TRANSFER FROM EARTH TO HEAVEN
[p. 384] TRANSFER FROM EARTH TO HEAVEN
Luke 2: 9 - 14; Luke 19: 37, 38; Revelation 4: 1 - 3
I would like at this time to refer to the thought of transfer from earth to heaven. The first passage read contemplates the descent, the transfer from heaven to earth, and the angel was in accord with what happened there. It would presently be the reverse order, indeed it had already begun. The Lord, having come to earth and remaining here, soon began to think of going up again; hence Luke speaks of the ascent very early in his narrative. The multitude of the heavenly host was speaking of peace on earth, but that soon became impossible, immediately impossible and hence chapter 19 speaks of “peace in heaven, and glory in the highest”, and that was anticipated by the Lord almost from the outset. He had been here, of course, remaining here as a Babe, as a Boy, as a Man, and serving as never man did, speaking as never man did, working as never man did, but all was in vain immediately in regard of what the angels had said — not ultimately, but immediately. Even in chapter 9 we find the Spirit of God saying that the days of His receiving up had come; so the narrative proceeds until He ascends, a cloud receiving Him out of their sight.
That is the general position, and the comments I have to make would refer to current events and experiences and what is needed in the saints, in ourselves, in view of these events. Peace is not in sight. We have heard much about war and the triumph of it, what is called the victory, the peace day, and we have heard much of the peace itself being won, as well as the war, but it has not been won yet, and that is a solemn matter. Rationing is going to continue and much like that, causing distress, for the peace is [p. 385] not yet. I am seeking to enlarge a little on these verses so that we may learn how to face things as they are, that we may be intelligent as to what is current. The Lord intends us, as His followers, those who love Him, to have understanding of the times; not in a political sense, of course, but still not ignoring the course of things in the world, because God has taken a hand in these things in a remarkable way, and I believe that the brethren are fully accredited with it in heaven. We are ever to remember the activities of God in heaven in these provisional times when Christ is at the right hand of God, when it is said, “Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things”, Acts 3: 21. We might conclude that He is not active, but He is active as here today. It is an extraordinary time, not the time of the fulfilment of prophecy exactly, but the time of the gospel, the time of the assembly. That is to say, the greatest things are current at the present time. Of course, the angels had it in mind in their word, their united word, for we read of a multitude of them. We can never tell how many there are. Scripture does not disclose it, but we have a multitude here in chapter 2. They are saying things, they join in with another angel, one who would take care of such as shepherds. Indeed they are all ministering spirits sent out for service on account of those who shall inherit salvation, so that we can all count on their aid; we are being helped by them, and will be helped by them. We may take courage from that point of view. They were then engaged in celebrating something, and that is now for the moment in abeyance. It was not in abeyance then, but it is now. Peace on earth is for the moment in abeyance; we have to be patient and toil on in this angelic light; we have all the light of heaven to which Christ has gone. In one sense there is not even peace there; the war is on there and so we are told that our conflict is not against [p. 386] blood and flesh, but against principalities and powers in the heavenlies. That is a present matter and hence the things that are happening affect us. Perhaps we are not all conscious of it, but those of us who are spiritual are quite conscious of it; we can scarcely go out into the street without being conscious of it. I do not say here, because God, in His great consideration for us, has secured places where Satan is not active. The principle of limitation is imposed at such a time, so it is that the assembly has an immense influence, and yet the war goes on in heaven and on earth. Hence our conflict is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers in the heavenlies. A real conflict is on; it is still on and will be on. Hence peace on earth is not a matter to be considered for the moment at all. If there be a peace as is talked of, it will be the mercy of God for a very short time. I am not prophesying, but I go by prophecy. The position is clearly defined in Thessalonians: “Only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way”, 2 Thessalonians 2: 7. The man of sin is not yet in evidence; he may indeed be somewhere, but he is not yet in evidence. There is the spirit of antichrist abroad, a most solemn thing, but there is He who hinders and will hinder until He be taken out of the way, and there is that which hinders, too — no doubt the principle of government, so we continue to pray for governments. I have never heard so many prayers for them as during the last five or six years, and they have been answered, so we are to continue praying for them. Actually government is not yet in the hands of Christ, but He is going on with something else, it is one of the most interesting things that I know of, what He is going on with now, what His current activities are. These meetings today are part of what He is going on with. It is well to be practical. When we come to a meeting like this we are coming to what He is going on with. He is on His Father’s throne, not His own, but He is carrying on in accord with that throne, hence the great enlargement of the thought of the Father in John’s gospel. John has in mind the continuance of this dispensation and what kind of spirit is prevailing in it. So it is the Father who is dominant in John’s gospel: “The Father loves the Son and has given all things to be in his hand”, chapter 3: 35. The Lord carries on with that with which He loves to be occupied at the moment, He loves the assembly and those who form part of it, and He loves those who are about to be saved. As we read in Acts 2, He knows them and He is serving them, and He is using His people to serve them. Hence it is, day in, day out, year in and year out, century in and century out, for all these eighteen centuries the Lord has been so engaged. He is not concerned with the government of this world for the moment, nor with the wars, nor the peace, but He is concerned about the assembly; He loves it, He is completing it. He is about to transfer it; it is a question of getting ready for the translation from earth to heaven. The earth is not the theatre in that sense; heaven is, although earth is in view in that He is taking out of it what belongs to Himself, the assembly. The assembly is the greatest thing there is in the universe, and it is presently to come down from heaven as if it were only there and was never anywhere else. It is not eternal, it has been formed since Christ became Man and went to heaven, but it comes down as if it were indigenous to heaven; it comes out from God, having the glory of God. What a thought! How wonderful that we ourselves belong to it!
