And while they were looking stedfastly into heaven as He went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
Who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven?
This Jesus, Who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven.
Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord;
And that He may send the Christ Who hath been appointed for you, even Jesus:
Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, whereof God spake by the mouth of His holy prophets that have been from of old.
We have been considering together these days the life of our Lord Jesus, because our faith is centered upon a Person. Our faith is not based upon a teaching, system, or form. It is based on a living Person—the living Christ Jesus.
The Scripture says that to know Him, and to know the One Who has sent Him, is eternal life. It is to know Him. And that is eternal life. It is not to know a teaching about Him, but to know Him Himself.
It is not a mental assent of Who He is. It is living faith in a living Person. Our Christian life, actually, is a life relationship with a Person. It is a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.
That is the reason why it is so important that we know Him. We know that the Apostle Paul had only one passion, and that was to know Him—to know Christ. May this passion be our passion. All we want is to know Christ Jesus, to know Him in a living way, and to have a living relationship with Him.
That is what Christian life really is. Now, in the past, we have gone through some of the life of our Lord Jesus. If you still remember, last time when I was here, we fellowshiped together on the resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus.
So this time, God willing, we will be sharing together on His coming again.
We know that our Lord Jesus came into this world two thousand years ago. The Word became flesh and dwelt among men, full of grace and truth. He lived on this earth about thirty-three years, and then He was crucified on the cross.
We know that He bore our sins in His own body on that tree. Before He died, He shouted, “It is finished.” The work of redemption is finished. Then He gave His spirit to His Father. He was buried, and on the third day He was raised from the dead. He appeared to His disciples for about forty days.
Then He ascended. While He was ascending up to heaven, His disciples saw Him going up. They were all looking after Him. Then a cloud took Him away. They could not see Him anymore, and yet they were still gazing upward.
Suddenly, two men in white appeared to them and said, “Men of Galilee, why are you looking up? This One Who is taken up will come again in like manner.”
So here you find that our Lord Jesus was taken up to heaven. One day He will come back to this earth again. This is our blessed hope.
The life of our Lord Jesus will not be complete if He does not come back again. He came into this world, and He accomplished the work of redemption. Now He is sitting at the right hand of His Father. What is He doing today?
Based upon the finished work of redemption, He is bringing about the restoration of all things. His work is to restore all things back to His Father. When this work of restoration is done, then He will come back upon this earth.
You remember in Acts 3, Peter tells us, “Repent and be converted for the blotting out of your sins, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”
If we repent and are converted, then we receive the remission of our sins, and we experience times of refreshing from the Lord. But that is not all.
God may send Jesus Christ, Who was foreordained for you, Whom heaven indeed must receive until the times of restoring all things, of which God has spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets since time began.
Not only will times of refreshing come from God upon us, but God has also promised us that heaven will receive Jesus Christ until the time of restoring all things. Then He will come back.
We know that today He is in the process of restoring all things. If you read the book of Revelation, you will find that as our Lord Jesus ascended on high, He received from the hands of His Father the scroll, which is the title deed of the universe.
Then He began to open the seals. That is to say, He is executing the will of the Father based upon His finished work on the cross. He is the only One worthy and able to execute His Father’s will, to bring all things back to Himself.
Ephesians 1 tells us that God will sum up all things in Christ, bringing everything into subjection to God. That is what the Lord is doing today.
Heaven will receive Him until the time of restoring all things has come. Then Christ will come back, and He will rule and reign upon this earth.
Brothers and sisters, what is the blessed hope of the church? The blessed hope of the church is the coming again of our Lord Jesus.
For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
Instructing us, to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world;
Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a people for His own possession, zealous of good works.
In verse 11, Paul tells us that the grace of God has come upon us in salvation. Verse 12 tells us how we should live in this present time because of what He has done for us.
Verse 13 tells us how we should look forward, waiting for our blessed hope. That is the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, we are all here waiting for the return of our Lord Jesus. This is the blessed hope of the church.
We know from Scripture that our Lord Jesus comes upon this earth twice. There are two comings of our Lord Jesus.
Two thousand years ago, He came as the Lamb of God. He came in humility. He came in disguise, as it were. Even though He was God, yet He took upon Himself a human body. His glory was hidden within Him.
