Let's go to Acts, the first chapter
again this evening. At least this is where we'll
start, Acts chapter 1. I think there are four great
events, I know there are four great events that shine brightly
in our Savior's story. And we must never forget any
of the four. First of all, his birth. But when the fullness of the
time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law that
we might receive the adoption of sons. I love that scripture
in John chapter 1, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with
God. The Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. Then you drop down to verse 14. It says, and the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. The Apostle said, and we beheld
His glory. Glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. We never forget his
birth. He who was rich, he became poor,
that we through his poverty might be rich. And then we remember
his death. His death. The gospel that the
apostles set forth is always referred to as a finished work. A deed that's been accomplished. A great task that the Savior
has completed. You see, the gospel announces
something that has already been finished. It's in the past. That's
very important to remember that. In the declaration of the gospel,
we're setting forth something that has already happened. It's
good news for sinners that the work of redemption and reconciliation
has already been finished by our Lord Jesus Christ. We don't
declare merely what he's going to do. Certainly he's going to
regenerate his people, and he's going to come again the second
time. But in declaring the Gospel,
we set forth that the Lord Jesus has finished that work that God
the Father gave him to do. He died for our sins according
to the Scriptures, is what the Apostle Paul said. in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. He was buried and He arose again
the third day according to the Scriptures. I'll tell you a few
things about His death. Number one, it was an act of
sovereignty. He said, I'm the Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. For the sheep. Not for the goats. For the sheep. It's written in Ephesians chapter
5. Husbands, love your wives even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. His
death was an act of sovereignty. And then his death was an act
of substitution. For Christ has also once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust. The just one, he died in the
stead of the unjust. How did he do that? To bring
us to God by his death. And then his death was an act
of satisfaction. Satisfaction. For what the law
could not do, in that He was weak through the flesh. God sending
His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, that
is, our Lord came into the world concerning sin. The reason He
came was for sin. To deal with sin. To do away
with sin. to endure the wrath of God due
to our sin. And he condemned sin in the flesh,
that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. And then
his death was an act of sacrifice. He died as the sin offering to
God. He was the lamb that died so
God could be just and the justifier of all who believe on Jesus.
This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting
until his enemies be made his footstool. And fifthly, His death
was an act that was successful, for by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. neither by the blood of bulls
and goats, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy
place," listen to this, "...having obtained eternal redemption for
us." He got redemption by His death. His death was successful. We must never forget His birth. We must never forget His death. Thirdly, we must never forget
His resurrection. You see, we know his death was
successful because he arose from the grave. For to this end, Christ
both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of
the dead and the living. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. He was raised again because justification
was finished by the shedding of His blood. His resurrection is vital, you
see, to the Gospel message. On the day that our Lord arose,
some women came to the tomb. They came to anoint His body. They saw the stone was rolled
away. And these women saw two men standing
next to the tomb entrance in bright apparel. The Scripture
says they were very afraid. And the messengers said to the
women, why do you seek the living among the dead? He's not here. He's risen as He said. He's risen from the dead. Our Lord has conquered every
enemy. He conquered Satan. He conquered
sin. He conquered the grave. He conquered death. O death,
where is thy sting? Our Lord Jesus Christ conquered
death in His glorious resurrection. And because He lives, we shall
live. We shall live. We shall live
spiritually. And we shall live again Physically,
for though this body is destined to die in Christ Jesus, we shall
be raised again by his mighty power and we will have a new
body, a glorified body, likened to the body of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And then there's his ascension. His ascension. Look here in Acts
chapter 1, and you know, this past Lord's Day, of course, we
brought a couple of messages from this wonderful chapter. Look at the second verse. Unto
the day, until the day in which He was taken up. There's His ascension. He was
taken up. And then look down at verse 9.
And when he had spoken these things, after he had given the
final instructions to his apostles, while they beheld, he was in
fact taken up. He was taken up and a cloud received
him out of their sight. 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, the
angels knew these men. The angels of God know all of
God's elect. They always behold the Father's
face, and then they perform missions, errands of mercy for God's people. These messengers from heaven,
these angels, they knew these men. They were acquainted with.
Listen, angels of God know who you are. They know who God's
elect are. For God has often sent them to
you to minister to you in some fashion, perhaps to put a thought
in your mind. perhaps to protect you, indeed
to watch over us. The Lord sends hundreds, no doubt
thousands of angels to protect His elect. Here are two of them. They know these men. They are
very well acquainted with these men. And they say to them, 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 is our Lord's ascension.
