Jesus was received up into heaven

JESUS WAS RECEIVED UP INTO HEAVEN
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken unto
them, was receivedup into heaven, and sat down at
the right hand of God.—Mark16:19.
Mark 16:19 ►
GreatTexts of the Bible
The CrownedSaviour
So then the Lord Jesus, afterhe had spokenunto them, was receivedup into
heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.—Mark 16:19.
How strangelycalm and brief is this record of so stupendous an event! Do
these sparing and reverent words sound like the product of devout
imagination, embellishing with legend the facts of history? Their very
restrainedness, calmness, matter-of-factness,if we may so callit, is a strong
guarantee that they are the utterance of an eye-witness, who verily saw what
he tells so simply. There is something sublime in the contrastbetweenthe
magnificence and almost inconceivable grandeur of the thing communicated,
and the quiet words, so few, so sober, so wanting in all detail, in which it is
told. That stupendous factof Christ sitting at the right hand of God is the one
which should fill the present for us all. Even as the Cross should fill the past,
and the coming for Judgment should fill the future, so for us the one central
thought about the present, in its loftiestrelations, should be the throned
Christ at God’s right hand. It is that thought of the sessionofJesus by the side

of the Majestyof the Heavens that brings out the profound teaching of the
Ascension, and the practicallessons whichit suggests.
The story of the Ascensionof Jesus is given three times in the New Testament.
It is given in the verse of the text (if the last elevenverses formed no part of
the originalGospelby St. Mark, they still contain a very early testimony to
the current belief of the primitive Church); it is given very briefly in the
concluding verses ofSt. Luke’s Gospel;and it is given once againby St. Luke
with more circumstantiality and detail in the opening chapterof the Book of
the Acts of the Apostles. All three accounts are marked by a certainreticence
and reverent brevity. The sacredwriter is content to mention the event in the
simplest language and with a complete absence ofdetail.
It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that our belief in the Ascension
rests upon such a slender foundation as a twofold mention by St. Luke (who
was probably not a personaldisciple of Christ, and therefore not an eye-
witness)and an anonymous paragraph appended to the Gospelof St. Mark.
The Ascensionof Christ occupies an important place in the apostolic
testimony. It is quite true it is not emphasisedas is the fact of the
Resurrection. But it is presupposedand takenfor granted. The Resurrection,
as the Apostles thought of it, involved the Ascension. The one, so to speak, was
necessitatedby the other. Christ to them was not risen simply, but also exalted
and glorified.
The Ascensionof Jesus occupiesmuch the same place in the apostolic
testimony as does the doctrine of the Incarnation. It cannot be said that the
doctrine of the Incarnation is anywhere formally statedand logicallyproved.
It is taken for granted. It is the backgroundof all the apostolic thinking. The
story of our Lord’s sinless life, His death and resurrection, seemedto the
Apostles to involve the doctrine of the Incarnation, and so it is presupposed, it
is treated as an axiom, and the references to it are incidental merely. And it is

much the same with the Ascension. It is never formally stated and proved. It is
takenfor granted. It is regardedas axiomatic. It is a corollaryof the
Resurrection. Hence the references to it in the Epistles are casualand
incidental only.
And yet no one canread the Epistles without seeing that the Ascension
colouredall the Apostles’thought of Jesus. Whenthey speak ofHim, they
speak of Him as One who has passedout of the region of the seenand natural
into the region of the unseenand the supernatural. They think of Him not as
risen simply, but as ascendedalso. It was from heaven Christ appeared to
Paul on the way to Damascus. Paul speaksofChrist as seatedon the right
hand of God. It is from heaven, according to Paul, that Christ will come to
judge the quick and the dead. Peterspeaks ofChrist as having gone into
heaven and being on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers
being made subject to Him. John, when unveiling the splendours of the new
Jerusalem, says that in the city, in the midst of it, he saw one like unto the Son
of Man whose eyes were as a flame of fire and His voice as the voice of many
waters, and His countenance as the sun shining in his strength, and He said, “I
am the First and the Lastand the Living One, and I was dead, and behold I
am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” The
picture of Jesus which the Apostles give us is that of One who lived a sinless
life, died an atoning death, rose on the third day, and who then ascendedfar
above all the heavens that He might fill all things.
The text falls into three natural divisions:—
The Parting Words of Jesus—“Afterhe had spokenunto them”
His Ascension—“Hewas receivedup into heaven”

His Sessionin Heaven—“He satdown at the right hand of God”
I
The Parting Words of Jesus
1. As the factof Christ’s resurrectionis so important we may expect to find it
well established. It is so. He made many appearances. There are at leastten or
eleven. There is one noteworthy fact about these manifestations. He appeared
only to His friends.
To see Jesus you must be in sympathy with Jesus. The stained-glasswindow
gives no sign of its beauty as you look at it from without. It is from within the
building that you are able to enjoy the fulness and richness of the colour. It is
not until you enter into the Christian temper that you canreceive the
Christian revelations. To the unspiritual, manifestations of the Spirit are but
foolishness.
2. Now in the appearances ofJesus He spoke to His disciples. “After he had
spokenunto them” He ascended. He might have appearedwithout speaking.
He might have shownthem His hands, His feet, His side, and so proved His
identity; and He might have done this without uttering a syllable. He spoke to
them. What did He say? He knew He was soonto depart unto the Father. If
the “tongues ofdying men enforce attention,” we may conclude that the words
of the risen Christ must be of paramount importance. Let us listen to the great
resurrectionwords.

(1) Mary!—“Now when he was risen he appearedfirst to Mary Magdalene,
out of whom he had castsevendevils” (Mark 16:9). She had been to the
sepulchre and found it empty. She was sorrowfullydeparting when she met
her Lord. “Supposing him to be the gardener, she saith unto him, Tellme
where thou hast laid him and I will take him away. Jesus saithunto her,
Mary! She saith unto him, Rabboni.” The first resurrectionword was a
personalword; it was a woman’s name addressedto the woman herself.
What power Christ put into one word! The human voice is wonderfully
musical. Godhas filled creationwith music. The birds carol, the brooks
murmur, the trees sing in the breeze. The oceanis always in tune. When the
storm whips the billow into foam, or when the waves ripple idly on the sand,
the voice of the oceanis always full of music. But nothing in creationcan
really rival the human voice. There are instruments of music which are
pleasantto the ear; but for pathos, for power, for compass, for sweetness, the
organof human speechis above all.
(2) All hail!—This was the secondword of the risen Lord. It was spokento a
company of sorrowing women. They had been to the sepulchre, carrying
spices to embalm His body. There they had seena vision of angels, and had
been instructed by one of them to bear the intelligence of Christ’s resurrection
to the disciples. While they were hastening to fulfil this commission, Jesus
Himself met them, saying, “All hail!” Jesus always meets His people in the
path of obedience. Now the Greek word for “All hail” means simply
“Rejoice.”The secondgreatresurrectionword is a word of joy.
Rejoice becauseI live.—Theythought Him dead. They had no expectationof
His resurrection. They came to anoint a dead body and met a living Saviour.
The cross had been the grave of their expectations. He whom they expectedto
reign had died a felon’s death. But now Jesus meets them. A living Lord bids
them rejoice—rejoice thatHe is alive.

He lives, the friend of sinners lives,
What joy this blest assurancegives.
Rejoice becauseI show you what death is.—He was “first-born from the
dead.” He was the “first-fruits” of the resurrection. His was the first real
resurrection. We do not forget those raisedby Elijah and Elisha, and the three
whom Jesus Himself raisedfrom the dead. But they were not instances of
resurrectionbut of resuscitation. Eachofthem had to die again. Christ, raised
from the dead, “dieth no more.” “He is alive for evermore.” By His
resurrection“he brought life and immortality to light.”
Rejoice becauseI have triumphed.—“He was manifestedto destroythe works
of the devil.” One work of the devil was death. St. Paul tells us “Christhath
abolisheddeath.” How did He accomplishthis, but by His resurrectionfrom
the dead? He was not imprisoned for long. Like a mighty SamsonHe bore the
gates away, and now the gates of death shall not prevail againstus.
(3) Peace!—This is one of the most prominent of the resurrectionwords. It
was spokento the disciples in the upper room at Jerusalem. It was the very
word they needed, for they were full of distress and fear. The peace He gave
was a peace wellbased. He was Himself not only their source ofpeace, He was
their peace.
Peace is always basedon a feeling of safety. The boy who feels safe because he
trusts the wisdom of his father, does not grow uneasy though the way be
unknown and the night dark. He feels safe with his father and has peace. The
old man who rides in his carriage has peace, becausehe trusts his coachman

who has driven him for years. His sense ofsecurity gives him peace. The
captain has no fear for his vesselthough the fog is dense. The pilot who stands
on the bridge has brought his boat to port so often that he can trust him and
so has peace. It was so with the disciples. The knowledge that they were not
alone, that He upon whose guidance they had depended was still with them,
and was to be ever with them, this was the ground of their peace.
(4) Go!—“Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they
see me.” The meeting in Galilee was always thrown into prominence. Galilee
is the appointed meeting-place for the greatrevelation Jesus gave ofHimself.
What shall the greatword be for this occasion? He has spokena personal
word, a word of joy, a word of peace;now He gives the word of command.
“Go!” “Then they went awayinto Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had
appointed them.… And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All poweris
given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teachall nations.”
A living Christ means a going Church. And so we leave these four great
resurrectionwords. Christ is risen! The risen Christ speaks!He speaks to call
us, to cheerus, to comfort us, to command us. “After he had spokento them,
he was receivedup into heaven, and saton the right hand of God.” And now
from the throne He speaks similarwords to us. Let us listen to the living
Christ.1 [Note:W. L. Mackenzie.]
3. These treasuredwords, which may be called the “resurrectionwords,”
remind us of the greattruth which we are taught in this verse,—whichmeans
so much to us, that Jesus spoketo His disciples, before He left them. And on
the day of His Ascensionthey would remember above all the promise which
He gave them before His death: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I come
again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am ye may be also”
(John 14:3).

