THE first great witness given to man of the ascension of Christ our Lord to heaven was the descent of the Holy Ghost to earth. By the energy of the Holy Spirit in the Church, through signs and miracles, as well as by the testimony of words, all Jerusalem was aroused to the fact of the ascension of Christ. And the apostles declared that, Christ “being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost,” had shed forth that which the people saw and heard. In the early days of the Church the expressed power of the Holy Ghost gave no room for doubting His presence, and His presence was ever associated with the exaltation of Christ. “By the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people . . . . insomuch that they brought forth the sick on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them;” and when the high priest and Sadducees in their anger sought to restrain the work of God, the answer of Peter and the apostles was, “Him hath God exalted. . . . and we are witnesses of these things, and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them who obey Him.” The Holy Ghost dwelling in the apostle rendered his very presence a power for healing as he walked in Jerusalem. A divinely-given influence emanated from the apostle, and the sick and the afflicted sought its overshadowing blessing.
With such a testimony to divine power in man before us, it is most instructive to note how absolutely Peter and the apostles magnified the exalted Christ, and how they never swerved from the place God had given them of vessels filled with His Spirit.
Were the shadow of Peter―or of Peter’s successor―an influence of healing power to men, people would discover it. There is no true spiritual power―at least of a holy nature―on the earth, save that which is of the Holy Spirit of God; all other power is a pretension to the spiritual, and pretension without power is poverty the most typical.
However, if we cannot place our bodily weaknesses and our wants under the shadow of Peter, to be overshadowed by him, we can receive through his living words blessings more rich and more abundant. His shadow has passed away from earth, for he is in paradise, but his inspired words remain in the Scriptures. Let us string together a few of these words.
And, first, three which open up to us the gospel, “the true grace of God,” as he says.
“You . . . by Him do believe in God.”
“Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things . . . but with the precious blood of Christ.”
“His own self bare our sins in His own body, on the tree.”
To these words of evangelic blessing we add a few testifying to the Lord Himself. He is “The Shepherd and Bishop of our souls.”
There are under-shepherds and under-bishops, it is true, and thus does the holy apostle Peter speak to them: “The elders (or bishops) which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder (or a bishop) . . . . feed the flock of God which is among you . . . . not for filthy lucre . . . . neither as being lords over (or over-ruling) God’s heritage; but being ensamples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”
Such thoughts of the exalted Christ, if lived out in the Church, would produce a holiness and love now unknown in many quarters. The ministry of Christ, as Peter followed it, the feeding of the flock of God, and the tender oversight of the sheep and lambs, lead to the grand Christian spirit which is summed up in those noble words “Jesus Christ, whom having not seen ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
It is well to sit under the shadow of Peter, the inspired apostle, and to be overshadowed by his words.