When the apostles, forty days after the Lord's
resurrection, accompanied Him to the Mount of Olives, and when they had
received from Him His charge that they were to be witnesses for Him “unto the
uttermost part of the earth”, His ascension took place; “while they beheld He
was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9). But while they were thus left,
He was mindful of them; the two in white apparel, who appeared to them,
directed them onward to the day of His coming again: “This same Jesus, which is
taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him
go into heaven”. These words, with the previous mention of the cloud by which
the apostles had seen Him received out of their sight, appear to be intended to
lead them, and to lead us, to consider the definite promises and prophecies
which had been given of His coming in the clouds of heaven. They might remember
Daniel 7:13: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man
came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they
brought Him near before Him; and there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a
kingdom”, etc. This scene is not actually the second advent of Christ, but that
which is seen in heaven as immediately preceding it; when a certain power of
blasphemy upon earth, which up to that time has persecuted the saints of the
most High, is judged, and when Christ is coming forth to take the kingdom. It
is to this scene in Daniel that our Lord refers, in the various places in which
He speaks of His own future coming “with the clouds of heaven”: these clouds
were the accompaniment of His appearing in glory so soon as He has received the
investiture of this kingdom.
Our Lord, in His discourse on the Mount of Olives, in
speaking of what should be “immediately after the tribulation of those days”,
specifies the darkening of the sun and moon, etc.: “And then shall appear the
sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth
mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with
power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30).
This, then, was the expectation of the Church declared by the Lord Himself before
He suffered, of which the apostles were again reminded when He had been taken
up from them into heaven. When our Lord stood before the High Priest, and when
he said to Him “I adjure thee, by the living God, that thou tell us whether
thou be the Christ the Son of God, Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said;
nevertheless, I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on
the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven” [2] (Matthew 26:64). Who is there
that cannot see how plain is the reference to the manifestation of the glory of
Christ? The chief priests and scribes had not heard the discourse on the Mount
of Olives, but they felt no doubt that our Lord claimed to be the person spoken
of as “the Son of man” in Daniel 7, who would (He said) come forth, when He
should be seen in glory by those who had rejected Him. “Ye shall see” has to
do, not with the persons then addressed, but with Israel in unbelief looked at
corporately.
In the revelation
given to the beloved disciple in Patmos, we again find the same accompaniments
of the Second Advent of the Lord Jesus: “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and
every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him; and all kindreds of
the earth shall wail because of Him [3] (Revelation 1:7); and
to this promise the response is, “Even so; Amen”. Thus, if we see the coming of
Christ spoken of in connection with judgment on persecuting Gentile power, or
in relation to Israel, when His believing people are addressed as to their
hope, this event is spoken of in similar language. There is no hope set before
the Church prior to the appearing of the Lord in the clouds of heaven: this is
taught us in almost every way that can be conceived; because the Lord knew that
our minds would be liable to the same inattention, and there would be in the
Church the same dimness of apprehension, which He found in His disciples who
were around Him when He was on earth. Are we looking on to this appearing of
the Lord in visible glory, after iniquity and oppression have reached their
height, and immediately after the unequalled tribulation, or have we formed
some other hope in our minds? It is to this coming in the clouds of heaven that
the apostles were directed when Jesus ascended; it is to the testimony to this
coming that the Apostle John responds, “Even so; Amen”.
---------------
[2] Our Lord, in this brief answer, refers to several
Scriptures; besides Daniel 7:13, He alludes to Psalm 80:17, “Let thy hand be
upon the man of thy right hand, upon the Son of man whom thou madest strong for
thyself. So will not we go back from thee,” etc. Here the Son of man, at the
right hand of God, is spoken of as the only hope and deliverer for Israel. Psalm
110:1 (“The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make
thine enemies thy footstool”) points out the place into which the rejected
Messiah should be received, until He comes forth to set His feet on those whom
Jehovah will have set as His footstool, when He gives Him the commission, “Rule
thou in the midst of thine enemies”.
[3] It is scarcely needful to point out the use made
in this passage of Zechariah 12:10: “I will pour upon the house of David, and
upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and
they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for
him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as
one that is in bitterness for his first-born”. How clearly does the connection
of this passage, taken with its context, show that the coming of the Lord in
the clouds of heaven is that which leads to the national conversion of Israel: “In
that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness”. Just as clearly does the use of Daniel
7, in connection with the Lord's coming, shew that He shall then reign as
receiving a kingdom on earth; for there are then those to whom shall be given
(with Him and under Him) “the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the
kingdom under the whole heaven” (verse 27).
