Jesus was coming back just as he went

JESUS WAS COMING BACK JUST AS HE WENT
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Acts 1:11 "Men of Galilee,"they said, "Why do you
stand here lookinginto the sky? This same Jesus, who
has been taken from you into heaven, will come back
in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven."
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
The Angels' Message
Acts 1:10, 11
R.A. Redford
I. A REMONSTRANCE."Whystand ye looking into heaven?"
1. Against the misuse of signs and appearances. Getat the substance of the
fact, and waste no time and strength on the mere form.
2. Against prying into forbidden secrets. Indulgence of fancy in religion.
Following the track of sense beyondits reach.

3. Spiritual depressionand reaction. Christ is still the same. Be not afraid or
perplexed, but setto work and prepare for his return.
II. AN ANNOUNCEMENT. "This Jesus shallso come."
1. A personaladvent, but not necessarilypro-millennial. The chief meaning of
the promise is that this world is to be prepared for the return of Christ,
therefore is to be made his kingdom, so the expectationis practical.
2. The similarity of circumstances is helpful to faith. "Out of sight," "a
cloud," "takenup," - such terms remind us that we must not look for mere
sensible indications of the Savior's descentfrom heaven; but in like manner as
he went away, so mysteriously that his disciples scarcelyknew whether he was
gone and still gazedafter him, so he will appearagain "with clouds," and only
imperfectly seen, until his presence shallbe hailed with the shout of the
archangeland the trump of God.
3. The assurance ofthe secondadvent of the Lord should be the summons to
work, and the comfort of all that feeltheir loneliness and want in this scene of
separationfrom their Savior's visible presence. "TillJesus comes."The
promise speaks peaceto us. - R.

Biblical Illustrator
And while they lookedsteadfastlytowardheaven as He went up.
Acts 1:10, 11
Too much mere sentiment in religion
Homilist.
It may be that the same two angels who rolled away the stone, and appeared
at His open sepulchre, were present now. Or were they the "two men," Moses
and Elijah, who had appearedat the Transfiguration? Whoeverthey were,
they were glorified beings, sent to do honour to Christ. The words may be
takenas a rebuke for the indulgence of too much sentiment in connectionwith
religion. Sentiment in religion is not only good, but essential;without the
sentiments of love, hope, gratitude, adoration, there could be no religion. But
if it continue merely as sentiment, and takes no practicalform, sways not the
actions and shapes not the life, it is rather pernicious than useful.
I. That too much sentimental interestin the MARVELLOUS in religion is not
good. Religionhas its marvels, supernatural events crowd the Word of God;
but to yield our minds too much to the influence of the wonderful, is not good.
The sentiment of wonder has its beneficent mission; it tends to take us out of
ourselves, to break the monotony of our experience, and to give a passing
freshness to life. But the indulgence of this sentiment of wonder, apart from
religion, is a greatevil. The religionists who are always gazing after signs and
wonders become dreamy mystics and the dupes of priestly imposture. The
wonder which the marvellous in religion excites, becomesonly useful as it lifts
us to a higher plane of practicallife, only as it tends to make our lives sublime.

II. That too much sentimental interest in the OBJECTIVE in religion is not
good. The disciples were looking outside of themselves, fixing their gaze on the
heavens. We do wellso to gaze upon the outward, as to reduce the whole into
a science that shall become the richest inheritance of the intellect. In religion,
too, we must be interested in the outward. The soul is neither self-sustaining
nor self-directing;its elements of life must be derived from without; its lessons
of direction must come from without. But to have all our interests absorbed in
the externals of religion is a terrible evil, and, alas I a prevalent one. "The
kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness andjoy and peace in
the Holy Ghost."
III. That too much sentimental interest in the TEMPORARYin religion is not
good. There is a natural tendency in these souls of ours to linger with interest
over departed objects that were once dear to the heart. We cling, says one, "to
the shell, the husks, the garments, after the kernel, the essence,and the life
have gone." To indulge in this sentiment in natural things, is not good;the
mourner whose sentiments are always absorbedin the dear ones that are
gone, grows moody and diseased. The permanent was with them — the
eternal principles of truth and the spirit of Christ, these did not depart; it was
a mere temporary manifestationthat went; and to have their sentiments
engrossedin that, was not good. There are those around us in all directions
whose sympathies are takenup with the mere temporary forms of religion.
(Homilist.)
Words to the spectators ofthe ascension
Homilist.
I. The CHIDING element. "Why stand ye gazing?" There is undoubtedly
reproof in these words.

1. "Why stand ye?" — you need not lament that which is a blessing. All that is
necessaryon earth for your spiritual culture and well-being He has
accomplished, and now He enters heavenin order to give efficiencyto all the
spiritual instrumentalities which He has set in operationamongstyou. You
should rejoice, ratherthan lament — rejoice at what He has done for you,
rejoice that He has triumphed over His enemies, rejoice that He is leaving His
degradation, sorrows, andenemies for scenesofdignity, blessedness, andlove.
Ah, how often, through our ignorance, we lament over events which should fill
us with rejoicing.
2. "Why stand ye" — you gain much by His departure. It is "expedient" for
you that He goes away, forif He goes notaway "the Comforter will not
come." When He is gone you will be thrown back upon yourselves and be
made self-reliant.
3. "Why stand ye" — He has given you a commission to work. "Go into all the
world and preach the gospelto every creature, beginning at Jerusalem."
II. The CHEERING element. "This same Jesus which is takenfrom you into
heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seenHim go into heaven."
1. He will return to you "in like manner." How unexpectedly He went away. It
is said, "while they looked" He went. "In like manner" He will come:
unexpectedly.
2. He will return to you identical in personality. "This same Jesus."Same
loving Brother, tried Friend, mighty Lord, etc. Whatever changes take place
in the universe, they will not touch Him.

3. He will return to you in greatglory. He went up in greatglory, "a cloud
receivedHim out of their sight." What cloud was that? It was that luminous,
mystic flame which was ever regardedas the symbol of the Divine Presence.
That which gleamed in the bush to Moses, in the pillar that conductedthe
Children of Israel through the wilderness, over the mercy-seatin the holy of
holies, which glided through the heavens like a star and conductedthe wise
men to the place where Jesus was born; that which spreadover the Mount of
Transfigurationand made the scene so transporting. "In like manner" He will
come. "I beheld a greatwhite throne, and Him that satthereon,"
etc.Conclusion:Such is what seems implied in this angelic language and from
it three generaltruths may be drawn.
1. That what we deem our greatestlosses are oftenour greatestgain.
2. That we indulge too much in the sentiments of religion when they detain us
from earnestwork."
3. That the destinies of men in all worlds and ages are bound up in Christ.
"This same Jesus."
(Homilist.)
Why stand ye gazing
DeanVaughan.
There is reproofin the question. We might have thought that the question
answereditself. Would it not have been strange if they had not stoodgazing?
Less wonderful spectaclesthan that have drawn together a crowdof gazers,
and no one thinks of arguing with them. Curiosity alone will accountfor

gazing upon this spectacle;ascent into heaven by one in human form, unaided
by any visible appliance. Who, I say, would not gaze up into heaven to watch
this? But how much more, if the person thus ascending was a friend — a
friend closerthan a brother. The disciples gazed as though they were looking
their last upon the departed form. To be reminded, then, that this was by no
means their lastsight of Him was to be recalledat once to thoughts of peace,
and hope, and blessedness;to be reproved for this gazing by the assurance
which followed, that "this same Jesus shallcome againin like manner as ye
now see Him go," had healing in the very wound. Interpreted by the teaching
of the Last Supper, the reproof saidthis to them: "Rememberhow He said to
you while He was yet with you, 'A little while, and ye shall not see Me;and
againa little while and ye shall see Me.'" One fulfilment of that saying you
have already witnessed:He went from you by death, and He came back to you
by resurrection. Another fulfilment of the same saying is now in development:
He goes from you by ascension, andHe shall come back to you in the Advent.
This, then, was the meaning for the first disciples of the "Why stand ye
gazing?" which is our text. Within tea days they understood it. On the instant
it comforted them, for St. Luke expresslysays, that they returned to
Jerusalemthat very hour with great joy. The idea of parting was swallowed
up for them in the idea of meeting. But now, let us hear this question
addressedto ourselves:"Why stand ye here gazing? What mean ye by this
silence?" andlet us think what we shall answer. "Whystand ye to-night in
this church gazing on the ascension?"We take an onward step when we reply.
I. BECAUSE IT HELPS US TO REALISE A WORLD BEYOND THIS
WORLD, a life above this life, a substantial rock that is higher than we, on
which we would firmly stand our feetamidst the billows and storms of the
temporal and the transient. To fix a steadfastgaze upon the ascending Lord,
till a cloud comes betweenand intercepts the view, to which flesh and blood
are unequal, of that glorious, that mysterious transition from the material into
the immaterial universe — we find it helpful, we find it comforting, under the
heavy pressure of sense and time, whether our circumstances atthis present
are joyous or grievous, weightedwith care and sorrow, or but too jubilant
with pleasure and prosperity. It is not easyto believe in a world out of sight.
We want every help that a religious life can give to it, we want the aid of

prayer, we want. the discipline of providence, we want the experience of years,
we want, first and above all, a revelation such as God gives in His Son,
commending itself to man's conscienceand resting upon a basis of
impregnable fact. I know not what would become of us in days such as these
— days of unrest and disquietude, days of anxiety bursting sometimes into
horror, days of failing hearts and almost despairing hopes, for the future of
our own and other lands, if we could not gaze upward after the ascended
Saviour and infer the certainty of a better country, that is a heavenly.
II. THE DESIRE TO REALISE THE LIFE OF CHRIST HIMSELF AS
GONE INTO HEAVEN FOR US MEN AND FOR OUR SALVATION.
III. THAT WE ARE ALL LEARNING IN HEART AND MIND TO ASCEND
AFTER HIM, AND THERE WITH HIM CONTINUALLY TO DWELL.
There are many counterfeits of this grace, there are also some substitutes for
it, counted as goodor better, sometimes even by the Church of this age. It is
an age which makes activity everything; measures religionby its tangible
effects;leaves itselfno inner life, as it were; itself depends on the outward, and
thinks little even of the industry which has nothing to show for itself. The
Church too much humours and pampers this temper of the times. Now, the
ascentof our Lord is the protest againstthis whole system. They who would
witness for Him must find time to track His ascending;they who would
reproduce Him in. His reality to this nineteenth age must first have gazed
steadfastlyup; there must be leisure found or made for this, leisure for
meditation, leisure for study, leisure for communing. Let eachone fix his gaze
upon the ascending Lord, that he may follow Him where the Ascendedrests in
that calm heaven, the heavenof holiness and the heaven of love. Let him dwell
with the Ascended, having boldness to enter into the Holiest. Let us draw
nigh; let it be a purified entering, and let it be a purified return also. Thatis
the spiritual mind whose home is heaven. "Why stand ye gazing up into
heaven?" Because we wouldfollow where He has led, live the life of heaven
here, and at lastbe with Him for ever where He is.

