To whom he also showed himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God.

I. THE WITNESSES.

1. Prepared and trained for the work. Not shown to all, but to those who could look at the miracle in its spiritual aspect, who could see the fulfillment of God's Word.

2. The certain knowledge of Christ's resurrection a solemn responsibility which all were not able to bear. Nothing secret but that it may come abroad. Not to the wise of this world, who know not how to use Divine secrets, but to the babes in disposition, simple, humble, self-forgetful, waiting on God.

3. The main work of Christ's servants is witnessing, not theorizing; not building up ecclesiastical structures; not seeking dominion over the faith of others; but "showing forth" the great facts. Our, preaching should be of the nature of witnessing. "Add to our seal that God is true. Although apostles had distinct duties as leaders and founders of the visible Church, they share with all the Lord's people the office of witnesses. "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord." See to it that we speak as those who "know the certainty of the things."

II. THE PROOFS. The Resurrection must be proved infallibly (τεκμηρίοις); that is, beyond all reasonable doubt. We must build on a foundation of fact and testimony. Our first teachers must be those who could say that they had tasted, handled, felt of the Word of Life (1 John 1:1-4). Now the proofs were:

1. Appearances of the risen Jesus, thirteen in number, in various circumstances, to different kinds of witnesses, and with amply sufficient tests of reality.

2. Coincidence of the facts with-the words of our Lord himself and the promises of the Old Testament.

3. Distinction of the signs and proofs of the Resurrection from any other facts; from the possible misapprehensions or illusions of disciples. It was unexpected; proved against unbelief; with growing assurance; and with concurrence of many sincere and faithful men who knew their responsibility as witnesses.

4. Jesus showed himself alive after his resurrection. The fact to which apostles testified was not the mystery of the Resurrection itself, but the simple fact that Jesus was alive. No one saw him rise, but they saw him after he was risen. They might mistake what occurred at the sepulcher; they could make no mistake in talking with a living man, handling him, eating with him, and that for forty days and on many occasions, in one another's presence. Necessity that we should set the proof of the Resurrection and risen life of Jesus first and foremost in our defense of Christianity. It is the key-stone of the arch.

III. THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST. The forty days and their influence on the first disciples, and through them on all future ages.

1. The personal presence of Jesus lifted up into a more glorious fact. The infirmities gone. The fact of his victory shining in his face. The influence of his condescension; the risen Jesus still the Friend and Companion of his people. The expectation of his return to heaven: "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God" (John 20:17). The effect on Thomas: "My Lord and my God!" The necessity that disciples should cease to "know Christ after the flesh." Henceforth they felt his presence spiritually.

2. Forty days of special instruction "concerning the kingdom of God." The history which follows corrects the view sometimes put forward that the risen Savior imparted to his apostles any body of ecclesiastical laws. Had they received them they would certainly have referred to them. He spoke of the kingdom itself, which is not meat and drink, not external ordinances and regulations, not creeds and shibboleths; but "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." He called to remembrance what he had preached. He opened their understandings to the meaning of the Old Testament. He corrected their worldly views. He showed them the relation of the gospel facts to the kingdom; that is, that he could reign by the power of these facts. "The Messiah ought to suffer, and to enter into his glory." He led them back to Calvary with new faith before he took them to Olivet. Jesus was a Teacher to the last. He is the Way, the Truth, the Life. - R.

I. THE FACT ITSELF, OR THE NOTION OF A RESURRECTION IN GENERAL. Admitting the power and providence of God, there can be nothing in it repugnant to reason, or incredible.

1. To raise a dead man to life surpasses the power of any creature; but no reason can be assigned why it should be beyond the Divine power; since the doing it involves no contradiction. He that first inspired the soul into the body, may surely be supposed capable of reuniting them.

2. Nor was it apparently in its design unworthy of God, or inconsistent with His holy will: for the ends thereof, such as were pretended by its attesters, were —

(1)Important.

(2)Good.

(3)Reasonable.

II. THE WITNESSES.

1. General considerations:(1) As to their number, it was not one or two, but many, who conspired in asserting it.(2) They were no strangers to Jesus, but persons by long conversation familiarly acquainted with Him.(3) They did aver themselves to be eye or ear-witnesses of the matter, as fully informed about it as senses could make them.(4) The chief of these witnesses, the apostles themselves, were at first so far from being credulous in this matter, that they took it for a fiction, gave no credence thereto, and were at last with difficulty persuaded of it.(5) On these grounds they boldly and concurrently aver the fact: "they spake the Word of God with boldness": and "with great power gave witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." Which things being weighed, it appears impossible that the attesters of this fact, supposing them in their wits and senses, could be ignorant therein, or mistaken about it.

2. The character of the witnesses.(1) They were persons who did (with denunciation of God's heavy judgments on the contrary practice) preach and press earnestly all kinds of goodness, sincerity, modesty, and equity, as main points of that religion which by this testimony they confirmed.(2) Their practice was answerable to their doctrine, being exemplary in all sorts of virtue and sincerity, whereby they did in effect conciliate much respect and authority to their words: the life they led was not the life of wicked impostors, but worthy of the divinest men; fit to carry on the best design.(3) They were:persons of good sense; very wise and prudent; not in the way of worldly or fleshly wisdom, to compass projects of gain or pleasure to themselves; but endued with a wisdom far more excellent, and suitable to the characters they sustained.(4) As to their purposes in this case: profit, honour, pleasure, or any worldly advantage they could not have in view; for they willingly abandoned all those things, for the sake of this very testimony incurring loss, disgrace, and pain.(5) And all such afflictions, as they knowingly exposed themselves to them, they did endure with contentedness and joy.(6) Whence it is evident enough that the satisfaction of their conscience, and expectation of future reward from God for the discharge of their duty, was all the argument that induced them to undertake this attestation, all the reason that could support them in it; neither of which could be consistent with the resolved maintenance of a falsehood.(7) And how is it conceivable that such persons should be bewitched with so passionate an affection toward a man, who died as a malefactor, that merely for his sake, or rather a vain opinion about him, they should with such obstinacy defy all the world, with its persecutions, and the punishment of hell itself.(8) Again, we may consider these witnesses to have been persons very unlikely to devise such a plot, very unfit to undertake it, very unable to manage and carry it through.

