Acts 1:11 -- "Men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven."
In Acts 2, Peter preached about Jesus. The Jesus who walked among them. The Jesus who preached in the synagogues and temple. The Jesus they had nailed to the cross. "This Jesus" God has raised up from the dead. "This Jesus" God has made to be Lord and Christ.
At the ascension, the disciples hear that "this Jesus" was taken up into heaven and will come again in the same way He went into heaven. THIS Jesus. Not a "spiritual" Jesus. Not an ephemeral Jesus. Not some god-guy Jesus. THIS Jesus. The one with a body. The one with fingernails and bones and eyelashes. The one with pierced hands and feet and side.
So many Christians think that Jesus is no longer a man. But Jesus never quit being a man. He still has a body. A man --THE Man-- sits on heaven's throne. "This Jesus" --the one whose body, born of Mary, that our sins and sorrows did carry-- is reigning now and will return.
Thou hast raised our human nature
on the clouds to God's right hand.
There we sit in heavenly places;
there with Thee in glory stand.
Jesus reigns, adored by angels.
Man with God is on the throne.
Mighty Lord, in Thine ascension,
we by faith behold our own.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
One of my pastors often uses the phrase "this Jesus." I've wondered why. Now I think I may know!
ReplyDeleteThe previous comment was mine, not Phil's! I'm having trouble signing out of his Google account for some reason. Let's see if I managed to do so.
ReplyDelete(Cheryl)
I don't know what your pastor is getting at, Cheryl. It may be the same thing. My pastor has this [good] hang-up about the resurrection of the body, and he wants to make sure his people know that heaven isn't some non-corporeal thing. So he was pointing out a few weeks ago that the word "this" always points out a particular. In this case, the antecedent to the "this" is the Jesus that was standing there with a body, talking with a voicebox, eating with a mouth and stomach, touching them with His hands, etc.
ReplyDelete