The world has not seenthe last of Jesus Christ. Such an Ascension, aftersuch
a life, cannot be the end of Him. “As it is appointed unto men once to die, and
after death the judgment, so Christ also, having been once offered to bear the
sins of many, shall appear the secondtime, without sin unto salvation.” As
inevitably as for sinful human nature follows death, so inevitably for the
sinless Man, who is the sacrifice forthe world’s sins, will His judicial return
follow His atoning work;He will come again, having receivedthe Kingdom, to
take accountof His servants, and to perfect their possessionofthe salvation
which by His Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, He wrought
for the world. Therefore, one sweetface, andone greatfact—the face of the
Christ, the factof the Cross—shouldfill the past. One sweetface, one great
fact—the face of the Christ, the factof His presence with us all the days—
should fill the present. One regalface, one greathope, should fill the future;
the face of the King that sitteth upon the throne, the hope that He will come
again, and “so shallwe ever be with the Lord.”
The Apostles were bidden by angels to turn their gaze from heavento earth,—
and wait. “And they returned to Jerusalemwith greatjoy.” Yes, Jesus will
come again, there is joy in that thought. He hath passedfrom us into that
invisible world, and left an ever-widening circle on the surface of the deep,
which extends ever more and more around where He has passed, till it hath
filled all time and space, and hath come even to us, and takenus into its
hallowedcircumference.1 [Note:Isaac Williams.]
But, Lord, to-morrow,
What of to-morrow, Lord?
Shall there be restfrom toil, be truce from sorrow,

Be living greenupon the sward,
Now but a barren grave to me,
Be joy for sorrow?—
“Did I not die for thee?
Do I not live for thee?—leave Me to-morrow.”2 [Note:Christina G. Rossetti.]
II
His Ascension
1. The Ascensionwas a natural sequence ofthe Incarnation and Resurrection.
The Ascensionof Jesus ofNazarethwas the final crisis in His greatwork. To
omit it would be to omit that which is a necessarylink betweenHis
resurrectionfrom among the dead and reappearance amid His disciples, and
the coming of God, the Holy Spirit, on the Day of Pentecost. It is not easyto
follow Him as He passes outof human sight. This difficulty is recognised
inferentially in the very brevity of the Gospelnarrative. Very little is said,
because little can be said which could be understood by those dwelling still
within the limitations of the material, and having consciousness ofthe
spiritual world only by faith. Still the positive fact is definitely stated; and,
following closelythe lines laid down, we may reverently attempt their

projection beyond the veil of time and sense. It is almostpathetic that it is
necessaryto pause one moment to insist upon the actualhistoric fact of the
ascensioninto the heavenly places of the Man of Nazareth. If the resurrection
be denied, then of course there is no room for the ascension. Ifon the other
hand it be establishedthat Jesus of Nazarethdid indeed rise from the dead,
then it is equally certain that He ascendedinto heaven. No time need be taken
in argument with such as believe in the authenticity of the New Testament
story, and with those who question this, argument is useless.Thatthere is an
unconscious questioning of the fact of the ascensionis evident from the wayin
which reference is sometimes made to the Lord Jesus. It is by no means
uncommon to hear persons speak of what He did or said “in the days of His
Incarnation.” Such a phrase, evenwhen not used with such intention, does
infer that the days of His Incarnation are over. This, however, is not so. Jesus,
through whom, and through whom alone eventually, men as such will be
found in the heavens, ascendedin bodily form to those heavens, being Himself
as to actualvictory First-born from the dead. The stoop of God to human
form was not for a period merely. That humiliation was a process in the
pathway by which God would lift into eternalunion with Himself all such as
should be redeemedby the victory won through suffering. For evermore in
the Personofthe Man of Nazareth Godis one with men. At this moment the
Man of Nazareth, the Son of God, is at the right hand of the Father.
Difficulties arising concerning these clear declarations as to the ascensionof
the Man of Nazarethmust not be allowedto create disbelief in them. Any such
process ofdiscrediting what is hard to understand issues finally in the
abandonment of the whole Christian position and history.
The Ascensionof Christ ensues just as necessarilyand naturally as the
development of the flower when plant, stalk, leaf, and bud are already in
existence. Look atthe connectionof His whole career, how He was sent down
from His Father, in order, as God-man, to fulfil His work of mediation and
redemption; how He, obeying, suffering, and dying, really did fulfil it, thus
perfectly discharging the commissionintrusted to Him; and then judge
whether it may not be confidently expectedthat the holy, righteous Father in
heaven would set His sealto the finished work of His only-begottenSon, not

only by raising Him againfrom the dead, but by causing Him also to return in
visible triumph to heaven, whence He had descendedto us. One step in the life
of Jesus demanded and required the next. Without the AscensionHis life were
a torso, a fragment, an inexplicable enigma. Forwhere could the risen Saviour
have remained if He had not returned to His Father? He must necessarily
have tarried somewhere onearth in His glorified body; or, what is still more
inconceivable and contradictory, have died a secondtime under
circumstances that precluded any eye from witnessing it. But, finally, fix your
attention upon that which, as being of paramount importance, imperatively
challenges it, the authoritative sealof historical truth which He affixed
Himself, in the presence of the whole world, upon the fact of His Ascension, by
the outpouring, on the tenth day after His return to heaven, of the promised
Holy Ghost. If anything be fitted to remove our lastdoubt, it is the day of
Pentecost.1 [Note:F. W. Krummacher.]
2. The Ascensionwas expedient for us.
When Christ left the earth He was not bereaving His people. He was depriving
them of a lessergoodin order to bestow upon them a richer and a nobler. We
have that on His own plain and unequivocal assurance.On the night in which
He was betrayed, when He was gatheredwith His disciples in the upper room,
and when the shadow of the coming parting lay dark and heavy acrossHis
soul and theirs, He sought to cheerHis fainting and broken-heartedfollowers
by assuring them that it was for their goodthat He should leave them.
“Nevertheless,”He said, “I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go
away.” Now our Lord spoke many a hard saying during the years of His
earthly sojourn, but He spoke none harder to believe than that. Those
disciples of His that night absolutely and utterly refused to believe it. Yes,
Christ spoke that night to deaf ears and incredulous hearts. If He had said, “It
is expedient for the angelic host,” who had missed the face of their blessed
Lord for three and thirty years, they could have understood that. If he had
said, “It is expedient for the savedand redeemed,” whose joywould be

increasedby their Redeemer’s presence, they could have understood that. If
He had said, “It is expedient for Me to go away,” to leave the trials and tears
and difficulties and struggles and poverty and pain of earth for the
blessednessand glory of heaven, they could have understood that. But that it
should be expedient for them to be deprived of their Lord, who had been their
joy, their strength, their inspiration, their hope; expedient for them to be
deprived of His presence, and to be left friendless and alone in the midst of
foes, like sheepin the midst of wolves—no, theycould not understand that.
Their Lord’s words sounded to them like bitter irony. It was a hard saying,
and they could not bear it. And yet we can see to-day, and these very disciples
came themselves to see, that when Christ said, “It is expedient for you that I
go away,” He spoke the literal truth. For wherein does that expediency
consist? It consists in the universal presence of Christ. Christ went awayfrom
His disciples in order that—paradoxicalas it may sound—He might come
nearer to them. He left them in bodily presence, that spiritually He might be
present with them everywhere and at all times.
There are times when we wish we had shared in the experience of the first
disciples, and had been privileged to hear our Lord’s voice and see His face
and feelHis touch. The sentiment expressedin our children’s hymn is at one
time and another the sentiment of all of us—
I think, when I read that sweetstoryof old,
When Jesus was here among men,
How He calledlittle children as lambs to His fold,
I should like to have been with them then.

I wish that His hands had been placedon my head,
That His arms had been thrown around me,
And that I might have seenHis kind look when He said,
“Let the little ones come unto Me.”
And yet, natural though the sentiment of that hymn is, it is false. Why this
pensive longing, this wistful regretfor the days of Christ’s earthly sojourn? Is
it that Christ is beyond our reachand call and touch to-day? As a matter of
fact He has come nearer to us by going away.1 [Note:J. D. Jones.]
Lo, as some bard on isles of the Ægean,
Lovely and eagerwhen the earth was young,
Burning to hurl his heart into a pæan,
Praise of the hero from whose loins he sprung;—
He, I suppose, with such a care to carry,

Wandered disconsolateand waitedlong,
Smiting his breast, wherein the notes would tarry,
Chiding the slumber of the seed of song:
Then in the sudden glory of a minute
Airy and excellentthe proem came,
Rending his bosom, for a god was in it,
Waking the seed, for it had burst in flame.
So even I athirst for his inspiring,
I who have talkedwith him forgetagain;
Yes, many days with sobs and with desiring
Offer to God a patience and a pain;
Then thro’ the mid complaint of my confession,

Then thro’ the pang and passionof my prayer,
Leaps with a start the shock ofHis possession,
Thrills me and touches, and the Lord is there.1 [Note: F. W. H. Myers, Saint
Paul.]
3. What is the practicalbearing of the Ascensiononour lives?
Our Lord’s Ascensionleads us to think of Him and to follow Him in mind and
heart. By His rising from the dead and ascending into heaven He gave us a
model to follow no less than by His suffering and death. By His ascensionour
Lord would show us that although we are in the world we should not be of the
world, that our minds and thoughts should be directed heavenward. There lie
the vastpossibilities, the unthinkable future, for human nature. “To him that
over cometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame,
and am set down with my Fatherin his throne.” Union and communion with
God. This is the beginning, the middle, the end of our religion. For this is the
purpose of God for eachsoulin the day when He creates it.
Let us meditate how Christ has gone before us into the glory of His heavenly
Father. Therefore, if we desire to follow Him, we must mark the way which
He has shown us, and trodden for three and thirty years, in misery, in
poverty, in shame, and in bitterness, even unto death. So likewise, to this day,
must we follow in the same path, if we would fain enter with Him into the
Kingdom of Heaven. For though all our masters were dead, and all our books
burned, yet we should ever find instruction enoughin His holy life. For He
Himself is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and by no other waycan we truly

and undeviatingly advance towards the same consummation, than in that
which He hath walkedwhile He was yet upon earth. Now, as the loadstone
draws the iron after itself, so doth Christ draw all hearts after Himself which
have once been touched by Him; and as when the iron is impregnated with the
energy of the loadstone that has touched it, it follows the stone uphill although
that is contrary to its nature, and cannotrest in its own proper place, but
strives to rise above itself on high; so all the souls which have been touched by
this loadstone, Christ, can be chained down neither by joy nor by grief, but
are everrising up to God out of themselves. They forgettheir own nature, and
follow after the touch of God, and follow it the more easilyand directly, the
more noble is their nature than that of other men, and the more they are
touched by God’s image.1 [Note:Tauler’s Life and Sermons, 335.]
Since Eden, it keeps the secret!
Not a flowerbeside it knows
To distil from the day the fragrance
And beauty that flood the Rose.
Silently speeds the secret
From the loving eye of the sun
To the willing heart of the flower:

The life of the twain is one.
Folded within my being,
A wonder to me is taught,
Too deep for curious seeing
Or fathom of sounding thought,
Of all sweetmysteries holiest!
Fadedare rose and sun!
The Highest hides in the lowliest;
My Fatherand I are one.2 [Note:Charles Gordon Ames.]
III
His Sessionat God’s Right Hand