(DeanVaughan.)
The disciples at the Ascension
J. Parker, D. D.
I. MEN OVERPOWEREDAND DISPOSSESSEDOF SELF-CONTROLIN
THE PRESENCE OF A WONDROUS REVELATION. There are moments
in which men are not themselves. Greatevents suddenly happen and the
spectators lose allpresence ofmind, howeversagacious theymay ordinarily
be. Sometimes they cannotspeak for joy, sometimes for terror, sometimes for
simple amazement. This is the case sometimes withchildren, and often with
men when, e.g., a letter is receivedcontaining unexpected news. The thing to
be remembered here is that this is the natural effectof Christian revelation.
When the angels came to Bethlehem the shepherds were afraid, so were the
women to whom the angels spake atthe sepulchre. And no man ought to
receive Divine communications or see Divine effects without sensibility. Nor
ought we to look on the sublimities of nature or the wonders of art as if they
were nothing. This is one of the perils of familiarity. A rustic thinks little of
the mountain under whose shadow he was born, but is struck dumb when he
gazes on St. Paul's. A Londoner passes the cathedral without knowing that it
is there, but looks atSnowdonfor hours during his summer holiday.
II. MEN RECALLED FROM ENFEEBLING REVERIE.It was goodfor
them to look upward, but there was something more to be done. We can waste
time in the sublimest contemplation. When a man is naturally inclined to
ecstasyhe ought to fight againsthis inclination so as to bring it into harmony
with other powers. There are persons to whom Christianity is so sublime a
thing that they fail to see it in practicallife. It is right to have hours of
rapture, but a man cannot live so always. So the disciples were interrogated
by the two men in white apparel — Moses and Elias, I think; for there is
something Mosaic in the inquiry, and something of the powerand passionof
Elijah. We too are matched by the old master-workersofthe world. Seeing

then we are encompassedby so greata cloud of witnesses, why should our life
be a gazing when we are calledto work? When the women lookeddown into
the sepulchre, the angelsaid, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" So
we are not always to be looking down. The lessonof the text is that we must
not always be looking up. What then is to be our attitude? Look about you;
and look up only to gain inspiration for the work nearestto hand.
III. MEN INSTRUCTED AND COMPORTEDBYA PROMISE."This same
Jesus." Who wants an amended Christ? "This same Jesus" who knows, has
taught, has died to save you "shallcome again." One would like to see Jesus;
but one would not like Him to be so changedthat those who knew Him first
know Him no longer. We want such elements of identity as shall enable the
disciples to gladly recogniseHim as the same Christ. He is promised to come
againin the same sublime fashion, sovereignin will, gentle in spirit, pure as
God, tenderer than woman. The world cannot live without that promise.
(J. Parker, D. D.)
Gazing into heaven
C. S. Robinson, D. D.
There is here —
I. AN AFFECTIONATE EXPOSTULATION WITHTHOSE WHO ARE
UNDER PERSONALBEREAVEMENT.WhenJesus had kept telling these
friends of His that He purposed to leave them before long, they receivedno
settled impressionfrom it. It is of no use to attempt to become prepared for
the loss of one whom we love. Now they lookedafter their ascending Lord
with unutterable dismay. When any one has parted with some precious object
of affection, the wounded spirit remains just broken, gazing up into vacancy,
sometimes even wishing it might fly away and be at rest. But this cannotbe
indulged. These disciples are told to report immediately for duty. The

mourner's eyes should be fixed upon work, and not upon loss. See the promise
(Psalm 126:5, 6.).
II. AN EARNEST INCITEMENT TO THE LAGGARD OR LISTLESS. The
greatworld neededthe gospelwithout delay. Christ was gone, but the
Comforter was coming. Just as soonas they advanced to duty the day of
Pentecostdawned. There are men who stand gazing up into heavenafter a
revival. Now, nowhere does God's Word bid us wait for any special
outpouring of spiritual influence. The Holy Spirit is in the Church.
III. A CLEAR COUNSELFOR THOSE IN EARNEST IN THE SEEKING
OF CHRIST FOR THEIR SOULS. It is possible for a man to stand gazing up
into heavenfor a course of years, and then suddenly discoverthat what he has
been looking for was an experience, and not a Saviour. Salvationis not a thing
to be vacantly gazedafter. Repentof your sins now. Put your trust in Christ
now. The entire work of turning unto a new life usually begins with some
commonplace stepof commitment of one's self before others. A public word in
a prayer-meeting, the asking of a blessing at the table, a checking admonition
to a comrade, a mere refusal to do a wrong or worldly act, will never make a
man a Christian, but it may show he has become one.
IV. A COMFORT FOR SUCHCHRISTIANS AS ARE IN BONDAGE
THROUGH FEAR OF DEATH. Let us think of our departure as an ascension
like Christ's. One may habituate himself to melancholy foreboding until all
looks dark and frightful on ahead. Or he may accustomhis mind to regarding
a change of worlds as only a sweet, bright journey along the path the Saviour
went from the Mount of Olives.
(C. S. Robinson, D. D.)

Indolence
Nothing is more dangerous than idleness. He who has nothing to do will soon
be doing something wrong. "Our idle," says an eminent divine, "are Satan's
busy days. If the mind is properly engaged, there is little room for the
entrance of temptation; but when the mind is empty and open, the enemy can
throw in what he pleases. Stagnantwaters produce thousands of noxious
insects that are unknown in flowing streams."
Looking after it is useless
A. Maclaren, D. D
How true to nature is that gazing "steadfastlyinto heaven" after gazing was
useless!So we look at the spot on the horizon where the last gleamof a sail
that bears awaydear ones has faded.
(A. Maclaren, D. D)
Unprofitable gazing
Bp. Huntington.
The "two men in white apparel" make a part of the grand supernatural array
which the common sceneryof the earth put on as the Lord was leaving it.
From the entrance of the Saviour into the garden, on through the following
forty-three days, the spiritual world and the material seemedto have the
doors betweenthem swung open, and to become one. If we believe the history,
or credit the incarnation, at all, is not this just as we should expect? He in
whom the realities of both heaven and earth were united; He who could say —
"The Son of Man is now in heaven," He is passing back personallyinto the
unseen communion, where all His friends are to follow Him. I believe in
miracles because I see the greatermiracle — Christ — grander than all this
world's men, and yet lowlier, saying that He comes forth from God, and goes
to God, as simply as my child shows me the flower found in the garden-yet so
saying it that all the philosophers and critics of eighteenhundred years have
not been able to break the authority or explain the secret. The question is —

I. A CALL FROM CONTEMPLATION TO ACTION. Only a little breathing
space was to be given them first to gather up their energies;and even that was
not to be an interval of idleness. Theywere to go at once to Jerusalem, and
their waiting there was to be like the waiting of the still midsummer elements,
before the mountain winds sweepdown and the tongues of fire leap out — a
busy waiting — a preparation for this long campaign of many ages.Theywere
to be earnestand constantin prayer and praise;to settle in their minds the
doctrines and directions of their Master, pertaining to the kingdom; to fasten
and cementthe bonds of unity with one accord, and to fill up the vacant place
in the apostolate.Thus their business had been marked out as every
Christian's is. But the apostles are not turning to that business;they are still
resting in a kind of sentimental trance betweentheir commissionand their
ministry. They were living as some Christians do nowadays-intheir feelings,
more than in their convictions and their will, in fruitless memories, not in
daring hopes. Indulged any longer, this would become a mere life of religious
sentiment, not a life of religious service — and so not a healthy life at all. If
those men that had companied so long with Christ needed to be startled out of
a false indulgence in the mere idle luxury of feeling, most of us need it much
more. I hear a man sayit makes him "feelbetter" to sayhis prayers; so far so
good;but how far does the feeling go, and the powerof the prayer keephim
company, as a law of regulation to his lips and a purifier of his conduct?
Lacordaire says, "I desire to be remembered only as one who believed, who
loved, and who prayed." But why only these? Ought there not to be an equal
desire to honour the Lord in an active following of His steps and proclaiming
Him in life?
II. A SUMMONS TO WALK, HENCEFORTH, NOT BYTHE LIGHT OF
AN OUTWARD LEADER, BUT BY A SECRET AND STEADFASTTRUST
IN HIM WHO IS FOR EVER WITH US BY AN INWARD POSSESSION. If,
then, the question of the heavenly men be put into some paraphrase for
ourselves here, this would be its import. Reduce your privileges to Christian
practice, and your faith to action. Life is not given us for speculation, or
gazing, or mere delight, even though the relish be religious — not for reverie
and dreaming, even though it were the reverie of devotion, or a dream of

Paradise. This world, our ownlittle corner of it, wants sacrifice and labour,
running feet and open hands, busy thoughts and gentle tongues.
III. A DEMAND THAT OUR CHRISTIAN LIFE SHOULD BE
INDEPENDENT OF EXTERNALSUPPORT,SO THAT IT MAY BE ONLY
DEPENDENTON GOD. Notthat we are to castawayany outward prop so
long as God's providence holds it in its place and comforts us by letting us
lean upon it; but that we should not be perplexed or disheartenedwhen any
such help is takenaway by Him, or enfeeble ourselves by letting our integrity,
or our purity, or our prayers depend on it instead of depending directly on
Him. There is no dangerthat our eyes or our hearts will he turned too much
upwards, heavenwards — provided we look there, in faith and prayer, for the
light and the strength to do our Christian service here. At present this is our
place;and the judgment before us is a judgment for deeds done in the body.
These men, when they were bidden to stop gazing into heaven and go to their
work were not turned away from heavenly things to earthly things, but the
opposite. They were to stop looking into the air, that by a truer and God-
appointee road they might travel, in God's time, higher up into the Christian
heaven. They were to rouse themselves from a dream, that they might work
out their salvationand the salvation of the world. To that end, the presentline
of living, howeveragreeable andprosperous, the presentresidence or
occupation, howeverdelightful, or the presentapparent helps, however
prized, as soonas they become tempters to sluggishness, must be given up — a
sacrifice to Him whose sacrifice to us is the only assurance oflife. Hence God's
providence is continually pushing us on, displacing one or another scheme, or
vision, or staff, or companion. He does it for what he would make of us —
better men.
(Bp. Huntington.)
Idle emotion useless

A. Maclaren, D. D
Love to God is no idle emotion or lazy rapture, no vague sentiment, but the
root of all practical goodness, ofall strenuous efforts, of all virtue, and of all
praise. That strong tide is meant to drive the busy wheels of life and to bear
precious freightage on its bosom; not to flow awayin profitless foam.
(A. Maclaren, D. D)
Go about your business
Christian Herald.
Some years ago, a new clock was made to be placed in the Temple Hall. When
finished the clockmakerwas desiredto wait upon the Benchers of the Temple,
who would think of a suitable motto to be put under the clock. He applied
severaltimes, but without getting the desired information, as they had not
determined on the inscription. Continuing to importune them, he at lastcame
when the old Benchers were met in the Temple Hall, and had just satdown to
dinner. The workman againrequestedto be informed of the motto. One of the
Benchers who thought the application ill-timed, and who was fender of eating
and drinking than inventing mottoes, testily replied, "Go about your
business!" The mechanic taking this for an answerto his question, went home
and inserted at the bottom of the clock, "Go aboutyour business!" and placed
it in the Temple Hall, to the greatsurprise of the Benchers, who, considering
the circumstances,arguedthat accident had produced a better motto than
they could think of, and ever since the Temple clock has continued to remind
the lawyerand the public to go about their business.
(Christian Herald.)
This same Jesus... shallso come in like manner as ye have seenHim go
Christ's secondcoming
I. ITS TIME.

