CHRIST IN THE WORLD
‘The Lord working with them.’
Most people, if asked to express their idea of our Lord’s Ascension, would probably say that He has gone immeasurably far from us. That certainly was not His meaning when He spoke of the expediency of His departure from our sight. He has vanished from sight, but He has not gone from among us. Before He ascended, the Apostle connected His presence with certain places, as the upper room; after His Ascension that presence became to them constant and perpetual, secured by means of His own appointment to the Church.
I. What is the effect on life?—We see the whole of His human life carried to the throne of God. As we ascend in heart and mind to Him, we are assured that no part of our lives will be without its end; that all parts of our lives hang together, and that all will be brought together.
II. The fruits of Christ’s work cannot be exhausted.—Its value is eternal; it is continually applied to the Church, and through the Church, and every member of the Church to the world. The best way to try and realise what He is doing is to read the first five Chapter s of the Revelation. To believe, then, in His Ascension is to believe that He is present with us, as He promised, ‘all the days.’ This year is the year of Christ; this day a day of Christ; it is a time when He is really working with us, and ‘confirming the word,’ by indications no less fruitful, because no less charged with His presence among those who work with Him, than when Apostles healed in His name the sick, or cast out devils, or raised the dead.
III. The glorious issues of redemption impose on us a duty.—What was the last title bestowed by the Lord on the Apostles? Not merely, as it is wrongly given in our ordinary English translation, ‘Witnesses unto Me,’ but ‘My witnesses.’ He meant us to understand that we are to be the free, and intelligent, and conscious agents of His own life.
—Rev. Chancellor Worlledge.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
CHRIST’S CO-OPERATION
I. Who they were of whom the text speaks.—They were men. Not an insignificant fact. They were disciples. Hence ready obedience.
II. What they did.—‘They … preached.’ They preached because of the command, ‘ Go … and preach.’ They preached because it pleased God ‘by foolishness of preaching (not by foolish preaching) to …’ (Romans 10:17). ‘How beautiful …’ (Isaiah 52:7). ‘How shall they preach, except they be sent?’ (Romans 10:15). Are we preaching or sending?
III. Where they went.—‘They went forth … everywhere.’ Did not wait until all their own countrymen were converted. Has not experience taught us that the way ‘to strengthen the stakes’ is ‘to lengthen the cords’? May it not be said of a Church (Proverbs 11:24)? Do we act as though we believed this, or do we grudge both men and money?
IV. The Lord’s co-operation.—‘The Lord working with them.’ His co-operation an absolute necessity; no success unless He gives it. Man not the agent, only the instrument. He confirmed the message. ‘Confirming the word with signs following.’ These signs spoken of in preceding verses (17, 18). But these not the only ‘signs that follow …’ In the experience of the believer the Lord confirms the Gospel message (John 10:41).
Bishop Billing.