1. In that solemn and wondrous fact of Christ’s sitting at the right hand of
God we see the exalted Man. We are taught to believe, according to His own
words, that in His ascensionChrist was but returning whence He came, and
entering into the “glory which he had with the Father before the world was.”
And that impression of a return to His native and proper abode is strongly
conveyedto us by the narrative of His ascension. Contrastit, for instance,
with the narrative of Elijah’s rapture, or with the brief reference to Enoch’s
translation. The one was takenby God up into a regionand a state which he
had not formerly traversed;the other was borne by a fiery chariot to the
heavens;but Christ slowly sailedupwards, as it were, by His own inherent
power, returning to His abode, and ascending up where He was before.
But whilst this is one side of the profound fact, there is another side. What was
new in Christ’s return to His Father’s bosom? This, that he took His manhood
with Him. It was “the Everlasting Son of the Father,” the Eternal Word,
which from the beginning “was with God and was God,” that came down
from heaven to earth, to declare the Father; but it was the Incarnate Word,
the Man Christ Jesus, that went back again. This most blessedand wonderful
truth is taught with emphasis in His own words before the Council, “Ye shall
see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power.” Christ, then, to-day,
bears a human body, not indeed the “body of his humiliation,” but the body of
His glory, which is none the less a true corporealframe, and necessarily
requires a locality. His ascension, whithersoeverHe may have gone, was the
true carrying of a real humanity, complete in all its parts, Body, Soul, and
Spirit, up to the very throne of God. Where that locality is it is useless to
speculate. St. Paul says that He ascendedup “far above all heavens”;or, as
the Epistle to the Hebrews has it, in the proper translation, the High Priest “is
passedthrough the heavens,” as if all this visible material creationwas rent
asunder in order that He might soaryet higher beyond its limits wherein reign
mutation and decay. But wheresoeverthat place may be, there is a place in
which now, with a human body as well as a human spirit, Jesus is sitting “at
the right hand of God.” In the profound language of Scripture, “The
Forerunner is for us entered.” In some mysterious manner, of which we can
but dimly conceive, that entrance of Jesus in His complete humanity into the

highest heavens is the preparation of a place for us. It seems as if, without His
presence there, there were no entrance for human nature within that state,
and no power in a human footto tread upon the crystalpavements of the
CelestialCity. But where He is, there the path is permeable, and the place
native, to all who love and trust Him.
The exalted Man, sitting at the right hand of God, is the Pattern of what is
possible for humanity, and the prophecy and pledge of what will be actual for
all that love Him and bear the image of Him upon earth, that they may be
conformed to the image of His glory, and be with Him where He is. What
firmness, what reality, what solidity this thought of the exalted bodily Christ
gives to the else dim and vague conceptions ofa Heaven beyond the stars and
beyond our present experience!I believe that no doctrine of a future life has
strength and substance enoughto survive the agonies ofour hearts when we
part from our dear ones—the fears ofour spirits when we look into the
unknown inane future for ourselves—exceptonly this which says Heavenis
Christ and Christ is Heaven, and points to Him and says, “Where he is, there
also shall his servants be.”1 [Note: 1 A. Maclaren.]
We know not when, we know not where,
We know not what that world will be;
But this we know—itwill be fair
To see.
With hearts athirst and thirsty face,

We know and know not what shall be:
Christ Jesus bring us of His grace
To see.
Christ Jesus bring us of His grace,
Beyond all prayers our hope can pray,
One day to see Him face to Face,
One day.2 [Note:Christina G. Rossetti.]
2. The Ascensionof our blessedLord involves the glorification of the whole
human race. In His Incarnation Christ identified Himself once for all with
human-kind. He bound us in a close andvital relationship to Himself. He
became bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. He shared our lot and made
us partakers of His destiny. The highest interests of humanity became
embodied in Him. If the powers of evil could prevail over Him, then they
might soonenslave the whole human race. If He should overcome death, and
pass through the grave and the gate of death to a joyful resurrection, He
would thus open to all mankind the gate of everlasting life. If God should exalt
Him with greattriumph unto His Kingdom in heaven, He would by that same
act exalt all His faithful followers to the same place whither our Saviour
Christ is gone before.

Thou hast raised our human nature
On the clouds to God’s right hand;
There we sit in heavenly places,
There with Thee in glory stand.
Jesus reigns, adoredby angels;
Man with God is on the throne;
Mighty Lord, in Thine Ascension
We by faith behold our own.1 [Note: Chr. Wordsworth.]
3. Christ’s sitting at the right hand of God presents to our view a Saviour at
Rest. That sessionexpressesthe idea of absolute repose after sore conflict. It is
the same thought that is expressedin those solemn Egyptian colossalstatuesof
deified conquerors, elevatedto mysterious union with their gods, and yet men
still. Sitting before their temples in perfectstillness, with their mighty hands
lying quiet on their restful limbs; with calm faces outof which toil and passion
and change seemto have melted, they gaze out with open eyes as over a silent,
prostrate world. So, with the Cross behind, with all the agony and weariness

of the arena, the dust and the blood of the struggle left beneath, Christ “sitteth
at the right hand of God the FatherAlmighty.” He rests after His Cross, not
because He needed repose even after that terrible effort, but in tokenthat His
work was finished and perfected, that all which He had come to do was done;
and in tokenthat the Father, too, beheld and acceptedHis finished work.
Therefore, the sessionof Christ at the right hand of God is the proclamation
from Heaven of what He cried with His last dying breath upon the Cross:“It
is finished!” It is the declarationthat the world has had all done for it that
Heaven can do for it. It is the declarationthat all which is neededfor the
regenerationof humanity has been lodgedin the very heart of the race, and
that henceforwardall that is required is the evolving and the development of
the consequencesofthat perfect work which Christ offered upon the Cross. So
the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews contrasts the priests who stood“daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices”which“cannever
take awaysin,” with “this Man who, after he had offered one sacrifice forsins
for ever, sat down at the right hand of God”; testifying thereby that His Cross
is the complete, sufficient, perpetual atonement and satisfactionfor the sins of
the whole world.
It would seemas though one could hear the antiphonal singing of the heavenly
choirs, as this perfect One passesinto heaven.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates;
And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors:
And the King of glory shall come in,

is the exulting challenge ofthe angels escorting Him. To this comes back the
question, inspired by the passionto hear againthe story of the victory,
Who is the King of glory?
And yet gathering new music and new meaning the surging anthem rolls,
Jehovahstrong and mighty,
Jehovahmighty in battle …
He is the King of glory.
Thus the song is also of One who was mighty in battle. Looking upon Him, the
glorified One, and listening to His words, the wonder grows. For in that Form,
all filled with exquisite beauty, are yet the signs of suffering and of pain. The
marks of wounding are in hands, and feet, and side, and His presence declares
in His own words, “I am … the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am
alive for evermore.”1 [Note:G. Campbell Morgan.]
Chains of my heart, avaunt I say—
I will arise, and in the strength of love
Pursue the bright track ere it fade away,

My Saviour’s pathway to His home above.
Sure, when I reachthe point where earth
Melts into nothing from th’ uncumbered sight,
Heaven will o’ercome th’ attraction of my birth,
And I will sink in yonder sea of light:
Till resting by th’ incarnate Lord,
Once bleeding, now triumphant for my sake,
I mark Him, how by Seraph hosts adored
He to earth’s lowestcares is still awake.
The sun and every vassalstar,
All space, beyondthe soarof Angel wings,

Wait on His word; and yet He stays His car
For every sigh a contrite suppliant brings.
He listens to the silent tear
’Mid all the anthems of the boundless sky—
And shall our dreams of music bar our ear
To His soul-piercing voice for ever nigh?
Nay, gracious Saviour,—butas now
Our thoughts have traced Thee to Thy glory-throne,
So help us evermore with Thee to bow
Where human sorrow breathes her lowly moan.1 [Note: J. Keble, The
Christian Year, AscensionDay.]
4. The Sessioninvolves Intercession.—Inthe Epistle to the Hebrews is
constantly reiteratedthe thought that we have a Priestwho has “passedinto
the heavens,” there to “appearin the presence ofGod for us.” And St. Paul

says, “It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raisedfrom the dead,
who is at the right hand of God, who also makethintercessionfor us”
(Romans 8:34). There are deep mysteries connectedwith the thought of the
intercessionofChrist. It does not mean that the Divine Heart needs to be won
to love and pity. It does not mean that in any mere outward and formal
fashion Christ pleads with God, and softens and placates the Infinite and
Eternal love of the Father in the heavens. It, at least, plainly means this, that
He, our Saviour and Sacrifice, is for ever in the presence ofGod, presenting
His own blood as an elementin the Divine dealing with us, modifying the
incidence of the Divine law, and securing through His ownmerits and
intercessionthe outflow of blessings upon our heads and hearts. It is not a
complete statement of Christ’s work for us that He died for us; He died that
He might have somewhatto offer. He lives that He may be our Advocate as
well as our propitiation with the Father. The High Priestonce a year passed
within the curtain, and there in the solemn silence and solitude of the Holy
Place, notwithout trembling, sprinkled the blood that he bore thither; and
but for a moment was he permitted to stay in the awful Presence. So, but in
reality and for ever, with the joyful gladness of a Sonin His “owncalm home,
His habitation from eternity,” Christ abides in the Holy Place;and, at the
right hand of the Majestyof the Heavens, lifts up that prayer, so strangely
compactof authority and submission: “Father, I will that those whom thou
hast given me be with me where I am.” The Son of Man at the right hand of
God is our Intercessor with the Father. “Seeing, then, that we have a great
High Priestthat is passedthrough the heavens, let us come boldly to the
Throne of Grace.”
Not as one blind and deaf to our beseeching,
Neither forgetful that we are but dust,
Not as from heavens too high for our upreaching,

Coldly sublime, intolerably just:—
Nay but Thou knewestus, Lord Christ Thou knowest,
Well Thou rememberest our feeble frame,
Thou canstconceive our highest and our lowest
Pulses of nobleness and aches ofshame.
Therefore have pity!—not that we accuse Thee,
Curse Thee and die and charge Thee with our woe:
Not thro’ Thy fault, O Holy One, we lose Thee,
Nay, but our own,—yethast Thou made us so!
Then tho’ our foul and limitless transgression
Grows with our growing, with our breath began,

Raise Thouthe arms of endless intercession,
Jesus, divinest when Thou most art man!1 [Note: F. W. H. Myers, Saint Paul.]
5. Lastly, the Ascensionsets before us the ever-active Helper. The “right hand
of God” is the Omnipotent energy of God; and howevercertainly the language
of Scripture requires for its full interpretation that we should firmly hold that
Christ’s glorified body dwells in a place, we are not to omit the other thought
that to sit at the right hand also means to wield the immortal energy of that
Divine nature over all the field of the Creation, and in every province of His
dominion. So that the ascendedChrist is the ubiquitous Christ; and He who is
“at the right hand of God” is whereverthe powerof Godreaches-throughout
His whole Universe.
We remember that it was once given to a man to look through the opened
heavens (through which Christ had “passed”)andto “see the Son of Man
standing”—notsitting—“atthe right hand of God.” Why to the dying
protomartyr was there granted that vision thus varied? Wherefore was the
attitude changedbut to express the swiftness, the certainty of His help, and
the eagerreadinessofthe Lord, who starts to His feet, as it were, to succour
and to sustain His dying servant? And so we may take that greatjoyful truth
that, both as receiving “gifts for men” and bestowing gifts upon them, and as
working by His providence in the world, and on the wider scale forthe well-
being of His children and of the Church, the Christ who sits at the right hand
of God wields, ever with eagercheerfulness, allthe powers of omnipotence for
our well-being, if we love and trust Him.1 [Note: A. Maclaren.]
And didst Thou love the race that loved not Thee,