III. THEIR TESTIMONY.

1. How could such a cheat, if contrived, have so easily prospered,. and obtained so wonderful a progress?

2. The matter of their testimony, and its drift, were very implausible, such as no impostors would be likely to forge, and no hearers, without great evidence of truth, be ready to admit.

3. One would indeed think that this report, had it been false, might easily have been disproved and quashed; they who were mightily concerned, and as eagerly disposed to confute it, wanting no means of doing it.

4. As also this testimony had no human power to sustain it, so it used no sleight to convey itself into the persuasions of men" it craved no blind faith: it dared all adversaries and powers to withstand it, relying on the patronage of heaven alone.

5. Furthermore, the thing itself, had it been counterfeit, was adapted to fall of itself; the witnesses clashing together, or relenting for their crime. The advice of Gamaliel on this point had much reason in it.

6. He then who doubts the sincerity of this testimony, or rejects it as incredible, must instead of it admit stronger incredibilities.

7. To these things we may add that God Himself did signally countenance and ratify this testimony, by extraordinary powers and graces conferred on the avowers thereof, as well as by a wonderful success bestowed on them.

(F. Barrow, D. D.)

There is a strong disposition to reverence that which has been connected with the great and good. If the wood of the true Cross had been preserved, few could look upon it but with the deepest interest. It is remarkable, however, that we have few relics of Christ's days; while the museums of all civilised lands are filled with well-authenticated fragments from Greece, Rome, Babylon, Egypt. God has wisely ordered this to check the tendency to superstition and idolatry. But can no good use be made of this law of our nature? Our Church has judged that there can, and she teaches us not to seek for relics, but to remember events in Christ's life, and then leads our thoughts to the instruction they convey.

I. HOW, OR IN WHAT FORM, DID OUR LORD "SHOW HIMSELF AFTER HIS PASSION"? There was evidently some change in His body and some difference in His manner of appearing. He ate, indeed, with His disciples, yet not as one who needed food, but only to convince them of His corporeal existence. He does not seem to have lived with them familiarly as He bad before done, but came to them occasionally; and the forms of expression intimate something miraculous. "He showed Himself" as one was invisibly present, but, at will revealing Himself, like the sun shining from a cloud. Then, "He vanished out of their sight." At other times He would come when "the doors were bolted." The disciples regarded Him far otherwise than in His former state. Their accustomed free intercourse was changed for the deepest reverence. All questions concerning the nature of Christ's body must remain unanswered till we know for ourselves what a spiritual and glorified body is.

II. WHERE? Chiefly in Galilee. There had been the favoured scene of His earthly ministry, and there His followers were most numerous. With what intense interest must those lowly followers have flocked together when the summons was to meet their risen Lord! He offers to meet us in His sacraments, house, word, prayer, yet how carelessly we regard the summons I He has carried the same loving, compassionate spirit with Him to heaven, and we may share with His disciples in His Divine consolations, if we seek them aright.

III. FOR WHAT PURPOSE. To speak "of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God," i.e., His Church. They had been hitherto very dull, and Christ in these meetings gave them fuller instructions. It is probable that we have the substance of our Lord's conversations in the Acts and Epistles, for in these they would naturally embody and carry out their Master's directions. It is also very likely that many of the customs of the primitive Church were nothing more than our Lord's instructions reduced to practice. Hence we see the importance of appealing, for our own guidance, to primitive usage. If, for instance, we find immediately after the apostles' times, that infants were baptised, and nothing to oppose this in the New Testament, we might be strengthened in our conclusions, that this was a practice settled by our Lord Himself. How many points there are in civil law which are decided by such an appeal to established usage, and are not found in any written code! Many points, however, upon which our Lord dwelt in these interviews, are recorded. He promised to send them the Comforter, etc.

IV. ITS CERTAINTY. "By many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days." Our faith and hopes rest then on infallible proofs. And the certainty of the gospel increases the guilt and danger of those who neglect it. Are you living as if you believed it true?

(W. H. Lewis, D. D.)

As the faith of the Church depends on the Resurrection God has given ample evidence of the fact. But He gave none other than that which appeals to the senses — the only way of proving any fact. Even our Maker could not give us better evidence without changing radically our nature. Observe how this bears on the Romish dogma of transubstantiation. The pillar on which that rests is the assumption that the senses deceive and cannot be trusted. But this assumption would leave the Resurrection incapable of proofs. Either the evidence of the senses is a valid proof of a fact or it is not. If it is transubstantiation is false; if it is not the Resurrection is unproved. The very same evidence which proves that Christ has risen proves also that the bread and wine are not changed into Christ's body and blood. Thus the Roman apostasy cannot sustain its fundamental superstition without destroying the proof that the Redeemer has risen.

(W. Arnot, D. D.)

I. FOR THE LORD. The period of —

1. The Sabbath rest after the completion of His work of redemption.

2. The last care of the Shepherd for His disciples.

3. The joyful expectation of His approaching exaltation.

II. FOR THE DISCIPLES. The period of —

1. The last blessed intercourse with their Divine Master.

2. Quiet communion with their own heart ("Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?").

3. Earnest preparation for their apostolic mission.

III. FOR US. An emblem of —

1. The blessed life of faith with Christ in God, concealed from the world (Corinthians 3:3).

2. The blessed work of love in the hearts of our friends in looking forward to our approaching separation.

3. The expectation of hope of our heavenly perfection.

(J. P. Lange, D. D.)

