"HE LED THEM OUT AS FAR AS BETHANY"
“HE LED THEM OUT AS FAR AS BETHANY”
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Sunday, April 27, 2014, the Year of Our Lord
Luke 24: 50-51
Luke 24: 50-51: `”He (Jesus) led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. It came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.”
Bethany, the spot, Jesus selects as the place of His Ascension; the place where he spent hours in the loving home of cherished friendships of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. This was where Lazarus was raised from the dead six days before Passover. It was here at the house of Simon the leper, Jesus was anointed by the woman with the alabaster box of precious ointment. It was from Bethany he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. It was in Bethany he spent the last weeks of his earthly ministry.
Bethany is located east of Jerusalem on the South East slope of the Mount of Olives.
There are many Holy places in Israel trodden by Jesus in the days of His flesh: Bethlehem with its manger cradle, its mystic star, and adoring cherubim; Nazareth, the nurturing home of his youth; Tiberius, so beautiful--- where he walked on the waters; The mountain where he uttered His Beatitudes; the midnight mountains where He prayed; the garden where He suffered; the hill where he died and the tomb from which He rose from the dead.
As the tremendous events which signaled the close of His earthly ministry unfolded, it is Bethany with which they are mainly associated. The walk from Jerusalem to Bethany was a Sabbath-day’s journey – (a half-mile in the Old Testament, but possibly measured as two miles in the New Testament). In all likelihood the time was the early dawn of day. The grey mists of morning would still be hovering over the Jehoshaphat valley. He must have crossed the brook Kidron. He must have passed by The Garden of Gethsemane, now a memorial forever as a place of triumph.
During this time after Jesus was raised from the dead, he preached to the disciples “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
As he walked that last time from Jerusalem to Bethany, he was seeing the fruit of the travail of His soul in Gethsemane as prophesied by Isaiah 53:10-11: “It pleased the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied; by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities.”
However, It was with Bethany in view He ascended to heaven. Its soil was the last He trod---its homes were the last on which His eye rested when the cloud received Him into glory. The beams of the Sun of Righteousness seemed as if they loved to linger on this consecrated height. It is here the disciples listen to His farewell words.
Again, it was not Bethlehem, where angel hosts chanted His praise; nor Tabor, where celestial beings had hovered around Him in homage; nor Calvary, where rocks and bursting grave-stones had proclaimed His deity; nor the temple-court, where for ages His own Shekinah Glory had blazed in mystic splendor; but He hallows afresh the name of a lowly village; he consecrates a home of love. Bethany is the last spot which lingers on His view as the cloud comes down and receives Him out of sight.
The disciples had in their hearts a recollection of three years’ of unwavering kindness and affection. Jesus soothed their sorrows; and their burdens were eased. Their ingratitude overlooked and their treachery forgiven. “He led them out as far as to Bethany. There “he lifted up His hands and blessed them, and from there was taken up into heaven”.
Acts 1:9 –“When He had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight...
What were these things which our Savior spoke?
He cheers their hearts with the promised baptism of the Holy Ghost. “John.” He had said, a few hours before, at His last meeting with them in Jerusalem, "truly baptized with water; but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” He charged them “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem…tarry at Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high”.
It is my persuasion that we are again at a place of “tarrying” until we are endued with power from on high. If we could pray, study the Bible, preach, teach, prophesy, sing praises, feed the poor, visit the sick, etc., to bring our nation into repentance and revival, we would have already done it. We cannot do it until we are endued with power from on high. I believe a visitation of the Glory of God even greater than Pentecost is coming to those who have been chosen and elect for such a times as this. I believe the time before us is the “Harvest” and there will again be another dispensation of the Holy Spirit to endue us with power from on High. If we could do it, we would have already done it.
Jesus told them He was to leave them; but an Almighty Paraclete or Comforter was to take His place. “It is expedient” said He, “for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.”
Now that the anticipated hour is come, Jesus reverts to the same omnipotent ground of comfort; ---this Divine Enlightener, Cheerer, Sanctifier, would fill up the gap of His withdrawal. They were about to enter on a new dispensation---the dispensation of the Holy Spirit---and the approaching Pentecost was to give them a pledge and earnest of His mighty office in the conversion of 3000 souls in one day.
Jesus has ascended to “His Father and our Father---to His God and our God!” He sent the Blessed Person of the Holy Spirit to fill us, strengthen us in our weakness, comfort us in our grief and sorrow, and release power from on High to the Church established by Jesus and His precious Blood. The Holy Spirit as the Revealer of our Lord for ---“He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you.” In the 21st Century, there are entire denominations that do not realize, value or receive the blessed Person of the Holy Spirit.
Yes, we need a visitation of the Lord in our nation and the nations of the world. To what is much of the deadness, dullness, poverty of our faith, luke-warmness of our love, the coldness of our services, the cruelty of jealousy and competition, lack of power, is it not the feeble realization of the quickening, life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. “It is the Spirit that quickeneth”.
As a Pastor, I believe I am spending too much time trying to help the church to come into maturity, lay down all their selfish-ambition, vain glory, and vanity of religion. We must awake from slumber and apathy. Oh dear Jesus we need the precious gifts of the Holy Spirit, but not for the people to wear their giftings as badges of their own egos.
Holy Spirit grace us with more faithfulness, more zeal, more love, more unselfishness, more union and more respect for one another. Holy Spirit it will be the glory that will usher in the great Spiritual Harvest. “pray ye, then, the Lord of the Harvest,” that His Spirit may “come down like rain upon the mown grass, and as showers that water the earth,” and that the promise regarding the latter-day glory may be fulfilled. “I will pour down My spirit upon all flesh.” Jesus I want more of your matchless excellences, the glories of your person and work, more of your Holy Presence and indwelling. Lord give me a greater passion for souls and the power O LORD to heal and deliver them.
Church I ask you do you really want your life inconvenienced and made uncomfortable by a great outpouring of lost souls into the Kingdom? There are times I want to give up on Christians when they misbehave; and they have been born again, spirit filled, and Bible thumping for years. Are we ready to receive the heathen? When Christians lack the grace to love one another, how can the church be ready to receive the unlovely and unloved?
Nevertheless, it is and was a grand and glorious mission; Jesus has sketched out for them as well as us. They were to proclaim His name through the wide world; and to begin at Jerusalem. The Gospel Trumpet, was to be sounded in it streets. The assassins of Gethsemane, the murderers of Calvary were to listen to the first offers of pardon and reconciliation. The Gospel was to be preached “as a witness to all nations.” The Great Mission Angel was to “fly through the midst of Heaven,” having it everlasting truths to “preach to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” I truly believe the internet is an agent of the “Gospel Angel”.
And now Jesus’ earthly ministry of instruction and comfort is over. He is about to ascend. The Cloud of Glory comes down to deliver Him to this throne. Glory in view---the hallelujahs of angels floating in His ear---the air thronged with celestial hosts waiting to bear Him upwards.
“While they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into Heaven? This same Jesus, who is taken from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath-day’s journey.”
Zechariah 14: 4-9: “His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south….and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee…the Lord shall be king over all the earth; in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name One.”
Continued at Sunday Evening Service – The Comforter.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of John R. Macduff, “Memories of Bethany” published in 1861-now in the public domain. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the excellency of the writings of Rev. Macduff.