Quotes & Notes on:     Luke 24:51    John Wesley's Notes: And while he was blessing them, he was parted from them-It was much more proper that our Lord should ascend into heaven, than that he should rise from the dead, in the sight of the apostles. For his resurrection was proved when they saw him alive after his passion: but they could not see him in heaven while they continued on earth.   Treasury of Scripture Knowledge: * he was. 2Ki 2:11; Mr 16:19; Joh 20:17; Ac 1:9; Eph 4:8-10; Heb 1:3; 4:14   Adam Clarke's Commentary: that heaven from which he had descended, Joh 1:18; 3:13. This was forty days after his resurrection, Ac 1:3, during which time he had given the most convincing proofs of that resurrection, not only to the apostles, but to many others-to upwards of five hundred at one time, 1Co 15:6. As in his life they had seen the way to the kingdom, and in his death the price of the kingdom, so in his ascension they had the fullest proof of the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the human body, and of his continual intercession at the right hand of God. There are some remarkable circumstances relative to this ascension mentioned in Ac 1:4-12.   Family Bible Notes:    (No comment on this verse).   1599 Geneva Bible Notes:  (No comment on this verse).   People's New Testament Commentary:  (No comment on this verse).   Robertson's Word Pictures:  He parted from them (diestê ap' autôn). Second aorist active (intransitive) indicative of diistêmi. He stood apart (dia) and he was gone. Some manuscripts do not have the words "and was carried into heaven." But we know that Jesus was taken up into heaven on a cloud (Ac 1:9).   Albert Barnes' Commentary:    (No comment on this verse).   Jamieson-Faussett Brown: while he blessed ... parted, &c.--Sweet intimation! Incarnate Love, Crucified Love, Risen Love, now on the wing for heaven, waiting only those odorous gales which were to waft Him to the skies, goes away in benedictions, that in the character of Glorified, Enthroned Love, He might continue His benedictions, but in yet higher form, until He come again! And oh, if angels were so transported at His birth into this scene of tears and death, what must have been their ecstasy as they welcomed and attended Him "far above all heavens" into the presence-chamber, and conducted Him to the right hand of the Majesty on High! Thou hast an everlasting right, O my Saviour, to that august place. The brightness of the Father's glory, enshrined in our nature, hath won it well; for He poured out His soul unto death, and led captivity captive, receiving gifts for men, yea for the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell among them. Thou art the King of glory, O Christ. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, be lifted up, ye everlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in! Even so wilt Thou change these vile bodies of ours, that they may be like unto Thine own glorious body; and then with gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought, they shall enter into the King's palace!   Spurgeon Devotional Commentary: (No comment on this verse).   Spurgeon Commentary on Matthew: (No comment on this verse).   William Burkitt's Notes: (No comment on this verse).   Matthew Henry's  Commentary:   (No comment on this verse).   Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary:  (No comment on this verse).   The Fourfold Gospel:       It is significant that our Lord's gesture, when last seen of men, was one of blessing.   Not as if he were taken away before he had said all he had to say, but to intimate that his being parted from them did not put an end to his blessing them... he began to bless them on earth, but he went to heaven to go on with it. - Matthew Henry, Commentary, p. 846   By a cloud upborne, he soon disappeared from sight:  but for such a departure his apostles felt not grief, but abounding joy. - D.D. Whedon, Commentary, p. 222   There His enthronement took place at the right hand of God (Acts 2:33;  Hebrews 1:3).   He was seated at the centre of ultimate power that He might administer the redemption which He had accomplished. - J. McNicol, New Bible Commentary, p. 864   Jesus' exaltation to God's right hand, which is what Ascension Day really commemorates, did not await the fortieth day after His triumph over death.  In the primitive apostolic message His resurrection and ascension, which together constitute His exaltation, are veiwed as one continuous movement.  The fortieth day marked the last time on which He vanished from His disciples' sight... We should not imagine that the intervals between these [several post-Resurrection] appearances were spent by Him in some earth-bound condition. - F.F. Bruce, New Bible Commentary: Revised, p. 974   [The ascension of] Christ is the end of the gospel and the beginning of the mission. - William Baird.,  Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary, p. 706   It was much more proper that our Lord should ascend into heaven, than that he should rise from the dead, in the sight of the apostles.  For his resurrection was proved, when they "saw him alive after his passion."  but they could not see him in heaven, while they continued on earth. - John Wesley, Notes Upon the New Testament, Luke 24:51   Ascension Day is not to be thought of merely as a historical commemoration.  In fact, there is no clear single event of the ascension in the New Testament.  There was always a doctrine, or rather kerygma, of the ascension from the earliest days.  Christ was always proclaimed as resurrected and ascended. - Reginald H. Fuller, Preaching the Lectionary, p. 271   It was there [Bethany] that He established the link (as to circumstances) between the remnant attached to His Person and heaven. From thence He ascends.  - John Darby, Synopsis of  the New Testament   Christ ascends into heaven, and departing bodily from his disciples, fills their hearts with the Holy Spirit.  - Geneva Study Bible   The Arabic and Ethiopic Versions read both these clauses actively, "he parted himself", or "he departed from them, and went up into heaven"; and so reads the Syriac version the last clause. - John Gill,  Exposition of the Bible, Luke 24:51   Incarnate Love, Crucified Love, Risen Love, now on the wing for heaven, waiting only those odorous gales which were to waft Him to the skies, goes away in benedictions, that in the character of Glorified, Enthroned Love, He might continue His benedictions, but in yet higher form, until He come again! - Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary, Luke 24:51   The last act of the Savior upon the earth was a blessing.  - Johnson, B.W., People's New Testament, Luke 24:51-53   Now that the Ascension has come they are no longer in despair. Joy becomes the note of victory as it is today. No other note can win victories for Christ.  - Robertson, A.T., Robertson's Word Pictures, Luke 24:50   We should bless God for broken benedictions, for incomplete farewells.  The way of the going seems to intimate the certainty of the coming:  as if Christ had said, You have heard half the sentence now, the other half you shall hear in the morning. - Parker, Joseph, People's Bible, Vol. XXI, p. 456

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Bob VanWyk, Lectionary Hymn Reviewer
 
 

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