Brother Henry Mahan told a story
the other night I thought to be very, very, very
applicable and needful. One night a family was sitting
in the family room reading, a young man's wife and their children.
The doorbell rang. The wife got up, went to the
door, came back and just sat down, just quiet, didn't say
anything. Finally, the husband put down
the newspaper and said, well, who was at the door? She said
that a man there came from the new church down the road. He
said, well, what did he want? She said, he asked me, do you
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? He said, did
you tell him we go to church? She said, that's not what he
asked. Did you tell him that you're a Sunday school teacher?
That's not what he asked. Well, what did you tell him?
She said, I don't know. I never gave it much thought.
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Will you give
it some thought? He that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life. I've prepared this message, and
I've been praying that before you leave here tonight, God will
cause you to believe on His side. Turn with me, if you will, to
Luke, chapter 24. I've told you many times about
the work of the high priest in Israel. You've read it many times
yourself in the Old Testament Scriptures. One day every year,
God required the high priest of Israel to bring a lamb without
spot, without blemish, and to lay his hands upon the head of
that lamb, ceremonially transferring the sins of the people to the
sacrifice on the day of the Passover, the day of atonement. And the
priest would impose the sins of the people ceremonially to
the Lamb publicly before all. It slit his throat. He'd take
the blood caught in a basin into the Holy of Holies. He'd take
off his gorgeous priestly apparel, the robe, the breastplate, the
mitre that he wore on his head, and he'd put on common linen
garments. common white linen robe, a common
white linen britches, and he would go into the holy place
with the blood and sprinkle the blood upon the mercy seat, that
mercy seat covering the Ark of the Covenant in which was all
the broken law of God, and thereby ceremonially cover the transgressions
of the people. And then the sacrifice that God
required once every year. One sacrifice, only one sacrifice,
offered in only one place by one man. The sacrifice being
accepted of God, the priest would come out, take off those bloodstained
white garments, and put on his gorgeous priestly apparel again,
and he would put on his mitre with that inscription, Holiness
unto the Lord, and the breastplate with the Urim and the Thummim
and the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the sweet-sounding
noise from His robes with the bells and pomegranates ringing,
joyfully making music. because the Lord God had passed
over the sins of his people. The Lord God had atoned for the
sins. The Lord God had accepted the
sacrifice that he required, and Israel's sins were covered. And
he would step out before the people by the command of God
and lift his hands over the congregation. And he would say something like
this, The Lord bless thee. and keep thee. The Lord make
his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The
Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And that blessing arose from
and was based upon all that had transpired inside the holy of
holies, outside the sight of any man except the priest. That blessing came from blood
atonement accepted by God. Now all of that was typical.
All of that was ceremonial. No lamb's blood ever put away
sin. No priest in Israel ever made
atonement for sin. But all that was done was done
by the arrangement, decree, and law of God to give a portrayal,
a picture, a type of redemption in and by Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is our only true sacrifice, our only true priest, our only
true altar, our only true mercy seat. And here in Luke 24, As
we have read and studied this Gospel of Luke over the last
couple of years, we've seen the type fulfilled in all its details. And here we have it in its final
conclusion. Luke 24, verse 50. And the Lord Jesus led them out
so 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 worshipped Him and returned
to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple,
praising and blessing God. Amen. That's the end of the story. Here we see our Lord Jesus lifting
up His hands as our glorious High Priest, blessing His people. Our Savior had, for a while,
laid aside His robe of glory. He had veiled His glory in human
flesh. He had covered the splendor of
His person, veiling Himself in our nature. And He offered His
body, His soul, and His spirit. He offered Himself as a perpetuatory,
sin-atoning sacrifice to God. By His blood, He then entered
