https://www.artbible.info/art/large/609.html
Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table. … And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; … So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompany it.” (Mark 16:14 ff.)
Mark’s telling of Jesus’ ascension includes a crucial detail: “while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompany it.”
The Christian lives their life in the current age without the physical presence of Jesus, and yet, not without his power and influence. We can’t see Jesus, yet Jesus is active in our hourly activities.
“the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompany it.”
In his ascended glory at the throne of heaven and earth, Jesus the Messiah, our prophet, our priest, and our king, lives to intercede on our behalf, to pray for us, and, through the work of the Holy Spirit, to enable us to carry on his ministry in our present reality.
The implications of that short phrase are so great, that it would take volumes to try and write it down. It must be lived.
Christians are ambassadors of the King. We are sent into our hours, our days, and our lives, to make known Jesus, to make known his way of life.
“And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere,”
Yet, we cannot fulfill our ministry in our own strength. The authenticity of our witness depends on our knowledge of Jesus. The efficacy of our witness depends on our King working with us.
And so, let our first prayer be not that we might do good works in Jesus name. As important as that prayer is. Let our first prayer be that in our hearts and minds we truly know the one who sits at God’s right hand:
“Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.”(Collect for The Ascension Day, Book of Common Prayer, 1962)
And, in the full assurance of the gospel of Jesus’ incarnation, life, crucifixion, resurrection, and assurance, let us then tell his story to all the nations!