HEAVEN

^[p. 330] HEAVEN

Acts 1: 9 - 12; Acts 3: 19 - 21; Acts 7: 55, 56; 2 Corinthians 12: 2 - 4

These scriptures instruct us as to heaven, and they have been read on this account. We are drawing near to the end of this wonderful day or year, the acceptable year of the Lord, as it is called, and our heavenly calling and heaven itself are coming into view. The ministry that God has furnished for a century, and is furnishing, seems more insistent, the Lord Himself participating, having said to His servants as having been successfully engaged in His service, not to rejoice in the service, or the results of it, but rather to rejoice that their names were written in heaven. This is in view in this statement of the Lord, recorded indeed by the same writer as he who wrote the Acts; in Luke’s gospel, the statement is intended to confirm the teaching in this book, particularly that of the apostle Paul. And believers do well to note that the gospels are reached and only reached rightly through the epistles, the Acts included. The gospels are all confirmatory of the epistles.

Here we begin with the subject of heaven; that is, in chapter 1. The forty days which are alluded to in the earlier part of this chapter in which the Lord is said to be seen by the disciples, were educational, educational of spirituality, for although heaven is the creation of God and physical, especially the nearer heaven, as also the idea of the higher heaven, yet the understanding of them and participation in the heavenlies essentially require spirituality. The forty days are intended to qualify us for entering heaven, that we shall not be strangers there, and that we shall not be awkwardly there, but there as knowing, understanding how to be there. Paul was caught up there, caught up as far as the third heaven, so that ^[p. 331] he had experience of the whole idea of heaven — caught up into paradise. This happened early in his history so that it would enter into his ministry although not formally stated. The history of the heavenlies as we have and shall have to do with them comes in in this chapter after the forty days. Stress is laid on the fact that the Lord showed Himself to His disciples as living, and then that He was seen by them during forty days. Elsewhere we have more detail, that is in 1 Corinthians 15, but the educational part is essential as to spirituality, dear brethren. The apostle has to say to certain, “I have not been able to speak to you as to spiritual”. It is a very humbling thing if the Lord cannot minister to us as unto spiritual. He said, “As to babes in Christ”. Thank God, they were not only babes, but babes in Christ; their state was low in that sense — a very low state. So that in order to understand what is in mind now one counts on a measure of spirituality.

What is presented in the first scripture is that the Lord is received out of their sight by a cloud. A cloud does not characterise our dispensation; we do not get it in Stephen; so that we are here in the presence of a transitional state of things which requires patience. If there are better things in the purpose of God for us we have to wait for them, and we know that they are there; we have to wait with patience and serve others for that is what is in mind. The disciples were to learn how to carry on ministry to the Jewish brethren and yet with an inkling of better things for themselves. So that it is a cloud that intervenes and receives the Lord out of their sight, and two men in white suggest to them that gazing up into heaven was not opportune at that time. It was not in keeping with the light at the moment. In all our movements we want to have our eyes and ears governed by the light governing the moment, not to waste time. The two men in white regulate and we ^[p. 332] always need this; the ministry is for regulation. But the two men in white say, “Men of Galilee, why do ye stand looking into heaven?” That is, they belong to the remnant properly, and I think they have an inkling of better things for themselves, for God had prepared some better thing for them, yet the time had not come for them to look into heaven, but to know that Jesus had gone in. It stresses the fact that the Lord goes away from them”They beholding him”, and the men say to them, “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, shall thus come in the manner in which ye have beheld him going into heaven”. Their Forerunner had gone in, although the teaching of it had not yet come out, save what He had said in the gospels which they could not yet understand. The teaching is essential to the understanding of the gospels.

Well now, that is the first thought, that the position is one of faith, unlimited faith, too, if we are to progress in order and suitably, as it were, as light comes. So they are regulated, and it is an important thing that we should be if we have been going beyond the light that governs the moment. They returned to the city. The men did not tell them to do that. They went to the upper room. The men did not tell them to do that; that is, they are governed by the light; they have an inkling of the heavenly position. They go to the upper room. That was, virtually, they do not belong to the ordinary religious sects around us, for there were sects even in Jerusalem then. As Luke presents it earlier the Lord was separated from them before He was received up, meaning that it was not the idea of the body; He was separated from them. The Jewish remnant is not a body, not an organism, it never will be; the assembly is. So that we have the teaching in this earlier instruction — He was separated from them and carried up into heaven in ^[p. 333] the attitude of blessing them, and they went to Jerusalem, to the city, and went into the temple. That is, they had not reached this level. The teaching is advancing, and according to this record they are on higher ground.

