The Ascension of the Risen Saviour

Rev. J. den Hoed, Franklin Lakes, NJ

When we meditate upon the ascension of the Lord Jesus into heaven, then we can read of that great event in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. There we read how Christ showed Himself in a living state after His passion by many infallible proofs. For forty days His way was one of coming and going. In the days following His resurrection, the coming was always from one side, the side of Jesus.

What a blessed truth that is in the lives of God’s dear people. His coming is always to a waiting people who have learned that from their side all is ruined and that from their side there can never be any expectation. When He comes, He reveals Himself as that faithful covenant-keeping Jehovah who will never leave or forsake them. He then whispers, “Am I not the same yesterday, today, and forever?”

For His disciples, His coming was always a time of joy and gladness. Then they would say, “It is the Lord.” What a privilege it is when His people, with an eye of faith, may look upon Him and say, “It is the Lord.” What a privilege when He comes and lifts them up out of the dust and when He comes and sheds light upon what is dark. What a privilege when in this life they may become more and more dependent, learning what that is: saved by grace. At such times that wonderful Saviour receives all the honor, and His Church may bow deeper and deeper.

Luke says, “And when He had spoken these things.” They had heard His words, how ever deeper and deeper He explained: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Now, standing on the top of Mount Olivet, Christ for the last time is bodily in their midst. Oh, how deeply they may feel the reverence of this hour. Were the thoughts pertaining to an earthly kingdom now removed from their thinking? No, because standing in the presence of the Mediator between God and His people, the One who carries the print of the nails in His hands, they say, “Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”

Oh, what a wonder that He is a faithful, all-knowing Shepherd who understands them in all their weaknesses and earthly-mindedness. For the last time He speaks to them pertaining to the future. “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you....” And beginning at Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the ends of the earth, you will bring the message of Christ and Him crucified. You may proclaim how the Father was moved within Himself, how from eternity He has loved and chosen a people to be His people. You may speak of how the Son of God descended, suffered, died, and rose again. All this was done so that the jewels belonging to His Father might be gathered.

Then once again, from the place where He is standing, He sees the entire land. There lies Jerusalem, the city of blood. “Oh Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thee as a hen gathereth her chicks, but ye would not.” A little to the north lies Gethsemane. There He cried, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful.” The holy justice of God bore down upon Him; His sweat became as great drops of blood. As he lifts up His eyes, He sees the hill Golgotha. That is now all behind Him; it will never come back again. With one offering He has opened heaven for a hell-worthy people. Now all the chosen of God are set free. It is true that here below they are mostly a missing people. Their doubts and fears are many, but when the Spirit shines within they long to come to the hem of His mediatorial garment and cry out, “Spread Thy skirt over me.” He then spreads forth His hands, blessing them.

In many ways it is dark in the church. In many ways it is also dark in the lives of God’s dear children, but those hands are still over them. When the eye of faith may look at those hands, then they may comprehend that the future is secure. Those hands testify that the price has been paid. The print of the nails says unto them that the blood of cleansing has flowed, that God is satisfied. They may hear, “I have graven thee in the palms of My hands.” Under those hands both they and the entire Church of God are safe, and the gates of hell will never prevail against them.

Oh, what a wonder it is when the church, while passing through this wilderness here below, may look up and see that God is ever faithful and will never forsake the works of His own hands. While the disciples beheld Christ, He was taken up. He is going to the Father’s house, the place of many mansions. They have His promise that He will come again and gather them unto Himself so that they may be where He is.

Luke says, “He was taken up.” This is a sure testimony that the Father is satisfied, a sure testimony that there is a homecoming for His people. Gazing after Him with eyes full of love and holy astonishment, they see that heaven puts a cloud between Him and His Church here below, but from above this cloud His eyes are ever upon His people. From there He beholds their tears and their sighing. From there He says that He will never leave them not forsake them. While they beheld, He was taken up. Visibly, actually, and locally they have seen the ascension of the Mediator. They looked steadfastly, for the bond which had been laid from heaven caused their continued looking upwards.

