Hebrews 2:10

Hebrews 2:10

Life ascending into Heaven.

I. At the moment that our blessed Lord was standing on the Mount of Olives, in the early morning, with a few faithful men around Him, and passed up into heaven in their sight, victorious, to begin His everlasting reign at that moment the whole world lay in its many thousand years' sleep of sin, and knew Him not; at that moment Jerusalem stood with its great walls, strong and bright as usual, and the sentinel passed to and fro; and here in Britain, in the great forests and the wild wastes, the native tribes hunted and fought, all unconscious of the early dawn on the far distant Eastern hill, and the Lord of life beginning His reign. It is a fact of the very simplest kind, that the whole world has changed, and has become practically a new creation, since that hour of the ascension, and because of that hour. The conquering spirit of life now reigns. That is the great truth of this day, this ascension time.

II. And we need to be reminded of it, because of the other truth, which is part of it, that on this earth there is no triumph of truth, only a victorious working, always unfinished, always to the human eye, at its best, the little company on the hill, with a sleeping hostile world against them. Note the seed-like character of the life of the ascension. Its intense vitality wrapped up in a seed. How, at the very moment of victory, Christ ascending in triumph, Lord of all the worlds, is represented by a small company, at dawn of day, on a hilltop. Stand with Him, and look down on the sleeping world, and be not discouraged. You are notovermatched. The smallest seed of life in your hearts will live and prevail. We serve the King of heaven, Christ ascended; He knows His own and their trials.

E. Thring, Uppingham Sermons,vol. i., p. 218.

Christian Suffering.

I. Christian perfection does in some degree consist in, or rise out of, Christian suffering. Christian perfection is the working out of Christian character, up to the height of the Divine ideal. The means by which Christian character is to go on to that perfection is Christian suffering; for in order that you may have perfection, in order that your Christian character may be crowned, it must be consolidated by the acquirement of Christian virtues; and it is by the power of suffering that Christian virtues are acquired. (1) Christian humility, which is one of the very deepest, most fundamental, as well as most beautiful Christian virtues, is the result of Christian suffering. (2) Patience is also a result of suffering; the "trial of our faith" is to "work patience." (3) Courage is born of suffering. If we are to crown our Christian life with courage, it must be by Christian suffering.

II. If we are to go on to perfection, we require elevation of nature and purification of heart. What are the powers of purification and elevation? I answer, without the slightest fear of challenge, The power of separation, and the power of aspiration towards God; or, to put it in simpler language, the power of sacrifice and the power of prayer. (1) Prayer preeminently springs from suffering. If a man prays he lives. Once let the clouds come; once let us lose a friend whom we have loved; once let us stand face to face with the great revealer Death; once let health give way, or circumstances change, or sorrows rain down upon us, then, thenpreeminently if we are Christians, we learn to pray. (2) Purification comes from a deep sense of immortality. Now that sense of immortality is deepened by suffering, for it is suffering that teaches us what this world is. It is suffering that brings the gayest, the most trifling to be real at last. Therefore it is suffering that helps to purify our lives.

III. Christian perfection comes from Christian suffering. Suffering in itself works no perfection. (1) If your suffering is Christian suffering, it must be willingly accepted for the love of God. (2) To suffer as a Christian is not only that; it implies also looking unto Him. To keep our eyes steadily fixed upon the King of suffering is to see what suffering was, in God's life, as He came to bear sin in His human nature.

W. J. Knox Little, Characteristics of the Christian Life,p. 96.

References: Hebrews 2:10. H. Bushnell, Christ and His Salvation,p. 219; Expository Sermons on the New Testament,p. 256; C. J. Vaughan, Lessons of the Cross and Passion,p. 76; R. W. Dale, The Jewish Temple and the Christian Church,p. 57; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. viii., p. 144; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 326; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. viii., No. 478; C. Kingsley, National Sermons,p. 17; Homilist,vol. iv., p. 402; 3rd series, vol. i., p. 345; J. Oswald Dykes, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxi., p. 97. Hebrews 2:10. Expositor,1st series, vol. i., p. 418. Hebrews 2:10. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iii., p. 186.