Acts 1:9

Acts 1:9

Consider the obvious lessons which result at once from Christ's Ascension

I. The first is heavenly-mindedness. He went but as the great forerunner of His people, and we must follow Him in His course; where the Head is, there should the members be; and our treasure, our life, our affection, are meant to be with Him at the right hand of God. Let us hear the cries that come to us from heaven above and from the earth beneath, from the works of nature and the voices of conscience, and from the wail of the weary and from all the graves of men, the cry of Sursum corda, "Lift up your hearts;" and from every one of us let the answer be, "We lift them up unto the Lord."

II. The second lesson is a lesson of simple duty. It is the same plain and unvarnished and homely lesson which is taught in the fifteenth Psalm, "Lord, who shall dwell in Thy tabernacle, or who shall rest upon Thy holy hill?" Is it only the lofty, the unapproachable, the devoted, the timely-happy? No, but common men who by God's grace have lived their common lives in the paths of purity and duty, the lowly, the undeceitful, the unmalicious, the uncorrupt. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall rise up in His holy place? Even he that hath clean hands and a pure heart; he who doeth the thing which is right and speaketh the truth from his heart.

III. The third is a lesson of holy fear. If you be an impenitent and hardened sinner, and will continue impenitent and hardened still, then fear;for then to you the lesson of Christ's Ascension is a lesson of wrath and doom.

IV. But, lastly, if you be loving justice and mercy, and walking humbly with your God, if you be striving, however faintly, to be true and pure and good, then the lesson of the Ascension is a lesson of hope. It is a pledge to us of that forgiveness which Christ died to win. For Christ is our Intercessor. And therefore when we are summoned to the bar of God's judgment-seat, we may hope; for the soft rainbow, like unto an emerald, encircles it, and we have an Intercessor. Humble, yet unabashed, may we stand where the very seraphs must veil their faces with their wings, for He is by our side. With the thought of such an Intercessor as this, is not the lesson of the Ascension a lesson of infinite peace and hope?

F. W. Farrar, The Fall of Man,p. 97.

References: Acts 1:9. S. Wilberforce, Church Sermons,vol. ii., p. 161; Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times,"vol. ix., p. 140; F. W. Farrar, Contemporary Pulpit,vol. v., p. 354; J. N. Norton, Golden Truths,p. 272; Expository Sermons on the New Testament,p. 127. Acts 1:9. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iv, p. 89; G. Moberly, Plain Sermons at Brighstone,p. 209; W. R. Savage, Church of England Pulpit,vol. i., p. 336; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. lii., p. 40. Acts 1:10. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxxi., No. 1817; Contemporary Pulpit,vol. xi., pp. 126, 308; Preacher's Monthly,vol. ix., p. 292.Acts 1:11. J. Keble, Sermons on Various Occasions,p. 85; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. v., p. 272; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iii., p. 271; vol. v., p. 452.Acts 1:12; Acts 1:13. T. Gasquoine, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xi., p. 29; W. M. Arthur, Ibid.,vol. xvi., p. 317. Acts 1:12. A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 542; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iii., p. 42.Acts 1:13. J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity,p. 155.Acts 1:14. Ibid.,p. 143; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ii., p. 557; J. H. Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxviii., p. 330. Acts 1:15. Ibid.,p. 156. Acts 1:15. Homiletic Magazine,vol. viii., p. 99.