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for
us. And now as our great High Priest,
just as He is ascending into heaven, He lifted up His hands
to bless His people. And He lifted up His hands and
blessed them. I want us tonight to look at
the Savior's hands. Take a good look at His hands. God give you grace to take a
good look at his hands. Now you know when I say that,
I have no inclination of even dreaming of a picture physically
of his hands. If you've got images of angels
and images of Jesus and images of his hands still hanging around
your house, go home and burn them. Don't give them to somebody
else, burn them. Crosses, religious symbols are
nothing but idolatry. just base idolatry in every way
contrary to Holy Scripture. I would not even care particularly
were it possible that you could go back in time and physically
look on his hands. Lots of folks did for whom there
was no benefit to their souls. I'm talking about beholding his
hands by faith. Having spoiled the grave Our
Lord proved his power over all things under the earth. Carrying
forty days among men after his resurrection, he claimed his
power over the earth itself. And then he ascended up through
the air to show that the dominion of the prince of the power of
the air was now broken. Now is the prince of this world
cast out. Satan is described in Revelation
20 as being bound by an angel that came down from heaven with
a long chain, bound and cast into the bottomless pit. That
angel is Christ our Lord, the angel of the covenant. Finally,
the Son of God entered again into the heaven of heavens and
sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High, claiming
His throne by right, claiming His throne by right as our all-glorious,
victorious, triumphant Redeemer. His throne is a throne of dominion
that is universal. His sovereignty is a universal
sovereignty. The Lord God has put all things
in his hands. He said, Ask of me, and I will
give thee the heathen for thine inheritance. And when our Savior
had finished His work, He asked Him, Father, restore unto me
the glory that I had with Thee before the world was. And the
Father gave all things into the hands of the Son. So that from
the lowest depths of the grave to the highest realms of glory,
the Lord Jesus Christ has been exalted and He reigns supreme
over the vast domains of the universe, King of kings, and
Lord of Lords. But have you ever wondered why
did the Lord Jesus remain on this earth for 40 days after
his resurrection? I ponder such things. He could
have ascended back to glory immediately, but he remained here for 40 days
after his resurrection. You remember that in the days
of Noah, the waters of God's wrath and judgment overflowed
the earth for 40 days. Our Lord Jesus, when he was tempted
of Satan, was in the wilderness for 40 days, and there, being
tempted of the devil, he overcame him. And now our victorious Christ
carries on this earth after accomplishing redemption for our souls for
40 days. He stayed here in the place where
he had fought the battle, in the place where he had won the
victory, in the place where he had been triumphant. He remained
for 40 days. But why? I can't really answer
the questions fully, but there are three or four things that
are obvious. First, obviously, it was his intent to prove to
all mankind beyond dispute that he truly arose from the dead. wasn't a ghost, wasn't an appearance
of a resurrection. He who was nailed to the tree,
he whose side was pierced with the spear, on the third day arose
and showed himself by infallible witnesses. In fact, were you
to look at any piece of ancient history and try to prove the
existence of any man in history. You could not find more credible
evidence for the existence of George Washington than you can
for the resurrection of the Son of God. He proved himself by
many infallible witnesses for 40 days, rendering all who refused
to believe him without excuse. But there are better reasons
than that. Our Lord Jesus, during these
40 days, removed every lingering doubt and misapprehension from
the minds of his own disciples. They had such confusion, such
perplexity, such misunderstanding. And the Lord Jesus said to them,
behold, my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. He said,
Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you
see me have. And again, he tarried these 40
days because those instructions he had given to his disciples
before his death needed some finishing touches. You'll remember
he said, I have many things to say unto you. But you cannot
bear them now. And He had told them, and told
them, and told them, He must suffer, He must die, He must
be crucified, He must be put to death, He must rise again.
