The First Ascension of Jesus – Part 5 of 7

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries. My name is Spencer Coffman. Today we are in the middle of a sermon series. We’re toward the end of the middle, three-quarters of the way through an awesome and very powerful sermon series called “The Resurrection: Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory.”

If you haven’t seen it, please check it out here in a card or go to our website, YouTube channel, or wherever, and search for that sermon series. This has been a very powerful, very emotional sermon series if you really, truly dive into what we are talking about.

Now, this is Easter week, so happy Easter! And it is no coincidence that this sermon series has landed on this particular period in time. This is divine planning of God and also a little bit of preparation on my part on where to put this. But when I started this sermon series, it just so happened that these next messages are landing right around Easter, which is, of course, when we celebrate Jesus rising from the dead.

So this week, we are talking about the first Ascension of Jesus, and next week, we are talking about the second Ascension of Jesus. You said, “Wait a minute, two ascensions? What’s going on here?” Bear with us. Again, we’re in the middle of a sermon series, so this is week five.

The next one is six, and then we’ll wrap it up with number seven. So, stay tuned. You got a few more to go. I hope it’s worth it. I hope you share it with others, bring more people in, and encourage them to watch and talk about this, because this is what the Bible is all about: Jesus Christ and what He has done for you and me by dying, paying for our sins, and making sure that we can get into Heaven.

So, last week we talked about how it took three days to rise. If you haven’t seen that sermon, please check it out. Very, very good: “Three Days to Rise.” Jesus is God. He could have died and risen again instantly. He could have come off that cross if He wanted, but He had a job to do. He had a mission to fulfill.

So right now, I figured we needed to break into this a little bit more. Not only did it take Him three days to rise, but we talked about what He did during those three days periods, whether a day is 1000 years or 24 hours, that’s up to you to fight about and argue or just accept. This is what Jesus did during that period.

Then, we have a first Ascension and a second Ascension during that period, and we are going to talk a little bit more about that. So, let’s dive in. When Jesus gave up His Spirit, “What are you talking about?” When He was on the cross, He was praying through Psalms as He was there dying.

He was calling out to God. We talked about this before, but that’s what He was doing when He gave up His Spirit. Let’s go to John’s verses early today. John 19:30, says, “When He had received the drink, He said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit.”

He gave up His Spirit at some point during the cross. Remember, He called out, “Father, Father, why have You forsaken Me?” At that point, God turned His back to Jesus, and then Jesus said, “Why have You forsaken Me? My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” That’s a Psalm. He’s praying this. When He said, “It is finished,” He gave up His Spirit.

He immediately descended into the depths of the earth, into the realm of the dead, and also Abraham’s bosom. First, He went into the pit of Hades, and we talked about this a little bit last week with the “Three Days to Rise” in Acts 2.

Acts 2:22-36 talks about the sequence of what Jesus did, and then also references Psalm 16 and how David prophesied that. But it wasn’t talking about David because David is dead and buried. It’s talking about Jesus and what He did for you.

He went into the pit, into torture, into Hades, took your punishment, because that’s where we’re going if we didn’t have Jesus, the punishment for our sins was the pit, Hades, torture, fire, the bad side of the realm of the dead. That’s where we’re destined to go. Jesus went there willingly and took our place.

Then He took authority over it, went into the paradise side of the realm of the dead, ferried all those captives into Heaven, and did away with it so that when we die, we go straight to Heaven.

So Jesus remained there for three days. We talked about that. Matthew 12:40. So let’s go there, and read that Verse. Matthew 12:40: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge beast, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” That’s where He was for three days and three nights in the pit.

He took authority over the realm of the dead, both sides of it, and did away with the paradise side so we could go straight to Heaven. Got out of the other side, the torture Hades side. He brought all those Old Testament saints with Him into Heaven.

Remember, they were singing and calling out, “Lift your gates, lift your heads, O you gates, so the King of glory may come through.” Jesus ascended into Heaven. It was a big party. I can just imagine all these people cheering, “Yes, we’re finally going into Heaven,” Jesus with them, maybe even leading the way, and they’re cheering Him, you know, like a big parade. And He’s just smiling like, “We’re coming home.” Amazing.

When He ascended to Heaven, He brought all of them with Him. How do we know that? Let’s go to Ephesians, Ephesians 4:8-9, which also references a Psalm that we talked about last week. What Psalm is it? It is Psalm 68:18.

But let’s just read Ephesians right now, four, eight, and nine. For, let’s go to seven: “But to each one of us…” or eight… This is why it says: “When He ascended on high, He led captives in his train.” Does that mean like a locomotive? No, it trained like a congregation, like a train behind a bride’s dress. Their train, He… Jesus had a big line of people, and He ascended on high.

He led captives on his train and gave gifts to men. Well, that doesn’t mean “To men.” It’s Psalm 68:18: “He received gifts from men.” What does it mean He ascended except that He also descended to the lower earthly regions?

So Jesus descended there, took authority over it, and then ferried everyone into Heaven. Either during or after this point in time, when He was ferrying the saints to Heaven, Jesus rose from the dead. You say, “Wait a minute.” Yes, this is all going on at the same time.

