After Jesus’ Ascension: What He Did Throughout the New Testament

We first get to know Jesus, the Son of God and our Messiah, by reading the Gospel accounts of His earthly ministry. And after He died for our sins and was resurrected, He returned to heaven. This is known as “the ascension of Jesus Christ,” and it’s described in Mark 16:19, Luke 24:50-51, and Acts 1:9-11).

But what about after that? What was Jesus doing throughout the rest of the New Testament?

Of those three passages about His ascension, all that’s immediately said was that He “sat down at the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19).

So what does that mean?

“Sitting at the right hand” means to be in a position of honor and power.¹ So Jesus’ ascension back to heaven was also an ascension to a specific position of authority in relation to humanity (Hebrews 1:2-4).

He works under this authority to nurture and guide those who accept Him as their Savior (Hebrews 2:9-11), and to complete the work He started in all of our lives (Philippians 1:6;).

So even though His physical form left the earth, He never left His church (the global community of believers) to do the heavy lifting—He’s been working in and through His people to share the Gospel and reveal God’s character.

He’s also been preparing for the day when He will be forever reunited with us.

The New Testament writers revealed what He’s done and continues to do. We’ll explore the ways Jesus has been working with humanity after the ascension:

• Preparing a perfect, eternal home for His people
• Sending the Holy Spirit
• Interceding
• What He’s doing now

One of the first hints Jesus gave about His post-ascension role had to do with our collective future as believers.

Preparing a home for His people

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Jesus promised His disciples He would come back for them because He was “preparing a place” for them.

“In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2-3, ESV).

While this may or may not mean physically building an eternal structure for us to call home someday, it shows He’s taking a personalized approach to making eternity a blissful experience for us. In heaven and the New Earth, we will be fully experiencing the kingdom of God. We will be where we can walk and talk with Him in person as we would with any loved one (Revelation 7:15-17; 21:3).

When Christ left earth, it wasn’t a final goodbye. It was more like He was saying, “Wait for me. I’ll come back and get you when the time is right.”

We can think of it like a committed long-distance relationship.

But that doesn’t mean we’re just sitting around staring at the sky. Jesus taught His disciples to prepare for His return.

Jesus told a parable about how He expected His followers to stay active and ready for His return (Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-27). In it, He described His followers as servants conducting the “master’s business” until their master returned (Luke 19:13). The faithful servants actively waited by using their master’s resources for his purposes (Matthew 25:14-28; Luke 19:11-27).

This parable teaches us to use what God has blessed us with to advance His work on earth—spreading the Gospel and serving others—while He continues His role in heaven.

But He knows we can’t do it alone, so He sent His Spirit to help us get ready.

Sending the Holy Spirit

After Jesus ascended, He fulfilled His promise to send His Holy Spirit. Many Christians refer to this as the “outpouring of the Holy Spirit,” and it kick-started the early church. For centuries, the Holy Spirit has connected people with Jesus, empowering them to overcome the challenges in their paths.

Here’s how:

The promise before the crucifixion

Jesus declared before His death that He would send “another Helper,” the “Spirit of truth.” These are other names for the Holy Spirit who would reveal Jesus and guide His followers (John 15:26-27; 16:13-14).

The disciples initially struggled with this promise because it meant He was leaving. And that’s understandable. It’s hard to say goodbye to someone close to you, especially someone you’d been spending every day with.

“But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you” (John 16:5-7, NKJV).

They didn’t yet understand that Jesus could always be with them through the Holy Spirit.

With a physical body on earth, He could only be in one place at a time.

But through the Holy Spirit, He can be everywhere by living in our hearts (John 16:13-15). Through the Spirit, we can stay connected to Him as our source, just like branches that grow out of a vine as their source of life and energy (John 15:4-5).

Here are some ways the Spirit is our connection to Jesus:

• He “dwells within” us (John 14:14-16). This means we have immediate, ongoing access to Jesus. We can pray to Him anytime, and He will always guide us (Romans 8:14, 16).
• Teaching us “all things” and reminding us of what Jesus said (John 14:26, NKJV).
• Guiding us into all truth (John 16:13)
• Revealing who Jesus is and what He wants us to know (John 15:26; 16:14).
• Giving us the words to speak when we need it (Mark 13:11).
• He intercedes for us, searches our minds, and interprets our prayers (Romans 8:26-27).

The Gospels refer to the Holy Spirit as the “Helper” (“Counselor” in the Christian Standard Bible).² It’s comforting to realize the Spirit of Christ functions to help and be there for us while we navigate the challenges of this life.

The 12 disciples were clueless about the true purpose of Christ’s mission and death. This was such a big, new concept to them. But the Lord knew this and promised the Spirit would shed light on His teachings (John 16:13).

Sure enough, when Jesus rose from the dead, the Holy Spirit opened their eyes (John 20:21; Luke 24:44-45) and they finally understood that “it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:46, NKJV).

Now, they just needed the power and encouragement to declare it.

The promise after the resurrection

The Holy Spirit enabled them to preach the Gospel as His witnesses. Before ascending, Jesus instructed His disciples to stay in Jerusalem until He sent the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49).

