اMay 27, 2012 19 Bashons, 1728 The Feast of the Ascension The church celebrated last Thursday the Feast of the Ascension which is the ascension of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ after forty days from the Resurrection. Why did the Lord ascend and why was it after forty days and not directly after the Resurrection? What did our Lord do during the forty days between resurrection and ascension? When the Lord Jesus Christ rose, no one saw Him rising. Meanwhile, the Jews called a rumor that His disciples came and stole His body (Matthew 28 :11). “This saying is commonly reported among the Jews” (Matthew 28 :11) means that people believed it. If the Lord Jesus ascended directly after resurrection, then that doubt would be fact and could be believed also by the disciples, that was the reason why the Lord asked Thomas to put his hands in the wounds in order to believe and have faith. The Lord appeared also many times during that period: once to Mary and the others, once to the two disciples who were travelling to Emmaus, and many times to the disciples. He ate with them. The ascension confirms the fact of the resurrection “to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God”. (Acts 1:1) The Lord Jesus Christ did not ascend into heaven until He proved the fact of His resurrection as Saint Paul said in his epistle to the Corinthians 15: 14,15 “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up.” The faith of the disciples in the resurrection of the Lord is very clear, our teacher Saint Peter in his first sermon says “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses” (Acts 2 :32) The second point is that the Lord remained for forty days in order to speak to His disciples about the heavenly matters I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. (John 16: 12) which are the things related to the heavenly kingdom and it was difficult for the disciples to realize those things before the resurrection which opened their eyes and made the difficult things possible to understand. During this period the Lord Jesus explained all the things related to His church and He gave them the sacraments of the church which were kept by the tradition although they were not written in the Gospel. The Lord had also to tell them about His second coming and about the Holy Spirit and His work in them. ١٧٢٨ ١٩ بشنس٢٧ مايو٢٠١٢ الصعود عيد. ) : ( . " " ) : ( . . . " . " . ": . ". : " . " . » . " . . .
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The Feast of the Ascension ! ! ˇ ˝ ˛ ˚ ˜ ˙ ˘ˇˆ May 2012.pdfDavid Hanna (Paula) 3. Philopatir Boktor (Mikhail) - 4. Mina Barsoum (Pishoy) 5. George Boktor (Morkos) - 6. Steven
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ا
May 27, 2012
19 Bashons, 1728
The Feast of the Ascension � The church celebrated last Thursday the Feast of the Ascension which is the
ascension of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ after forty days from the
Resurrection. Why did the Lord ascend and why was it after forty days and not
directly after the Resurrection? What did our Lord do during the forty days between
resurrection and ascension?
� When the Lord Jesus Christ rose, no one saw Him rising. Meanwhile, the Jews
called a rumor that His disciples came and stole His body (Matthew 28 :11).
� “This saying is commonly reported among the Jews” (Matthew 28 :11) means
that people believed it. If the Lord Jesus ascended directly after resurrection, then
that doubt would be fact and could be believed also by the disciples, that was the
reason why the Lord asked Thomas to put his hands in the wounds in order to
believe and have faith.
� The Lord appeared also many times during that period: once to Mary and the others,
once to the two disciples who were travelling to Emmaus, and many times to the
disciples. He ate with them. The ascension confirms the fact of the resurrection “to
whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible
proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things
pertaining to the kingdom of God”. (Acts 1:1)
� The Lord Jesus Christ did not ascend into heaven until He proved the fact of His
resurrection as Saint Paul said in his epistle to the Corinthians 15: 14,15 “And if
Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God
that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up.”
� The faith of the disciples in the resurrection of the Lord is very clear, our teacher
Saint Peter in his first sermon says “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we
are all witnesses” (Acts 2 :32)
� The second point is that the Lord remained for forty days in order to speak to His
disciples about the heavenly matters I still have many things to say to you, but
you cannot bear them now. (John 16: 12) which are the things related to the
heavenly kingdom and it was difficult for the disciples to realize those things before
the resurrection which opened their eyes and made the difficult things possible to
understand.
� During this period the Lord Jesus explained all the things related to His church and
He gave them the sacraments of the church which were kept by the tradition
although they were not written in the Gospel.
� The Lord had also to tell them about His second coming and about the Holy Spirit