Matthew 16:20-28

CRITICAL NOTES

Matthew 16:20. Tell no man.—Jesus had not, even to His Apostles, said that He was the Christ, but He left it that they might discover it themselves from the testimony of facts. It was not suitable, therefore, that that should be openly told by the Apostles to others before His resurrection which was to corroborate the whole testimony to the fact of His being the Christ. For he who injudiciously propounds a mystery to those who do not comprehend it, injures both himself and others. Had they done so, those who believed in any way that Jesus was the Christ might have sought for an earthly kingdom with seditious uproar; whilst the rest, and by far the greater number, might have rejected such a Messiah at that time more vehemently, and have been guilty of greater sin in crucifying Him, so as to have the door of repentance less open to them for the future. Afterwards the Apostles openly bore witness to this truth (Bengel).

Matthew 16:21. From that time forth.—An important note of time. Now that the disciples have learned to acknowledge Jesus to be the Messiah, He is able to instruct them in the true nature of His kingdom (Carr).

Matthew 16:22. Then.—And (R.V.). We should do injustice to the reality, were we to imagine that in a moment or two after Peter’s noble confession, our Lord abruptly said all He had to say about the tragedy that was looming in the distance; and that in a moment or two later, Peter acted the part that is now about to be narrated. It is the salient points of many, and perhaps of lengthened, conversations, that alone jut up into view in the narrative of the Evangelist (Morison). Took Him.—I.e. aside. Began.—But the gracious Lord rose up in majesty and interrupted him. Be it far from Thee.—God forbid! (Doddridge).

Matthew 16:23. He turned.—See Mark 8:33. Get thee behind Me, Satan.—If the words of the tempter are in Peter’s mouth he is addressed as the tempter; when he speaks the words of truth he is the foundation-stone of the church (Carr). An offence.—Literally, My stumbling-block; by suggesting visions of earthly pride (ibid.). Thou savourest.—Mindest (R.V.). Thou art carried away by human views of the way of setting up Messiah’s kingdom, quite contrary to those of God (Brown).

Matthew 16:24. Take up his cross.—These words, which the disciples had heard before (Matthew 10:38), were now clothed with a new meaning.

Matthew 16:25. Whosoever will save his life, etc.—See note on Matthew 10:39.

Matthew 16:27. Works.—Doing (R.V. marg.). The word is put in the singular, for the whole life of man is one “doing” (Bengel). The total outward manifestation of his inner life as a believer or unbeliever (Lange).

Matthew 16:28. There be some standing here, etc.—The expression is referred to:

1. The Transfiguration.
2. The Day of Pentecost.
3. The Fall of Jerusalem. The last best fulfils the conditions of interpretation—a judicial coming—a signal and visible event, and one that would happen in the lifetime of some, but not all, who were present (Carr). Our Saviour refers, though in an indefinite way, to the establishment and extension of His kingdom, and the manifestation of Himself as the victorious King, that took place when Jerusalem and Judaism—both thoroughly corrupted to the core—were overturned (Morison).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 16:20

A sudden descent.—Most unexpected must have been the opening words of this passage to those who heard them first. One of their number had just openly confessed Jesus as Christ; and had been just as openly commended for doing so; and been encouraged also, in consequence, by many promises with regard to the future (Matthew 16:16). Yet now, on the other hand, with regard to the future—to the immediate future at any rate, if not to anything more—they are all solemnly admonished, and even “charged” to do nothing of the kind. Do not confess Me before men. So Matthew 16:20, in effect. Some of the reasons for this unexpected injunction are what come next in the story; and are such as appear to turn first, on what was about to be true of Jesus Himself, and, secondly, on what was about be true of His disciples.

