PREPARATION AND EFFECT
‘Confirming the word with signs following.’
If we wished to make the Gospel for Ascension Day the subject of a sermon, one way of dealing with it effectively might be this: to consider the preparation for the Ascension, and the effect of the Ascension; in both cases with reference to the disciples.
I. Preparation for the Ascension.—We have in the passage, obviously, a sort of epitome of the conversations held by our Lord with His disciples between the Resurrection and the Ascension. He establishes, first, the fact of His Resurrection. Then He gives them their commission. They are to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. To reject their message will be no trifling matter, for ‘he that believeth not, shall be damned’; and it shall be enforced by the many ‘signs’—manifestations of miraculous power—which shall be seen in the case of those who have received the message.
II. The effect of the Ascension is a prompt and glad obedience on the part of the previously disheartened disciples. They return from the Mount of Ascension to Jerusalem with ‘great joy.’ And why with great joy? Because they feel that their work is to claim the Kingdom for the King, to Whom all power in heaven and in earth has been given. The cause is one which is certain to succeed. The King is invisible, it is true; but He is not absent. He is with them, and with them always. He ‘works with them,’ for the cheering of their hearts, for the confusion of their enemies, for the confirmation of their message. They have something present to point to, and not only to speak of something future.
Do ‘signs’ follow now? Yes; but spiritual signs. The casting out of the devils of impurity, pride, deceit; the speaking with a new tongue the praises of God.
Rev. Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.