And didst Thou take to Heaven a human brow?
Dostplead with man’s voice by the marvellous sea?
Art Thou his kinsman now?
O God, O Kinsman, loved, but not enough!
O man, with eyes majestic after death,
Whose feethave toiled along our pathways rough,
Whose lips drawn human breath!
By that one likeness whichis ours and Thine,
By that one nature which doth hold us kin,
By that high heaven where sinless Thou dost shine,
To draw us sinners in,
By Thy last silence in the judgment-hall,

By long foreknowledge ofthe deadly tree,
By darkness, by the wormwoodand the gall,
I pray Thee visit me.
Come, lest this heart should, cold and castaway,
Die ere the guestadored she entertain—
Lest eyes which never saw Thine earthly day
Should miss Thy heavenly reign.2 [Note:JeanIngelow.]
The CrownedSaviour
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The GospelThe Word Of The AscendedLord
Mark 16:19, 20

A.F. Muir
These words, at the end of Mark's account, give the greatsequence of our
Lord's manifestation. The Ascensionwas the divinely necessaryresultof the
Resurrection;the gospelis the necessaryfruit on the human side of the
experience produced in the hearts of the disciples by his life and work. Such a
series ofevents could not end in silence. As in life, so in death, resurrection,
and exaltation, Jesus Christ "couldnot be hid." The preaching of the gospelis
a result, therefore, of an express command and an inward impulse. The two
verses are in sequence to the preceding account, and the one to the other,
logically, spiritually, and potentially. Notice in this connection -
I. THE POINT AT WHICH THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPELBEGINS.
At the final withdrawal and exaltationof Jesus.
1. Its subject is a completed one.
2. The various portions of it are self-evidently connected, and mutually
interpret one another. The final transcendent issues ofthe contestof Christ
with sin and death are eachrepresentative and interpretative of what
precededand led up to them. The life and its relationto the Divine purpose,
prophetic anticipation, and human yearning, would be incomprehensible
without this glorious trinity of consummations: death, resurrection, and
ascension.
II. THE POWER IT REPRESENTS. The powerof a finished work of
atonement, a victory over death and hell, and an exalted, glorified humanity.
1. The highest exaltation has been reachedby him of whom it speaks, He is
invested with Divine power, and executive authority in the universe of God.
Whether there be any such place as the "right hand of God" may be a curious
question; that there is a state which such a phrase describes is a matter of
spiritual revelation and experience. "All poweris given," etc.
2. Its tone is therefore authoritative in the highestdegree. The gospelis a
throne-word. Preachers are ambassadors. The dignities and pretensions of
earth are nothing to them. The Lord through them "commands all men

everywhere to repent." Herod is a sad illustration of what occurs when even a
king attempts to patronize the gospel.
3. This pretensionis confirmed by practical proofs. The works accompanying
it and resulting from it are "signs. You cannotexplain them unless on the
highest ground. Although physical miracles have ceased, spiritual results are
still more demonstrative and glorious. In changing the heart, renewing the
nature, purifying the affections, the Word of his power" achieves what
nothing else can. And such signs are to be lookedfor whenever and wherever
it is proclaimed. "The Lord working with them" - everywhere, because
ascendedand glorified.
III. THE PEOPLE IT CONCERNS."And they went forth, and preached
everywhere. This was no accidentor caprice of choice:he commanded it (ver.
15). But it is also divinely fitting that this should be so.
1. The gospelis intended for all men.
2. It is adapted to all men.
3. The work of Christ's servants is to seek the salvationof all men.
Until all have had an opportunity we must continue to preach: that is our
responsibility. It is not said that all will believe or be saved: that is the
responsibility of those who hear. Only of this are we certain:The Lord is not
slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness;but is longsuffering to
you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance (2 Peter3:9). - M.

Biblical Illustrator
He was receivedup into heaven.
Mark 16:19
The Ascensionand its effects
Bp. F. Barker, D. D.
The hidden source of the Christian's spiritual life is with Christ in God. To
Him he looks as his treasure — his treasure in heaven; thither does he
endeavour in heart and mind to ascend;he sets his affections on things above;
he seeks those things which are at the right hand of God, with Christ, to be
dispensed by Him, according to His promise. The ascensionwas the great
consummation of Christ's work. Observe in this connection —
I. THE PERIOD AT WHICH HE ASCENDED:after He has spokento the
apostles. He did not leave them until His prophetical work on earth was done,
and He had provided for the continued application of the benefits He had
securedfor mankind.
II. WHENCE HE WAS RECEIVED:from the Mount of Olives. A favourite
spot, and one hallowedby frequent communion with His Father, and close to
the gardenwhere He rendered His will to God. The valley of humiliation was
changedinto the mount of triumph.
III. BY WHOM He was received:by the holy angels. What joy for them! They
ushered Him into the Presence chamberof Jehovah, and there He sat down at
the right hand of the Majestyon High.

IV. THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH HE ASCENDED.
1. To prepare a place for His people.
2. To rule and order all things for the glory of God.
3. To intercede for all who come to God by Him.
4. To send the Holy Spirit to dwell with His people and guide them into all the
truth.That BlessedSpirit is the true remedy for all the wants we feel, for the
coldness ofour hearts towards Him, for our many departures from His will,
our many shortcomings and turnings aside from Him.
(Bp. F. Barker, D. D.)
Christ's Ascension
Bp. JosephHall.
O happy parting, fit for the Saviourof mankind. O blessedJesu, let me so far
imitate Thee, as to depart hence with a blessing in my mouth; let my soul,
when it is stepping overthe threshold of heaven, leave behind it a legacyof
peace and happiness.
I. FROM WHENCE DID HE ASCEND? Fromthe Mount of Olives. He might
have ascendedfrom the valley; all the globe of earth was alike to Him; but
since He was to mount upward, He would take so much advantage as that
stair of ground would afford Him. Since he had made hills so much nearerto
heaven, He would not neglectthe benefit of His Own creation. Where we have
common helps, we may not depend upon supernatural provisions, we may not
strain the Divine Providence to the supply of our negligence,orthe
humouring of our presumption. O God, teachme to bless Thee for means,
when I have them; and to trust Thee for means, when I have them not; yea, to
trust Thee without means, when I have no hope of them.
II. WHITHER DID HE ASCEND? Whither, but home into His heaven? From
the mountain was He taken up; and what but heavenis above the hills?
Already had He approved Himself the Lord and Commander of earth, of sea,

of hell. It only remained that, as Lord of the air, He should pass through all
the regions of that yielding element; and, as Lord of heaven, through all the
glorious contiguations thereof. He had an everlasting right to that heaven;an
undoubted possessionof it ever since it was;but His human nature took not
possessionofit until now. O Jesu, raise Thou up my heart thither to Thee;
place my affections upon Thee above, and teachme to love heaven, because
Thou art there.
III. HOW DID HE ASCEND? As in His crucifixion and resurrection, so also
in His ascension, the actwas His Own, the powerof it none but His. The
angels did attend Thee, they did not aid Thee:whence had they their strength,
but from Thee? Unlike Elias, Thou needestno chariot, no carriage ofangels;
Thou art the Author of life and motion; they move in and from Thee. As
Thou, therefore, didst move Thyself upward, so, by the same Divine power,
Thou will raise us up to the participation of Thy glory.
(Bp. JosephHall.)
Comfort from Christ's Ascension
Bp. JosephHall.
O my soul, be Thou now, if ever, ravished with the contemplationof this
comfortable and blessedfarewellof thy Saviour. What a sight was this, how
full of joyful assurance, ofspiritual consolation!Methinks I see it still with
their eyes, how Thou, my glorious Saviour, didst leisurely and insensibly rise
up from Thine Olivet, taking leave of Thine acclaiming disciples, now left
below Thee, with gracious eyes, with heavenly benedictions. Methinks I see
how they followedThee with eagerand longing eyes, with arms lifted up, as if
they had wishedthem winged, to bare soaredup after Thee. And if Elijah
gave assurance to his servant Elisha, that, if he should have beheld him in that
rapture, his master's spirit should be doubled upon him; what an accessionof
the spirit of joy and confidence must needs be to His happy disciples, in seeing
Christ thus gradually rising up to His heaven!O how unwillingly did their
intentive eyes let go so blessedan object! How unwelcome was that cloud that

interposed itself betwixt Him and them, and, closing up itself, left only a
glorious splendour behind it, as the bright track of His ascension!Of old, here
below, the glory of the Lord appearedin the cloud; now, afar off in the sky,
the cloud intercepted this heavenly glory; if distance did not rather do it than
that bright meteor. Their eyes attended Him on His way so far as their beams
would reach; when they could go no further, the cloud receivedHim. Lo, even
yet that very screen, whereby He was takenoff from all earthly view, was no
other than glorious;how much rather do all the beholders fix their sight upon
that cloud, than upon the best piece of the firmament! Never was the sun itself
gazedupon with so much intention. With what long looks, with what
astonishedacclamations, did these transported beholders follow Thee, their
ascending Saviour! As if they would have lookedthrough that cloud, and that
heaven that hid Him from them....Look not after Him, O ye weak disciples, as
so departed that ye shall see Him no more; if He be gone, yet He is not lost;
those heavens that receivedHim shall restore Him; neither canthose blessed
mansions decrease His glory. Ye have seenHim ascendupon the chariotof a
bright cloud; and, in the clouds of heaven, ye shall see Him descendagainto
His lastjudgment. He is gone:can it trouble you to know you have an
Advocate in heaven? Strive not now so much to exercise your bodily eyes in
looking after Him, as the eyes of your souls in looking for Him. If it be our
sorrow to part with our Saviour, yet, to part with Him into heaven, it is
comfort and felicity: if His absence couldbe grievous, His return shall be
happy and glorious. Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly: in the meantime it is
not heaventhat can keepThee from me; it is not earth that cankeepme from
Thee:raise Thou up my soulto a life of faith with Thee; let me everenjoy Thy
conversation, whilstI expect Thy return.
(Bp. JosephHall.)
The enthroned Christ
A Maclaren, D. D.
How strangelycalm and brief, this recordof so stupendous an event.
Something sublime in the contrastbetweenthe magnificence and almost

inconceivable grandeur of the thing communicated, and the quiet words, so
few, so sober, so wanting in all detail, in which it is told. The stupendous fact
of Christ sitting at the right hand of God is the one that should fill the present
for us all, even as the Cross should fill the past, and the coming for judgment
should fill the future.
I. THE EXALTED MAN. In His ascensionChrist was but returning to His
eternal Home; but He took with Him — what He had not had before in
heaven — His humanity. It was the Everlasting Son of the Father, the Eternal
Word, which from the beginning was with God and was God, that came down
from heaven to earth, to declare the Father; but it was the Incarnate Word,
the man Christ Jesus, who went back again. And He went as our Forerunner,
to prepare a place for us, that where He is we also might be.
II. THE RESTING SAVIOUR. Christ rests after His cross, not because He
needs repose, but in token that His work is finished, and that the Father has
acceptedit.
III. THE INTERCEDINGPRIEST. There are deep mysteries connectedwith
the thought of Christ's intercession. It does not mean that the Divine heart
needs to be won to love and pity; or that in any merely outward and formal
fashion He pleads with God, and softens and placates the Infinite and Eternal
love of the Fatherin the heavens. But it means that He, our Saviour and
Sacrifice, is forever in the presence of God; presenting His Own Blood as an
element in the Divine dealing with us; and securing, through His own merits
and intercession, the outflow of blessings upon our heads and hearts.
IV. THE EVER-ACTIVE HELPER. The "right hand of God" is the
omnipotent energy of God. The ascendedChrist is the ubiquitous Christ. Our
Brother, the Son of Man, sits ruling all things; shall we not, then, be restful
and content?
(A Maclaren, D. D.)
Designof Christ's Ascension

