Acts 1:9-12 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.… So many of the events of our Lord's incarnate ire are connected with Olivet that it might almost be called the mountain of the Lord Jesus. It was His closet, His pulpit, the place of intercourse with His disciples. Bethany at its base was their home. Underneath it was Gethsemane, and there from its crest He rose. Consider — I. SEVERAL ATTENDANT CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE ASCENSION. 1. As to the manner of it, it was visible. These things were not done in a corner. His crucifixion and burial were public. It was requisite that His resurrection should be so. Forty days did He accumulate proofs of it, and then in the broad open day He ascended up on high. 2. The place where it happened is worthy of notice. "He led them out as far as Bethany." There was a peculiar fitness in this selection. Prophecies had fixed the place of His ascension as the Mount of Olives, and Bethany was at its base. We can imagine the feelings of the disciples as they trod the familiar road. It is fitting that the Conqueror should pass by Gethsemane, that He should pass the place where He wept over Jerusalem, and that His triumph should take place in view of the house of sorrow. 3. The act during the performance of which He was lifted up on high. "Blessed them." This was His daily work, for which He became incarnate, and for which He returned to His glory. He blesses now, not from the mountain, but from the throne. II. THE PURPOSES OF THE ASCENSION. 1. The personal results were the publicity of the scene and the triumph of His entrance into His primal glory. It was a witness which all the world could understand that His work on earth was done. It was only the complement of Calvary, the ovation of the triumph actually won on the Cross. Moreover it was a part of the consequences of redemption that the Father should not only sustain the Son in His sufferings, but because of them He should exalt Him to pre-eminence of government and honour. 2. There were representative results. Christ is the federal Head. By His exaltation our own race derives surpassing honour. Humanity is throned in the highest. 3. There were mediatorial results. "He received gifts for man." (W. M. Punshon, LL. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. |
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