Ascension Day is traditionally celebrated the 40th day after Easter Sunday, that commemorates Jesus Christ’s ascension into heaven according to Christian belief. The Bible says Jesus promised the disciples that they would soon receive the Holy Spirit and asked them to remain in Jerusalem until the Spirit had come. After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples, friends, and others. Forty days after his body was resurrected, Jesus and His disciples went up to Mount Olivet where Jesus promised them that the Holy Spirit would come to give them strength and power in being witnesses to all nations for God’s glory. After saying these things, Jesus ascended into heaven, meaning a literal bodily return to heaven. Many onlookers saw and bore witness on that day of Jesus’s ascension. As a cloud began to hid Jesus as he ascended, two angels appeared to the disciples and promised that Christ would “come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven. “Easter Monday is the day after Easter Sunday and a public holiday in some countries. It is the second day of Eastertide. In Western Christianity, it is also the second day of the Octave of Easter, and in Eastern Christianity, it is also the second day of Bright Week.
Easter Monday is celebrated in the Catholic church and also called the Monday of the Angel “because we recall the meeting of the angel with the women who arrived at Jesus’s tomb (Matthew 28:1-15 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
“The Guards’ Report”
While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.
The angel said to them: “I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has risen. This expression “He has risen” goes beyond human capacity. Even the women who had gone to the tomb and had found it open and empty could not confirm “He has risen”, but they could only say that the tomb was empty. “He has risen” is a message. Only an angel could say that Jesus had risen, only an angel with the authority to be the bearer of a heavenly message, with the power given by God to say it, just as an angel – only an angel, had been able to say to Mary: “you will conceive a son, and he will be called the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:31-32 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David,). Because of this we call it Monday of the Angel because only an angel with the power of God could say that Jesus had risen”.
{Luke 24:50-51; When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.}
{It reads in Acts 1:8-11; 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.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “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.”}
Ascension Day is significant because it provides believers with the hope of Christ’s return and proclaims the hope and glory held out to all who are in Christ.
{Let’s Pray}
I thank You and praise You Lord Jesus, for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Embrace me day by day with more of Yourself, so that Your rivers of living water and light may flow through me to others, who need to taste and see that the Lord is so good in Your Precious Name Amen.
{Power Verse}
To the discerning all of them are right; they are upright to those who have found knowledge. Proverbs 8:9
"Only Life Changes" 