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I remember, when at Jerusalem, a very pleasant visit we made to this sacred Mount. It was at the close of a Sunday afternoon. The sun went down as we stood there. And there was something very sweet and solemn in the thought that Jesus, our glorious Lord, had once stood on that Mount, near where we then were. It was from there that his disciples saw him go into heaven. And when he comes back from heaven, his feet will stand again upon the Mount of Olives. And so, when we think of our Saviour going back to heaven, we may always remember that some spot on or near the top of the Mount of Olives was the place of the ascension.
The Manner of the Ascension—is the third thing of which to speak.
It was a visible ascension. There are only two other persons spoken of in the Bible as having gone up from earth to heaven in a bodily form. One of them was “Enoch, the seventh from Adam.” His ascension was not visible. No one saw him go. It took place in secret. We are told in one place that “he was not, for God took him.” In another place it is said, “he was translated.” This is all we know about the translation of Enoch.
The other case mentioned in the Bible is that of the prophet Elijah. His ascension was visible, indeed, but it was only seen by one person, and that was the prophet Elisha. But it was different with the ascension of Christ. This did not take place in secret, but in public. It was not only visible, but was witnessed by a crowd of people. All the eleven disciples were there to see it. And there can be no doubt that a great many others, besides the apostles, were there too. And they all saw him, as he rose from the midst of them, and went up to heaven. It was a visible ascension.
It was a calm and tranquil ascension. It was not done in a hurry. Solomon tells us, when speaking of God’s doings, that his “judgments are not executed speedily.” This means they are not done in haste. God never works in a hurry. After he gave to Adam the first promise, of a future deliverer from the effects of sin, he waited more than four thousand years before he sent him into the world. And, after Christ had risen from the dead, he was not in haste to leave the world, and go back to heaven. We might have expected that he would just have shown himself once or twice to his disciples, so as to make them sure of his resurrection, and would have left immediately for heaven. But it was not so. Instead of this he remained here for forty days. He did not spend all this time in the company of his disciples. He only showed himself to them from time to time, and talked with them “of things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” And when at last these days were over, and the time came for him to go, still there was no haste about it. He did not go up with a rush, as a rocket goes up. That would not have been like him. But, as he stood on the Mount of Olives talking to his disciples, who were standing round him, he began to rise slowly and silently towards heaven. And as he began, so he went on. Slowly and silently he continued to rise. Upwards he went, higher—and higher,—till at last a cloud received him out of their sight. That cloud became, as it were, the chariot in which he was carried up in triumph to heaven. It was a calm and tranquil ascension.
It was a blessed ascension. You know how it is at the close of a service in church. The minister lifts up his hands to bless the people, or as we say, to pronounce the benediction. And this was what Jesus was doing at the very moment of his ascension. He knew that the time had come for him to go. He knew that he was about to be separated from his disciples, and that they would see him no more in this world. So he lifted up his hands to bless them; and, while he was in the act of speaking those words of blessing, the ascension took place. As his hands were stretched out to bless his disciples, he rose calmly in the midst of them and went back to heaven, from whence he came.
It was said of him before he came into our world, that—“men should be blessed in him:” Ps. lxxii: 17. He was the promised seed of Abraham, in whom it was declared that “all the nations of the earth should be blessed.” Gen. xxii: 18. The blessing of the world was wrapped up in Jesus. When he came into the world, he came to bless it. And when he began his public ministry in the Sermon on the Mount, the first thing of which he had to speak was the blessings he came to bring. We read, “And when he was set, his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, &c. Blessed are they that mourn, &c. Blessed are the meek, &c. Blessed are the merciful, &c. Blessed are the pure in heart, &c.” He began his work in blessing; he continued it in blessing; and he ended it in blessing. But the work of blessing in which he had been engaged here did not cease when he ascended into heaven. He has been carrying on the work of blessing men ever since he ascended. He went to heaven to procure for his people the best of all possible blessings. He told his disciples that it was necessary for him to leave them and go to heaven; because if he did not go the Holy Ghost would not come to them; but that when he went to heaven he would send the Spirit to be their helper and comforter. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to understand the Scriptures and who teaches us how to love and serve God. And whatever helps us to do this is the best thing—the greatest blessing for us. And when we know that Jesus went to heaven to obtain for us the help of God’s grace and Spirit, we may well say that the ascension of Christ was a blessed ascension.
The only other thing we have to say about the ascension of Christ is that it was a wonderful ascension. There were two wonderful things connected with it. It was wonderful to think where he went. He did not go simply to join the company of the angels, who have always lived in heaven, and of the good people who went there when they died. No; but he went where no one else had ever gone before, and where no one else could go. When he arrived in heaven, he rose above all the company that was there, and took his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. This was wonderful, indeed. When Jesus was on earth, he was so poor that he “had not where to lay his head.” He was despised and persecuted; “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” He was put to death as a criminal, by being crucified between two thieves. But when he ascended into heaven it was to take his place “far above all principalities and powers.” And so his ascension was wonderful when we think—where he went.
And it was wonderful, too, when we think how he went there. If he had left his human body behind him, and had ascended to heaven simply in his divine nature, as God, it would not have been so wonderful. But he did not do this. He took his human body with him. The body that was nailed to the cross and laid in the grave, he took with him to heaven. He ascended, indeed, as the Son of God. But that was not all. No, for he ascended as the Son of man, too. It was Jesus Christ who ascended into heaven. But it was our human nature, as well as the divine nature which helped to make up the person of Jesus Christ. And so when he ascended into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, he took our human nature with him. He took a body like yours and mine, up to that high and glorious place. And he is sitting there now, on the throne of God, as our brother. This is the most surprising thing connected with the great event we are now considering. This shows us how wonderful the ascension of Christ was.