G. S. Bowes.
1. To confirm the prophecies.
2. To commence His mediatorial work in heaven.
3. To send the Holy Ghost.
4. To prepare a place for His people.He went up as our Representative,
Forerunner, High Priest, and Intercessor, and as the King of Glory.
(G. S. Bowes.)
Manner of Christ's Ascension
N. Adams.
The manner of Christ's ascensioninto heaven may be said to have been an
instance of Divine simplicity and sublimity combined, which scarcelyhas a
parallel. While in the actof blessing His disciples (St. Luke 24:50, 51), He was
parted from them, and was carried up, and disappearedbehind a cloud (Acts
1:9). There was no pomp; nothing could have been more simple. How can the
followers of this Lord and Masterrely on pomp and ceremony to spreadHis
religion, when He, its Founder, gave no countenance to such appeals to the
senses ofmen? Had some goodmen been consultedabout the manner of the
ascension, we canimagine the result.
(N. Adams.)
AscensionDay, on earth and in heaven
C. M. Southgate.
I. ON EARTH. Think of the marvellous day when the disciples once more
followedthe Lord as far as unto Bethany, now truly on His wayhome. All the
glimpses of the forty days had pressedit upon them that, while truly the same
Jesus, He was yet drawing awayfrom them. Still loving and tender, He is

hedged about with divinity that makes a king. He bends not again to wash
their feet; Mary does not touch Him, John does not lie in His bosom. Nature is
losing its hold on His humanity. Suddenly He comes and goes, scarce
recognizedat first, then quickly hailed with rapturous confidence. They see
Him no longer bearing unweariness, hunger, or the contempt of men. Jew and
Roman are now out of the contest. Satandares no more assaults. He has no
sighs, no tears, no nights of prayer, no agonywith bloody sweat. And now as
they watch, that chiefestforce of matter on which the systems stand, slips
awayfrom the particles of the form He wears, and He ascends in their sight,
out of their sight, until swathedin the splendour of a cloud of glory.
II. IN HEAVEN. Dare we imagine the scene?Angels unnumbered, their faces
solemn with a new awe at the greatwork of God; the first woman beholding at
last the Seed;the first man Adam, rejoicing to see his fearful work undone
and the race left free to join itself to a new Head; the patriarchs no longer
pilgrims; priests no longer ministering at temple and altar; prophets finding
prophecy itself looking backwardon fulfilment; the heroes ofthe Church; the
babes of Bethlehemslaughteredabout His cradle — can we imagine the scene
as He passedthrough the midst of these? Did they gaze on His form, with
print of thorn and nail and spear, which mark Him forever as the Lamb that
hath been slain? Up He passes through the bowed ranks, among saints and
elders and martyrs, the four mystical living ones, beyond the glassysea, amid
the spirit's sevenburning flames, beneath the emerald glittering bow, to that
glory whose brightness jasper and sardius can. not express, and on this
highest height of the supreme throne of the ineffable God, He takes His Own
place.
(C. M. Southgate.)
The tomb and triumph
C. Kingsley M. A.
Whenever you think of our Lord's resurrectionand ascension, remember
always that the backgroundto His triumph is a tomb. Remember that it is the

triumph over suffering; a triumph of One who still bears the prints of the
nails in His hands and in His feet, and the wound of the spearin His side; like
many a poor soul who has followedHim triumphant at last, and yet scarred
and maimed in the hard battle of life. Remember forever the adorable wounds
of Christ. Remember forever that St. John saw in the midst of the throne of
God the likeness of a Lamb, as it had been slain. Forso alone you will learn
what our Lord's resurrection and ascensionare to all who have to suffer and
to toil on earth.
(C. Kingsley M. A.)
Christ is living now
R. W. Dale D. D.
What goodwould it do to you if you were suffering from some peculiar
accidentto a limb, and someone came and told you of a surgeonwho lived a
hundred years ago, and who had been wonderfully clever in resetting the
same bone after that precise kind of fracture? You might feelthat he would
have been able and willing to relieve you from pain, and to prevent all
subsequent deformity. But if you were told of some living man who had shown
the same skill, and if it were explained how it was that he had acquired his
specialexperience, and how he had succeededin one case afteranother when
every other surgeonwas helpless, you would say, "Now I have heard all this I
will send for him at once, and put myself in his hands." This is just what men
have to be persuadedto do in relation to Christ...to realize that He is living
still, and that He is not only willing but able to give every man who asks of
Him forgiveness ofall past evil and strength to do better in time to come.
(R. W. Dale D. D.)
Jesus atthe right hand of God
Handbook to Scripture Doctrines.

John Bunyan was walking one day in a field, in greattrouble of soul at the
discoveryof his own vileness, and not knowing how to be justified with God,
when he beard, as he imagined, a voice saying to him, "Your righteousness is
in heaven." He went into his house and took his Bible, thinking to find there
the very words that he thus sounded in his heart. He did not discover the
identical expression, but many a passage ofScripture proclaimed the same
truth, and showedhim that Jesus, atthe right hand of God, is complete
righteousness to everyone that believeth.
(Handbook to Scripture Doctrines.)
The ascensionofChrist
Sketches ofFourHundred Sermons.
We cannotcontemplate the characters ofmen who have benefited the world
by the splendour of their talents or the lustre of their lives, without feeling a
spirit of inquisitive solicitude to know how they finished their course, parted
with their friends, and made their exit. We labour to catchthe last glance of
departing worth.
I. THE PERIOD WHEN CHRIST ASCENDED.
1. After upbraiding His disciples with their unbelief and hardness of heart.
2. After assigning to them their work.(1)The work was to "preachthe
gospel," notfalse doctrines, not human opinions, not Jewishceremonies.(2)
The sphere of their operationwas "all the world."(3)Their commissionwas to
"every creature." Hence we infer that the gospelis suited to the circumstances
of all — designedfor the benefit of all — and that the ministers of truth
should aim at preaching it to all.
3. After comforting them by the promise of a miraculous influence with which
they should be invested.
II. THE MANNER.
1. Christ's ascensionwas accomplishedby His own eternal power.

2. It was publicly witnessedby His disciples.
3. It was hailed with transport by ministering angels. St. Luke declares that "a
cloud receivedHim;" who cantell what amazing scenes were unfolded beyond
that cloud?
III. HIS SUBSEQUENT SITUATION. "He saton the right hand of God."
This signifies —
1. The honour and dignity to which our Saviour is exalted.
2. The rule and government with which He is invested (Ephesians 1:20-22;
John 3:35; Matthew 11:27; Romans 8:34).
3. The tranquility and happiness of which He is possessed.CONCLUSION:
From this subject we learn —
1. Christ finished the work which He came upon earth to accomplish.
2. Christ has highly honoured human nature.
3. Christ is exalted for our sake (Hebrews 9:24).This should give us confidence
in our prayers, excite our emulation, and, above all, inspire our hopes.
(Sketches ofFour Hundred Sermons.)
Our Lord's Ascension
Isaac Barrow, D. D.
I. THE FACT OF THE ASCENSION. Christwas, according to His humanity,
translated by the Divine power into heaven. As God, He transferred Himself,
as man, thither: to sit, thenceforward, at the right band of the Majestyon
high. This signifies —
1. Preeminence ofdignity, power, favour, and felicity.
2. The solid ground, the firm possession, the durable continuance, the
undisturbed rest and quiet, of His condition.

3. The nature, quality, and designof His preferment. He is our Ruler and
Judge.
4. His glorification.
II. CONFIRMATORYCONSIDERATIONS.
1. Oculartestimony. The apostles witnessedChrist's ascension.
2. Rationaldeduction. His arriving at the supreme pitch of glory, and sitting
there, is deduced from the authority of His own word, and stands on the same
ground as any other point of Christian faith and doctrine.
3. Ancient predictions.
III. THE END AND EFFECT OF THE ASCENSION.
1. Our Lord did ascendunto, and doth reside in, heaven, at the right hand of
Divine majestyand power, that as a King He may govern us, protecting us
from all danger, relieving us in all want, delivering us from all evil.
2. Our Saviourdid ascend, and now sits at God's right hand, that He may, in
regard to us, there exercise His priestly function.
3. Our Lord tells us that it was necessaryHe should depart hence, and enter
into this glorious state, that He might there exercise His prophetical office by
imparting to us His Holy Spirit for our instruction, direction, assistance,and
comfort.
4. Our Lord also tells us that He went to heaven to prepare a place there for
His faithful servants. He has entered heaven as our Forerunner, our
Harbinger, to dispose things there for our reception and entertainment.
5. It is an effect of our Lord's ascensionand glorification, that an good
Christians are with Him in a sort translated into heaven, and advancedinto a
glorious state, being made kings and priests to God.
6. I might add that God did thus advance our Saviour, to declare the special
regard He bears to piety, righteousness, andobedience, by His so amply
rewarding and highly dignifying the practice thereof.

