THE AWESOME RETURN OF JESUS

Acts 1:9-11 ... "And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was departing, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them; and they also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.'"

      Having completed the mission upon which God the Father had sent Him, Jesus bade His disciples farewell on the top of Mt. Olivet and then ascended in a cloud to take again His seat on the right hand of God in heaven.The disciples seem not to have anticipated this event. With great wonder they stood and "gazed intently into the sky" as Jesus gradually rose higher and higher on the cloud, becoming smaller and smaller in their vision, until finally they could no longer make out His form in the tiny point of space where they last saw Him. Nevertheless, even after He had disappeared they continued to stand gazing up into the sky. Perhaps they did not at first notice the "two men in white clothing" who stood beside them. Without doubt these "men" were in fact angels from heaven sent to attend this awesome event and make the announcement, "This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come again in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven." This is a revelation of utmost importance, not alone to Christians who believe and welcome it, but also to unbelievers who dismiss it as nothing more than a pious fable. But Jesus will come again some day and interrupt human activity in a supremely dramatic way. The challenge to every one of us is to take this news seriously and make real, effective preparations for that day of His return.

      What will that day be like, the terminal day of earth existence when time becomes eternity?  This writer would not dare try to describe it in his own words. What do I, or any other human, no matter how erudite, know about it? Since it has not yet happened, no one has experienced it and is thereby able to inform others of its nature. The only information we have about it is what has been revealed by the One who will cause it to come to pass and who alone knows what it shall be like. He has given us a brief sketch of its events in I Ths. 4:16-17, "The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord."

      This appearance of Jesus on that day will be a worldwide event, captivating the attention of every person on earth. We are assured in Rev. 1:7, "Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him." Jesus' "shout" as He descends from heaven shall probably concern what He proclaimed in Jno. 5:28-29, "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice and shall come forth; those who did good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment."

      The reader will note in the many proclamations of Jesus' return the repeated use of the verb "to come." Early Christians paid special attention to it and began to refer to Jesus as "the Coming One." Since most of them spoke Greek until the fourth century, this title was to them HO ERCHOMENOS. This is a participle form of the verb erchomai, "to come." As Christianity spread into more distant countries that spoke "barbarian," (non-Greek), this designation of Jesus was lost. He was called by the names and titles we now commonly use, which, of course, are Biblical and proper. But in the New Testament Jesus is also called "the Coming One," emphasizing the certainty of His return. 

      My friend, where do YOU want to be when Jesus returns? If He should come while I am still living, I want Him to find me wearing His name in honor, active in His service, and making the best preparation I can for His appearance. If I am dead and in the grave when He returns, I want to be found "asleep in Jesus," and hearing His call to "Come forth!," to arise unto a new life. As the saints gather about Jesus in the sky above, I want to be right there among them. I feel sorry for people who refuse to give their allegiance to Christ, because they will be left behind on the earth doomed to destruction. How tragic to have reality forced into your face on that Last Day, when the opportunity to yield your soul to Jesus has been forever lost.

AND WHAT ABOUT THIS MAN?

Jno. 21:21-22 "Peter therefore seeing Him said to Jesus, 'Lord, and what about this man?' And Jesus said to him, 'If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.'"

      Between Jesus' resurrection and His ascension back into heaven was the space of about 40 days. During this time He made several appearances to selected disciples, most of which are cataloged by Paul in I Cor. 15:5-8. John concludes the account of Jesus' ministry with one of these appearances. Some of the apostles had returned to their former work as fisherman on the Sea of Galilee. After toiling all day and all night without a catch, they were returning to shore when they saw a man standing on the beach. Asking about their catch, and being told that they had had no luck, the man told them to let down their net one more time on the right side of the boat. Doing as he said, they were amazed when suddenly their net was filled with so many fish they were unable to draw it back into the boat. Instead, they hauled the net the remaining 300 feet to the beach. Realizing the event was a miracle, they were at once convinced that the man on shore was not a mere man; he was, in fact, THE MAN, their Lord Jesus Christ.

