Luke 24:49-53

This Exposition belongs to last week's Sermon, but there was no space available for its insertion there, and no Exposition appears to have been given before the preceding discourse.

Luke 24:49. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

The promise of the Father was, as you know, the gift of the Holy Spirit. By this gift our Lord's rising again into glory was celebrated. The Holy Spirit was the heavenly largess of the great King by which he did honour to the return of his Son to his ancient throne. The apostles and the other disciples were to wait for this gift. They might have to wait for some days, but it is better to wait for divine equipment than to go out to holy service in our own strength. All that you do will have to be undone unless it is done in the power of the Holy Ghost. «But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.» Has that command ever struck some people who profess to be serving the Lord? Are there not men who preach whom God never sent to preach? The best advice we could give them would be, «Tarry ye.» Are there not some who teach, and some who take office in the church, whom God has never endued with gifts or graces for such work? Powerless workers stand in the way of true workers, they block up the path of those whom God sends to serve him.

Luke 24:50. And he led them out as far as to Bethany,»

The ruling passion was strong in the hour of his departure. Well did he know that place, Bethany, the place of love, where he had received a welcome such as he had experienced nowhere else on earth, where lived Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus; there did he bid «Good-bye» to his disciples.

Luke 24:50. And he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.

He never had lifted up his hands to strike them, or to invoke curses upon them. Those hands were filled with blessings, and the last thing that was seen of Jesus by human eyes was his hands uplifted in the act of blessing.

Luke 24:51. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him,

Then they were not Unitarians «They worshipped him,» and there were angels present at the time who would have been sure to have rebuked them if it had been a wrong thing for them to worship him. Indeed, they themselves, both as Jews and as Christians, would have felt, in their inmost soul, that they could not worship anyone but God; but Christ is God, so they did well to worship him.

Luke 24:52. And returned to Jerusalem with great joy:

Back to the place of his murder, back to the place where they were likely to be themselves murdered.

Luke 24:53. And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

So bold were they that the very central spot for the worship of Jehovah we made the place where Christ's divine sovereignty was proclaimed.

This exposition consisted of readings from Luke 24:49; and Acts 1:1