Luke 24:50,51; Acts 1:9; Psalm 24:7-10
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.
While they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): There is somewhat very gracious, that Jesus, while in the act of blessing his Church, should be parted from them, and carried up into heaven. Yes! this was not without significancy. The blessing of Jesus is continued. It is one great whole. There is no interruption—our Great High Priest ascended therefore, while blessing, as if to say that His blessing is forever. Those that looked on, when Jesus gradually went up from the Mount of Olives, in presence of the many who were gathered together, saw, and wondered as they beheld, and were no doubt absorbed in contemplation, until the clouds received Him out of their sight. But they knew not what was going on in heaven, but which this scripture of Psalm 24 records.
CHRISTMAS EVANS (1766-1838): In Psalm 24, we have an account of the actual entrance of Christ into heaven.
JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The pomp and triumph of His ascension were displayed in the invisible world…We conceive of Him therefore, from this sublime passage in Psalm 24, as ascending to His Father and our Father, to His God and our God, accompanied with a train of worshipping angels.
ROBERT HAWKER: Perhaps angels; or perhaps the church of the redeemed above, who had died in the faith of Christ before the wonders of His redemption had been wrought; perhaps both angels and the spirits of just men made perfect, were those who demanded the gates and everlasting doors to lift up their heads, at the approach of the almighty Conqueror. For angels, we are told, are at the gates of the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21:12. And, surely, the souls of the redeemed in glory, who had gained entrance there by virtue of Christ’s blood and righteousness, must have been longing with holy desires for the return of the Lord Jesus.
JOHN NEWTON: The question is asked, who is he that claims this honour? An answer is given, asserting His character, His victories, and the justice of His claims—“The Lord of hosts, the Lord strong in battle, he is the King of glory.”—It was the Lord of hosts whom Isaiah saw, seated upon a throne, his train filling the temple, Isaiah 6:1. The vision filled him with astonishment, and he cried out, “Woe is me, I am undone; for mine eyes have seen the Lord of hosts.” But the apostle John assures us, that when Isaiah said these things, he saw Jesus Christ’s glory and spake of Him, John 12:41.
ROBERT HAWKER: What a sublimity there is in these blessed words; and what a rich treasure they contain, in reference to the person and glory of our almighty Mediator!
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The character here given of Him deserves more attentive consideration. The essential dignity of our Lord is that first mentioned, as “the King of glory,” and “the Lord of glory,” He could claim heaven as His own. There He had from all eternity been “in the bosom of the Father,” John 1:18; there He had “had a glory with the Father before the worlds were made,” John 17:5. “From thence he had descended,” for the purpose of executing the Father’s will, John 6:38. Though He had assumed our nature, and “was found in fashion as a man,” yet was He from all eternity “in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God,” Philippians 2:6,8. He was “the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person,” Hebrews 1:3. He was “one with God,” in glory equal, in majesty co-eternal: in a word, He was “the mighty God,” Isaiah 9:6; “the great God and our Saviour,” Titus 2:13; “God over all, blessed for ever,” Romans 9:5. Well therefore might His attendant angels call on the hosts of heaven to open wide the portals of those glorious mansions for His admission; since the heaven of heavens were from all eternity His proper, His peculiar residence.
JOHN BOYS (1619-1625): For that all honour and glory belong properly to Him—His is “the kingdom, the power, and the glory,” Matthew 6:13, called in this respect, “The Lord of glory,” 1 Corinthians 2:2,8.
GEORGE ABBOT (1603-1649): Why, He is the Almighty God, of power all-sufficient to preserve and defend His people and church.
JOHN BOYS: If the Lord of hosts, strong and mighty in battle, be the King of glory, then Christ, having conquered all His enemies, and made them His footstool, triumphing over death, and the devil which is the founder of death, and sin which is the sting of death, and the grave which is the prison of death, and hell itself which is the proper dominion of the devil and death, is doubtless in Himself, “the King of glory.”
CHARLES SIMEON: True indeed, He Himself received a wound in the engagement; “his heel was bruised,” but He inflicted a deadly wound on “the head” of His enemy, Genesis 3:15, and vanquished him for ever.
HENRY PENDLEBURY (1626-1695): Christ is gone to heaven as a victor; leading sin, Satan, death, hell, and all His enemies in triumph at His chariot wheels. He has not only overcome His enemies for Himself, but for all His people, whom He will make conquerors, yea, “more than conquerors.”
JOHN BOYS: For that Christ maketh us partakers of His glory, termed in this respect our glorious Lord Jesus, James 2:1…Heaven’s gates are called “everlasting,” because they shall endure for ever, or because they be the doors unto the life which is everlasting.
JOHN KEBLE (1792-1866): Why are the everlasting gates invited to lift up their heads a second time?
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): The same verse is repeated again, partly to shame and awaken the dullness of mankind.
ROBERT HAWKER: Is there not, besides Christ’s entrance into glory, another beautiful sense of these words capable of being made of them? Doth not the Lord Jesus demand admission into the hearts of His people, when, as He saith Himself, “Behold I stand at the door and knock?” Revelation 3:20. Doth He not find in every individual instance of His redeemed, the door resolutely shut against Him? And unless He who demands entrance puts in His hand by the hole of the door, and opens for Himself, would not the heart remain everlastingly shut and bolted against him to all eternity? Song of Solomon 5:4, John 1:11,12.
JOHN BOYS: And for as much as He died for our sins, and is risen for our justification, and is ascended on high to give gifts unto men—in this life grace, in the next, glory—what is He less than a “King of glory” towards us.
ROBERT HAWKER: Blessed Jesus, how precious is it to know Thee to be both King of grace, and King of glory!
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): And do not forget that there is another possible application of these words lying in the future, to the conquering Christ who shall come again arrayed in flashing brightness, and the visible robes of His imperial majesty. Again will He appear, mighty in battle, when “in righteousness He shall judge and make war,” Revelation 19:11. For a Christian, one great memory fills the past—Christ has come; and one great hope brightens the future—Christ will come.
