‘O the sight in heav’n is glorious!
Man in righteousness is there;’ (Hymn 212).
It is the same One who was here in lowliness and meekness, in humility and suffering who is now glorified.
D.C.W. There is a sense of immediacy at the end of Luke’s gospel. There is no mention of the forty days.
B.W.L. That is right. In the first chapter of the Acts, we have the word as to the Lord coming again. We are in the faith period now, the dispensation of grace which is in faith, and it is the Spirit’s dispensation, it is marked by the Spirit. That is the time we are in, and there is a full result. Mr Coates said that Luke’s gospel begins with a dumb priest and an empty temple, and it finishes with a worshipping company1. I think that is the hundredfold. Luke gives us one hundred-fold. He does not give us increase or decrease, he gives us the full result, one hundredfold. I wondered if we could apply that to the last few verses because of the greatness of Christ.
P.J.W. Could you help us as to the expression, unique to Luke, that the Lord Jesus was “carried up into heaven”. It is the same idea as in the Acts where it says that “he was taken up” (chap.1:9). In John’s gospel, He says, “I ascend”, (chap.20:17) no doubt conveying the greatness of who He is as Son of God, but here it says that He was carried up into heaven.
B.W.L. Peter says, “whom heaven indeed must receive”, Acts 3:21. Heaven was longing for this moment. The Lord had asked the Father that He might send the Spirit as another Comforter for His own, and you might say that everything was accomplished; the
Lord had accomplished it all, although the Spirit was yet to come. We need to be careful about what we say; the Lord would have loved to have remained with His own, but He could say in John’s gospel that it was “profitable for you that I go away” (chap.16:7). It says in the Acts that “he was taken up” (chap.1:2) which is a similar thought to “carried up”. Heaven must receive Him – the Father was longing to have His Son back in glory with Him as Man.
P.J.W. Hebrews says that He “passed through the heavens” (chap.4:14), and someone once said that He filled every heaven that He passed through: “that he might fill all things”, Eph.4:10.
B.W.L. Yes, and He was “received up into glory” (1 Tim.3:16); that was the manner of His being taken up. It does not say ‘received up to glory’, although that would be true of course, but “received up in glory”. It was a glorious reception!
R.H.B. It was as He was blessing them; “having lifted up his hands, he blessed them”, and as He was blessing them He was “carried up”. Does that give character to the whole dispensation?
B.W.L. Yes, that is good. They were blessed by Christ, the One who we have been speaking about who has become “continually greater until he was very great”. It is His entire supremacy.
R.M.B. Was it in your mind that the significance of the Lord’s ascension, as we might say in contrast to His resurrection, is that it has established a new place for believers before God and by that means it has established the distinctively heavenly character of Christianity.
B.W.L. Yes, resurrection involves a different state; it is “from among the dead” (Acts 3:15), but I think it has been said that true assembly ground is on the platform of ascension. That links with what you say in relation to what is heavenly.
T.J.H. So the Man we call to mind in the Lord’s supper is not only One who is risen, which is a victory, but the One who has ascended. We call to mind a Man in the glory, and that really marks the dispensation.
B.W.L. Just so. When we think of the Lord, we think of Him where He is. We may speak about where He has been, but we think of Him where He is. He is there in all His worth and greatness.
P.M. He blessed the little company at Bethany here, but that blessing is now universal. It was necessary that He should be carried up into heaven so that such a blessing should continue universally.
B.W.L. And what marks Bethany is that it is where He was loved. There were those who appreciated the Lord.
R.W.McC. I was thinking about what you said about the assembly. Assembly ground is Christ risen and the Spirit here. It says in John 7 “the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified” (v.39). He is glorified now, and when the assembly is taken up, we will all be changed to be like Him. It magnifies His greatness.
B.W.L. I suppose we could think of Colossians 1 as a chapter that speaks of the glory of Christ and the assembly is brought in there because of what He is personally, “he is the head of the body, the assembly”