I. About the Saviour Himself.—This, for example, was true of Him, on the one hand, viz., that He would have to suffer and die. In various ways before now He had obscurely hinted at this (John 2:19; Matthew 12:40). Now He plainly “shows” it to them (Matthew 16:21) in so many words. In what place; by whose hands; in how many ways; and to how extreme a length He was thus to “suffer” is “shown” (Matthew 16:21). Also how, in a certain sense, these were things that “must” be. Of one mitigation only, and that of a most mysterious kind (end of Matthew 16:21) does He make mention. All else here foretold of Him was of the gloomiest possible kind. They must prepare themselves “from that time” to think of Him as an eminently suffering Man. On the other hand, it was true about Him, also, that He meant to accept this to the full. This resolution of His is brought out in a highly noteworthy manner. When that forward disciple who had just before stood out from the rest to confess Him as Christ, hears this (as it clearly was to him) most extraordinary announcement, He cannot receive it fit all. On the contrary, it is something which seems to him as “far” as possible from what is fitting. What can the Master be thinking of to speak in that way? He even takes upon himself to “chide” Him (ἐπιτιμᾷν) for what He has said. Why speak in this way? Why talk thus about “must?” Surely there is some other and less painful way of doing Thy work? Such appears to have been the inward spirit of this most unbecoming reproof. Apparently, if we may say so, it touched the Saviour in a very sensitive part. Once before, the great adversary had approached Him in a virtually similar way. Only worship me, he had said, and Thou shalt be at once, and with ease, all thou deservest to be to mankind (Matthew 4:8). Once again, therefore, and with the same vehemence as previously (Matthew 4:10), He bids the adversary begone—even going so far as to address Peter himself by that name, and speaking now of that chosen “stone” as a rock of “offence,” and declaring of that once God-instructed witness (end of Matthew 16:17) that he was now taught from below (Matthew 16:23). So resolved is the Saviour to let nothing stand between His appointed “sufferings” and Himself.

II. About the Saviour’s disciples.—That they must be prepared, first, on their part, for a similar kind of experience. A similar experience, not necessarily—not possibly, indeed, in some respects—of the very same kind. This was true of all those who would be His disciples indeed. If “any man” makes up his mind to “come after Me,” he must make up his mind also to meet the kind of things which I meet with Myself (Matthew 16:24). He must be as resolved in his way as I am in Mine. He must “deny himself and take up his cross” as you see Me taking up Mine. Only so can he “follow Me” and walk in My steps. That they will find it, next, well worth while to do so. To see this let them consider, in the first place, the nature of the alternative before them. Not thus to deny themselves in some things would be, in effect, to lose all—to lose one’s “life,” which is more than all else—to lose that for which there is no possible compensation. Better never have such a gift at all than thus to have and to lose it. Let them consider, next, the certainty of this statement. For who is to decide this in the end save He who is speaking? In whose awful name, also, and with what holy assessors, will this be done on His part? (Matthew 16:27). And on what principles, finally, in that day of days will the issue be made to depend? Is it not, in fact, on that very principle of which He has assured them just now, viz., that as a man sows so shall he reap? (end Matthew 16:27). Better, therefore, give up anything than be on the wrong side on that day. Also, let them understand—so, perhaps, in conclusion—that that most momentous of days was nearer in some ways than many persons imagined. At any rate, there were some standing there at that moment, who, before the little span of their lives should come to its close, would see that which might be regarded as such a second “coming” of Christ (Matthew 16:28; see also 2 Peter 1:16).

The passage thus treated shows us:—

1. How much these disciples had to be taught.—Their Master was destined and resolved to endure what they, at that time, could hardly endure to hear mentioned. Things were to become realities both about Him and themselves which had no place as yet in their dreams. How wise of the Saviour, therefore, and how considerate, thus to teach them these things beforehand (cf. Luke 14:28). Even with all He did in this way from this present “beginning” of doing so (Matthew 16:21), how all but fatal to the faith of some of them were the things foretold when they came (see Luke 24:21, “we trusted”—we used to trust—that He should redeem Israel). What a key there is in all this, therefore, to the constancy, and continuity, and earnestness with which the Saviour from this time forth begins to show forth His death. Not until they had learned very much more both about Him and themselves would they be either fit or able to confess Him before men.

2. How very unlikely that many of the Saviour’s present disciples should know much about the future.—At any rate in regard to anything more than its more conspicuous and ultimate features. We may judge this from what we see here of these personal disciples of Jesus. Also from what ought to be evident to us of the nature of the case. God’s plans are too wide, His purposes are too deep, our experience is too scanty, and even the light He has given us is too partial (1 Corinthians 13:12) and mysterious to allow of any but directly inspired men being safe guides on such points. Not improbably, the most unfitted of all for such semi-prophetical work are those who suppose themselves the most fit. Certainly this experience of St. Peter rather points in that line.

