Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #23 of Revelation, chapter 11, and we are going to read Revelation 11:12:

And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.

We were discussing this in our last study and we saw that the same language of “ascending” was found in John 1:51:

And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

If you were with us in our last study, you will remember we were talking about how this speaks of those that become saved.  At the moment of salvation, they are “lifted up” into heavenly places to be seated in Christ Jesus.  This is what it also says in Ephesians, chapter 2, and I am going to read it again.  It says in Ephesians 2:5-6:

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

This happens to every individual that God has saved.  There comes a point in time in their lives, if they are one of God’s elect, that God ordained that they were to hear the Gospel.  Of course, that would have been during the day of salvation when God was still performing the work of salvation.  At the moment God blessed the hearing of the Word to the heart of the sinner to save him, it was as if they immediately were lifted up and exalted into the heavens in Christ Jesus, where the Lord Jesus is seated at the right hand of God.  Then it was as if he was immediately dispatched back to earth as a messenger of God to carry the same Gospel message to other people, in order that they, too, might hear and become saved.  This is what the Lord Jesus Christ was referring to when He spoke to Nathanael, in John 1:51:

And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

What is also important for us to understand is when Jesus was telling Nathanael he would “see” these messengers ascending up into heaven and then descending upon the Son of man.  This is a quotation from a verse in Genesis 28, where the Lord is dealing with Jacob.  We read in Genesis 28:10-12:

And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

We can see how similar this language is to what we read in John 1:51.  A ladder is set up upon the earth and this would be a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Here is the problem: because of man’s sin, as man is on the earth, he has no way of reaching heaven.  His sins prevent him from entering into heaven, but a “ladder” is set up by God.  Of course, it is positioned on the earth and it extends or stretches into heaven.  This verse specifically mentions heaven, so we know that this is what Christ was referring to when He said, “The angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man,” and it has in view going into heaven and then coming out of heaven.  It is all being done “upon the Son of man,” or the “ladder,” which God had set up.  The Lord Jesus Christ is the “God man,” the mediator between God and men, which allows men to enter into heaven and into the presence of God.  It is really a wonderful picture and the top of that “ladder” reached to heaven.  The word “angels” is the same in the Old Testament as in the New Testament.  The Hebrew word can be translated as both “angels” or “messengers,” just like the Greek word, so it is the “messengers of God ascending and descending on it.”  We know these are true believers because the Lord Jesus Christ is necessary for a sinful man to “reach” heaven.  The literal angels which are in heaven and which did not fall along with Satan need no intercessor; they need no Saviour like men need the Saviour.  Men need the Son of man in order to get into heaven, but the angels do not require that because they never sinned.

When we think about all this and then we come to our verse in Revelation 11:12, where it says, “And they heard a great voice from heaven,” and, again, this is the declaration of the Word of God during the second half of the Great Tribulation after the “two witnesses” had stood upon their feet; this is the time of the Latter Rain when God’s Word is covering the earth as the waters cover the sea; this is the time the Lord is opening the Scriptures to reveal many truths that had been hidden and sealed until the time of the end.  It is the time in which God revealed the end of the church age and it is the time He revealed Judgment Day as May 21, 2011.  So those that saw the “two witnesses” and great fear fell upon them and “They heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven.” This is very typical of exactly how God worked to save people all through history, as Jesus said to Nathanael, “ye shall see…angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”  Then Genesis 28:12 informed us that this means there is a “ladder” that goes to heaven and the messengers ascend to heaven and the messengers comes down from heaven, and this happened all through history at the moment of salvation, whenever God saved men and women.  Then He immediately sent them forth with the Gospel to be messengers to others.  So our verse follows the same pattern: “And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.”

But, now we have something added that is different: “And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud.”  Why a cloud?  Well, a cloud in the Bible points to Judgment.  Let us just look at a couple of verses.  It says in Ezekiel 32:7:

And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.

This is fairly familiar language regarding the stars being darkened and the moon not giving her light, but there is further explanation when it says that the sun is darkened “with a cloud,” because it is Judgment Day; it is after the Great Tribulation and the next phase is the final judgment of mankind (all the unsaved people), so we have a cloud that comes into view.  In Luke 21, we have the same context, following the Great Tribulation and it says in Luke 21:25:

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

Then it says in Luke 21:27:

And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

This is just like when Jesus said to Nathanael, “Ye shall see…angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man,” and it did not mean that he would literally see that, but when the Gospel went forth and people became saved, they would witness God working through His Word.  Of course, we cannot see the spiritual side of man when this is happening as the Word of God operates within him, but as far as the Gospel going forth and men and women being changed by the Word of God and seeing the fruit of the spirit within them, this is how they witnessed the messengers of God going up and coming back down.  These same people that they had witnessed to and were giving evidence of having become saved now had an interest in taking up the Word and sharing it with others, so this would be the manner in which they would “see” these messengers going up to be seated with Christ and then coming down and going forth with the Gospel.  As they would see the effects of the Gospel on certain individuals that previously had no thought of doing anything like that when they had been out in the world, but the Word of God grabbed hold of them and they became messengers of the same Gospel.

Likewise, it is the same with this statement that follows the sign of the “sun, moon and star” (which is language of Judgment Day), and “then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud.”  And this is not literal, but as God opened up further information from His Word, revealing His righteous judgment in the day of wrath (Romans 2:5), then we “see” Christ coming in judgment through the Word of God, the Bible.  This is how we see “the Son of man coming in a cloud.” 

Let us look at just one more passage where “clouds” are very prominent and where they are emphasized by God in the Day of Judgment.   It says in Revelation 14:14-16:

And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.

