SERMON LIV. THE TWO ASCENSIONS OF CHRIST. Ascension Day. PSALM XXIV. 7. LIFT UP COME IN. "THE King of Glory" is our LORD JESUS CHRIST, as we acknowledge HIм every morning in the Te Deum, "THOU art the KING of Glory, O CHRIST." He is the KING of Glory, the Giver and Owner of Life and Glory; the Brightness of His FATHER'S Glory and the express Image of His Person: "GOD of GOD, Light of Light, Very GoD of Very GOD"; by Whom is declared the everlasting FATHER, the Fountain of all Glory, Whom no man hath seen at any time, nor can see. That Holy SON had on the day of His Incarnation emptied HIMSELF of His glory for a while, and had become like unto the meanest of His creatures, and on the day of His Birth He had showed HIMSELF such to the world. On the day of His Crucifixion HE offered up this, and all His humiliation, for a Sacrifice to His FATHER: On His Resurrection day He showed HIMSELF ready to take His Glory again: and on this day He actually took it. On this day He sat down at His FATHER'S right hand, with a soul and body such as ours, causing man's nature to partake, in His Person, of the glory which He had with the FATHER before the world was. The KING of Glory is CHRIST the LORD of Hosts, and the gates which He commands to be opened to HIM are the gates of Heaven-the gates of His own chief city, to which He is returning as David returned to Jerusalem, after his triumphant warfare against His and our enemies. He returns, as the LORD mighty in battle, having bruised Satan under His feet, first in His Temptation, then in His Passion on the Cross, lastly in His descent into Hell. And as David came accompanied by his guards and soldiers, who had been fighting on his side, and could not but rejoice, as faithful and dutiful subjects, in their king's victory; so the Psalm represents the Son of David returning to the FATHER'S right hand with a guard of Angels; who, as they come near the holy and awful gate, cry aloud and say, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors." They call upon the gates of Heaven to be removed out of the way, to make a high and glorious entrance for our SAVIOUR. Then other Angels, keeping watch by the gate, make inquiry and say, "Who is this KING of Glory?" as the watchman by the gate of a city would inquire of persons seeking to enter in. And the answer is made by CHRIST's attendants, "It is the LORD, strong and mighty, even the LORD mighty in battle." It is GOD the Son, made man, returning victorious from His combat with the great enemy: it is the Seed of the woman, Who hath bruised the serpent's head. This, then, is the hymn of glory for our LORD'S Ascension into Heaven, which happened as on Holy Thursday, more than eighteen hundred years ago; when having by His One Sacrifice of HIMSELF purged away all our sins, He for ever sat down on the right hand of the FATHER. But why is the song repeated? Why are the everlasting gates invited to lift up their heads a second time? We may not pretend, here or in any place, to know all the meaning of the Divine Psalms. But what if the repetition of the verse was meant to put us in mind that our SAVIOUR'S Ascension will be repeated also? He will not indeed die any more; death can no more have any dominion over HIM; "there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin." Neither of course can HE rise again any more. But as He will come again at the end of the world, to judge the quick and the dead, so after that descent HE will have to ascend again. And I say, this second Ascension may be signified by the Psalmist, calling on the everlasting doors to lift up their heads a second time, and make way for the KING of Glory. Now observe the answer made this second time. "Who is the KING of Glory? The LORD of Hosts, HE is the KING of Glory." Before, it was "the LORD strong and mighty, even the LORD mighty in battle”: now it is, "the LORD of Hosts." CHRIST ascending the first time, to intercede for us at His FATHER's right hand, is called "the LORD mighty in battle." But CHRIST, ascending the second time, after the world hath been judged, and the good and bad separated for ever, is called "the LORD of Hosts." Why this difference in His Divine titles ? We may reverently take it, that it signifies to us the difference between His first and second Coming down to earth, His first and second Ascension into Heaven. As in other respects His first Coming was in great humility, so in this, that He came, in all appearance, alone. The Angels were indeed waiting round HIM, but not visibly, not in glory. "HE trode the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with HIM." HE wrestled with Death, Hell, and Satan, alone. Alone HE rose from the dead: alone, as far as man could see, HE went up into heaven. Thus HE showed HIMSELF "the LORD mighty in battle," mighty in that single combat which He, as our champion, our David, victoriously maintained against our great enemy. But when He shall come down and go up the second time, He will show HIMSELF "the LORD of Hosts." Instead of coming down alone, in mysterious silence, as in His wonderful Incarnation, He will be followed by all the Armies of Heaven. "The LORD my GoD will come, and all His Saints with HIM." "The LORD cometh with ten thousand of His Saints." "The SON of Man will come in the glory of His FATHER, and all the Holy Angels with HIM." "Thousand thousands will stand around HIм, and ten thousand times ten thousand will minister unto HIM." Instead of the silence of that quiet chamber at Nazareth, and of the Holy Virgin's womb, there will be the voice of the Archangel and the Trump of GOD accompanying HIM. Thus He will come down as the LORD of Hosts, and as the LORD of Hosts HE will ascend again to His FATHER. After the judgment, HE will pass again through the everlasting doors, with a greater company than before; for He will lead along with HIM, into the heavenly habitations, all those who shall have been raised from their graves and found worthy. Hear how the awful sight is described, by one who will doubtless have a high place in that day near the Judge. The great Apostle and Prophet, St. Paul, says, "the LORD HIMSELF shall descend from heaven with a shout; and the dead in CHRIST shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the LORD in the air, and so shall we ever be with the LORD." This is CHRIST's second and more glorious Ascension, in which He will be visibly and openly accompanied by the souls and bodies of the righteous, changed and made glorious, like unto His Glorious Body. The Angels and Saints will come with HIM from Heaven, and both they and all good Christians will return with HIM thither. This is CHRIST'S second and final Ascension, whereof the first is a token and pledge, as we know by what was said to the Apostles as they looked up after HIM: "This same JESUS, Which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner, ," that is, visibly, with His Glorious Body, "as ye have seen HIM go into Heaven." CHRIST's ascending long ago, in the sight of "the Twelve," is the pledge of His second Ascension, hereafter to take place in sight of us all: but what is the pledge and token, my brethren, of the portion of each one of us, in that second Returning of our LORD into heaven? It is a certain truth, that each one of us has been called to a share in that glory. Each one of us has received a kind of passport, to admit him within those everlasting gates. So the Catechism teaches, assuring us that at our Baptism we were made Members of CHRIST the Judge, and Inheritors of the Kingdom and accordingly the Prayer Book adds, that "children baptized, and dying before they commit actual sin, are undoubtedly saved." The regenerating grace therefore of JESUS CHRIST is as the Seal of the Great King, entitling him who bears it to have admittance on that day, with the royal train, in at the gates of the Chief City. : |