The blessed Lord gave His disciples nothing to look forward to in the way of progress on earth. On the contrary, He set His coming again for them, to take them out of the world to the Father's house, as the true expectation of their hearts.
“I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." John 14:33And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:3). The glorious prospect He gave His disciples was Himself coming again for them that they might be with Him where He is. And most glorious it is, for nothing short of this and nothing but this could satisfy their hearts.
This was not, however, a characteristic of Judaism, for Israel being an earthly people, called with an earthly calling, they were encouraged with expectations of blessing on the earth. In Christianity, connected as it is with Christ as rejected by the world and welcomed to the right hand of God in glory, the Holy Spirit is sent down. It is not to establish a religious system and a people in the world, but to connect believers with Christ in heaven, and so rescuing them from this present evil world. They are not of it even as He was not of the world. We, therefore, serve Christ in it as those who expect Him to come from heaven at any time to take us bodily out of it, and so be forever with the Lord.
We are not, then, to marvel if the world hate us, or think it strange if our path is one of suffering and reproach for the precious name of the Lord Jesus. But having Him who is now in heaven, in His exercise of living ministry and constant care over us, to look to and trust, the Holy Spirit down here in us to comfort us, and the hope of our Lord's coming for us, we are to show forth our love to Him by keeping His Word. Young Christian