How full and widespread was the belief in the Resurrection of Jesus in the hearts of those who were its witnesses, is apparent not only from the fact that the great theme of their preaching was “Jesus and the resurrection,” but is also evident from the importance they attached to the Lord’s Day and the Lord’s Supper.  These institutions have a direct connection with the Resurrection, the former having been substituted for the Jewish Sabbath expressly on the ground that on that day the Lord rose; the latter, while it commemorates His death, sets forth also His resurrection life.

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ARTICLE 6

He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of
    God the Father Almighty

Forty days after His resurrection Jesus charged the Apostles, in the last words He is known to have spoken on earth, to testify of Him throughout the world, and assured them that they should receive power through the descent of the Holy Spirit.  This last-recorded utterance called His Church to missionary enterprise:  “Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."[140] It is when believers in Christ are faithful in the performance of this duty that fulfilment of the promise may be confidently looked for, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."[141]

We are told that, when Jesus had spoken these things, “He led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.  And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven."[142]

Ascension is the completion of Resurrection.  “If he were on earth,” says the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, “he should not be a priest."[143] No part of His work would have corresponded to that of the high priest, who, when he had offered up sacrifice, passed into the holy place with the blood of the victim, and laid it upon the altar.  The act thus foreshadowed in the type was accomplished when our great High Priest passed into the heavens, and “entered not into the holy places made with hands, which are the figure of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us."[144]

The Ascension took place in open day and in the sight of the Apostles.  “While they beheld, he was taken up."[145] That they might be witnesses of the fact, it was necessary that they should see Him go up from earth.  Unlike the Ascension, the Resurrection of Christ took place unseen by mortal eye.  Eye-witnesses of His rising from the dead were not needed.  The fact that they had seen Jesus after He rose qualified them to be witnesses of His Resurrection, but it was only because they had seen Him taken up that they could bear personal testimony to His Ascension.