Our brother read to us from Psalm 68, Thou hast ascended on high. Thou hast led captivity captive. Thou hast received gifts for
men. Yea, for the rebellious also,
that the Lord might dwell among them. And of course, the ascension
really leads to a fifth great event, which the angel made mention
of. This same Jesus, which is taken
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you've
seen Him go into heaven. He who ascended in the clouds
is coming back in the clouds. Not another. He's not going to
send an angel for us. He's not going to send some other
messenger for us. He's coming again Himself. The same One who loved us with
an everlasting love. The One who redeemed us. The
One who was born to redeem us. The One who died to reconcile
us unto God. The One who was raised again
because of our justification. The One who ascended back to
glory. He's coming again in the clouds. John said, Behold, he cometh
in the clouds, and every eye shall see him. In other words,
there will be nothing secretive about his second coming. Every
eye shall see him. This same Jesus. Now as we think
of his ascension this evening, I want you to look at a couple
of scriptures with me. I want you to go to Luke. The
last chapter. The book of Luke, chapter 24. And then, I want you to just
keep that scripture, and then go back to Numbers, chapter 6. Let's see if you can follow those
instructions. In fact, if you're afraid you
might lose your place, use a ribbon like I'm doing in Luke 24, and
go back then to Numbers chapter 6. Now before I read these verses
to you, I want to remind you of all of the activities, or
at least some of the activities, some of the works of Israel's
high priest on the day of atonement. We know that Aaron and every
high priest who followed him, they pictured our Lord Jesus
Christ who is our great high priest. In fact, we read in Hebrews
chapter 3, wherefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,
consider thee apostle and high priest of our profession Jesus
Christ. You will remember from your studies
in the Old Testament, I'm sure, that God had ordained Aaron to
be Israel's high priest. And God ordained that Aaron would
have two different sets of clothing. Two different sets of clothing.
He had one set of clothing he would wear every day of the year,
except for one day. And that would be the Day of
Atonement. And on the Day of Atonement, he had another change
of clothing. Now every day of the year, he
had glorious garments. They were glorious garments.
In fact, you don't need to look at this. Exodus 28 verse 2 says,
Thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron, thy brother, for glory
and for beauty. For glory and for beauty. He
had a breastplate. It was made of fine twine linen
of gold and blue and purple and scarlet. And then he had an ephod. It was also of gold and blue
and purple and scarlet of fine twine linen. He had a girdle
or a belt also of gold and blue and purple and scarlet and fine
twine linen. He had a robe all of blue. And on the hem of that robe,
there were several tassels. There was a pomegranate, and
then a golden bell, and a pomegranate, and a golden bell. Then he had a broidered coat. Once again, a fine linen. He
had a mitre on his head. And on that a solid plate of
gold, holiness to the Lord. He was something to see. God
gave him this gorgeous, gorgeous apparel. And he wore this before
Israel. But there was a second set of
clothing, which he only wore one day of the year, and that's
on the Day of Atonement. And on that day, he dressed just
like every other priest dressed. He had on white garments. He
had on white linen breeches. He had a white linen coat. That's
laid out in Exodus chapter 16. And on the day of atonement,
He wore this. In other words, on the Day of
Atonement, He took off all of these glorious garments. Those
things were made which were exquisitely beautiful and expensive. But He laid them aside. And on
the Day of Atonement, He put on these simple garments so that
He looked just like any of the other priests. And on that day, he would officiate
over all the duties that God had commanded on the Day of Atonement. In those garments, he killed
the sacrifices. He had to kill a sacrifice for
himself because he was a sinner. He had to kill sacrifices for
Israel. In those garments, he went into
the Holy of Holies. Those garments already blood
splattered. And in those garments he sprinkled
the mercy seat seven times. In those garments he satisfied
the justice of God in so far as God's commandments were concerned
right then. And after he had done everything
God required him to do, he took off those garments, And he washed
himself. And then those glorious garments,
he put those back on. And then he blessed Israel with
a blessing like this. The book of Numbers chapter 6.
Look at verse 23. Numbers 6.23, Speak unto Aaron
and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the
children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, and
keep thee. The Lord make His face shine
upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up His countenance
upon thee, and give thee peace." The blessing he pronounced was
a result of the sacrifice that had been offered for Israel. Now go to Luke chapter 24. Luke
chapter 24, the last few verses of the chapter. The last few
verses of the book. Verse 50. Luke chapter 24 and
verse 50. Here's our great high priest.