      After eating breakfast with Him, the apostles had an interesting conversation with Jesus. Three times He asked Peter, "Do you love Me?" And three times Peter replied, "Yes, Lord, You know that I love You." Then Jesus said to Peter, "When you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go," (v.18). With these words Jesus prophesied that Peter would end his life as a martyr for Him, for John then explains, "This He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God," (v.19). Peter was not a little disturbed by this forecast that his life would end in violence because of his discipleship. And he responded in a most natural, human way. It is said that misery loves company; no one wants to suffer alone. Turning about and seeing John, he asked Jesus, "Lord, what about this man?"

      Apparently, Peter thought, if tragedy would end his life of Christian witness, a similar fate should await John. After all, they had been, and would continue to be, the more prominent of the apostles. An announcement that martyrdom lay in store for John would have somewhat blunted for Peter the awful statement by Jesus that he would be sacrificed. Most of us would have responded very much as Peter did, had we been in his place. Do we not, when tragedies overtake us, seek out "support groups" of people who have suffered, or perhaps are yet suffering, the same distress as we?

      Jesus' reply to Peter conveys an important lesson to us. Looking him in the eye with kindness and sympathy, but also with a firm rebuke, Jesus said, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?" That is, if He chose to prolong John's life throughout the Christian Age until His return, it was none of Peter's concern. Peter's business was comprehended in Jesus' final three words, "You follow Me." The Lord wanted Peter to concentrate his attention on the task of following Him, and not let himself be distracted by what was, or was not, happening in the lives of other disciples. The same lesson applies to every Christian. So often we begin to fret because another's situation seems to be more favored than our own. Then we feel disappointed that our fidelity and service seem to have been overlooked. At other times we notice that hardships come upon us which have bypassed other Christians, and we begin to wonder why we should suffer while others enjoy peace and security. In Jesus' answer to Peter we are advised not to question such things but rather to focus attention upon following our Lord.

THE FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIAN FAITH

John 20:30-31 .... "And many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name."

      I once heard a discussion between a Christian, an agnostic, and an atheist. The Christian declared his faith that God created the universe, made man in essentially the same biological form he is today, and sent His Son Jesus as a man to offer people eternal salvation. The atheist showed amusement at what he considered to be the intellectual shallowness of the Christian and his faith. With light regard he dismissed theism and creationism as impossible in view of what empirical science has discovered. The agnostic did not express this air of condescending humor. He rather explained that he could find no ground for "taking the leap of faith," as he called it, to accept the Christian explanation of life, existence and destiny.

      These three positions account for perhaps the majority of people and the way they think about God, Christ, and the Bible. The atheist denies because the spiritual is not discernible by the empirical methodology of science. The agnostic reserves judgment, admitting that something might exist beyond the reach of human science, but is unwilling to accept it on the basis of faith. There are yet other explanations of reality than the Biblical one and those of atheism and agnosticism. But in this brief essay we can neither attempt to list or define them.

      Those who read and consider the Bible, however, know that faith in God and in Christ is not without foundation.  It is not blind, a sort of "leap in the dark." In Heb. 11:1 it says that "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." The word "assurance" translates a word which conveys the idea of "foundation." Faith in God is not suspended in air, floating like a bubble to burst into oblivion upon the impact of some new scientific "truth." It is based on testimony, certified by competent witnesses. One can be great in faith and yet renowned in the knowledge and skills of the sciences. In fact, many have been and many now are. The person who has faith in Christ and lives by that faith is often categorized as a fanatic by the faithless. They disdain him for his blindness to science. But the scientific mind is no less fanatic when it blinds itself to the spiritual dimension, especially when there is creditable testimony in human experience to that dimension.

      Jesus Christ, first and foremost, is that creditable testimony. This is what John is stating in the initial text above. During His time on earth in the form of man, He performed "signs" (miracles) in which normal physical laws were momentarily suspended. For example, with a simple command He stilled a great tempest on the Sea of Galilee. On another occasion He walked on the surface of the water of that same sea. He raised from the dead a man who had been buried four days and whose decaying body was already stinking. These signs were not done in secret, but out in the open before large numbers of people, many of whom were hostile to Him. Even they could not deny His deeds (Jno. 11:47), so they yet sought to discredit Him by attributing His power to evil, (Mt. 12:24). It has been affirmed and soundly defended that Jesus' miracles are better supported by creditable testimony than any other acts from the ancient past. Only a prejudiced mind will persist in the effort to refute them. The prejudice arises from the desire to dismiss the responsibility Jesus imposes upon people to curb their appetites, including their arrogance and pride, and subject their lives to the standard of His teaching. The "leap of faith" is, therefore, not into blindness but over one's own pride and self-will.