1. Unknown (Matthew 24:36;Mark 13:32).
2. The times of restoration(Acts 3:19).
3. The latter day (Job 19:25).
4. "Suchan hour as ye think not" (Matthew 24:44).
5. "After that tribulation," etc. (Mark 13:24-26).
6. A falling away first (2 Thessalonians 2:3).
II. How CHARACTERISED.
1. The times of restoration(Acts 3:19).
2. The day of God (2 Peter3:12).
3. The last time (1 Peter1:5).
4. The revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter1:7, 13).
5. Appearing of the glory of our greatGod and Saviour (Titus 2:13).

6. The day of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:8).
7. The day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).
8. The appearing of the chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4).
III. ITS MANNER.
1. Suddenly and unexpectedly (Matthew 24:44;Mark 13:36;Luke 12:40).
2. As a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians5:2; 2 Peter3:10; Revelation16:15).
3. As the lightning (Matthew 24:27).
4. As the flood (Matthew 24:37-39).
5. As He ascended(ver. 11).
6. In clouds (Matthew 24:30;Matthew 26:64;Revelation1:7).
7. With a shout and the voice of the archangel(1 Thessalonians4:16).

8. With angels (Matthew 16:27;Matthew 25:31; Mark 8:38; 2 Thessalonians
1:7).
9. With His saints (1 Thessalonians 3:13;Jude 1:14).
10. In the glory of His Father (Matthew 16:27).
11. In His own glory (Matthew 25:31; Luke 9:26).
12. In flaming fire (2 Thessalonians1:8).
13. With power and great glory (Matthew 24:30.)
IV. ITS PURPOSES.
1. TO be glorified in His saints (2 Thessalonians1:10).
2. To bring to light the hidden things of darkness (1 Corinthians 4:5).
3. To reign (Isaiah 24:23;Daniel 7:14; Revelation11:15).
4. GatherHis elect(Matthew 24:31; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17).

5. To judge (Matthew 25:31).
6. To reward (Revelation22:12).
V. DUTIES RELATIVE TO IT.
1. Should consider as at hand (Romans 13:12; Philippians 4:5; 1 Peter4:7).
2. Be prepared for (Matthew 24:44, 46; Luke 12:37, 38, 40).
3. Should love (2 Timothy 4:8).
4. Look for (Philippians 3:20; Titus 2:13).
5. Wait for (1 Corinthians 1:7; 1 Thessalonians 1:10).
6. Watchfor (Matthew 24:42; Mark 13:35-37;Luke 21:36).
7. Be patient unto (2 Thessalonians 3:5; James 5:7, 8).
(S. S. Times.)
Christ's coming

J. Ker, D. D.
Love makes the tears of farewells sparkle into welcomes, andif we could
retain the came impression of Christ's loss, His return would be as nigh. It is,
moreover, in the New Testamentthe greatevent which towers above every
other. The heaventhat gives back Christ gives back all we have loved and lost,
solves all doubts and ends all sorrows. His coming looks in upon the whole life
of His Church, as a lofty mountain peak looks in upon every little valley and
sequesteredhome around its base, and belongs to them alike. Every
generationlies under the shadow of it, for whateveris transcendently greatis
constantly near, and in moments of convictionit absorbs petty interests and
annihilates intervals.
(J. Ker, D. D.)
Waiting for Christ's return
The Rev. T. Brown, in The Watchword, tells of a gentleman, accompaniedby
his little son, having an errand at the EastIndia House, who left the boy upon
the steps, telling him to wait till he returned. Shortly afterwards, being much
engrossed, with the business which he had in hand, he left the building by
another door, and went home, entirely forgetting his son. When the family
assembledat dinner the mother noticed the child's absence, andmade anxious
inquiry for him. Then the incident of the morning flashedupon the father's
mind. He hurried back to the EastIndia House, and there he found the little
boy, tired and hungry, waiting, as he had been told to, at the door. He had
been there four hours. "I knew you would come, father," said he; "you said
you would." Such secure and childlike trust is the faith of all who die "in
Christ." All who fall asleepin Jesus, know that Jesus will come for them
again, for He said He would, and He never forgets. In like manner the living
believer should anticipate His secondcoming.
The SecondAdvent
R. Lewis.

Note here —
I. OUR LORD'S UNCHANGED IDENTITY. After having been separatedby
years of time and leagues ofspace from a familiar friend, if a reunion is
anticipated eachwill probably speculate on the change which the interval has
wrought in the other. "He will have formed new friendships and contracted
fresh habits; another generationhas sprung up since we were companions,
and the old links no longer exist; he can hardly feelfor me as he once did."
But no such surmises can mingle with our thoughts of Jesus. "There is one
Lord Jesus Christ," and but one. The ascendedand coming Saviour is the
same who came and suffered (Ephesians 4:9). A native Indian preacher was
met on his wayto Church by two young English officers bent on sport. They
askedhim, "How is Jesus Christ to-day?" Astonished that two young men
from the country who sent the Bible should take the sacredname in vain, he
gently rebuked them, but added, "If you really want to know how Jesus
Christ is, He is the 'same yesterday, to-day, and for ever'" — a word fitly
spokenwhich led the young men to the Saviour.
1. Jesus Christis the same in —
(1)The perfections of His nature.
(2)The tenderness of His sympathy.
(3)The plenteousness ofHis grace.
(4)The extent and perpetuity of His rule.Since His ascensionthose who have
seenHim declare that He retains His identity — Stephen, Paul (1 Corinthians
9:1), John at Patmos. As He still bears the marks of His suffering, so He

retains sympathy for every member of His body. Although "by seraphhosts
adored, He to earth's lowestcares is still awake."
2. So it is with our friends who have gone homo. They have not lost their
individuality — only their mortality and sin. They have not melted into the
infinite azure. Mosesand Elias on the Mount of Transfigurationwere the
same as in Hebrew story.
II. THE CERTAINTYAND MANNER OF HIS RETURN.
1. He continually revisits His people.
(1)Spiritually. "The King Himself draws near and feasts His saints."
(2)Representatively. The angelof death is His messengercalling His people
home.
2. He is coming.
(1)Personally.
(2)Visibly.
(3)Gloriously.Notas first He came, a helpless infant, but a glorious conqueror
(Daniel 7:13; Revelation1:7; Revelation14:14).

(R. Lewis.)
The SecondAdvent
Wf. Adeney, M. A.
These words cannotrefer to Pentecost, norto Christ's spiritual communion
with His people, because otherreferences point to the SecondAdvent as in the
future, and far more glorious than any manifestations in the past.
I. CHRIST WILL COME AGAIN. In the Early Church the expectationof
soonseeing Christ was strong. But when this was disappointed the thought fell
into the background. Yet error as to time does not affectthe fact. The world
waited many ages forthe First Advent, but "in the fulness of time God sent
forth His Son." Why, then, should the Church despair if she must wait ages
for the second?
II. CHRIST WILL COME IN GLORY. He ascendedin triumph; He will
return in triumph. In the prophets we have visions of glory and humiliation
associatedwith the Messiah, and the Rabbis expectedtwo Messiahs, one
suffering and the other conquering. We now see that one man can be both in
successive periods. Christ fulfils prophecy by degrees.Had the whole of
Christ's careerfallen in the days of Tiberius the Jews might properly have
rejectedHim. We look for the final fulfilment of prophecy to the future glory
of Christ.
III. CHRIST WILL COME TO REIGN. His glory will not be an empty
pageant. They who look for a visible throne and a seculargovernment fall into
the error of the Jews. How He will appear we know not, but we know that His
kingdom will be always spiritual, and when it comes "allmen shall know the

Lord from the leastto the greatest." This hope should stimulate the Church's
diligence. As she carries out her mission His full reign draws nearer.
(Wf. Adeney, M. A.)
The SecondAdvent
Bishop Ryle.
Did you ever hear the sound of the trumpets which are blown before the
judges as they come into the city to open the assizes?Didyou ever reflect how
different are the feelings which those trumpets awakenin the minds of
different men? The innocent man, who has no cause to be tried, hears them
unmoved. They proclaim no terrors to him. He listens and looks onquietly,
and is not afraid. But often there is some poor wretch waiting his trial, in a
silent ceil, to whom those trumpets are a knell of despair. They tell him that
the day of trial is at hand. Yet a little time, and he will stand at the bar of
justice, and hear witness after witness telling the story of his misdeeds. Yet a
little time and all will be over — the trial, the verdict, the sentence;and there
will remain nothing for him but punishment and disgrace. No wonderthe
prisoner's heart beats when he hears the trumpet's sound! So shall the sound
be of the archangel's trump.
(Bishop Ryle.)
The SecondAdvent: the uncertainty of its date
W. Archer Butler, M. A.
The cloud that envelopedour Saviour still shrouds His expected presence on
the throne of judgment. It is a purposed obscurity, a wise and merciful denial
of knowledge. In this matter it is His gracious will to be the perpetual subject
of watchfulness, expectation, fear, desire, but no more. To cherish anticipation
He has permitted gleams of light to cross the darkness;to baffle presumption

