30. POWER FROM ON HIGH
Matt. 28:18-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47-53; Acts 1:1-8.
From Galilee the disciples, of their own accord
or by direction, found their way back to Jerusalem, where their risen Lord
showed Himself to them once more, and for the last time, to give them their
final instructions, and to bid them farewell.
Of this last meeting no distinct notice is taken
in the Gospels. Each of the synoptical evangelists, however, has preserved some
of the last words spoken by Jesus to His disciples ere He ascended to heaven.
Among these we reckon the closing verses of Matthew's Gospel, where we read:
"All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore,
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the
end of the world."[30.1] Of this last word Mark gives, in the close of his
Gospel, an abbreviated version, in these terms: "Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to the whole creation."[30.2] In Luke's narrative the words
spoken by Jesus on the occasion of His final appearance to the eleven are so
interwoven with those which He spoke to them on the evening of His resurrection
day, that, but for the supplementary and more circumstantial account given by
the same author in the Book of the Acts, we should never have thought of making
a distinction, far less have known where to place the boundary line. On
comparing the two accounts, however, we can see that words spoken at two
different times are construed together into one continuous discourse; and we
have no great difficulty in determining what belongs to the first appearance
and what to the last. According to the Book of Acts, Jesus, in His last
conversation with His disciples, spoke to them of their apostolic duties as
witnesses unto Himself and preachers of His gospel; of the promise of the
Spirit, whose descent was to fit them for their work; and of what they should
do till the promise should be fulfilled. Now these are just the topics adverted
to in the verses cited from the last chapter of Luke's Gospel. There is first
the apostolic commission to preach repentance and remission of sins in the name
of Jesus among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem; and a virtual injunction
laid on the disciples to be faithful witnesses to all things they had seen and
heard in their Lord's company, and especially to His resurrection from the
dead. Then there is the renewal of this promise, here called the "promise of my
Father." Then, finally, there is the direction to wait for the promised
blessing in the holy city: "But tarry ye at Jerusalem until ye be clothed with
power from on high."
All these sayings bear internal evidence of being
last words, from their fitness to the situation. It was natural and needful
that Jesus should thus speak to His chosen agents at the hour of His final
departure, giving them instructions for their guidance in their future
apostolic labors, and in the short interval that was to elapse before those
labors began. Even the business-like brevity and matter-of-fact tone of these
last words betray the occasion on which they were uttered. On first thoughts,
we should perhaps have expected a more pathetic style of address in connection
with a farewell meeting; but, on reflection, we perceive that every thing
savoring of sentimentality would have been beneath the dignity of the
situation. In the farewell address before the passion, pathos was in place; but
in the farewell words before the ascension, it would have been misplaced. In
the former case, Jesus was a parent speaking His last words of counsel and
comfort to His sorrowing children; in the latter, He was "as a man taking a far
journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every
man his work, and commanded the porter to watch;"[30.3] and His manner of
speech was adapted to the character He sustained.
And yet the tone adopted by Jesus in His last
interview with the eleven was not purely magisterial. The Friend was not
altogether lost in the Master. He had kind words as well as commands for His
servants. What could be kinder and more encouraging than that word: "And, lo, I
am with you alway, even unto the end of the world "? And is there not an accent
of friendship in that utterance, in which Jesus, now about to ascend to glory,
seems by anticipation to resume the robe of divine majesty, which He laid aside
when He became man: "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth"? Why
does He say that now? Not for the purpose of self-exaltation; not to put a
distance between Himself and His quondam companions, and, as it were, degrade
them from the position of friends to that of mere servants. No; but to cheer
them on their way through the world as the messengers of the kingdom; to make
them feel that the task assigned them was not, as it might well seem, an
impossible one. "I have all power," saith He in effect, "in heaven, and
jurisdiction over all the earth: go ye therefore [30.4] into all the world,
making disciples of all the nations, nothing doubting that all spiritual
influences and all providential agencies will be made subservient to the great
errand on which I send you."
Jesus had kind actions as well as kind words for
His friends at parting. There was indeed no farewell kiss, or shaking of hands,
or other symbolic act in use among men who bid each other adieu; but the manner
of the ascension was most gracious and benignant towards those whom the
ascending One left behind. Jesus moved upwards as if lifted from the earth by
some celestial attraction, with His face looking downwards upon His beloved
companions, and with His hand stretched out in an attitude of benediction.
Hence the eleven grieved not for their Lord's disappearance. They marvelled
indeed, and gazed eagerly and wonderingly towards the skies, as if trying to
penetrate the cloud which received their Master's person; but the parting left
no sadness behind. They bowed their heads in worship towards the ascended
Christ, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, as if they had gained, not
lost a friend, and as if the ascension were not a sunset but a sunrise--as
indeed it was, not for them alone, but for the whole world.