I desire, dear brethren, that we should be led on step by step. Now it is a question of faith, faith as to what is happening. They were witnesses that He went up. The cloud was the screen between them and heaven, but faith understands, and so Peter’s ministry in the next chapter has to do with these facts. He is ministering to the remnant of Israel; he is not ministering in relation to the body of Christ. He is ministering in relation to an absent Messiah whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restitution of all things. Israel shall repent. The apostles had learned that they were within limitations. Jesus had been received out of their sight; they had seen Him go up. Faith understands. He had gone in, but He had been received out of their sight by a cloud, and they pursue their toil and their labours; and the Spirit come down is sure evidence that Jesus has full right, full sway up there — the presence of the Spirit here below as Peter testifies: “Having therefore been exalted by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this which ye behold and hear”. But the ministry is nevertheless on this line that Christ has gone in, received out of their sight by a cloud, and they enter on this service in limitations. Peter calls upon the remnant to repent, that Jesus was foreordained for them. It is not a question yet as to the eternal counsels of God as to the assembly, but foreordained for the Jews, the wonderful grace and patience of God being fully set out to the Jewish remnant.

I am speaking now not simply in a dispensational way, but as to patience, as to moving on in patience ^[p. 334] according to the limitations set upon us by God, not being behind, not overlooking anything, but not being before, for our minds travel much faster than our feet. We may go further ahead in our hearts than we really are, so that God would have us to move on with Him in so far as we have already attained, as it is said. There is never any excuse for dislocation or cleavage because some are further on than others. However far advanced I may be I can humbly and happily tread along and keep abreast of my brethren and not get out of their sight. The apostle Paul is our example. In the Corinthian epistles, especially the second, he stresses the idea of the minister being with the brethren, keeping with them. Being with them suggests position. “Now he that establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God”. He is alongside the Corinthians. So Peter’s ministry in Acts 3 is according to the facts of chapter 1. There is further stress on the fact — “Jesus Christ, who was foreordained for you, whom heaven indeed must receive till the times of the restoring of all things”. Think of the grace of God reducing the position of Christ, bringing it down to that one thing, that He was really for the Jews, indeed He was their Messiah, as if God would say, ‘I am thinking of Him in that way, and I am presenting Him to you in that way’. And so Peter enjoins them to repent, and says, “Whom heaven indeed must receive till the times of the restoring of all things, of which God has spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets since time began”. It is not eternal counsel here: it is God operating in relation to His earthly people, and those who have part in the heavenly calling are content to be the ministers within these limitations.

Now to go on to Stephen and show you how the cloud departed, how it is left behind, and we are moving towards heavenly ground. We are still considering the minister, one who began in a small way ^[p. 335] and purchased for himself a good degree — “For those who shall have ministered well obtain for themselves a good degree, and much boldness in faith which is in Christ Jesus”. And so he delivered his word with wonderful exactness and power — a model for all servants, and before he began to speak his face shone as the face of an angel. It was heavenly but judicial. It is very important for the ministry to be judicial. There is never a moment in the history of the assembly down here when the judicial side does not need to be stressed. His address is judicial. His face shines; it is in keeping with what he is going to say; and he is furnished, and it says, “Being full of the Holy Spirit, having fixed his eyes on heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God”. Moving on these lines, dear brethren, we shall reach the heavenly side, the door being open. It is a question of the Spirit. ‘The Spirit’s power’, one said, ‘Has ope’d the heavenly door’. It really is a spiritual matter, not that heaven is not above; the external heavens are: Stephen looks through. “Having fixed his eyes on heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, Lo, I behold the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God”. Let us rest on these two verses, dear brethren, because they are transitional in the sense that we are being led out of the one order of things into another, and one is endeavouring in his inward being to bring out something that may be taken in spiritually, a look into the heavenlies.

Now to make this practical, the epistle to the Hebrews is the expansion of these two verses: “We see Jesus”, the writer says, “... crowned with glory and honour”. That is really the look into the open heaven. And so the ministry comes into verse 56. Verse 55 is what the believer may see in the power of the Spirit of God. Verse 56 is what he may say.

