Acts 1:9-11
While they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, 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.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Conceive with what astonishment the disciples beheld the ascension of Christ! What must have been their feelings! What their holy joy! How gracious was it in the Lord, not only to them, but for the sake of the whole Church, to send those two angels in human form, to explain to the wondering Apostles what they saw. Their minds no doubt, were absorbed in contemplating the glorious sight, which so beautifully corresponded to the predictions of prophecy concerning it—see Psalm 24 & Psalm 47.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): “Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?” They are roused out of the ecstasy they were in at that glorious sight, to learn what was so much to their and our advantage.
ROBERT HAWKER: Probably some of them might recollect what Jesus had said to Nathanael: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man,” John 1:51; and also what He had said to the murmuring Jews: “When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?” John 6:61,62.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): As Christ’s resurrection had been honoured with the appearance of angels, it is natural to expect that His ascension into heaven would be so likewise.
ROBERT HAWKER: But be this as it might, the angels called off their attention from attending to the mere splendour of the sight, to the blissful consequences of their Lord’s ascension. And oh! how sweet the scripture which follows: “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.”
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Their Master had often told them of this, and the angels are sent at this time seasonably to put them in mind of it.
THOMAS COKE: The angels spake of our Lord’s coming to judge the world at the last day, a description of which He Himself had given in His life time on earth: “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels,” Matthew 16:27.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): He shall come in the same flesh, in the same human nature; He shall come in the clouds of heaven, and shall be attended with His mighty angels, as He now was; He shall descend Himself in Person, as He now ascended in person; and as He went up with a shout, and with the sound of a trumpet—“God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet,” Psalm 47:5—so He shall descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, 1 Thessalonians 4:16; and, it may be, He shall descend upon the very spot from whence He ascended—see Zechariah 14:4.
ROBERT HAWKER: Reader! Ponder well these words. Your God, your Saviour, in the same identity of Person; divine, and human, as He left the earth again will return, when His feet shall stand again on the very same mount from whence he went up.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): He will descend from heaven in visible form, in like manner as He was seen to ascend, and appear to all, with the ineffable majesty of His kingdom, the splendor of immortality, the boundless power of divinity, and an attending company of angels. Hence we are told to wait for the Redeemer against that day on which He will separate the sheep from the goats and the elect from the reprobate, and when not one individual either of the living or the dead shall escape His judgment, Matthew 25:31-46. From the extremities of the universe shall be heard the clang of the trumpet summoning all to His tribunal; both those whom that day shall find alive, and those whom death shall previously have removed from the society of the living.
ROBERT HAWKER: In the mean time, for the full scope of faith, in every need and want, we should never, no, not for a moment, forget that the Son of God in our nature, is now in heaven, and there exercising His office of an unchangeable priesthood, Hebrews 7:24. So that His mercies towards His people, are the mercies of both natures; and are manifested in this double way, and through such a medium as could not have been shown had He been God only. His mercies are indeed infinite, because He is God: and His human nature in communicating them to us, renders them endless and unceasing from that Almighty power. But at the same time, they are all in One of our own nature, and they flow to us in, and through this nature, with a sweetness to endear them to our hearts. And hence the Apostle’s direction to go to Him, Hebrews 4:14-16.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Though He shed His blood for sinners on the cross, He is now in heaven, and is the true Object of faith; He is the Christ, He is the Son of God. An ever living glorified Man now in heaven He is, and there is no other Saviour. He was the Son by whom the worlds were made, Colossians 1:16; He was the Son whom God sent to make propitiation for our sins, He was the Son in resurrection and ascension, and He is the Son now seated on the Father’s throne, whom the gospel declares to be the only Saviour of sinners.
JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): As yet He is proclaimed by the Gospel, a Saviour, seated upon a throne of grace, stretching forth the golden scepter of His love, and inviting sinners to be reconciled. Now is the accepted time. Hereafter He will be seen upon a throne of judgment, to take vengeance of His enemies.
EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): If you do not believe this, if it appears to you more like a tale, a fiction, or a dream, than a reality, you do not believe the Bible.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Oh, I pray you do not say that the Lord delays His coming—for it is the mark of the mockers of the last days, 2 Peter 3:4, that they say, “Where is the promise of His coming?”
JOHN NEWTON: Our ascended Lord will one day return; then they who have loved, and served, and trusted Him here, “shall appear with Him in glory,” Colossians 3:4. Others, if they can, must prepare to meet Him. But, alas! how shall they stand before Him? Or, whither shall they flee from Him whose presence filleth the heavens and the earth? “Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD,” Jeremiah 23:24. Have they an arm like God? Or can they thunder with a voice like His?
C. H. SPURGEON: His return is certain, and your summons to His bar equally certain. But what account can you give if you reject Him? O come and trust Him this day!
