Today’s question is one several have asked — namely, why did Jesus have to leave earth after the resurrection?

“Pastor John, hello and thank you for the APJ podcast,” Dalton writes. “A question I have for you is this. Why did Jesus leave earth after his resurrection? I understand that Jesus left to leave us the Holy Spirit, but couldn’t he have just stayed and continued his ministry as the risen Christ in tandem with the Spirit? Wouldn’t that have been more effective? Why did Christ leave the earth?” Pastor John gives six reasons for Jesus’s ascension to the Father’s right hand.