May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in His Word. Let
us turn to the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1, and we'll read verses
10 and 11. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter
1, and verse 10 and 11. And while they looked steadfastly
toward heaven, as he went up, Behold, two men stood by them
in white apparel, which also said, ye men of Galilee, why
stand ye gazing up 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. This occasion was one of the
great occasions in the history of the world and it is a wonderful
occasion for the Church of God to think upon and to meditate
upon and to praise God for because it is so very clear here that
the Lord Jesus indeed had risen from the dead He conquered sin,
death, hell and the grave. And then he lived for those 40
years on this earth. Many people had seen him. And
then after those 40 days, he was taken up into heaven. There to remain until that great
day when he returns. It is very important to think
that when the Lord was taken up from this earth into glory,
there were only a handful of people that witnessed his ascension. But when he returns, everyone
will see him. Everyone that has ever been born
into this world will see him. no one will be able to hide no
one will be able to escape but every eye shall see him well
we should think on these things because they are very real and
as sure as the Lord rose from the dead and as sure as he ascended
up into heaven so sure it is that he will come again and really
the The words that drew my attention to this text were just three
very simple words. This same Jesus. And when we think of that, this same Jesus will appear in
all his glory on that day when he returns as the same body that
he went up on this day when he was indeed at Bethany and he
was taken up. It's wonderful to think the Saviour
is in glory now. And what is he doing? He's interceding
for us. He sat upon the right hand of
the Father. And as we pray to the Holy Father,
he takes our prayers. and he presents them to his father. It's a wonderful, glorious truth
to know that we have such a High Priest. We only have to go back
to the Old Testament and read there the many ceremonies which
had to be carried out so true and so carefully. Indeed, the
High Priest was only privileged to go into the most holy of holies
where God dwelt in that cloud above the mercy seat on that
one occasion in the year. It was, of course, a very special
day. It was a very important day. But now today, what a wonderful
blessing is ours that we can come to our God at any time Any
hour of the day, any moment of the day, we can pray to our God. It's something that we often
fail, I'm sure, to really appreciate and to really be thankful for.
And yet, it is so. This same Jesus is now seated
on the throne in glory. He knows everything that's occurring
and everything that people are thinking It's really totally
beyond our natural understanding to think that we have such a
God who knows everything that we ever have thought, everything
that we will think, everything that we thought, even while we're
in chapel here tonight. The Lord knows exactly what it
is. This is the powerful, all-powerful
God that we have to deal with. How often people reduce Almighty
God to someone like themselves. It's good to contemplate and
realise when the Prophet Isaiah saw, had that vision, he saw
the God high and lifted up. He was under no misapprehension
about the greatness of God. And it would be a good thing
for you and me today if we have a right comprehension about the
greatness of God. And to realize that God holds
our breath, our life, in his hand. We hear of and we see,
don't we, people who suddenly pass away, their life, their
breath is taken from them. God has acted. My friends, God is in control
of all of us. He could remove our breath in
a moment. And if he did, where would we be? That surely is the
great question. Whether we are ready for that
day when the Lord will come and visit us with that hand of death. It may of course be not until
the Lord returns in all his glory, Perhaps some of you youngsters
may indeed be on the earth. Perhaps some of us who are older
may still be on the earth. We know not. It's a day known
only to the Father. The Lord Jesus told us that.
But yet it is a day, a day which will come. And again the Lord
speaks those encouraging words and yet necessary, be you also
ready. For you know not what a day nor
an hour may bring forth, and very often, of course, we live
our lives as though we are immortal, rather than living our lives
as though we were mortal, which, of course, we are. Well then,
here was this occasion at Bethany, and the Lord came, and the angels
came and spoke to the disciples who were there with Jesus. And
they asked them the question, ye men of Galilee, why stand
ye gazing up into heaven? Well, it's not surprising, is
it? There was the Lord one moment with them. The next moment, he'd
risen up into the clouds to be seen no more until that day when
he would return to judge the earth. Of course the disciples
weren't really aware of what had happened. They hadn't really
understood that the Lord was going to rise from the dead.
