THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST – Charles Spurgeon
The Ascension of Christ
“But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore, He says: ‘When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. (Now this ‘He ascended’—what does it mean, but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.) And He Himself gave some to be Apostles, some Prophets, some Evangelists, and some pastors, and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” Ephesians 4:7-12
Christ’s Triumphant Ascension
Our blessed Lord and Master has gone from us; from the Mount of Olives, the place where in dread conflict His garments were rolled in blood, He has mounted in triumph to His Throne. After having shown Himself for 40 days among His beloved disciples, giving them abundant evidence that He had really risen from the dead, and enriching them by His Divine counsels, He was taken up. Slowly rising before them all, He gave them His blessing as He disappeared. Like good old Jacob, whose departing act was to bestow a benediction on his 12 sons and their descendants, so before the cloud received our Lord out of their sight, He poured a blessing upon the Apostles, who were looking upward, and who were the representatives of His Church.
The Comfort of His Absence
He is gone! His Voice of Wisdom is silent for us, His seat at the table is empty, and the congregation on the mountain hears Him no more. It would be very easy to have found reasons why He should not have gone. Had it been a matter of choice to us, we should have entreated Him to tarry with us till the dispensation closed. Unless, perhaps, Divine grace had enabled us to say: “Not as we will, but as You will,” we would have constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us.” What a comfort to disciples to have their own beloved Teacher visibly with them! What a consolation to a persecuted band to see their Leader at their head; difficulties would disappear, problems would be solved, perplexities removed, trials made easy, temptations averted! Let Jesus Himself, their own dear Shepherd, be near, and the sheep will lie down in security.
Jesus’ Presence and the Power to Conquer
Had He been here we could have gone to Him in every affliction, like those of whom it is said, “they went and told Jesus.” It seemed expedient for Him to stay, to accomplish the conversion of the world; would not His presence have had an influence to win by eloquence of gracious words and argument of loving miracles? If He put forth His power, the battle would soon be over, and His rule over all hearts would be forever established. “Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies, whereby the people fall under You.” Go not from the conflict, mighty Bowman, but still cast Your all-subduing darts abroad. In the days of our Lord’s flesh, before He had risen from the dead, He did but speak, and those who came to take Him fell to the ground! Might we but have Him near us, no persecuting hand could seize us; at His bidding the fiercest enemy would retire. His voice called the dead out of their graves—could we but have Him still in the Church, His voice would awaken the spiritually dead! His presence would be better to us than ten thousand Apostles, at least, so we dream, and we imagine that with Him visibly among us, the progress of the Church would be like the march of a triumphant army!
Christ’s Declaration: “It Is Expedient for You That I Go Away”
Thus might flesh and blood have argued—but all such reasoning is hushed by our Lord’s declaration, “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you.” He might have told us that His majestic presence was expected by the saints in Heaven to complete their happiness; He might have said that for Himself it was fitting that after so long an exile, and the performance of such stupendous labors, He should rise to His reward; He might also have added that it was due to His Father that He should return into the bosom of His love. But, as if He knew that their trembling at His departure was mainly occasioned by fear for their own personal interests, He puts the consoling word into this form—“It is expedient for you that I go away.”
The Necessity of Christ’s Departure
He has gone, then, and whether our weak understandings are able to perceive it or not, it is better for us that Jesus should be at the right hand of God than here corporeally in our assemblies below. Gladly would a hundred Bethanies entertain Him, a thousand synagogues would rejoice to see Him open the Scriptures; there are women among us who would kiss His feet, and men who would glory to unloose the latches of His shoes, but He has gone away to the mountains of myrrh, and the hills of frankincense; He no more sits at our tables, or walks with us on our highways; He is leading another flock to living fountains of waters, and let not His sheep below imagine that He has hurt them by His absence—unerring Wisdom has declared that it is expedient for us that He is gone!
The Assurance of Christ’s Ascension
This morning, instead of standing here gazing up into Heaven like the men of Galilee, deploring that we have lost our Lord, let us sit down in quiet contemplation and see if we cannot gather profit from this great thing which has come to pass. Let our meditations ascend the yet glowing trackway of our Lord’s Ascension—
“Beyond, beyond this lower sky,
Up where eternal ages roll.”
I. The Fact of the Ascension
We shall, by the Holy Spirit’s aid, first consider, with a view to practical good, the fact of His Ascension; secondly, the triumph of that Ascension; thirdly, the gifts of that Ascension; and then we shall conclude by noticing the bearings of that Ascension upon the unconverted.