He lived upon this earth for thirty-three years. He came to be the Lamb of God, to bear our sins, that we may be atoned for and redeemed. That is how He came the first time.
But the second time, He will come as the Lion of Judah. He will come as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He will come to inherit the inheritance that the Father has given to Him, because He is to be the Heir of all things.
Two thousand years ago He came, and we know that He will come again.
There are many, many prophecies concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus. In Old Testament times, the prophets, as they were moved by the Spirit of God, prophesied concerning the coming of the Messiah.
In their prophecies, they prophesied a suffering Messiah, but they also prophesied a glorified Messiah. They did not understand how the Messiah could be a suffering One as well as a glorious One.
Not only did the prophets themselves fail to understand; the nation of Israel did not understand. There were even interpretations saying that there would be two Messiahs: a suffering Messiah and a glorious Messiah.
They did not understand because there is a mystery in between. Between the first coming of the Messiah and the second coming of the Messiah, there is a mystery that had never been revealed to anyone.
But now God has revealed by His Spirit to the apostles and prophets the mystery that had been hidden through the ages. What is the mystery? The mystery is the church.
In other words, between the first coming and the second coming is the period of the church. When Christ came the first time, He came as a suffering Messiah in order to accomplish the work of salvation. But at His second coming, He will come in glory.
There are not two Messiahs. There is only one Messiah. But His first coming was to suffer, and His second coming is for glory. In between is the dispensation of the church.
Dear brothers and sisters, today when we read the prophecies, we know what they are all about.
We cannot go through the whole Bible and illustrate all the prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah. But when you read the Old Testament, you find many prophecies concerning Him.
Some were fulfilled at His first coming, and others are to be fulfilled at His second coming. There are also prophecies that were partially fulfilled at His first coming and will be completed at His second coming.
Let us illustrate a few. Turn to Numbers 24. We know that Balaam was a Gentile prophet. He was not a very good prophet, because he loved money. He wanted to prophesy for money, and yet God overruled him.
As a matter of fact, Balaam’s prophecies are considered among the greatest prophecies in the Old Testament.
I see Him, but not now:
I behold Him, but not nigh:
There shall come forth a star out of Jacob,
And a sceptre shall rise out of Israel,
And shall smite through the corners of Moab,
And break down all the sons of tumult.
Balaam prophesied this while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, before they entered into the promised land. There you find the Spirit of God controlling this wicked prophet and forcing him to prophesy what God wanted him to say.
He said, “I shall see Him, but not now. I shall behold Him, but not nigh.” The “Him” here points to the Messiah. The Messiah would not be born until fifteen hundred years later.
Then he said, “There shall come forth a star out of Jacob.” Of course, you remember that when our Lord Jesus was born, there was a star. It was because of that star that the Magi, the wise men from the East, came to worship Him.
“And a sceptre shall rise out of Israel.” The star is related to the sceptre. That is the reason why the wise men said, “The King of the Jews has been born.”
But Balaam also said that He would destroy all the enemies. This did not happen at the first coming of Christ, but we know that at His second coming this will be completed. All the enemies will be destroyed, and He will establish His kingdom upon this earth.
Let us turn to Isaiah 9. This is another great prophecy concerning the Messiah.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given;
And the government shall be upon His shoulder:
And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and of peace there shall be no end,
Upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom,
To establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness
From henceforth even for ever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
Again, this prophecy was only partially fulfilled when Christ was born. A child was born—but Who is this child? The child is the Son Who is given. He is the Son of God, Who came into this world and was born as a child.
Yet, in the mind of God, the government is upon His shoulder. He is the King of the Jews. He was born King. He is the King of the universe.
His government shall increase and know no end. He will sit upon the throne of David, and He will uphold His government with justice and righteousness.
Now, we know this has not been fulfilled yet, but we believe that it will be fulfilled. This prophecy was only partially fulfilled at His first coming, but it will be fully fulfilled at His second coming.
Let us turn to another prophecy, in the last book of the Old Testament: Malachi 3:1-2.
Behold, I send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me:
And the Lord, Whom ye seek, will suddenly come to His temple;
And the messenger of the covenant, Whom ye desire, behold, He cometh, saith the Lord of hosts.
But who may abide the day of His coming?
And who shall stand when He appeareth?