But they didn't understand. They didn't understand. He told
them, I'm going to my Father, but they didn't understand. He
told them, I am going the way I came here to go back to my
Father, but they didn't understand. And then He came to those disciples
on the Emmaus Road, and proclaimed the message of Scripture to them
and opened to them the Scriptures, causing their hearts to burn
within them. And he met with the disciples
in that first appearance of the first assembly after the resurrection,
and he showed them all things concerning himself in the Scriptures
and opened their understanding that they might understand the
Scriptures. And they understood all that he had taught them.
in three and a half years. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? Brother Darwin and I were talking
about this coming down the road a little bit ago. We learn facts and doctrines, and then we learn them. And the
only time you learn them is when God opens your heart and your
understanding. so that you come to experience
them. Now stood before these disciples the crucified, risen
Redeemer, and they handled him. And they understood him. Oh,
Spirit of God, will you open our hearts and give us understanding
tonight. And our Lord Jesus appears to
have remained here specifically to give his commission to his
church. his commission to his disciples.
He gives marching orders to you and me. Marching orders he gave
to every man and woman in the assembly before him. He said,
go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. He said to Peter, feed my sheep. Feed my lands. This is our business. This is our responsibility. This
is our privilege. We exist for no other purpose. I keep repeating this. I want
you to hear it. If I drop dead tonight, I want
you to hear it and remember it. This assembly has no purpose
for existence except the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. No, we're not going to involve
ourselves in the nonsense that goes on in the name of religion.
There's nothing less than blasphemy of the name of our God. Not going
to happen. Not going to happen. How come?
Because our Savior told us what he would have us do. To give
ourselves relentlessly to proclaiming the gospel of his free grace
to sinners around the world and feeding his sheep with that same
gospel here and around the world all the time. Well, that won't
work. I beg your pardon. What do you
mean that won't work? Well, people don't pay any attention
to that. The Master said, and lo, I am with you always. I reckon he can see that it works,
don't you? I reckon he can cause it to go where he will. I reckon
He can cause men to bow wherever He will. He can cause men to
hear wherever He will. He can open any door He will
and shut any door He will, exactly as pleases Him. And now, just
as He is leaving His people and going up to assume His throne,
He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Can you picture that scene? There's the Son of God, risen
from the dead, with his apostles and his disciples gathered around
him. And they have come out of Jerusalem now to Mount Olivet. Behind the crowd is Jerusalem,
that city that had for 2,000 years housed the oracles of God,
that people who had for 2,000 years, unlike any other people
in the world, been given the light of divine revelation. That people to whom alone the
prophets of God had been sent over and over and over again. But they would not hear. They would not believe. They
would not trust the Son of God. And the Lord Jesus said to that
city behind Your house is left to you desolate, empty, meaningless,
useless, left of God. Behind them was the place where
our Lord Jesus had accomplished our redemption 43 days earlier,
where He suffered and bled as our substitute. I love the way
Peter describes it. He speaks of the sufferings and
the glory of Christ, where He had suffered as our Redeemer
and obtained His glory. Just ahead of them, just a little
ways, was Bethany, the little village where He had performed
mighty miracles. And there, the home where He
was so often a guest, the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And just below them is Gethsemane,
where as He anticipated his suffering as he anticipated being made
sin for us. He cried three times, Oh, my
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless,
not my will, Thy will be done. And broke out into a worn sweat
of his own blood. His heart crushed within him
as he anticipated what he must have suffered. Let me imagine
a little bit. I don't know what took place
that day behind the scenes, but our Lord being the kind, sympathetic,
magnanimous, good, thoughtful friend of sinners He is, I suspect
that He and His disciples must have sung a hymn, probably sung
one of the psalms. He probably had some final Words
to each one. I suspect he, at some time along
the way, pulled Peter aside and assured him again of his goodness
and mercy. I suspect he must have given
some comfort to James. He must have inspired John, must
have given some solace and consolation to Thomas. At any rate, he gave
them his farewell message and then He lifted up his hands and
blessed them. And while he was blessing them,
he broke the law of gravity and began to rise, ascending up into
heaven, ascending up until at last a cloud came between him
and his disciples. Oh, how astonished those disciples
must have been And the Lord Jesus was received out of their sight
behind the cloud. I wonder what happened there.
