The same Jesus teaching and healing the multitude, sitting weary by the well-side, dying as the good Shepherd for His sheep, and seated now at the right hand of God in everlasting power and glory. When He says, "Tell My brethren, I ascend!" this is not to be defeated, exiled, forgotten, but to live for men and rule over men for ever.
. . . . The Lord delays His coming; the battle is long, and the powers of evil make desperate and repeated rallies, beating back again and again the armies of the living God when victory appeared in sight. But we lift our eyes unto the hills. We "look away to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith,"--from the Christ that was to the Christ that is, and again with restored assurance to the Christ that was and that is and that cometh. As we gaze upward to the Living One, where He sits at the right hand of the throne of God, the light of His glory returns to our eyes; the dimness passes from our vision, the despondency lifts from our hearts. There He sits,--His brow serene, His purpose sure, His power unbroken, His arm unwearied: "It is Christ Jesus that died, yea, rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makest intercession for us."
The throne of God has not fallen; and while it stands, the dominion of Jesus is secure. . . He is the King of the ages . . . He understands the twenty-first century as perfectly as He did the first, and is mater of the situation still. . . . "Jesus is the Lord." . . . It is the will of the Eternal "that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord."
Jesus Christ is our "way" to the Father. . . As He mounts upwards--the Son of God, the man Christ Jesus--every cloud parts, every door opens, every power yields homage; all the peers of the universe--thrones, lordships, principalities, dominions--bend before Him while He ascends from rank to rank, from realm to realm; and He virtually says, "Where I pass, My human brethren, My poor earthly friends, must pass too." The flaming sword that barred the path to Eden is put back into its sheath; the angel sentinels and heavenly warders are become "ministering spirits" to the kindred of their Lord. None can hinder, nor would wish to hinder our admittance, since He is not ashamed before His Father and the holy angels to call mankind His kindsmen.
The name of the ascended Jesus will be our password at the gates of Paradise and to the heaven of heavens. For the Son of God has said in our hearing,--has said it to the Most High God: "Father, I will that they whom Thou has given Me, be with Me where I am" ("The Ascension of Jesus," Great Sermons on the Resurrection of Christ, compiled by Wilbur Smith, pp. 189-192).