The Comfort of Christ’s Ascension
It should afford us supreme joy to remember that He who descended into the lower parts of the earth has now, “Ascended up far above all heavens.” The descent was a subject of joy to angels and men, but it involved Him in much humiliation and sorrow, especially when, after having received a body, which, according to the Psalmist, was “curiously worked in the lowest parts of the earth,” He further descended into the heart of the earth, and slept as a prisoner in the tomb. His descent on earth, though to us the source of abounding joy, was full of pain, shame, and humiliation to Him. In proportion, then, ought to be our joy that the shame is swallowed up in Glory—the pain is lost in bliss, the death in immortality! Did shepherds sing at His descent? Let all men sing at His rising! Well deserves the Warrior to receive Glory, for He has dearly won it!
Unity in Christ’s Ascension
Our love of justice and of Him compels us to rejoice in His rejoicing; whatever makes the Lord Jesus glad makes His people glad; our sympathy with Him is most intense; we esteem His reproach above all wealth, and we set equal store by His honor. As we have died with Him and were buried with Him in Baptism, we have also risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God who raised Him from the dead. So also have we been made to sit together in the heavenly places, and have obtained an inheritance; if angels poured forth their sweetest minstrelsy when the Christ of God returned to His royal seat, much more should we!
Rejoicing in Christ’s Victory
Those celestial beings had but slight share in the triumphs of that day compared with us, for it was a Man who led captivity captive; it was One born of woman who returned victoriously from Bozrah! We may well say with the Psalmist, in the 68th Psalm, to which our text refers, “Let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yes, let them exceedingly rejoice. Sing unto God, sing praises to His name: extol Him who rides upon the heavens by His name YAH, and rejoice before Him.”
II. The Triumph of the Ascension
It was none other than Christ, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; it was the Second Adam who mounted to His Glory. Rejoice, O Believers! As those who shout because of victory, divide the spoil with the strong—
“Bruised is the serpent’s head,
Hell is vanquished, death is dead,
And to Christ gone up on high,
Captive is captivity.”
All His work and warfare done,
He into His Heaven is gone,
And beside His Father’s Throne,
Now is pleading for His own—
Sing, O heavens! O Earth, rejoice!
Angel harp and human voice,
Round Him, in His Glory, raise
Your Ascended Savior’s praise.”
III. The Gifts of the Ascension
Reflect yet again that from the hour when our Lord left it, this world has lost all charms to us. If He were in it, there were no spot in the universe which would hold us with stronger ties, but since He has gone up, He draws us upward from it. The flower is gone from the garden, the first ripe fruit is gathered; Earth’s crown has lost its brightest jewel, the star is gone from the night, the dew is exhaled from the morning, the sun is eclipsed at noon. We have heard of some who, when they lost a friend or favorite child, never smiled again, for nothing could supply the dreary vacuum. To us it could not be that any affliction should bring us such grief, for we have learned to be resigned to our Father’s Will. But the fact that, “Jesus, our All, to Heaven is gone,” has caused something of the same feeling in our souls.
Our Heavenly Inheritance
This world can never be our rest now; its power to content us is gone; Joseph is no more in Egypt, and it is time for Israel to be gone. No, Earth, my treasure is not here with you, neither shall my heart be detained by you; You are, O Christ, the rich treasure of Your people, and since You are gone, Your people’s hearts have climbed to Heaven with You. Flowing out of this is the great truth that “our conversation is in Heaven, from where, also, we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Brothers and Sisters, inasmuch as Christ is gone, our life is hid with Him in God. To Heaven, our Head is gone, and the life of the members is there; since the Head is occupied with things celestial, let not the members of the body be groveling as slaves to terrestrial things. “If you, then, are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” Our Bridegroom has gone into the ivory palaces. He dwells in the midst of His Brothers and Sisters; do we not hear Him calling us to commune with Him? Do you not hear His voice, “Rise up My Love, My Fair One, and come away”? Though for a while our bodies linger here, let our spirits even now walk the golden streets, and behold the King in His beauty!
Living with Faith and Hope
Begin, O faithful souls, today, the occupation of the blessed—praising God even while you linger below, and honoring Him—if not by the same modes of service as the perfect ones above, yet with the same obedient delight! “Our conversation is in Heaven.” May you and I know what that means to the fullest; may we take up our celestial homestead rights, exercise our privileges and avocations as heavenly citizens, and live as those who are alive from the dead, who are raised up together, and made partakers of His Resurrection Life!