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8, NKJV).

This empowerment began on the Day of Pentecost. Also called the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost was a Jewish holiday that followed the Feast of Firstfruits (Leviticus 23:9-22; Exodus 34:22).

The Feast of Firstfruits pointed forward to Jesus’ resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20)³, and the Feast of Weeks symbolized a spiritual “harvest” when thousands accepted Christ after He poured out the Holy Spirit.⁴

Jesus used the Spirit to build His church, communicate with His people, and work through them. This manifested in different ways:

• He gave His followers boldness to share the Gospel (Acts 4:8-13, 31, 33).
• He healed people through His disciples (Acts 3:1-8; 9:32-35; 16:16-18; 19:11-17).
• He helped His followers through difficult situations, either by removing them from them or giving them the grace to endure (Acts 6:54-60; 18:9-11; 2 Timothy 4:16-18).
• He spoke through visions and prophecies (Acts 9:10-17; 11:5-15, 27-28; 18:9-11; 21:10-11). He even showed John, who was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day,” the visions that would become the Book of Revelation (Revelation 1:9-11, NKJV)!
• He directed who should go where (Acts 8:26-35; 13:2-3; 16:6-10).
• And He gave out different spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:4-11).

And the same Jesus who guided the early church with His Spirit keeps doing it today! The Gospel is still preached. Miracles still happen. God can still have a deep, personal connection with us.

One way Christ keeps it going is through His work as an intercessor.

Interceding for us

Image by Jeff Jacobs from Pixabay

A mediator or intercessor is someone who “stands in the gap” for someone else. Their main job is to reconcile damaged relationships and to perform tasks on people’s behalf that they are unable to do. Intercession also involves advocating on behalf of people when direct confrontations or reconciliations are not feasible.

In the Old Testament, the priests served as the mediators and intercessors between God and His people (Hebrews 7:27). Their earthly roles provided the example of what Jesus does for us now.

When Jesus returned to heaven, He went from being our sacrifice on the Cross to entering the heavenly temple as our High Priest (Hebrews 8:24-26).

The Bible says the temple on earth was a copy of the one in heaven. All the furnishings and items pointed to how Christ would work as our mediator for the new covenant (Hebrews 8:5; 9:9; 10:1).

As a high priest, Jesus intercedes for us in several ways:

• Forgiving our sins
• Cleansing us from the stain of our sins
• Being our advocate
• Helping us overcome temptations
• Giving us guidance in times of need, through His Holy Spirit.

Let’s go over each of these.

Forgiving sins

John wrote that Christ came into the world to “take away our sins” (1 John 3:5, CSB).

This means He took on the ultimate consequences of sin—death and eternal separation from God. He declares us forgiven and heals our broken relationship with Him (Hebrews 10:11-23). He took the death penalty on our behalf and now stands in our place as our advocate (Hebrews 9:11-12).

To emphasize this point, Israel’s high priest wore a turban and a breastplate that represented the tribes of Israel. Wearing these symbolized him bearing the weight of their guilt (Exodus 28:29-30, 37-38).

Likewise, Jesus has taken our sins, our guiltiness, upon Himself. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24, CSB).

By doing this, He demonstrated the peak of unconditional love: He willingly died for each and every person, even knowing that some opposed Him and even wanted Him dead.

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8, ESV).

What makes Jesus different from the Levitical priests is His work is enough to save us. While the priests served as mediators in a symbolic manner, they had no actual power to grant salvation—because they needed it too!

Jesus, on the other hand, made it possible to be saved by embracing what He did for us.

Now He’s cleansing us from sin and helping us grow in spiritual maturity.

Cleansing us from our sins

When Christ removes sin’s power over our lives, He gently changes our hearts to become more like Him (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Paul explains that Christ gave Himself for His people “that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14, NKJV).

This ongoing experience is commonly called “sanctification.” And a great example of this process is Paul’s life.

The apostle recalls how he went from persecuting the church to becoming one of its most passionate representatives. It was by God’s grace that he became known as an apostle who switch to working hard for the church rather than against it (1 Corinthians 15:9-10, NKJV).

Unfortunately, we often mess up during this process. But God doesn’t give up on us.

Being our advocate

But if (when) we mess up, we don’t have to punish ourselves. It’s not God’s will for us to sin, but He doesn’t cut us off if we do.

“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1, NKJV).

God is like a father who wants what’s best for His children. Like many parents, He’s set up boundaries and expectations designed for us to have a healthy relationship with Him and experience life in the best way possible.

And for the most part, we are often like overzealous children who push those boundaries or even run right past them at times. But like a loving parent doesn’t give up on their child just because they do something wrong or make poor decisions, God doesn’t reject us or stop loving even when we fail Him.

Like the father in the “lost son” parable, He embraces us. What’s even better is that He turns our failures into learning experiences and opportunities to understand His compassion on a deeper level.

Parents also often advocate for their children by representing them as legal guardians. They do this when their children can’t make decisions that adults can. As God’s adopted children, we have Christ as our representative. He does this because our own human strength isn’t enough to keep us in perfect alignment with His will.

