01.10. X. Christ’s Resurrection And Ascension
X.
CHRIST’S RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION “He is risen, as he said.”—Matthew 28:6.
“While they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.”—Acts 1:9. THE question proposed for this discussion involves the very citadel of Christianity. The apostle Paul reasons, with a logic that cannot be gainsaid, that “if Christ be not risen from the dead our faith is vain.” The dead have perished and the living are without hope. But the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is in itself not sufficient. The ascension is absolutely necessary to the completion of His claims, and the exercise of His powers. Our question, then, couples two words which are complementary. The resurrection without the ascension would prove nothing more than a reanimation; a Lazarus and not a Lord. An ascension without a resurrection would demonstrate nothing better than translation—a prophet Elijah perhaps; but not the Son of God with whom is all power.
It was a marvelous thing that Jesus was begotten by the Holy Ghost. But even that would not demonstrate, above discussion, His essential deity. Adam was the generation of the Spirit and not that of a human father. The working of miracles on the part of Jesus is not a sufficient evidence of His claim. Miracles occurred under the hands of Moses, and Elijah, and others, who were nothing more than men of marked faith in the Almighty. The one who sets up a claim as the very Christ of God must not only bring us certain evidence of Divine appointment, such as mortal men have enjoyed, but a chain of evidences stretching from His first appearance in the world clear on to His second coming, and every link thereof must bear the imprint of the superhuman.
It will be conceded, I think, that the central argument, of all the arguments presented in the name of Christ, rests with this question, Did He rise from the dead and ascend into heaven? In answer to that I bring you first of all these texts from the Scripture, and in elaboration of these suggest some thoughts for solemn reflection.
I. ARGUMENT FOR THE RESURRECTION.
It is not begging the question to appeal to the Bible for arguments of the resurrection. Even infidels concede that the Old Testament Scriptures were in the hands of men when Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth; and very few intellectually honest men question that the New Testament was born within a century after His reputed ascension. If, therefore, they are not trustworthy, scepticism has already enjoyed two thousand years of opportunity to disprove their statements. If, at the end of this time, the statements stand and gather to themselves an ever-increasing company who consent that they have made good their right to a place in the catalog of historical facts, why should we not appeal to them in discussing the very subject that gave them their existence?
According to the Scriptures there are many lines of argument for the resurrection. Let me make mention of four. The argument of the Empty Tomb. “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow; and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay” (Matthew 28:1-6). That statement is either true or false. If false, why did not the enemies of Christ expose the deception? That He had enemies not even infidels question. That He was hunted to the cross, no one now disputes. That He was buried is as certain as the execution of Roman law. What became of the body? This was the very thing His enemies had feared. They had reminded Pilate of His prophecy, “After three days I will rise again,” and had asked that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day. And Pilate had said unto them, “Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.” “So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.” But when the resurrection was accomplished “some of the watch came unto the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, “Say ye, his disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. So they took the money, and did as they were taught, and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.”
It is a singular thing, yet a certain one, that people can never manufacture a falsehood the various parts of which can hang together. And when they asked the watchers to testify that they had slept on duty until Jesus had been stolen away from His grave, they confessed to a fault, of which Roman watchers dare not be guilty on the very peril of life itself; and yet, from that hour no better explanation of an empty tomb has been furnished the world. Within a century after these reputed events the whole Roman empire was permeated by the doctrines of Christ, and men by the thousands and tens of thousands believed on Him as risen from the dead. The argument that entered into the conviction of the first century was that of the empty tomb.
There is the argument of the word of the angel to the women. When you get together a company of spiritualists, everyone expecting to see a spook, it is fairly easy to fool the crowd. Turn the lights low, secure a ventriloquist, or even a good actor, and your purpose is accomplished. But when the sceptical are present, the performance is commonly balked. They are not looking for spooks and they do not see them. These sceptics are valuable in uncovering fakes and pretenders. But Christ convinced sceptics in every instance. The women who went to His tomb were sceptics. As much as they loved Him they never expected to see Him alive again. They went not for the purpose of anointing a risen Christ; but to embalm a dead One. They would not believe in the resurrection even on the authority of the angels’ testimony; and that, notwithstanding the fact that the two angels were in shining garments and they felt compelled to bow down their faces to the earth in their very presence. They were not even convinced when the angels reminded them of the prophecy, “The Son of man must be delivered unto the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again,” though it is distinctly declared that “they remembered his words.” Not until they had seen Him, not until they had heard His voice, were they convinced. The apostles were sceptics everyone. It is reported that the words of these women “seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.” Peter and John went on a tour of personal investigation; and when they beheld “the linen clothes laid by themselves” they were not convinced, but “departed wondering.” The two on the way to Emmaus were sceptics when Christ fell in with them, for He had to argue with them from the Scriptures that He was to be “condemned to die and be crucified and raised again the third day.”
Thomas would not even take the testimony of his brethren, and insisted that nothing short of his own senses would cause him to believe.