The Ascension and Our Future
Since the Head of the family is in Glory, let us, by Faith, perceive how near we are to it, and by anticipation live upon its joys, and in its power! Thus the Ascension of our Lord will remind us of Heaven, and teach us the Holiness which is our preparation for it. Our Lord Jesus Christ has gone from us; we return again to the thought. We cannot speak into His ears, and hear His voice reply in those dear accents with which He spoke to Thomas and to Philip; He no longer sits at feasts of love with favored friends, such as Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus; He has departed out of this world unto the Father, and what then? Why He has taught us by this the more distinctly, that we must henceforth walk by Faith and not by sight!
The Gifts of the Ascension and Their Impact
Prophets, too, were in the early Church; they were needed as a link between the glories of the Old and New Covenant, but each prophetic gift came from the Spirit through the Redeemer’s ascent to Glory! There remain rich gifts among us still, which I fear we do not sufficiently prize. Among men, God’s richest gifts are men of high vocation, separated for the ministry of the Gospel. From our Ascended Lord come all true Evangelists; these are they who preach the Gospel in various places, and find it the Power of God unto Salvation. They are founders of churches, breakers of new soil, men of a missionary spirit who build not on other men’s foundations, but dig out for themselves; we need many such deliverers of the Good News where as yet the message has not been heard.
The Value of Evangelists
I scarcely know of any greater blessing to the Church than the sending forth of earnest, indefatigable, anointed men of God—taught of the Lord to be winners of souls! Who among us can estimate the value of George Whitefield to the age in which he lived? Who shall ever calculate the price of a John Williams or a William Knibb? Whitefield was, under God, the salvation of our country, which was going down straight to pandemonium! Williams reclaimed the islands of the sea from cannibalism, and Knibb broke the Negro’s chains. Such Evangelists as these are gifts beyond all prices!
The Role of Pastors and Teachers
Then come the pastors and teachers, doing one work in different forms. These are sent to feed the flock; they abide in one place, and instruct converts who have been gathered—these also are invaluable gifts of the Ascension of Jesus Christ. It is not given unto all men to be pastors, nor is it needed, for if all were shepherds, where were the flock? Those to whom this Divine grace is especially given are fitted to lead and instruct the people of God, and this leading is much required. What would the Church be without her pastors? Let those who have tried to do without them be a warning to you. Wherever you have pastors or Evangelists, they exist for the good of the Church of God. They ought to labor for that end, and never for their own personal advantage. Their power is their Lord’s gift, and it must be used in His way.
The Importance of Using Gifts
The point I want to come at is this—Dear friends, since we all, as believers, have some measure of the Spirit, let us USE it! Stir up the gift that is in you! Be not like he in the parable who had but one talent and hid it in a napkin! Brother, Sister, if you are in the body the least known joint, rob not the body by indolence or selfishness, but use the gift you have in order that the body of Christ may come to its perfection! And if you do not have great personal gifts, serve the Church by praying to the Lord who has ascended to give us more Evangelists, pastors, and teachers. He, alone, can give them! Any that come without Him are imposters.
The Necessity of Evangelists and Pastors
There are some prayers you must not pray—there are others you may pray—but there are a few you must pray. There is a petition which Christ has commanded us to offer, and yet I very seldom hear it; it is this one—“Pray you, therefore, the Lord of the Harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.” We greatly lack Evangelists and pastors! I do not mean that we lack fools who occupy the pulpits and empty the pews; I believe the market has for many years been sufficiently supplied with those! But we lack men who can stir the heart, awaken the conscience, and build up the Church! Scatterers of the flocks may be found everywhere! The gatherers of them—how many have we of such? Such a man at this day is more precious than the gold of Ophir!
The Value of True Ministers
The Queen can make a bishop of the Established Church, but only the Ascended Lord can send a bishop to the true Church. Prelates, popes, cardinals, vicars, prebends, canons, deans—the Lord has nothing to do with these! I see not even the name of them in His Word—but the very poorest pastor whom the Lord ordains is a gift of His Ascending Glory! At this moment we are deploring that in the mission field our good men are gray: Duff, Moffat, and the like are passing from the stage of action. Where are their successors? I was almost about to say, Echo answers, Where?