I think you can read it in Psalm 24. Listen, let me read it to
you. The angels began to sing, Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and be lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. And the keeper of the gate seems
to inquire, Who is the King of glory? And one of the attending
angels replies, the Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in
battle, the Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory. And the
ascended Christ, the King of glory, our great priest, sat
down on the right hand of the majesty on high. He sat down
on the mercy seat. He sat down on that which Paul
describes in Hebrews 4.16 as the throne of grace. Are you
sure that's the throne of grace? Are you sure how that's portrayed
in Scripture? I'm absolutely sure. Isaiah saw
him sitting on that throne and that throne on which he sat in
his glorious being is the throne that he saw as the mercy seat
over which the cherubim constantly were guarding and looking down.
Now, let's go back to Luke 24 again. Our Lord lifted up his
hands and blessed them. Every blessing of grace flows
freely to our souls from the nail-pierced hands of our great
Redeemer. Let me tell you three things
about it, and I won't be long. The hands of our Lord were lifted
up to bless, and those hands which bless us are pierced hands,
and those nail-pierced hands now hold the scepter of total
dominion over all things. Here's the first thing. He lifted
up his hands and blessed them. They were lifted up to bless
his disciples. Standing on the Mount of Olives,
anticipating that glory which lay immediately before Him, our
Lord Jesus wanted to bless His disciples. He had opened His
ministry proclaiming grace, and He closes His ministry scattering
grace. With open hands, like a farmer
scatters seed in the field, He scatters grace upon His disciples.
These hands are the hands of our Redeemer. He said to his troubled disciples,
Behold my hands. And when they beheld his hands,
their hearts were calmed at ease. Hear me, children of God. Whatever
your need, look to the hands of your Redeemer, your sovereign
God and Creator. With these hands, he waved his
hand across the waters and said, Peace be still. And the storm
ceased. With these hands, he received
little children and blessed them. With these hands, he consoled
his disciples. With the touch of these hands,
he raised the dead. By these hands, he removed Thomas'
doubt, and with these hands, He comforted his disciples in
trouble. Whatever your need is, he said,
behold my hands. These hands lifted up to bless
you. These hands which do nothing
except bless you. And this is not anything unusual
for him. When Brother Mahan and his wife Doris were with us a
few weeks ago, we were sitting in the den talking, chatting
about experiences. Obviously, they've been around
a little longer than we have. They talk about things they've experienced.
We talk about things we've experienced. Sister Doris made this statement.
She said something unexpected had happened to take care of
a need they had. She said, when Henry told me
what was going on, I said, that's just unbelievable. She said,
what a terrible thing to say. Why shouldn't I believe that?
Why shouldn't you, who are redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Expect Him to do you good, and
only good, all the time. How many times we look at something
with our judgment, that's just unbelievable. Oh, no. This is
what we ought to expect from Him. All the days of His life. Read the four Gospels again.
He went around blessing. He went everywhere blessing folks.
He went around everywhere healing the sick, comforting those who
were disconsolate, uplifting the fallen, always doing good,
especially doing good for His own. When our Lord Jesus lifted
up His hands and blessed His people, He was only doing what
He had always done. And when our Lord Jesus blesses
us, He is only doing what He has always done. He lifts up
His hands from old eternity, His assurity, and we were blessed. He stretched out His hands as
our Redeemer and died in our stead and we were blessed. He
lifts up His hands as the priest who has accomplished redemption
and blesses His own. He has blessed us. He is blessing
us and tomorrow He shall bless us. And when it appears that
He is doing us harm, He is blessing us. Oh God, give me grace to
understand and to believe that. When most my soul is heavy and
most my heart is crushed, He's lifted out His hands to bless. And nobody can reverse the blessing
of His hands. Nobody on earth, nobody in hell. Christ blessed His disciples
now a little differently than He had before. In John 17, He prayed for the Father to bless
us. Now, He stretches out His hands
and doesn't say a word. Doesn't say a word. Not a word. He just stretched out His hands.
