By which He manifested Himself alive, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was the greatest miraculous work, on which the truth of the Gospel was to rest eternally; hence the remarkable solicitude with which the writers of the sacred books of the New Testament often recall the resurrection of the Lord and in various ways prove the immutability of its truth. And the beginning of the book of the Acts of the Apostles fully corresponds to the mention of the resurrection; so that Luke places this supreme truth as the point from which all that he relates in his book proceeded. After His suffering, having endured death, understood here as the accomplishment and fulfillment of all His sufferings. With many reliable proofs — signs according to a more accurate Slavonic translation; the Greek word of the original (τεκμήριον) found here is not used anywhere else in the New Testament; Ancient Greek writers always used it to express the importance of the attribute and at the same time the proof, so that the sign in this sense always had the force of assurance of the most irrefutable, the highest, the most obvious and the final. The proofs of which the writer speaks here asserted that the apostles could neither be deceived nor deceived: Jesus Christ appeared to them, spoke to them, ate and drank with them, and all this several times and in different places, performed miracles (John 21:6-7), and was in the same close communion with them in which they had lived with Him for three years. These proofs, in truth signs for all ages, are obviously and irrefutably assuring: 1) it is known that the apostles, after the death of Jesus Christ, did not think with hope about His resurrection — John 20:25. Luke 24; therefore, they did not want to deceive the world and say that their Teacher had risen, nor were they inclined and prepared to pass off their hopes as an indubitable probability; 2) it was impossible that they should have erred in the identity of one person, one of their Divine Friend (John 15:14, 15), with Whom they had lived for so long, especially when they saw Him eating with them and heard Him speaking to them in the same way as before; (3) They were quite numerous, so that they could not but evade every possibility of error. One person could make a mistake, and that would be understandable; But how can it be admitted that eleven people, even those who did not trust and doubted, could be mistaken for a whole forty days? 4) Jesus Christ, in fact, appeared to them and showed Himself not once, but severally, during a time of more than a month, and not only for a moment, but for a long time. (5) His appearances were in different places and under different circumstances, such that no error was possible. If the apostles had said that they had seen with their own eyes how Christ was resurrected at the appearance of the dawn, one might suppose that either they were the play of some skillfully prepared phantasmagoria, or in impatient expectation to see Him, under the influence of their own hopes and their prejudices, they imagined that they saw Him. Deceivers would not fail to assert that they saw the resurrection itself—no one will doubt it; Inspired writers say nothing of the sort. Following their stories, they saw Christ only after His resurrection, and that by accident, at moments when no excitement from expectation could affect them, at moments when they possessed composure while in Jerusalem, when during quiet prayer the Savior deigned to appear in their midst. Similar appearances of Christ are on the road to Emmaus, in Galilee, and on the Mount of Olives when He ascended. 6) In His relationship with the Apostles, after the Resurrection, the Lord was the same as He had been before: a closer, a friend, a benefactor. He ate, worked miracles, did the same work that He did before His death, gave them the same promise about sending the Holy Spirit, gave His "apostles" or "messengers" a command regarding the purpose for which He suffered. — Do not all these circumstances clearly affirm the decisive impossibility of being deceived in the resurrection of the Saviour? In the course of forty days, appearing to them. — In the books of the New Testament there are ten mentions of the Lord's appearances to His disciples after His resurrection: 1) John. 20, 14-18. Mark. 16, 9-11. 2) Matt. 28, 9-10. 3) Onions. 14, 34. 1 Corinth. 15, 5. 4) Onions. 24, 13-35. Mark. 16, 12-13. 5) Mark. 16, 14. Onion. 24, 36-44. John. 20, 19-25. 6) John. 20, 26-29. 7) John. 21. 8) 1 Corinth. 15, 6. Matt. 28, 16-20. 9) 1 Corinth. 15, 7. 10) 1 Corinth. 15, 7. Mark. 16, 19-20. Onion. 24, 50-53. Acts. 1, 1-11. — (Filaret Mosk.). "Why did He not appear to everyone, but only to the apostles? For to many, who did not understand this ineffable mystery, His appearance would seem to be a vision. If the disciples themselves did not believe at first and were confused, even needed to be touched with their hands and to eat a common meal with Him, then how should His appearance have struck the crowd? For this reason He makes the proof of His resurrection indubitable and general by means of the miracles which the apostles performed by the power of the grace they received; so that the resurrection became an obvious fact not only for them, who had to convince themselves of it with their own eyes, but also for all people of subsequent times" (Theophilus). And speaking of the Kingdom of God—speaking to them of the same truths of which He spoke before His death, and thereby showing plainly that He was the same, and that His heart was always given over to one great work of redemption, both in life, and in death, and after the resurrection. About the Kingdom of God — about the establishment of the grace-filled kingdom of God or the heavenly kingdom on earth, for the eternal kingdom of glory in heaven, by His teaching, sufferings, death, resurrection and the universal ministry of the apostles after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them in the matter of the formation, expansion and establishment of the Church of Christ (Obshchestvennoe izsledniki, Thu., vol. 1, p. 13).

