Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2142
“You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive: You ha ve received gifts for men; yes, for the rebellious, also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.” Psalm 68:18.
The hill of Zion had been taken out of the hand of the Jebusites. They had held it long after the rest of the country had been subdued, but David, at last, had taken it from them. This was the mountain ordained of Jehovah of old to be the place of the Temple. David, therefore, with songs and shouts of rejoicing, brought up the Ark from the house of Obed-edom to the place where it should remain. That is the literal fact upon which the figure of the text is based. We are at no loss for the spiritual interpretation, for we turn to Ephesians 4:8 where, quoting rather the sense of the passage than the exact words, Paul says, “When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”
The same sense is found in Colossians 2:15: “And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” Not misled by the will-o’-the-wisp of fancy, but guided by the clear light of the Infallible Word, we see our way to expound our text. In the words of David we have an address to our Lord Jesus Christ concerning His ascent to His Glory. “You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive: You have received gifts for men; yes, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.”
Our Savior descended when He came to the manger of Bethlehem, a Babe—and further descended when He became “a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” He descended lower, still, when He was obedient to death, even the death of the Cross—and further yet when His dead body was laid in the grave. “Well,” says our Apostle, “Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?” Long and dark was the descent— there were no depths of humiliation, temptation or affliction which He did not fathom. Seeing He stood in their place, He went as low as Justice required that sinners should go who had dared to violate the Law of God.
The utmost abyss of desertion heard Him cry, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Low in the grave He lay, but He had His face upward, for He could not see corruption. On the third day He left the couch of the dead and rose to the light of the living! He had commenced His glorious ascent! To prove how real was His Resurrection, He stayed on earth some 40 days and showed Himself to many witnesses. Magdalene and Peter saw Him alone—the 11 beheld Him in their midst. The two on the road conversed with Him. Five hundred Brethren at once beheld Him! He gave Infallible proofs that He was really risen from the dead and these remain with us unto this day as historic facts.
He ate a piece of a broiled fish and honeycomb to prove that He was no phantom. He said to the Apostles, “Handle Me, and see that it is I, Myself, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see I have.” One laid his finger in the print of the nails and even thrust his hand into His side! Their very doubts were used to make the evidence clearer. The fact that Jesus died was put beyond question by the thrust of the spear—and the fact that He was alive, in a material form, was equally well established by the touch of Thomas.
Beyond a doubt, Christ Jesus has risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept. This being settled beyond question, the time came for our Lord to continue His homeward, upward journey and return unto the Glory from which He had come down. From “the mount called Olivet,” while His disciples surrounded Him, “He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight.” The rest of His upward progress we cannot describe. Imagination and faith step in and conceive of Him as rising beyond all regions known to us—far above all imaginable height. He draws near to the suburbs of Heaven and surely the poet is not wrong when he says of the angels—
“They brought His chariot from on high To bear Him to His Throne; Clapped their triumphant wings and cried, ‘The glorious work is done.’”
“Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be you lift up, you everlasting doors, that the King of Glory may come in.” How high He ascended after He passed the pearly portal Paul cannot tell us, save that he says, “He ascended up far above all heavens,” and describes Him as, “set at God’s right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion.” He describes our Master as, “dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.” The Man Christ Jesus has gone back to the place from where His Godhead came! You are the King of Glory, O Christ! You are the eternal Son of the Father! You sit forever in the highest Heaven, enthroned with all Glory, clothed with all power, King of kings and Lord of lords! Unto Your name we humbly present our hallelujahs, both now and forever.