Why should we celebrate Ascension Day? What does this mean for my life today? These could be burning questions you need answers to and I’m inviting you on a journey to explore why Ascension Day deserves celebration. 

Why Ascension Day Deserves Celebration:

Before ascending to heaven, the risen Jesus appeared for 40 days to His disciples teaching them about the Kingdom of God and what they need to do next. This is why we celebrate Ascension Day on the 40th day after Resurrection Sunday. His ascension is monumental because the Bible also details that the same way He ascended on a cloud out of the earth is the same way He will return (Acts 1:11).  

There are so many implications attached to Jesus Christ rising from the dead. The law of resurrection is that it needs someone on earth who has been given authority and dominion by God, and this person will have to call from the earth for them to return to the earth. No one can come back to earth unless someone authorised by God calls them out of the spiritual realm into the physical realm.

For example, Lazarus and others that resurrected (as detailed in the Bible) had Jesus Christ bring them back to the earth realm. Jesus was authorised to do this because God, the Father gave the Son all power and authority. Jesus Christ’s death was unique because He brought Himself back. Jesus had no third party or external force bring Him back to this realm after the Crucifixion. Solely because He is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25), He had His life and the power to lay it down and pick it up again. 

In all history and existence, no one else can do this. This is why the entire Christian faith hangs on the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him will gain eternal life (John 3:16). This love-sacrifice gives us access to God unlocking eternal life and abundant life while we are still on the earth. 

What happened after Jesus Christ’s Crucifixion?

After dying on the cross, Jesus preached in the spirit realm:

”Christ suffered and died for sins once and for all—the innocent for the guilty —to bring you near to God by his body being put to death and by being raised to life by the Spirit. He went in the spiritual realm and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison because of their disobedience of long ago. For during the time of Noah God patiently waited while the ark was being prepared, but only a few were brought safely through the floodwaters: a total of eight souls. This was a prophetic picture of the immersion that now saves you—not a bathing of the physical body but rather the response of a good conscience before God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is now in heaven at the place of supreme authority next to God. The very powers of heaven, including every angel and authority, now yield in submission to him.“

1 Peter 3:18-22 TPT

Through His crucifixion Jesus Christ saved those who were already dead and preached to save those who died as righteous people: “That is why the Good News was preached to those who are now dead—so although they were destined to die like all people, they now live forever with God in the Spirit.“ 1 Peter 4:6. Since Jesus Christ brought Himself back from that realm, He is the First Born over all creation. He died to produce life after His own kind, and when He got up other tombs opened and people were raised from the dead because of the potency of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection: 

“And at once the curtain of the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; the earth shook and the rocks were split. [Exod. 26:31-35.] The tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep in death were raised [to life]; And coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those who were with him keeping watch over Jesus observed the earthquake and all that was happening, they were terribly frightened and filled with awe, and said, Truly this was God’s Son!“

Matthew 27:51-54 AMPC

Through the crucifixion, Jesus Christ also took back the keys of death, hell and the realm of the dead. In essence, Jesus also took back authority and dominion that Adam and Eve relinquished in the garden of Eden: ”And the Ever-living One [I am living in the eternity of the eternities]. I died, but see, I am alive forevermore; and I possess the keys of death and Hades (the realm of the dead).” Revelation 1:18 

He made a public spectacle over supernatural forces of evil with His triumphant victory over death by leading captivity captive – meaning everything that would try to oppress us He already had captive. Jesus took away the sting of death by nailing it to the cross and disarming principalities and powers. Through this, Jesus blotted out the handwriting of ordinances against us – the decrees that stood against us (see Colossians 2:14-15).

What happened after Jesus Christ’s Resurrection?

When He got up from the grave, Jesus was seen by Mary first. She tried to touch Him but was stopped by Jesus because He was still ascending to make the offering for our sins on the Mercy Seat as our Eternal High Priest. Through His blood, Jesus Christ purged us from sin (Hebrews 1:3) and initiated the New Covenant which gives us access to God. The basis of Jesus Christ’s mission on earth is God’s love for us. After this sacrifice was poured on the Mercy Seat – a coronation service happened: 

”And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.“

Philippians 2:8-11 NKJV

A supreme name and office were given to Him. The name given was always His because Christ is Supreme, but He went through life on earth and death on the cross to impart eternal life to us. So we can share in His glory and be co-heirs through the impartation of His righteousness. Through His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and exaltation Jesus Christ conveyed us into the Kingdom of God. 

This is why and how His Ascension is celebrated as it still changes our lives today. His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and exaltation is still breaking news today. As it gave us access to God, and we become the righteousness of God when we believe in Christ Jesus. God’s mandate from Genesis 1 still stands: to be fruitful, multiply and subdue the earth because we have every seed-bearing fruit.

Why Ascension Day deserves celebration, you may still ask? because He created mankind in His image and likeness for us to rule and govern the earth by giving us dominion. Sin entered the world and disturbed everything when Adam and Eve relinquished their dominion to the serpent (Genesis 3). Jesus came as the Last Adam, to fix everything that was broken by the fall of mankind into sin. Jesus does this by bringing a new life and ushering us into a right relationship with God (Romans 5:18) by restoring us to God’s original intent. 

Ascending in Faith: God’s love brings a New Covenant

It was His love that made Him give it all up so we can be partakers of His divine nature. It was always God’s plan that we reign with Him. The entire mission on earth for Jesus Christ was for us to be restored and receive eternal life and abundant life while on earth. The New Covenant is based on the unconditional love of God. He gives us everything He has because we become co-heirs with Christ and through Christ – this is the extravagant grace (2 Corinthians 8:9).

The same law of resurrection turns a seed into a tree. All seeds are buried, and the gardener cultivating the soil determines if the tree will sprout (planting above the earth cultivates what’s below the earth to fruition). When we sow our lives in God by receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour; this activates the Father as the Gardener (John 15:1) and we’re engrafted into the True Vine – Jesus Christ. By remaining in Him we are Planted, Not Buried and we bear fruit because God makes the seed grow (1 Corinthians 3:6). Being planted in Christ is what the Ascension of Jesus Christ means for our lives today and this is why Ascension Day deserves celebration.

We don’t have to confine the Christian faith to a church building or Easter weekend. Daily, we can celebrate Jesus’ resurrection by bringing our faith into the practicality of our life experiences.