And with the wave of His hand commands the blessing of heaven. How come? Because He has earned
it on our behalf. by his obedience unto death.
The blessing of our Lord is full, complete, and constant. He seems
to be saying to us, look, my ransom flock, all that I have
done for you, all is yours. All you need now and all you
need tomorrow and all you need forever is in these hands, and
I give it to you. And it's a very distinct blessing.
He didn't lift up his hands over Jerusalem to bless that cursed
city. He didn't lift up his hands over
the folks over to his left or the folks over to his right.
He lifted up his hands over his beloved disciples and blessed
them. Don't ever, ever, ever, ever,
ever think about the blessings of God's grace and redemption
as common things. Oh, no. A common thing is a worthless
thing. A common thing is a useless thing.
Who wants a common thing? Oh, no. The blessings of God's
grace. were designed from eternity and
ordained from eternity and purchased at Calvary and disturbed by the
hand of our Redeemer upon His own church, which He loved and
gave Himself for. These hands are the hands that
shall present her at last faultless before the presence of His glory
with exceeding joy. Here they are, Father. Not one
of them is lost. And they're not on any face here,
a wrinkle. They're not on anybody here, a spot of iniquity, a wrinkle
of weakness, a stain of transgression. Holy and without blame, just
as I promised you as their surety, now I present them to you. And
He does it. with beaming face, with exceeding
joy. These hands are pierced hands. The price of the blessing is
His death. Now listen to me. Listen carefully. The grace of God given us in
eternity in Christ Jesus, but it flows to us only through our
crucified mediator. And we think about the blessing
of redemption generally as the redemption of our souls and salvation
by the grace of God. But you listen carefully now.
The price at which we receive any and every blessing, any and
every blessing, and that which is to you a blessing, is to your
neighbor a curse. Life on this earth is to the
reprobate and unbelieving a curse, and it will be a curse forever. That which is a blessing to you
is to your neighbor a curse, and the price of every blessing
is his precious blood. Every blessing. Ours because
He stretched out His hand unto death for us. By His hand we
have been made whole. By His hand the plague of our
souls has been healed. By His hand be nailed to the
tree. By Him dying in our stead. And now the Father has put all
things into his hands. The Father loveth the Son, and
hath put all things in his hands. And these hands are the hands
of our sovereign God. How can I express what I want
to say? He who rules and governs
and orders the thought of every man's heart, and the deed of
every man's hand, and the word of every man's mouth, and the
move of every man's foot. He who orders the action of every
devil in hell, who controls everything absolutely, stretched out his
hands unto death for me. I ought to wake up every day
leaping with joy and walk through every difficulty with serene
peace and go to bed every night giving praise to God for every
event of the day. How come? Because he who stretched
out his hands for me upon the cursed tree rules the world for
me. What is it you need? Here it
is. So before we ask, darling, he
gives us. Constantly. That's his way. And
these hands will in the day of judgment still be spread out
and uplifted to bless us. Can I remind you one more time
of Mr. Hill's dream? We don't put any
stock in dreams and visions. Roland Hill, that great preacher
in England many years ago, he said he dreamed one night that
the resurrection had come and the judgment was set. And hordes,
hordes of people were gathered before the throne, the great
white throne, and one name called after another. He said, I stood
before that throne in utter horror, as did all others, being called
one after another to stand before the throne and waved off into
eternal damnation. And at last I heard the name,
Roland Hill, and I froze in silence. Roland Hill! And I was terrified. And at last the name sounded
like thunder across the ocean. Roland Hill! And I was just about
to step forward. And when I did, one stepped forward
in my stead and said, here I am. and spread forth his hand. That's
our Redeemer. All that God required, he did. And all that God demands, he
is. And all that he is belongs to
every sinner who trusts him. Oh, God help you now to trust
him. Amen.