IV. PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS.
1. It may serve to guard us from divers errors with regardto our Lord's
human nature. Our Lord did visibly, in human shape, ascendto heaven, and
therefore He continues still a Man; and as such He abides in heaven. He is
indeed everywhere by His Divinity presentwith us; He is also in His humanity
present to our faith, memory, affection;He is therein also presentby
mysterious representation, by spiritual efficacy, by generalinspectionand
influence on His Church; but in body, as we are absent from Him, so is He
likewise separatedfrom us; we must depart hence, that we may be with Him
in the place whither He is gone to prepare for us.
2. Is Christ ascendedand advanced to this glorious eminency at God's right
hand? Then let us answerablybehave ourselves towards Him, rendering Him
the honour and worship, the fear and reverence, the service and obedience,
suitable and due to His state.
3. These points afford ground and matter of greatjoy and comfort to us.
Victory over enemies;exaltationof Him who has stoopedto become one with
us — our Elder Brother; the possessionofa Friend in so high place and so
greatpower, etc.
4. The considerationof these things serves to cherish and strengthen all kinds
of faith and hope in us. We cannot surely distrust the accomplishment of any
promises declaredby Him, we cannotdespair of receiving any good from
Him, who is ascendedinto heavenand sits at the right hand of Divine wisdom
and power, thence viewing all things done here, thence ordering all things
everywhere for the advantage of those who love Him and trust in Him.
5. These points likewise serve to excite and encourage ourdevotion. Having
such a Mediatorin heaven, so goodand sure a Friend at court, what should
hinder us from cheerfully addressing ourselves by Him on all occasionsto
God?
6. It may encourage us to all kinds of obedience, to considerwhat a high pitch
of eternal glory and dignity our Lord has obtained in regard to His obedience,
and as a pledge of like recompense designedto us if we tread in His footsteps.

7. The considerationof these points should elevate our thoughts and affections
from these inferior things here below unto heavenly things (Colossians 3:1).
To the Head of our body we should be joined; continually deriving sense and
motion, direction and activity, from Him; where the Masterof our family is,
there should our minds be, constantly attentive to His pleasure, and ready to
serve Him; where the city is whose denizens we are, and where our final rest
must be, there should our thoughts be, carefulto observe the law and orders,
that we may enjoy the immunities and privileges thereof; in that country
where only we have any goodestate orvaluable concernment, there our mind
should be, studying to secure and improve our interest therein; our resolution
should be conformable to that of the holy Psalmist:"I will lift up mine eyes to
the hills from whence comethmy help."
(Isaac Barrow, D. D.)
Christ's ascensionand cooperation
J. Alexander, D. D.
I. CONTEMPLATE THESE APOSTLESWITNESSINGTHE ASCENSION
OF THEIR LORD.
1. The place from which He ascended. Mountof Olives. Thither He had been
accustomedto resort after the labours and fatigues of the day; there He had
often spent a whole night in meditation and prayer; and now He Himself
ascends from the same place. There His disciples had forsakenHim and fled;
and there He was now parted from them, and a cloud receivedHim out of
their sight.
2. The manner in which He ascended.(1)Visibly. His disciples were
eyewitnesses ofHis majesty, as He rose higher and higher from the mountain,
till the cloud coveredHim, and concealedHim from their sight.(2) While He
was in the actof blessing.
3. The place to which He ascended. Heaven. His own home. What rejoicings at
His return!

II. CONTEMPLATE THE APOSTLES GOING FORTHTO PREACHHIS
GOSPEL.
1. The subject of their preaching. The gospelofJesus Christ — the crucified,
risen, and ascendedSaviour.
2. They communicated this gospelto mankind by preaching.
(1)A Divine ordinance.
(2)A speedy wayof teaching.
(3)A method admirably adapted for impressing the great truth of the gospel
on men's hearts.
3. The extent to which they preached this gospelwas universal.
"Everywhere." "To everycreature," was the command.
III. CONTEMPLATETHE APOSTLES EXPERIENCING THEIR LORD'S
COOPERATIONWITHTHEM IN THEIR LABOURS. Wherever they
workedas instruments, He workedalso as the efficient agent;for His power is
omnipotent; and the "signs" promisedwere the result.
1. These Divine influences qualified the preachers of the gospel.
2. These Divine influences confirmed the truth of the gospel.
3. These Divine influences ensured the success ofthe gospel.Aglorious
conquest— a triumph over mind and heart. It was greatand godlike even to
plan the moral conquestof a world; but when the plan is all accomplished,
when all the nations of the earth become one holy and happy family, then shall
the world enjoy its millennial jubilee, and Christ the Mediator shall be Lord
of all.
(J. Alexander, D. D.)
An open wayto heaven
J. Alexander, D. D.

When He ascendedup on high, He opened and prepared a path, along which
we may travel till we behold His face in righteousness. Ithas been said, that in
the early ages anattempt was once made to build a chapel on the top of the
hill from which Christ ascendedinto heaven; but that it was found impossible
either to pave over the place where He last stood, or to erecta roof across the
path through which He had ascended;— a legendarytale, no doubt, though
perhaps intended to teach the important troth that the moral marks and
impressions which Christ has left behind Him can never be obliterated; that
the wayto heaventhrough which He has passedcannever be closedby
human skill or power; and that He has set before us an open door which no
man shall be able to shut.
(J. Alexander, D. D.)
STUDYLIGHT RESOURCES
Adam Clarke Commentary
After the Lord had spoken - These things, and conversedwith them for forty
days, he was takenup into heaven, there to appear in the presence ofGod for
us.
Albert Barnes'Notes onthe Whole Bible
He was receivedup into heaven - In a cloud from the Mount of Olives. See
Acts 1:9.
The right hand of God - We are not to suppose that God has hands, or that
Jesus sits in any particular direction from God. This phrase is takenfrom the
manner of speaking among men, and means that he was exalted to honor and
powerin the heavens. It was esteemedthe place of the highesthonor to be
seatedat the right hand of a prince. So, to be seatedatthe right hand of God,

means that Jesus is exaltedto the highest honor of the universe. Compare
Ephesians 1:20-22.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
A. MACLAREN
THE ENTHRONEDCHRIST
‘So then after the Lord had spokenunto them, He was receivedup into
heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.’—Mark xvi. 19.
How strangelycalm and brief is this record of so stupendous an event! Do
these sparing and reverent words sound to you like the product of devout
imagination, embellishing with legend the facts of history? To me their very
restrainedness, calmness, matter-of-factness,if I may so call it, are a strong
guarantee that they are the utterance of an eyewitness, who verily saw what
he tells so simply. There is something sublime in the contrastbetweenthe
magnificence and almost inconceivable grandeur of the thing communicated,
and the quiet words, so few, so sober, so wanting in all detail, in which it is
told.
That stupendous fact of Christ sitting at the right hand of God is the one that
should fill the presentfor us all, even as the Cross should fill the past, and the
coming for Judgment should fill the future. So for us the one central thought
about the present, in its loftiest relations, should be the throned Christ at
God’s right hand. It is to that thought of the sessionofJesus by the side of the
Majestyof the Heavens that I wish to turn now, to try to bring out the
profound teaching that is in it, and the practicallessons whichit suggests.I
desire to emphasise very briefly four points, and to see, in Christ’s sitting at

the right hand, the revelation of these things:—The exalted Man, the resting
Saviour, the interceding Priest, and the ever-active Helper.
I. First, then, in that solemn and wondrous fact of Christ’s sitting at the right
hand of God, we have the exalted Man.
We are taught to believe, according to His own words, that in His ascension
Christ was but returning whence He came, and entering into the ‘glory which
He had with the Fatherbefore the world was.’And that impression of a
return to His native and proper abode is strongly conveyedto us by the
narrative of His ascension. Contrastit, for instance, with the narrative of
Elijah’s rapture, or with the brief reference to Enoch’s translation. The one
was takenby God up into a regionand a state which he had not formerly
traversed; the other was borne by a fiery chariot to the heavens; but Christ
slowlysailed upwards, as it were, by His own inherent power, returning to His
abode, and ascending up where He was before.
But whilst this is one side of the profound fact, there is another side. What was
new in Christ’s return to His Father’s bosom? This, that He took His
Manhoodwith Him. It was ‘the Everlasting Sonof the Father,’ the Eternal
Word, which from the beginning ‘was with Godand was God,’ that came
down from heaven to earth, to declare the Father;but it was the Incarnate
Word, the Man Christ Jesus, that went back again. This most blessedand
wonderful truth is taught with emphasis in His own words before the Council,
‘Ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power.’Christ, then,
to-day, bears a human body, not, indeed, the ‘body of His humiliation,’ but
the body of His glory, which is none the less a true corporealframe, and
necessarilyrequires a locality. His ascension, whithersoeverHe may have
gone, was the true carrying of a real humanity, complete in all its parts, Body,
Soul, and Spirit, up to the very throne of God.
Where that locality is it is bootless to speculate. Scripture says that He
ascendedup ‘far above all heavens’; or, as the Epistle to the Hebrews has it, in
the proper translation, the High Priest ‘is passedthrough the heavens,’as if
all this visible material creationwas rent asunder in order that He might soar
yet higher beyond its limits wherein reign mutation and decay. But

wheresoeverthat place may be, there is a place in which now, with a human
body as well as a human spirit, Jesus is sitting ‘at the right hand of God.’
Let us thankfully think how, in the profound language ofScripture, ‘the
Forerunner is for us entered’; how, in some mysterious manner, of which we
can but dimly conceive, thatentrance of Jesus in His complete humanity into
the highestheavens is the preparation of a place for us. It seems as if, without
His presence there, there were no entrance for human nature within that
state, and no powerin a human foot to tread upon the crystal pavements of
the celestialCity, but where He is, there the path is permeable, and the place
native, to all who love and trust Him.
We may stand, therefore, with these disciples, and looking upwards as the
cloud receives Him out of our sight, our faith follows Him, still our Brother,
still clothedwith humanity, still wearing a bodily frame; and we say, as we
lose Him from our vision, ‘What is man’? Capable of being lifted to the most
intimate participation in the glories of divinity, and though he be poor and
weak and sinful here, yet capable of union and assimilationwith the Majesty
that is on high. For what Christ’s Body is, the bodies of them that love and
serve Him shall surely be, and He, the Forerunner, is entered there for us;
that we too, in our turn, may pass into the light, and walk in the full blaze of
the divine glory; as of old the children in the furnace were, unconsumed,
because companionedby ‘One like unto the Son of Man.’
The exalted Christ, sitting at the right hand of God, is the Pattern of what is
possible for humanity, and the prophecy and pledge of what will be actual for
all that love Him and bear the image of Him upon earth, that they may be
conformed to the image of His glory, and be with Him where He is. What
firmness, what reality, what solidity this thought of the exalted bodily Christ
gives to the else dim and vague conceptions ofa Heaven beyond the stars and
beyond our present experience!I believe that no doctrine of a future life has
strength and substance enoughto survive the agonies ofour hearts when we
part from our dear ones, the fears of our spirits when we look into the
unknown, inane future for ourselves;exceptonly this which says Heaven is
Christ and Christ is Heaven, and points to Him and says, ‘Where He is, there
and that also shallHis servants be.’

