One of the most intensely interesting occasions
for the disciples of the Master was when He, their Saviour and
Lord, "was taken up and a cloud received
Him out of their sight." He had given "many infallible
proofs" of His
resurrection, "being seen of them forty
days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of
God." Acts
1:3. Before His death He had instructed
them concerning His return to the Father. That knowledge had brought
grief and sadness to their troubled hearts.
But He did not leave them without hope: "Let not your heart
be
troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in
Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so,
I
would have told you. I go to prepare a place
for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again,
and receive you unto Myself; that where I am,
there ye may be also."
Absorbed with the idea of the immediate
establishment of His kingdom, they were poorly prepared to grasp
all the truth He tried to set before them. They thought that the
right was His to reign as king; they desired that He
should be king, and they were ready to give
Him the homage of loving hearts. But a little later we see their
King a
helpless victim on Calvary's cross, and
their hopes dying within them. But now the scene has changed.
The
bands of death have been broken, and He that
was dead is alive again, and is once more with them. They hear
His own sweet voice; they listen to the gracious words that fall
from His lips; and by His resurrection they were
begotten "again unto a lively hope."
1 Peter 1:3. He bade them go into all the world and preach the
gospel to
every creature, but how little did they comprehend
the meaning of all that! "Lord, wilt thou at this time,"
said
they, "restore again the kingdom to Israel?"
Acts 1:6. "Ye shall receive power," said He, "after
that the Holy
Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses
unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
In this commission He entrusted to them,
and through them to us, a mighty work to be accomplished--a work
beyond the power of man to perform. He bade
them go; the command was imperative; but, thanks be to His dear
name, before the command was the promise of
power to perform it. "Ye shall receive power" and then
you can "be witnesses unto Me." Acts 1:8. St. Matthew
presents the same thought and in precisely the same order. "Jesus
came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me in
heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,...and,
lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."
Why were they to go? Because He had commanded it. How were they
to fulfill this high and holy commission, and do this work which
was beyond man's power to perform? The answer is found in this,
that He had promised to be with them till the end, and He who
made the promise possessed all power, and had said, "Ye shall
receive power" and "ye shall be witnesses unto Me."
"And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld,
He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight."
Shortly before this He bade them tarry "in
the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high."
But
now what a spectacle is this! He, their
great Leader in whom they trusted, is "taken up" and
a cloud received
"Him out of their sight," and they--they
so poor and weak and erring--are left to carry on the mightiest
work ever
committed to mortals. I do not wonder that
those disciples tarried in Jerusalem, and prayed till the day
of
Pentecost came; for just in proportion as they
felt that the command to do the work was imperative, so must they
have realized that Divine power would be a
necessity. And when in response to their prayers and their faith,
that
power came and they rehearsed before the people
the recent scenes of Calvary, and presented in its simplicity
the Gospel of Christ, the effect of that power was seen in the
conversion of three thousand souls on that same day. And the same
power which existed then exists still, and awaits the demands
of the people of God today. Personal consciousness on our part
that without Him we can do nothing, and a self-surrender to His
will, is the pathway that leads to success in the work assigned
us; and the result will be the salvation of souls, and glory and
honour to His name who has promised to endue His servants with
power from on high.
