May 2019

My dear friend,

We just celebrated the Resurrection!

Now we must celebrate the Ascension!

After Jesus died and came back to life, He appeared several times to His disciples to prove that God raised Him from the dead. He told His disciples to preach and teach the Gospel. After forty days, Jesus led His disciples to the mount of Olives, and He went up in a cloud to heaven. In other words, He died, rose again, and ascended into heaven. To talk about His death and resurrection without His ascension is an incomplete account of Jesus Christ.

So then after the Lord had spoken unto them,
he was received up into heaven,
and sat on the right hand of God.
Mark 16:19

When we celebrate Christ’s resurrection, we must also celebrate His ascension for this is the commencement of our Savior’s reign: the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. Christ’s ascension is the completion of the Resurrection: Christ ascended into heaven, sits at God’s right hand, and rules the Church and the world from the throne of His glory.

O Christians, rejoice in song that the Lord is King!

Rejoice, the Lord is King
Charles Wesley
 

Rejoice, the Lord is King!
Your Lord and King adore!
Rejoice, give thanks and sing,
And triumph evermore.

Chorus
Lift up your heart, lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, I say rejoice!

The Lord, our Savior, reigns,
The God of truth and love;
When He had purged our stains,
He took His seat above:

Lift up your heart, lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, I say rejoice!

His kingdom cannot fail,
He rules o’er earth and heav’n;
The keys of death and hell
Are to our Jesus giv’n:

Lift up your heart, lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, I say rejoice!

Rejoice in glorious hope!
Our Lord the Judge shall come
And take His servants up
To their eternal home:

Lift up your heart, lift up your voice!
Rejoice, again I say, I say rejoice!

Rejoice, O Christians, rejoice!

Rejoice, O Christians, the Lord is King!

Rejoice, O Christians, rejoice! Jesus ascended to prepare our eternal home.

The Paradise lost on earth is to be regained in heaven. The home of the weary Christian is in “my Father’s house” – heaven. There we shall find rest in our heavenly home where God has prepared for us a city.

The Bible tells us that the city of heaven is surrounded by a beautiful wall of jasper and the foundations of the wall of the city are garnished with twelve precious stones; and the gates are made of big pearls (Revelation 21). Inside the wall the city is made of pure gold, including streets of gold.

Jesus told His disciples…

In my Father’s house are many mansions:
if it were not so,
I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you.
John 14:2

He is gone to prepare one of those mansions for each of His followers. A mansion! A mansion for you – if you are an overcomer of sin!

And this is the hope of all true believers – those who win the victory over sin:

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne,
even as I also overcame,
and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Revelation 3:21

All overcomers may joyfully sing Ira Stanphill’s “Mansion Over the Hilltop”…

I’ve got a mansion just over the hilltop,
In that bright land where we’ll never grow old.
And some day yonder
We will never more wander,
But walk on streets that are purest gold.

A mansion!

Yes! A mansion for you – if you are an overcomer of sin!

Rejoice, O Christians, rejoice!