Mark,

I. HOW CAREFUL OUR SAVIOUR WAS TO HAVE THE FACT OF HIS RESURRECTION CERTIFIED TO HIS DISCIPLES BEYOND THE POSSIBILITY OF DOUBT. Strictly speaking, one meeting was enough. But proofs were multiplied, as His visits were repeated. They grew familiar with His look and aspect; heard Him talk, etc.; and after all this, they could never suppose that a vision had been imposed upon them. The positiveness with which they always spoke on this subject was an important element in their preaching, and it was their Lord's purpose to build them up in a confidence which should never be shaken. Through the "forty days" a work of education was going on the fruits of which were seen in the next forty years.

II. THIS PERIOD WAS NOT ONE OF UNINTERRUPTED INTERCOURSE, but of brief meetings, followed sore-times by days, or possibly weeks, of separation. Very graciously the Lord condescended to His friends, very blessed were these seasons when they came, but there was not the companionship of former days. Now Christ stood forth in His proper character as the Divine Mediator, to whom all power was committed in heaven and earth. The apostles had to learn this truth, and act upon it. Their approaches to the Mercy-seat, while bold, were to be marked with that solemn reverence without which all worship is a mockery.

III. TIME WAS GIVEN TO TEACH THE APOSTLES MUCH OF THEIR LORD'S WILL, AND TO SEND THEM FORTH WELL EQUIPPED FOR THEIR FUTURE WORK.

1. Particular directions given from time to time. They were to tarry at Jerusalem, where, judging from past experience, they would sow their seed as upon a rock, and peril their lives for nought. From that centre light was to radiate over the wide surface of this fallen world.,

2. Special gifts were promised to them for their work and "power from on high."

3. Mistakes and prejudices were corrected.

4. The great truth was enforced, explained, anti illustrated, that their Lord's death was the world's life.Learn —

1. A lesson of patience. Think what was before Him, and how contentedly He waited for it. No hasting to His crown till all was ready. We may well suppose that there was eagerness on the part of the heavenly hosts. Their harps were ready strung, and the song was on their lips, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates," etc. But their King has work to do in this lower world; and the march of triumph must be deferred. Let us then not only put up with our crosses, but wait patiently for the good things to come. What we sow in faith we shall reap one day; and God's harvest-time is the best. We long to see the Church advancing faster in her march of triumph, to see Christ's name more honoured among ourselves. Let us not wish less fervently, but let us wait more humbly. Centuries rolled away before the Son of God was manifested, and many more may come and go before He shall come back again in glory. Ten thousand unconscious agents in different lands are doing His work, and fulfilling His pleasure.

2. To think of Christ as the apostles thought of Him. They knew Him well before as the human Friend, but now as the Divine Redeemer. In both characters may we think of Him as ascended to His throne, and realise His presence with ourselves! You must not so degrade the Saviour as to think of Him only as the world's great Prophet, or as the perfect Pattern; nor in your attempts to exalt Him, lose sight of the truth that He carried His human nature with Him to heaven. "Such an High Priest became us," etc.

(J. Hampden Gurney, M. A.)

The best proof of Christ's resurrection is a living Church, which itself is walking in a new life, and drawing life from Him who hath overcome death.

(Christlieb.)

Luke, the writer of our twofold gospel of the resurrection, was a physician, who would have been inclined and able to sift the evidences of our Lord's bodily presence and identity among His followers. The longest and best accounts of Christ's return to earth, except those of John, are by a medical expert. Special past events were referred to by the Lord, which were familiar to the disciples, such as the baptism of John. Stanley carried a boy back up the Congo who had been taken from there when quite small. Coming into the vicinity of the dwelling place of his tribe, a canoe rowed out to meet the steamer. In the boat the lad recognised his elder brother, but the latter was sceptical, and cried, "Give me some sign that I may know you." The boy who had been away answered at once, "Do you remember the crocodile? His scar is there on your right arm." So Christ to His disciples gave many proofs. His lines of thought and speech during His forty days' residence among them were in the familiar phrase of the past, such as the "things concerning the kingdom of God." There might have been good evidences of Jesus's resurrection if He had appeared in China or under the Southern Cross or in the clearings of the Danubian forests. Had He gone there after He came from the grave, by the by the tidings would have reached the outer world of some strange and illustrious personage who manifested Himself at one place and another, just as a comet is reported in the sky. Yet we should always be grateful that the Lord showed Himself alive to those apostles "whom He had chosen." There was the possibility of verification which we so often ask for.

(W. R. Campbell.)

A host of reasons suggest themselves as to why He should at once enter into His glory.

I. EARTH AT BEST COULD HAVE BEEN BUT A VERY DREARY HOME FOR HIM WHO HAD COME FROM THE PARADISE OF GOD. For Him, the high King of Glory, we could find no fit entertainment. What society was there for Him, the all-wise? Thou hast given Thy life, O Lord, O glorious Son of God. Thou canst give no more. And where upon this guilty earth is any rest for Thee now since that dreadful Cross has cast its shadow over all the land!

II. THEN CHRIST HIMSELF LONGED FOR REST. He who dwelt in the bosom of the Father was an exile here.

III. THEN, AGAIN, THERE WAITED FOR CHRIST HIS GREAT TRIUMPH, that to which He has looked forward during all His life-work, finding in it strength and consolation. "For the joy that was set before Him He endured the Cross, despising the shame."

IV. DELAY WOULD BE WORSE THAN UNFITTING. If His reign means the world's salvation, gifts for men, the proclaiming of the gospel with the power of the Holy Ghost, dare He linger still upon earth? No, it is not human, this delay, Not our thought nor our way is this. It is all Divine — just like our blessed Lord. This lingering for the forty days is the crowning proof of His tender regard for His little flock. He who had laid down His life for them is loath to leave them. He must tarry with them till He has made them feel that He is just the same friendly, brotherly Jesus that He has ever been, caring for them in their work, watching them with a yearning pity, stooping to kindle a fire for their warmth and to cook the fish for their meal, and then to bid them come and dine.