But that had occurred and they'd realised now how Scripture had
been fulfilled. And now we can imagine. Now they
were gazing up into heaven. We know not what were in their
minds, but nonetheless they were gazing into heaven. And that's
when these two men who stood by them in white apparel, said,
This saying Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall
so come in light manner, as ye have seen him go into heaven. Well, it was a day, a day of
much happiness and a day of much glory. And we read together in
the Gospel of Luke 24, in the last verses, and the last part,
verse 52, tells us they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Great joy. They'd been privileged
to see the Lord rise from the earth and go into heaven. It
wasn't something which was morbid to them. It was a great joy because
of what these two angels had spoken to them of. And so they'd
gone back to Jerusalem. It was a day's journey. It wasn't
just around the corner. They traveled back there, but
there they were now in great joy. Well, I wonder tonight whether
we are truly joyful as we consider this glorious scene the Lord
Jesus Christ as he ascended into heaven. Yes, what a wonderful
thing it is. And we have this record therefore
to confirm it to us. It's not fairy tales. It's not
something which was untrue. There were all these witnesses
there at the time which were able to confirm This was so very,
very true. And so, today, we should be very
thankful that this is so true. And we should indeed be amongst
those who are looking forward, looking forward to the Lord's
return. You know, I wonder how we consider
that. Whether we're looking forward
to the Lord's return. I think I've told you, if I haven't,
I'll tell you, I buried very recently a colleague who I worked
with for many years, and he asked me a couple of years ago, and he said, Steve, are you looking
forward to the Lord's return? Well that was a good question,
wasn't it? And it was a question which I
think I could humbly say, well I was really. And I wonder whether
you are looking forward to the Lord's return. Whether you're
thinking, oh, I've got all this to do. I've got this job I'm
going to. I've got all my future. And I'm
looking forward to it. It'd be a great blessing, you
know, if we're looking for the Lord's return. Looking for that
blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, you know, it really puts our religion into, you might
say, the melting pot. It really is a great test, isn't
it? With regard to the reality of
our religion. And when I say that, it really
means it's a test of our belief. and our love for God. We live on the earth. By nature,
we are of the earth. By nature, we're sinners of the
earth. But what a wonderful blessing
it is if God has implanted in our souls a real desire after
heavenly realities. You know, the Apostle Paul a
man of God, or a man who had a difficult life, a man blessed
indeed, he records that great truth. And he tells us this,
for me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Well, it's a true statement,
but I wonder how many of us can echo those words, honestly, and
be able to say, for me, to live my life is to be living with
Christ, to be united to Christ and to be looking forward to
that day when I shall leave this earth, this sinful earth. Now
I know naturally the ties of families, the ties of friends
are very strong and it's good that they should be and right
that they should be. But what a mercy it is when the things
of God become more important to us than the things of time. See, that's why we can recognize
why the apostles, when they returned to Jerusalem, that they came
back with great joy. And they were continually in
the temple, praising and blessing God. Well we can understand,
can't we, where their hearts were. Their hearts were on spiritual
things. Now you see how easy it is for
you and me to be occupied and taken up with all the things
of this life. But it's good when the Spirit
of God comes into our hearts and sets our hearts and our affections
upon things above so that we can say in accordance with the
Word of God. For here we have no continuing
city, but we seek one to come. And that we you see is really
a comprehensive we. It's referring to the Church
of God. We seek one to come. There is
a glorious city before the Church of God. And what a blessing it
is if you and I are looking forward to that day. Looking forward
to that time when, as the Apostle said, we shall be with Christ,
which is far better. As the Lord Jesus said, I go
to prepare a place for you. When I go to prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. Well, if the Lord was to come
tonight, would we say, oh, I don't think so. God, I've got a lot
of things to do. I really want to finish this
and do that and see this. And yet you see, as the apostle
said, to be with Christ, which is far better. And why is it
far better? Well, first of all, there's no
sin. There's nothing in glory to make
us ashamed. There's no pride. there's no
malice there's no anger there's peace peace of God glorious peace
it's something which if you and I try and analyse it's very hard
to analyse because we're on the earth and we are of the earth
and we judge things in accordance with time and not in accordance
with eternity What a blessing if you and I have had just a
touch from our God of the reality of eternal things. We sang together just now a hymn,
the hymn 257, which of course Frank knows was a hymn that was
blessed to me many years ago, just for that single line. which is this, trifles are theirs,
a kingdom yours. What a blessing that is. That
puts everything in a right perspective. What it shows us is the things
of this world, by comparison, are trifles. And that does agree
with the words of King Solomon when he wrote the Ecclesiastes. You may remember that he tried
to find happiness in the things of this world. And remember he
had everything at his beck and call. He had a most wealthy man,
the most knowledgeable man, the greatest wisdom. And he spent
a lot of time trying to find happiness, permanent happiness,
true happiness, in the things of this world. And what was his
conclusion? This is what he said. All is
vanity, or vanity and vexation of spirit. And if you and I analyze
that carefully, and as God helps us to analyze it carefully, we
will believe that it is true. It is true, you see, there's
something which doesn't fit together totally, doesn't quite match
up. of what perhaps we hoped. You
know, just take a very obvious example. You know, we may go
on holiday and we may look forward to that holiday for a long time.