He has made them only gleams. He has harmonised with consummate skill
every part of His revelation to produce this generalresult — now speaking as
if a few seasons more were to herald the new heaven and the new earth, now
as if His days were as thousands of years; at one moment whispering into the
ear of His disciple, at another retreating into the depth of infinite ages. It is
His purpose thus to live in our faith and hope, remote yet near, pledged to no
moment, possible at any; worshipped not with the consternationof a near, nor
the indifference of a distant certainty, but with the anxious vigilance that
awaits a contingencyever at hand. This, the deep devotion of watchfulness,
humility, and awe, He who knows us best knows to be the fittest posture for
our spirits; therefore does He preserve the salutary suspense whichensures it,
and therefore will He determine His advent to no definite day in the calender
of eternity. And yet this uncertainty is abused to security; and exactly as the
invisibility of the Creator, which is His perfection, produces the miserable
creedof the atheist, the obscurity that veils the hour of judgment, though
meant in merciful warning, persuades the ungodly heart that none is ever to
arrive.
(W. Archer Butler, M. A.)
The two Advents: contrastbetweenthem
A. Hildebert.
Christ came the first time in the guise of humanity; He is to come the second
time in brightness, as a light to the godly, a terror to the wicked. He came the
first time in weakness,He is to come the secondtime in might; the first time in
our littleness, the secondtime in His ownmajesty; the first time in mercy, the
secondin judgment; the first time to redeem, the secondto recompense, and
that all the more terribly because ofthe long-suffering and delay.
(A. Hildebert.)
The two Advents

W. Landels, D. D.
The stable of Bethlehem disappears, and behold the clouds are His chariot.
That lonely wanderer amid the hills of Palestine, who was forsakenby all,
persecutedby many, is now attended by thousands of angels. The hand which
held the reed now sways the sceptre of universal dominion. He has ]eft the
Cross and ascendedthe greatwhite throne; and many crowns now sparkle on
the head around which thorns were wreathed. He was crucified then amid the
execrations ofthe mob; now He comes amid the hallelujahs of the skies to be
glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.
(W. Landels, D. D.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(11) Shall so come in like manner as ye have seenhim go into heaven.—So our
Lord, following the greatprophecy of Daniel 7:13, had spokenof Himself as
“coming in the clouds of heaven” (see Note on Matthew 26:64), in visible
‘majesty and glory. Here, again, men have askedquestions which they cannot
answer;not only, when shall the end be, but where shall the Judge thus
appear? what place shall be the chosenscene ofHis secondAdvent? So far as
we dare to localise whatis left undefined, the words of the angels suggestthe
same scene, as wellas the same manner. Those who do not shrink from taking
the words of prophecy in their most literal sense, have seenin Zechariah 14:4,
an intimation that the Valley of Jehosophat(= Jehovahjudges)—the “valley
of decision”—shallwitness the greatAssize, and that the feet of the Judge
shall stand upon the Mount of Olives, from which He had ascendedinto
heaven. This was the current mediæval view, and seems, if we are to localise at
all, to be more probable than any other.
MacLaren's Expositions

Luke - Acts
THE ASCENSION
WAS, IS, IS TO COME
Luke 2:16. - Luke 24:51. - Acts 1:11.
These three fragments, which I have ventured to isolate and bring together,
are all found in one author’s writings. Luke’s biography of Jesus stretches
from the cradle in Bethlehem to the Ascensionfrom Olivet. He narrates the
Ascensiontwice, because ithas two aspects.In one it looks backward, andis
necessaryas the completion of what was begun in the birth. In one it looks
forward, and makes necessary, as its completion, that coming which still lies
in the future. These three stand up, like linked summits in a mountain. We
can understand none of them unless we embrace them all. If the story of the
birth is true, a life so begun cannot end in an undistinguished death like that
of all men. And if the Ascensionfrom Olivet is true, that cannot close the
history of His relations to men. The creed which proclaims He was ‘born of
the Virgin Mary’ must go on to say‘. . . He ascendedup into heaven’; and
cannot pause till it adds ‘. . . From thence He shall come to judge the quick
and the dead.’ So we have then three points to considerin this sermon.
I. Note first, the three greatmoments.
The thing that befell at Bethlehem, in the stable of the inn, was a
commonplace and insignificant enoughevent lookedatfrom the outside: the
birth of a child to a young mother. It had its elements of pathos in its

occurring at a distance from home, among the publicity and discomforts of an
inn stable, and with some cloud of suspicionover the mother’s fair fame. But
the outside of a factis the leastpart of it. A little film of sea-weedfloats upon
the surface, but there are fathoms of it below the water. Men said, ‘A child is
born.’ Angels said, and bowedtheir faces in adoration, ‘The Word has
become flesh’. The eternal, self-communicating personality in the Godhead,
passedvoluntarily into the condition of humanity. Jesus was born, the Son of
God came. Only when we hold fast by that great truth do we pierce to the
centre of what was done in that poor stable, and possess the keyto all the
wonders of His life and death.
From the manger we pass to the mountain. A life begun by such a birth
cannot be ended, as I have said, by a mere ordinary death. The Alpha and the
Omega of that alphabet must belong to the same fount of type. A divine
conformity forbids that He who was born of the Virgin Mary should have His
body laid to rest in an undistinguished grave. And so what Bethlehem began,
Olivet carries on.
Note the circumstances ofthis secondof these greatmoments. The place is
significant. Almost within sight of the city, a stone’s throw probably from the
home where He had lodged, and where He had conquereddeath in the person
of Lazarus; not far from the turn of the road where the tears had come into
His eyes amidst the shouting of the rustic procession, as He had lookedacross
the valley; just above Gethsemane, where He had agonisedonthat bare
hillside to which He had often gone for communion with the Father in heaven.
There, in some dimple of the hill, and unseen but by the little group that
surrounded Him, He passedfrom their midst. The manner of the departure is
yet more significantthan the place. Here were no whirlwind, no chariots and
horses of fire, no sudden rapture; but, as the narrative makes emphatic, a
slow, leisurely, self-originatedfloating upwards. He was borne up from them,
and no outward vehicle or help was needed; but by His ownvolition and
powerHe rose towards the heavens. ‘And a cloud receivedHim out of their

sight’-the Shechinah cloud, the bright symbol of the Divine Presence which
had shone round the shepherds on the pastures of Bethlehem, and enwrapped
Him and the three disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration. It came not to
lift Him on its soft folds to the heavens, but in order that, first, He might be
plainly seentill the moment that He ceasedto be seen, and might not dwindle
into a speck by reasonof distance; and secondly, that it might teach the truth,
that, as His body was receivedinto the cloud, so He entered into the glory
which He ‘had with the Father before the world was.’Such was the secondof
these moments.
The third greatmoment corresponds to these, is required by them, and
crowns them. The Ascensionwas not only the close ofChrist’s earthly life
which would preserve congruity with its beginning, but it was also the clear
manifestation that, as He came of His own will, so He departed by His own
volition. ‘I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world. Again, I
leave the world and go unto the Father.’Thus the earthly life is, as it were,
islanded in a sea of glory, and that which stretches awaybeyond the last
moment of visibility, is like that which stretchedaway beyond the first
moment of corporeity; the eternalunion with the eternal Father. But such an
entrance on and departure from earth, and such a careeronearth, can only
end in that coming againof which the angels spoke to the gazing eleven.
Mark the emphasis of their words. ‘This same Jesus,’the same in His
manhood, ‘shall so come, in like manner, as ye have seenHim go.’ How much
the ‘in like manner’ may mean we can scarcelydogmaticallyaffirm. But this,
at least, is clear, that it cannotmean less than corporeallyvisible, locally
surrounded by angel-guards, and perhaps, according to a mysterious
prophecy, to the same spot from which He ascended. But, at all events, there
are the three moments in the manifestation of the Son of God.

II. Look, in the secondplace, atthe threefold phases of our Lord’s activity
which are thus suggested.
I need not dwell, in more than a sentence ortwo, on the first of these. Eachof
these three moments is the inauguration of a form of activity which lasts till
the emergence ofthe next of the triad.
The birth at Bethlehem had, for its consequence andpurpose, a threefold end:
the revelationof God in humanity, the manifestation of perfect manhood to
men, and the rendering of the greatsacrifice for the sins of the world. These
three-showing us God; showing ourselves as we are and as we may be; as we
ought to be, and, blessedbe His name, as we shall be, if we observe the
conditions; and the making reconciliationfor the sins of the whole world-these
are the things for which the Babe lying in the manger was born and came
under the limitations of humanity.
Turn to the secondof the three, and what shall we sayof it? That Ascension
has for its greatpurpose the application to men of the results of the
Incarnation. He was born that He might show us God and ourselves, and that
He might die for us. He ascended up on high in order that the benefits of that
Revelationand Atonement might be extended through, and appropriated by,
the whole world.
One chief thought which is enforced by the narrative of the Ascensionis the
permanence, the eternity of the humanity of Jesus Christ. He ascendedup
where He was before, but He who ascendedis not altogetherthe same as He
who had been there before, for He has takenup with Him our nature to the
centre of the universe and the throne of God, and there, ‘bone of our bone,
and flesh of our flesh,’ a true man in body, soul, and spirit, He lives and
reigns. The cradle at Bethlehemassumes evengreatersolemnity when we

think of it as the beginning of a humanity that is never laid aside. So we can
look confidently to all that blaze of light where He sits, and feelthat,
howsoeverthe body of His humiliation may have been changedinto the body
of His glory, He still remains corporeallyand spiritually a true Son of man.
Thus the face that looks down from amidst the blaze, though it be ‘as the sun
shineth in his strength,’ is the old face;and the breast which is girded with the
golden girdle is the same breaston which the seerhad leaned his happy head;
and the hand that holds the sceptre is the hand that was piercedwith the
nails; and the Christ that is ascendedup on high is the Christ that loved and
pitied adulteresses andpublicans, and took the little child in His gracious
arms-’The same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.’
Christ’s Ascensionis as the broad sealof heaven attesting the completeness of
His work on earth. It inaugurates His repose which is not the sign of His
weariness,but of His having finished all which He was born to do. But that
repose is not idleness. Rather it is full of activity.
On the Cross He shouted with a greatvoice ere He died, ‘It is finished.’ But
centuries, perhaps millenniums, yet will have to elapse before the choirs of
angels shall be able to chant, ‘It is done: the kingdoms of the world are the
kingdoms of God and of His Christ.’ All the interval is filled by the working of
that ascendedLord whose sessionat the right hand of God is not only
symbolical of perfect repose and a completed sacrifice, but also of perfect
activity in and with His servants.
He has gone-to rest, to reign, to work, to intercede, and to prepare a place for
us. For if our Brother be indeed at the right hand of God, then our faltering
feet may travel to the Throne, and our sinful selves may be at home there. The
living Christ, working to-day, is that of which the Ascensionfrom Olivet gives
us the guarantee.

