And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which 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 1:7-11).

It is the dawn of a new age for the followers of Christ, the transition into a new dispensation. Just completed, in the heroic life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, is the age of the Messiah. The Son of God has come and lived and died in exact accordance with Bible prophecy, doing only that which was appointed to Him by the Father.

The Star out of Jacob has fed His flock like a Shepherd, carrying the young lambs in His bosom. He has spent His life binding up the brokenhearted, proclaiming liberty to the captives, and opening the prisons of the bound. He has loosed the bands of wickedness and undone the heavy burdens of the oppressed. Faithful to His calling all the way to Calvary, He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. The first Advent has been a smashing success (Num. 24:17; Isa. 40:11; 61:1; 53:5)!

Jesus has accomplished His mission to save the world, and now, with His companions looking on, He returns to the Father who sent Him. He has already spoken His last words with their hearts pounding so loud you can hear them, and now as He raises His hands in final blessing, Jesus slowly mounts the air. They did not see Him rise from the tomb, but the disciples behold Him now, and an awesome silence prevails as they stretch their necks and stand on their toes, straining to embrace Him to the very last.

The One who changed their lives forever is taken from them in the providence of God. But in His departure a dual promise is given upon which their hopes can stand. It is not a promise for the 11 only, but for all believers in every generation. It is a dual promise: It is the promise of the Holy Spirit and the promise of the second coming of Christ. Jesus is not gone forever; His Spirit abides with us here and now. Jesus is not gone forever; He will come again in power and great glory! Jesus is coming again!

How thrilling it must have been to be a Christian in the first century, to live in the age of the apostles. What an honor to know the original 12, to hear their sermons, read their letters, witness their miracles, and to have beating primally in your breast the fervent hope of the soon return of the Lord. All Christians were Adventists in the original church. The hope of the Second Coming was the fire that ignited every soul!

There was no dispute, in the beginning, over whether the coming would be literal or figurative. There was no dispensationalist controversy, and no debate over how the world would end, whether by some cosmic catastrophe or some nuclear accident. Still alive in the original church were those who had heard the teachings of Jesus from His own lips, who had eaten miracle bread from His own hands, who had had their eyes opened and their ears unstopped by the word of His power, who had seen demons tremble and run for cover at the sound of His name!

Still testifying from town to town were those who heard firsthand heaven’s promise: “He will come as you have seen Him go.”

Notice the careful precision of language in the angel’s announcement. It is specific in an intentional way. The two men dressed in white refer to the manner of Christ’s return by noting the manner of His departure. Here is why it is important that the disciples saw Him go: the second Advent is based on the Ascension.

If His going was to heaven, then His coming back will be from heaven: “For 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” (1 Thess. 4:16).

If He was caught up in the clouds, then He must return in the clouds: “Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not” (Matt. 24:26).

If all the disciples saw Him leave, then every eye will see Him return: “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (verse 27).

It will be just as He said. It is the word of God that is at stake, and He cannot lie; Jesus is coming again!

Here is the teaching we have faithfully preached for more than150 years, the Millerite disappointment notwithstanding. This aspect of the promise has been our occupation and the meaning of our name, Seventh-day Adventist—but it is not all the angels had to say. Together with the statement on the manner of Christ’s coming is a statement of identity. The angels said “this same Jesus,” and there is meaning in these words as well.

The Same Jesus
All of our focus has been on the event of the Parousia itself and on its ominous signs. But false Christs and false prophets are not the only dangers of the last days. There is another danger more threatening to the people of God, something worse than beasts and dragons, though we have not watched for it as carefully. When we recall the First Advent we are reminded that

the Jewish priests and leaders—the keepers of the oracles of God—did not welcome the newborn King. They knew the prophecy of the First Advent so well that they could explain it to Herod, but they did not go to visit the new King. Bethlehem was only six miles away!

Since it was known that the Messiah would come through Jewish bloodlines, why was there not a great celebration in Jerusalem? “The advent of Christ was the greatest event which had taken place since the creation of the world. The birth of Christ, which gave joy to the angels of Heaven, was not welcome to the kingly powers of the world. Suspicion and envy were aroused in king Herod, and his wicked heart was planning his dark purposes for the future. The Jews manifested a stupid indifference to the story of the wise men” (Ellen G. White, in Review and Herald, Dec. 24, 1872). This was the reception Jesus got the first time around, and it was not just from priests and leaders.

