We are told how he is going to come. When those disciples stood looking
up into heaven at the time of his ascension, there appeared two angels,
who said Acts 1:11: "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 did he go
up? He took his flesh and bones up with him. "Look at me; handle me;
give me something to eat; a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me
have; I am the identical one whom they crucified and laid in the grave.
Now I am risen from the dead and am going up to heaven," Luke 24:39,43.
He is gone, say the angels, but he will come again just as he went. An
angel was sent to announce his birth of the virgin; angels sang of his
advent in Bethlehem; an angel told the women of his resurrection; and
two angels told the disciples of his coming again. It is the same
testimony in all these cases.
I do not know why people should not like to read the Bible, and find out
all about this precious doctrine of our Lord's return. Some have gone
beyond prophecy, and tried to tell the very day he would come. Perhaps
that is one reason why people do not believe this doctrine. He is
coming, we know that; but just when he is coming we do not know; Matt.
24:36, settles that. The angels do not know; and Christ says that even
he does not know, but that is something the Father keeps to himself. If
Christ had said: "I will not come back for 2,000 years," none of his
disciples would have begun to watch for him, but it is the proper
attitude of a Christian to be always looking for his Lord's return. So
God does not tell us just when he is to come, but Christ tells us to
watch. In this same chapter we find that he is to come unexpectedly and
suddenly. In the twenty-seventh verse we have these words: "For as the
lightning cometh out of the east and shineth unto the west, even so
shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." And again in the
forty-fourth verse: "Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as
ye think not the Son of Man cometh."
Some people say that means death: but the Word of God does not say it
means death. Death is our enemy, but our Lord hath the keys of death; he
has conquered death, hell, and the grave, and at any moment he may come
to set us free from death, and destroy our last enemy for us; so the
proper state for a believer in Christ is waiting and watching for our
Lord's return.
In the last chapter of John there is a text that seems to settle this
matter. Peter asks the question about John: "Lord what shall this man
do? Jesus said unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is
that to thee? Follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad among the
brethren that that disciple should not die." They did not think that the
coming of the Lord meant death; there was a great difference between
these two things in their minds.