Our Lord's Attitude in Ascending

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Luke 24:50-53

And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.…

I. HIS HANDS WERE UPLIFTED TO BLESS.

1. This blessing was no unusual thing. To stretch out His hands in benediction was His customary attitude. In that attitude He departed, with a benediction still proceeding from His lips.

2. This blessing was with authority. He blessed them while His Father acknowledged Him by receiving Him to heaven.

3. This blessing was so full that, as it were, He emptied His hands. They saw those dear hands thus unladen of their benedictions.

4. The blessing was for those beneath Him, and beyond the sound of His voice; He scattered benedictions upon them all.

5. The blessing was the fit finis of His sojourn here; nothing fitter, nothing better, could have been thought of.

II. THOSE HANDS WERE PIERCED. This could be seen by them all as they gazed upward.

1. Thus they knew that they were Christ's hands.

2. Thus they saw the price of the blessing. His crucifixion has purchased continual blessing for all His redeemed.

3. Thus they saw the way of the blessing; it comes from those human hands, through those sacrificial wounds.

4. A sight of those hands is in itself a blessing. By that sight we see pardon and eternal life.

5. The entire action is an epitome of the gospel. This is the substance of the matter — "hands pierced distribute benedictions." Jesus, through suffering and death, has power to bless us out of the highest heaven. This is the last that was seen of our Lord. He has not changed His attitude of benediction, He will not change it till He shall descend in His glory.

III. THOSE HANDS SWAY THE SCEPTRE. His hands are omnipotent. Those very hands, which blessed His disciples, now hold, on their behalf, the sceptre —

1. Of providence: both in small affairs and greater matters.

2. Of the spiritual kingdom: the Church and all its work.

3. Of the future judgment and the eternal reign.

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