The Same Jesus will Return

A Word of Truth #096 (Acts 1:11) 

Forty days after He rose from the dead, Jesus visibly ascended into heaven in full view of His disciples. It was an amazing scene, so amazing that the disciples just stared into the sky long after Jesus had disappeared. To the staring disciples an angel announced God’s promise, “This same Jesus who was taken up…will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

The same Jesus—the Son of God who became man, the same Jesus—who gave up his life for our sins, the same Jesus—who rose again triumphantly and now lives, will come back again to take His children home to be with Him in heaven.

When Jesus returns it will be visibly just as He ascended. Paul writes in Thessalonians, “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God…and thus we [believers in him] will always be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

The Miracle of Pentecost

A Word of Truth #097 (cf. Acts 2:11) 

The three major festivals of the Christian Church year are Christmas, Easter, and…ah…Thanksgiving? No, the third major festival is actually Pentecost. Pentecost celebrates the birth of the Christian Church. On that day God sent His Holy Spirit accompanied by the sound of a mighty, rushing wind and what appeared to be tongues of fire. The Holy Spirit enabled the early Christians to speak in foreign languages, which they had never learned. Why this miracle? The author of Acts explains that there were people from all over the world in Jerusalem at that time—people who needed to hear about Jesus. He records the reaction of those people to this miracle: “We hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God” (Acts 2:11). You too can hear about those wonderful works when you read about Jesus in the Bible!