Says here in verse 50, and see that little mark there
by 50? That means it's a new paragraph. The Lord starts a
new subject. And He led them out, His disciples, those He had rebuilt
Himself to, He led them out as far as to Bethany. And he lifted up his hands and
blessed them. And it came to pass, while he
blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven.
And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ had already been crucified, buried,
and had risen again, and had conquered death. Conquered death. Spoiled the grave of its great
fear. Spoiled the grave of its victory
over us. That's why we can say, O grave,
where now is thy victory? And all by his presence on this
earth, he blessed by his very presence, this earth was blessed
while our Lord Jesus Christ walked upon it. He who created it, who
upholds it by His power, came here and inhabited it. He who
does not, contained by space or time, came here and inherited
both space and time to walk on this earth, the God who created
it, and oh, what a blessing it was for Him to come. And this
same Savior, this same blessed Lord Jesus Christ, is now going
to pass right up through the air. while people are standing
watching Him. They're standing watching Him,
and He's going to pass right up through the air while they
behold Him, and He's going to go black where He came from. He's going to go back to that
glory that He had with the Father before the world was. He's going
back to sit down at the right hand of God Almighty with all
power and authority vested in Him, exalted to God's right hand,
and everything in this world turned over to Him. everything.
And oh, he's going to go back, going to go back. And as our
Lord ascended into heaven, I hope that God would teach us some
things because of this special way that he went back. The time
that he went back, and I want to talk about these hands here
that he raised up to bless these people, these dear saints of
God. The time that he's ascending
here was, he was on the earth after forty days. He's on this
earth 40 days after his resurrection. Forty days. And you know what
40 days represents in the scriptures? Moses was up on the mountain
40 days. He's on the backside of the desert
40 years. Our Lord Jesus Christ was tempted
and tried by the devil 40 days. So 40 days always is a proving
time, a trying time to prove something. And our Lord Jesus
Christ remained on the earth forty days after His resurrection,
first of all, to prove His identity. To prove His identity. And the
only people that was interested in who He was after His resurrection
was His disciples. Remember, He walked with those
two disciples on the Emmaus Road, and they didn't know who He was.
And He began to preach to them. And then they said, Did not our
heart burn within Him? Because He was getting ready
to eat, and He just was gone like that. And he came not only to make
known his identity, like he told his disciples, here's my hand,
here's my feet, but also to remove any doubts that he was actually
raised from the dead, to remove any doubts of who he said he
was while he was on this earth, that he was the son of God, that
he would suffer, that he would die, that he would be buried,
that he would rise again on the third day. And also, he stayed 40 days to
teach and instruct his disciples. And that's what he says here.
Look what it says in verse 45. He stayed here to teach and instruct
his disciples. And then he opened their understanding. They're sitting there, and they're
scared, they're frightened, thinking that he's a spirit. And then
he opened their understanding, that they might understand the
Scriptures. He taught them and told them over and over and over
again. Remember when he told Simon Peter,
you know that the time is coming, the hour is now coming when the
Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men
when he goes to Jerusalem. Simon Peter said, be that far
from them. He didn't understand the scriptures
concerning Christ. Well, Christ opened his understanding
here this day. And so he come to instruct, to
open their understandings, that they might understand the scriptures.
And he said, thus it is written. And he began to tell them the
scriptures. He began to go through the scriptures. Began to tell
about how he suffered. He started, no doubt, in Genesis
3.15, where that he would have his heel bruised while he crushed
the head of the serpent. And then he began how he would
behoove Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third
day. And then he showed how that repentance and remission of sin
should be preached in his name. among all nations, and we're
going to start right here in Jerusalem. And then He says,
and you're witnesses of these things. And now you go to Jerusalem
after I've sent, and you stay right there until God sends the
Holy Ghost upon you. And He gave them their commission,
says, you're witnesses of these things. And the place where our
Lord Jesus Christ ascended back when He lifted His hands and
blessed them is Mount Olivet. This is a mountain before where
he had communed with his disciples often, went there with them often
times. And his treasure was that it was close to Bethany. And
as he came to Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them.
And I won't talk about those hands of blessing. But he just
now looked down upon Bethany. And you know Bethany is a place
that he visited often. It's a place that he loved, and
there were people there that he greatly loved. Mary and Martha. Lazarus, where he raised Lazarus
from the dead, where he stood and wept, tears went down his
face, here in Bethany. So he was very well known in
Bethany, and he loved Bethany. He visited Bethany oftentimes
and ate in these dear saints' house. And not only was the Mount
of Olives where he was when he lifted up his hands to bless
these people, but it was near to Gethsemane, the place where
he went through this awful agony. And then there were witnesses.
