It was the privilege of Stephen to see Jesus as Son of Man in heaven, a privilege that was also given to Saul of Tarsus when the Lord laid hold of him for His service. More than five hundred brethren had at once seen their risen Lord, but, it would seem, that only the eleven apostles saw the Son of God ascend into heaven. While on earth the Son of God had spoken of His death and resurrection, and had also spoken of His ascension, saying to those who murmured when He spoke of His death, “What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before?” (John 6:62). Jesus belonged to heaven, it was His eternal home, but in wondrous grace He had come down to make the Father known and to accomplish the great work of redemption. Therefore the Lord said to His disciples, in view of His ascension, “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father” (John 16:28).
Taken Up
Three times in Acts 1 it is recorded that Jesus was “taken up” (Acts 1:2, 9, 22), the Holy Spirit through Luke calling our attention to the fact of the Lord’s going up to heaven, and also to the manner of it. It was God who took His Son to heaven, in this making known the delight He had in what His Son had been, and done, for Him while here. This is emphasised in verse 9 where it is written, “and a cloud received Him out of their sight.” The cloud, the symbol of the presence of God, was waiting to welcome the Son of God on His way to the Father’s presence. The Father, as it were, came out of heaven to accompany His Son back to the place from whence He had come to carry out His will.
When Peter spoke of the appointment of one of the disciples being a witness of Christ’s resurrection, he also said that such must have been with the other apostles from the time of John’s baptism “unto the same day that He was taken up from us” (verse 22). God had taken up His Son from the presence of those He had chosen, from that favoured company that He had loved so well, and who, in some little way had manifested their love for Him. From the favoured circle to which the Son of God had made known the Father, the Lord Jesus was taken up by the Father to prepare a place for them in the Father’s House.
God’s only-begotten Son had become Man that the eternal purposes of God might be accomplished on the basis of redemption, and having secured the foundation in His death for the fulfilling of all God’s will, Jesus, as Man is taken to heaven so that from heaven He might continue to its completion the Father’s counsels.
Received Up
The same Greek word for “taken up,” which we have referred to is translated as “received up” in Mark 16:19 and 1 Timothy 3:16. It is also found in Luke 9:51, where it is written, “And it came to pass, when the time was come that He should be received up, He stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.” How much lay before the blessed Lord, all the attempts by Pharisees, scribes, Herodians and Sadducees to ensnare Him, all the vilification, wickedness and injustice before the kings of the earth and the leaders of Israel, Gethsemane, Gabbatha and Golgotha, with all its shame, weakness and divine judgment. Still, the Lord is able to look beyond it all to His being received up into heaven. It was “for the joy that was set before Him (He) endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb. 12:2), and this joy would be His at His receiving up.
Mark tells us that “after the Lord had spoken” to His disciples, “He was received up into heaven, and sat down on the right hand of God.” This exalted place had been reserved for the devoted Servant of God who had served Him so faithfully on earth, even unto death, and that the death of the cross. Elijah had been, in his measure, faithful in service to Jehovah, and He took him to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:1, 11), and in this foreshadowed the taking up of the Lord Jesus to heaven, but there is no word of the reception given to Elijah, but how blessed was the reception given to the Son of God. Nothing but the greatest place in heaven was suitable for Him, so He sat down at the right hand of God.
In “the mystery of godliness” we read that the One who was manifest in flesh was “received up into glory” (1 Tim. 3:16). What a contrast there is between the conditions into which the Son of God came on becoming Man and the conditions into which He entered as Man in being received up in glory. On earth the Lord Jesus had entered into all the conditions of life that were proper to man, for He knew weariness, hunger and thirst, and what it was to weep, to be troubled in soul and spirit, and to groan within Himself. All this, and all that He sustained in relation to the cross, He for ever left behind, and He has entered into glory, into the conditions that Stephen beheld when he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Carried Up
Luke, in Acts 1 has told us that Jesus was taken up to heaven, but in the end of his Gospel he writes, “And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy” (Luke 24:51-52). What a blessed scene the Spirit of God depicts as He shows the Lord Jesus leading His disciples “out as far as to Bethany,” a place where He had often been with them, and especially in the closing days before His going to the cross. Nor was He recalling what had taken place there, but He drawing their attention to Himself as “He lifted up His hands, and blessed them.”
While yet their eyes were fixed on Him in the attitude of blessing, He was parted from them. Already, in resurrection, He had said to Mary touch me not, for He was not now in the conditions that He had been while with them before the cross, but He could not be for ever with them on earth in the new conditions into which He had entered, so that He was with them in these last moments preparing their hearts for occupation with Him in the new place into which He was about to enter, the heavenly place to which the new conditions belonged.