We sing about the shepherds in the field who heard the angel’s song, but do we realize that most of Israel did not acknowledge Christ’s coming at all? “He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:11). The first coming of Jesus was a public relations disaster, a huge nonevent. His childhood and youth were passed in obscurity. The citizens of Nazareth had Him for 30 years and did not know their visitation. When He returned home to preach after His baptism, the people He grew up with refused to hear His message and tried to throw Him from a cliff! “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not” (John 1:10).

Except to receive His gifts and blessings, most people had little to do with Jesus. And when they really understood what His kingdom was about, they stopped following Him altogether (see John 6:66). A low-class, uneducated Nazarene of suspicious parentage who socialized with prostitutes and tax collectors was not their idea of a Messiah. 

And the message to us is this: the Jesus who is coming back is the same Jesus who was here before. He is today, 2000 years later, just as unconventional, just as common as He always was—He is not impressed with us. He is not coming to fulfill our dream, unless our dream is His dream.

Are we ready to meet this Jesus? It is an urgent question for the last generation of believers—we know that Jesus is coming, but do we know the Jesus who comes? He has not become Westernized since the Adventist Church was raised up in the West. He has not become middle class because we have embraced middle-class values. He has not changed His mind about how salvation happens to harmonize with our denominationalism. He is the same Jesus He always was: the Jesus who taught that the kingdom of God belongs to children and that the only true greatness is the greatness of humility; the Jesus who crossed social barriers of every description to reach all people for the kingdom of God; the Jesus who defied corrupt church authority and called scribes and Pharisees hypocrites to their faces; the Jesus who would not break the yoke of Roman oppression, but taught His followers instead to love the oppressor and pray for their redemption; the Jesus who was unorthodox, unpredictable, uncontrollable, and unsafe.

Jesus is coming whether we know Him or not, but if we do not know Him, He is not coming for us.

And we must clarify what we mean by “know,” because the Bible rejects the concept of salvation by special knowledge. This was the claim of Gnosticism. There is no esoteric, hidden knowledge by which salvation may be privately gained. Doctrinal superiority is not the key to heaven’s gate. The unpublished writings of Ellen White are not the secret passageway to the kingdom of God. They are all on CD-ROM now anyway.

On the other hand, salvation by grace does involve knowledge, but what must be known, first and foremost, is not a set of facts—not even Bible facts. The knowledge that saves is personal knowledge, and the Person is Jesus. I do not agree that the emphasis on Jesus in the Adventist Church today constitutes a swing of the pendulum too far in the other direction. Jesus is not some extreme on the fringes of faith; He is the very center of all our belief and practice. We can never emphasize too much the need for maintaining an intimate relationship with Jesus, He is everything to us.

I read of a boy living by the sea who loved nothing more than building castles in the sand. Every day after school he would build them of different shapes and sizes, and every day a group of bullies from school would destroy them. Then one day, on a tip from his grandpa, the boy put chunks of concrete and cinder block in the base of the castles. The next time the bullies came to destroy, they stubbed their toes and feet.

Even castles made of sand become impregnable when they are built upon a rock. Believers are vulnerable too—to the attacks of the enemy, to the weaknesses of the flesh. But when their lives are built on the Rock, they are strong to withstand anything. This Rock is Jesus—not facts about Jesus, not blessings from Jesus, not even just the teachings of Jesus, but Jesus Christ Himself.

It is not getting people to doctrine, but getting people to Jesus, that is the priority of our mission, and once they get to Him they will be shocked at what they find. Jesus is both more gracious and more terrifying than people think. He will lift them into heavenly places like no one else, and He will hurt their feelings like no one else!

In the question of Luke 18:8, “When the Son of man cometh, will he find faith on the earth?” Jesus is not asking about faith in the doctrine or faith in the denomination. Jesus is looking for faith in Himself. If we believe only what He says, we do not truly believe. We must believe in Him. Only then is Christ formed in us, and we come to have His view in everything. There are two elements to readiness—right relationship and the knowledge of where we are; that is, knowing Jesus and knowing the times. So while we are watching the signs and the beast, we’d better not forget to watch the cross. Being ready for Jesus to come means being ready for Jesus.

There is a double blessing in the coming of Christ—it is not only in two stages; it is in two Persons. The Jesus we await is the Jesus we already possess. So the promise of the Parousia is the hope that fuels our joy, while the “when” of the Parousia is a matter of indifference, since we are ready at all times. Jesus Christ Himself is our readiness.