What does the Bible say about Christ's ascension?

The Bible passages below can be used in sermons, prayers, or worship planning focused on the ascension. 

See also Ascension Day

• Psalm 47:5-7, God has gone up with a shout
• Luke 24:50-53, Jesus ascends to heaven
• John 16:7, Jesus predicts that he will go away and that an Advocate will be sent
• Acts 1:6-11, shortly before his ascension, Jesus says the time of his return is not for us to know
• Ephesians 4:7-10, when Jesus ascended on high, led captivity itself into captivity 
• Colossians 3:1-4, seek things that are above, where Christ is

Sermon ideas about the ascension

Ascension benefits

Sermons about Christ's ascension can point out that, traditionally, the church has taught that despite the disciples' initial disappointment that Jesus had left them, his departure was actually for the good of the church (as Jesus himself predicted in John 16:7). Among the benefits of the ascension for believers are the following: 

• Jesus pleads our cause with the Father, serving as our true Mediator in answering our prayers and advocating for the church in its ongoing mission on earth. 

• The fact that Jesus' own body is now in heaven assures us that one day our own resurrected bodies will likewise be in the presence of God in the New Creation — Jesus' bodily presence at God's right hand is like a sneak preview of what we will enjoy one day. 

• Above all, Jesus is able to send the Holy Spirit to the church — which happened initially with dramatic power ten days after the ascension on the day the church calls Pentecost — and that Spirit empowers ministry, gives needed and varied gifts to God's people to carry out the mission of God, and thickens the faith of all believers in order to enable them to endure with patience the trials, temptations, and pain that still attends them as they live in the already and the not yet of God's coming kingdom. 

Heaven "above"?

Sermons about the ascension can also acknowledge that people across the centuries have poked fun of the ascension as reflecting a naïve cosmology that pictured heaven as quite literally above us (with hell being below us). It seems silly, some allege, to envision Jesus' needing to go up in order to return to God the Father. Because we now understand the nature of outer space and know that no particular spiritual dimensions are literally either above or below us, some believe that the ascension can be chalked up as a mythic story. Indeed, some allege that this story was a convenient way for the disciples to explain why Jesus was no longer around when, in fact, the obvious reason for his absence was that he was quite nicely dead and buried.  

But although the nature of Jesus' departure as depicted by Luke may indeed have been staged by God to tie in with the cosmology of the disciples — God often "condescends" to our level of comprehension, after all — that does not vitiate the reality that Jesus did bodily enter into the dimension in which God exists, and that is beyond the physical cosmos we can see and touch.  

Despite our superior knowledge of our place in space, most people still refer to heaven as "up" and hell as "down," to good things as being above us and bad things below. Happy people are "on top of the world" and sad people are "in the pits"; successful people reach the "pinnacle" of their careers, unsuccessful people "bottom out" or are on "a downward slope." So perhaps even today, picturing the Lord Jesus Christ as "high and lifted up" in the heavenly realms is just another way of conveying the positive nature of Christian hope and faith in Christ in ways that everyone can understand and relate to. 

The session of Christ

In sermons about the ascension, we might highlight an often overlooked and under-taught component of Christian theology: the session of Christ — that is, the idea that Christ is now seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From this position, Christ already rules the galaxies as the true cosmic King and Lord.  

Another overlooked feature of this doctrine is that Christ is physically and bodily present in the heavenly realms — once Christ assumed a real human nature in the womb of Mary, this nature became a permanent part of his Person. This is also why many traditional Lord's Supper liturgies include the introductory line "lift up your hearts," as we envision the Holy Spirit elevating our spirits/hearts to the right hand of God, because that is where we can physically commune with the risen and ascended Christ. 

Excerpts about the ascension

Following are sample excerpts from Zeteosearch.org sermon resources about Christ's ascension: 

"The ascension is not about Jesus' absence but about his presence in the world in a new way." Sermon Preparation or Illustration by Barbara Rossing from The Christian Century

"The Ascension of Jesus articulates a kind of manifesto that calls us not to rise to heavenly places of prestige, privilege and power, but to run unhindered into the embodied fullness of the human experience." Sermon by Nathan Clair on Missio Alliance

"The Ascension story answers the child's question, "where is Jesus now?" His life walking around on the earth is over, but he lives with God and continues to love the whole world from there." Children's Sermon or Lesson by Carolyn C. Brown from Worshiping With Children

"We saw his light break through the cloud of glory whilst we were rooted in time and space, as earth became a part of heaven's story and heaven opened to his human face." Poetry by Malcolm Guite from Worship Quotables

"Suddenly, a rushing sound and a turbulent blast of air. Smoke begins to pour from the centre of the drum, twisting as it goes, ascending towards a cone-shape high in the dome." -Artwork by Anish Kapoor on ArtWay