An Uplifting Worship Experience

After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to His followers many times over a forty-day period of time. At the end of those forty days, He met with His disciples on a mountain with final instructions before He ascended back to the Father. All four gospel writers describe His final words of encouragement and instruction before His ascension.

Matthew (28:16 – 20) describes the disciples, on that occasion, as a mixed group of believers and doubters, but all worshiping Him. This helps you to know that there will be times when you have doubts and even fears, but as long as you willfully chose to worship Christ, He will teach you through and out of your doubts. Jesus encouraged His followers that He had been given all authority in heaven and on earth, even though some doubted. He instructed His followers to make disciples of all people groups, immersing them in the Triune Presence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and to teach them everything that He had commanded. He assured them that He would never leave them.

Mark (16:14 – 20) emphasizes the fact that they would be able to communicate the gospel in every language, that they would walk over and cross every obstacle, and that they would overcome every plot to destroy their lives. Jesus assured them that they would have the power to demonstrate the presence of the Kingdom of God with healing by the laying on their hands. The followers of Christ have been going and crossing over and communicating in more and more languages and healing ever since. And they have overcome every attempt to stop silence the message and to stop the spread of the gospel. The message is still going out today, with power.

Luke (24:36 – 53) points out the importance of the witness of the Scripture, the word of God, in the message of the gospel, as well as the fact that until the Holy Spirit illuminates the message, it cannot be understood. He also reviewed the essence of the gospel with the essential elements of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, from the Scriptures, and the forgiveness of sins from repentant faith made available for all and proclaimed to all people groups. He also recalled the instruction from Jesus for them to wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit, which would come from the Father.

John’s account of the Great Commission is understood around the little word “sent.” Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 20:21. The Father sent Jesus to reveal His love for the whole world and to provide salvation for all who would believe. Jesus sent His followers to reveal the Father’s love in the Son, living in them, and to proclaim the Father’s salvation in Christ, for all who would believe. It is one mission, from the Father, through the Son, for all who would believe.

Acts (written by Luke) gives the account of the question the disciples had for Jesus moments before He ascended, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus answered them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:6 – 8. In saying this, Jesus was teaching them that the power (authority) they would have would be to share the gospel that would transform lives, not to answer theological questions about Israel.

In all of the accounts, at that very moment, Jesus was lifted up and taken into heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father with all authority in heaven and on earth and under the earth. From His exalted and lifted up position, He carries out God’s will on earth as it is in heaven, in and with and through and as His followers, by the Holy Spirit. As you trust Him more and more, He is lifted up more and more, for more and more to see and be drawn to with saving faith. As more and more turn to and trust Christ, the Father is more and more pleased and this is what it means to worship the Father in spirit and truth.