For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap.
Again, these two verses were only partially fulfilled at the first coming of our Lord, because John the Baptist was sent before Him as a messenger to prepare the way of the Lord.
But they rejected John the Baptist, and they also rejected the Messiah. Therefore, this prophecy was only partially fulfilled. It will be fully fulfilled at the second coming of our Lord Jesus.
When we turn to the New Testament, we are told that the coming of the Lord—that is, the second coming of the Lord—is one of the major subjects in New Testament prophetic truth.
One out of every twenty-five verses in the New Testament refers either to the rapture of the church or to the coming of the Lord to establish His kingdom. The New Testament is full of the second coming of our Lord.
The Lord Himself mentioned it many times. When He went into Jerusalem for the last time, He saw Jerusalem and wept over that city.
He said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. And ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
The Lord Jesus prophesied that He was rejected by the nation of Israel, but one day they will say, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” They shall see Him again.
Our Lord Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. When He left the temple and went with His disciples to the Mount of Olives, the disciples turned back and pointed out the temple to Him. They said, “Look, how wonderful is this temple, adorned with beautiful stones.”
But the Lord said that one day not one stone would be left upon another. The disciples were astonished.
When the Lord came to the Mount of Olives, His disciples came quietly to Him and asked, “When shall these things be? What is the sign of Your coming and of the completion of the age?”
Our Lord Jesus began to share with them. He said, “As the days of Noah were, so shall be the days of the coming of the Son of Man.” He prophesied that He would come back again.
The disciples, like the Jews at that time, were expecting our Lord Jesus to establish His kingdom immediately. When our Lord was going to Jerusalem, they thought that He was going there to establish His kingdom.
The Lord gave many parables. In one parable, He spoke of a nobleman going away into a far country to receive a kingdom, but one day he would return. The disciples did not understand that He was telling them that He would come back again.
When He was judged by the high priest, He said, “Ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” Again, the Lord Jesus Himself told us that He is coming back.
Here in Acts 1, as He was taken up to heaven, the disciples were told that the One Who had gone up would come back in like manner.
Dear brothers and sisters, we have the word of prophecy made sure. We have the promise of our Lord Himself that He is coming back. This is what we are all looking forward to.
Now the question is: How will He come back?
In Acts 1:10-11, it is said that the way He went will be the same way He comes back again. It is in the same manner that the Lord will come.
How was He taken up? You remember that He assembled His disciples on the Mount of Olives. Then He began to ascend from the Mount of Olives. They all saw Him going up, and then suddenly a cloud took Him. They could not see Him anymore, but they were still looking up.
In other words, the way He went involved two stages. The first stage was from the Mount of Olives to the cloud. It was visible. The second stage was from the cloud to the throne. It was invisible.
We know that He arrived in heaven because, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was given. That was the proof that He had arrived in heaven. In Revelation 5, we have a view of the reception of the Lord in glory.
That is the way He was taken up. Dear brothers and sisters, He will come back: first, from the throne to the cloud, invisibly; then, from the cloud to the Mount of Olives, visibly.
From the throne to the cloud, His coming will be invisible because He comes like a thief. A thief does not blow a trumpet and announce, “I am coming.” He comes when people are not ready.
The Lord’s coming will be like a thief. He will come suddenly, and He will be gone—but the treasure will already have been taken.
A thief comes into your home and knows where your treasure is hidden. Before you realize it, he is gone. The Lord’s coming is like a thief: He will come and take away the treasure.
But from the cloud to the Mount of Olives, every eye will see Him. He will come like lightning from the east to the west.
Our Lord Jesus said that people may say, “Christ is here,” or, “Christ is there. Christ is in the closet,” or, “Christ is in the wilderness.” But He said, “Do not listen to that.”
When Christ comes, He will come like lightning. Everybody will see it. Brothers and sisters, is that not wonderful?
“What is the sign of Your coming and of the completion of the age?” The word “coming” there in Greek is parousia.
Parousia means presence. Today, the Lord is present in the Spirit, but He is absent physically because He is in heaven. But one day He will be present.
Those who know Greek and know the Bible tell us that parousia refers to a period of time, including a series of events.
Today we tend to think of the coming of the Lord as one event—the appearing of the Lord, when everyone sees Him. But we have to remember that parousia is a period of time, and it includes a series of events.
