"He lifted up His hands, and blessed them," Lu24:50.

The chapter before us reveals how Christ's disciples were filled with amazement and doubt at the news of His resurrection. We are told in M'r 16:7 that the Angel told the women, "Go your way, tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee."

Peter's faith made him so strong that he could boldly say, "I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and into death," Lu 22:33, but we know the history! Peter had denied his Lord. "And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter . . . And Peter went out, and wept bitterly," Lu 22:61-62. Now Peter's Lord had been crucified, and Peter was left for three days and three nights in the bitterness of his soul mourning over his sin, but the Angel gave a special command to tell Peter that his Lord was risen.

In the chapter before us we read that Jesus' disciples believed not for joy when Jesus, "shewed them His hands and His feet." Jesus chose to show them those scars in His hands and His feet to strengthen their faith. Those scars in our Saviour's hands are His pledge to His Church that He will never forget one of them. We read in Isa 49:15-16 that a woman may forget her suckling child, "Yet will not I forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me."

Now I must hasten to the words of my text, where we are told of the wonderful blessing left with the disciples as Jesus was taken up from them. Our text says, "And He lifted up His hands, and blessed them." Oh, beloved, it was those crucified hands that Jesus lifted up before His disciples to see once more while He was, "carried up into heaven." Beloved, is it not the greatest blessing as Jesus was departing that He left them with such an assurance that He had graven them upon the palms of His hands?

"And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven." In Acts 2:4 we are told that Jesus, "commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father," which was the out pouring of the Holy Spirit. They must return back to where their Saviour was crucified, where persecution would surround them on every side while they waited for the great commission to go forth with the trumpet of the Gospel. Their faith was to be tried as they experienced the prophesy of Isa 52:16. "And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of my hand."

Oh, beloved, it is among the greatest of blessings when our lovely Saviour is brought before our eyes by faith with the assurance that He will hide us under the shadow of those crucified hands. Then we are given to see that our names are engraven in the palms of His hands, that it was our sins that made those scars which became our pledge of His eternal love.

When we receive a faith's view of that love which held Jesus to that accursed tree, then, oh then, sin begins to, "become exceeding sinful," Ro 7:13. Amen.

O let my name engraven stand
Both on thy heart and on thy hand;
Seal me upon thy arm, and wear
That pledge of love forever there.

Stronger than death thy love is known,
Which floods of wrath can never drown;
And hell and earth in vain combine,
To quench a fire so much divine.

But I am jealous of my heart,
Lest it should once from thee depart;
Then let thy name be well impressed,
As a fair signet, on my breast.