No, they were not all the same. They had different characters, but they all knew of a spiritual beginning in their lives. That is when He looked upon them; that was a beginning made from heaven. Their life gave a testimony of what Jesus Christ meant for them. Now He has gone away from them. Because of the place to which He has gone, all their expectations are now from heaven. The world and all that belongs to it mean nothing to them anymore.

My reader, on what do you focus your eyes? By nature, we always look toward the world. All our expectations are from that which is here below. May I tell you what a disappointment that will be in the day when you will have to let go of the world? Are you satisfied with an outward religious form and practice? However commendable that may be, it will be too short for eternity. Jesus says, “Ye must be born again!” The fruit of that wonder of the new birth is that we come to experience what we miss.

A missing heart begins to sorrow after God. It cries out, “O Lord, be merciful unto me.” There we learn to know how deeply we have fallen. How deep the Son of God has descended to gather the jewels that by a sovereign election belong to His Father. Freely he gave His life and His blood to thereby call and wash those polluted sinners. There at Mount Olivet the Church stands looking toward heaven. All which is life to the Church has gone to heaven. All that can now ever benefit our souls must come from heaven. While they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, holy amazement is to be seen in the eyes of the disciples for the departing Jesus. Holy longing fills their hearts.

There at Mount Olivet the Church stands looking toward heaven. All which is life to the Church has gone to heaven. All that can now ever benefit our souls must come from heaven. While they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, holy amazement is to be seen in the eyes of the disciples for the departing Jesus. Holy longing fills their hearts.

Oh, when God’s people may have a moment in which they look upwards, holy amazement may be seen in their eyes. What an eternal wonder from heaven that a way has been opened to save a wretch like me. A holy longing may be felt in their heart. Those are moments when there is nothing that binds them to the earth. How sad, however, that so soon those eyes are again turned to the world, but a faithful Shepherd watches over His Church.

While the disciples continue still gazing upwards, then already the Lord from heaven sends two messengers. They are clothed in a special garment. Luke says they stood by them in white apparel. White is the symbol of purity, the emblem of victory, and the color of peace. The glow from heaven is still upon them. Without saying a word, they convey Christ’s message. No disciples, you must not mourn, you must not despair. Let us tell you how it was in the Father’s house. Upon His homecoming, the Father gave Him a place of honor. He sits there at the right hand of God. Those heavenly messengers address them, “Ye men of Galilee.” This address takes the disciples back to their origin. Galilee is the place where they heard His voice for the first time. That is the place where the Lord called them. That address conveys to them that they are known in heaven.

Oh, what a wonder it is when the Lord takes His people back to the beginning and when they may then hear that their beginning is known in heaven. So many times that is a point which they long to know. “Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?” These messengers do not ask this in an admonishing way but in a way of instruction. This same Jesus is the one who was given from heaven to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life for people who have learned from heaven that they do not have a way. They are people who may learn from heaven that there is a truth which speaks of a life after death. This same Jesus shall so come again in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.

It is remarkable that they do not say, “Soon you may follow Him, soon you may also go home.” These wonderful messengers direct their eyes toward the time when all will be fulfilled, when the last one will be gathered in, when all God’s elect will have been gathered from the ends of the earth to be one flock. There they will know one Shepherd. This Shepherd will take them into His arms and lay them in His Father’s bosom. He will say, “Here are all the children loved by My Father.” Their sin can no longer come between the Father and His people. There we cannot ruin it all again and again. Everlasting joy will then fill their hearts.

Dear reader, this is the future of the Church. The question now is not how many, not who, but will you and I be among them? If that may be so, it will be because of God’s free and sovereign grace. They are people who here below know of a beginning and, by God’s grace, a continuance in that new spiritual life. They experience that they become less and less, yea, even nothing in themselves. That is the way in which heaven makes room in their hearts for the ascended Saviour. The poorer, the more wretched, they become in themselves, the deeper and the further they may look upon the way which their King has gone. That King has promised that when God’s counsel has been fulfilled, they may come home to be with Him.

Dear reader, we are living in days when there is much division. The one says this is truth, and the other says that is the way. With all this there is only one question which requires an answer. It is, “Where will I spend eternity?”

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