There were witnesses that were going to watch him send back
up to glory. And so these witnesses that he
came to prove himself to, they were many. Oh my, there were
so many of them in number. And they were people who knew
him while he was on this earth. And had a long time been familiar
with him, and who couldn't be deceived as to who he was. Look
what it says there in verse 48. And he says, and you're witnesses
of these things. You're witnesses of who I am. You're witnesses
of my resurrection. You're witnesses of my message.
You're witnesses of the Scriptures and what they say about me. And
you're witnesses of watching me go back into glory. You're
witnesses of it. And look, you keep Luke, and
you turn with me over to 1 Corinthians 15. Let me show you something. In all my... You know, they were
trustworthy characters, trustworthy witnesses. They were trustworthy witnesses
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says in verse 4 here,
1 Corinthians 15, And that he was buried, and that he rose
again the third day according to the Scriptures. Now watch
this, And that that he was seen of Cephas. Remember when he says,
Tell Simon Peter, I'll go before and see him. Meaning that then
of the twelve. After that he was seen of Cephas. Then of the twelve. After that
he was seen of the five hundred brethren at once. 500 of them saw Him at one time and
said, this is the Messiah, this is the Christ, this is who He's
standing with. He's risen again from the dead.
And then, of whom the greater part remain under this present
time, but some are fallen asleep. After that, He was seen of James.
Then of all the apostles, and that's what's happening right
now, the last appearance. And last of all, He was seen
of me as also one born out of due time. And back over here
in our text, They were witnesses, many, many in number. And look
there in verse 43, excuse me, verse 33, I'm sorry, in Luke
chapter 24 and verse 33. And they rose up the same hour
and returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven together and
them that were with them. So it was more than just the
eleven. There was a lot of people with them, a lot of disciples.
And so we see these saints, we see these dear saints of God.
And here's this scene. I'm going to tell you something.
He's standing here with these disciples. He's getting ready
to go back to glory, and as he goes, he lifts his hands. And
the Scripture says, and he lifted up his hands, in verse 50, and
blessed them. And it came to pass, while he
blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven.
Now, there's nothing superstitious going on here. Nothing superstitious
about this. It was quiet. Very quiet. There were no chairs of fire
that came and got Elijah and took him to glory. There were
no horses of fire. And yet, it's so majestic here.
Our Lord Jesus with just His disciples. No angels were gathered
around singing. No great choir singing. No trumpet
sounding. No imaginary splendor. Just our
Lord Jesus Christ standing there with His hands lifted. With the
nail prints in them, they looked at him as he held them up like
this to bless them. They looked at those hands that had the print
of the nails in them. And he lifted up those hands,
and in power and simplicity to show his Godhead, he's doing
everything that's done there that day. And God help us as
we look at this last thing he does as he's ascending to heaven.
And have you listened to what it says there? And he lifted
up his hands to bless. to bless. This blessing that
our Lord Jesus Christ did here wasn't an unusual thing. This
was His customary way of blessing. He'd lift His hands and bless.
That's the way the normal, that's the way He would do it. He would
stretch out His hands and He would bless people. And this
is the attitude in which He departed with these blessings upon His
lips. And He lifted up His hands and blessed it. Now why He said
it, I don't know. But just seeing Him and of Himself is a blessing.
Just knowing that who He is is a blessing. To be there to see
Him, a sin, is a blessing. But He said He lifted up His
hands and blessed them. He said something to them. He
said something to them and gave something to them that nobody
else in this world and universe can give to His people as He
lifted His hands and blessed them. And whatever the blessing
love, it was on His lips. And this blessing that our Lord
Jesus Christ, when he lifted his hands, was with authority.
It was with authority. It's not like these fellows that
go like this here. It's not like these fellows that lift up their
hands and say, you know the high priest, he would lift up his
hands and he'd say, now the Lord bless thee, the Lord keep thee,
the Lord call his safety upon thee. He'd lift up his hands
to do that. That's customary. But this blessing was with authority.