This is the one who humbled himself and was made likened to those
that he came to save. just like Aaron on the Day of
Atonement. Every other day, he stood out
from the rest of the priests. There was no doubt who the high
priest was. All you had to do was look at
them. Look at the garments of Aaron. Why, he has garments that
are glorious and wonderful. And the rest of them, they're
dressed just in linen. But on the Day of Atonement,
He looked like any of the rest of them. In fact, unless you
knew who Aaron was, you wouldn't have been able to
pick him out by his dress, by his clothing, because he looked
just like the rest of the priesthood. Even so, our Lord Jesus came
into this world And He looked just like those He came to save. The Scripture says, being found
in fashion as a man. The Lord Jesus, He humbled Himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Oh my friends, can you not see as it were, before His birth,
Our great high priest, as it were, removing his glorious garments,
and as one writer said, hanging them on a star. All of that exquisite
glory that belonged to him, those garments that marked him out
as the only son of the living God. God's only begotten son. He took them off. He put on garments
of humility, made likened to those that He came to save. And
in those garments, those fine linen garments of our Savior,
He dwelt in this vile world. And in those garments he offered
unto God that sacrifice that honored God's law and put away
our sin and brought in everlasting righteousness. And he dies. He dies. And he goes into paradise. And then he's raised from the
dead. And our great high priest then
and there, as it were, put back on his exquisite garments. Those
garments of glory and beauty. He is the glorified Christ. And this is what He did. Luke
chapter 24 verse 50. and he led them out as far as
to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them, just
like Aaron on the Day of Atonement. He had offered the sacrifice
for his own sins, and then the sacrifice that covered the sins
of Israel for another year. And then He took off those garments
and put on His garments of glory and beauty again. Here's our
Lord Jesus, our great High Priest, having finished the work God
gave Him to do. His garments are covered in blood,
His own blood, the blood with which He redeemed us, He bought
us, He paid our debt. And having paid our debt in full,
died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He puts on His
glorious garments, and He stands before His apostles, and He lifts
up His nail-scarred hands, and He blesses them. He blesses them. He lifted up His hands and blessed
them, and it came to pass while He blessed them. Suddenly he was parted from them,
carried up into heaven. And you know what they did? They
worshipped him. They worshipped him. What shall
we do? This is the one who is made like
unto those he came to save. This is the One who shed His
blood to reconcile us to a holy God. This is the One who established
a justifying righteousness for us. This is the One who died
for our sins according to the Scriptures and He went back to
glory. What shall we do? Worship Him. Worship Him. And then they returned to Jerusalem
with great joy. They were continually in the
temple praising and blessing God. Amen. Here we see our Lord
Jesus lifting up His hands as our glorious High Priest, blessing
His people. He had for a while laid aside
His robe of glory and splendor. He veiled Himself in human flesh. And he offered himself, body,
soul, and spirit as a sin-atoning sacrifice to God. By his own
blood, he entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. And now our great high priest,
just as he was ascending back to heaven, he lifts up his hands
to bless his people. And as he blessed them, He began
to defy gravity and he ascended into the heavens. What must the scene have been
when he got to heaven? Well, you read it in Psalm 24. Of course, no eye was allowed
to see it, but the psalmist wrote of it Lift up your heads, O ye
gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King
of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? He's the Lord strong and mighty,
the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. Who is this King of glory? He's the Lord of hosts. He is
the King of Glory. Our Lord ascended. Consider when
He ascended, 40 days after His resurrection. And those 40 days were sufficient
evidence to anyone who had an honest mind that He had
really risen from the dead. He came forth from the grave
not as a phantom, not as a ghost, not as a spirit, but as a real
man of flesh and bones. During these 40 days, our Lord
removed all doubt from the minds of His disciples that it was
really Him. He said, Behold My hands and
feet, that it is I Myself. He said, You handle Me and see. A spirit hath not flesh and bones
as ye see Me have. Then again, he stayed for 40
days because his disciples needed more instructions. He didn't
ascend back to heaven immediately. He waited 40 days. Remember the
Savior said this to them? He said, I have yet many things
to say unto you, but you can't bear them now. You can't bear
them now. But after he had risen from the
dead, they could bear much more. And there's no doubt that He
made disclosures to them. He opened their minds and He
opened their understandings to things that they hadn't understood
before. In fact, in Luke chapter 24,
a little earlier before this passage, it says, Then opened
He their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures
during those 40 days. And during those 40 days, He
gave them the great commission to go in all the world and preach
the gospel. I want you to consider this,
the Savior's very last act on this earth. What's the very last
thing He did before He went to glory in His ascension? We see Him engaged with His disciples. We see Him speaking to them. Well, what's He doing? What's
He talking about? He's pronouncing blessings. He's
blessing His people. I love to think about this. Here
is our great high priest and the very last thing he does before
he goes to glory and the gates open up, he lifts up his nail
scarred hands and he blesses his people. Think of those blessed hands. Thousands had received blessings
from those hands. during his life. Those hands
took a couple of fish and a few barley cakes and multiplied it. Those hands fed thousands. Those hands reached up and touched
the beer, the casket, the bed, the couch upon which a dead young
man laid. Those hands brought him back
to life. Those hands touched the blind eyes and they were
made to see. Those hands touched the lepers
and they were cleansed. That hand of Christ reached down
and pulled Simon Peter up out of the waves when Peter said,
Lord, save me or I perish. Those hands. Those hands. Those blessed hands. Those hands were always full
of blessings for His people. Those hands have always been
full of blessings for His people. He's the great treasure house
of all the blessings that God has for poor unworthy sinners,
Christ Jesus. And He blesses us liberally.
