Mike,

Could you please expound the Is, Was and Will Be significance of this verse paying particular attention to the last phrase?

Act 1:11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? 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.

How does He come into our heavens as we have seen him go into heaven?
Thanks,
J____

Hi J____,
Thank you for your question.
You quote Act 1:11.

Act 1:11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? 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.

Then you ask:

Could you please expound the Is, Was and Will Be significance of this verse paying particular attention to the last phrase?… How does He come into our heavens as we have seen him go into heaven?

The answer to your question is simple when we come to understand the spiritual meaning of the word “see” or “seen”.
Anyone who has Christ now living in them has “seen Him go into heaven”, just as the disciples ‘saw Him’ in a type and shadow disappear into a cloud. That whole event of Christ ascending into heaven and being received into a cloud is just as full of symbolism as the events in the garden of Eden.
If we understand the meaning of three words, the word ‘see’ or ‘seen’, the word ‘heaven’ and the word ‘cloud’, then we will have no problem seeing the ‘is’ and ‘was’ part of what we are reading there in Act 1:11. Here is just one section of hundreds of verses which give us the spiritual meaning of the word ‘see’ or ‘seen’.

Joh 14:8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Joh 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

While it certainly is true they had not at that moment ‘seen the Father’, and Christ was “speaking of those things which were not as thought they were, they would soon ‘see [ Christ] and His Father’.
So that is the ‘is’ application of Act 1:11.
The ‘was’ application for all who read of that event is Christ’s literal, physical ascension and His disappearing from their view in a literal cloud.
But what does a cloud symbolize in scripture? When we know the answer to that question, then the ‘is’ application of Act 1:11 becomes much more meaningful to us. Here is one of many verses in scripture which tell us what is the spiritual meaning of the word ‘clouds’ in scripture:

Heb 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

So when Christ, right there where He was taken up into the clouds told the disciples:

Luk 24:48 And ye are witnesses of these things.
Luk 24:49 And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
Luk 24:50 And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.
Luk 24:51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.
Act 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

This is Luke telling the same story twice and showing us that we are Christ’s “cloud of witnesses” into whom He is received out of the sight of those who have not yet come to the day of Pentecost in their lives.
For much more on the spiritual meaning of the word ‘clouds’ read this link:
http:// www. iswasandwillbe. com/ words. php and this link on our study on this subject in Job 37: http:// www. iswasandwillbe. com/ StudyNotes/ Book_ of_ Job/Job_37_1_12_ Gods_ clouds. php
… and the second part of that study of the meaning of clouds in Job 37 is at this link:
http:// www. iswasandwillbe. com/Job_37_13_24_ Cannot_ order. php
The meaning of the word ‘heaven’ is revealed to be the place of God’s abode. His temple is said to be “in heaven”.

Rev 15:5 And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:

That “temple is, of course, spiritually defined as God’s saints in whom He dwells:

1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

So, Christ’s physical ascension is really just a type of His coming into our hearts and minds, to take up His residence in us so we can come to see the truth of these words:

Joh 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Much more about the Biblical use of the word ‘heaven’ can be found in the essential reading section of iswasandwillbe. com. Here is that link:
http:// www. iswasandwillbe. com/ whatwhereheaven. php
That’s the spiritual ‘is’ application of Act 1:11. The “will be” application is to be found in this verse of scripture:

Rev 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

If a fellow prisoner had told Joseph the day before he was summoned to appear before Pharaoh, that he would be placed on the throne of Egypt the next day, he would have wondered how that could possibly happen. So it is with God’s elect to this day. We are given this promise:

Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

That is just as certain as the rising of the sun. God’s elect will be given power over all the nations of this world, and they will retain that power for a symbolic, thousand years, ruling with “a rod of iron”. That is the ‘will be’ application of Act 1:11.
That time of rulership will be followed by a “short season” in which Satan will be released from the prison in which he was restrained for that symbolic ‘thousand years’.

Rev 20:1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

This is the period Paul references in this statement:

1Co 6:1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?
1Co 6:2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

Then, “when the thousand years are expired”, Satan will be sent out to deceive mankind once again, giving God the occasion against all flesh which He is seeking for the purpose of bringing all flesh to its just and merciful end.

Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Rev 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

The lake of fire, and the part of God’s elect in that ‘fire’, is revealed in these verses:

Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

It is God’s elect who are at home in the fire of God’s Word, and it is they who will judge those who are raised up in bodies of spirit, which are in need of being cleanse of the mind of ‘their father the devil’ who will be right there with them in that “lake of fire”.
That is what Paul refers to in the very next verse of 1Co 6. Here are both verses:

1Co 6:2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

I hope this has answered your question about the is, was and will be application of Act 1:11.

Act 1:11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? 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.

The disciples at that moment were “yet carnal… babes in Christ”, and in that way they typify the world who will witness the thousands of resurrected bodies of the symbolic 144,000 who are the symbol of all those who have “fallen asleep in Christ, [ as well as] “we who are alive and remain… [ who will be] changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and will spiritually ascend to meet our Lord in the air and so ever be with Him.

1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
1Th 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 1Th 4:18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Paul knows that “the Lord Himself” is not just the head of His body, but “Jesus of Nazareth” includes His entire body, who is even now “seated with Him in the heavens”.

Eph 2:6 and did raise us up together, and did seat us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

But Paul is also the same apostle who told the Corinthians that we would judge this world, so he knows what he means by “meet the Lord in the air” and he knows that means in the spirit, where we will be immortal, and gifted to move invisibly at the speed of light and with the power of the throne of God behind us. Like Christ after His resurrection, we will be capable of materializing into bodies of “flesh and bone”. Under those circumstances the rulership of this world will simply be declared, and it will be done. It may seem as impossible at this moment at the ascension of Joseph to the throne of Egypt, but that was just a type and a shadow of this event.
Your excited but patient brother in the Christ,

Luk 21:19 In your patience possess ye your souls.

Mike