And Jesus not only stands in the gap for us and communing directy with God the Father, but He also steps in when the devil, the “accuser of the brethren,” tries to hang our past over our heads to discourage us (Revelation 12:10-11, NKJV).

To illustrate this, the prophet Zechariah saw a vision where Satan condemned and accused Joshua the high priest before the Lord, only to be rebuked and silenced. As far as God was concerned, Joshua was forgiven, and the devil had no authority to say otherwise (Zechariah 3:1-10).

The only person with the right to condemn us sacrificed Himself and now mediates for us (Romans 8:34). It’s like having the lawyer and judge on our side!

So through Christ’s life-changing work, He steps in to silence any claim the Devil could possibly conjure up.

Simon Peter experienced this firsthand. Jesus told Peter that He was praying for him because He knew Satan wanted to trip him up (Luke 22:31-32).

And this indeed happened. Peter was one of Jesus’s closest followers, yet he denied their relationship three times (Luke 22:54-62).

After the resurrection, Jesus restored Peter by giving him and opportunity to express his love for Him three times (John 21:15-17).

Christ’s mercy changed this rough-around-the-edges fisherman and made him one of the boldest preachers in the New Testament (Acts 2:14-38; 3:12-17; 4:8-12).

Giving us grace in time of need.

Jesus gives His church everything needed to overcome struggles.

Whatever you’re wrestling with—be it financial struggles, chronic illness, trauma, or a crisis of faith—Jesus understands, and He wants to give you victory.

“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16, NKJV).

When Paul wrote about his “thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7, CSB),” he recalled that God promised His grace would be enough to keep him going. This meant that Paul’s weakness wouldn’t hold him back, and instead Jesus’ strength and power would shine through. So Paul welcomed challenges and opposition. He knew his toughest experiences would let Him experience and demonstrate Christ’s redemptive power (verses 9-10).

This kind of grace is also ready when we wrestle against sinful tendencies and habits.

Helping us overcome temptations

Christ can help us overcome temptations because He knows what it’s like to struggle against sin. Even though He never sinned, He dealt with all the temptations we face. But He also gained victory over all of them. He has what it takes to resist sin, and He delights in empowering us to overcome it, too.

“Therefore, he had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. For since He Himself has suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted” (Hebrews 2:17-18, CSB).

Scripture says no temptation is too powerful for Jesus to help us beat. With Jesus as our advocate, there’s always an escape route (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Sometimes the escape is by cutting something out of our lives.

Take the Ephesian new believers, for example. They had been dabbling in spiritualism, but after seeing Jesus work miracles through Paul, they destroyed their “magic books” (Acts 19:11-20). This severed their ties to occultic practices and would make it easier to resist temptations to go back.

But removing something usually also means needing to replace it with something better. And not everyone has to cut something completely out in order to resist temptation. It may just be a matter of setting boundaries or shifting perspective. Whatever the case, there are countless ways God helps individuals overcome their struggles.

So even though we can’t see and hear Jesus the way people could during His earthly ministry, there are lots of ways we can see how He’s active in our lives. Through His Holy Spirit, He works His priestly, sanctifying ministry.

What’s Jesus doing now?

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Jesus’ role hasn’t changed today, even after all this time. He is still actively involved in every moment of our lives. He’s seeking to save us from sin’s grasp while we learn more and more about His love, His character, and His mission. While He gets our eternal homes ready, He continues to help us through the Holy Spirit:

• He enables us to resist the devil and temptation (1 Peter 5:8-10)
• He strengthens our prayers (Romans 8:26-27)
• He helps us mature in our faith and spiritual growth (2 Peter 1:5-10)
• He refines our hearts and our character, and we end up seeing how our truest, purest, deepest desires actually line up with His (Philippians 2:12-13)

And of course, these processes will look different for each individual. We all have different experiences, tendencies, perspectives, etc. In one way or another, we’re all tempted by greed, envy, pride, etc. But we can be confident that Jesus, our Creator, Savior, and High Priest, joins us on our journey. And He knows just what we need to conquer each challenge we face.

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter, 1:3 ESV).

Even as Jesus’ intercessory work continues today, one rather fascinating thing has changed in God’s heavenly sanctuary.

The Old Testament talks about a time when Israel’s high priest entered the holiest place in the sanctuary to finalize atonement with God’s people (Leviticus 16). This was a symbolic event, foreshadowing something else Jesus did (and continues to do) for us.

If you’re interested in learning about this event and how it further points to Jesus as our advocate, check out these pages on the atonement or Christ’s ministry in the heavenly sanctuary.

1. Nichols, Francis D., https://archive.org/details/SdaBibleCommentary1980/SdaBc-6%20%2845%29%20Romans/page/n125/mode/2up [↵]
2. John 14:16; 15:26; 16:13 [↵]
3. Commentary on Leviticus 23:11, NKJV Andrews Study Bible [↵]
4. Commentary on Leviticus 23:16, NKJV Andrews Study Bible [↵]

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