The Cloud

"And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight"Acts:1:9

After giving the Disciples the Great Commission of proclaiming the Gospel He was then taken up into the Heavens and enveloped with in a cloud.

At the Accession of our Lord Jesus Christ He was enveloped by a cloud that hid Him from His Disciples immediate  view .

Like many things that our Lord did and said , at first the Disciples, and we, may not have fully grasped the import or the message. Nothing that Jesus did, or does, is an accident. Everything that concern Him is of great importance and speaks to us about Who our Lord is and what He does.

What message do we find then in our Lord being being enveloped by a cloud? What does this teach to those who follow our Lord?

To understand why Jesus was taken into a cloud we need to return to the Old Testament , the body of writings that we are told speak to us about Jesus. John:5:39-47, Luke:24:25-27,44-45

The Cloud in the Wilderness

That is, the all the Old Testament speaks to us  about Jesus Christ . Jesus is found throughout the Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. The Writers  of the New Testament understood this,  and after the Resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit  to give them inspiration,  they began to see our Lord throughout the Old Testament.

Jesus is there even in the wanderings  of the Children of Israel . Luke in his history of the Apostolic Church records the sermon of  the Deacon Stephen to the religious leaders. His message points away from the Temple at Jerusalem and toward the person of Jesus. Stephen is insistent that Jesus, and not the Temple, is the focus of God's purpose.

He declares that Jesus is and always has been this focus, even citing that Jesus is God and as such Jesus is the One Who led Israel in the Cloud that went before them, that was manifesting the presences of the Lord.

"This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spoke to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give to us" Acts:7:38

Stephen is telling them and us that it is Jesus Who there in the Cloud. This Cloud which was a visual manifestation of the Lord's  presences  is found in several places in the Scriptures. This Cloud is the Shekinah , in Hebrew it means to dwell or to inhabit. It shares a common Entomology  with the Hebrew word  Mishkan, a form which is used for the Tabernacle, where God dwelt, where the people met their God. 

Meeting God

Moses met God as the Cloud  descend atop the highths of Sinai. The manifestation was one of power accompanied by the blast of a heavenly trumpet  , tempest and lighting and roaring of thunder.  The whole of the mountain was shaken, showing that the Lord God was present.

"The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.” Then Moses told the Lord what the people had said."Exodus:19:9

"On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.

The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain."(16-20)

Moses met the Lord in the Tabernacle as the Cloud descend to it.

"And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses."Exodus:33:9

Cloud on the Mountain

The One Who descended there upon the mountain was the very One Who came in the Person of Jesus Christ,here the Lord  "proclaims the name of the Lord" to Moses.

"And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children's children, to the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. And he said, If now I have found grace in your sight, O LORD, let my LORD, I pray you, go among us; for it is a stiff necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance." Exodus:34:5-9

 Moses met the Lord surrounded by the Cloud, and hears His word and worships.

 When the Cloud Moves

As the Lord God led Israel through the Wilderness toward the Promised Land , they would encamp and stay in a given place until the Cloud moved, when the Cloud moved they moved, when it stopped they stopped. This tells us that God was controlling the over all direction of the people of Israel. At the close of the Book of  Exodus, after a display of the glory of God, we read.

"And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys:But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys." Exodus:40:37-38

 

Cloud On the Temple

At the dedication of the Temple at Jerusalem the very presence  of the Great God, the same that is seen leading Israel is here descended to the sound of Trumpets as  one hundred and twenty priest sing hymns of praise to God in unity,   and fills the Temple with His glory so fully that the Priest could not stay in the Sanctuary but were forced to go out into the court.

"And came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were in unity, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endures for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD; So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God." 2Chronicles:5:13-14

When they were in unity, then the glory filled the Temple, the presence of God was manifested in a powerful way as they worshiped and gave glory to the God of Israel. We see ,that in this moment at the Temple of God what is spoken of in Psalm:22:3- "God inhabits the praises of His people".  This speaks of that where our Lord is Praised His presences is manifested.   Our Praises does not "work up" His presence, it simply brings us to realize that He is present. Jesus is with us. He is within the Temple,  His church.

 Where He Meets Us Still

 Like His Temple and Tabernacles  of ages past our Lord still meets us today within the His church, the Living  Jesus Who came and dwelt among us  as one of us in His incarnation still meets us.

 "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." John:1:14

We meet our Lord in the Tabernacle of His humanity. It is here that God reveals Himself to each and all in the Person of His Son Jesus.

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me" John:17:6-8

Jesus in the Cloud

The very One Who led the people of Israel through the self  illuminating cloud of the  Shekinah  is the very One Who came to humanity in the Person of Jesus. This truth is also seen atop the Mount of Transfiguration, where Jesus is seen glorified by the overwhelmed Disciples, here the voice of God affirming the Divine Sonship of Jesus His heard and the Cloud surrounded them all as the fell before His glory. 

"While he yet spoke, behold, a bright cloud enveloped  them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear you him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only" .Matthew:17:5-8

This moment of seeing the glory of Jesus in the cloud is again an affirmation that Jesus is the One Who led the Children of Israel in their Journey toward the Promised Land. 

The cloud would have invoked within the minds of the first Disciples, all who were Jewish, the racial memory of the Cloud that their ancestors  followed.  This told them, and tells us, that  the One Whom protected , provided for and  led Israel will do the same for the Church. That Israel as Stephen called them "the Church in the Wilderness".  As the Lord was   with Israel before the incarnation, so Jesus is with His people the Church in the Wilderness of this world after the resurrection.

  Jesus Hid By Cloud

Acts records that the Cloud hid Jesus from the Apostles view, this teaches us all we are to walk by faith and not by sight. To trust our Lord that He is and will always be with us. And when we worship in unity giving Him praise it is then we come to discern  His abiding presences  within the Temple of the Church.

"Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him" Hebrews:10:38

Jesus, in His Accession,  is demonstrating that He will lead His Church , protect and provided for it in all of it's wanderings throughout the ages  just as He did with the Children of Israel.  In all that which the Church faces , He is with us, with all Christians . Jesus  will lead us forward moving us ever onward ,  overseeing the Church's of journey to the Promised land of His Kingdom, and even when we enter times of  the encampments of little progress , where the Cloud of His leading makes no sign of moving, even as with Israel, Jesus will be there as our Shepherd in times of hardship what ever occurs He is there with us by way of the Holy Spirit.

"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." John:14:15-20

 Jesus' ascension, and being hid by the Cloud speaks volumes, it tells us that Jesus will lead us onward to the conclusion of His purpose for each and all.  Jesus' accession , and being hid by the Cloud is far from being an abandonment of His people it is rather a powerful affirmation that He is ever with us as He was with Israel and He will do more for us than we can even begin to grasp. None need not  fear,  Jesus is with you His eyes are upon you He will lead you onward He is the One in the Cloud  Who is ever present in each of our lives the Cloud tell us all that Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us He will lead you to the Promised Land, He is as He spoke to the Disciples in Matthew:28:20b . "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age". Amen

Rev.Todd Crouch, Pastor

The Fountain of Life Church a Congregation of Grace Communion
2101 Old National Pike.

Washington, Pennsylvania.   www.gcfountainoflife.org

The Fountain of Life is heard  on the RKP Radio Network 1710 and 1670 AM in Washington and North Franklin ,and 1790 AM  in the Arden Fair Grounds area of Washington Pennsylvania, and on 1710 AM in Bentleyville and Monongahela, Pennsylvania. And online around the world at www.rkpradio.com