It was while they were thus engaged with the Blesser that He was carried up into heaven. No word is spoken of how Jesus was carried up into heaven. Elijah had been taken up in a whirlwind, and Lazarus had been “carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16:22), but neither angels nor whirlwind carry the Son of God into heaven, for the One carried there was the Creator Himself become Man, and it was on the wings of the Father’s delight that He was carried to where the cloud met Him to escort Him into heaven.
What a blessed result there was for the disciples that saw the Lord Jesus carried up to heaven. With their hearts bowed in the presence of the ascending Son of God, they worshipped Him, and as they worshipped they were filled with joy, with great joy, returning to Jerusalem to wait for the coming of the Spirit that He had promised to send them. How much the disciples had to engage them while waiting the coming of the Spirit: all that they could recollect of what the Lord had spoken to them before His death, and after His resurrection, all the great works of the Lord that they had witnessed, and what had so lately engaged their eyes and hearts, His being carried up to heaven.
Ascended Up
In John 3:13 the Lord said, “And no man has ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven.” Elijah had been taken up to heaven: he had not ascended in any rights of his own, but in the sovereign goodness of God had been taken up without dying. How very different the ascension of the Lord Jesus: He had the right to enter into heaven because of who He was, the eternal Son of God, the creator of all things, and He also had the right of entry into heaven because of the greatness of the work He had done upon the cross. It was the same as Enoch as with Elijah: both were taken away from earth without dying because it was God’s good pleasure to take them for His own purposes, and to teach us in this day of His purpose concerning the church, and those who would remain until the coming of the Lord.
Having come out of death, the risen Son of God sent the message to His disciples by Mary Magdalene, “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (John 20:17). Jesus did not say He was to be taken up or carried up to heaven, but that He, as Son of God, was about to ascend. He was going to heaven, to the place from whence He had come, and He was going there in His own rights. Although the disciples were being left behind, they were to be associated with Him in the new place into which He was going, and that in relationship with the Father, for His Father was now their Father, and His God their God. Before giving Mary the message for His brethren the Lord said to her, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father.” Mary had known Jesus after the flesh, but she was no longer related to Him in this way, like the other disciples she was to know Him in relation to the new place He was about to enter.
Ephesians 4 also presents the Lord Jesus in relation to His ascension. In verse 8 the Apostle writes, “Wherefore He says, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.” What a grand description of the mighty power of the Son of God, ascending in mighty triumph to heaven leading captive all the forces that had opposed Him. Every foe is vanquished, they follow in the train of the heavenly Victor, the trophies of the greatest victory that has ever been secured. Another description of Christ’s great triumph is given in Colossians 2:15, “And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them.”
Caught Up
The vision of Israel as “a woman clothed with the sun” (Rev. 12:1) shows what that nation is in the purpose of God in relation to the millennial day, when Israel will be the head of the nations. Christ is the child to which she gives birth as promised in Isaiah 9:6 and as fulfilled in Matthew 1:21–23 and Luke 2, being also the seed of the woman as announced in Genesis 3:15. The “man child” (verse 5) was caught up to God, and thus delivered from the dragon who desired to devour it. All that the Lord Jesus accomplished on earth, His life of service to God, His death for the glory of God and our blessing, and His resurrection are passed over, not being before the mind of God in relation to His dealings with Israel at the time predicted, when God is about to bring His people through the tribulation in to the blessings of the kingdom, which are founded on Christ’s death.
No doubt the enmity of the dragon was seen when Herod, as his instrument, sought to destroy the young child, and His being “caught up to God and His throne” showing Christ’s present place while Israel passes through their time of trial. The remnant of Israel, the godly ones, are cared for by God, sustained and protected while persecuted by the enemy, and while waiting the return of the Lord to save them from their enemies.
God will not renew His dealings with Israel so long as the “man child” is in the place to which He was “caught up,” and during the period between the catching up and the appearing of Christ, God has been taking out of the Gentiles a people for His Name. They too will be “caught up” (1 Thess. 4:17) to be with Christ, and will be for ever His companions in heaven, sharing with Him His coming kingdom, while Israel are blessed on earth on the ground of the new covenant founded on His blood.
The Apostle Paul knew what is was to be “caught up to the third heaven” (2 Cor. 12:2) to learn something of the blessedness of the scene into which the Christ of God entered on His ascension, things that belong to the paradise of God, where the saints of God who have been called home are in the presence of the Lord, waiting there with Him the moment when He shall come to catch up those who are to be for ever with the Lord.
R. 26.12.70