When the disciples saw that their Master and Teacher Jesus was going to be with God, that is, together with God and to being one and the same with God, then they understood that all that Jesus did and taught, and said about Himself was God's own truth -- otherwise He would not have been raised from the dead, nor would He have gone from this earth and human life into heaven or to be one with God. It meant then and means for us today that Jesus spoke the holy truth when He said to the Jews who did not believe in Him like His disciples did: John 8: 56-59. Jesus made it clear to the unbelievers that He was eternal as God; but the unbelievers’ answer was that they wanted to kill Him by stoning Him to death as punishment for blasphemy. To the unbelievers He was dishonoring God by saying that He was as timeless as God. Also the high priest condemned Jesus to death on the cross for dishonoring or blaspheming God. If the high priest and others who did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God and Immanuel or God come to be with his people would have been right, they would have had the right to put Jesus to death under the laws of God from the Old testament. And He would have remained dead. (Matthew 26:63-66). Jesus said to his disciples: “I and the Father are one” (Jh. 10:30) and: "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (John 14:9.11) If Jesus had not been speaking the holy truth about God the Father and Himself as God's Son, He would not have been resurrected from the dead and taken to heaven; He would have remained a crucified and damned dead human.
When the disciples saw Jesus in his resurrected body, as we know from the story of Doubting Thomas, they fell before Him and said to Him what up to that time they would say only to the unseen Almighty God Jehovah: "My Lord, and my God!"
The second important reason for Jesus to go to heaven or to God was to send the Spirit, Spirit of God and Spirit of Christ -- the Third Person of God. The Spirit has many names because He is one with God and and shares all of God first with the disciples and then thousands of Jews who were baptized into Jesus Christ and millions and thousands of millions of people all over the world during 2000 years after the time when Jesus was on the earth and before He went to heaven. If Jesus had not gone to heaven, then neither the disciples nor the Jews who made up the first Christian church in this world and all the other Christians from hundreds of different peoples and languages and cultures and all races would not have become Christians. There would not have been a Christian church nor western culture in this world. The work of the Spirit was and is to bring people to a knowledge and faith in Jesus Christ as true God of true God. Jesus told his disciples who the Holy Spirit is and how He is one with Him and the Father: John 14:16-17 and 16:13-15.
We have the Holy Spirit now as God with us just as Jesus was God himself with the disciples and as He was to the Jewish people. The Holy Spirit is God with us from our baptism on and is now in this congregation and with the whole of the world wide Christian church.
There we have the triune God: God who is one in three and three in one at the same time. It can be hard for us to understand; but do not be worried, because God understands all things and knows all things and can do what our mind and understanding cannot picture or know. Trust Him in Jesus and the Bible.
One of the most important things that Jesus has done for us from heaven is made us God's children through the work of the Spirit: We read in the Holy Scriptures: Romans: 8:14.16-17. Amen.
Ascension image courtesy of www.christiansunite.com
