This week, on the Word of the Lord endures forever, we begin our adventure in the acts of the Apostles,

starting off with the Ascension, then devoting themselves to prayer, Matthias chosen,

Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit and Joel's prophecy.

Join me, Pastor Will Whedon, for the Word of the Lord endures forever your daily 15-minute,

verse 5, verse 5, we'll study on demand.

Listen at thewordendors.org or your favorite podcast provider.

The Ascension hymn up through endless ranks of angels, talking about Christ ascending into heaven,

and the biggest recording of this actually comes in two places, the very end of Luke's gospel,

and then in another book by the evangelist Luke, the beginning of the acts of the Apostles.

Why does it end of the gospel and begin the acts of the Apostles?

Greetings and welcome to Issues, etc, coming to you live from the studios of Lutheran Public Radio

on this Ascension Day. I'm Todd Wilkin, thanks for tuning us in. Dr. Arthur Just will join us to

talk about the Ascension of Christ, and then we'll spend some time talking about Rick Warren,

female pastors, and the Southern Baptist Convention with Dr. Denny Burke of Boyce College.

Dr. Arthur Just is professor of New Testament at Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne,

Indiana. He's author of the two volume Concordia commentary on Luke and the book heaven on earth,

the gifts of Christ in the divine service. Dr. Just welcome back.

Wonderful to be with you on this day of the Ascension of our Lord.

Is there any significance to Jesus Ascension 40 days after his resurrection?

I think there is. One of the great numbers in scripture is the 40 days. You have the 40 years

in the wilderness of the children of Israel and the Exodus. 40 days for Jesus temptation by

Satan, and then of course the 40 years between the death of Jesus and the destruction of the temple

...