You know, when we actually go on that holiday, we find that
it's not quite what we expected. We might have a lot of rain instead
of a lot of sunshine. And we find perhaps the accommodation
is not quite what we expected. And the food is not quite up
to our expectations. And we find, therefore, it's
not quite what we expected. Nothing comes up, perhaps, to
what we anticipated. But the contrary is a situation
with regard to heaven at last. Everything there will exceed
our expectations. It'll be a place of wonderful
peace. and wonderful glory. And we shall
be with the saints of God, the church of God, and the Savior.
And there will be nothing to jar us, nothing to upset us. No, we shall be taken up with
glory. Again, it's impossible really
for us to understand it. I hath not seen nor ear heard
the things that God has prepared for his people. But it's a wonderful
prospect that it's good sometimes to try and imagine and try and
think upon to realize that there's no real comparison with the things
of heaven and the poor things of time. And yet you see our
nature cleaves the things of time, cleaves all the things
of the earth. What a blessing when the Holy
Spirit sets our hearts and our affections upon things above. Well, to think then that this
same Jesus, who was on this earth, who lived that glorious life,
that sin atoning death, in order that you and I might be redeemed
from all our sin, That Saviour who we've never seen, except
by the eye of faith, to think that one day we shall view Him
face to face. That One who was so willing to
stand in our place and to die in order that our sins might
be forever washed away. What a glorious Saviour we have.
And what a debt you and I owe to that Saviour. Because we never
deserved this great gift of eternal life. We never merited it. We can never say, well, I was
a good person and I had a wonderful life and I did this and I did
that and all these things were wonderfully pleasing to God. When the Holy Spirit works in
our heart, As we look at our lives, what do we see? Failure. Failure. Even in the best things
we've done, the best things we've said, we find they're not faultless. We find there's something lacking,
there's something missing. And yet here we have this great
statement, this same Jesus. He knows about us. He knows about
you. He knows about me. He knows what we're really like.
