Acts 1:9

‘And when he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.'

Once Jesus had given His commission and prepared them for the downpouring of the Holy Spirit He was taken up skyward until He was hidden in a cloud. From that time onward they would see Him no longer, except in special revelations. It was a climactic moment. It was the last time that they would see Him until they met Him in His glory. The event emphasised that He would no longer be physically with them in this world, but had gone to God. It was a reminder to them that any views of His raising an army and leading an earthly insurrection were completely and utterly without meaning. He was no longer ‘of the earth'.

‘As they were looking, He was taken up.' Here, in line with Elisha's experience, was the final evidence that they would receive the coming Spirit. As with Elisha the seeing of their Master being taken was evidence that they would partake of His Spirit (2 Kings 2:9).

‘A cloud received Him out of their sight.' They would recognise in this that He had gone to God Who, when He revealed Himself, regularly did so in a cloud (Exodus 13:21; Exodus 19:9; Exodus 19:16; Exodus 24:16; Exodus 34:5; Exodus 40:34 etc. Mark 9:7; Luke 9:34). And they would further remember that when the Son of Man received His Kingly Rule, He would do so in the clouds of heaven (Daniel 7:13). Thus they may well have seen His entering the cloud as indicating His departing to His heavenly throne.

Such a cloud would be a rare phenomenon in the Middle East at that time of the year, when the sun usually shone from a cloudless sky. And they had good reason to realise exactly what this symbolic act meant. Jesus had not left them in the dark about His future, for He had already informed them that all authority had now been given to Him in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). They had therefore to recognise that He had now gone to take up His position of authority in Heaven from where He would send to them the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Mark 16:19 in fact declares, ‘after He had spoken to them He was received up into Heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God'. They were not in any doubt as to the significance of what had happened. He had been made both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36), and they would see Him no more until they went to Him (Philippians 1:23), or He returned again in His glory as He had promised (Mark 8:38; Mark 13:26 and often).