Remember, Jesus had three days to rise. So, as we talked about last week, day one—let’s just, for simplicity, day one—He went into torture for you and me. At the end of day one, because He told the thief, “Today I will be with you in paradise,” at the end of day one, He took authority over the lower earthly regions, the pit, the torture side of the realm of the dead, Hades.

He took authority over that, left, and went into the paradise side of the realm of the dead. Okay, day two, He is freeing those captives, ferrying saints into Heaven. Day three—so day two, three—now, either during that period, when He’s ascending, probably during, or He ferries the saints, and then He might have been his heavenly body in Heaven with the saints, but His Soul and Spirit were still ascending from the lower regions up.

This is the part we don’t know 100 percent, but that’s most likely what is happening. The grips of the pit, the grips of hell, could not keep their hold on Jesus. So, He was taking authority over it. He was ferrying saints, parading the train into Heaven, and at some point, during this time, where He is doing this all in the spiritual realm, his physical body is rising from the dead.

How do we know this? So, let’s get into this. He ferried the saints and rose from the dead at some point at this time. Let’s dive into Mark 16:6 because that’s going to be an important Verse for us. Mark 16:6: “Don’t be alarmed, He said. ‘You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.’”

So, He rose, okay. We know that. Romans 6:9. Romans 6:9 says, “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death or the pit no longer has mastery over him.” So, Jesus rose. Don’t believe me?

The case for Christ. Jesus rose from the dead, okay. When He rose, He was still ascending to Heaven, so that’s why we say, at some point, either during or after ferrying the saints, okay, He could have been in the realm of the dead.

This is a very popular theory. All right, He went into the torture, day one again. At the end of that, took authority over it, left, and went into paradise. Then, on day two, was in paradise. Day three, He’s ferrying these saints, okay. He ferries the saints in. This is still here.

It’s possible that Jesus then either went back, destroyed it, and then continued to Heaven, or when He ferried the saints, He had to get them out of there before He destroyed it. But He could have maybe gotten them out of there, but then what left them, and they’re training themselves into Heaven?

No, because He was with them. Maybe they went first, and they were shouting to let Jesus in. I don’t know. It seems more to me like Jesus would be leading the way, and they’re all behind, cheering, and He’s smiling, and they’re walking in.

But maybe they went first and prepared the way, and then He came, so they left, then He destroyed it and then went. However, it happens, that Jesus and the saints are ferrying into Heaven.

Jesus ferries them into Heaven in a train and destroys the paradise side of Abraham of the realm of the dead. So, at that point, we know that somewhere when He was rising from the dead, it was during this first ascension because it says Jesus told Mary, “Do not hold on to me, for I am still ascending to the Father.”

So, when He rose, He was still ascending, even though His physical body was walking around on Earth. His spiritual side, His Spirit, was still doing the work of the Father. So yes, it took three days to rise, but that work was not done in those three days.

He went through these stages, and then when He rose from the dead, He was still finishing the stages. So the question is, when He rose from the dead, were the saints with Him in spirit? Was He doing that at the time He was walking around?

Or did He ferry the saints, get them into Heaven, rise from the dead, and then go back and destroy this and continue His ascension because they were already there? So that’s the question. We won’t know. But we can ask him one day. But that’s what’s going on. And so, in the spiritual realm, He’s ascending. In the physical realm, He rises from the dead.

We know He was still ascending because He said so Himself when talking with Mary Magdalene. John 20:17: “Jesus said, ‘Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.’” She wanted to hug him. She was like, “I can’t believe you’re alive!”

“Do not hold on to me. Do not embrace me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” Now, of course, this could mean, “Oh, this was during the second ascension that He said this.” No, we know that, and we’re going to talk more about it next week.

So we know that this was during His ascension. Jesus told Mary not to embrace Him because He had not fully arrived. His Spirit or Soul, if you choose to call it that, but we’re spiritual beings, His Spirit was still in transit between the realm of the dead and heaven.

He was going, whether the saints—whether He already brought the saints and they were there, or whether they went ahead, or whether they were with Him at the time—we don’t know. But we know He was still in transit. His body was a shell, His Spirit had not yet completed the ascension and gone back to His body.

Interesting. He was the Walking Dead. He was alive, but His Soul and His Spirit—God is everywhere. That’s how this is a valid point for the truth that God is everywhere at once, “Omnipresent.” Because while He was in the afterlife ferrying saints and ascending, He was also alive, walking around, talking, and He was aware of what was going on in both worlds.

Wow, how cool would that be? I long for that. I would love to be right here with you right now and be so aware that I know exactly what I’m doing on the other side. How cool would that be? It might be a little overwhelming.

That’s the point where we’d probably blow our minds up and die of a brain aneurysm or something. But Jesus was so aware, and He was also this aware before His death because He told Judas, “Go and do what you have to do. Make preparations,” and everyone at the table of the Last Supper thought, “Oh, Jesus is telling him to go make some preparations for a festival or something.”