HOMILIES ON THE VERSES

Matthew 16:21. Christ foretelling His death and resurrection.—

1. Our Lord was not ignorant of what He was to suffer ere it came, nor ignorant of the outgate appointed for Him, how He should be killed and raised again.
2. Whose would look rightly on Christ’s sufferings must also look unto His outgate and victory over the same—he must look on His raising as well as His killing.—David Dickson.

Christ’s sufferings.—

I. The scene.—Jerusalem.

II. The instruments.—The rulers of the ration.

III. The climax.—Death.

IV. The issue.—His resurrection.—A. Maclaren, D.D.

Why Christ suffered.—

I. The Divine necessity, as expressed in that solemn “must.”

II. Christ’s willing acceptance of that necessity.—“Go.” The necessity was no external compulsion, driving Him to an unwelcome sacrifice, but one imposed alike by filial obedience and by brotherly love. He must die because He would save.—Ibid.

Matthew 16:22. Mistaken views of good men.—Founded upon:—

I. Error of Judgment.

II. Lack of knowledge.—Why should the innocent Jesus suffer?

III. Misguided affection.—Far from Thee, etc. Men often are biassed in their views of the sins, sufferings, and future of others by their affections.—J. C. Gray.

Matthew 16:23. Christ’s reproof of Peter.—

1. Our Lord so loved to work out our redemption that He could not endure to be any way hindered; therefore, saith He, “Get thee behind Me.”
2. What Satan cannot do immediately, he will essay to do by instruments. Christ findeth him out here, saying, “Get thee behind Me, Satan.”
3. Naturally a man savoureth not things spiritual, neither knoweth them, nor loveth them, if they be told him.
4. We should, in temptations beware of Satan, whoever be the instrument, and the more impudently we be tempted unto sin, we should the more stoutly and peremptorily resist, as Christ did, saying, “Get thee behind me, Satan.”

5. After a man hath been much lifted up in consolation, he may readily miscarry, and fall in some offence, as Peter’s case is here, compared with Matthew 16:16.

6. A man may be a stumbling-block unto others, albeit he do not intend it, for to Peter it is said, “Thou art an offence.”
7. Apparent good counsel from a carnal friend may readily carry some temptation in the bosom of it, as Peter’s counsel here doth; and sin will serve Satan’s turn, wherever he find it, whether in the godly or wicked, for Peter’s corruption here is Satan’s instrument fit enough for the time.—David Dickson.

Matthew 16:24. Self-denial.—Self-denial is the foundation of godliness; and if this be not well laid the whole building will fall. Self-denial is the thread which must run along the whole work of religion. To deny signifies to lay aside, to put off, to annihilate one’s self. Beza renders it, let him renounce himself. “Self” is taken four ways.

1. Worldly self, i.e. his estate (Matthew 19:27).

2. Relative self, i.e. his dearest relations if God calls (Luke 14:26).

3. Natural self; he must be willing to become a sacrifice, and make Christ’s crown flourish, though it be in his ashes (Revelation 12:11).

4. Carnal self. This I take to be the chief sense of the text.

I. He must deny self-ease (2 Timothy 2:3).

II. He must deny self-opinion.

III. He must deny self-confidence.—Peter’s self-confidence undid him (Matthew 26:33).

IV. He must deny self-wisdom (2 Corinthians 1:12; James 3:17).

V. He must deny self-will (2 Peter 2:10).

VI. He must deny self-reasonings.—Consider:

1. Whatever you deny for Christ, you shall find again in Christ (Matthew 19:29).

2. ’Tis but equity that you should deny yourselves for Christ; did not Jesus Christ deny Himself for you?
3. Self-denial is the highest sign of a thorough-paced Christian. I have read of a holy man who was once tempted by Satan. “Why takest thou all this pains,” saith he; “thou watchest, and fastest, and abstainest from sin; O man, what doest thou more than I? Art thou no drunkard, no adulterer? No more am I. Dost thou watch? Let me tell thee, I never slept. Dost thou fast? I never eat. What doest thou more than I?” “Why,” saith the good man, “I will tell thee, Satan; I pray, I serve the Lord, nay, more than all, I deny myself.” “Nay then,” saith Satan, “thou goest beyond me, for I exalt myself,” and so vanished.

4. To deny yourself is what others have done before you (Hebrews 11:8; Hebrews 11:25).

5. If you do not deny the world for Christ, the world will deny you, and, what is worse, Christ will deny you (Matthew 10:33).—Thomas Watson.