There are about four references to “cloud” in this passage and the Son of man “sat upon the cloud” because the cloud represents the judgment of God.  The Lord Jesus is seated in the judgment seat and He is ruling over all the earth – over Satan and over all the kingdom Satan had ruled over – and He is ruling with a “rod of iron” over the unsaved people of the earth during this prolonged Day of Judgment.  It is in this same chapter that God mentions 1,600 furlongs and that is very likely a spiritual reference to 1,600 days of judgment, and then the judgment will be complete.

This is why Revelation 11:12 says that they “ascended up to heaven in a cloud.”  Let us just recall what happened in the days leading up to May 21, 2011, which was the beginning of Judgment Day.  What happened was that God first opened up this information and He provided a way through the electronic medium whereby His elect, who were “few” in number, could broadcast this message to all the world, especially during the last couple of years of the Great Tribulation and the Latter Rain, God was getting ready to conclude His salvation program, but He still had a great multitude (millions of people) to save that were scattered among the nations.  He moved in His people to declare and to broadcast, in an unparalleled way like never before in history, the message of Judgment Day to all the nations of the earth.  That fits in with what we read in Revelation 11:11: “And great fear fell upon them that saw them.”   The “two witnesses” (or the witness of the Word of God) went forth to all the nations of the world and that was the “great voice heard from heaven” that was saying, “Come up hither,” because God used that message of judgment to bring salvation into the hearts of many of those He had predestinated to become saved during that time: they heard, they feared, they were led to God, to cry out for mercy and to go to His Word (or however God worked out the details) and God saved them.  Then they “went hither” and ascended up to heaven in salvation “in a cloud,” because it was Judgment Day. 

Then, finally, that declaration of the approaching judgment expired and the time ran out and God brought in that great multitude.  They ascended like all those that had been saved in the past ascended, but in this time, they did not “descend” again.  In times past, when it was the day of salvation, the messengers of God were “ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”  They came back to carry that Gospel message so that others might become saved.  But this is different.  The pattern is broken.  The great multitude “ascended” (they became saved) and were seated in heavenly places, spiritually, in Christ Jesus, but God never dispatched them as messengers of the Gospel, in the sense that they would be going forth to evangelize as prior generations of messengers had done.  But, not this time, because it is Judgment Day – they ascend up in a cloud, but they do not descend, or come back down, with the task of going forth as if there were ongoing salvation because that is done.  In actuality, what happened was that the great multitude was among the nations of the world; they became saved, so every one of them was seated in Christ Jesus and, therefore, they did ascend spiritually, but they were not commissioned as messengers to carry the message of salvation.  For a period of time, it was as if they did not know what to do.

Can you see how this fits in exactly with what happened after May 21, 2011?  After May 21, 2011, the tract trips stopped; the advertising in order that people could hear and be warned stopped; the blowing of the trumpet from individuals and ministries that encouraged people to seek the Lord while He may be found stopped.  It was an incredible shift and an incredible change in programs and the reason was that we went from the day of salvation to the Day of Judgment in a moment of time.  We transitioned from the judgment on the churches, a time when God was saving many outside of the churches during the Latter Rain, to the judgment on all the unsaved people of the earth.  The sowing of the seed of the Gospel came to a close.  There would be no more sowing the seed with intent that people might hear the Word of God and become saved.  We were to cease evangelization in that manner.  This happened all across the earth. 

It was strange.  I remember having conversations with individuals and I pointed out how I now felt no duty or responsibility to hand people tracts, completely unlike I had felt before when there was such a feeling of a watchman’s duty; if I missed handing someone a tract, I had a conscience about it – I had to give out the Gospel, when I went to the store or when I was about my daily business.  Wherever I went I had tracts with me and there was a constant desire to warn people and to share the Gospel with them, but it all came to an end.  Now as I got about my daily business, I give them no literature to encourage them to seek the Lord and cry out for mercy, and I do not feel any doubt about not doing it.  And that is because it is God who saves an individual so that they ascend up and then descend with their “marching orders” and they feel that inner desire to do the will of God and to get the Gospel out with urgency.  It was God that moved in His people and to put that desire upon their hearts so that they would go forth in that glorious way: “How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good news.” 

But now God is not stirring up His people.  He is not putting that on their hearts.  He is not working in them to will and to do of His good pleasure in that way, because it is finished.  He is no longer sending forth messengers of the Gospel of salvation.   But there are some people that are doing this, are there not?  Of course, there will be some people that do that.  Whenever God makes a change in program, or whenever God determines to do something, you have people that do the opposite.  They stubbornly and rebelliously continue to do things just as they did before.  There are still Jews today that insist that God is still with them and they are still God’s holy people.  It is the same feeling in the churches and congregations.  They think, “God is with us.  He never left us.  He continues to bless us.”  They did not listen to what God said.  They dismissed the things of the Bible.  So, now, too, we will have people that say, “I am still handing out salvation tracts and God is still with me.”  They can still do that, but God is not with them.  God is not moving in His people in that way any longer.  It is Judgment Day.  This is a different time period.  It is not the day of salvation.  The Scriptures that applied to the day of salvation do not apply to Judgment Day.  This is the time of the wrath of God.

Our verse says, “And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.”  And this is because the world witnessed this – they heard the declaration.  They did not “see” anyone get saved and they could not see anyone get saved in their spiritual essence, but the world “saw” the effort and they heard the declaration from the Bible, and God considers that as though they beheld the salvation because it was through this that He saved the great multitude and it was as though they beheld the judgment because they saw them ascend up in a cloud, spiritually.  The world beheld: they were forewarned and they were told, “That is the day and no other.  That is the day and you have up until then to get saved.   And God did exactly that as He shut the door on the day He said He would.  The world, therefore, beheld it.