II. Now, secondly, look atChrist’s sitting at the right hand of God as
presenting to our view the Resting Saviour.
That sessionexpressesthe idea of absolute repose aftersore conflict. It is the
same thought which is expressedin those solemn Egyptian colossalstatuesof
deified conquerors, elevatedto mysterious union with their gods, and yet men
still, sitting before their temples in perfect stillness, with their mighty hands
lying quiet on their restful limbs; with calm faces outof which toil and passion
and change seemto have melted, gazing out with open eyes as over a silent,
prostrate world. So, with the Cross behind, with all the agony and weariness
of the arena, the dust and the blood of the struggle, left beneath, He ‘sitteth at
the right hand of God the FatherAlmighty.’
The rest of the Christ after His Cross is parallel with and carries the same
meaning as the rest of God after the Creation. Why do we read ‘He restedon
the seventhday from all His works’? Did the Creative Arm grow weary? Was
there toil for the divine nature in the making of a universe? Doth He not speak
and it is done? Is not the calm, effortless forth-putting of His will the cause
and the means of Creation? Does anyshadow of wearinessstealoverthat life
which lives and is not exhausted? Does the bush consume in burning? Surely
not. He restedfrom His works, not because He needed to recuperate strength
after actionby repose, but because the works were perfect, and in sign and
tokenthat His ideal was accomplished, and that no more was neededto be
done.
And, in like manner, the Christ rests after His Cross, notbecause He needed
repose even after that terrible effort, or was panting after His race, and so had
to sit there to recover, but in token that His work was finished and perfected,
that all which He had come to do was done; and in token, likewise, thatthe
Father, too, beheld and acceptedthe finished work. Therefore, the sessionof
Christ at the right hand of God is the proclamation from Heaven of what He
cried with His lastdying breath upon the Cross:‘It is finished!’ It is the
declarationthat the world has had all done for it that Heaven can do for it. It
is the declarationthat all which is needed for the regenerationof humanity
has been lodgedin the very heart of the race, and that henceforwardall that is
required is the evolving and the development of the consequencesofthat

perfect work which Christ offeredupon the Cross. So the writer of the Epistle
to the Hebrews contrasts the priests who stood ‘daily ministering and offering
oftentimes the same sacrifices’which‘can never take awaysin,’ with ‘this
Man who, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, satdown at the
right hand of God’; testifying thereby that His Cross is the complete,
sufficient, perpetual atonement and satisfactionforthe sins of the whole
world. So we have to look back to that past as interpreted by this present, to
that Cross as commentedupon by this Throne, and to see in it the perfect
work which any human soul may grasp, and which all human souls need, for
their acceptanceand forgiveness.The Son of Man setat the right hand of God
is Christ’s declaration, ‘I have finished the work which Thou gavestMe to
do,’ and is also God’s declaration, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.’
III. Once more, we see here, in this greatfact of Christ sitting at the right
hand of God, the interceding Priest.
So the Scripture declares. The Epistle to the Hebrews over and over again
reiterates that thought that we have a Priest who has ‘passedinto the
heavens,’there to ‘appear in the presence ofGod for us.’ And the Apostle
Paul, in that greatlinked climax in the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the
Romans, has it, ‘Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at
the right hand of God, who also makethintercessionfor us.’ There are deep
mysteries connectedwith that thought of the intercessionof Christ. It does not
mean that the divine heart needs to be won to love and pity. It does not mean
that in any mere outward and formal fashion Christ pleads with God, and
softens and placates the Infinite and Eternallove of the Father in the heavens.
It, at least, plainly means this, that He, our Saviour and Sacrifice, is for ever
in the presence ofGod; presenting His own blood as an elementin the divine
dealing with us, modifying the incidence of the divine law, and securing
through His own merits and intercessionthe outflow of blessings upon our
heads and hearts. It is not a complete statement of Christ’s work for us that
He died for us. He died that He might have somewhatto offer. He lives that
He may be our Advocate as well as our propitiation with the Father. And just
as the High Priestonce a year passedwithin the curtain, and there in the
solemn silence and solitude of the holy place sprinkled the blood that he bore

thither, not without trembling, and but for a moment permitted to stay in the
awful Presence,thus, but in reality and for ever, with the joyful gladness ofa
Son in His ‘own calm home, His habitation from eternity,’ Christ abides in the
Holy Place;and, at the right hand of the Majestyof the Heavens, lifts up that
prayer, so strangelycompactof authority and submission; ‘Father, I will that
these whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am.’ The Son of Man at
the right hand of God is our Intercessorwith the Father. ‘Seeing, then, that
we have a great High Priestthat is passed through the heavens, let us come
boldly to the Throne of Grace.’
IV. Lastly, this greatfact sets before us the ever-active Helper.
The ‘right hand of God’ is the Omnipotent energy of God, and howsoever
certainly the language ofScripture requires for its full interpretation that we
should firmly hold that Christ’s glorified body dwells in a place, we are not to
omit the other thought that to sit at the right hand also means to wield the
immortal energy of that divine nature, over all the field of the Creation, and
in every province of His dominion. So that the ascendedChrist is the
ubiquitous Christ; and He who is ‘at the right hand of God’ is whereverthe
powerof God reaches throughoutHis whole Universe.
Remember, too, that it was once given to a man to look through the opened
heavens (through which Christ had ‘passed’)and to ‘see the Son of Man
standing’—not sitting—‘at the right hand of God.’ Why to the dying
protomartyr was there granted that vision thus varied? Wherefore was the
attitude changedbut to express the swiftness, the certainty of His help, and
the eagerreadinessofthe Lord, who starts to His feet, as it were, to succour
and to sustain His dying servant? And so, dear friends, we may take that great
joyful truth that both as receiving ‘gifts for men’ and bestowing gifts upon
them, and as working by His providence in the world, and on the wider scale
for the well-being of His children and of the Church, the Christ who sits at the
right hand of God wields, everwith eagercheerfulness, allthe powers of
omnipotence for our well-being, if we love and trust Him. We may look
quietly upon all perplexities and complications, because the hands that were
pierced for us hold the helm and the reins, because the Christ who is our
Brother is the King, and sits supreme at the centre of the Universe. Joseph’s

brethren, that came up in their hunger and their rags to Egypt, and found
their brother next the throne, were startled with a great joy of surprise, and
fears were calmed, and confidence sprang in their hearts. Shall not we be
restful and confident when our Brother, the Son of Man, sits ruling all things?
‘We see not yet all things put under’ us, ‘but we see Jesus,’andthat is enough.
So the ascendedMan, the resting Saviour and His completedwork, the
interceding Priest, and the ever-active Helper, are all brought before us in this
greatand blessedthought, ‘Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.’ Therefore,
dear friends, set your affectionon things above. Our hearts travel where our
dear ones are. Oh how strange and sad it is that professing Christians whose
lives, if they are Christians at all, have their roots and are hid with Christ in
God, should turn so few, so cold thoughts and loves thither! Surely ‘where
your treasure is there will your heart be also.’Surely if Christ is your
Treasure you will feelthat with Him is home, and that this is a foreignland.
‘Set your affection,’then, ‘on things above,’while life lasts, and when it is
ebbing away, perhaps to our eyes too Heaven may be opened, and the vision of
the Sonof Man standing to receive and to welcome us may be granted. And
when it has ebbed away, His will be the first voice to welcome us, and He will
lift us to share in His glorious rest, according to His own wondrous promise,
‘To him that overcomethwill I grant to sit with Me in My Throne, even as I
also overcame, and am set down with My Fatherin His Throne.’
The Biblical Illustrator

Mark 16:19
He was receivedup into heaven.
The Ascensionand its effects
The hidden source of the Christian’s spiritual life is with Christ in God. To
Him he looks as his treasure-his treasure in heaven; thither does he endeavour
in heart and mind to ascend;he sets his affections on things above; he seeks
those things which are at the right hand of God, with Christ, to be dispensed
by Him, according to His promise. The ascensionwas the greatconsummation
of Christ’s work. Observe in this connection-
I. The period at which He ascended:after He has spokento the apostles. He
did not leave them until His prophetical work on earth was done, and He had
provided for the continued application of the benefits He had securedfor
mankind.
II. Whence He was received:from the Mount of Olives. A favourite spot, and
one hallowedby frequent communion with His Father, and close to the garden
where He rendered His will to God. The valley of humiliation was changed
into the mount of triumph.
III. By whom He was received:by the holy angels. What joy for them! They
ushered Him into the Presence chamberof Jehovah, and there He sat down at
the right hand of the Majestyon High.
IV. The purpose for which He ascended.
2. To rule and order all things for the glory of God.

3. To intercede for all who come to God by Him.
4. To send the Holy Spirit to dwell with His people and guide them into all the
truth.
That BlessedSpirit is the true remedy for all the wants we feel, for the
coldness ofour hearts towards Him, for our many departures from His will,
our many shortcomings and turnings aside from Him. (Bp. F. Barker, D. D.)
Christ’s Ascension
O happy parting, fit for the Saviourof mankind. O blessedJesu, let me so far
imitate Thee, as to depart hence with a blessing in my mouth; let my soul,
when it is stepping overthe threshold of heaven, leave behind it a legacyof
peace and happiness.
I. From whence did He ascend? Fromthe Mount of Olives. He might have
ascendedfrom the valley; all the globe of earth was alike to Him; but since He
was to mount upward, He would take so much advantage as that stair of
ground would afford Him. Since he had made hills so much nearer to heaven,
He would not neglectthe benefit of His Own creation. Where we have
common helps, we may not depend upon supernatural provisions, we may not
strain the Divine Providence to the supply of our negligence,orthe
humouring of our presumption. O God, teachme to bless Thee for means,
when I have them; and to trust Thee for means, when I have them not; yea, to
trust Thee without means, when I have no hope of them.
II. Whither did He ascend? Whither, but home into His heaven? From the
mountain was He takenup; and what but heaven is above the hills? Already
had He approved Himself the Lord and Commander of earth, of sea, ofhell. It
only remained that, as Lord of the air, He should pass through all the regions
of that yielding element; and, as Lord of heaven, through all the glorious
contiguations thereof. He had an everlasting right to that heaven;an
undoubted possessionof it ever since it was;but His human nature took not