The third greatmoment will inaugurate yet another form of activity as
necessaryand certain as either of the two preceding. For if His cradle was
what we believe it to have been, and if His sacrifice was whatScripture tells us
it is, and if through all the ages He, crownedand regnant, is working for the
diffusion of the powers of His Cross and the benefits of His Incarnation, there
can be no end to that course exceptthe one which is expressedfor us by the
angels’messageto the gazing disciples:He shall so come in like manner as ye
have seenHim go. He will come to manifest Himself as the King of the world
and its Lord and Redeemer. He will come to inaugurate the greatact of
Judgment, which His greatact of Redemption necessarilydraws after it, and
Himself be the Arbiter of the fates of men, the determining factorin whose
fates has been their relation to Him. No doubt many who never heard His
name upon earth will, in that day be, by His cleareye and perfect judgment,
discernedto have visited the sick and the imprisoned, and to have done many
acts for His sake. And for us who know Him, and have heard His name, the
way in which we stand affectedin heart and will to Christ reveals and settles
our whole character, shapes ourwhole being, and will determine our whole
destiny. He comes, not only to manifest Himself so as that ‘every eye shall see
Him,’ and to divide the sheepfrom the goats, but also in order that He may
reign for ever and gather into the fellowship of His love and the community of
His joys all who love and trust Him here. These are the triple phases of our
Lord’s activity suggestedby the three greatmoments.
III. Lastly, notice the triple attitude which we should assume to Him and to
them.
For the first, the cradle, with its consequenceofthe Cross, ourresponse is
clinging faith, grateful memory, earnestfollowing, and close conformity. For
the second, the Ascension, with its consequence ofa Christ that lives and
labours for us, and is with us, our attitude ought to be an intense realisationof
the factof His present working and of His present abode with us. The centre
of Christian doctrine has, amongstaverage Christians, beenfar too

exclusively fixed within the limits of the earthly life, and in the interests of a
true and comprehensive graspof all the blessednessthat Christianity is
capable of bringing to men, I would protest againstthat type of thought,
earnestand true as it may be within its narrow limits, which is always
pointing men to the past factof a Cross, andslurs over and obscures the
present fact of a living Christ who is with us, and in us. One difference
betweenHim and all other benefactors and teachers and helpers is this, that,
as ages go on, thickerand ever-thickening folds of misty oblivion wrap them,
and their influence diminishes as new circumstances emerge,but this Christ’s
powerlaughs at the centuries, and is untinged by oblivion, and is never out of
date. Forall others we have to say-’having servedhis generation,’or a
generationor two more, ‘according to the will of God, he fell on sleep.’But
Christ knows no corruption, and is for ever more the Leader, and the
Companion, and the Friend, of eachnew age.
Brethren! the Cross is incomplete without the throne. We are told to go back
to the historicalChrist. Yes, Amen, I say! But do not let that make us lose our
graspof the living Christ who is with us to-day. Whilst we rejoice over the
‘Christ that died,’ let us go on with Paul to say, ‘Yea! rather, that is risen
again, and is even at the right hand of God, who also makethintercessionfor
us.’
For that future, discredited as the thought of the secondcorporealcoming of
the Lord Jesus in visible fashionand to a locality has been by the fancies and
the vagaries ofso-calledApocalyptic expositors, let us not forgetthat it is the
hope of Christ’s Church, and that ‘they who love His appearing’ is, by the
Apostle, used as the description and definition of the Christian character. We
have to look forwards as well as backwards andupwards, and to rejoice in the
sure and certainconfidence that the Christ who has come is the Christ who
will come.

For us the pastshould be full of Him, and memory and faith should cling to
His Incarnation and His Cross. The present should be full of Him, and our
hearts should commune with Him amidst the toils of earth. The future should
be full of Him, and our hopes should be basedupon no vague anticipations of
a perfectibility of humanity, nor upon any dim dreams of what may lie beyond
the grave;but upon the concrete factthat Jesus Christ has risen, and that
Jesus Christ is glorified. Does my faith grasp the Christ that was-who died for
me? Does my heart cling to the Christ who is-who lives and reigns, and with
whom my life is hid in God? Do my hopes crystallise round, and anchorupon,
the Christ that is to come, and pierce the dimness of the future and the gloom
of the grave, looking onwards to that day of days when He, who is our life,
shall appear, and we shall appearalso with Him in glory?
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
1:6-11 They were earnestin asking about that which their Masternever had
directed or encouragedthem to seek. OurLord knew that his ascensionand
the teaching of the Holy Spirit would soonend these expectations, and
therefore only gave them a rebuke; but it is a caution to his church in all ages,
to take heed of a desire of forbidden knowledge.He had given his disciples
instructions for the discharge of their duty, both before his death and since his
resurrection, and this knowledge is enough for a Christian. It is enough that
He has engagedto give believers strength equal to their trials and services;
that under the influence of the Holy Spirit they may, in one way or other, be
witnesses forChrist on earth, while in heaven he manages their concerns with
perfect wisdom, truth, and love. When we stand gazing and trifling, the
thoughts of our Master's secondcoming should quicken and awakenus:when
we stand gazing and trembling, they should comfort and encourage us. May
our expectationof it be stedfastand joyful, giving diligence to be found of him
blameless.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
Ye men of Galilee - Galilee was the place of their former residence, and they
were commonly knownby the name of Galileans.

Why stand ye ... - There is doubtless a slight degree of censure implied in this,
as well as a design to call their attention awayfrom a vain attempt to see the
departed Saviour. The impropriety may have been:
(1) In the feeling of disappointment, as if he would not restore the kingdom to
Israel.
(2) Possiblythey were expecting that he would again soonappear, though he
had often foretold them that he would ascendto heaven.
(3) there might have been an impropriety in their earnestdesire for the mere
bodily presence of the Lord Jesus, whenit was more important that he should
be in heaven. We may see here also that it is our duty not to stand in idleness,
and to gaze even toward heaven. We, as wellas the apostles, have a great
work to do, and we should actively engage in it without delay.
Gazing up - Looking up.
This same Jesus - This was said to comfort them. The same tried friend who
had been so faithful to them would return. They ought not, therefore, to look
with despondencyat his departure.
Into heaven - This expressiondenotes into the immediate presence ofGod; or
into the place of perpetual purity and happiness, where God especially
manifests his favor. The same thing is frequently designatedby his sitting on
the right hand of God, as emblematic of power, honor, and favor. See the
Mark 16:19; Mark 14:62 notes; Hebrews 1:3; Hebrews 8:1 notes; Acts 7:55
note; Romans 8:34 note; Ephesians 1:20 note.

Shall so come - At the day of judgment. John 14:3, "if I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again," etc.
In like manner ... - In clouds, as he ascended. See the Acts 1:9 note; 1
Thessalonians 4:16 note. This address was designedto comfort the disciples.
Though their master and friend was takenfrom them, yet he was not removed
forever. He would come again with similar majesty and glory to vindicate his
people, and to tread his enemies under his feet. The designfor which he will
come will be to judge the world, Matthew 25. There will be an evident fitness
and propriety in his coming for such reasons as the following:
(1) Because his appropriate work in heaven as mediator will have been
accomplished;his people will have been saved;the greatenemy of God and
man will have been subdued; death will have been conquered; and the gospel
will have shownits powerin subduing all forms of wickedness;in removing
the effects ofsin; in establishing the Law, and in vindicating the honor of God;
and all will have been done that is necessaryto establishthe authority of God
throughout the universe. It will be proper, therefore, that this mysterious
order of things shall be wound up, and the results become a matter of record
in the history of the universe. This will be better than it would be to suffer an
eternal millennium on the earth, while the saints should many of them
slumber, and the wickedstill be in their graves.
(2) it is proper that he should come to vindicate his people, and raise them up
to glory. Here they have been persecuted, oppressed, put to death. Their
characteris assailed;they are poor; and the world despises them. It is fit that
God should show himself to be their friend; that he should do justice to their
injured names and motives; that he should bring out hidden and obscure
virtue, and vindicate it; that he should enter every grave and bring forth his
friends to life.

(3) it is proper that he should show his hatred of sin. Here it triumphs. The
wickedare rich, and honored, and mighty, and say, Where is the promise of
his coming? 2 Peter3:4. It is right that he should defend his cause. Hence, the
Lord Jesus will come to guard the avenues to heaven, and to see that the
universe suffers no wrong by the admissionof an improper person to the
skies.
(4) the greattransactions of redemption have been public, open, often grand.
The apostasywas public, in the face of angels and of the universe. Sin has
been open, public high-handed. Misery has been public, and has rolled its
deep and turbid waves in the face of the universe. Deathhas been public; all
worlds have seenthe race cut down and moulder. The death of Jesus was
public: the angels saw it; the heavens were clothed with mourning; the earth
shook, and the dead arose. Jesus was publicly whipped, cursed, crucified; and
it is proper that he should publicly triumph - that all heaven rejoicing, and all
hell at length humbled, should see his public victory. Hence, he will come with
clouds - with angels - with fire - and will raise the dead, and exhibit to all the
universe the amazing close ofthe scheme of redemption.
continued...
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
11. Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven, &c.—"as ifyour
now glorified Head were gone from you never to return: He is coming again;
not another, but 'this same Jesus';and 'as ye have seenHim go, in the like
manner shall He come'—as personally, as visibly, as gloriously; and let the
joyful expectationof this coming swallow up the sorrow of that departure."
Matthew Poole's Commentary