This blessing was given as His Father was receiving Him up into
heaven. He's going back to glory, and
He lifted His hands. And you imagine that. You stand
and watch Him, and His feet start losing gravity. And He's going
back into glory where He was before, going back to sit at
the right hand of the Majesty on high, and He stretched forth
His hands to bless them. Now, let me look over, hold that,
and look with me over in Matthew chapter 8. Look all about the
hands of Christ. His blessing then. Matthew chapter
8. Oh, my. Oh, he's going back to
sit at the right hand of God. So this blessing was with Apollonathus. I say the Lord bless you, and the Lord keep you. I can
pray like that. And you can pray like that. But
when Christ says it, you're going to get it. But what he said, and when he
was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him,
and behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord,
if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Now watch what happened. And Jesus put forth his hand
and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately
his leprosy was clean. put forth his hand. When him
hands put forth towards him, something's going to happen.
When he touches you with that blessed hand, look down in verse
14, Matthew 8. And when Jesus was coming to
Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid and sick of a fever,
and he touched her hand, touched her hand, let's say I just touched
her hand, and the fever left her, and she arose and ministered
unto Not only did he cause the fever to go, but gave strength
back into it, just by touching it. So you see the authority
in these hands, the authority of this blessing. And I'll tell
you something else, when he lifted his hands to bless them, this
blessing was so full, so wondrous, that when he lifted his hands
and gave them blessings, he gave them all blessings that could
possibly come from him at that time. And his hands were empty
when he gave them all of those blessings. They're so full. That's
why David said, Lord, if I could number Thy mercies, if I could
number Thy blessings, if I could number Thy tenderness, if I could
number all the wondrous things You've done for me, I don't even
know where to start. Where are you going to start at with the
blessings of God? Just start with this morning.
Not counting yesterday, just start with this morning. You
got out of bed this morning in your right mind. You know how
many people didn't do that? You got out of bed this morning
and you wasn't in the hospital. You got out of bed this morning
and the doctor ain't said you got cancer and you're going to
die. You got out of bed this morning and your heart's still
beating and your mind's still functioning and you're here worshiping
the Lord. And you're here because you want
to be. Now if this is the fact that you want to be here, what
a blessing that is. David said, I was glad when they
said unto me, let's go unto the house of the Lord. And we're
glad when we go unto the house of the Lord. And I want you to
see this. And back over here in our text,
and he says, this blessing was for them. And he says in verse
15, he let them out as far as to Bethany. And he lifted up
his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass while he
blessed them, he was parted from them. There is a them that he
does things for, and other those that he don't. It was for them that were present,
and for them that who would be beyond the sound of his voice,
even those who were present. So when he lifted his hands,
he's blessing them. He's not blessing every congregation.
He's not blessing just the people that were present. If he's ought to have been there,
he wouldn't have got a blessing because he wouldn't have been
there. Judas wasn't there. And let me show you something.
Keep that book in Hebrews chapter 7, just a moment. I'll show you
something. Talking about for them. Are you
one of them that he's lifting his hands to? Are you one of
them that right now, the Lord Jesus Christ, his hands is blessing? He was lifting his hands for
them, present and for them. You know, he said in John, he
said, I pray for them who shall believe on me through their word.
I pray for them, not the world. I pray for them that thou hast
given me. He always talks about them and
us. And look what he said in Hebrews
7.25, "...wherefore he is able to save
them, to the uttermost, that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them." So he is just blessing
them. Folks say, well, that don't always
seem fair. Do you want to be one of Him? No! He scattered blessings through
this past. He paid for these folks and gave
them blessings. He scattered enough blessings
for all His elect and all of them who would believe on Him,
all who were given to Him. He scattered enough blessings
for every single one of them for all time, even eternity. And what a blessed and glorious
way for him to finish his time here on earth. He lifted up his
hands, last thing he does, lifted up his hands and blessed them. Blessed them. And I tell you
what, beloved, there's nothing for tears here. This is no death
bed scene here. This is a joyous time. We aren't
at the close of life here. No, we're at the very beginning
of life when the Lord Jesus Christ gives them all these great blessings. And let me tell you something
about these hands that He lifted to bless them with. When they
looked, they saw hands that were pierced. You know the only way
we get these blessings? Through hands that's been pierced.
You ain't going to get no blessings except through pierced hands.
