80 - I’m Coming Back

For the past few years these eleven men had been students. They had been listening, watching, helping and at times doing, but everything centered on Jesus. He preached, He healed, He cast out demons, He prayed, and He led them from place to place. So it was almost impossible for them to think that the kind of ministry that He had been doing could continue in any real way. And how sorry they must have felt to see it all come to an end. So many people had been so wonderfully helped, so many smiles and happy tears as healed children were handed back to their parents, or tormented minds found peace. Yes, there had been lots of opposition, but there had also been lots of breakthrough. Many people had come to love Him. Roadsides, hillsides, backyards, synagogues and even the temple courtyards had been filled with people whenever He was present. How sad that He would be leaving. How intolerable a future without Him must have seemed, and their despair must have been obvious that evening. To comfort them Jesus said, “I will not leave you orphans; I am coming to you. Yet a little [while] and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you will also live. In that day you will know that I [am] in the Father and you in Me and I in you” (literal).

Then a few moments later He said this, “Do not let your heart be troubled (shaken) or let it be fearful (terrified). You heard that I told you, ‘I depart and I come to you’” (literal) (Jn 14:28).

He was telling them not to be sorrowful, because He was coming back. He would be gone for a short while during which they would see Him on occasion by encountering Him in His resurrection body. Then, after ascending into heaven He would return, and an entire new era in God’s plan of salvation would begin. He said if they understood what He was telling them they would actually be glad to see Him ascend to the Father because after that the Father would initiate a far greater season of ministry. And this time, they would be the ones doing the wonderful works He had been doing. Just as He had been in the Father and the Father in Him (v11), now they would be in Him (Jesus), and He would be in them. The relationship they had observed between Him and the Father would soon happen in exactly the same way between Him and them. They would submit to, depend on and represent His heart and character just as He had submitted to, depended on and represented the heart and character of the Father. He would guide, empower and reveal Himself to the world through them just as the Father had guided, empowered and revealed Himself to the world through His Son. And, Jesus said, as this new dimension of ministry took place, He would remain in the Father, meaning He would continue to submit to, depend on and perfectly represent the Father.

Their years together had been wonderful, and they had reached many people. But the great harvest of souls had not yet begun. It could not begin until He finished what He came to do. Then after His death and resurrection He would leave for a short time, but very soon after that they would be filled with the Holy Spirit, and He would come back to lead them, and He would take them to the very ends of the earth (Ac 1:8). If they could just understand what He was saying, their sadness would turn to joy. So will ours!