Do we contemplate, meditate on, and thank God for Christ’s ascension? Christ’s ascension led to His continuing work for us in heaven. His high priestly intercession and the gift of the Holy Spirit are His great love gifts for His blood-bought people.
Therefore, we want to encourage all our readers to consider this most blessed subject with this issue of the Free Grace Broadcaster: Ascension. Charles Spurgeon introduces the subject by recounting the events leading to Christ’s ascension and the stunning beauty of His rising from this world to the glories of heaven. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains the unfolding of redemption through the descending and ascending of our blessed Savior. Isaac Ambrose describes that Christ ascended, as well as how, where to, and why He ascended, while William Plumer reveals the wonderful works of Christ at God’s right hand. What are some of the benefits of Christ’s heavenly session? John Gill shines Scripture light on this blessed work of our Lord. In a brief article, A. W. Pink surveys Christ’s intercession for the people of God. Part of Christ’s heavenly work at His Father’s right hand is the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: Jonathan Edwards believes that this is the sum and substance of Jesus’ blessings purchased for His people! Why did Jesus Christ ascend? John Flavel answers with six reasons. Then, in a second article from Spurgeon, we learn that Christ’s ascension declares Him victorious in finishing the work of redemption. Finally, Edward Payson asks us several penetrating questions about the Scriptures and Christ’s ascension: do we really believe the testimony of the Word of God about these astounding events?
It is our heart’s desire for God’s people to read with great joy the biblical witness of Christ rising into glory, sitting at His Father’s right hand, interceding for His eternally loved people, and sending the Holy Spirit on His great mission. Christ died on Calvary’s cross, rose again from the dead, and ascended into glory for His people. Ascension is a vital and cardinal part of the truth. We pray you will feast on its rich food.
Chapel Library owns the copyright to the annotations added to this book.
Isaac Ambrose was born in 1604, the son of Richard Ambrose, vicar of Ormskirk, Lancashire. Entering Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1621, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1624, and was ordained to the ministry. He became vicar of the parish church in Castleton, Derbyshire, in 1627, then served at Clapham, Yorkshire, from 1629 to 1631. The following year he received a Master of Arts degree from Cambridge.
Through the influence of William Russell, Earl of Bedford, Ambrose was appointed one of the king's four itinerant preachers for Lancashire, and took up residence in Garstang, a Lancashire town between Preston and Lancaster. The king's preachers were commissioned to preach the Reformation doctrines in an area that was strongly entrenched in Roman Catholicism.
Many who have no love for Puritan doctrine, nor sympathy with Puritan experience, have appreciated the pathos and beauty of his writings, and his Looking unto Jesus long held its own in popular appreciation with the writings of John Bunyan.
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