Christ's Last Words. The Enduement of Power
When our Lord ascended to heaven He left behind Him three last words. The very last was, “My witnesses to the ends of the earth.” We read, “When He had said this, He ascended to heaven.” He left this world and His disciples with that one word, “The ends of the earth,” or, as He had said a little before, “Go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature.” With that one word in His heart He sat down upon the throne, “expecting,” longing, that every child of man should learn to know Him and His love.
The second word, that had just preceded it, was, “Ye shall receive power.” As He sent them forth for the conquest of the world, He bade them not think of their own impotence or their own strength, but of all the power in heaven and on earth that He was now to receive from the Father, and that through the Holy Spirit would work in them and give them the victory.
And then we have the first of the three last words, “Wait.” “Wait for the promise of the Father.” “Tarry in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high.” That word “Wait,” “Tarry till,” they understood so simply that they at once returned to the city and for ten days continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, until on the Day of Pentecost they were indeed baptized with the heavenly fire and all filled with the Holy Spirit and with power.
These three words still express the relation in which Christ on the throne stands to His people. Just suppose for a moment that it were given you to be caught up into paradise, and to see and to hear what men may not know. You would in the light and the power of that Spirit life, where words are eternally existing realities, be permitted to see the risen Lord on the throne, living with this one thought, “The ends of the earth,” ever in His heart, and ever listening to the song of the redeemed from every people and nation and tongue. The world God loved, the world for which Christ gave His blood and His life, how He waits and longs for the time when His love can reach every soul.
And you would see what a reality that second word was too, as you saw a “Lamb standing as it had been slain, having seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth unto all the earth.” That holy symbol would show you how the Lamb on the Throne lives to send forth God’s Spirit wherever God’s servants go, to enable them to make known His love and win souls for His Kingdom.
And then, that first of the three last words “Wait, Tarry,” translated by the disciples into much prayer and supplication — you will find there that “the four-and-twenty elders fall down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints.” The prayers of men here upon earth have their place and their part before the throne of God. You would see the smoke of the incense in the golden censer with the prayers of the saints going up before God. And you would understand, what it is so hard for us to realise, that the prayers on earth are in very deed the condition for the power from heaven for the extension of the kingdom on earth.
And if in the vision, as you saw that it was passing, you felt bold to say to the blessed One, “Hast Thou no message to give me to Thy people on earth?” you would not be surprised if the answer came, “Tell them in My name to remember My last three words. I carry the ends of the earth, for which I gave My blood and My love, in My heart. Let them do so too. I live on the throne to send forth the Spirit into all the earth. Let them believe My promise, yield wholly to My Spirit, and victory will assuredly come. I am waiting to hear how much they are willing to have and to use; I am longing for more intercession and supplication, for more faith and prayer. Tell them to wait and tarry in prayer, and not to rest till they are clothed with power from on high. Oh, tell them the kingdom, their Lord and King, waits for their prayer.”
Shall we not take these last words of Christ afresh into our hearts? Has not God through the World Missionary Conference brought them home to us with a new meaning? Has not the terrible indictment against the Home Church ‘as to her not being fit or willing to undertake the glorious Christlike task of bringing God’s love to every creature, pierced some hearts at least? Have not other testimonies as to the state of the Church, its ignorance and its neglect and its rejection of the Cross, its lack of the sense of holiness and crucifixion to the world, its neglect of the blessed truth of the Holy Spirit, its lack of loyalty to the Lord Jesus, its terrible feebleness in prayer — have not these testimonies become to some of us a burden that we cannot bear? And shall we not turn away from all our devices and efforts and give heed, with new, whole-hearted devotion, to the great charter the Church has too long neglected, the last words of the ascending Lord? To take the words that live in Christ’s heart and let them live in ours, will be the secret of wonderful happiness and irresistible power.
“The ends of the earth.” “All the world.” “Every creature.” Is it possible for the ordinary Christian in everyday life to be so possessed by these words that, without effort or strain, they shall be the spontaneous expression of his inmost life? Thank God, it is possible, where the love of God and of Christ is shed abroad in the heart. Poor simple men and women have proved it by the intense devotion with which they could sacrifice everything to make the love of Jesus known to their fellow-men. The love with which Christ loves us is a love that takes in the whole world. Of that love we cannot take just enough for ourselves, and be indifferent to all the others who share in it. Such is the feeble, selfish, and unhappy life which so many Christians seek to live. Truly to possess Christ, and fully to enjoy Him, it is essential that we take in His love in all its fulness, that we yield ourselves to the service of that love, and find our happiness in making that love known to those who are still ignorant of it.
When the Church is quickened into some measure of the experience of the abundant life that there is in Christ Jesus, “the ends of the earth” will become its watchword, and men will begin to understand that what fills and satisfies the heart of Christ in heaven is enough and more than enough to fill our hearts with the blessedness and the beauty of likeness to Him. “Remember,” He says, “My very last word, as I ascended the throne: Ye shall be My witnesses unto the ends of the earth.”
The word that preceded this very last was:
“Ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” Yes, that is one of the last words: “The Holy Ghost.” That was to be the Divine empowerment which would carry them on irresistibly to universal conquest. It would be through suffering and death, through long and patient labour, through many disappointments and trials. But the victory was sure. It has often been said that the Spirit flows from the Cross. The Spirit is inseparably linked to the Cross. In the fellowship of the Cross they could always count upon the fellowship of the Spirit and His almighty power.
But alas, how soon the Church began to shrink from the Cross, and without knowing it began to lose that power of the Spirit without which it was impotent to resist the power of the world. Oh that God would raise up men who could, as with a trumpet voice, sound out this last word of Christ, “Ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you,” and might lead the Church to return to the Cross, with its Crucifixion to the world, and yield itself to the glorious task of carrying the Cross in triumph to the ends of the earth.
Let us beseech our blessed Lord to write in our heart this precious last word too: The Holy Spirit.
And then comes the first of the three last words, “Wait, Pray.” The Edinburgh Conference has left us the message “that to multiply the number of Christians who will individually and collectively wield this force of intercession — is the supreme question of Foreign Missions. Every other consideration is secondary to that of wielding the forces of prayer.” Jesus Christ in heaven waits for our prayers. The world conquest waits for our prayers. It has been said “the essential task of evangelising the world is the lifting up of the Church into a fuller spiritual life.” This lifting up of the Church waits for our prayer. Let us above everything beseech God for the Spirit of prayer. Does not the Holy Spirit of God here take the central place in these last instructions of Christ? Without faith in the promise of the Spirit, the Church will fail of her duty, and lose both the courage to pray and to testify through all the earth. Ought not every one who desires to live for Christ and His Kingdom, to beseech God to remove that terrible blindness which hinders men from seeing that there is just one thing lacking in her work — the power of the Spirit, and just one thing required, that she fall down in intense fervent prayer to wait till she be endued with power from on high.