He's blessed us from all eternity. And guess what? He's still blessing
us. And He will always bless us. He lifted up His hands to bless
His disciples again because He had been blessing them all along. We're blessed in Him with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He whose
garments were stained with His own blood, put back on His glorious
apparel, and as our great high priest in glory tonight, He continues
to bless us. To say we are a blessed people
is saying a mouthful. We are a blessed people. Like Balaam said to King Balak,
king of Moab. You know, Balak had said to Balaam,
you've got to curse Israel. He said, I can't curse whom God
has blessed. And I tell you, there is no curse
ever to be found upon those people whom God has blessed. Blessed
in Christ Jesus. And I'll remind you, those hands
that were lifted up were indeed nail scarred hands. He had said to them on one occasion,
behold my hands. Behold my hands. And then He
showed them to them. You see, those hands identify
Him as being our Savior. In the book of the Revelation,
we read of the Lamb who was slain. He's always the Lamb slain. The Lamb who has male scarred
hands. Banny Crosby wrote, and we're
going to sing in just a couple of minutes, I shall know Him,
I shall know Him, and redeemed by His side, I shall stand, I
shall know Him, I shall know Him by the print of the nails
in His hands. You know what those nail-pierced
hands tell us? They tell us the price of redemption
has been paid in full. They tell us what the blessings
of grace and mercy cost our Savior. Oh, He blesses us bountifully. We have infinite blessings in
Jesus Christ. But oh, what a cost. What a cost. Yes, you are blessed and I'm
blessed immensely. But every blessing we enjoy,
every blessing that is so freely given to us is by the nail-pierced,
nail-pierced hands. Did you get it? Nail-pierced
hands of our Redeemer. Had He not been nailed to that
tree to die in your place, you could have never been saved.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes
we're healed. We get everything through those
nail-pierced hands. Righteousness is in those nail-pierced
hands. Redemption is in those nail-pierced
hands. Pardon of sin is in those nail-pierced
hands, and everlasting peace is in those nail-pierced hands. The hands that were lifted up
for us were the hands of our sovereign. You've heard the song sung, he's
got the whole world in his hands. He's got you and me, brother.
He's got you and me, sister. And the world that is upheld
by those hands, You and I who are upheld by those hands, we're
upheld by nails scarred hands. He earned the right to be the
sovereign by his substitutionary death. He earned the right to
be exalted. One songwriter, one hymn writer
said, the angels brought his chariot from above to bear him
to his throne. They clapped their triumphant
wings and cried, the glorious work is done. And off to glory
he went, to sit on the throne of universal sovereignty in those
of the hands of the Savior of his people. Our Lord said, I
have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. And in those nail prints, the
Son of God reads the names of all of His people, names that
are written down in the Lamb's Book of Life. And you, my dear
brother, you, my dear sister, please remember this, those hands
protect you. Those hands provide for you.
Those hands preserve you, and those same hands will present
you faultless and unblameable and unreprovable before the divine
majesty and glory. He comes to His people with blessings,
blessings from on high, and He distributes them liberally. I'll
give you two illustrations out of the Old Testament. You remember
Samson, you remember he killed a lion. He conquered the enemy. He came back to the carcass of
the lion, and bees had built a nest. There's a lot of honey
there. And he reached in both hands,
and he had hands full of honey. And he took back to his mom and
dad and said, here, eat. I tell you, the lion of the tribe
of Judah has conquered over the lion who sought our destruction.
And there's a blessed sweetness in the gospel that the Lord Jesus
gives to all of His people. His hands, His nail scarred hands
are full of sweet things. Full of honey. Isn't it sweet? Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is sweet. And his gospel is sweet. Second
illustration in the book of Ruth. Ruth went out to glean the fields
of Boaz. He saw her and he said to the
reapers, let fall also some handfuls of purpose for her and leave
them that she may glean them and rebuke her not. And I'll
tell you, our Lord Jesus, with His omnipotent, nailed scarred
hands, He leaves for us handfuls on purpose. Handfuls of blessings. We got more blessings than we
could ever fully say thanks over, don't we? Because we've got Christ
Jesus. And having Christ Jesus, we've
got every blessing God could ever give us. Our great high
priest lifted up his hands and blessed his disciples. And the
next time, child of God, you're low, your spirits are just shot,
and you've got all these troubles, and you've got all these worries,
in your mind's eye just worship Christ Jesus and see Him holding
up His nail-scarred hands and blessing His people as His last
act on this earth. and that'll cheer your poor soul. And remember this, He who's gone
back to glory, He's still blessing us. Oh, how liberally He dispenses
these blessings to His people. And what do we do? We worship
Him. We worship Him. Let's sing that
song. Buddy, what's the number? 502?