V. Then again, THESE DAYS WERE THE NECESSARY PREPARATION FOR THE ASCENSION. A very tender and beautiful upleading of the disciples. Then with this exalted vision of their glorious Lord filling all their soul they went back to Jerusalem. Now they were able worthily to celebrate the Ascension. They returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Now all the familiar songs of triumphs come in to tell of the coronation of the King. Now they heard the rapturous anthem of the angels, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in." So we must know Him. And thus does He seek to lead us in our weakness and dimness of faith into the knowledge of Himself. So day by day does He lead us on our way, ordering our steps that life may make more room for Him, and that He may give us Himself as our salvation and our strength.

(M. G. Pearse.)

Men now-a-days yearn for a repetition of Pentecost without the trouble of preparing for it. The text teaches that that must be preceded by prolonged communion with Jesus.

I. THIS COMMUNION GAVE THE DISCIPLES THE FULL PERSUASION THAT CHRIST WAS THE SON OF GOD. They held such a thought before, but the crucifixion had shaken it. The resurrection however restored it and the forty days intercourse confirmed it. No Pentecost without the mastering conviction that Jesus is the Son of God with power.

II. Along with these great thoughts of Christ's Godhead THE INTERCOURSE BROUGHT THE MOST DELIGHTFUL CONSCIOUSNESS THAT JESUS WAS STILL THEIR BROTHER. He called them by that name, and demonstrated his Brotherhood by many infallible proofs. The realisation of this relationship by love-begetting certitude of Christ's presence is necessary to Pentecost. The Holy Spirit simply gives us power to bear witness to facts of which we are sure.

III. THE CHARACTER OF THIS INTERCOURSE.

1. It was discriminating. Christ dealt with each man as each required Peter, Thomas, John, etc.

2. It was self-discovering. Unsuspected faults were revealed and hearts were moved to self-renunciation.

3. It was educational.

4. It was encouraging. Knowing what we do of the disciples Pentecost would have been an impossibility before the forty days. So now we all need to be dealt with one by one, to know ourselves, to be humbled, taught, and inspired.

IV. THE SUBJECT DWELT UPON. "The kingdom of God" — its spirituality, glory, universality, final triumph. This was the matter which they had by the Spirit's inspiration to preach. Hence they must know about it from the King. Hence Christ must fire our minds with the same thought before the Spirit can fire our hearts to proclaim it.

(J. P. Gledstone.)

I. JESUS HAD COME BACK FROM THE MYSTERIOUS CHANGE, BUT HE HAD FORGOTTEN NOTHING — neither the places, the dear familiar shores, the roads, the mountain paths, the lake, and the hills, the hallowed spots of His life-work. Now, as to the persons, Martha and Mary, and Peter, and the other disciples, were not only still remembered, but still loved. It will be so with us when we also come back from the mysterious regions of the grave. The present life will he something more than a dream. It will be a living reality.

II. JESUS HAD COME BACK FROM THE MYSTERIOUS CHANGE, BUT HIS LOVE REMAINED THE SAME. It will be the same with us. When we have crossed to the other side, we shall still bear with us the fond remembrances of past love. The affections will not be destroyed.

III. JESUS HAD COME BACK FROM THE MYSTERIOUS CHANGE, BUT HIS PHYSICAL NATURE REMAINED. And His human nature was visible, tangible, capable of taking food. Our physical powers will, in a certain manner, remain with us after death. There will be conversation and action in the same way as at present. Wherein, then, will be the change? Our human bodies will not be destroyed, but they will be changed. We may gather some particulars from the resurrection of our Lord.

1. It will be the same body fully developed. It is evident to all that our human bodies are cramped and dwarfed by circumstances. They are but elementary, imperfect organisations. If they were perfect they would not change. If they were perfect they could not deteriorate. If perfect they could not die. That they are undeveloped is observable from the capacities which they possess. How strong and mighty the body may become! What we call maturity of character is in reality only its commencement. With regard to the body, take its power of progression, limited to, say, four miles an hour — a rate which would require millions of years to reach the nearest star. The same body will have all its powers fully developed to their utmost capacity.

2. It will be the same body rendered immaterial.

(Homilist.)

The period is a significant space of time in Scripture, and is frequently allotted as a term of probation before some great event which concerned God's kingdom. For forty days and forty nights rain was sent upon the earth as the prelude to the Deluge. Before the giving of the law Moses was in the Mount forty days and forty nights; and when after the destruction of the first tables, the law was renewed again, Moses was with the Lord forty days and nights. The same space of time was spent by the spies who were sent forth to survey Canaan the type of the spiritual inheritance of the people of God. For forty days and nights Elijah journeyed before he came by Divine direction to Horeb the Mount of God. The time of probation and repentance given to Nineveh was a like space of time. When we come to the New Testament we note the same phenomenon. Forty days after His birth our Lord was presented in the Temple. Before He entered on the work of His ministry after His baptism He was forty days tempted in the wilderness. So now He abode on earth forty days before His ascension. What significancy there may be in the number we are not informed: the recurrence, however, of this space of time, usually in connection with events of extraordinary importance, would lead us to believe that there is a mystery in the number. Nor is this diminished when in parallelism with the forty days' wandering (Numbers 14:33, 34) Jerusalem had its forty years of trial and space for repentance after the Crucifixion;and not until that period had been accomplished was it destroyed by the Romans. For forty days during which He showed Himself alive they were obdurate, and forty years afterwards each day for a year came the destruction of the nation.

(J. Lightfoot, D. D.)