Paul was so unbelieving that he persecuted every man who named the name of Christ. And yet, one after another, they were compelled to capitulate and accept as true what the angels had said to the women, “He is risen.” The word of an angel might, in itself, seem to have some authority, but when that word is attended by such evidences as to convince man after man against his expectation, utterly setting aside his scepticism, who will question its weight?
Again, there is the argument of the sight and statements of sane men. Paul splendidly sums this up in his epistle to the Corinthians. He says, “He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain until this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as one born out of due time” (1 Corinthians 15:5-8). When Mahomet expired it is reported Omar rushed from the tent, sword in hand, and declared that he would hew down any one who should dare to say that the prophet was no more. But the apostles of Jesus Christ behaved quite to the contrary. They consented that their Hero was dead; they mourned Him as gone forever; they could not believe what their ears heard concerning His resurrection, and it required the indisputable evidence of His personal presence to convince them. When five hundred sane men and women stand up to testify to one thing, who would dispute them without the most overwhelming evidence to the contrary; and where is the evidence that opposed their testimony? The speech of Christ Himself also must be considered. Matthew does not finish his report of this evidence until he has recorded the words of Jesus, for the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, unto the place where He had appointed them, and Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” From that time until His ascension, He talked with them again and again. Every touch was a new revelation of Himself. Every word an additional proof. It was the forty days between the resurrection and the ascension that confirmed the faith of His followers, and made them ready to do, to dare, to die!
Dr. Lorimer, in his “Argument for Christianity,” remarks upon a time when, more than a hundred years ago, a little Baptist Association deliberately resolved on “the reduction of heathenism, and determined on sending out an army of occupation. The stupendous audaciousness of the purpose excited the ridicule of not a few worldly-wise individuals, and indeed was without a parallel except in the earliest aggressions of the church. And what rendered the movement more entertaining to the scoffers, and what imparted to it more and more of the spirit of desperate rashness and presumption, was the fact that the enterprise was entrusted to the generalship of a ‘consecrated cobbler’ who himself constituted nearly all that there was of the expedition.” But bold as was that endeavour, and marvelous as was the faith that attended it, bolder still was the faith of those poor, plain fishermen in their march upon the heathenism of the world, and infinitely greater was the confidence which they reposed in the Man of Nazareth! What is the explanation? For forty days, He (who had been crucified before their eyes and buried in the tomb of one who had befriended Him, against which a stone had been sealed, and about which a watch had been set,) walked with them, and inspired them, and finally ascended into the heavens before their very eyes! Aye, that was the foundation of their faith. That is the explanation of their courage. That is the secret of their willingness to be martyrs! That the rationale of the rise of the Church.
II. CERTAINTY OR THE ASCENSION. To this subject of the ascension the Scriptures also speak.
They had prophesied it should come. What is the meaning of the Psalmist’s language, “Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption”? What is the suggestion except that He was to rise from the dead? And what is the suggestion of the same Psalmist, “ Thou hast ascended on high; thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts”? Christ Himself had said to the officials who had been sent to take Him to the chief priests, “Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come” (John 7:22-34). To Mary He replied, also, “I ascend to my Father and to your Father; and to my God and to your God.” And it came to pass even as He had said.
People believe far more easily in the natural than in the supernatural. They accept the scientific with a relish they know not for the spiritual. When I was a student at college the transit of Venus occurred. At Aiken, South Carolina, some German scientists drew their meridian circle on a stone and took their observations from it, and then enjoined upon the people to leave that stone in place so that in the year 2004, when the transit of Venus should again occur, observations might be taken from the same meridian circle. Dr. Pierson, speaking of this, said, “Thrones will have been emptied of occupant after occupant; empires will have been lost; and changes, whose number and gravity are too great now to be conceived, will have taken place. Nay, human history may have come to its great last crisis, and the millennial march may have begun. Yet, punctually to the moment, without delay or failure, these students of nature will expect Venus to make her transit across the sun.” They will hardly be disappointed. God’s order in nature is such that the great grandchildren of those scientists will see their forebears’ predictions fulfilled. But God’s order, in the prophecy, is equally dependable. , He ascended, even as He had said.
What a demonstration this of His deity! John had testified after this manner, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the Word of Life, declare we unto you.” It included not only a risen Saviour, but an ascended One. They had seen Him go! His ascension had been their most conclusive proof of His deity. A mortal man might be resuscitated from what seemed to be death; but when resurrection from the grave and ascension are combined who can stand against the argument for Deity?
Charles Spurgeon says, “Whenever I read modern thoughts—and you cannot read long without coming across them—I am glad to get back to facts. And here are some facts. Jesus Christ did rise from the dead—that is true! He did also ascend into heaven, for His disciples saw Him.” Is not Spurgeon’s faith weir grounded? If the testimony of men can be taken touching anything that ever occurred in this world to what fact can you bring better witnesses; witnesses more surely convinced against their expectation; witnesses more perfectly in accord with what they say; witnesses more ready to seal their testimony with their blood, than were the five hundred who saw Him at once, and who perhaps waited upon one of the hills of Judea and watched until the very moment when the cloud received Him out of their sight? No wonder Charles Wesley wrote:
“Hail the day that sees Him rise, To His throne above the skies;
Christ, the Lamb, for sinners given, Enters now the highest heaven.
