Page 23 23 ENCOUNTER 4 May A.D. 30 And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen. (Luke 24:50-53) We have had a death in Bethany. We have also had a resurrection. But now we have an ascension. In this narrative, we see Jesus Christ ascending into the heavenly realm. And from where did He ascend? He ascended from Bethany. Notice the atmosphere here. There is blessing. There is worship. There is great joy. There is ascendancy. And after the Lord was taken into the heavens, His disciples continued to meet regularly in the temple courts to worship the living God. That is, they continued to be a Bethany for Him on the earth. Seated Above All Things There is so much in this passage. When Jesus Christ ascended, He was enthroned as absolute Head over all things. All things were placed under His feet (Ephesians 1:20- 23). Paul tells us that we too ascended with Christ, and we are seated with Him in heavenly places also (Ephesians 2:5-6). We don’t have time to explore all that this means, but I will simply say that if you take your place in Christ in heavenly places, your prayer life will change dramatically. No longer will you be making requests for God to make you into something. Instead, you will pray from an enthroned position with Christ, and you will declare what He has made you in Himself. We are seated in heavenly places in Christ, and since all things are under His feet, all things are under our feet as well. It is our task to remind one another of this reality and believe it together. Bethany is the place of spiritual ascension. But there is something else. Since Christ has ascended, He has proven to be the Head over all things to the church. It is our responsibility, therefore, to submit to that
Only a fraction of the present body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Christ in their lives... In their day-to-day existence they rely on their sanctification for justification... Few know enough to start each day with a thoroughgoing stand upon Luther’s platform: you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming the wholly alien righteousness of Christ as the only ground for acceptance, relaxing in that quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude.
Richard Lovelace