Jesus’s Ascension and the Mission of the Church

I’m a bit of a Lord of the Rings fan; I’m reading it to my oldest son at the moment. Gosh, it’s been 25 years since the first movie in the trilogy came out. I remember going to see the first instalment, The Fellowship of the Ring. I was completely enthralled by it—until the very last scene, after the fellowship had broken up and Frodo and Sam found themselves in a small boat, paddling away across the River Anduin. If you watched it, you’d probably agree with me that it was such an anticlimax. I wanted to know what happened next.

I knew the next instalment of the trilogy was coming out in a year, but I couldn’t wait that long, so I bought the book. I knew I had ten days to read it because I was about to start my studies in Architecture. So, I locked myself in my bedroom for ten days and read the entire thing—all three books!

This is what Luke does. He writes his Gospel and leaves it hanging with Jesus’s ascension, and you’re left thinking, “Now what?” Have you ever wondered what it must have been like for the disciples after He left them? I imagine them looking at one another and saying, “What do we do now?”

But just like J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Luke wrote more than one volume—The Acts of the Apostles, or as some people like to call it, The Acts of the Holy Spirit. This is his second instalment—a historical account of the early Church. Luke intended his writing to be a three-part series. I’ll tell you about the third book shortly.

Jesus Appears: Resurrection Proves the Gospel

In both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, Luke writes to Theophilus. There’s quite a bit of speculation about who he might have been. He may have been a Roman official or a convert to Christianity, a patron who supported Luke’s work, or perhaps the name is symbolic—Theophilus means “lover of God” in Greek. Luke wrote his Gospel to provide an orderly account of the life of Christ Jesus.

At the end of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus appears to His disciples. As you might imagine, they were startled, thinking they had seen a ghost (Luke 24:36). He calms them, saying, “Peace be with you.” He then shows them the wounds in His flesh and says, in effect, “Ghosts don’t have flesh and bones. Look at me—I’m real and very much alive.” Then he goes on to eat some braaied fish to prove to them that He is truly there with them—not some sort of spirit being.

This evidence strengthens their faith and puts their fear and doubt to rest. Imagine it: a fish braai launches a global movement! It’s significant because braaing and eating fish demonstrates the reality and physical nature of Jesus’s resurrection. They witness it first-hand in such an ordinary moment—eating together with their risen friend.

Jesus Teaches: Grounding the Apostles in the Scriptures

Now that Jesus has demonstrated that it’s truly Him and that He is alive, He begins to teach the disciples, opening their minds to what Scripture says about Him. He reminds them that His death and resurrection fulfilled the Law of Moses and the Prophets. The resurrection of Christ is God’s declaration that His plan of salvation is complete—nothing more is needed for the salvation of humanity.

But from here, the proclamation of repentance and the forgiveness of sins must go out to all nations, beginning in the city of Jerusalem, says Jesus. It was up to the apostles—and now to you and me—to be witnesses of this message of hope and salvation, and to proclaim it.

Yet if we are to participate in God’s mission, we must be equipped and empowered to do so. Jesus knows full well that the apostles could not do this in their own strength. So He reminds them that He is going to send what His Father has promised—the Holy Spirit. They are instructed to wait in Jerusalem until He sends this gift. Jesus describes it as being “clothed with power from on high.”

It sounds mysterious, doesn’t it? But the point is clear: the spreading of this good news will be the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Ascends: Preparation for Mission

After Jesus had taught His disciples, He led them to Bethany, lifted His hands to bless them, and was then taken up into heaven. Jesus ascended in glorious exaltation as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, taking His place at the right hand of God the Father, where He continues to serve as our Mediator and High Priest.

Luke intentionally leaves his readers with no doubt that Jesus is indeed God and worthy of worship. He closes his Gospel near the end with the words καὶ αὐτοὶ προσκυνήσαντες αὐτόν, meaning, “and they worshipped Him.” There’s no way around the Greek—it clearly affirms that the disciples recognised Jesus’s divine status, and therefore worshipped Him.

They then returned to Jerusalem, continuing to praise God with great joy, anticipating the promised Holy Spirit. But imagine it—they probably had no idea what exactly they were looking out for.

Enter Part 2: the Acts of the Apostles. Luke reminds Theophilus of what he had written in his first book, and how Jesus had appeared to many people over the course of forty days. Even the Apostle Paul picks up on this when he writes:

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (1 Cor 15:3–7; emphasis mine)

Jesus gave His followers more than enough proof of His physical resurrection over those forty days. But don’t overlook the significance of the number forty—it evokes a period of preparation.

Think of Moses spending forty days on Mount Sinai preparing to receive the Law for Israel (Exodus 24:18; 34:28); Israel wandering in the wilderness for forty years, being prepared to enter the Promised Land (Numbers 14:33–34); and Jesus spending forty days in the wilderness preparing for His ministry (Matthew 4:1–11; Luke 4:1–13).

In the same way, Jesus used forty days to ensure that the forthcoming apostolic ministry was grounded in eyewitness testimony of the resurrection, and to make it clear that the proclamation of the Kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom—not a political one.

Jesus Ascends: Entrusting the Mission to the Spirit-filled Church

Jesus’s ascension to the Father ignites the mission of the Spirit-filled Church. As Jesus taught, while John baptised with water, they were about to receive the exquisite gift of the Holy Spirit, and they would all be baptised in Him when He came. But they were to wait for Him.

The promise that they would be baptised with the Holy Spirit seems to go right over their heads, and instead they begin questioning Him about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. Jesus responds to their misdirected question by saying that the timing is up to His Father. He then redirects their attention away from political restoration and back to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, saying:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Here we have Luke’s version of the Great Commission. God’s mission is far greater than Israel’s political restoration—the commission crosses both ethnic and geographic boundaries. The Holy Spirit is the primary agent of mission, empowering believers to testify across the entire world.

After Jesus had spoken, a cloud enveloped Him, and He was taken up to the Father’s side. Throughout Scripture, a cloud is symbolic of God’s presence. Just as in the resurrection account, where one angel stood at the place of Jesus’s head and feet. Here, too, two angels dressed in white appear after Jesus ascends. They say:

Why do you stand here looking 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.

Jesus will return bodily and visibly. As the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:17,

We who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so, we will be with the Lord forever.

This passage is often misunderstood, but the main point here is that Jesus will return in the same way He ascended—visibly and gloriously.

In the meantime, Jesus remains active, directing His Church from heaven through the work of the Spirit. His ascension affirms that He has not shed His humanity, but continues in His humanity—now in a glorious and exalted state—where He reigns and intercedes as Lord and King.

Our Response: Wait, Receive, and Witness

I mentioned earlier that while Luke wrote only two books, he effectively had a third in mind. The third book was purposely unwritten—because this is where you and I come in. It’s up to us to live out that third volume. Jesus has sent us His Holy Spirit:

And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. (Luke 24:49)

John also records Jesus’s words in his Gospel:

And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:16–17)

What does it mean for you and me to be “clothed with power” today? And how do we proclaim Jesus Christ in a pluralistic, sceptical world?

• We are empowered for public mission.

• We are empowered to forgive and love our enemies.

• We are empowered with the ability to distinguish between truth and error.

We can proclaim Jesus Christ in a pluralistic, sceptical world with both humility and confidence—by allowing our transformed lives and authentic relationships to be a witness to others.

We are also called to engage with the questions people are asking. That means learning the language of the culture and speaking the gospel in that language. So, how will you be a witness to Jesus’s resurrection and ascension in our world?

AI Disclaimer:

This article has been edited for grammar, clarity, and readability using AI-assisted tools. The core content, theological insights, and personal reflections remain my original work.