So the peace in chapter 2 is in abeyance. The angels had spoken of it, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”, and the Lord toiled on according to that until the change came, and the change is indicated in Luke 9. You will remember what happened at that time: the days [p. 388] of His receiving up had come and His face was turned towards Jerusalem, as if to say, I must go that way — sorrowful and affecting, yet what victory is involved! Previously He went up to the mount of transfiguration and Elias and Moses were talking with Him, meaning that they were interested in what was going on in heaven, and on earth, and spoke about His death which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. It should happen there, so the Lord moved in that direction and He sent certain before Him so that they should prepare. He was a great Personage, so they went before Him to prepare, but the Samaritans would not receive Him. He was rejected here, and He accepts it. John and James would call down fire from heaven, as Elias did, but He says, “Ye know not of what spirit ye are”, so we have to suffer. We cannot take the sword. The young men today are shining; God is blessing them and fitting them for greater things. It is a question of the spirit of the moment and whether we can endure the reproach attached to it. “Ye know not of what spirit ye are”, chapter 9: 55. Hence He went to Jerusalem — it was a downward course. The angels said, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”; that was their word, but it involved going to Jerusalem and the Lord’s death. Thus we are engaged with His death every Lord’s day; we show it. It is not simply in the breaking of bread, though that is alluded to there, but every day we are to exhibit that we belong to those who have died with Christ. The Colossian epistle is essential for us; it is full of the idea of completeness. The point I am now referring to is that we are hid, “hid with Christ in God”, and that with Christ who is our life. See the magnitude of that position, and that Christ who is our life shall appear. He is the life of the universe, according to the revelation made to Joseph, but He is our life; things are confined now to those who form [p. 389] the assembly. Let us value the assembly, and know how to regard each other accordingly! We cannot but love each other as we think of what we are, patterned after Christ. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory”. That is what we are waiting for, therefore the Lord is thinking of us, presently to have us all glorious. When we shall see Him we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. So it is that having hope in Him, we are encouraged to go forward, but I am now speaking of being like Him. Though we are hidden from public view, Christ is in our hearts, and the brethren, too, for we miss all those not available to us. I never partake of the Lord’s supper without thinking of all: “Drink ye all of it”. I would say, The Lord is missing you. You are not satisfied, because the cup implies satisfaction. I am only showing how the Lord was preparing to go up long before He went up, just as a person going a long journey prepares. That is exactly what He speaks of. You can understand that, if a person is about to take a journey, he prepares. It is a preparing time for us, dear brethren, the transfer time is coming, but the preparation for the transfer comes first.
So Luke 2 occupies us with peace on earth; chapter 19 with peace in heaven. That is to say, preparation is going on up there. We should see that there is great activity up there if we could look in. If it be a gospel meeting, there is great activity, and so with a care meeting, so that the brethren may be cared for. Those of the levites called the Merarites should be active in looking after the boards of the tabernacle, suggesting the persons of the brethren. Heaven is reflecting all this, so the prayer meeting is a great time, too. Presently there will be war in heaven — a great angel engaged against Satan, the dragon, but in the meantime it is peace in heaven, and glory in the highest — peace in the sense that God [p. 390] is going on with what He is pleased with down here. The war in heaven will begin presently; Michael will take on against the devil; then again we find the Lord Himself coming out on a white horse, as we see in Revelation 19. It is not now transfer, it is coming down. The book of Revelation is a question of coming down. I have read from chapter 4, because the Spirit of God would put before us the place that John occupies. He is the loved disciple, representing the dispensation in its continuance, and, if meetings are getting small, as they are in some places, John would say, The places will be filled, there will be replenishment. That is the kind of prophecy John would instruct us in. If numbers are decreasing, there will be increase, as indicated by the great fishes in John 21. It is a question of finding brethren who are worth while, not for the sake of numbers, but for quality. “Simon Peter went up and drew the net to the land full of great fishes, a hundred and fifty-three”, John 21: 11. The haul was so great, but the net did not break. Things are holding although it appears that there is serious danger of chaos, but there is a point at which things are holding; the net does not break, as it did in Luke 5. In the ordinary course of gospel testimony there was defection, and in the ordinary course of assembly formation there was breakdown, but John is speaking now, being the beloved disciple, the disciple who tells us that, if all that the Lord Jesus did was written down, the world itself would not contain it. So he would enlarge us and give us to understand the greatness of what we are brought into. As to the fishes, the net did not break, even though the brethren were not faithful; seven had turned aside to fish, to go back to their ordinary occupation. Peter was the leader and he says, “I go a fishing”, the others say, “We also go with thee”, and they went and they caught nothing. That is to say, we have to experience this sort of [p. 391] thing when we turn aside, but the Lord is there to restore. That is the principle with John: recovery is not far away. The great fishes, too, are in evidence.