The Ascension of the Lord (Extract from the Holy Scriptures).

I. Prophetic depiction of the Ascension of the Lord.

The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool. With Thee is the beginning in the day of Thy power, in the brightness of Thy saints: From the womb before the dawn of Lucifer I begot Thee (Psalm 109:1, 3). Take up your gates, O princes, and lift up the everlasting gates, and enter the King of glory. Who is this King of glory? The Lord is strong and mighty, the Lord is mighty in battle (Psalm 23:7-8). Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast taken captivity captive, Thou hast received a gift among men (Psalm 67:19). God ascended with a shout, the Lord with a trumpet (Psalm 46:6). Sing to our God, sing praises to the Lord, Who has ascended into Heaven in heaven (Psalm 67:34). As God is the king of all the earth.

God reigned over the tongues. God sits on His holy throne (Psalm 46:8, 9). Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and His nose shall be on the Mount of Olives, which is directly to Jerusalem to the east. And the living waters shall come out of Jerusalem, the first half of it in the sea, and the last half of it in the sea: and in the harvest and in the spring it shall be so. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in the day he shall be one Lord, and his name one (Zech. 14:4, 8, 9).

II. The Gospel Story of the Ascension of the Lord.

Jesus was resurrected, appearing to one, and said to them, "Go ye into the whole world, preach the gospel to all creation" (Mark 16:15). For thus it is fitting to preach in His name repentance, and the remission of sins in all tongues, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:47). And he brought them out as far as Bethany, and lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, when thou didst bless them, that thou didst depart from them, and ascended into heaven (Luke 24:50, 51); and a cloud shall lift him up from their eyes. And when I looked up to heaven, I went to Him, and behold, there were two hundred men before them, in white garments, and they said, Men of Galilee, why stand there, looking up to heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will also come, in the same manner you saw Him going into heaven (Acts 1:9-11). Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem (Acts 1:12); and having gone forth preaching everywhere, I will hasten to the Lord, and confirm the word with the following banners (Mark 16:20).

III. The Apostolic Teaching on the Ascension of the Lord.

God our Father glorify His servant Jesus (Acts 3:13), having raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly ones, above all principality, and authority, and power, and dominion, and subdue all things under His nose: and then He will give the head above all to the Church (Ephesians 1:20-22). And no one ascended into heaven except he who came down from heaven, the Son of man (John 3:13). Who is at the right hand of God, having ascended into heaven, having submitted to him by an angel and power and powers (1 Peter 3:22); And His God hath appointed an heir to all, Who is the radiance of glory and the image of His hypostasis, bearing all things by the word of His power, having made cleansing of our sins by Himself, Thou shalt sit at the right hand of the throne of majesty on high, being only better than the angels, for the more glorious than their inherited name (Heb. 1:3, 4). And it behooves heaven to receive Him even unto the years of the dispensation of all, which God hath spoken from the mouth of all His saints, the Prophet from all eternity (Acts 3:21). For it behooves Him to reign, until He puts all enemies under His feet (1 Corinthians 15:25).

And raise us up with Him, and seat us in heaven in Christ Jesus; for the Imams are brought to the Father in the Dous (Ephesians 2:6, 18).

If you are risen with Christ, seek the highest, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, be wise on high, and not on earth: for you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ appears, your life, then ye also shall appear with Him in glory (Col. 3:1-4). Our life is in heaven, and we await our Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humility, so that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the work of which we may be able to Him, and subdue all things to ourselves (Phil. 3:20-21).

Such is the Emam of the High Priest, who sits at the right hand of the Throne of Majesty in heaven, the minister of the saints, and the tabernacle is truer, which the Lord hath set up, and not man (Heb. 8:1-2). The Bishop of the good things to come, by the greater and most perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not sowing creation, nor by the blood of a goat, lower than a calf, but by His own blood, entering into the holy one, having found eternal redemption (9:11-12). Not into the holy one made with hands, which is in contrast to the true ones, but into heaven itself, now let the face of God appear for us (9:24). He alone offered sacrifice for sins, He always sits at the right hand of God, waiting for the rest, until His enemies lay His footstool (10:12-13). For having boldness, brethren, to enter into the holy blood of Jesus Christ, by a new and living way, which He hath renewed unto us with a veil, that is, with His flesh, and a great priest over the house of God: let us draw near with a true heart for the testimony of faith, sprinkle our hearts from an evil conscience, and weary our bodies with pure water, that we may keep the unswerving confession of hope: for he who has promised is faithful (Heb. 10:10). 19-23). (Sunday Th. Part VII, p. 55).

Instructions of Jesus Christ to Disciples before His Ascension to Heaven

St. John Chrysostom.