Self-denial.—

I. Inquire what self-denial is.—

1. It is not to deny what a man is or has, what he truly is, and what he really has, for that would be a falsehood; in this sense “God cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13); not His nature, and the perfections of it; or do, or affirm anything contrary thereunto. So a man ought not to deny himself as a man, nor the rational powers which he is possessed of. If God has bestowed internal endowments on men, gifts and talents, qualified for public service and usefulness, some way or another, they are to own them and use them; and not to wrap them in a napkin or hide them in the earth, which is interpretatively to deny that they have them. Nor should a truly good and gracious man deny what he is and has, but acknowledge it, and how by grace he came by it.

2. To deny a man’s self is not to refuse favours conferred on him in a course of Providence, nor to neglect a lawful use of them, nor to take care of himself and of his affairs.
3. Self-denial does not require that a man should refuse temporal honours and riches bestowed on him in a Providential way.

4. Nor are the creatures of God, and the use of them, to be rejected (1 Timothy 4:4).

5. Nor should a man be careless of his life, and health, and family, though he should not be anxiously careful for life, nor food and raiment, to support and secure it.

6. There is a self-love which is not criminal, nor contrary to the grace of self-denial (Ephesians 5:29).

7. Nor is it self-denial, or any part of it, to abuse the body in any respect; not even on religious accounts. Self-denial lies in a man’s renouncing, foregoing, and postponing all his pleasures, profits, relations, interests, and whatever he enjoys, which may be in competition with Christ, from love to Him, and to be given up at His command. A self-denying Christian is made willing to part:
1. With natural and civil self, with things relative both to soul and body, of which a man’s self consists.
2. Another branch of self-denial lies in denying sinful self; this lesson not nature but grace teaches, even to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, which includes all kinds of sin; internal lusts and external actions of sin; sins of heart, lip, and life; everything that is contrary to God and His righteous law.

3. Another branch of self-denial is to deny righteous self, which is not to refuse to do works of righteousness for necessary uses, to glorify God, to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour; but to deny righteous self is to renounce all trust in and dependence on a man’s own righteousness for justification before God, and acceptance with Him, and to submit to the righteousness of Christ, and depend upon that for such purposes (Philippians 3:6).

II. The arguments or motives to excite to the exercise of this grace of self-denial, in the several branches of it.

1. It is an injunction of Christ on His disciples, even all of them.

2. Christ has not only commanded it, but! He has set an example of it Himself (Philippians 2:5).

3. The examples of saints in all ages may serve to excite and encourage to it.
4. If a man do not deny himself, as required of God, he sets up himself for God; makes a God for himself, lives to himself and not to God.
5. The loss and gain of not denying, and of denying self, should be considered.—Anon.

The imitation of Christ.—The command which the text contains is based upon the great principle of the imitation of Christ. Unlike all other legislators, His life is the law of His people. If we would gain the root of the matter, then we must contemplate suffering as manifested in Christ Himself.

I. The great primary fact, upon which all the essential peculiarities of our religion are founded, is that God became strangely, inconceivably connected with pain; that this Being, whose nature is inherent happiness, by some mysterious process entered the regions of suffering, crossed the whole diameter of existence, to find Himself with His own opposite; bore, though incapable of moral pollution, the dark shadow of pollution, even anguish unspeakable; and though unsubdued by the master, Sin, exhibited Himself, to the wonder of the universe, clad in the weeds of the servant, Death. The main reason of this fact is to be found in the necessity of atonement. But the Divine Person also visited the regions of pain in such a sense as to be our Example; for so the text presents Him.

II. Must we not think that there is something in the sorrow, thus cordially and perpetually chosen by our Master, that is eminently adapted to elevate and purify our being?—Must there not be something Divinely excellent in that which was deliberately chosen by a Divine nature as its peculiar tabernacle out of all the world afforded, the sad but awful cloud above the mercy-seat in which, while among us, His glory was to dwell? This special excellence is not hard to discover. Humbleness of spirit, the most pervading and universal of all graces, is in the Christian code the very essence of perfection, and sorrow borne with resignation has a direct tendency to produce it. Now, because our Redeemer knew, what it is so hard to persuade even His avowed followers, that in this direction lies the true perfection of man—that a gentle, unmurmuring submission is his truest, brightest heroism—therefore did He, in His own person, adopt the way that leads to it. He daily suffered, because suffering subdues the pride of human hearts, and He would teach us to accomplish that conquest.—W. Archer Butler, D.D.