1. To Mary Magdalene (Mark 16.; John 20.)

2. To the women who had first visited the sepulchre, by whom the disciples were summoned to meet Christ in Galilee (Matthew 28:1-10).

3. To Peter (Luke 24:33-35; 1 Corinthians 15:5).

4. To Cleophas and another on the way to Emmaus (Mark 16:12; Luke 24:13-32).

5. To the eleven in the absence of Thomas, at Jerusalem (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-25).

6. "Eight days afterwards" to the disciples, Thomas being present (Mark 16:14; John 20:26-29; 1 Corinthians 15:6).

7. To certain of the disciples when fishing on the lake of Galilee (John 21:1-24).

8. To James (1 Corinthians 15:7).

9. To the apostles, and probably the whole body of disciples on a certain mountain in Galilee (1 Corinthians 15:6).

10. On the morning of the ascension (Luke 24:43-51, and text). Speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

I. OF THE CHURCH MILITANT — the kingdom of God on earth.

1. Its governance.

2. The means of its extension.

II. OF THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT — the kingdom of God in heaven.

1. Its glories.

2. Themeans of obtaining them.

(W. Denton, M. A.)

1. Its Founder (ver. 1).

2. Its laws (ver. 2).

3. Its privilege, the personal presence of the Holy Spirit (vers. 4, 5).

4. Its extent, the whole world (ver. 8).

5. Its King, a risen and ascended Saviour (ver. 9).

6. Its hope, a returning Christ.

Let us reflect for a little on the characteristics of Christ's risen appearances to His disciples. I note then in the first place that they were intermittent, and not continuous — here and there, to Mary Magdalene at one time; to the disciples journeying to Emmaus, to the assembled twelve, to five hundred brethren at one, at other times. In one place in the Gospel narrative we read that our Lord replied thus to a section of His adversaries: "In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven." Now we often read of angelic appearances in Holy Scripture, in the Old and New Testament alike. We read too of appearances of Old Testament saints, as of Moses and Elias on the Mount of Transfiguration. And they are all like these of our Lord Jesus Christ after His resurrection. They are sudden, independent of time or space or material barriers, and yet are visible and tangible though glorified. Such in Genesis was Abraham's vision of angels at the tent door, when they did eat and drink with him.

I. NOW LET US HERE NOTICE THE NATURALNESS OF THIS QUERY CONCERNING THE RESTORATION OF THE KINGDOM. The apostles evidently shared the national aspirations of the Jews at that time. We can scarcely realise or understand the force and naturalness of this question, "Dost Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" as put by these Galilean peasants till one takes up Archbishop Laurence's translation of the book of Enoch, and sees how this eager expectation dominated every other feeling in the Jewish mind of that period, and was burned into the very secrets of their existence by the tyranny of Roman rule. They were thinking simply of such a kingdom as the book of Enoch foretold. This very point seems to us one of the special and most striking evidences for the inspiration and supernatural direction of the writers of the New Testament. Their natural, purely human, and national conception of the kingdom of God was one thing their final, their divinely taught and inspired conception of that kingdom is quite another thing. Some persons maintain that Christianity in its doctrines, organisation, and discipline was but the outcome of natural forces working in the world at that epoch. But take this doctrine alone, "My kingdom is not of this world," announced by Christ before Pilate, and impressed upon the apostles by revelation after revelation, and experience after experience, which they only very gradually assimilated and understood. Where did it come from? How was it the outcome of natural forces? The whole tendency of Jewish thought was in the opposite direction. Nationalism of the most narrow, particular, and limited kind was the predominant idea, specially among those Galilean provincials who furnished the vast majority of the earliest disciples of Jesus Christ. How could men like them have developed the idea of the Catholic Church, boundless as the earth itself, limited by no hereditary or fleshly bonds, and trammelled by no circumstances of race, climate, or kindred? The magnificence of the idea, the grandeur of the conception, is the truest and most sufficient evidence of the divinity of its origin. If this higher knowledge, this nobler conception, this spiritualised ideal, came not from God, whence did it come? I do not think we can press this point of the catholicity and universality of the Christian idea and the Christian society too far. We cannot possibly make too much of it. There were undoubtedly Christian elements, or elements whence Christian ideas were developed, prevalent in the current Judaism of the day. But it was not among these, or such as these, that the catholic ideas of the gospel took their rise.

II. IN THIS PASSAGE AGAIN THERE LIES HIDDEN THE WISEST PRACTICAL TEACHING FOR THE CHURCH OF ALL AGES. We have warnings against the folly which seeks to unravel the future and penetrate the veil of darkness by which our God in mercy shrouds the unknown. We have taught us the benefits which attend the uncertainties of our Lord's return and of the end of this present dispensation. "It is not for you to know times or seasons."

1. The wisdom of the Divine answer will best be seen if we take the matter thus, and suppose our Lord to have responded to the apostolic appeal fixing some definite date for the winding-up of man's probation state, and for that manifestation of the sons of God which will take place at His appearing and His kingdom. Our Lord, in fixing upon some such definite date, must have chosen one that was either near at hand or else one that was removed far off into the distant future. In either of these cases He must have defeated the great object of the Divine society which He was founding. That object was simply this, to teach men how to lead the life of God amid the children of men. The Christian religion has indeed sometimes been taunted with being an unpractical religion. But is this the case? Has Christianity proved itself unpractical? If so, what has placed Christendom at the head of civilisation? Compare Christendom and India from the simply practical point of view, and which can show the better record?

2. Our Lord's answer to His apostles was couched in words suited to develop this practical aspect of His religion. It refused to minister to mere human curiosity, and left men uncertain as to the time of His return, that they might be fruitful workers in the great field of life. And now behold what ill results would have followed had He acted otherwise! The Master in fact says, It is not well for you to know the times or seasons, because such knowledge would strike at the root of practical Christianity. Uncertainty as to the time of the end is the most healthful state for the followers of Christ.

