The sixth and final book of my series Lessons Learned In The Wilderness releases this week. It is an important mile marker for me in my spiritual journey. This week marks the 16th anniversary of the day the Lord confirmed His direction to me to begin writing the first book in the series.
At the time, we had just begun a journey of faith into the unknown. As i reflect over the sixteen years since this journey began – and the 366 chapters that comprise the complete series (6 books, 61 chapters each) – i am again reminded of the faithfulness of our God. Each one of these chapters is one of the many lessons He taught us along the way. They are lessons about His goodness, His grace, His mercy, His steadfastness, His love, His provision, and so much more.
This book – Until He Returns – looks at the journey of those first century followers of Jesus as seen through the Book of Acts. i am mindful that Acts begins with a group of one hundred twenty men and women gathered around Jesus to say farewell as He ascends into heaven. They were embarking on their own journey into the unknown. They knew what it meant to walk with Jesus – but now they were supposed to continue on – even though He would no longer be there with them physically.
Before He ascended to the Father, Jesus had explained on multiple occasions that He needed to return to His Father in heaven. He needed to return in order to “prepare a place” in His Father’s home for all of His followers (John 14:2). He would be preparing that place by accomplishing His purposes in and through His bride – the Church. He needed to return so that He could send His Holy Spirit to empower and enable His followers in all things (John 14:16-17). And He needed to return to make intercession on their/our behalf to the Father as their/our interceding High Priest (John 14:12-14). His followers knew that the day of His departure had arrived.
i would venture that the one hundred twenty believers (Acts 1:15) who had gathered on the mount that day to “see Jesus off” were sad. They didn’t know when they would see Him again, and they would miss Him. i would also venture they were frightened. For the last three years, many of His followers had been with Him most every day. He was always there to turn to with their question. He was their Teacher. He was the Miracle Worker. And though He had sent seventy-two of them out on their own on one occasion (Luke 10:1-24), they still returned to Jesus when their assignment was completed. They knew He had told them that He would send His Holy Spirit as a Helper and a Guide, but they had not yet experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit – they had experienced the presence of Jesus. Thus, with hearts of sadness and uncertainty, they had gathered around Jesus to say farewell.
You may have a similar tradition in your home as my wife and i do in ours. Whenever family and guests are departing from our home, we go outside and stand at the end of the driveway or on our front porch to wave goodbye and see them off until they are out of sight. That’s what His followers were doing that day.
As they stood there, He didn’t disappear as He had done on several occasions. Rather, He was “taken up into a cloud”. Thirty-three years earlier Jesus had arrived on this earth humbly, as He was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in an animal’s feeding trough. But today as He began to ascend into the Father’s presence in heaven, He was wrapped in the Shekinah glory cloud. You may recall that was the cloud – the cloud of God’s presence and glory – that led the Israelites through the wilderness (Exodus 13:21-22). And it was that cloud that filled the tabernacle with the “awesome glory of the Lord” (Exodus 30:34-38). Jesus was enveloped by the glory of God, because Jesus is the reflection of God’s glory (Isaiah 60:1-3). The disciples had always been witnessing the glory of God whenever they looked upon Jesus, but as they looked upon the ascending Jesus, they saw Him now “clothed” in the glory of God.
Jesus didn’t “vanish” as He had on the other recent occasions following His resurrection; rather, He ascended until they could no longer see Him. Having grown up in Southeast Florida, i can remember standing outside on clear days watching the launch of the various spacecraft. We would stand there straining to see the spacecraft as it grew smaller and smaller, and the vapor trail began to disappear. We would stare until there was nothing more to see. That’s what the disciples were doing that day – they were straining to get the last glimpse they could possibly get of Jesus.
Luke records that suddenly two “white-robed men” were standing there with them. Remember, it wasn’t just a handful of people; there were over one hundred people. Two people can slip into a crowd that size and not be immediately noticed, but these guys were apparently pretty easy to spot. Luke is careful to write that they were “men”; he doesn’t say “angels”. Luke had very specifically said that “angels” announced Jesus’ birth to the shepherds (Luke 2:8-15). The appearance of angels frightened the shepherds, but Luke does not record that the group was frightened by the appearance of these two men. Dwight L. Moody contended that the two men were Moses and Elijah, who would have been familiar faces to at least Peter, James and John from the day they accompanied Jesus to the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9:30-31). But regardless of who they were, they were heavenly messengers who the Father had sent to assure, encourage and challenge those who were staring off into heaven. The message was clear: “someday He will return from heaven in the same way you saw Him go!” (Acts 1:11).
He will return in the same way – enveloped in the glory of God. He will not return this time as a humble baby in a stable, He will return as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He will return to establish His Kingdom once and for all. And He will return to the exact same place. The prophet Zechariah writes, “On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem” (Zechariah 14:4).
When will He return? “Someday.” And i would add – that day continues to draw closer! The Father has determined the day, and as Jesus told His disciples just before He ascended, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know” (Acts 1:7). We don’t know the “when”, but we know the “how”. He will return in the exact same way as they saw Him go. And we know the “where”. He will return to the exact same place from which they saw Him depart. And we know the “why”. He will return to judge His creation and establish His Kingdom. Therefore, in the meantime, we must be about His purpose and His mission – until that day – the day He returns.
Wherever we are in our journey – whatever circumstance we are walking through today – the Master has given us a purpose. He has given us a mission. He will return. i pray He finds each of us faithful in His mission until He returns!
Excerpt from Until He Returns, Ch. 1
Copyright © 2020 Kenneth A. Winter All rights reserved.
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