JESUS IS COMING? ARE YOU READY?

By Ada Brownell

Centuries before “Beam me up Scotty” became a common phrase from the television sci-fi show Star Trek, a well-known person stood on a mountain in Israel and went up through the clouds and out of sight. No space ship, no airplane, no parachute, no rockets, no fuel. Just a blue sky and a few white clouds. Not even a huge eagle taking on passengers.

The event was witnessed by a crowd of spectators, who craned their necks until he was out of sight. Mouths dropped open, hands shaded their eyes as they stared. Some stood on tiptoes. Others ran on the dirt road surrounding the peak and tried to see higher into the blue sky.

A few young men swiftly tucked their robes around their legs and tried to climb up on a boulder, but two huge figures dressed in white stood in their way.

Chatter died down. Women wept, and a few tears tricked into the beards of men.

Everybody knew the Roman government voted for the death penalty after the Sanhedrin, the highest court in ancient Jerusalem, carried out the sentence. After all, he claimed to be the Son of God.

Then in three days witnesses said he was alive. The guards at the tomb reported his bloody body stolen by his disciples. But how could they do that with so many soldiers guarding the tomb? If there was a body why didn’t someone find it?

Reports kept coming in that people had seen him alive, talked to him, and even though he performed miracles, some didn’t believe. While eating with his disciples, he vanished from their sight (Luke 24:31). He appeared to them in a closed room with the door shut (Luke 24:36-40).

For forty days he taught about the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3), and showed them by many infallible truths that he was alive.

 “But how did he go up like that?” a loud voice demanded.

The crowd shoved their way toward the two men dressed in white. Shoulders wide and strong, the huge creatures stood their ground. “Silence!”

Immediately you could have heard an olive leaf drop.

“Men of Galilee, why do you stand here gazing into heaven?” one of them said, while the other kept the people back. “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11 KJ).

The creatures in white disappeared, and Peter moved to where they stood.   “We have a command from the Lord. Let’s go into Jerusalem like Jesus said and pray and tarry for the Holy Spirit!” Peter shouted.

“Yes!” John answered. “He said not to leave Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father.”

Jesus had been teaching them that God had something special for them. “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

A dunking in the Holy Spirit? What would that be like? But they thought he was going to establish his kingdom.

He had said, ‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”

That was when gravity let loose of him. His scarred feet with bare toes wiggled in his sandals, and he started going up. The crowd watched in awe, but he disappeared before their eyes.

No matter how long they stared at the sky and the place on Mount Olivet where their Lord had stood, he was gone.

“He’ll come again,” someone said. “The angel—or whoever he was—promised.”

Amazed people walked around and stared up at the sky from a different angle. They touched the ground where he stood and somebody pointed out his footprints.

“We may as well go home,” one of the women complained, but then a man stood on a rock before the grumbling crowd.

“Jesus said not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father.”

“Wait?” a shrill voice inquired.

When the sweaty group arrived in the city, about one hundred and twenty people remained. They likely had five hundred people who saw him go into the clouds because 1 Corinthians 15:6 says Jesus was seen by up to five hundred brethren at once. It could have been more, counting the women and children. In those days they usually counted only the men, but some evidently went home instead of going into Jerusalem. Yet Acts 2 mentions women. Mary, the mother of Jesus was there with his brothers.

They named Peter, James, John and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the zealot, and Judas, the son of James.

By now they had a noisy crowd in the upper room. They waited, and then began to pray.

Whispers echoed. “He said he’s coming back!”

“How can that be?” a loud whisper filtered from ear to ear. “The man clothed in white said Jesus would come back like we saw him go.”

Similar to a family at the airport today, whose relative hasn’t arrived despite waiting and watching, Christians have studied the Bible and tried to figure out exactly when the Lord will appear in the skies, ready to pick us up.

Some think the flight is on a schedule and they can figure out when they depart for heaven. Their faith is built on many scriptures such as 1 Thessalonians 4: 14—18 KJ.  ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 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:  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.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

“How can that be?” a loud whisper filtered from ear to ear. “The man clothed in white said Jesus would come back like we saw him go.”

Similar to a family at the airport whose relative hasn’t arrived despite waiting and watching, Christians have studied the Bible and tried to figure out exactly when the Lord will appear in the skies, ready to pick us up.

Some think the flight is on a schedule and they can figure out when they depart for heaven. Their faith is built on many scriptures such as 1 Thessalonians 4: 14—18 KJ.  ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 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:  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.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

NEXT : How do we get ready for His coming?  

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