The place which it holds in the Acts of the Apostles explains the
point of view from which it is to be regarded. It is the foundation
of everything that the writer has afterwards to say. It is the basis
of the Church. It is the ground of all the activity which Christ's
servants put forth. Not only its place explains this aspect of it,
but the very first words of the book itself do the same. 'The former
treatise have I made ... of all that Jesus began both to do and
teach'--and now I am to tell you of an Ascension, and of all that
Jesus continued to do and teach. So that the book is the history of
the work of the Lord, who was able to do that work, just because He
had ascended up on high. The same impression is produced if we
ponder the conversation which precedes the account of the Ascension
in the book of Acts, which, though it touches the same topics as are
touched by the words that precede the account in the Gospel, yet
presents them in a different aspect, and suggests the endowments
with which the Christian community is to be invested, and the work
which therefore it is to do, in consequence of the Ascension of
Jesus Christ. The Apostle Peter had caught that thought when, on the
day of Pentecost, he said, 'He, being exalted to the right hand of
the Father, hath shed forth this which ye see and hear,' and
throughout the whole book the same point of view is kept up. 'The
work that is done upon earth He doeth it all Himself.'
So there is in _this_ narrative nothing about parting, there is
nothing about blessing. There is simply the ascending up and the
significant addition of the reception into the cloud, which, whilst
He was yet plainly visible, and not dwindled by distance into a
speck, received Him out of their sight. The cloud was the symbol of
the Divine Presence, which had hung over the Tabernacle, which had
sat between the cherubim, which had wrapped the shepherds and the
angels on the hillside, which had come down in its brightness on the
Mount of Transfiguration, and which now, as the symbol of the Divine
Presence, received the ascending Lord, in token to the men that
stood gazing up into heaven, that He had passed to the right hand of
the Majesty on high.
Thus we have to think of that Ascension as being the groundwork and
foundation of all the world-wide and age-long energy which the
living Christ is exercising to-day. As one of the other Evangelists,
or at least, the appendix to his gospel, puts it, He ascended up on
high, and 'they went everywhere preaching the word, the Lord also
working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.' It
is the ascended Christ who sends the Spirit upon men; it is the
ascended Christ who opens men's hearts to hear; it is the ascended
Christ who sends forth His messengers to the Gentiles; it is the
ascended Christ who, to-day, is the energy of all the Church's
powers, the whiteness of all the Church's purity, the vitality of
all the Church's life. He lives, and therefore, there is a Christian
community on the face of the earth. He lives, and therefore it will
never die.
So we, too, have to look to that risen Lord as being the power by
which alone any of us can do either great or small work in His
Church. That Ascension is symbolically put as being to 'the right
hand of God.' What is the right hand of God? The divine omnipotence.
Where is it? Everywhere. What does sitting at the right hand of God
mean? Wielding the powers of omnipotence. And so He says, 'All power
is given unto Me'; and He is working a work to-day, wider in its
aspects than, though it be the application and consequence of, the
work upon the Cross. He cried there, 'It is finished!' but 'the work
of the ascended Jesus' will never be finished until 'the kingdoms
of this world are become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ.'
There are other aspects of His work in heaven which space will not
allow me to dwell upon, though I cannot but mention them. By the
Ascension Christ begins to prepare a place for us. How could any of
us stand in the presence of that eternal Light if He were not there?
We should be like some savage or rustic swept up suddenly and put
down in the middle of the glittering ring of courtiers round a
throne, unless we could lift our eyes and recognise a known and
loving face there. Where Christ is, I can be. He has taken one human
nature up into the Glory, and other human natures will therefore
find in it a home.
The ascended Christ, to use the symbolism which one of the New
Testament writers employs for illustration of a thought far greater
than the symbol--has like a High Priest passed within the veil,
'there to appear in the presence of God for us.' And the
intercession which is far more than petition, and is the whole
action of that dear Lord who identifies as with Himself, and whose
mighty work is ever present before the divine mind as an element in
His dealings, that intercession is being carried on for ever for us
all. So, 'set your affection on things above, where Christ is,
sitting at the right hand of God.' So, expect His help in your work,
and do the work which He has left you to carry on here. So, face
death and the dim kingdoms beyond, without quiver and without doubt,
assured that where the treasure is, there the heart will be also;
and that where the Master is, there the servants who follow in His
steps will be also at last.