JESUS AND PILATE

Jno. 19:4 ... "Pilate came out again and said to them, 'Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know I find no guilt in Him.'"

      After the High Priest and Jewish Sanhedrin had completed their "trial" of Jesus between midnight and dawn of that fateful Friday morning, they led Him to the court of Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. Coming out to them, he asked, "What accusation do you bring against this man?" (Jno. 18:39). Contemptuously, they only replied, "If this Man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him to you," (v.30). Pilate surely saw at this point that the Jews' case against Jesus involved matters of religion rather than matters of state. Being not in the least interested in their religious scruples, he ordered, "Take Him yourselves and judge Him according to your law," (v.31). When they answered, "We are not permitted to put anyone to death," Pilate realized this case was rather serious and became interested in interrogating Jesus. Knowing that Jews would not follow him into the Judgment Hall, (v.28), Pilate took Jesus there to examine Him privately. Nevertheless, his only concern was whether Jesus posed any threat to Roman government. Being satisfied this was not the case, Pilate gave his verdict to the Jews, "I find no guilt in Him."

      This statement indicates that, within the province of politics and public security, Pilate could determine nothing amiss in Jesus at all. Although the Jewish leaders were loath to admit it, there was likewise no fault in Jesus in the province of religion. Jesus had the highest respect for the Mosaic Law, as witnessed by His declaration in Mt. 5:18, "Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all be accomplished." Jesus was fully dedicated to the application and enforcement of the Mosaic Law until it should have accomplished everything God had designed for it. Furthermore, Jesus had made it explicit that He posed no threat to the Law. He stated publicly in Mt. 5:17, "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill." The mission of Jesus was to exalt and glorify the Law by conducting it to its ultimate goal, the presentation of the Messiah as the King of kings in an everlasting kingdom. Actually, the Jews differed with Jesus more on the stipulations of their own interpretive apparatus built around the Law than on the content of the Law itself. This great body of interpretation was called the "tradition of the elders," (Mt. 15:2). In one intense confrontation with the Pharisees and scribes, Jesus told them that by these very traditions they themselves "transgress the commandment of God," (v.3). In other words, while Jesus respected and obeyed the Law absolutely, the Jews were transgressing and abusing it by their own interpretations.

      When the moral character of Jesus' personal life is examined fairly, one has to conclude that no fault can be found there either.  It is significant that in Jesus' "trial" no charge is made against His conduct or the moral fiber of His life. Had such personal blemishes existed, it is certain His enemies, who were viciously devoted to wrecking Him, would have enthusiastically brought them to light. No one could expose indiscretion in Jesus' life and conduct because there was none! This innocence was essential for Jesus to be the perfect sacrifice for all who sin. In II Cor. 5:21 we read that God made "Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Heb. 4:15-16 likewise emphasizes Jesus' total purity and its significance for us: "We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are,yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

THE VOICE OF TRUTH

Jno. 18:37 ... "For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to

the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears My voice."

      After observing the Passover Feast with His disciples in an upper room somewhere in Jerusalem, Jesus took them eastward out of the city, crossed the Cedron Brook, and made His way up the slopes of Mt. Olivet to the Garden of Gethsemane in order to pray. But Judas Iscariot, who for thirty pieces of silver sold his allegiance to Jesus to His enemies, knew the spot since Jesus had often gone there with His apostles to pray when He was in Jerusalem. Making himself the most infamous traitor of all time, Judas led the Jewish authorities right to this garden, and they immediately arrested Jesus. They took Him first to the house of Annas, father-in-law to Caiphas, the high priest, in order to interrogate Him and fix charges against Him that would stand up before the Roman governor. Later, they took Him to Caiphas' house to continue this farce of a "trial." It was at this place that Peter denied Jesus the third time, just before the cock crowed, thus fulfilling Jesus' prophecy. As morning broke, the Jews took Jesus to the Judgment Hall of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. For they had determined that this Man of Galilee must die, and only this Roman governor had the legal authority to administer capital punishment.