^[p. 336] Stephen does not say verse 55; the Holy Spirit does — it is the record; verse 56 is what he says. That is to say, verse 55 is what the minister sees, what any of us may see in the measure in which we are spiritual verse 56 is what the minister says. He puts it into language, levitical language. That is, he has a testimony. It is ministry which is calculated to lead on in faith, dear brethren. God is opening up the way for us; the cloud has departed for ever. It never is associated with christianity; it is a cloudless dispensation. It has disappeared in that sense. There is nothing at all of it here. The heavens are seen through. “Having fixed his eyes on heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God”. Peter says He is to be received there till the times of the restoring of all things, pointing on to the millennium. Stephen says, ‘It is all settled up there whatever you do down here’. Whatever men do down here, the mind of God and the effectuation of it is settled up there. Then he puts it into language suitable for the moment, and says, “Lo, I behold the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God”. He does not say ‘Jesus’; he says “the Son of man”. He understands. A minister is not simply a parrot; it is not that the words are put into his mouth; it is a question of light, and God gives him ability by the Spirit to put that light into such words as are needed at the moment. There are no articulations from heaven here. It is what is seen by the minister. There is no voice: it is what is seen by the minister, and the appellation he uses. He does not say, ‘I see Jesus’, nor does he say, ‘I see the glory’. What would they understand by him saying, ‘I see the glory’? They would understand when he said, “I behold the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God”. That is an intelligible word. Notice he is speaking to his opposers. He had spoken about ^[p. 337] the glory, but now he has seen into heaven. It is not simply the God of glory, but the glory itself and Jesus standing. Then he turns round and puts what he sees into phraseology which applies at the moment and would be intelligible at the moment. It is the Son of man; it is not the Messiah of Israel. That is, God is widening out. Are we ready to follow the widening out of the testimony that God is opening up to us? It requires spirituality, and we cannot afford to be without it. It is available. Without it we shall not follow the expansion of the testimony as God is pleased to give it to us.

Well now, that is what we get with Stephen. The door is opened. He seems to understand. Were he to explain to a man of mere natural mentality what he saw, what would the natural man understand by the glory of God? It requires spiritual understanding. But he does say, “I behold the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God”. That is to say, Jesus in relation to the whole race of mankind. Peter says, “He is foreordained for you”, but not now, not with Stephen, not for reprobate Israel, not for the remnant of Israel. It is for the true Israel He is foreordained. Now He is the Son of man; He is preordained for the whole race of mankind. Think of it, that we have Him up there. We men have such a One as He is up there. He belongs to our race; He is on our side, too; but were this to be opened up, then we should have the epistle to the Hebrews, but it was not opened up to them. The epistle to the Hebrews opens it up to us and tells us that this glorious Man belongs to us; we have Him and He is there to look after our affairs up there, and to serve us in the sanctuary up there, and to give us a footing in heaven, and to bring us into correspondence with Himself and into companionship with Himself up there, for we are His companions in heaven. It is worth while following the line.

^[p. 338] Well now, passing on to Paul, I wanted to say that he is one of ourselves, but he is an apostle. He does not call himself that here. He is a man in Corinth. In writing to the Corinthians and Romans, in these fundamental epistles, he makes it plain that ‘in Christ’ belongs to every true christian. Every true christian is in Christ. What a word! But every true christian cannot be designated as a man in Christ. That is the great need always — a man. There were babes in Corinth and, dear brethren, there are babes now; not that one would discredit anyone, but that is what he is speaking of; he is speaking of a man in Christ. He said the Corinthians were babes in Christ. They had status in Christ as much as he but they were not men. God intends to fill heaven with men, not babes — men, that is sons. Well, that is what the apostle is at here. He is calling attention to that, and the Spirit is calling attention to it now. “I know a man in Christ”. It is not ‘I knew’, but it is “I know”. It is a present man. It is what is. There is the historical side, but in practical testimony it is always what is; that is, the thing spoken of as in testimony. So that the word is, “I know a man in Christ”. One wonders as to oneself; surely it is a searching matter as to what one knows if one thinks of oneself, not that you would bring yourself forward, although it is very remarkable how much the Spirit of God puts self forward even in Paul’s own ministry. It must have been a trial to the apostle to speak so much of himself. He told about his suffering: it is for us that we might know the kind of thing that God has in mind, like the two apostles at the temple — what God has in mind in the gospel. So that it is not a question of what is historical, although it is historical because it was fourteen years before, but he says, “I know a man in Christ”. The man in Christ is developing now. It is not merely a historical matter. We all like to speak of what we have experienced ^[p. 339] in earlier days. Old brothers and sisters are apt to speak too much of earlier days, but the real thing is what is now. The apostle brings it in here he says, “I know a man in Christ ... . (whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God knows)”. That is, his mental powers were there as God made him, but he could not tell whether he was in the body or out of the body, but he was conscious of himself. In deliverance, he says, “I myself with the mind serve God’s law”. Not simply ‘I’ but ‘I myself’ — ‘in my own consciousness I am serving God’s law’. And now he has not lost his consciousness, the consciousness of being a man in Christ. What he learned at the feet of Gamaliel is gone from him for the moment. He does not know anything about that; if he did he would know that he was in the body, but he does not know whether he was in the body or out of the body; but he was there; in his own consciousness he was there. He was there in intelligence, too. God alone knows whether he had his body or not. This shows that if one departs to be with Christ, he is not in the body but his consciousness remains. He was there as conscious and intelligent, and he distinguishes between the altitude reached and the state of the altitude reached. The first is ‘to’ as you will see in the better translation. That is, he went up as far as that, meaning that he went beyond what we call in so-called scientific language, the first heaven. Now, you may think I am speaking of mere material things, but I am not; I am endeavouring to show you that it is a spiritual matter. What it is essentially, I doubt if that is disclosed to us. The apostle says, “caught up to the third heaven”. He knew the altitude and he would immediately denote that it was the verification of what the thing is. The plural generally is the full thought; three certainly was competent testimony as to what the thing is.

