Christ’s Ascension.
“And it came to pass while he blessed them he was parted from them and carried into heaven.”—Luke 15:51.
The coming of the Lord to the nations of the earth was not that He might advertise Himself as a candidate for some high office among the nations, or in the nation to which he belonged. He came not as the Jews expected Him, for they were looking for some temporal ruler who would re-establish their temporal kingdom on the earth. Their idea was that some man would come and sit on the throne of David. Their dream was that the Hebrew people would be formed into the most powerful nation on the earth, and that in some mysterious, some mystic way, this great feat would be accomplished. God’s own chosen people at that time had practically no spiritual conception of what the Kingdom of God meant. The disciples of Christ most frequently misconstrued His teachings on this subject. The case of Nicodemus is an illustrious example of the spiritual misconception of the Jews.
Christ came on a special mission, the saving of the lost, the saving of man. He is therefore represented as the Lamb that taketh away the sin of the world. When John, the Baptist, saw Him coming towards him, walking on the shore of the river Jordan, he exclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” This spiritual work of Christ is unchanged. He will rule until the kingdoms of this world, become the kingdom of God.
“He came unto His own and His own received him not,” we read, because He did not come doing the temporal work which they expected Him to do, but He came unto His own, and in a grand sense it was through this coming, that the world has received a true conception of this Kingdom, and millions of hearts have experienced this Kingdom set up in these hearts. The Kingdom of God is within you, and as heaven, it will work in and through you, until you are entirely made spiritual. Christ has ever been the Light of the Word. He inspired our Pilgrim Fathers; He was the friend of the poor Samaritans; He sought and saved the needy, poor and sinning of His day. Indeed, the human founders of His Kingdom on the earth were the ignorant fishermen of Galilee. The law came through Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ. His presence, His revelation, His manifestation, His power, His goodness, thrilled the angels when they sang, “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good-will to men.” We are here to laud and to praise Him, and to say as the Scriptures say, “Blessed is the womb that bare thee and the paps that gave thee suck.”
Sir Knights, we congratulate you on this noble spirit of acknowledging the ascension of Jesus Christ. We are here not to talk about the mystic ties which bind you together as a noble band of brothers, but to honor and glorify Him who rose from the dead that our life and immortality might be brought to light. You have come from your asylum to this tabernacle that you may pay tribute to this ascension, the ascension day of the King of Kings. As Christ climbed the rugged hill of Calvary that He might set the captives free so we have climbed, as weary pilgrims, the holy mount of privilege that we might view the landscape o’er of our liberty on this and that side of Jordan. Let us raise our banners and wield our swords for the defense of our country, and our helpless women and children. Let us be valiant soldiers not only of our own teaching as knights, but also of the Cross of Jesus Christ. We can know but one real captain; we can follow but one real leader; we can march in but one army; we can have but one victory; these are all in the Kingdom of God.
When Jesus arose from the dead, He met His disciples and blessed them, and having completed His mission on earth, He went on High, but He has drilled us as He drilled those disciples; He has left us human leaders in His name and with His authority, and to us He said, “If ye would be my disciples, deny yourselves, take up your cross and follow me.” His work on earth is done, excepting through you and me, the human agency which He employs. He is doing His work at the right hand of His Father’s throne that we may be able here, to come off more than conquerors through Him.
He passed through the scenes of Gethsemane, He died on the cross of Calvary; He descended into hell or Hades that He might taste death for every man, and forty days after the resurrection, He ascended on High. He went up on the pinions of the clouds until they received Him out of their sight. Then two men stood by the disciples who were gazing into heaven and said to them, “Why stand ye gazing into heaven, as ye see Him go up ye shall see Him likewise come down again. You have heard of Zerubabel, you have met Darius and Cyrus, the Great, you have seen Jesus Christ ascending; those great men will not return, but Jesus will come again to take you with Him in the next ascension. He will not come again as the victim of pagan hostilities or Jewish persecution, but He is coming without sin unto salvation as the spoiler of the grave, the conqueror of the world, the hero who conquered hell, and will lead us to victory over Satan and his forces.”
The Gospel and the Word are preached to you because you dwell in His secret place; thus you are abiding under the shadow of the Almighty, stay with Him, fight on through the conflict, the battle may be fierce, but you shall win. You see the triumph from afar, your faith is your power. God the All-Glorious One is with you, for remember that when star will shine no more unto star, and planet cease to revolve around planet, when flowers fade to bloom no more, the Word of our God endureth forever. Heaven is His throne and earth His footstool, and we are His children.
I exhort you therefore to take Him more than ever before, as the Man of your counsel, the friend that sticketh closer than a brother.