Acts 1:10-11 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;… Note here — I. OUR LORD'S UNCHANGED IDENTITY. After having been separated by years of time and leagues of space from a familiar friend, if a reunion is anticipated each will probably speculate on the change which the interval has wrought in the other. "He will have formed new friendships and contracted fresh habits; another generation has sprung up since we were companions, and the old links no longer exist; he can hardly feel for me as he once did." But no such surmises can mingle with our thoughts of Jesus. "There is one Lord Jesus Christ," and but one. The ascended and coming Saviour is the same who came and suffered (Ephesians 4:9). A native Indian preacher was met on his way to Church by two young English officers bent on sport. They asked him, "How is Jesus Christ to-day?" Astonished that two young men from the country who sent the Bible should take the sacred name in vain, he gently rebuked them, but added, "If you really want to know how Jesus Christ is, He is the 'same yesterday, to-day, and for ever'" — a word fitly spoken which led the young men to the Saviour. 1. Jesus Christ is the same in — (1) The perfections of His nature. (2) The tenderness of His sympathy. (3) The plenteousness of His grace. (4) The extent and perpetuity of His rule.Since His ascension those who have seen Him declare that He retains His identity — Stephen, Paul (1 Corinthians 9:1), John at Patmos. As He still bears the marks of His suffering, so He retains sympathy for every member of His body. Although "by seraph hosts adored, He to earth's lowest cares is still awake." 2. So it is with our friends who have gone homo. They have not lost their individuality — only their mortality and sin. They have not melted into the infinite azure. Moses and Elias on the Mount of Transfiguration were the same as in Hebrew story. II. THE CERTAINTY AND MANNER OF HIS RETURN. 1. He continually revisits His people. (1) Spiritually. "The King Himself draws near and feasts His saints." (2) Representatively. The angel of death is His messenger calling His people home. 2. He is coming. (1) Personally. (2) Visibly. (3) Gloriously.Not as first He came, a helpless infant, but a glorious conqueror (Daniel 7:13; Revelation 1:7; Revelation 14:14). (R. Lewis.) Parallel Verses KJV: And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; |
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