Those hands had to have nails broken through. And this is how
they knew that they were the Lord's hands. They knew they
were the Lord's hands. How come they knew they were
the Lord's hands? Because they had holes in them. There was no blood around them
anymore. Just the scars. Just the scars. And in seeing his pierced hands,
They saw the price of the blessings that they were receiving. They
saw how it cost Him to be able to bless them, to be able to
lift up His hands to them. You see, it's His death that
bridges the continual blessings upon His redeeming. It's because
of those blessed hands, those hands that were pierced, those
hands that had nails drove through them, it's because of that death
and that suffering that he does is the cause of continual blessings
are bestowed upon his elect, upon his redeemed, because those
hands were pierced. And this is going to be one of
the greatest mysteries in glory, is that we'll see him with all
the marks in his body, his hands and his feet. It says they saw
him as a lamb as it had been slain. And we'll see all the
evidence of of His death and His resurrection. And yet, we'll
know nothing at all about sin, but we'll know we're there because
of what He did with those pierces in His body. That's one of the
greatest mysteries. We won't know a thing in the
world about sin, but we'll know we're there because of it. We'll
look at those, and we won't know nothing, but we'll say, we're
here because of that. And I tell you, they saw the
way of blessings. And the way that this blessing
came, it came from human hands. He lifted up hands of a man. He said, touch me, handle me,
see. These were human hands that he
held up there. They wasn't hands of a ghost.
They wasn't hands of a spirit. They were hands of a man. A man
who had suffered. Now, you know where Zechariah
is. Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament. Right before
Matthew, Zechariah is the one right after that. And you look
in Zechariah 13 with me. And, oh, it comes from human
hands, through these sacrificial wounds. You see, we have a man
in glory right now. And they saw the way of blessing,
that it comes through human hands. They're pierced hands, but it
was human hands, the hands of a man. The hands of a man. And then Zechariah chapter 13,
look what it says here, in verse 6. And one shall say unto him, What
are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer and say,
Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. What among these friends? And they pierced his hands, wounded
his hands. And so, you see, Beloved of David,
when he lifted up those hands, that's in the hands of a man.
And a sign of those hands in and of itself is a blessing.
It's by seeing those wounds, it's by seeing those pierced
hands, by seeing those hands of a man, those hands that had
the nails driven through them. It's by seeing those wounds that
we see pardon. It's by seeing those wounds we
see life. It's by seeing those wounds we
see forgiveness. It's by seeing those wounds we
see that God Himself is just to justify us. When He lifts
up those hands, we say, bless His name. Those hands were pierced
for me. Those hands was wounded for me.
What did he say this morning? Why not for me? Why not for me? Oh, my. And let me tell you, when
he lifted up these hands to bless these people, to bless his people
here, it's the very epitome of the gospel. This is the very
epitome of the gospel. This is the substance of it.
It's the hands that's pierced that bestow blessings. Only pierced
hands can bestow the blessings. It's through the suffering and
death of our Lord Jesus Christ that sinners are saved. It's
through the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ and the death
of our Lord Jesus. Ain't that what He says? That
Christ behooved Christ to suffer? Suffer! When did He start suffering? He started suffering the minute
He come into this world. The fact that he was laid in
a manger because there was no place for him to be laid. Born
in a cow stable. Laid in a place where they had
to put the hay in for the cows and the donkeys and stuff to
eat. They cleaned it out, put fresh hay in it, and laid him
in there. He was born to people that were
so poor that when they went to get a sacrifice to offer, they
had to get doves because they couldn't afford anything else.
They couldn't afford a lamb, they couldn't afford a ram, they
couldn't afford a boy. Grace a poor, poor, poor man.
How often did he suffer? He suffered from the time he
was born till the day he died. Suffered all the days of hatred
and despised and rejected. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. Whoever spoke a kind word for
him. Whoever stood up for him, when
it comes time to have somebody defend him, you know who defended
him? Nobody. Who stood up for him when Pilate
Said, I want to let him go. Who stood up for him when the
high priest slapped him? Who stood up for him when they
put the crown of thorns on his head? Who stood up for him while
they slapped him? Who stood up for him while they
beat his back till it was bloody? Who stood up for him while they
plucked his beard off? Who stood up for him and said,
oh, listen, don't do him that way. He's a holy man. He's a
truest man. He's a perfect man. Why are you
doing this to him? Not one person. Not one person. But it was through this suffering
and death. Because of this suffering and
death, our Lord has the right, He has the power to bless, and
He alone can. Nobody else can bless. Nobody else can. Do you know
what it says? Ephesians 1.3. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings. Whereat in heavenly places."
In who? In Christ. In Christ. And, O beloved, this was the
last that was seen of the Lord Jesus Christ as He ascended into
glory. But He hasn't changed His way
of blessing. He still blesses through those
pierced hands. Oh, those wonderful hands of
our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the same hand that when
Simon Peter said, Lord, if it's You, Christ came walking to them
on the water. In the third watch of the night,
He came walking on the water. And Simon Peter said, Lord, if
it's You, me to come. He said, come. And he came walking
out there in the way. He got up, he got scared down.