Which also said;the two angels (in the form of men) before mentioned.
Ye men of Galilee;that is, the apostles, who were ofthat country.
Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? They are roused out of the ecstasythey
were in at that glorious sight, to learn what was so much to their and our
advantage. Shallso come:
1. Visibly.
2. In a cloud.
3. By his own power.
4. With the like majesty.
5. With the same soul and body.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
Which also said, ye men of Galilee,.... And which was saidby them, not to
reproachthem with their country, but partly to let them know that they knew
them, who they were, and from whence they came;and partly to observe the
rich and distinguishing grace of God in choosing suchmean and contemptible
persons to be the apostles ofChrist, and eyewitnesses ofhis majesty:

why stand ye gazing up into heaven? reproving them for their curiosity in
looking after Christ with their bodily eyes, who was no more in common to be
seenthis way, but with an eye of faith; and for their desire after his corporeal
presence, whichthey were not to look for; and as if they expectedhe would
return againimmediately, whereas his return will not be till the end of the
world: and besides, they were not to remain on that spot, or stand gazing
there; they were to go to Jerusalem, and abide there, as Christ had ordered,
till they should receive the Holy Spirit in an extraordinary way; and then they
were to preach a crucified Christ, and declare that he was risen from the
dead, and was gone to heaven, and was ordained to be the Judge of quick and
dead,
This same Jesus;and not another; the same in person, in body and soul:
which is takenup from you into heaven; who was takenup in a cloud out of
their sight, and receivedinto heaven, where he will be till the times of the
restitution of all things; and which might be matter of grief to them, because
of the loss of his bodily presence;though it should have been rather joyful to
them, since he was gone to the Father, and as their forerunner, to prepare a
place, and make intercessionforthem:
shall so come in like manner as ye have seenhim go into heaven; he shall come
in the same flesh, in the same human nature; he shall come in the clouds of
heaven, and shall be attended with his mighty angels, as he now was;he shall
descendhimself in person, as he now ascendedin person; and as he went up
with a shout, and with the sound of a trumpet, see Psalm47:5 so he shall
descendwith a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God;
and, it may be, he shall descendupon the very spot from whence he ascended;
see Zechariah14:4 and it is a notion of the Jews, that the resurrection of the
Israelites will be there: they say(m), that "when the dead shall live, the Mount
of Olives shall be cleavedasunder, and all the dead of Israelshall come out

from under it; yea, even the righteous which die in captivity shall pass
through a subterranean cavern, and come out from under the Mount of
Olives.
(m) Targum in Cant. viii. 5.
Geneva Study Bible
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this
same Jesus, whichis takenup {g} from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seenhim go into heaven.
(g) That is, out of your sight.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Expositor's Greek Testament
Acts 1:11. ἄνδρες Γαλ.: the ἄνδρες in similar expressions is often indicative of
respectas in classicalGreek, but as addressedby angels to men it may denote
the earnestnessofthe address (Nösgen). St. Chrysostomsaw in the salutation
a wish to gain the confidence of the disciples: “Else, whyneeded they to be
told of their country who knew it well enough?” Calvin also rejects the notion
that the angels meant to blame the slownessanddulness of apprehensionof
Galilæans. At the same time the word Γαλ. seems to remind us that things
which are despised(John 7:52) hath God chosen. ExGalilæa nunquam vel
certe raro fuerat propheta; at omnes Apostoli (Bengel);see also below.—οὗτος
ὁ Ἰησοῦς:if the mention of their northern home had reminded the disciples of
their early choice by Christ and of all that He had been to them, the personal
name Jesus would assure them that their master would still be a human
Friend and divine Saviour; Hic Jesus:qui vobis fuit eritque semper Jesus, id
est, Salvator(Corn. à Lap.).—πορευόμενον:on the frequency of the verb in St.
Luke as compared with other N.T. writers, often used to give effectand

vividness to the scene, both Friedrich and Zeller remark; St. Peter uses the
same word of our Lord’s Ascension, 1 Peter3:22. As at the Birth of Christ, so
too at His Ascensionthe angels’message wasreceivedobediently and joyfully,
for only thus can we explain Luke 24:52.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
11. Ye men of Galilee]The Galilæan dialectwas a marked peculiarity of the
apostolic band. It seems also to have been our Lord’s manner of speech. For
when Peteris accused(Matthew 26:73)of being one of Christ’s followers the
words of the accusationare “Surelythou art one of them, for thy speech
bewrayeth thee.”
shall so come] This promise of the return of Jesus, onthe immediate
expectationof which so many of the first Christians fixed their thoughts,
explains those words in the abridged accountof the Ascensionin St Luke’s
Gospel(Luke 24:52), “They returned to Jerusalemwith greatjoy.”
Bengel's Gnomen
Acts 1:11. Γαλιλαῖοι, ye men of Galilee)In apparitions which are vouchsafed
to individuals, the angels employed the proper name: instead of which in this
place the name of their country is employed, under which they all are
included. Out of Galilee seldom, if ever, a prophet had arisen; hut all the
apostles had come out of it.—τί, why?) A similar Why occurs in ch. Acts
3:12.—ἐμβλέποντες)gazing earnestly, with a lingering look up into heaven,
which now it serves no purpose to look at, since Jesus is no longer to he
seen.—οὕτως,ὅντρόπον, so, in like manner as) A similar phrase occurs, ch.
Acts 27:25, “evenas it was told me:” 2 Timothy 3:8.—ἐλεύσεται, shall come)
It is the Ascensionof Christ, rather than His Advent to judgment, which is
describedin Scripture as His return. He is said to come, not only because He
had not previously come to judge, but because His Adwent in glory shall be

much more remarkable than His first Advent. The world had not believed
that the Son of GOD had come: in respectto believers He is said to return:
John 14:3, “I come again(= return) and receive you to Myself.” Then He shall
be revealedin His own day. The verb cometh already was employed in the
prophecy of Enoch, Jude Acts 1:14. He shall come, in a visible manner, in a
cloud, with a trumpet, with an attendant train, and perhaps in the same place,
Acts 1:12, “the mount calledOlivet.” Add Zechariah14:4, “His feet shall
stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalemon the
east.” Comp. the annot. of Michaëlis, and the note on Matthew 24:27, “As the
lightning cometh out of the East, so shall the coming of the Son of man be” [It
is probable that Christ’s coming will be from the East]. Notthose who saw
Him ascending are said to be about to see Him when He shall come. Between
His Ascensionand His Coming in glory no event intervenes equal in
importance to eachof these two events: therefore these two are joined
together. Naturally therefore the apostles, before the giving of the Apocalypse,
setbefore them the day of Christ as very near. And it accords with the
majesty of Christ, that during the whole period betweenHis Ascensionand
His Advent, He should without intermission be expected.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 11. - Looking for gazing up, A.V.; this for this same, A.V.; was received
for is taken, A.V.; beheld him going for have seenhim go, A.V. In like
manner; i.e. in a cloud. The descriptionof our Lord's secondadvent
constantly makes mention of clouds. "Behold, he comethwith clouds"
(Revelation1:7). "One like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven"
(Daniel 7:13; and so Matthew 26:64; Luke 21:27, etc.). We are reminded of
the grand imagery of Psalm 104:3, "Who maketh the clouds his chariot, who
walkethupon the wings of the wind." It may be remarked that the above is by
far the fullest accountwe have of the ascensionofour Lord. St. Luke appears
to have learnt some further particulars concerning it in the interval between
writing his Gospel(Luke 24:50-52)and writing the Acts. But allusions to the
Ascensionare frequent (Mark 16:19;John 6:62; John 20:17;Romans 8:34;
Ephesians 4:8, 9; Philippians 2:9; Colossians 3:1;1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter

3:22, etc.). With reference to Zeller's assertion, that in St. Luke's Gospelthe
Ascensionis representedas taking place on the day of the Resurrection, it
may freely be admitted that the narrative in the Gospeldoes not mark
distinctly the interval of time betweenthe different appearancesand
discourses ofour Lord from the day of the Resurrectionto that of the
Ascension. It seems to group them according to their logicalconnectionrather
than according to their chronologicalsequence, andto be a generalaccountof
what Jesus saidbetweenthe Resurrectionand the Ascension. But there is
nothing whateverin the text of St. Luke to indicate that what is related in the
sectionLuke 24:44-49 took place atthe same time as the things related in the
preceding verses. And when we compare with that sectionwhat is containedin
Acts 1:4, 5, it becomes clearthat it did not. Becausethe words "assembling
togetherwith them," in ver. 4, clearly indicate a different occasionfrom the
apparitions on the day of the Resurrection;and as the words in Luke 24:44-49
correspondwith those in Acts 1:4, 5, it must have been also on a different
occasionthat they were spoken. Again, the narrative of St. John, both in the
twentieth and the twenty-first chapters, as well as that of Matthew 28:10, 16;
Mark 16:7, precludes the possibility of the Ascensionhaving takenplace, or
having been thought to have takenplace, on the day of the Resurrection, or
for many days after, so that to force a meaning upon the lastchapter of St.
Luke's Gospelwhich it does not necessarilybear, and which places it at
variance with St. Luke's own accountin the Acts (Acts 1:3; 13:31), and with
the Church traditions as preserved by St. Matthew, St. Mark and St. John, is
a violent and willful transaction. Acts 1:11
STUDYLIGHTRESOURCES
Adam Clarke Commentary

Gazing up into heaven - Notto the top of a mountain, to which an unbridled
fancy, influenced by infidelity, would intimate he had ascended, andnot to
heaven.
This same Jesus - Clothed in human nature, shall so come in like manner -
with the same body, descending from heaven by his sovereignand all-
controlling power, as ye have seenhim go into heaven. Thus shall he come
againto judge the quick and the dead. It was a very ancientopinion among
Christians, that when Christ should come againto judge the world he would
make his appearance onMount Olivet. Some think that his coming again to
destroy the Jewishnation is what the angels refer to. See a connectedaccount
of the different appearances ofChrist at the end of this chapter.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
BibliographicalInformation
Clarke, Adam. "Commentary on Acts 1:11". "The Adam Clarke
Commentary". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/acc/acts-1.html.
1832.
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Albert Barnes'Notes onthe Whole Bible
Ye men of Galilee - Galilee was the place of their former residence, and they
were commonly knownby the name of Galileans.
Why stand ye … - There is doubtless a slight degree of censure implied in this,
as well as a design to call their attention awayfrom a vain attempt to see the
departed Saviour. The impropriety may have been:

(1)In the feeling of disappointment, as if he would not restore the kingdom to
Israel.
(2)Possiblythey were expecting that he would againsoonappear, though he
had often foretold them that he would ascendto heaven.
(3)there might have been an impropriety in their earnestdesire for the mere
bodily presence of the Lord Jesus, whenit was more important that he should
be in heaven. We may see here also that it is our duty not to stand in idleness,
and to gaze even toward heaven. We, as wellas the apostles, have a great
work to do, and we should actively engage in it without delay.
Gazing up - Looking up.
This same Jesus - This was said to comfort them. The same tried friend who
had been so faithful to them would return. They ought not, therefore, to look
with despondencyat his departure.
Into heaven - This expressiondenotes into the immediate presence ofGod; or
into the place of perpetual purity and happiness, where God especially
manifests his favor. The same thing is frequently designatedby his sitting on
the right hand of God, as emblematic of power, honor, and favor. See the
Mark 16:19; Mark 14:62 notes; Hebrews 1:3; Hebrews 8:1 notes; Acts 7:55
note; Romans 8:34 note; Ephesians 1:20 note.
Shall so come - At the day of judgment. John 14:3, “if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again,” etc.