Self-denial is the first law of grace.—A number of ministers were once dining together after an ordination, and when one of them seemed unduly attentive to the good things before him, he met with the approval of the host, who said, “That’s right! To take care of self is the first law of nature.” “Yes, sir,” said an old minister sitting near, in reply; “but to deny self is the first law of grace!”

The cross.—Every high mission means the cross.—W. S. Lilley.

Matthew 16:25. Gaining life by losing it.—It is true that with respect to the work man has to do outside himself, the way to do it is to keep it directly in view, aim consciously at it. But the moment you come to the operations of mind or life in man himself, not merely in this higher life Christ speaks of, but in almost any part of his nature, in man himself, the opposite principle comes in—this very principle which seems so paradoxical, the principle that losing the life, letting it go, not thinking of it, is the surest way of saving it. This is not only true with regard to coming to the best for one’s soul, it is true of coming to the best even in the commonest faculties and qualities of life. Did you ever try to cross a stream by some rather awkward stepping-stones, or by a rather narrow plank? Or have you tried to walk at some dangerous height? or, in fact, anything requiring a particularly clear, steady head? If you have, you know that it is to be done exactly by not thinking about it. If you begin looking down at the stepping-stones, or at the water, or at the depth beneath you, and thinking about it, and about how you shall go through with it, you are lost. Whereas, if you are so occupied, thinking about something else, that you hardly notice the stepping-stones; if you are on some errand in which you are so eager that you are not thinking of yourself—that losing yourself is your safety; you may go perfectly safely over places and heights that afterwards, when you do come to think about them, will make you dizzy to look at. There, too, life is safest by not thinking about saving it. Take another matter, the preservation of health. One condition of keeping in good health is not to think about your health, but to be wholesomely occupied with quite other thoughts. Think about your health, begin feeling your pulse, watching your symptoms, considering all the things which might possibly be the matter with you, and you may think yourself into an illness. Why do physicians so often order “change of scene” and “something to distract the mind,” but that the patient may be led to lose himself and so find the health which he could not gain while anxiously thinking of himself? And so, when there is some epidemic about, how true you constantly see it that “he that will save his life shall lose it.” The most dangerous thing of all is to be constantly thinking and scheming how to escape infection. Take reasonable precautions, indeed—especially such precautions as are demanded for the general safety—and then go straight forward. Think of others, not of self.—Brooke Herford.

Matthew 16:26. The preciousness of the soul.—

I. The soul is very precious.

1. The soul has an intrinsical worth, which appears in—

(1) Its spirituality. It is spiritual in its essence (Genesis 2:7), a sparkle lighted by the breath of God; in its object, it contemplates God and heaven; in its operation, it doth not depend upon the body in its working.

(2) Its immortality.
2. The soul has an estimative worth.—

(1) Jesus Christ hath set a high value and estimate upon the soul. He made it, He bought it, therefore He best knows the price of it.
(2) Satan doth value souls.

II. The soul is more precious than a world.—The world is of a coarser make.

1. If the soul is so precious, see what the worship is that God doth expect and accept, viz., that which comes from the soul (Psalms 25:1).

2. If the soul is so precious, then of what precious account should ordinances and ministers be.

3. Take heed of abusing your souls.—Socrates exhorted young men that they should look at their faces in a glass, and if they saw they were fair, they should have a care to do nothing unworthy of their beauty. Christians, God hath given you souls that sparkle with Divine beauty; oh, do nothing unworthy of these souls! They abuse their souls:

(1) That degrade their souls, (a) Panting after the dust of earth (Amos 2:7). (b) Making their souls lackeys to their bodies.

(2) That sell their souls. (a) The covetous person sells his soul for money. (b) The ambitious person sells his soul for honour. (c) The voluptuous person sells his soul for pleasure.

(3) That poison their souls.

(4) That starve their souls.

4. Take heed you do not lose your souls.—

(1) It is a foolish loss, because: (a) There is a possibility of saving the soul, (b) Because we lose the soul for things of no value. (c) Because the man hath himself a hand in the loss.