He started with, Lord save me, I'll perish. It was the same
hand that got Simon Peter and pulled him up. This is the same hand that Simon
Peter, Thomas said, I'm not going to believe. except I can stick
my finger in his hand and put my hand in his side, I'm not
going to believe." Because I saw him nailed to that tree. I saw
him take that spear and open his side. And I'm not going to
believe unless I can put my finger myself and stick my hand in that
side. He no sooner got those words
out of the Lord Jesus Christ, just appeared in presence of
him, said, here, here Thomas, go ahead. Fell down before Him
and said, My Lord, my God. Just the sight of Him is all
He needed. He didn't need to touch Him. Just the sight of
Him. And that's all we need. When we see a sight of those
pierced hands, that rib inside, where that blood flowed from,
oh, my. I tell you, those are the hands,
the hands of our blessing. And let me tell you something
about not only are they the hands of blessing, and they're the
only hands, the only hands. that God will bless them, that
blessings come through. They don't come through no other
way. They come through the suffering and sacrifice and death and resurrection
and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. The only way you're ever
going to get a blessing, you can't earn one, you don't deserve
one. He's blessing people who denied
Him. He's blessing people who fled
from Him. He's blessing people that when
He was in the Garden of Gethsemane in awful agony, they went to
sleep and couldn't even pray for Him. You know what He was doing? He's
blessing people like you and me. Oh, sorry, dead dog sinners. But you have to understand, and
I could see every one of them. I could see that whole crowd.
I could see every one of them standing there looking at those
hands. Oh, what glorious hands. Those hands are lifting up, and
they're saying, the Lord bless you! The Lord keep you! The Lord calls
His face to shine on you, and the only way He can is through me. That's the only way it's
coming. That's the only way it's coming.
And let me tell you something. Look over at Hebrews chapter
1 with me. Look at Hebrews chapter 1. Not only was those hands, the
hands of blessing, pierced hands, suffering hands, the suffering
Savior, sacrifice, sin offering, and only through those hands
do we get forgiveness of our sin. Only through what our Lord
Jesus Christ did do we get a blessing. Only through Him. But let me
tell you something. Look there in verse eight. But
unto the Son, he said, thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. These hands now hold the scepter. You know what a scepter is. That's
what a king holds. That's what a king holds. You
know, he's standing there. It's his scepter, sign of his authority,
sign of his power, sign of his royalty, sign of his authority,
sign of who he is. Well, you know, when Esther wanted
to go into the prison of Erasmus, a king, king of Syria at that
time, had a hundred and twenty provinces, ruled the whole world
as far as the world was known at that time. And you could not,
if you went into His presence without Him asking you or tending
somebody to bring you into His presence. If you went into His
presence and He didn't hold forth that scepter, somebody just came
and got you and took you out and killed you. Well, Esther said, I may die
and I may live, but I'm in the hands of God, and we need God
to do something for us. And she said, I'll go into His
presence, whether I live or whether I die. And she went into the
presence of the king, and she stood right there just as quiet
as a mouse. Will He hold forth that scepter
and accept me, or will somebody come and take me away and destroy
me? He looked at her and held forth
that scepter. Can we come into the presence
of God with a king-hold-forthy scepter? Can we come into the
presence of a holy God who would have His eternity? And the earth
is the Lord's and the fullness thereof? Can we come into the
presence of Him who measures the waters and the hollow of
His hand, who scatters the stars in the sky and calls them all
by name, and not one of them fails without Him? Can we come
into the presence of Him who said, spake and it was done,
who commanded and it stood fast? Can we come into the presence
of Him who dwells in the very beauties of holiness? Well, if
we come into his presence, you reckon the king will hold forth
his scepter and say, come on, welcome? Not only can we, but we do. The king's already
held forth his scepter. He holds that scepter just like
this right here. And you know what that means?