He knows our innermost thoughts. Nothing hidden from the eye of
Almighty God. And yet to think that this same
Jesus has compassion on us. This same Jesus has loved us
with an unchanging love. His love. is, we can use this
word, it's a wonderful word, is immutable. Doesn't change. It's always the same toward us. What a wonderful blessing to
know that God has loved us. And we can never say, well, I
was worth God loving me. We can never say that. We can
say, well, I expected God to turn his back on me. But what a blessing to know that
God has loved us with an everlasting love. See, God's love doesn't
change. Our love does. Sometimes we can
think, well, I really do love God. And then you see things
come into our lives. Things don't go quite as well
as we anticipate. And perhaps we get angry. Perhaps we get angry really with
God. We perhaps wouldn't like to admit
it. But the reality is, that's what we're doing. But you see
this God, this same Jesus, doesn't change. Doesn't change. What a wonderful blessing that
is. to think that there he is in glory. Doesn't change. He loved us. He always will love
us. We vary. God does not. This same Jesus. It really comes
down, doesn't it, to the great question, what think ye of Christ? Is the test. That really is the
test of our religion. See, Christ is not someone who
you and I can pick up and put down when it suits us. To the true believer, Christ
is precious. Hymn writer says, precious far,
he's far more precious than life and all its comforts are. Well,
that is true, but it only conveys to us by the Spirit of God. And it's wonderful when it is
so. Because when it's in so, such a wonderful blessing influences
our lives. Yes, it really does. When we're
walking with Jesus, we're close to him, we're hearing his words,
and we realize, yes, this same Jesus. He's looking upon me. This same Jesus is with me. This same Jesus hasn't dumped
me on the rubbish dump. This same Jesus is still compassionate
to me. I change, but God does not change. It's a glorious truth, isn't
it? It's a wonderful truth, and it's a wonderful thing that the
Lord has granted us his favor of a record of just these few
verses which tell us about the Lord Jesus ascending into glory. He didn't just disappear. He didn't just disappear. He did disappear, but you see,
these two in white robes, they spoke to the disciples and told
them although He descended in the glory, He would come again. He would come again. And surely
that should be the comfort to us today, to realise this same
Jesus will come again. And that by His grace, we shall
see Him. And by His grace to believe,
we shall be caught up with Him. And thus shall we be forever
with the Lord. Not something transient. Not
something just for a short time. Because first of all, time will
not exist. When the Lord returns, time has
finished. And we enter into that eternal
realm, which will never change. It is good, it is good, you young
people, to think about eternity. Eternity. I know I've told you
before, but I'll tell you again. Robert Murray McShane, he was
a very gracious and much used minister in Scotland. He died
when he was 29, and he preached at Dundee, the church in Dundee.
And crowds came to hear him. And he was used mightily. And
he was very concerned about the souls of the people. And there was a stone outside
the entrance to the church, which everybody had to pass. And he
had written on that stone one word. And that word was eternity. But it's good, isn't it, if the
Holy Spirit writes such a word on our heart. As we go about
our life, day by day, to think, eternity is before us. Eternity
is before me. And the question, where shall
I spend eternity? Jesus. Oh, what a blessing, this
same Jesus. to think that by His grace, remember
that is unmerited favour, by His grace, one day we shall go
and to be with Christ in that place of glory. Yes, no sin,
no sorrow, no sadness, no tears, no crying, perfect happiness,
perfect bliss. Well, that's the prospect. for
the true Church of God. And so here we have then this
wonderful testimony as the Jesus, the almighty God himself, the
Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, rose from the
earth into the clouds, into glory, there to be seated at the Father's
right hand, until that great day when he indeed returns. You know, in the prophecy of
Daniel, Daniel was a man of God who had many wonderful revelations,
you will remember, in that book about himself being in the lion's
den and having to be so reliant upon his God that his God would
be with him. And he tells us in the 12th chapter,
it's the last chapter of Daniel, These words, and this is what
they are, and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth
shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting
contempt. Boy, those words were true in
Daniel's day. They're true today, and they're true of you and me.
To think then that all of us, will awake, all of us will arise,
either to everlasting life or to everlasting shame and contempt. And there will be no removal
from those positions. They will be eternally set. Well,
may we be really concerned, all of us, to know that this same
Jesus is the one who has died on our behalf to take away all
our sins and have some real appreciation of the cost of our salvation.
Let us not brush it aside. Let us realize the Son of God
died upon Calvary's cross in order to redeem our souls. What a truth, what a wonderful
truth to think that Almighty God died on our behalf so that
you and I might receive this glorious gift of eternal life. Oh my friends, may it be our
real concern to have the evidence therefore that Jesus has loved
us And as I often say, not that we loved God, but that God loved
us. And when we have the evidence
of God's love toward us, and what he's done for us, then we
shall love him. It will be that mutual love,
but it begins with God. You won't be able to glory in
it yourself, but you will glory in what God has done. And you
will glory to have the evidence that you are one of his children
and that by his grace, one day, you should join him in that heavenly
throng and to be with Christ, which is far better. Well then,
here we have this statement, which also said, ye men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, oh friends,
meditate on that glorious three words. which is taken up from
you into heaven shall so come in light manner, as ye have seen
him go into heaven. Amen.