SOON AFTER the appearance of Jesus to the seven disciples by the Sea of
Galilee, a great meeting was held of many who believed in Jesus, on the
mountain, in Galilee, where Jesus had told them to come together. It is
said that at this meeting more than five hundred people who were
followers of Jesus gathered in one place. There Jesus showed himself to
the whole company. When they saw him they bowed down to the ground
before him; but even then some of them were in doubt whether they had
really seen the Lord.
At that time Jesus drew near to this company and said to them:
"All power as the Son of God, and the King of God's Kingdom in heaven
and on earth has been given to me by my Father. I command you,
therefore, to go and preach the gospel to all the world, and make
disciples of all nations and in all lands. Those who believe on me,
baptize in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and
teach them to obey all the commands that I have given you. Whoever
believes on me as his Saviour shall be saved from his sins; but whoever
will not believe, shall suffer the guilt of his sins. And these powers
shall be given to those who believe; in my name they shall drive out
evil spirits; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up
poisonous snakes in their hands and shall suffer no harm; if they drink
any poison it shall not hurt them; they will place their hands on sick
people, and they shall become well. And I will be with you all the
time, even to the very end of the world."
After this there was a ninth appearance of Jesus to James; not James the
brother of John, but another James who was the son of Joseph and Mary,
and a younger brother of Jesus. What was said at that appearance has not
been told, but from that time James was one of the foremost followers of
Jesus, and for many years a leader in the church at Jerusalem. Long
after this, James wrote one of the books in the New Testament, the
Epistle of James.
Jesus was seen from time to time during forty days by his disciples and
followers. We know of ten times in all when Jesus appeared; but there
may have been other times of which no mention is made in the gospels or
in the other writings of the New Testament. His tenth appearance, as far
as we know, and his last, may have been at the upper room in Jerusalem,
forty days after he had risen from his tomb. At that time he said:
"When I was with you, I told you this, that everything written of me in
the books of Moses, and the psalms and the prophets must come to pass."
Then he opened their minds to understand what was written in the Old
Testament.
"Thus," he said, "it is written that Christ the King of Israel must
suffer, and die, and rise again the third day, just as has come to pass.
And now you are to go forth and preach that men must everywhere turn
from their sins to God, and be forgiven of their sins through the power
given to me. And you are to begin your preaching here in Jerusalem, the
very place where I have been crucified. I will soon send down on you the
Holy Spirit whom my Father has promised. But wait in this city until the
power comes upon you from on high."
[Illustration: "Where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them."]
Then the risen Christ led them out of the city to the Mount of Olives.
No one except those who believed in him could see him, for he was unseen
to all other people. As he drew near Bethany he lifted up his hands and
blessed his followers. While they were looking at him, and his hands
were held out, he rose into the air, higher and higher, until after a
time a cloud covered him from their sight, and Jesus the Lord of glory
was seen no more.
While they were looking upward, two men dressed in shining white, angels
of God, were seen standing beside them. These angels said to the
followers of Jesus:
"Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking up towards the
heavens? This Jesus, who has been taken from you, will come again to
earth in the very same way that you have seen him go up to heaven."
So Jesus Christ was taken up to heaven, and there sat down on his throne
at the right hand of God. He sits there still, watching over his people
until the day shall come for him to return to earth.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Text uses Caesar in the introduction and Cæsar in the stories. There
were hyphenation differences between the text usage and caption usage.
For example, the text uses no hyphen on "today" while one of the
captions does hyphenate it.
Page 31, "his" changed to "this" (Upon this altar a)
Page 56, "Caesarea" changed to "Cæsarea" (from Shechem or Joppa or
Cæsarea)
Page 228, word "do" removed from text. Original read (do you give them)
Page 353, "Zacc eus" changed to "Zaccheus" (rich man named Zaccheus)
Page 455, "portr t" changed to "portrait" (portrait of Jesus)
Page 472, "is" added to text (this is the place where)