come anytime, from anywhere, and anybody. You've got no right to come,
but here I've got the scepter held out for you. And, O beloved,
when these hands held this scepter, His hands were the hands of omnipotence. They hold all power. This throne
does, and this scepter does, and these hands, they hold all
power for all people. And he holds the scepter. Let
me tell you something about this scepter. He holds the scepter
of providence. And what I mean by that, beloved,
he governs the smallest affairs of everything in this life, from
the smallest to the greatest. People think he is interested
just in the greatest, but he takes care of the smallest affairs
of our life. He says that he numbers the hairs
of our head. So that's taken a pretty good
interest in, James. You know how many people He's
got? He knows every single one of them and every hair on their
head. He's just telling us how intimately He's acquainted with
us and how He loves us and cares for us. He says, you know, you
see that sparrow come off of that tree limb and go down there
and get those? We got more birds than anybody
I know of. And they're singing all the time,
and they're just down getting something all the time. But you
watch them little birds get down and get something, and our Lord
says, are you not worth much more than a sparrow? So for a
lesson of pity, he said, and the father cares for the sparrows,
just think how much he cares for you. And I mean, beloved,
the smallest offense. I wonder how many times poverty,
which has went before us, when we didn't even know anything
was going to happen, and it blew something out of the way. And
I wonder how many times when we were pretty arrogant and felt
full of ourselves that God in His providence put something
in our way to cause us to fall to get our attention. One way or another, He's protecting
us. He's keeping us. And that's providence. Oh, ain't
you grateful it'd be awful to live in this world and not know
God and that He's governed everything in this world for us. that he
takes care of the smallest affairs that we have. Not only us, but
this whole world. Everything, the king's hands
in the heart of, the king's heart's in the hands of the Lord, and
he just turns it wherever he will. And I'll tell you, not
only is his scepter the scepter of providence, from the smallest
to the greatest, but he has the scepter of his kingdom. His spiritual
kingdom. And that's what he has in this
world. He has a kingdom. We're in the kingdom of Christ. He's our king. And the church,
he holds a scepter over the church and everything it does. You see,
he's the head of the church. He's the foundation of the church.
He's the life of the church. We don't have any life without
him. We have no king. We don't have no foundation to
stand on if Christ is not the foundation of his church. And
you know what our Lord Jesus Christ said? He said, I give
unto them eternal life. And you know what he said? No
man, no man shall pluck them, word, out of my hand. And not only does he hold the
scepter of providence and of the kingdom, but also of the
future judgment and the eternal reign in this world. He holds
the scepter of your life in His hand right now, of your eternity. He holds that scepter. All power
and authority is vested in Him. And He holds the scepter of future
judgment, don't you know? How's he, what will he do with
that scepter? Will he save me, hold it forth
to save me, or will he hold it forth to judge me? That's what
the scripture said. He says, the king says, when
the kingdom comes, he says, put the goats over here on the left
hand. On my left hand. Left, you notice the right hand
represents power and authority and honor. And he said, he's
my right-hand man. The Scriptures tell us that Christ
sits at the right hand of the Father. And he says, you take
all them who won't bow to me, who won't believe me, who won't
submit to me, who won't come unto the rule and reign of me,
he said, you put them over here on my left. And you know what he says? You
take all the sheep, all the sheep, and put them over here on my
right. I'm going to give these folks, I'm going to exhaust them.
They humble themselves, I'm going to exhaust them. And I'll tell
you something, beloved, look here what it says back over in
our text. Yeah, back over in Luke chapter 24, real quick. Luke 24. Let's worship Him. And it says in verse 51, And it came to pass while he
blessed them, he was parted from them." Parted from them. Parted
from them in presence, but not parted from them spiritually.
Life-giving. And carried up into heaven. And
watch what it says, and they worshiped him. They worshipped
Him while He was blessing them. They worshipped Him while He
was standing in their prayers. They worshipped Him while He
was blessing them. They worshipped Him as they went
out from Jerusalem. And they returned to Jerusalem
with great joy and were continuing in the temple, praising and blessing
God. Oh, may God always enable us
to praise Him and proclaim His glory. Always bless His holy
name. And they returned to Jerusalem
with great joy. What did they turn with great
joy? Well, because when he opened
their understanding, the Lord Jesus Christ took the veil and
removed it from their eyes. They saw the scriptures like
they had never saw them. They understood the scriptures.
For the first time, they saw clearly about their master and
what took place. They saw now the meaning of his
humiliation. They saw the mystery of His agony,
why He suffered so, till His sweat became as great drops of
blood. They saw the meaning of the cross
now, why He had to suffer, why He had to die, why He had to
have those hands and feet pierced. They saw the meaning of His passion. His passion to do the Father's
will, His passion to be crucified, His passion to save His people,
His passion to do the will of God. And they saw the meaning
of His being the Messiah, and though He was the Messiah full
of glory, yet suffered, suffered. Yet being crucified, He was the
Son of God. And they understood it now. And
they saw it now. And that's how they went and
returned with joy. And that's the reason I have
joy. Because I see it clearly. I see it clearly. I see it clearly. Our Lord Jesus, our gracious
God in heaven. We bless Your name, praise You
for life.