8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? - Eph. 4
Before he ascended into heaven, Jesus first descended in the "lower parts of the earth". While in hell, he not only tasted death for every man, fulfilling his role as the propitiation for our sins and thereby satisfying the wrath of God, but when sin was destroyed and his victory complete, he was able to succor the spoils of war by leading "captivity captive". What does that mean?
We read in I Peter Chapter 3:
18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water."
Everyone who enters heaven must accept Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. But for those who were born before him, they never received an opportunity to accept him while in this life.
6 For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. - I Peter 4
Jesus preached in hell! And those who accepted him followed him up out of the grave after his resurrection.
52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, 53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. - Matthew 27
Perhaps we will deal with more of this at a later time should the Holy Spirit give insight, but the above scripture tells us that the bodies of the saints arose. Obviously, these bodies had seen corruption or decomposition. But the promise of the everlasting covenant is that we will have a body like his glorified body. There is a company of saints that have already been raised as such... part of the fruitfruits of the firstborn.
How long did they remain in the holy city and appear unto many? We might speculate that, just like they could not be resurrected until after Jesus' resurrection, that neither could they ascend until after Jesus' ascension. So, let's lay a foundation for understanding the importance of Jesus' ascension.
God revealed the significance of ascension in one of the seven feasts of the Lord. Turn to Leviticus Chapter 23 and read verses 10-15. We want to highlight verse eleven:
11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
The Sheaf of this Feast of Firstfruits represents Jesus Christ. The priest was to receive the first sheaf that came up in the field before the harvest was ready. The act of waving the sheaf before the Lord represents the sheaf ascending before the Lord. Why was this simple act so powerful? Because once the sheaf was waved and received along with the blood sacrifice that was a part of this feast, the people were accepted. In other words, if God accepted the Sheaf of the Firstfruit, He was obligated to bless the harvest that was to come. So this feast must precede Pentecost.
When you read further in Leviticus 23 regarding what happened on the day of Pentecost, you will discover that the priests were to prepare two leavened loaves of bread to be accepted before God. Leaven represents sin and Jesus warned about leaven:
"And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod," Mark 8:15.
"... Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy," Luke 12:1c
" Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" - I Cor. 5:6
In the above scripture, Paul was rebuking the church for not judging the sin of fornication that was "commonly" reported among them. He was basically saying that, if you tolerate even a little sin, it will soon infect the entire church; and in fact, fornication was becoming "commonly reported".
"Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." - I Cor. 5:8
Jesus is Unleavened Bread. The Feast preceding the waving of the sheaf offering was the Feast of Unleavened Bread that was held for seven days. NO leaven was to be found in the houses of the children of Israel. No leaven was to be eaten. If they ate any leaven, or allowed strangers among them to eat any leaven during those seven holy days, they were cut off from Israel, with no hope of restoration being given [ref. Exodus 12:15,19,20].
Seeing that leaven was such an abomination, it doesn't initially make sense when we read the following in Leviticus 23:17,
"Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals; they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD."
How can that be? How can leavened loaved be firstfruits made holy and acceptable before God? Because Jesus ascended! And because Jesus was accepted! And now, WE are ACCEPTED in the beloved (ref. Eph. 1:6).
Yes, on the Day of Pentecost, two loaves, representing Jews and Gentiles, would now be accepted as the harvest of the Lord. Are we perfect? No. Are we sinless? No. Is there leaven in our lives? Yes. But, because of Christ alone and no goodness of our own, we have been accepted. Praise God.
Leviticus 23:6 lets us know that the children of Israel were commanded to eat unleavened bread during those seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Read what Jesus had to say about his flesh and his blood in John 6:32-58.
50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
I see a great danger in the Body of Christ today. Many churches have started using leavened bread during Communion to represent the Body of Christ. They erroneously believe that the leaven in the bread represents Jesus "rising" from the dead because leaven makes things rise. But we know from scripture that leaven is used to symbolize sin, not resurrection. If they understood the Feast of the Sheaf of the Firstfruits and how the wave offering represents the Ascension, they would not err. I know of one church that started this practice and before long, sin was rampant even among the elders to the point where they all had to be released from the ministry. Jesus is not leavened! The Bread of Communion represents HIM! During the Feast of Unleavened bread, the children of Israel were commanded to eat unleavened bread for seven days (seven being God's number of completion or perfection). We are perfected in Christ. Because we eat His flesh and drink His blood, we have life. And although we start out as leavened loaves, He will perfect that which concerns us. He will love the leaven out of our lives.
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us," (I Cor. 5:7).
All of these things had to be right if Jesus were to be able to ascend. Was he an acceptable sacrifice? Was he indeed unleavened? How would we know that His ascension gained the power and authority to cause us to ascend? We'll have to continue this next week.
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