(2) It is a fatal loss (a) Unparalleled, because so much is lost with it, Christ, the Comforter, heaven, etc. (b) Irreparable, (c) Eternal.

5. Do what you can to save these precious souls.—Thos. Watson.

Profit and loss (To young men).—You are resolved to gain the world, and I want you to abandon your resolution:—

I. On the ground of probable failure.—That the pleasures of the world are agreeable I admit; and that its honours are attractive I admit also; and that its riches are desirable I admit besides. But you may not be able to get them for your own. Have you never heard of competition? You may find yourselves outstripped. By untoward circumstances you may find yourselves baffled. By bodily sickness you may find yourselves unmanned. By mental malady you may find yourselves prostrate in the dust. You are embarking, therefore, upon an absolute uncertainty.

II. On the ground of impending unsatisfactoriness.—Let our supposition be that you have actually gained, in the particular forms most pleasant to yourselves, the world’s pleasures, and the world’s honours, and the world’s wealth. You have gained the world, but it does not fit you, and by the want of fitness you are vexed; it does not solace you, and by its want of solace you are irritated; it does not assure and reassure you of the future, especially of that future away beyond the grave; and by its want of assurance you are aggrieved.

III. On the ground of inevitable ruin.—That old Book tells you that you cannot go in for the world without losing your soul.—W. Brock, D.D.

A terrible mistake.—I. Let us look at the profit side of the account. “If he gain the whole world.”

1. What a world of meaning there is in that little word “if”! It suggests the fact that few, perhaps not one in ten thousand, does gain that portion of the world on which he sets his heart. We see this in the struggle for all kinds of prizes on which men set their hearts.
2. But let us come now and consider the question as if the man were successful. Suppose a man should gain the whole world, what then? Where is the profit? Let us not be unreal enough to make light of worldly prosperity, of happiness, of friendship, of learning, of wealth, of place or power. It is surely well to be above want, to have no undue pressure from without. Who again does not know how the burden of life is lightened by family ties and friendships? And if we think of the blessings of learning, surely no one will dare to despise the man to whom knowledge has unfolded her ample page, rich with the spoils of time! And is there nothing noble in the warrior’s or the statesman’s career?
3. But now comes the grand question. What is the exact profit to the fortunate possessor of all that the world can give of wealth and wisdom, of honour and friendship, and material comfort? Does the possession of wealth add to human happiness? Was David the king happier in his palace with all Israel at his bidding than he was when, as a shepherd boy, he solaced his nights of watchfulness with his harp? Was he not more “a man after God’s own heart” in that pure, strong youth, than when his soul was led astray by the vanities and vices which became the bane of his later years? But surely wisdom, the pursuit of knowledge, is free from drawbacks. Surely there is deep delight in knowing, yet what saith the wisest of men? “In much wisdom is much grief,” and “he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” Well then, you may say, you will spare us our last sanctuary on earth—the warm light of home, and the love of friends? Surely a father’s care, a mother’s love, a wife’s devotion, a child’s trust, a friend’s proved fidelity—surely these things are all gain? Yes; but do these things endure? Is not decay written on them all?

II. This brings us to consider the loss side of the account. What is it to lose one’s own soul? What is the worth of a human soul? Doubtless some souls are of more intrinsic value than others. But to every man his own soul, whatever its value in the estimation of others, is of infinite value to himself. The man who loses his own soul loses “himself.” The account stands thus: Eternal ages of loss against seventy years of all that the world can give. If duration alone were to be taken into account the mere worldling makes a poor bargain; but the loss will be still more apparent if you consider the nature of the loss sustained. Verily, the soul is lost when its faculties are degraded. Man has been created with a soul capable of pure desires, of holy effort, of loving sacrifice, and therefore capable of communion with the Father of Spirits, who is pure and holy, just and true and loving. If any man degrades his soul till it is dead to love, to truth and purity, what remains? Has he not slain his soul?—J. W. King, M.A.

Matthew 16:27. The final advent of Christ.—Our attention is here directed to:—

I. The Son of man.—As the Promised One. As the Manifested One. As the Ascended One.

II. His reappearance on earth.—It is predicted. It is possible. It is necessary.

III. His superhuman glory.—His herald is glorious. His Person is glorious. His retinue is glorious.

III. His important work.—To raise the dead. To change the living. To judge all. To reward each. To resign the reins of government into His Father’s hands.—A. Macfarlane.