3. There are in the New Testament, taken as a whole, two contrasted lines of prophecy concerning the second coming of Christ. If in one place the Lord Jesus speaks as if the date of His coming were fixed for His own generation and age, "Verily, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away till all these things shall be fulfilled," in the very same context He indicates that it is only after a long time that the Lord of the servants will return, to take account of their dealings with the property entrusted to them. Suppose Christ had responded to the spirit of the apostolic query, "Dost Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" and fixed the precise date of His coming? He would in that case have altogether defeated the great end of His own work and labour. Suppose He had fixed it a thousand years from the time of His ascension. Then indeed the doctrine of Christ's second coming would have lost all personal and practical power over the lives of the generation of Christians then living, or who should live during the hundreds of years which were to elapse till the date appointed. The day of their death, the uncertainty of life, these would be the inspiring motives to activity and devotion felt by the early Christians; while, as a matter of fact, St. Paul never appeals to either of them, but ever appeals to the coming of Christ and His appearing to judgment as the motives to Christian zeal and diligence. But a more serious danger in any such prediction lurks behind. What would have been the result of any such precise prophecy upon the minds of the Christians who lived close to the time of its fulfilment? It would have at once defeated the great end of the Christian religion, as we have already defined it. The near approach of the great final catastrophe would have completely paralysed all exertion, and turned the members of Christ's Church into idle, useless, unpractical religionists. We all know how the near approach of any great event, how the presence of any great excitement, hinders life's daily work.

4. Again and again has history verified and amp]y justified the wisdom of the Master's reply, "It is not for you to know times or seasons." It was justified in apostolic experience. The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians is a commentary on our Lord's teaching in this passage. The language of St. Paul completely justifies our line of argument. He tells us that the spirits of the Thessalonians had been upset, the natural result of a great expectation had been experienced as we might humanly have predicted. The beginning of the second chapter of his Second Epistle proves this: "Now we beseech you, brethren, touching the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto Him; to the end that ye be not quickly shaken from your mind, nor yet be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by epistle as from us, as that the day of the Lord is present." See here how he dwells on mental perturbation as the result of high-strung expectation; and that is bad, for mental peace, not mental disturbance, is the portion of Christ's people.

III. Christ, after He had reproved the spirit of vain curiosity which strikes at the root of all practical effort, then indicates THE SOURCE OF THEIR STRENGTH AND THE SPHERE OF ITS ACTIVITY. "Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you."

(G. T. Stokes, D. D.)

His thought and teaching concerning the kingdom was manifestly different from theirs. Their idea was narrow, small, and limited to Israel after the flesh, while His idea was large, and universally included all peoples, nations, and languages. It is always difficult for us to rise out of our own narrow limitations, and take in God's great thoughts and purposes. This narrowness of mind on our part is always obtruding itself on God's great thoughts; indeed, they are higher than ours as the heavens are higher than the earth. God's thoughts and purposes of mercy have in them a wideness like the wideness of the sea, while ours are bounded by local surroundings. As we come into a closer and more intimate fellowship with Jesus, we shall also come into a larger and more godlike view of things, both in heaven and earth.

Now that Jesus was about to depart, it might reasonably be expected that His parting instructions would be concerning that kingdom which He was to rule as the Invisible Head, and they were to administer as the visible agents.

I. THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IS A KINGDOM. With Christ and His apostles it was never less. Christ did not come as an ecclesiastic to found a new sect, nor as a philosopher to construct a new school of thought, nor as a democratic leader to form a new social club or to draw up a new social programme. He came as a sovereign to establish a new Kingdom of Truth, of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Hence the apostles felt that they had more to do than to secure a place for Christianity side by side with Judaism and Paganism — they claimed universal sovereign supremacy. Hence, again, they had no philosophy to set over against the school of Hillel or the school of Aristotle. True they reasoned, but that was only because the kingdom rested on a rational and not on a military basis, and its subjects were to be won by the force of persuasion and not by the force of arms. And hence lastly the apostles entered into no revolutionary plots, nor asked any man to rise above or turn aside from the secular occupation; but told slave and governor alike to abide in the callings wherein they were called as servants of the Lord Christ. Note

1. The grandeur of this conception. Sects, systems, programmes are all limited, and one after another pass away. Christians are citizens of a commonwealth which transcends space and outlives time. Compared with the dignity of the Christian that of the proudest autocrat is mean. Here all subjects are royal. The divine right of kings, a myth elsewhere, is a reality here. Christ "hath made us kings and priests unto God."

2. The responsibility.

Kings by virtue of their office are under an obligation to live royally. Let us then walk worthy of Him who hath called us to His kingdom and glory.

II. THE THINGS PERTAINING TO THIS KINGDOM.

1. The King. Christ Jesus. God and man who occupies the throne because He became obedient to the death of the Cross (Philippians 2.).

2. The means of entrance into this kingdom — the new birth (John 3.)

3. The conditions of continuance in the kingdom.

(1)Loyalty to the King.

(2)Love to our fellow subjects.

(3)Endeavours to extend the boundaries of the realm.

4. The glorious prospects of the kingdom. "The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God," etc. "He shall reign from sea to sea," etc.

(J. W. Burn.)

The patriarchal, the Jewish, and the Christian dispensations, are evidently but the unfolding of one general plan. In the first we see the folded bud; in the second the expanded leaf; in the third the blossom and the fruit. And now, how sublime the idea of a religion thus commencing in the earliest dawn of time; holding on its way through all the revolutions of kingdoms and the vicissitudes of the race; receiving new forms, but always identical in spirit; and, finally, expanding and embracing in one great brotherhood the whole family of man! Who can doubt that such a religion was from God?

(Mark Hopkins.)