      The statement of Jesus quoted above was made during His appearance before this pagan official. From secular history we learn that Pilate knew little about the Jewish religion and cared less. In fact, he despised the Jews, especially their rulers, and welcomed every opportunity to act harshly against them. The mere fact that they brought Jesus before him probably made him at once sympathetic toward Jesus. But the only interest he expressed was whether this prisoner constituted a threat to Roman security. His first question was, "Are You the king of the Jews?" Jesus confessed that He was indeed a king, but that His kingdom was spiritual rather than political and that His disciples would not fight. Pilate then saw no problem with Him, and returning Him to the Jews waiting outside, he announced, "I find no guilt in Him." (The Jews had not entered Pilate's house, lest being in a Gentile structure they would "defile" themselves and be unfit to observe the Passover.)

      It was when the governor asked Him if He were king of the Jews that Jesus replied, "For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world." God had sent Him to lay the foundation of a kingdom that would be established just fifty days from that very day. It would be an eternal kingdom, the very Kingdom of Heaven, and Jesus was already its King before it began. This kingdom and all that pertains to it -- its government, law, territory and destiny -- were matters of truth beyond human ability to discover. It was Jesus' mission, besides being King, to reveal these great truths to mankind. His work of witnessing to the truth was so vital and unique that He personally equated Himself with it. In Jno. 14:6 He declared that "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." Jesus is the sole access to the truth of God's will for man; and this, in the final analysis, is the only truth with value and meaning. Jesus said, "Every one who is of the truth hears My voice." He meant that those who seek truth will open their ears and their minds to His instruction. There are two dimensions of truth: the truth about the structure and operation of the physical universe, and the truth about the spiritual world. It is pathetic that people seek the former truth and deny the latter, decrying its meaning and value. They spend fortunes to implant worldly truth in their minds, and with contempt turn away from the spiritual truth that will endure forever after worldly truth has become meaningless. The knowledge and understanding of the structure and operation of the physical universe is beneficial only while one lives in the material realm. The truth Jesus reveals will benefit us, not only in this present life, but in the spiritual realm when we have passed beyond the door of death.

JESUS' PRAYER FOR UNITY

Jno. 17:21 ... "That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You did send Me."

      The seventeenth chapter of John contains what may truly be called The Lord's Prayer. The setting was an "upper room" somewhere in Jerusalem on the same night during which Jesus was betrayed, arrested, and put through the mockery of a "trial." Within less than twenty-four hours of the time that He uttered this prayer, Jesus had been crucified and entombed in the crypt of Joseph of Arimathea. We can believe, therefore, that with His mission to earth finished, the thoughts expressed in this prayer were especially important to Jesus. Those who read it carefully will be impressed with the idea that its contents were indeed of critical meaning to our Lord as He concluded the work God had given Him to do, (v.4).

      The essence of Jesus' prayer concerned the completeness of His mission, the preparedness of the apostles to continue His work, and the unity of all who put their faith in His gospel. He emphasized this unity as an extension of the perfect unity that prevails in the Holy Trinity:  "even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us." Absolute harmony prevails among the three Personalities of God in will, in purpose, and in action. It is God's will that the same harmony prevail among those who compose His spiritual family on earth. The gospel is filled with teaching that stresses the necessity of this unity. The length of this essay could be multiplied several times in the effort to survey all those passages. There can be no denial that God demands unity among Christians and accounts it as a great sin when they divide into factions.

      Let us notice, however, another dimension to this unity. At the end of v.21 Jesus declares that the unity of His disciples will be a powerful force to induce the world to "believe that You did send Me." In other words, the ability to bring the masses of the world's people in each generation to accept that Jesus is not just "a great human teacher" but the Son of God descended from heaven is contingent upon the cohesion of His followers. If there is any inducement to cause Christians to squelch their prejudices, personal desires, and vain ambitions in order to achieve and preserve this unity, it should surely be this great objective in our Lord's prayer.

