Whoever does not celebrate this festive day, gives room to the devil.

Many people, including many Christians, do not celebrate Ascension Day. This became apparent from an inquiry conducted by “Netherlands Daily Paper” two years ago. The outcome of this is that Ascension Day is rightly called the martyr among Christian feast days.

To be honest, I did expect this outcome, but this is not as innocent as it may appear. I think that we are here confronted with a cunning trick from the devil, for the ascension of Jesus is a very central point in the salvation work that God has brought about. It is not for nothing that this salvation fact takes up a large place in the New Testament. Whether you are now thinking about the description of this salvation fact itself (for example, in Luke 24) or about what we read in the letters in the New Testament (for example, in Ephesians 2), you repeatedly notice that it is of fundamental importance for our salvation that Jesus ascended to heaven.

Weapon⤒🔗

In other words, if Jesus had not ascended to heaven, then God’s whole plan of salvation for this world would have collapsed like a house of cards. A church that has, over time, stopped celebrating Ascension Day takes away from itself an important weapon in its battle against the devil. This neglect becomes an open door for an invasion against all the facts and events of salvation. Therefore, Ascension is a godly necessity. This brings us to the section of the Bible where this is stated in so many words: Acts 3. There, Peter says about Jesus, “whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago” (Acts 3:21).

Resurrection←⤒🔗

Acts 3 takes us to the time shortly after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem. Peter and John are walking to the temple to pray there. At the Beautiful Gate, they see a man, seated and asking for alms. He is crippled and must obtain the sustenance for his life in this way. Peter says to him, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk” (Acts 3:6). Immediately he takes the man by the hand and raises him up. The next moment, he leaps up and walks with new legs. What becomes visible is that Jesus is alive. The man is standing through the power of the risen Savior.

But then it appears that there is more to this than just the resurrection of Jesus. People stream together to the portico called Solomon’s, where Peter begins to address them. He explains that the crippled man was not healed through his power, but through Jesus. Peter says, “you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead”; you killed him but God raised his Child from the dead. Repent and turn back to him, that you may share in his salvation.

To Heaven←⤒🔗

Then Peter begins to speak about the ascension of Jesus to heaven. He himself was a witness of it on the Mount of Olives, when Jesus, on the fortieth day after his resurrection, rose to heaven and was hidden from their eyes by a cloud. That had to happen, Peter says. Therefore, he is no longer on the earth. Behind this is the plan and action of God. The word “had to” belongs to Jesus’ work. He had to go to Jerusalem; he had to suffer and die; he had to enter into his glory (Matthew 16:21; Luke 13:33; Luke 24:26,44). “Must” is only a small word, but it is explosive. We feel that when we think and remember that the devil is driven by only one thing: ascension must absolutely not happen.

Why does heaven have to receive Jesus? First of all, because the prophets, psalmists, and others have prophesied in this way about the Messiah (Isaiah 53; Psalm 47; Psalm 110). In the ascension, Scripture is being fulfilled.

But why must these Scriptures be fulfilled? Now we begin to discover the tension. Here the field of the history of God with his world is opened, a world that, since Genesis 3, broke away from God, a world that thought it was free, but landed in the devil’s trap and since then, through its own fault, remains under the rule of the one who opposes God.

How can the world be freed from this slavery? How can we people, who together form this world, be rescued from it? Only through the suffering and death of Jesus in our place. Therefore, he had to die on the cross and he had to rise from the dead.

Renewal of Creation←⤒🔗

But there is more. For God, it is not only about our personal deliverance out of the power of sin, death, and the devil. For him, it is also about our salvation and the renewal of all of his creation. The devil may think that the world belongs to him. In that he is mistaken. The world is and remains God’s creation.

God is not unmoved that the whole creation sighs and groans, existing in the pains of childbirth (Romans 8:23). Indeed, we see that around us every day. The devil turns people against each other, so that they destroy each other (East Ukraine, Syria, Nigeria, and so on). It becomes increasingly worse. In particular, God’s children suffer increasingly and antisemitism steadily assumes more devastating forms. Will this just continue? Will it eventually take the world into a swift descent into hell? Will the history of the world end in this way?

God’s Plan of Salvation←⤒🔗

Jesus goes to heaven. That is necessary, for his residence is there and there he takes the rule of the world into his hands. That is not visible to us, but it is there for us to believe. It is a part of God’s world-wide plan of salvation. The shape of that already becomes visible in the book of Acts, which is about the acts of Jesus himself. He is the One who pours out the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). Peter had already said this in his sermon at Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who launches a counterattack in the world and wins the people back from the devil. Therefore, the Spirit sends the apostles into the world to proclaim the gospel of Jesus. He goes from peoples and nations to peoples and nations, until all peoples will have heard the Gospel (Matthew 28:19).

The whole book of Acts is permeated by this godly compelling. Everywhere where the Gospel reaches, the battle breaks out and the devil finally must lose. Again, we do not see this, but that is what is happening today, also in our world. The devil fights furiously. He seeds death and decay, and blinds the eyes from seeing Jesus. He knows that when Ascension is forgotten, then he has pulled the legs out from under the seat of God’s plan of salvation.

Encouragement←⤒🔗

This is why Ascension Day must be remembered. The alternative is the victory by the devil. Seen in this way, there is a great entreaty in Peter’s words, then, in Jerusalem, but also to us, where we are.

Repent and turn to him, Who has all power in heaven and on earth. Seen in this way, there is also tremendous encouragement in this necessary observance of Ascension Day. The devil can — so to speak — stand on his head, but Jesus had to ascend to heaven in order to break the devil’s power from there.

Renewal←⤒🔗

In conclusion, Peter points to heaven as a temporary place of residence for Jesus. Once again, he will leave heaven and return to earth. He refers to this as the renewal of all things. Then he will judge the living and the dead. Then his judgment will have the last word. Then Genesis 3 will be reversed, for he must reign as King until he has put all his enemies under his feet (1 Corinthians 15:25). I wish all of us an exciting and a blessed Ascension Day.