Alphaeus, Andrew, Barsabas, Bartholomew, David, James, Jesus, John, Joseph, Judas, Jude, Justus, Mary, Matthew, Matthias, Peter, Philip, Simon, Theophilus, Thomas, ZelotesAkeldama, Field of Blood, Galilee, Jerusalem, Judea, Olivet, SamariaAlive, Appeared, Appearing, Clear, Concern, Convincing, Death, During, Forty, God's, Infallible, Intervals, Kingdom, Passion, Period, Pertaining, Present, Presented, Proofs, Reign, Shewed, Showed, Shown, Signs, Space, Speaking, Spoke, Suffered, Suffering, Sure, Teaching1. Christ, preparing his apostles to the beholding of his ascension, .
4. gathers them together unto the Mount of Olives,
6. commands them to expect in Jerusalem the sending down of the Holy Spirit,
9. and ascends into heaven in their sight
10. After his ascension they are warned by two angels to depart, and to set their minds upon his second coming.
12. They accordingly return, and, giving themselves to prayer,
23. choose Matthias apostle in the place of Judas.

Acts 1:3

     1654   numbers, 11-99
     2376   kingdom of God, coming
     2560   Christ, resurrection
     4945   history
     5472   proof, evidence
     7751   persuasion
     8105   assurance, basis of
     9110   after-life

Acts 1:1-3

     1436   reality

Acts 1:3-4

     9311   resurrection, of Christ

June 3. "Ye Shall Receive the Power of the Holy Ghost" (Acts i. 8).
"Ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost" (Acts i. 8). There is power for us if we have the Holy Ghost. God wants us to speak to men so that they will feel it, so that they will never forget it. God means every Christian to be effective, to count in the actual records and results of Christian work. Dear friends, God sent you here to be a power yourself. There is not one of you but is an essential wheel of the machinery, and can accomplish all that God calls you to. I solemnly believe that there …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Ascension Day
Text: Acts 1, 1-11. 1 The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, 2 until the day in which he was received up, after that he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit unto the apostles whom he had chosen: 3 to whom he also showed himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God: 4 and being assembled together with them, he charged them not …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

The Forty Days
'To whom also He shewed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.'--ACTS i. 3. The forty days between the Resurrection and the Ascension have distinctly marked characteristics. They are unlike to the period before them in many respects, but completely similar in others; they have a preparatory character throughout; they all bear on the future work of the disciples, and hearten them for the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

The Unknown To-Morrow
A New Year's Sermon 'It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power.'--ACTS i. 7. The New Testament gives little encouragement to a sentimental view of life. Its writers had too much to do, and too much besides to think about, for undue occupation with pensive remembrances or imaginative forecastings. They bid us remember as a stimulus to thanksgiving and a ground of hope. They bid us look forward, but not along the low levels of earth and its changes. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

The Theme of Acts
'The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach. 2. Until the day in which He was taken up.'--ACTS i. 1, 2. 'And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, 31. Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.' --ACTS xxviii. 30, 31. So begins and so ends this Book. I connect the commencement and the close, because I think …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

The Ascension
'The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2. Until the day in which He was taken up, after that He through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the Apostles whom He had chosen: 3. To whom also He shewed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: 4. And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

The Apostolic Witnesses
'Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us ... must one be ordained to be a witness with us of His resurrection.' --ACTS i. 21, 22. The fact of Christ's Resurrection was the staple of the first Christian sermon recorded in this Book of the Acts of the Apostles. They did not deal so much in doctrine; they did not dwell very distinctly upon what we call, and rightly call, the atoning death of Christ; out they proclaimed what they had …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

The Ascension: Back Home Again Until -- --
Tarry ye--Go ye: the Jerusalem meeting--the walk to Olives--not Palestine only, but a world--the last word--upward--seen no more. Coming again: gazing upward, Acts 1:10, 11.--a continuation upward--the Olivet outlook. …
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus

The Parting Promises of the Saviour.
(On Ascension Day.) TEXT: ACTS i. 6-11. THE great event that we commemorate to-day was no doubt something very different to the disciples at that time from what it is to us. They had hardly recovered from the stunned condition into which His death had thrown them; they had hardly come to realize calmly their pain at His separation from them; at least, they had certainly not yet learned to look at it in the right way, for they regarded it as the ruin of His whole work on earth--when His joyful resurrection …
Friedrich Schleiermacher—Selected Sermons of Schleiermacher

The Mystery of Iniquity
"The mystery of iniquity doth already work." 2 Thess. 2:7. 1. Without inquiring how far these words refer to any particular event in the Christian Church, I would at present take occasion from them to consider that important question, -- In what manner the mystery of iniquity hath wrought among us till it hath well-nigh covered the whole earth. 2. It is certain that "God made man upright;" perfectly holy and perfectly happy: But by rebelling against God, he destroyed himself, lost the favour and …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

Witnessing Better than Knowing the Future
"When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."--Acts 1:6-8. THESE ARE AMONG THE LAST WORDS of …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 39: 1893

Tenth Day for God's Spirit on Our Missionaries
WHAT TO PRAY.--For God's Spirit on our Missionaries "What the world needs to-day is, not only more missionaries, but the outpouring of God's Spirit on everyone whom He has sent out to work for Him in the foreign field." "Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be My witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth."--ACTS i. 8. God always gives His servants power equal to the work He asks of them. Think of the greatness and difficulty of this work,--casting out …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

The Propagation of Christianity.
IN this argument, the first consideration is the fact -- in what degree, within what time, and to what extent, Christianity actually was propagated. The accounts of the matter which can be collected from our books are as follow: A few days after Christ's disappearance out of the world, we find an assembly of disciples at Jerusalem, to the number of "about one hundred and twenty;" (Acts i. 15.) which hundred and twenty were probably a little association of believers, met together not merely as believers …
William Paley—Evidences of Christianity