The Need for Evangelists Worldwide
We need Evangelists for India, for China, for all the nations of the earth; and though we have many godly fathers among us who are instructors in the Faith, yet have we in all our pastorates few of eminence who could be mentioned in the same day as the great Puritan Divines. If the ministry should become weak and feeble among us, the Church richly deserves it, for this, the most important part of her whole organization, has been more neglected than anything else!
The Role of the Church in Supporting Ministers
I thank God this Church has not only prayed for ministers, but has proved the sincerity of her prayer by helping such as God has called—by affording them leisure and assistance for understanding the way of God more perfectly. We have thought that Christ’s gifts were valuable enough for us to treasure up and improve them. Our College has now received and sent forth, in the name of Jesus Christ, more than 200 ministers of the Word of God! Look around you and see how few churches care to receive the Ascension gifts of Christ, and how few pastors encourage young men to preach.
The Danger of Underestimating the Need for Ministers
I read the other day, with unutterable horror, the complaint that our churches were likely to have too many ministers! That is an almost blasphemous complaint—questioning the value of Christ’s Ascension Gifts! O that God would give us 10 times the number of men after His own heart, and surely there would be then a great lack of more! But there are too many, they say, for the present pulpits! Oh, miserable soul, is it come to this—that a minister of Christ must have a pulpit ready at hand? Are we all to be builders on other men’s foundations? Have we none among us who can gather their own flocks? In a city of three million like this, can any man say that laborers for Christ are too many? Loiterers are too many, doubtless! And when the Church drives out the drones, who shall pity them? While there remain hundreds of towns and villages without a Baptist Church, and whole districts of other lands without the Gospel, it is idle to dream that of Evangelists and pastors we can have too many!
The Need for Pastors and Evangelists in the Mission Field
No man is so happy in his work as he who presides over a flock of his own gathering; and no pastor is more beloved than he who raised from ruin a destitute Church, and made it to become a joy and praise in the earth! Pray the Lord to send true pastors and true Evangelists. Christ procured them by His Ascension; let us not forget this. What? Shall it be thought that the blessings of the Crucifixion are worth the having, and the blessings of the Resurrection worth receiving, but the blessings of the Ascension are to be regarded with indifference, or even with suspicion? No! Let us prize the gifts which God gives by His Son, and when He sends us Evangelists and pastors, let us treat them with loving respect. Honor Christ in every true minister—see not so much the man as his Master in him; trace all Gospel success to the Ascended Savior; look to Christ for more successful workers. As they come, receive them from His hands; when they come, treat them kindly as His gifts, and daily pray that the Lord will send to Zion mighty champions of the Faith.
IV. The Bearing of Our Lord’s Ascension Upon Sinners
We shall conclude by noticing the bearing of our Lord’s Ascension upon sinners. We will utter few words, but full of comfort. Did you notice in the 68th Psalm the words—“He received gifts for men; yes, for the rebellious also”? When the Lord went back to His Throne He still had thoughts of love towards rebels. The spiritual gifts of the Church are for the good of the rebels as well as for the building up of those who are reconciled! Sinner, every true minister exists for your good, and all the workers of the Church have an eye to you!
Christ’s Love for the Rebellious
There are one or two promises connected with our Lord’s Ascension which show His kindness to you—“I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” An Ascended Savior draws you—run after Him! Here is another word of His—“He is exalted on high.” To curse? No! “To give repentance and remission of sins.” Look up to the glory into which He has entered—ask for repentance and remission. Do you doubt His power to save you? Here is another text—“He is able, also, to save them to the uttermost who come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them.” Surely He has gone to Heaven for you as well as for the saints! You ought to take good heart, and put your trust in Him at this happy hour!
The Danger of Rejecting Christ
How dangerous it will be to despise Him! They who despised Him in His shame perished; Jerusalem became a field of blood because it rejected the despised Nazarene. What will it be to reject the King, now that He has taken to Himself His great power? Remember that this same Jesus who is gone up to Heaven will so come in like manner as He was seen to go up into Heaven. His return is certain, and your summons to His bar equally certain; but what account can you give if you reject Him? O come and trust Him this day! Be reconciled to Him lest He be angry, and you perish from the way while His wrath is kindled but a little.
A Call to Salvation
The Lord bless you, and grant you a share in His Ascension. Amen, and Amen.
Portions of Scripture Read Before Sermon
Psalm 68:1-19; Ephesians 4:1-16