There for Him high triumph waits;
Lift your heads, eternal gates!
He hath conquered death and sin, Take the King of Glory in.” In that ascension is the explanation of the Church. This great institution must be accounted for. The early apostles did not hesitate to rest their claims to the conquest of the world on the fact of the ascension. They had their commission from an ascended Lord. Their very gifts were imparted by the same ascended Lord. And, in all their services, they looked to heaven “whence also he Was to come” again. Christians of the present hour, who have never seen Him, yet know He is in the heavens; this with them is a matter of both history and inner consciousness. Someone tells the story of a lad, standing in the street holding tightly to a string which stretched away into the very clouds. A man passing asked him what he was doing. “Flying my kite!” The man, looking into the heavens, said, “How do you know that you have a kite, I see nothing?” “Neither do I,” he replied, “but I can feel it pull.” That is the universal testimony of Christ’s men and women. The great Magnet of our souls is the Son of God. Our drawings heavenward are not natural but supernatural. They are not born of the flesh, but begotten by the Son Himself, who hath ascended on high.
“He is gone! and we remain In this world of sin and pain: In the void which He has left, On this earth of Him bereft, We have still His work to do, We can still His path pursue;
We can follow Him below, And His bright example show.”
III. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BOTH.
What of it if Christ be raised and ascended up on high? “Much every way.”
Prominent among other things let me mention three.
He, then, is in the Priest’s place. When they stoned Stephen unto his death the record says, “He looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” When they banished John to the Isle of Patmos he turned from the barren wastes about him to the bright world beyond, and oh, what a vision was vouchsafed! “In the midst of the seven golden candlesticks was one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.” What is the significance? Priesthood! That is the girdle the great high priest wore. Hence the significance of the apostle’s words, “Seeing, then, that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
He, then, has the power to put away sin. The old priest could do that only by Divine appointment. In fact he did not do it at all, but God did it, sending the message of remission through him. But this ascended One dares to say, “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” On what ground? Because He was the very God! Sins had been committed against Him; He, therefore, could remit them, and He only. David said, “Against thee and thee only have I sinned.” The person who can forgive you is the one against whom you have sinned, and not another. How gracious to know that the One against whom we have heaped our sins is the Son of God who has ascended to the very heavens and with Him is not only the power, but the spirit of forgiveness. Truly, as Maclaren says, “In Christ’s exaltation to the throne a new hope dawns on humanity. . . . This Christ Jesus has tasted death for every man, and so, brethren, sad, and mad, and had as men may be, the Conquering Captive at the right hand of God’s throne is the measure of the pattern of what the worst of us may hope to be.” Why? Because He hath power to put away sin.
Again, if He be the High Priest He proffers a free salvation. What is the message from the right hand of the throne? “I will—Be thou clean.” What is the message? “Thy sins which are many are all forgiven thee.” What is the message? “If ye confess your sins I am faithful and true to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.”
Oh, marvel of marvels, that men should neglect this, and run greedily after lesser good! When, several years ago, Dr. Lorenz came to this country he was brought by a millionaire of Chicago to put into place the dislocated hip of Lolita Armour. The attempt was supposed to be successful. The newspapers made a great ado about the marvelous man and his accomplishments. People went wild; his way was thronged, cripples were carried into the light of his presence, and in a southern city strong policemen wept as they were compelled to say to mothers, bearing their crippled darlings in their arms, “He cannot give you attention,” and so turn them away. Such is the enthusiasm for lesser good.
I grant you it is a great thing to have a whole body. I do not blame those mothers for running after Lorenz, a mortal man of very limited power. No, I do not blame them. But I say that men and women will rise up to blame themselves when they wake at last to discover that they have gone through the world crippled in soul, and treating with indifference the claims of that Christ in whom is “all power in heaven and in earth” and who is as willing and able to make them every one every whit whole. Have you ever looked upon that masterpiece, “Christ—the Consoler,” painted by Friedrich Dietrich? One strange feature about it is that he presents Christ as among the European peasants of the present day, His personality and garb contrasting with their rude figures and homely faces. Before Him are the lame, the halt, the blind, the aged, the wounded soldiers, and the toilers, and as He passes His very presence seems to heal and enhearten, and the text for it is, “The whole multitude sought to touch Him, for there went virtue out of Him and healed them all.”
Oh, will you cry the praises of a Lorenz, who at best could only give one temporal aid and possibly relieve a bodily deformity, and pass with indifference the risen and ascended Christ who, by His word, can put away sin, restore the soul to the image in which it was created, and send it forth in health and happiness for time and eternity?