36 Then Saul said, “Let us go down after the Philistines by night and plunder them until the morning light; let us not leave a man of them.” And they said, “Do whatever seems good to you.” But the priest said, “Let us draw near to God here.” 37 And Saul inquired of God, “Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel?” But he did not answer him that day. 38 And Saul said, “Come here, all you leaders of the people, and know and see how this sin has arisen today. 39 For as the Lord lives who saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die.” But there was not a man among all the people who answered him. 40 Then he said to all Israel, “You shall be on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side.” And the people said to Saul, “Do what seems good to you.” 41 Therefore Saul said, “O Lord God of Israel, why have you not answered your servant this day? If this guilt is in me or in Jonathan my son, O Lord, God of Israel, give Urim. But if this guilt is in your people Israel, give Thummim.” And Jonathan and Saul were taken, but the people escaped. 42 Then Saul said, “Cast the lot between me and my son Jonathan.” And Jonathan was taken.
43 Then Saul said to Jonathan, “Tell me what you have done.” And Jonathan told him, “I tasted a little honey with the tip of the staff that was in my hand. Here I am; I will die.” 44 And Saul said, “God do so to me and more also; you shall surely die, Jonathan.” 45 Then the people said to Saul, “Shall Jonathan die, who has worked this great salvation in Israel? Far from it! As the Lord lives, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he has worked with God this day.” So the people ransomed Jonathan, so that he did not die.
On the day Jesus ascended, He did not leave His disciples without direction. He reminded them of the promise, commissioned them to wait, and then rose, not abandoning them, but positioning them for what was next. Forty years ago, a small group waited on God with nothing but hunger and faith. Today, on Ascension Day, we mark 40 years of answered prayer, and we look up again, believing the same Spirit who started this story is not finished writing it.
Today marks the end of our 40-day Celebration. Gather with at least one or two others from FGA today, or this week (over a meal, coffee, or a video call, even). Each person shares one testimony of God’s faithfulness, one prayer for the church’s future, and one thing they are believing God for in the next season. Close by raising a glass together and saying together, something similar to this: “To God be the glory for these 40 years and may God be glorified in these years ahead!”
Lord Jesus, You ascended not to be distant but to fill all things. Fill us again. Fill this church. As we celebrate 40 years, we lift our eyes to You, the Author, the Finisher, the one who began this good work and will carry it through. To You be all glory. Amen.
The Ascension is one of the most underappreciated moments in the entire Christian story. We celebrate Christmas with carols and Easter with full churches, but Ascension slips past most of us quietly, almost unnoticed.
Yet the disciples who watched Jesus rise into the cloud on the Mount of Olives understood that something world-altering had just happened. This was not a departure. This was a coronation.
As the disciples watched, two heavenly messengers assured them that He would one day return in the very same way (Acts 1:9-11), but in that moment, the one who had been crucified outside the city walls was being enthroned above every power and authority in heaven and on earth.
By ascending to sit at God’s right hand, Jesus completed both His redemptive work and His earthly ministry in human form,¹ and He now reigns with the titles “Lord” and “Messiah,” worthy of worship alongside the Father.² Heaven and earth were never the same again.
But the Ascension is also the reason we are not alone. Before Jesus ascended, He promised that the Holy Spirit would come. The Spirit could not be poured out in this new way until Jesus had gone, not because God’s presence was limited, but because the Ascension opened something new.
Through the Spirit, the exalted Christ exercises His rule and reign, empowering believers to extend God’s kingdom to the ends of the earth,² without geographical boundaries, without limits of culture, language, or generation. And Jesus is not absent simply because He is no longer physically visible.
From heaven, He can appear and act on earth, as He did when He appeared to Saul on the Damascus road. He orchestrates events among His people. He is not far. He is closer than breath, present through His Spirit in ways He could not be while walking the roads of Galilee. His going was not a loss. It was the condition of His universal nearness.
And the Ascension carries one more gift: it gives us a future. Because Jesus is in heaven, He welcomes His people there, having received universal jurisdiction as the Son of Man and fulfilled the vision of Daniel 7:13.² When He returns, cosmic renewal, restoration, and judgment will follow.² The angels at the Mount of Olives said it plainly: “This same Jesus will come back in the same way you have seen him go” (Acts 1:11). This means history is not drifting. It is moving toward a moment.
The Ascension anchors our hope not in optimism about human progress, but in the certainty that the one who reigns has promised to return and make all things new. For a church marking 40 years, this is the deepest foundation of all. We do not celebrate merely what God has done. We celebrate what He is still doing and what He has promised to complete. The King is on the throne, His Spirit is among us, and the best is still to come.
¹ Paul E. Engle, When God Draws Near: Exploring Worship from Seven Summits (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2019), 177–178.
² S. Walton, “Ascension of Jesus,” in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, Second Edition, ed. Joel B. Green, Jeannine K. Brown, and Nicholas Perrin (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013), 60–61.
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