In like manner … - In clouds, as he ascended. See the Acts 1:9 note; 1
Thessalonians 4:16 note. This address was designedto comfort the disciples.
Though their master and friend was takenfrom them, yet he was not removed
forever. He would come again with similar majesty and glory to vindicate his
people, and to tread his enemies under his feet. The designfor which he will
come will be to judge the world, 2 Peter3:4. It is right that he should defend
his cause. Hence, the Lord Jesus will come to guard the avenues to heaven,
and to see that the universe suffers no wrong by the admission of an improper
person to the skies.
(4) the greattransactions of redemption have been public, open, often grand.
The apostasywas public, in the face of angels and of the universe. Sin has
been open, public high-handed. Misery has been public, and has rolled its
deep and turbid waves in the face of the universe. Deathhas been public; all
worlds have seenthe race cut down and moulder. The death of Jesus was
public: the angels saw it; the heavens were clothed with mourning; the earth
shook, and the dead arose. Jesus was publicly whipped, cursed, crucified; and
it is proper that he should publicly triumph - that all heaven rejoicing, and all
hell at length humbled, should see his public victory. Hence, he will come with
clouds - with angels - with fire - and will raise the dead, and exhibit to all the
universe the amazing close ofthe scheme of redemption.
(5) we have in these verses a description of the most grand and wonderful
events that this world has ever known - the ascensionand return of the Lord
Jesus. Here is consolationfor the Christian; and here is a source ofceaseless
alarm to the sinner.
Copyright Statement

Barnes, Albert. "Commentaryon Acts 1:11". "Barnes'Notes onthe Whole
Bible". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bnb/acts-1.html. 1870.
William Godbey's Commentary on the New Testament
11. “And they said, Galileanmen, why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? The
same Jesus who was takenup from you into Heaven will so come in the
manner in which you saw Him going into Heaven.” Such was the testimony of
those radiant angels whose effulgentglory flashed out on the astounded
multitude standing on the summit of Mount Olivet and witnessing the glorious
ascensionof our Lord. He went up amid the clouds, bright and glorious (as
there are no rain clouds in Jerusalemin the summer time); so He will come
again, riding on a brilliant white cloud, bright as the lightning. He went up
accompaniedby hosts of angels as well as redeemed spirits. So He will return,
attended by mighty hosts of unfallen angels and all the disembodied spirits of
the Bridehood, returning to the earth to receive their risen and glorified
bodies. Zechariah beautifully corroboratesthe testimony of these angels:“His
feet shall stand againupon Mount Olivet.” This is grand and conclusive,
assuring us beyond the possibility of cavil that the very same transfigured and
glorified body of Jesus which flew up from Mount Olivet is coming back again
to put His feeton that mountain summit. The word of the Lord is
unmistakable. The same Jesus who rode over Mount Olivet on the donkey is
going to ride down on a cloud and put His glorified feet on the spot He
evacuatedto fly awayto heaven. The very same Jesus who hung on the cross
is going to sit on the throne.
Copyright Statement
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.

Godbey, William. "Commentary on Acts 1:11". "William Godbey's
Commentary on the New Testament".
https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/ges/acts-1.html.
Coffman Commentaries on the Bible
Who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? This
Jesus, who was receivedup from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye beheld him going into heaven.
The messageofthe angels to the heavenwardgazing apostles has the spiritual
effectof challenging every believer to be busily engagedin the service of the
Lord, rather than wasting time by gazing into those things which are beyond
all human knowledge ofthem.
Shall so come in like manner ... This is a heavenly pledge that the Second
Coming will be literal and physical as was Jesus'departure. Also, the manner
of his coming will be "in the clouds of heaven," as frequently stated in the
New Testament.
Copyright Statement
Coffman Commentaries reproduced by permission of Abilene Christian
University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. All other rights reserved.
Coffman, James Burton. "Commentary on Acts 1:11". "Coffman
Commentaries on the Bible".
https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/bcc/acts-1.html. Abilene Christian
University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA. 1983-1999.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible
Which also said, ye men of Galilee,.... And which was saidby them, not to
reproachthem with their country, but partly to let them know that they knew
them, who they were, and from whence they came;and partly to observe the
rich and distinguishing grace of God in choosing suchmean and contemptible
persons to be the apostles ofChrist, and eyewitnesses ofhis majesty:
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? reproving them for their curiosity in
looking after Christ with their bodily eyes, who was no more in common to be
seenthis way, but with an eye of faith; and for their desire after his corporeal
presence, whichthey were not to look for; and as if they expectedhe would
return againimmediately, whereas his return will not be till the end of the
world: and besides, they were not to remain on that spot, or stand gazing
there; they were to go to Jerusalem, and abide there, as Christ had ordered,
till they should receive the Holy Spirit in an extraordinary way; and then they
were to preach a crucified Christ, and declare that he was risen from the
dead, and was gone to heaven, and was ordained to be the Judge of quick and
dead,
This same Jesus;and not another; the same in person, in body and soul:
which is takenup from you into heaven; who was taken up in a cloud out of
their sight, and receivedinto heaven, where he will be till the times of the
restitution of all things; and which might be matter of grief to them, because
of the loss of his bodily presence;though it should have been rather joyful to
them, since he was gone to the Father, and as their forerunner, to prepare a
place, and make intercessionforthem:
shall so come in like manner as ye have seenhim go into heaven; he shall come
in the same flesh, in the same human nature; he shall come in the clouds of

heaven, and shall be attended with his mighty angels, as he now was;he shall
descendhimself in person, as he now ascendedin person; and as he went up
with a shout, and with the sound of a trumpet, see Psalm47:5 so he shall
descendwith a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God;
and, it may be, he shall descendupon the very spot from whence he ascended;
see Zechariah14:4 and it is a notion of the Jews, that the resurrection of the
Israelites will be there: they sayF13,that "whenthe dead shall live, the Mount
of Olives shall be cleavedasunder, and all the dead of Israelshall come out
from under it; yea, even the righteous which die in captivity shall pass
through a subterranean cavern, and come out from under the Mount of
Olives.
Copyright Statement
The New John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible Modernisedand adapted
for the computer by Larry Pierce of Online Bible. All Rights Reserved, Larry
Pierce, Winterbourne, Ontario.
A printed copy of this work can be ordered from: The Baptist Standard
Bearer, 1 Iron Oaks Dr, Paris, AR, 72855
Gill, John. "Commentary on Acts 1:11". "The New John Gill Exposition of
the Entire Bible". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/geb/acts-1.html.
1999.
Geneva Study Bible
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this
same Jesus, whichis takenup g from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seenhim go into heaven.
(g) That is, out of your sight.
Copyright Statement

Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Beza, Theodore. "Commentaryon Acts 1:11". "The 1599 Geneva Study
Bible". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/gsb/acts-1.html. 1599-1645.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven, etc. — “as if your now
glorified Head were gone from you never to return: He is coming again;not
another, but ‹this same Jesus‘;and ‹as ye have seenHim go, in the like
manner shall He come‘ - as personally, as visibly, as gloriously; and let the
joyful expectationof this coming swallow up the sorrow of that departure.”
Copyright Statement
These files are a derivative of an electronic edition prepared from text
scannedby Woodside Bible Fellowship.
This expanded edition of the Jameison-Faussett-BrownCommentary is in the
public domain and may be freely used and distributed.
Jamieson, Robert, D.D.;Fausset,A. R.; Brown, David. "Commentary on Acts
1:11". "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible".
https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jfb/acts-1.html. 1871-8.
People's New Testament
Ye men of Galilee. The apostles were mostly, if not all, Galileans.

This same Jesus... shallso come. The cloud received him from their sight. He
shall come in the clouds of heaven(Daniel 7:13; Matthew 24:30;Matthew
26:24).
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain and are a derivative of an electronic edition that
is available on the Christian ClassicsEtherealLibrary Website.
Original work done by Ernie Stefanik. First published online in 1996 atThe
RestorationMovementPages.
Johnson, BartonW. "Commentary on Acts 1:11". "People'sNew Testament".
https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/pnt/acts-1.html. 1891.
Robertson's WordPictures in the New Testament
Who also (οι και — hoi kai). Common use of και — kai pleonastic to show
that the two events were parallel. This is the simplest way from Homer on to
narrate two parallelevents.
Why? (τι — tōi). Jesus had told them of his coming Ascension(John 6:62;
John 20:17) so that they should have been prepared.
This Jesus (ουτος ο Ιησους — houtos ho Iēsous). Qui vobis fuit eritque semper
Jesus, id esto4, Salvator(Corn. a Lapide). The personal name assures them
that Jesus will always be in heaven a personalfriend and divine Saviour
(Knowling).
So in like manner (ουτως ον τροπον— houtōs hon tropon). Same idea twice.
“So in which manner” (incorporationof antecedentand accusative ofgeneral
reference). The fact of his secondcoming and the manner of it also described
by this emphatic repetition.

Copyright Statement
The Robertson's WordPictures of the New Testament. Copyright �
Broadman Press 1932,33,Renewal1960. All rights reserved. Used by
permission of Broadman Press (Southern BaptistSunday SchoolBoard)
Robertson, A.T. "Commentary on Acts 1:11". "Robertson's WordPictures of
the New Testament". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/rwp/acts-
1.html. BroadmanPress 1932,33. Renewal1960.
Calvin's Commentary on the Bible
Мужи Галилейские. Я не согласенс теми, кто думает, что это имя
приписано апостолам с презрительным оттенком. Словноангелы
порицали их тупоумие и слепоту. По моемумнению, оно также должно
было пробудить их внимание. Ведь к ним, как к знакомым,обращались
два неизвестныхим, никогда не встречавшихсямужа. Но кажется, что
апостоловзряпорицаютза смотрение на небо. Где же еще можно искать
Христа? Разве Писание не приглашаетнас повсюдувзирать на небеса?
Отвечаю:апостоловпорицаютне за то, что они смотрели ввысь, а за то,
что своим взором пытались отыскать Христа, хотя закрывшее Его
облако отвращало ум от этих попыток. Их попрекнули также за то, что
они надеялись на скорое возвращениеХриста, дабы снова наслаждаться
Его лицезрением. ХотяОн восшел для того, чтобы оставатьсяна небесах
до второго пришествия как Судии мира. Посему, научимсяи мы из этого
места, что Христа ни на небе, ни на земле нельзяискать иначе, нежели
через веру. Кроме того, не следуетжелать Его телесногоприсутствия,
дабы Он жил с нами в мире. И всякий, чем больше будетпривязываться
к этим вещам, тем дальше отойдетотХриста. Таким образом, удивление
порицаетсяздесь не безусловно, но постольку, посколькуновизна
событияоглушила их разум. Подобно тому, как мы часто необдуманно
вникаем в величие Божиихдел, не прилагаяусилий длядостижения
нужных целей.