The transfer may take place at any moment, there will be no breakdown at all; the last assembling shout will be triumphant. Every breaking of bread involves the assembling call. It is an assembly call, an assembly time, and each is to rally to his position, but the Lord is saying to us now that the final and great assembly call is triumph, the Lord Himself. It is not simply a testimony here below, but the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, the Lord coming back to earth, not to stay on it, but to take us out of it. It is a question of whether we are ready; John would say, The Lord is not far away. The spirit of John is not far away, either, for he says, “It is the Lord”. I believe that voice is to be found in all these meetings. These meetings are increasing in number and increasing in quality, and increasing in ability to lead in them, too. Therefore if anyone is at all turning aside, grace would say, The Lord is not far away. The spirit of John is amongst the brethren; that spirit would say, “It is the Lord”, and sure enough it was, and He calls us children. It is a remarkable fact that He does. He is “the everlasting Father” (Isaiah 9: 6); He can speak as God to us, His children, because He is God. If it is a question of some of us straying a little, because you know there is a little of it with all of us, the Lord is saying, I will not give you up. We were speaking of persons whose sins are retained; there are such, there are those who are not to be saved, for the Spirit of God says, “let him be filthy still”, but that is not general. What is going on among the brethren is encouragement, even if there be a chilliness and turning away in small measure. The Lord says, I am not giving you up. Not that He would at all encourage sin, or unfaithfulness, but at the same time the apostle John says, “If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things”, so that I am not going to allow my heart to sway me.
John is timed to fill out the closing moments so that we may go on. So in Revelation, John fell at the Lord’s feet as dead — an important thing, resulting from a sense of the Lord’s greatness according to what is seen in Him. John sees the seven golden lamps and the Lord is in the midst of them. They are the things to keep in mind, because He is in the midst of them, He is not anywhere else. John fell at His feet as dead — it was wholesome reverent fear. The Lord says, “Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living one: and I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages, and have the keys of death and of hades”, Revelation 1: 17, 18. The whole position is in His hands — power for releasing, and especially power to say to John,”Come up”. It is a preliminary situation, not final. So this book is to bring out what the Lord is towards us, what He is towards His servant, towards His prophet, toward His assembly. It is the Lord, as it were, looking over in view of transferring everything up there. John is called up, not to stay, not in the sense of going to a place of blessing, but to carry on in the sense of what is happening. We are all to be aglow with what is going on in heaven; presently we are to be up there. We are now understanding it and interested in it and praying as to it; so that John goes up — he was caught up. It was a wonderful moment, but what he saw was a throne standing. What a comfort this is in the presence of this great democratic time, when the enemy has great advantage and there are terrible and extraordinary conditions existing! Prayer is the word for the moment; things are in our hands in that sense; Paul says, “through your prayers”, Philemon 22. I thought of that word lately and the result, what happens through our prayers. So John [p. 393] was caught up and saw a throne standing. Thrones have fallen, cities have fallen. What a moment! Could any of us have foretold what has happened? No doubt we are looking back and thinking of what has happened. Some of us have not been through it at all, but many have, and those who have not are in sympathy. It is remarkable how the things have come about, but still we are going on, and the Lord is saying to us now, Go on, go on with the order that belongs to the assembly. What pleasure He has in our meetings as this is in evidence! The Lord is pleased with it, as we read in Colossians, “rejoicing and seeing your order, and the firmness of your faith in Christ”, chapter 2: 5. John is the one for the last moment, a fit man; “I John, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience, in Jesus, was in the island called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 1: 9) — not ‘I, the apostle John’, but “I John”, the loved one. He is caught up into heaven and sees the throne standing. Finally the Lord will come down out of heaven on the white horse, and the armies will follow Him. What a picture! How assuring! All this comes through the beloved one, the prophet of the book of Revelation.
You can never reach the divine end unless you apprehend the glory of Christ, and Christ reaches the pinnacle of glory whatever be the road He travels.