The Two Conceptions, or the Lesson of the Ascension
By M. G. CONGER
ONE of the most important parts of our Lord’s earthly work was the educating of his twelve disciples. These he taught that they in turn might teach others. By personal acquaintance and association, Jesus trained them for their future work. They were daily instructed by his words of counsel and admonition, to which they gave earnest attention. Christ often spoke of the “kingdom of heaven,” “kingdom of God,” etc. His forerunner, John the Baptist, came with the message, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus bore the same message, and the disciples proclaimed this truth. Inasmuch as the twelve were the constant companions of our Lord and so often heard this phrase, we should suppose that they had the true conception of the kingdom of God. Did they?—At first, no; ultimately, yes. In teaching many truths and principles of heaven, the Saviour had to overcome the traditional, erroneous views of his hearers. The disciples, like others of their nation, often misinterpreted the import of the divine themes because of their preconceived ideas. They measured everything according to the traditions and teachings of the elders. From of old the Jewish people had looked forward to the coming Messiah. Now that they were under a foreign power, the Israelites looked to his coming with great hope that he would liberate them. Had not the prophets prophesied of his glorious reign? So they expected him to come as an earthly conqueror at the head of armies, to establish the Jews in their kingdom, and to make of them the leading nation. Rome’s bondage was exacting, and the Jews loved to think of the Messiah as their deliverer. The influence of this early training, the teaching of the rabbis, and the grip of tradition had a strong influence on the disciples. So much did they expect Christ to reign as a temporal king that they argued with one another as to who would be the greatest in the kingdom, and10the mother of James and John came personally to ask Jesus to give to her sons the highest places. The idea that their master was to be betrayed, tried as a criminal, and crucified, seems not to have found a place in their thoughts. Their minds were set on the immediate establishment of the material kingdom and of the reign of Christ. There were teachings of the Master which the twelve could not harmonize with this view, yet they held tenaciously to it. Then, when Jesus permitted the homage that was rendered to him on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, these ideas were strengthened. But it was only a short time until all the disciples’ visions of earthly power and authority vanished. Instead of placing their Lord on the kingly throne, in a few days they placed him in Joseph’s new tomb. The disciples were overcome with discouragement. Their Master had been rejected, condemned, and crucified. They had heard the mocking statement of the rulers, “If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him,” and they sadly repeated, “We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel.” Their hopes crushed, grief and despair nearly overwhelmed them. God had decreed that his Son should rise the third day. This he did, and sent a message to the disciples by Mary, later visiting them personally. During the walk to Emmaus with two of his followers, he told them, and later he told the twelve, that their expectations of a Messiah who was to be an earthly ruler were false, not being founded on the Scriptures. From Moses, the Psalms, and all the prophets he proved to them that he was the great sacrifice, and by dying he became a ransom for all. Furthermore, he taught them that his life and death were not a defeat, but an eternal victory. He pointed them to his coming in glory, not with the glory of earthly power, but with the power and glory of the King of kings and Lord of lords. He distinguished two advents, and reminded them that his next coming, his second advent, like the first, was based on the prophetic word. The disciples were gaining the true conception of the spiritual kingdom which should reign in the hearts of believers, and which will ultimately usher in the eternal reign of righteousness. But in the joy of seeing their resurrected Lord they forgot the lesson that they had learned, and expected him now to set up the long-looked-for kingdom. See Acts 1:6. They were disillusioned, however, for the last time, when their Lord was suddenly taken from them on the mount of Olives. Here their conception was finally made perfect. Two angels, sent to complete the lesson, asked, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” With joyous hearts they then turned to the work of proclaiming the truths which had been intrusted to them, among which was the blessed hope of the second advent of our Lord, who will come the “second time without sin unto salvation,” and will then set up the material kingdom which “shall never be destroyed.” The Jews misinterpreted and misconstrued the scripture; and Christ declared of them that they knew not the time of their visitation. The closing years of grace to them as a nation they spent in scoffing at Heaven’s messages. Temporal power, earthly glory and ambitions, obscured their vision, and the gift of the spiritual kingdom was offered to them in vain. Today the tendency is to confuse the spiritual and material kingdoms of Christ, and to regard the material kingdom of peace and prosperity as a gradual development of the kingdom of grace. The world absorbs men’s thoughts and attention, and many fail to realize that the setting up of the kingdom of glory requires another personal advent of Christ as truly as the setting up of the kingdom of grace required the first. And many fail to see in the increasing signs of the times the sure omens of that swift-coming kingdom of God. “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. . . . Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.”