0740. The Resurrection and Ascension
The Resurrection and Ascension
"That ye may know * * the exceeding greatness of His power * * when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand" (Eph_1:18-20).
1. The Resurrection a Proof of Christ’s Victory over Satan. When the Lord was dead and buried, then the high priest and elders remembered how He said that He would rise again. The tomb was surely sealed and watched by a heavy guard. Three days passed by, and then the Lord came forth. See Act_2:27.
"Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes.
He arose a Victor o’er the dark domain,
And He lives forever with His saints to reign,
He arose, He arose, Hallelujah Christ arose."
None can fathom the feelings of the prince of the power of the air when Christ came from the tomb. There He was, the Seed, the Son, alive from the dead. He came with "the keys of death and of hades" in His hand, and was alive forevermore. Round Him gathered many of the saints who slept. Satan saw the risen Lord, saw Him passing through the air, as, now and again He appeared to His disciples. What was the meaning of this wondrous thing? The Seed, the Son, was risen indeed! To what extent would it all grow?
2. The Ascension the Climax of Christ’s Overwhelming Victory. Great artists have sought to put on canvas their conceptions of the ascending Christ. How sadly they have failed. Think you that He Who ascended up on High, far above all principalities and powers and every name that is named; think you that He Who sits with all of these beneath His feet, ascended up unchallenged, through the air?
We know nothing of the conflict that met our Lord as He went up. We do know that when He comes again a battle royal will take place as Michael and his angels fight the devil and his angels, and cast them to the earth.
Whatever may have happened in that hour, the Lord ascended up on High, ascended up a Victor, too.
Come, see Him enter in! What hallelujahs rend the air! All Heaven reverberates with praise. We, here on earth, may not have thought of Christ in His ascension, as passing through the heavens, a Victor; but they who are accustomed to move about in space, the angels–who know more than we of satan and his hosts–sang forth His praises. They saw the Lord coming up through the Heaven’s blue, they saw Him pressing on past myriads of stars, and then they gave acclaim:
"Lift up your heads, O ye gates;
And be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors;
And the King of Glory shall come in.
Who is this King of Glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
The Lord mighty in battle" (Psa_24:7-8).
And then across the vast expanse the echo answered back, as other myriad angels said:
"Lift up your heads, O ye gates;
Even lift them up, ye everlasting doors;
And the King of Glory shall come in.
Who is this King of Glory?
The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory" (Psa_24:9-10).
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR