The Return of the Lord in the Book of Acts
The Book of the Acts of the Apostles records the beginning of the Church by the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and how the Gospel witness was given to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the Gentiles.
The first chapter gives the account of the Lord’s ascension. For forty days He had shown Himself alive by many infallible proofs, and spoke to them of the things of the kingdom. At their last meeting, when He was about to be taken up from them, they asked Him a question. “Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” The Jewish hope still dominated their thinking. But what was His answer? He did not reprove them for their carna, expectations, nor did He say that they were mistakenl that another kingdom is coming, and that there will be no kingdom restered to Israel. If He had said this He would have contradicted the testimony of all the prophets in the Old Testament. ‘‘4nd He said unto them, It 1s not for you to know the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power.’ ‘The kingdom will surely be restored to Israel. It will be restored with His return. What He had said before, that the time of His return is known to the Father only, He re-states here. How well it would have been if Christians had heeded these words of our Lord. The attempts to find out the time of His return have always been disastrous and have led to the discrediting of the prophetic Word.
Then He ascended on high. They saw Him kent What a sight it must have been when He was received up into glory: Then a cloud took Him in.
It was not a common cloud, but the shekinah-glorycloud, the garment which He so often used in the theophanies of olden times. The disciples stood there, evidently unable to take their eyes off the spot where He had disappeared. Were they so steadfastly gazing because they expected His return there and then? Two men in white apparel arrested their attention.
They said ‘’ Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which 1s taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). The return in like manner with a cloud, and a literal return to the very spot from which He left, the Mount of Olives, must not be confounded (as it is often done) with the blessed hope. The coming promised here is His visible coming as revealed in the prophets and re-stated by Him in the Synoptics. The words spoken by these two men in white apparel confirm therefore His own words, as well as the prophecies of the Old Testament. It is not the coming for His Saints, but the coming with His Saints. See Zechariah xiv.
We do not find the return of our Lord mentioned in the words spoken by Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, on the day of Pentecost. He witnessed to Christ crucified, buried, risen and ascended, seated at the right hand of God, demonstrated by the presence of the Holy Spirit, who had come from heaven to earth. But the better hope must have been brought to the hearts of all who believed and trusted on Christ. We read ‘’And all that believed were together, and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, as every man had need” (Acts 11:44,45).
They were all Jews. The Jew clings tenaciously to the material things and expects the blessing of God to be expressed in the increase of houses and lands. But here are Jews who gladly give up earthly things. They realized the better hope, the better inheritance, which the Spirit of God reveals more fully in the Epistles.
Chapter 111:19 ‘‘Repent ye therefore, and be converted that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.”” ‘The lame man at the temple gate had been miraculously healed, and Peter delivered to the gathered multitude his second address. After bearing witness to the Person of Christ, that He was delivered by them into the hands of the Gentiles and that they had killed the Prince of life, whom God had raised from the dead, he called upon them to repent. Once more God spoke in mercy to Jerusalem to accept Him as their promised Messiah-King whom they had crucified.
Peter declares that, if they turn to Him and repent of their evil deed, their sins would be blotted out and as a result the times of refreshing would come from the presence of the Lord. Then the important statement is made that He, whom the heavens received, who had gone back to the Father, would be sent again. His coming again will result in the times of refreshing and the restitution of all things as promised by God’s holy prophets. The restitution of all things, or restoration, means the restored kingdom and all the blessings and glories which go along with it, according to the prophetic Word. They did not repent. The offer of mercy was rejected. But when the age ends a remnant of the same people will turn to the Lord and repent, and the promises made unto their fathers by the prophets will be accomplished.
Chapter xv:13-18 “And after they held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared how God at first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets, as it 1s written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which 1s fallen down, and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name 1s called, saith the Lord,who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world,”
This great prophetic utterance was made during the first general church council and contains the important program of God concerning the work of the present age, and what will follow when it ends with the return of the Lord. 1. God visits the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name. This is the great purpose of the present age. The Gospel is preached in all the world and through this preaching and the power of the Holy Spirit the gathering of the Church, the out-called company (the meaning of the Greek word ecclesia) takes place. This work must end some day and the body of Christ is then complete. 2. “After this I will return.” This is the testimony of all the prophets, a second advent. Christ comes back when the purpose of this age is realized, 3. The tabernacle of David will be built again, that is, the throne of David will be established, the kingdom will be restored to Israel. 4. Then all the Gentiles will seek after the Lord. This is world-conversion. The program ignored leads to confusion; the present day condition of Christendom bears witness to it.
Apostolic preaching included the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. We learn this from Paul’s visit to Thessalonica. Paul spent a short time in that city, and preaching the Gospel an assembly was formed. From his first Epistle to the Thessalonians we learn that they waited “‘for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivereth us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10). How could they wait for His return if Paul had not taught them this great Bible doctrine? We also learn from the second Epistle to the same Church that he had taught them orally the coming events in connection with His return. (See 2 Thess. ii:5). When opposition arose against the Thessalonians in their city, the Jews, with the town rabble, accused them that they do “contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another King, even Jesus.” By inference we gather from this that Paul had taught them the coming of the King (Acts xvii:7).
Chapter xvi1:31 “Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.” Paul in speaking thus did not teach a universal judgment at the end of the world, but the setting up of a righteous government, vested in Him whom He raised from the dead.