      As one looks over the vast sea of people on earth, only a minority can be found who believe that Jesus is the divine Son of God, that His gospel is the rule for human conduct, and that His kingdom (the church) is the one institution in the world that will continue into eternity. After setting aside the hundred millions of people who are irreligious, the remainder are distributed among the echelons of Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, and myriad animists. Why has not Christianity, with its "power of God unto salvation," (Rom. 1:16), been able in two thousand years to convert the vast majority of mankind so that the other religions are just odd, rare anomalies in the world? Some would answer that it is because the claim that the gospel is "the power of God unto salvation" is nothing more than sanctimonious propaganda. If this is the answer, then Jesus is a liar.  But the miracles He performed before countless witnesses testify that He is true and not a liar, (Jno. 5:36). The true answer, therefore, is the one He points at in the initial text above: those who profess discipleship to Him have divided and subdivided ad absurdum. When people in general look at what goes by the name "Christianity," what they see is a complicated swirl of contradictory doctrines, institutions, and styles of religious expression that compete with insane jealousy. It is little wonder that the world has not been converted to Christ!

FROM WHENCE CAME JESUS?

Jno. 16:28 ... "I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world."

      Who was Jesus Christ? This is one of the most profound questions ever considered by man. In fact, many would rephrase it, changing "was" to "is." The question of who Jesus WAS concerns the identity of the historical Jesus; who was the Man of Nazareth in the 1st Century A.D. who was called Jesus? Posed in the form, 'Who IS Jesus?," concerns His eternal existence and office.  There has been continual controversy for two millennia over both of these questions. Once He Himself posed the question to His apostles, "Who do men say that the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets," (Mt. 16:13-14). The people, therefore, saw Jesus as extraordinary; yet, they conceded Him a status no higher than that of a mortal man. And since that day, now so long in the past, the conception of people has not changed. It is the opinion of many that Jesus was (not "is"!) a master Teacher who founded one of the major world religions; but He was nevertheless only a mortal man.

      A question closely connected to those just considered is anticipated in Jesus' statement in the initial text above. From whence did Jesus come? This question was also debated during Jesus' life on earth. In Jno. 7:40-43 it is reported that "some of the multitude, when they heard (Jesus') words, were saying, 'This certainly is the Prophet.' Others were saying, 'This is the Christ.' Still others were saying, 'Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?' So there arose a division in the multitude because of Him." Part of the Jews, marveling at the miraculous acts and superior words of Jesus, concluded that He had to be the Prophet foretold by Moses (Dt. 18:15-19) whether He came out of Galilee or not. Other Jews, however, stumbled over the apparent fact that Jesus could not be the Christ since He came from Galilee and since Mic. 5:2 required that He come from Bethlehem in Judea. They perceived another problem in that the Christ had to be of the house and lineage of David, (II Sam. 7:12-16), and seemingly this Jesus of Nazareth did not possess that ancestry.

      When the inspired writers penned the New Testament scriptures, they addressed these questions which made it difficult for the Jews to believe Jesus was the Messiah, or Christ. Matthew (in chp. 2) gave testimony that Jesus had indeed been born in Bethlehem, and in the preceding chapter produced a genealogy linking Jesus to David. Luke (in chp. 3) showed that Jesus also had a second genealogy connecting Him to David, apparently through Mary. Jesus therefore fulfilled all the Old Testament prophetical requirements about where the Christ was to come from. It was necessary that they be met to verify He was the Christ and that His coming had been planned for many centuries.

      The most important matters concerning where Jesus came from, however, were by no means His geographical or genealogical origin. The ultimate answer to the fundamental question is found in Jesus' declaration, "I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world." Except to fulfill prophecy, (certainly an essential matter!), it was irrelevant whether Jesus came from Bethlehem or Beth-horon, or whether He came from the family of David or of Daniel. God could have decreed Beth-horon and Daniel rather than Bethlehem and David, if it had so pleased Him. The matter of ultimate importance is that Jesus came forth from the Father when He entered the world. The power by which Jesus performed His great deeds, and the authority that validated His teaching, were not dependent on Bethlehem being His birthplace or David being His forefather. The requisite power and authority were invested in Him by God when "He came forth from the Father." The real reason people today want to discredit Jesus with some spurious account of a mundane origin is to escape that very power and authority inherent in His words, which define the limitations of beneficial human thought and conduct.