It begins with the Lord coming from the throne to the cloud, and it ends with His coming from the cloud to the Mount of Olives. That is the coming of the Lord.
It begins with the rapture of the church and ends with the battle of Armageddon. That is the parousia of the Lord.
You remember our Lord Jesus said that as the days of Noah were, so shall be the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field, two women grinding at the mill, and others sleeping. Suddenly, one is taken and one is left.
Now, brothers and sisters, who are these two? Why only two men and two women? Because the earth is round. When the Lord comes, in some places it will be early morning, so women will be grinding. In another place it will be noon, so people will be working in the field. In another place on the earth, people will be sleeping.
Who are these two? They are Christians, believers, true believers, who are living at the time of the Lord’s coming. Two is the number of witness and testimony. “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” That is the church.
Why only two? We know that twelve is the complete number. But when you read on, you find ten virgins: five foolish and five wise. Just as one is taken and one is left, the virgins represent believers who have already fallen asleep—that is, those who died before Christ’s return.
Through the centuries, many believers have died. They are represented by the ten virgins, the five foolish and the five wise. Then you find the two who are still living at the coming of the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, perhaps we are among the two, because our Lord is coming soon. One is taken and one is left.
Who is taken, and who is left? The Lord comes like a thief. He comes to take away treasure. Do you think He will take away garbage? Do you think He will take those who are unready for Him—those who still love the world and who do not deny themselves, take up the cross, and follow Him?
Of course not. Among the believers, He will take those who are ready for Him—those who are ready every day for Him. But others say, “Well, He will not come,” like the wicked servant. Therefore, they drink and beat their fellow servants. Then suddenly the Lord returns.
Brothers and sisters, all the prophecies that must be fulfilled before His coming have been fulfilled. There are still prophecies that will not be fulfilled until His coming, and there are prophecies that will be fulfilled after His coming. But all the prophecies we know that must be fulfilled before His coming have been fulfilled.
When He is present at first, He will come as a thief. The one who is ready will be taken; the one who is not ready will be left behind.
This is the first rapture. Throughout the whole world, many Christians will disappear at the beginning of the coming of the Lord.
Read Revelation 12. When the man child is born, immediately he is taken up to the throne. This is collective. They are the overcomers of the church.
They will go through the air. The air today is where Satan has his headquarters. But the man child first passes through the headquarters of Satan and comes straight to the throne, to prepare the way for the Lord from the throne to the cloud.
After this happens, there will be war in heaven. Michael and his angels will fight against Satan and his angels. Satan will be thrown from the air down to the earth, and Christ will come from the throne to the air.
What will happen on earth? There will be the great tribulation—three and a half years of great tribulation.
If you read Revelation 14, you will find that one hundred forty-four thousand are already on Mount Zion in heaven. They represent the overcomers of the church. They are already with the Lamb. They have already been raptured because they are the firstfruits.
The firstfruits are first cut and presented in the temple. But then you find One sitting on the cloud with a golden crown, and a voice says, “The harvest is ready.” So He throws the sickle and harvests the earth.
These are the ones who were left behind. Through tribulation, they also become mature and ripe. They will be harvested to the air, to the cloud.
This is what is described in 1 Thessalonians 4. All who are dead in Christ will be raised, and those who are alive and remain on earth will be changed. They will all be raptured to meet the Lord.
There, you find the judgment seat of Christ. There will be a family judgment. All believers, as the family of God, will be before the Lord, and He will judge us according to our deeds, giving every reward accordingly.
While this is going on, upon the earth there will be the wrath of God. The judgment of God will be poured out.
When the judgment seat of Christ is finished, He will come with those who are called, chosen, and faithful.
He will come, and His feet will touch the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives will be broken into two. Scientists have already discovered a line in the Mount of Olives. If there is an earthquake, the Mount of Olives will be divided into two.
The Lord will come to save Israel, and there will be the battle of Armageddon. Satan will be bound. The false prophet and the antichrist will be thrown into the lake of fire.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord will establish His kingdom upon this earth, and peace shall reign upon this earth. This is the restoring of all things.
Brothers and sisters, we know that He is coming. How should we be ready before Him, waiting for His return? This is our blessed hope.
When the whole world is trembling with fear, lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.