But Jesus wasn’t speaking to Judas. Jesus was speaking to Satan who was within Judas. Jesus was aware, both physically on Earth here, of what was going on, having a conversation, but also metaphysically speaking on a spiritual level or meta-spiritual, meta-body.

He was speaking to spirits. He was speaking to Satan within Judas, saying, “Go do it,” meaning go sell me out, betray me. That’s what you’re supposed to do so that I can complete my mission and die for these people and bring them into Heaven. I can go to Hell. I can do all this. I can take authority over it, over Earth. I can ascend, and I will do all of this that I am meant to do.

Pretty incredible. God had a plan the whole time, and Jesus was aware. Pretty awesome. When He rose from the dead, He was still in transit. So, that is the first ascension of Jesus Christ. Once His Spirit ascended into Heaven, He allowed others to touch Him once again.

Remember when He said to Thomas, “Go ahead, here are my hands. Look at the holes.” Whether they were right here in the palm of His hand or whether they were through the wrist so that the nail didn’t pull out or something, you know, here you could pull out wherever it was.

“Here, feel it. And here, check out my side. Push your hand in the hole, Thomas. Go ahead, I am here. You can touch me.” He let others touch Him again after He had completed that ascension, but not before.

We know He was still ascending to the Father. So, this is pretty incredible. It is something that God did for us. He went through horrible things. Remember, the crucifixion was simply an execution.

Yes, it was brutal, but it was an execution. What He did was go into the depths. He took your sin. God said to him, “Hey, do you take the sin of Spencer Coffman? All whatever 100, 1000, 1,000,000, all this of them?” Jesus said, “Yes.” “Do you take the sin of so-and-so?” “Yes.”

“Do you take the sin of it?” “Yes.” “Do you take the sin?” “Yes.” “You know what this means?” “Yes.” “And you’re willing to do it?” “Yes! I don’t want to do it, but I’m willing,” Jesus said, and He died. God forsake him. God turned his back on Jesus because He was so blackened with our sins.

God couldn’t look at Him. He sent Jesus down into the pit because He was so black with our sins. Jesus went down there and suffered for every one of us. Think about that. He suffered for us, not just on the cross but in the pit.

You know, for example, if your punishment is whatever, you’re grounded for one week for whatever you did wrong. Jesus said, “Yep, I’ll be grounded for one week for every single person.”

Whoa, that’s a lot of weeks. If the punishment was XYZ type of torture in Hell, in fire, in Hades, Jesus said, “Yep, I’ll take it all for every single one of them,” and He did. And then He took authority over it and left and ascended out of the depths into Paradise, ferried the saints at the same time, rose from the dead, ascended to the Father, filled His body here on Earth, allowed others to embrace Him again, spent time with them.

And that’s what we’re going to talk about next week when we talk about the second Ascension of Christ. So, if you haven’t seen the other sermons in this series, you need to check them out. If you have, I hope you’re enjoying them because this is what Christianity is all about. This is the center, the core of our beliefs.

We believe that Jesus died and was buried, and rose again. Death could not contain Him. He died for our sins, and if we put our faith and our hope in Him, we will go to Heaven and have eternal life, and live forever in His presence. It will be incredible. I cannot wait.

I’ve got 80 years to go—actually, 79. 79 years. 74 almost, not 74, 78 almost. Trying to jump ahead there. I’ve got a sentence to fulfill here on Earth, and so do you. We need to make the most of every day and try to teach more and more people about Jesus, bringing them into the Kingdom of Heaven so that we can all go to Heaven.

There’s plenty of room. Jesus is preparing rooms for us. Plenty of room. Get more people into Heaven. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It takes nothing but a prayer: “Dear Jesus, thank you so much for dying for me. Thank you for taking the punishment for my sins. I believe in you. Come into my life and become the Lord and Savior of my life. Every day I choose to follow you. Forgive me of my sins. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.”

So, Lord Jesus, thank you so much for doing that for us, for being willing to die for our sins. Thank you so much for this Bible that you have given us, for your word. You are the Word, Lord. This is alive. This is you. We want to know you. We’ve got to know the Bible. This is you. You are the Word. You are our sword. We fight with you. You fight for us, Lord. Thank you so much for that, for giving us this.
Please, I pray over every person that they would come to know you, that they would want to know you more, that they would seek you and have a burning desire to seek your face, that they would pour themselves into this, that they would spend time reading the Bible, that they would look up every verse that we have referenced here.

That they would read more about them, that they would learn more about them, that they would comment and engage in discussion, that they would tell other people, that they would talk about it with their friends when they are coming when they are going, that they would meditate on it day and night and make it a part of them every day.

And that they would know you more and more and more. In Jesus’ name, amen. Get out there and share this good news with others. This is what you believe. This is who you are. What are you? Are you a blacksmith? Are you a carpenter? Are you an engineer? Are you a builder? Are you a salesman?

No, you are a Christian, and you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Get out there and be a Christian share Jesus with others, and join us next week as we talk about the second Ascension of Jesus Christ. God bless.