IT was just like the blessed Lord, that when speaking to His disciples of leaving His own in this world, He should say to their sad hearts, “Let not your heart be troubled.... I will come again.”
They had been with Him from the commencement of His ministry; they had just eaten with Him the last Passover; Judas had received the sop, and had gone out to betray Him, and then the Lord uttered these striking words: “Now is the Son of Man glorified;” words, the meaning of which He alone could then understand. He was looking beyond the things around Him, beyond the darkness and the storm of the awful hour which was approaching, and on to the glory, with which God should glorify Him. He had come down to earth from heaven to accomplish His Father’s will, and foreseeing that will accomplished, He spoke of the glory into which He should enter after its accomplishment―the glory wherewith God should crown Him, and He said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified.”
Now it was when thus speaking of God straightway glorifying Him, that He announced the news of His going away, which made the hearts of His own so sad. Yes, His words conveyed no pleasant tidings to their ears. Jesus distinctly said to them, “Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek Me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say unto you.” They had left all to follow Him; and now He for whom they had left all was Himself about to leave them. Yet they seemed not fully to understand Him. The Lord addressed them as “little children.” Full well He knew the weakness of each one of that little company. But if they understood Him not, they loved Him indeed; and the loving zeal of one had led him to say, “Lord, I will lay down my life for Thy sake.” They knew not their own weakness, nor comprehended the solemn moment fast approaching when the strength of each of them would be tested, and each would learn for himself his feebleness.
If the disciples failed to understand what the Lord’s going away would be to them, and if the thought of His going away led them to despond, the Lord would stay them upon Himself, saying, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.” And further, He gave them words which have filled and still fill the hearts of multitudes with gladness: “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; I go to prepare a place for you. And 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.”
Blessed, beautiful promise! Consoling, comforting hope of God’s suffering people!
Received in simple faith, these words raise the heart above the darkest earthly prospects, and the hope they bring before us loosens the tongue to sing of His unfathomable love.
“I will come again, and receive you unto Myself!” O suffering, desponding, sorrowing people of God, let the glorious words of the all-sufficient Christ, like the fresh, cooling rain on the withering grass, refresh your drooping hearts! “I will come.” Consider His “I will,” and melody shall be made in your hearts unto Him.
When the Lord told His disciples He was going away, Peter, with zeal not according to knowledge, said, “Lord, why cannot I follow Thee now?” But the great work of salvation had not been accomplished then.
He had not then made a way of life for His people through death-a way right up to glory, and how could any follow Him until He had opened the way? Now the gracious work is done, and God has raised the Accomplisher of the work from the dead, and has thereby declared His unbounded satisfaction in what His Son has wrought.
The risen Christ was seen on earth of His disciples forty days. At the end of that time He led His disciples out from Jerusalem as far as to Bethany, and while in the act of blessing them, He was parted from them, and was carried up into heaven, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. As they adoringly gazed on Him ascending higher and higher to the heavens, surely each heart beat with mingled feelings of rapture and of sorrow. They stood beholding the wondrous sight, the like of which none had ever witnessed before. They steadfastly beheld the ascending Saviour, and still stood gazing into heaven, when two men in white apparel came and stood near them, who also said, “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.” (Acts 1:1111Which also said, 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. (Acts 1:11)) Having seen Him carried up into heaven, and being told that this same Jesus would come in like manner, the disciples “worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God.” (Luke 24:52, 5352And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: 53And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen. (Luke 24:52‑53).)
Dear Christian reader, you too are looking for the coming of this “same Jesus.” He is coming to receive you unto Himself. Are you living in expectation of meeting Him? Is it the great source of joy to your heart that this same blessed Jesus is so soon to come again? The same Jesus in whom all your eternal welfare is centered; the same Jesus who was wounded for your transgressions, and was bruised for your iniquities, and was forsaken of God for you; the same Jesus who died, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God; enduring untold agony and shame, and who suffered for you the unmingled judgment of God. Does not your heart hear Him say to you, “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself?” It is His own beautiful promise, and soon, oh, how soon, He will fulfill it.
Think of the purpose of His coming for you. Seek to enter into the deep love of His heart, as He says, “That where I am there ye may be also.” And where is He? In the glory of God and with the Father. There He would have you also, along with Himself. Think of the object of His heart! Hear His words: “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me.” Nothing short of this will satisfy His heart of love! The Lord Jesus is looking on to that moment when He shall “descend from heaven,” and when all His own shall “meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Thess. 4:16, 1716For 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: 17Then 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. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17).) W. M.