^[p. 340] Well, if we were speaking to Paul, or if he were speaking to you, he would convey some little impression to you of his experience. If a man is spiritual — the more spiritual a man is and the more spiritual those around him are, the more he conveys his feelings. We have read today of an angel using his staff to touch the rock: why should an angel have a staff save that it was a symbol of experience on his part? If Paul had been to the third heaven, there is something there even although he could not utter it to you; he could convey, could carry down to earth feelings that no other man had, and those feelings belong to the assembly. Not only what I know but my feelings, my experience, belong to the assembly; they are the property of the assembly. So that he would convey to you something. His gesture would disclose certain things; so the nearer you get to spiritual men the more insight you will have into those spiritual things, and it is incumbent upon all of us to get some knowledge of these things.

‘There no stranger-God shall meet thee’. (76:10)

We are to be at home. We do not want to be out of the current of what is there. This experience of Paul — he would say, ‘I cannot put it into words; it is not lawful’; but he heard things and the effects of them were in his soul; he carried them down to earth. Well, you say, ‘He is gone’, but still the Spirit is here and I do not believe a single impression received by a man in the assembly is lost down here. It has come down: the spiritual constitution of the assembly embodies all that. So then it says that he was caught up into paradise. It is not now only your experience, but experience and enjoyment. The Lord says to the thief, as we have often had it, “^[p. 341] Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”. How remarkable that is, that the Lord should have said that at the crucial moment on the cross! He says,

“Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”. These words are to be taken into our souls. It is a constitutional matter. Matthew tells us when he is reporting the earthquake when the Lord is on the cross: “The tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints fallen asleep arose, and going out of the tombs after his arising, entered into the holy city and appeared unto many”. That is all you get as to words, but you will get impressions. They appeared unto many. What was that for? Well, their appearance impressed many as the appearance of Jesus in resurrection impressed many. It is constitutional. It is impressions conveyed. If we begin with faith we shall see Him. It is an impression conveyed — the way into heaven. The Lord had not to knock at the door before He was received into heaven. He was received up in glory. It is the way in and the way out of heaven, the way of heaven. “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, shall thus come in the manner in which ye have beheld him going into heaven”. Notice the recurrence of the word ‘heaven’: heaven is the point. It is constitutional and the Spirit of God would bring it to us and fit it into our minds and our affections. It is a question of our being able to be impressed in our minds and affections in view of having part in the heavenly city, so that we shall come out of heaven from God, having the glory of God; we are fit for the place. The Lord said, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”. Would that man ever lose the impression of those sufferings when the glorious Saviour said that to him by his side? “Thou shalt be with me in paradise”. Had he ever read Genesis 2? The Spirit of God does not say. No doubt he had. And so Paul says that he was caught up into it. He went into paradise, as if he were in the enjoyment of the place. “Things which eye has not seen”, says Paul, “and ear not heard, and which have not come into man’s ^[p. 342] heart, which God has prepared for them that love him, but God has revealed to us by his Spirit”. It is not that they are spoken or written; they are too vast. It is the impression you get, the revelation by the Spirit. It is here for us to enter into and anticipate in measure by the power of the Spirit. So he says that he was caught up into paradise. The word ‘caught’ is used here. The Lord was not caught.

He went up: He ascended. But as to this servant it is this peculiar word: he was caught up into paradise.

What enjoyment it must have been for a moment to be there in that place called paradise, the place of delights.

That is all I had to say, dear brethren. I have made these remarks in a suggestive way so that we may be able to develop constitutionally in view of heaven. Our names are written there and I verily believe that symbolically we all go up together, we do not go one by one. We depart to be with Christ one by one, but that is never said to be in heaven; it is with Christ. We go up together, but if we go up together every one is known: “Your names are written in heaven”, the Lord says, and we belong to that family called the assembly of the first-born ones written in the heavens, and to be simple, can we not visualise? Every one is known: it is so-and-so and so-and-so. It is no question of assembly order, nor is it in Acts; it was a crowd of names. Why should it be a crowd? It is simply to bring out the distinction, that in spite of the crowd you are distinguishable. No matter where you are up there you are distinguishable. It is a question of life. No two are alike in one sense and yet we are all alike in another. We are all like Christ. Each one of us has his own distinction and that distinction is in the book; his name is in the book, so that there is no question as to who he is.