Иисус, вознесшийся. В этом предложении две части. Перваяговорит, что
Иисус взят на небеса, дабы Егобольше не искали на земле по глупому
недомыслию. Втораяже добавлена ради утешенияо втором Его
пришествии. Из этих соединенныхвместе частей, и из каждой из них в
отдельности, можно вывести надежный доводдляопровержения
папистови всехпрочих, утверждающих плотское присутствие Христово
в символаххлеба и вина. Ведь когда о Христе говорится, что Он взят на
небеса, то несомненнопоказываетсярасстояние междуместами.
Признаю, что слово «небо»можно понять по-разному. Оно означаетто
воздух, то всю совокупность сфер, то славное Царство Божие, где
величие Божие имеетсобственное седалище, наполняя, однако, весь мир.
По этой причине Павел помещаетХриста выше всехнебес. Ведь Он
находитсявыше мира и занимаетнаивысшее местов пристанище
блаженного бессмертия, превосходятакже всехангелови являясь Их
Главою. Но все это не мешаеттому, чтобы Он был удален от нас, чтобы
словом «небеса»означалсяЕго уход из мира. Что бы кто ни говорил,
ясно, что небо, куда был взят Христос, противопоставлено здесь всей
громаде мира. ПоэтомуХристу, дабы находитьсяна небе, надлежит
пребывать вне мира. Но прежде всего надо понять, что хотели сказать
ангелы. Ведь из этого мы составим болеенадежноесуждениеоб их
словах. Ангелы хотели отвадить учениковотжеланиятелесного
Христова присутствия. Для той цели они и возвещают, что Он придетво
второй раз. Обозначение времени направленона то, чтобы апостолыне
ждали Христа напрасно прежде Его второго пришествия. Кто не поймет,
что сими словами означаетсяотсутствие тела Христова в этом мире?
Кто не увидит, что здесь нам запрещаетсяискать Христа на земле?
Они думаютвыпутатьсячерез утонченный софизм, говоря, что тогда
Христос придет в видимом облике, а теперь Он ежедневно приходит
невидимым. Но здесь речь идетне о форме прихода. Апостолов
увещеваютпозволить Христу оставатьсяна небесахдо явленияв
последний день мира. А желание Его телесного присутствияосуждается

как глупое и извращенное. Паписты отрицают, что присутствие плоти
само являетсяплотским, посколькупрославленноетело присутствует
среди нас сверхъестественным образом и посредством чуда. Но их
измышленияо прославленномтеле можно отвернуть как детские и
смехотворные.Они придумываютсебечудо без всякого свидетельства
Писания. Когда Христос послевоскресенияобщалсяс учениками, Его
тело уже было прославленным. Это было сделанотайной и необычной
божественной силой. Но после всегоэтого ангелызапрещаютжелать
возвращенияХриста к людям. Итак, согласноих заповеди, мы не
должны низводить Его с неба нашими измышлениями, не должны
думать, будто Он, не будучи видим, подлежитосязаниюили другим
чувствам. Я говорю именно о теле. Ибо то, что его зовут бесконечным,
можно спокойно отвергнуть как абсурдный вымысел.
Между тем, охотно признаю, что Христос восшел, дабы наполнить Собой
все. Но я утверждаю, что Христос повсюдуприсутствуетсилой Своего
Духа, а не сущностью плоти. Признаю также, что Он присутствует с
нами через слово и таинства. И не следуетсомневаться:воистину
становятсяпричастниками Его плоти и крови те, кто с верою принимает
означающие ихсимволы. Но это общение не имеетничего общегос
безумием папистов. Они так же измышляютсебе Христа и алтарь, как
Нума Помпилий призывал своего Юпитера Элиция, или как ведьмы
низводятлуну с неба своими заклинаниями. Христос же, даваянам хлеб
с неба, приглашаетнас на небеса,дабы верою мы черпали жизнь от Его
плоти и крови. Таким образом Его плоть, дабыбыть длянас
животворяще, вовсе не даетсяв наши руки, но тайной силою Святого
Духа изливаетвнас свою жизнь.
Придет таким же образом. Как я сказал, словао возвращении Христа
служат утешением, смягчающим и даже полностьюустраняющим грусть
из-за Его отсутствия. Но одновременнонадо иметь в виду его цель.
Придет Искупитель, Который возьметнас с Собой в блаженное

бессмертие.Ведь, как сейчас Христос не сидитне небе праздным
(подобно богамГомера, о коихговорят, что они заняты одним
наслаждением), так и вновь явится перед нами вовсе не бесцельно. Итак,
ожидание Христа и обуздываетнесвоевременное желание нашей плоти и
поддерживаетнаше терпение во всехневзгодах, и должно утешать нашу
грусть. И это оно производитв верующих, считающихХриста своим
Искупителем. Ведь длянечестивыхоно несетлишь чувство страха и
ужаса. И как сейчасони смеются,когдаупоминаетсяо Его приходе, так
и тогда будут вынуждены узреть сидящим на судилище Того, Кого
теперь не удосуживаютсяуслышать. Далее,поднимать вопрос об
одеждах, коими Христос, вероятно, будеттогда облечен,и в которых
собираетсяпридти – пустая болтовня. То же, что Августин говоритв
письме 146 к Консенцию, яне намерен опровергать.Но то, что не могу
объяснить, лучше всего обойти молчанием.
Copyright Statement
Calvin, John. "Commentary on Acts 1:11". "Calvin's Commentary on the
Bible". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/cal/acts-1.html. 1840-57.
Scofield's ReferenceNotes

come
The two Advents--Summary:
(1) The O.T. foreview of the coming Messiahis in two aspects--thatof
rejectionand suffering (as e.g. in Is 53), and that of earthly glory and power
(as e.g. In Is 11 Jeremiah23 Ezekiel37). Often these two aspects blend in one
passage(e.g. Psalms 2). The prophets themselves were perplexed by this
seeming contradiction 1 Peter1:10; 1 Peter1:11. It was solvedby partial
fulfilment. In due time the Messiah, bornof a virgin according to Isaiah,
appearedamong men and beganHis ministry by announcing the predicted
kingdom as "athand."
(See Scofield"Matthew 4:17"). The rejection of King and kingdom followed.
(2) Thereupon the rejectedKing announced His approaching crucifixion,
resurrection, departure, and return (Matthew 24, 25). Matthew 12:38-40;
Matthew 16:1-4; Matthew 16:21; Matthew 16:27;Luke 12:35-46;Luke 17:20-
36; Luke 18:31-34;Luke 19:12-27.
(3) He uttered predictions concerning the course of events betweenHis
departure and return Matthew 13:1-50;Matthew 16:18; Matthew 24:4-26
(4) This promised return of Christ becomes a prominent theme in the Acts,
Epistles, and Revelation.

Takentogether, the N.T. teachings concerning the return of Jesus Christ may
be summarized as follows:
(1) That return is an event, not a process, andis personal and corporeal
Matthew 23:39; Matthew 24:30;Matthew 25:31;Mark 14:62; Luke 17:24;
John 14:3; Acts 1:11; Philippians 3:20; Philippians 3:21; 1 Thessalonians
4:14-17.
(2) His coming has a threefold relation: to the church, to Israel, to the nations.
(a) To the church the descentof the Lord into the air to raise the sleeping and
change the living saints is setforth as a constantexpectationand hope
Matthew 24:36; Matthew 24:44;Matthew 24:48-51;Matthew 25:13; 1
Corinthians 15:51; 1 Corinthians 15:52;Philippians 3:20; 1 Thessalonians
1:10; 1 Thessalonians4:14-17;1 Timothy 6:14; Titus 2:13; Revelation22:20.
(b) To Israel, the return of the Lord is predicted to accomplishthe yet
unfulfilled prophecies of her national regathering, conversion, and
establishment in peace and powerunder the Davidic Covenant Acts 15:14-17
with Zechariah 14:1-9.
See "Kingdom (O.T.)" 2 Samuel 7:8-17.
(See Scofield"Zechariah13:8")
Luke 1:31-33

(See Scofield"1 Corinthians 15:24")
(c) To the Gentile nations the return of Christ is predicted to bring the
destruction of the present political world-systemDaniel 2:34; Daniel2:35. (See
Scofield"Revelation19:11"), the judgment of Matthew 25:31-46 followedby
world-wide Gentile conversionand participation in the blessings of the
kingdom; Isaiah 2:2-4; Isaiah 11:10;Isaiah 60:3; Zechariah8:3; Zechariah
8:20; Zechariah 8:23; Zechariah 14:16-21.
Copyright Statement
These files are consideredpublic domain and are a derivative of an electronic
edition that is available in the Online Bible Software Library.
Scofield, C. I. "ScofieldReferenceNoteson Acts 1:11". "ScofieldReference
Notes (1917 Edition)". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/srn/acts-
1.html. 1917.
James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary
ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN
‘Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?’
Acts 1:11
The words contain a reproach. Christ had left His disciples not a barren
legacyof sorrow and idleness, but an inexhaustible fund of joy and an

inheritance of practicallabours for His sake. And so with the angel’s words
ringing in their ears they returned to Jerusalemand, after tarrying for the
promise of the Holy Ghost, flung themselves into practicallabours of Divine
mission.
I. Gazing into heaven.
(a) It is possible to spend our energies in mourning over sin and in longing to
leave the world in which God has placed us.
(b) We may regard heavenas a distant place, forgetting that God and Christ
and heavenmay be found here and in this life.
(c) We may spend our energies in thinking about heaven, forgetting the
heaven that lies about us.
Men speak of the earthly and the heavenly life; but in this division there is the
danger that men will forget Godaltogether.
II. The lessonofthe Ascension.—Is itnot expressedin the Collect‘with Him
continually dwell’? That is a prayer to enter heaven here and now. This can
only be done by prayer and by realising His Presence more fully.
—Rev. H. G. Hart.
Copyright Statement

Jesus was coming back just as he went

Jesus was coming back just as he went

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