The Second Coming of Christ.
When Jesus was taken up into heaven and a cloud had received him out of sight, two heavenly visitants appeared unto the men of Galilee and said, "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Acts 1:11. Jesus went up in a cloud and he is to come again in like manner as he went up. "And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory." Mark 13:26. No one knows the exact time of his coming. …
Charles Ebert Orr—The Gospel Day

Other New Testament Names for "Being Filled with the Spirit. "
That we may see how full the New Testament is of this blessing, and that we may the better understand what it is and how it is obtained, let us just glance at some other terms used by the Holy Ghost when speaking of it. 1. "Baptized with the Holy Ghost." "Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence" (Acts i. 5). See also Acts xi. 16, Matt. iii. 11, Mark i. 8, Luke iii. 16, John i. 33. Now, though "baptized" and "filled" are sometimes convertible terms, it is instructive to note …
John MacNeil—The Spirit-Filled Life

Prayer-Equipment for Preachers
"Go back! Back to that upper room; back to your knees; back to searching of heart and habit, thought and life; back to pleading, praying, waiting, till the Spirit of the Lord floods the soul with light, and you are endued with power from on high. Then go forth in the power of Pentecost, and the Christ-life shall be lived, and the works of Christ shall be done. You shall open blind eyes, cleanse foul hearts, break men's fetters, and save men's souls. In the power of the indwelling Spirit, miracles …
Edward M. Bounds—The Weapon of Prayer

Interpretation of Prophecy.
1. The scriptural idea of prophecy is widely removed from that of human foresight and presentiment. It is that of a revelation made by the Holy Spirit respecting the future, always in the interest of God's kingdom. It is no part of the plan of prophecy to gratify vain curiosity respecting "the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power." Acts 1:7. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God"--this is its key-note. In its form it is carefully adapted to this great end. …
E. P. Barrows—Companion to the Bible

Mount Olivet. The Mount of Olives, 2 Samuel 15:30
Zechariah 14:4. In the Rabbins commonly, The Mount of Oil. "The mount called the mount of Olives, lying over against the city, is distant five furlongs." But Luke saith, Acts 1:12, "Then they returned from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath-day's journey." But now a sabbath-day's journey contained eight furlongs, or a whole mile. Neither yet, for all this, doth Luke fight against Josephus. For this last measures the space to the first foundation of Olivet; the other, to that …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

The Resurrection of Christ.
The resurrection of Christ from the dead is reported by the four Gospels, taught in the Epistles, believed throughout Christendom, and celebrated on every "Lord's Day," as an historical fact, as the crowning miracle and divine seal of his whole work, as the foundation of the hopes of believers, as the pledge of their own future resurrection. It is represented in the New Testament both as an act of the Almighty Father who raised his Son from the dead, [209] and as an act of Christ himself, who had …
Philip Schaff—History of the Christian Church, Volume I

The Acts of the Apostles.
Comp. § 82. 1. Critical Treatises. M. Schneckenburger: Zweck der Apostelgeschichte. Bern, 1841. Schwanbeck: Quellen der Ap. Gesch. Darmstadt, 1847. Ed. Zeller: Contents and Origin of the Acts of the Apostles. Stuttg., 1854; trsl. by Jos. Dare, 1875-76, London, 2 vols. Lekebusch: Composition u. Entstehung der Ap. Gesch. Gotha, 1854. Klostermann: Vindiciae Lucancae. Göttingen, 1866. Arthur König (R. C.): Die Aechtheit der Ap. Gesch. Breslau, 1867. J. R. Oertel: Paulus in der Ap. Gesch. …
Philip Schaff—History of the Christian Church, Volume I

The Church and Her Mission, or the Three Constitutional Synods, 1760-1775
. As we enter on the closing stages of our journey, the character of the landscape changes; and, leaving behind the wild land of romance and adventure, we come out on the broad, high road of slow but steady progress. The death of Zinzendorf was no crushing blow. At first some enemies of the Brethren rejoiced, and one prophet triumphantly remarked: "We shall now see an end of these Moravians." But that time the prophet spoke without his mantle. Already the Brethren were sufficiently strong to realize …
J. E. Hutton—History of the Moravian Church

Ascension Day. This Same Jesus which is Taken up from You into Heaven, Shall So Come, in Like Manner as Ye have Seen Him Go into Heaven.
This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven. Herr auf Erden muss ich leiden [92]Neumann. 1700. trans. by Catherine Winkworth, 1855 Lord, on earth I dwell in pain; Here in anguish I must lie; Wherefore leav'st Thou me again, Why ascendest Thou on high? Take me, take me hence with Thee, Or abide, Lord, still in me; Let Thy love and gifts be left, That I be not all bereft. Leave Thy heart with me behind, Take mine hence with …
Catherine Winkworth—Lyra Germanica: The Christian Year

Power "In" and "Upon. "
You remember that strange, half-involuntary "forty years" of Moses in the "wilderness" of Midian, when he had fled from Egypt. You remember, too, the almost equally strange years of retirement in "Arabia" by Paul, when, if ever, humanly speaking, instant action was needed. And pre-eminently you remember the amazing charge of the ascending Lord to the disciples, "Tarry at Jerusalem." Speaking after the manner of men, one could not have wondered if out-spoken Peter, or fervid James had said: "Tarry, …
Dwight L. Moody—Secret Power

St. Ignatius (Ad 116)
When our Lord ascended into Heaven, He left the government of His Church to the Apostles. We are told that during the forty days between His rising from the grave and His ascension, He gave commandments unto the Apostles, and spoke of the things belonging to the kingdom of God (Acts i. 2f). Thus they knew what they were to do when their Master should be no longer with them; and one of the first things which they did, even without waiting until His promise of sending the Holy Ghost should be fulfilled, …
J. C. Roberston—Sketches of Church History, from AD 33 to the Reformation

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