificed for the sins of men. He was resurrected back to life on the third day. His ascension to heaven marked the end of one phase of God’s Master Plan and the beginning of the next. Though God has not completed His plan for Israel, their rejection of Jesus as Messiah ended God’s initial work for them to lead the world into His kingdom of God, and they have been set aside temporarily while He calls out a nation of believers from among the Gentiles, which He has been doing since His ascension to heaven. God’s Second Coming will include His pouring out of grace on Jews in the land of Israel and scattered throughout the world, and corporate Israel will repent and accept Jesus as the Messiah, and then they will begin to follow His original Plan for them to be a light to the world. Israel will become evangelists to all the world, which was God’s intent when He first called Abraham 4000 years ago.

God is much larger and had bigger Plans than His chosen nation Israel ever imagined. He is God of both Jews and Gentiles, which includes every man, woman and child that was ever conceived in the wombs of the world. When God called Abram and told him that his seed would be more numerous than the stars, He was not limiting his descendants to those offspring that carried only Abram’s blood—God was including Gentiles, or non-Jews, who believe in Jesus Christ. Every Christian who ever lived is a “seed” of Abram exactly as every Jew or Arab descendant of him (However, the descendants of Ishmael, the son of Abram born by Hagar, the maid, are not included in God’s promise, nor those of Esau.). God actually meant every “spiritual” descendant; He was not including Jews who died physically in non-belief of Jesus Christ as “seed” who would be “blessings to the world”.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)