possessionofit until now. O Jesu, raise Thou up my heart thither to Thee;
place my affections upon Thee above, and teachme to love heaven, because
Thou art there.
III. How did He ascend? As in His crucifixion and resurrection, so also in His
ascension, the actwas His Own, the powerof it none but His. The angels did
attend Thee, they did not aid Thee:whence had they their strength, but from
Thee? Unlike Elias, Thou needestno chariot, no carriage ofangels;Thou art
the Author of life and motion; they move in and from Thee. As Thou,
therefore, didst move Thyself upward, so, by the same Divine power, Thou
will raise us up to the participation of Thy glory. (Bp. JosephHall.)
Comfort from Christ’s Ascension
O my soul, be Thou now, if ever, ravished with the contemplationof this
comfortable and blessedfarewellof thy Saviour. What a sight was this, how
full of joyful assurance, ofspiritual consolation!Methinks I see it still with
their eyes, how Thou, my glorious Saviour, didst leisurely and insensibly rise
up from Thine Olivet, taking leave of Thine acclaiming disciples, now left
below Thee, with gracious eyes, with heavenly benedictions. Methinks I see
how they followedThee with eagerand longing eyes, with arms lifted up, as if
they had wishedthem winged, to bare soaredup after Thee. And if Elijah
gave assurance to his servant Elisha, that, if he should have beheld him in that
rapture, his master’s spirit should be doubled upon him; what an accessionof
the spirit of joy and confidence must needs be to His happy disciples, in seeing
Christ thus gradually rising up to His heaven!O how unwillingly did their
intentive eyes let go so blessedan object! How unwelcome was that cloud that
interposed itself betwixt Him and them, and, closing up itself, left only a
glorious splendour behind it, as the bright track of His ascension!Of old, here
below, the glory of the Lord appearedin the cloud; now, afar off in the sky,
the cloud intercepted this heavenly glory; if distance did not rather do it than
that bright meteor. Their eyes attended Him on His way so far as their beams
would reach; when they could go no further, the cloud receivedHim. Lo, even
yet that very screen, whereby He was takenoff from all earthly view, was no

other than glorious;how much rather do all the beholders fix their sight upon
that cloud, than upon the best piece of the firmament! Never was the sun itself
gazedupon with so much intention. With what long looks, with what
astonishedacclamations, did these transported beholders follow Thee, their
ascending Saviour! As if they would have lookedthrough that cloud, and that
heaven that hid Him from them … Look not after Him, O ye weak disciples,
as so departed that ye shall see Him no more; if He be gone, yet He is not lost;
those heavens that receivedHim shall restore Him; neither canthose blessed
mansions decrease His glory. Ye have seenHim ascendupon the chariotof a
bright cloud; and, in the clouds of heaven, ye shall see Him descend againto
His lastjudgment. He is gone:can it trouble you to know you have an
Advocate in heaven? Strive not now so much to exercise your bodily eyes in
looking after Him, as the eyes of your souls in looking for Him. If it be our
sorrow to part with our Saviour, yet, to part with Him into heaven, it is
comfort and felicity: if His absence couldbe grievous, His return shall be
happy and glorious. Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly: in the meantime it is
not heaventhat can keepThee from me; it is not earth that cankeepme from
Thee:raise Thou up my soulto a life of faith with Thee; let me everenjoy Thy
conversation, whilstI expect Thy return. (Bp. JosephHall.)
The enthroned Christ
How strangelycalm and brief, this recordof so stupendous an event.
Something sublime in the contrastbetweenthe magnificence and almost
inconceivable grandeur of the thing communicated, and the quiet words, so
few, so sober, so wanting in all detail, in which it is told. The stupendous fact
of Christ sitting at the right hand of God is the one that should fill the present
for us all, even as the Cross should fill the past, and the coming for judgment
should fill the future.
I. The exalted man. In His ascensionChrist was but returning to His eternal
Home; but He took with Him-what He had not had before in heaven-His
humanity. It was the Everlasting Sonof the Father, the Eternal Word, which
from the beginning was with God and was God, that came down from heaven

to earth, to declare the Father;but it was the Incarnate Word, the man Christ
Jesus, who went back again. And He went as our Forerunner, to prepare a
place for us, that where He is we also might be.
II. The resting Saviour. Christ rests after His cross, not because He needs
repose, but in tokenthat His work is finished, and that the Father has
acceptedit.
III. The interceding priest. There are deep mysteries connectedwith the
thought of Christ’s intercession. It does not mean that the Divine heart needs
to be wonto love and pity; or that in any merely outward and formal fashion
He pleads with God, and softens and placates the Infinite and Eternal love of
the Fatherin the heavens. But it means that He, our Saviour and Sacrifice, is
forever in the presence ofGod; presenting His Own Blood as an elementin
the Divine dealing with us; and securing, through His ownmerits and
intercession, the outflow of blessings upon our heads and hearts.
IV. The ever-active Helper. The “right hand of God” is the omnipotent energy
of God. The ascendedChristis the ubiquitous Christ. Our Brother, the Son of
Man, sits ruling all things; shall we not, then, be restful and content? (A
Maclaren, D. D.)
Designof Christ’s Ascension
1. To confirm the prophecies.
2. To commence His mediatorial work in heaven.
3. To send the Holy Ghost.
He went up as our Representative, Forerunner, High Priest, and Intercessor,
and as the King of Glory. (G. S. Bowes.)

Manner of Christ’s Ascension
The manner of Christ’s ascensioninto heaven may be said to have been an
instance of Divine simplicity and sublimity combined, which scarcelyhas a
parallel. While in the actof blessing His disciples (St. Luke 24:50-51), He was
parted from them, and was carried up, and disappearedbehind a cloud (Acts
1:9). There was no pomp; nothing could have been more simple. How can the
followers of this Lord and Masterrely on pomp and ceremony to spreadHis
religion, when He, its Founder, gave no countenance to such appeals to the
senses ofmen? Had some goodmen been consultedabout the manner of the
ascension, we canimagine the result. (N. Adams.)
AscensionDay, on earth and in heaven
I. On earth. Think of the marvellous day when the disciples once more
followedthe Lord as far as unto Bethany, now truly on His wayhome. All the
glimpses of the forty days had pressedit upon them that, while truly the same
Jesus, He was yet drawing awayfrom them. Still loving and tender, He is
hedged about with divinity that makes a king. He bends not again to wash
their feet; Mary does not touch Him, John does not lie in His bosom. Nature is
losing its hold on His humanity. Suddenly He comes and goes, scarce
recognizedat first, then quickly hailed with rapturous confidence. They see
Him no longer bearing unweariness, hunger, or the contempt of men. Jew and
Roman are now out of the contest. Satandares no more assaults. He has no
sighs, no tears, no nights of prayer, no agonywith bloody sweat. And now as
they watch, that chiefestforce of matter on which the systems stand, slips
awayfrom the particles of the form He wears, and He ascends in their sight,
out of their sight, until swathedin the splendour of a cloud of glory.
II. In heaven. Dare we imagine the scene?Angels unnumbered, their faces
solemn with a new awe at the greatwork of God; the first woman beholding at
last the Seed;the first man Adam, rejoicing to see his fearful work undone
and the race left free to join itself to a new Head; the patriarchs no longer

pilgrims; priests no longer ministering at temple and altar; prophets finding
prophecy itself looking backwardon fulfilment; the heroes ofthe Church; the
babes of Bethlehemslaughteredabout His cradle-canwe imagine the scene as
He passedthrough the midst of these? Did they gaze on His form, with print
of thorn and nail and spear, which mark Him forever as the Lamb that hath
been slain? Up He passes through the bowed ranks, among saints and elders
and martyrs, the four mystical living ones, beyond the glassysea, amid the
spirit’s sevenburning flames, beneath the emerald glittering bow, to that
glory whose brightness jasper and sardius cannot express, and on this highest
height of the supreme throne of the ineffable God, He takes His Own place.
(C. M. Southgate.)
The tomb and triumph
Whenever you think of our Lord’s resurrectionand ascension, remember
always that the backgroundto His triumph is a tomb. Remember that it is the
triumph over suffering; a triumph of One who still bears the prints of the
nails in His hands and in His feet, and the wound of the spearin His side; like
many a poor soul who has followedHim triumphant at last, and yet scarred
and maimed in the hard battle of life. Remember forever the adorable wounds
of Christ. Remember forever that St. John saw in the midst of the throne of
God the likeness of a Lamb, as it had been slain. Forso alone you will learn
what our Lord’s resurrection and ascensionare to all who have to suffer and
to toil on earth. (C. Kingsley M. A.)
Christ is living now
What goodwould it do to you if you were suffering from some peculiar
accidentto a limb, and someone came and told you of a surgeonwho lived a
hundred years ago, and who had been wonderfully clever in resetting the
same bone after that precise kind of fracture? You might feelthat he would
have been able and willing to relieve you from pain, and to prevent all
subsequent deformity. But if you were told of some living man who had shown
the same skill, and if it were explained how it was that he had acquired his
specialexperience, and how he had succeededin one case afteranother when
every other surgeonwas helpless, you would say, “Now I have heard all this I

will send for him at once, and put myself in his hands.” This is just what men
have to be persuadedto do in relation to Christ … to realize that He is living
still, and that He is not only willing but able to give every man who asks of
Him forgiveness ofall past evil and strength to do better in time to come. (R.
W. Dale D. D.)
Jesus atthe right hand of God
John Bunyan was walking one day in a field, in greattrouble of soul at the
discoveryof his own vileness, and not knowing how to be justified with God,
when he beard, as he imagined, a voice saying to him, “Your righteousness is
in heaven.” He went into his house and took his Bible, thinking to find there
the very words that he thus sounded in his heart. He did not discover the
identical expression, but many a passage ofScripture proclaimed the same
truth, and showedhim that Jesus, atthe right hand of God, is complete
righteousness to everyone that believeth. (Handbook to Scripture Doctrines.)
The ascensionofChrist
We cannotcontemplate the characters ofmen who have benefited the world
by the splendour of their talents or the lustre of their lives, without feeling a
spirit of inquisitive solicitude to know how they finished their course, parted
with their friends, and made their exit. We labour to catchthe last glance of
departing worth.
I. The period when Christ ascended.
1. After upbraiding His disciples with their unbelief and hardness of heart.
2. After assigning to them their work.
3. After comforting them by the promise of a miraculous influence with which
they should be invested.
II. The manner.

1. Christ’s ascensionwas accomplishedby His own eternal power.
2. It was publicly witnessedby His disciples.
3. It was hailed with transport by ministering angels. St. Luke declares that “a
cloud receivedHim;” who cantell what amazing scenes were unfolded beyond
that cloud?
III. His subsequent situation. “He sat on the right hand of God.” This
signifies-
1. The honour and dignity to which our Saviour is exalted.
2. The rule and government with which He is invested (Ephesians 1:20-22;
John 3:35; Matthew 11:27; Romans 8:34).
3. The tranquility and happiness of which He is possessed.
Conclusion:From this subject we learn-
1. Christ finished the work which He came upon earth to accomplish.
2. Christ has highly honoured human nature.
3. Christ is exalted for our sake (Hebrews 9:24).
This should give us confidence in our prayers, excite our emulation, and,
above all, inspire our hopes. (SketchesofFour Hundred Sermons.)
Our Lord’s Ascension
I. The fact of the ascension. Christ was, according to His humanity, translated
by the Divine powerinto heaven. As God, He transferred Himself, as man,
thither: to sit, thenceforward, at the right band of the Majestyon high. This
signifies-
1. Preeminence ofdignity, power, favour, and felicity.

Jesus was received up into heaven

Jesus was received up into heaven

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Jesus was received up into heaven

Similar to Jesus was received up into heaven (20)

More from GLENN PEASE

More from GLENN PEASE (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Jesus was received up into heaven