Of that miraculous event, by which our High
Priest passed within the veil into the celestial sanctuary, we may not speak.
Like the transfiguration, it is a topic on which we know not what to say; an
event not to be explained, but to be devoutly and joyfully believed, in company
with the kindred truth declared by the two men in white apparel to the
disciples, who said: "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into heaven? This
same Jesus, which was taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven."[30.5] Wherefore we pass from the
ascension to make some observations on the great commission given by the Lord
to His apostles for the last time, just before He was taken up into glory.
That commission was worthy of Him from whom it
emanated, whether we regard Him as Son of God or as Son of man. "Go ye into all
the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation." Surely this is the
language of a Divine Being. What mere man ever entertained a plan of
beneficence embracing the whole human race within its scope? and who but one
possessing all power in heaven and on earth could dare to hope for success in
so gigantic an undertaking? Then how full of grace and love the matter of the
commission! The errand on which Jesus sends His apostles is to preach
repentance and remission of sins in His name, and to make a peaceful conquest
of the world to God by the word of reconciliation through His death. Such
philanthropy approves itself to be at once divine and most intensely human. And
mark, as specially characteristic of the gracious One, the direction,
"beginning at Jerusalem." The words indicate a plan of operations adapted at
once to the circumstances of the world, and to the capacities and
idiosyncrasies of the agents; but they do more. They open a window into the
heart of Jesus, and show Him to be the same who prayed on the cross: "Father,
forgive them; for they know not what they do." Why begin at Jerusalem? Because
"Jerusalem sinners" most need to repent and to be forgiven; and because Jesus
would show forth in them at the outset the full extent of His long-suffering,
for a pattern to them who should afterwards believe, in Samaria, Antioch, and
the uttermost parts of the earth.
It was in every way a commission worthy of Jesus,
as the Son of God and Saviour of sinners, to give. But what a commission for
poor Galilean fishermen to receive! what a burden of responsibility to lay upon
the shoulders of any poor mortal! Who is sufficient for these things? Jesus
knew the insufficiency of His instruments. Therefore, having invested them with
official authority, He proceeded to speak of an investment with another kind of
power, without which the official must needs be utterly ineffectual. "And,
behold," He said, "I send the promise of my Father upon you; but tarry ye at
Jerusalem till ye be clothed with power from on high."
''Power from on high:" the expression has a
mystical sound, and its sense seems difficult to define; yet the general
meaning is surely plain enough. The thing signified is not altogether or
chiefly a power to work miracles, but just what Jesus had spoken of at such
length in his farewell address before His death. "Power from on high" means:
All that the apostles were to gain from the mission of the
Comforter--enlightenment of mind, enlargement of heart, sanctification of their
faculties, and transformation of their characters, so as to make them whetted
swords and polished shafts for subduing the world unto the truth; these, or the
effect of these combined, constituted the power for which Jesus directed the
eleven to wait. The power, therefore, was a spiritual power, not a magical; an
inspiration, not a possession; a power which was not to act as a blind
fanatical force, but to manifest itself as a spirit of love and of a sound
mind. After the power descended, the apostles were to be not less rational, but
more; not mad, but sober-minded; not excited rhapsodists, but calm, clear,
dignified expositors of divine truth, such as they appear in Luke's history of
their ministry. In a word, they were to be less like their past selves and more
like their Master: no longer ignorant, childish, weak, carnal, but initiated
into the mysteries of the kingdom, and habitually under the guidance of the
Spirit of grace and holiness.
Such being the power promised, it was evidently
indispensable to success. Vain were official titles--apostles, evangelists,
pastors, teachers, rulers; vain clerical robes, without this garment of divine
power to clothe the souls of the eleven. Vain then, and equally vain now. The
world is to be evangelized, not by men invested with ecclesiastical dignities
and with parti-colored garments, but by men who have experienced the baptism of
the Holy Ghost, and who are visibly endued with the divine power of wisdom, and
love, and zeal.
As the promised power was indispensable, so it
was in its nature a thing simply to be waited for. The disciples were directed
to tarry till it came. They were neither to attempt to do without it, nor were
they to try to get it up. And they were wise enough to follow their
instructions. They fully understood that the power was needful, and that it
could not be got up, but must come down. All are not equally wise. Many
virtually assume that the power Christ spake of can be dispensed with, and that
in fact it is not a reality, but a chimera. Others, more devout, believe in the
power, but not in man's impotence to invest himself with it. They try to get
the power up by working themselves and others into a frenzy of excitement.
Failure sooner or later convinces both parties of their mistake, showing the
one that to produce spiritual results something more than eloquence, intellect,
money, and organization are required; and showing the other that true spiritual
power cannot be produced, like electric sparks, by the friction of excitement,
but must come sovereignly and graciously down from on high.