80 - I’m Coming Back

<p class="ng-scope" style="margin:5.55pt 0in 5.55pt 0in;">For the past few years these eleven men had been students. They had been listening, watching, helping and at times doing, but everything centered on Jesus. He preached, He healed, He cast out demons, He prayed, and He led them from place to place. So it was almost impossible for them to think that the kind of ministry that He had been doing could continue in any real way. And how sorry they must have felt to see it all come to an end. So many people had been so wonderfully helped, so many smiles and happy tears as healed children were handed back to their parents, or tormented minds found peace. Yes, there had been lots of opposition, but there had also been lots of breakthrough. Many people had come to love Him. Roadsides, hillsides, backyards, synagogues and even the temple courtyards had been filled with people whenever He was present. How sad that He would be leaving. How intolerable a future without Him must have seemed, and their despair must have been obvious that evening. To comfort them Jesus said, “I will not leave you orphans; I am coming to you. Yet a little [while] and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you will also live. In that day you will know that I [am] in the Father and you in Me and I in you” (literal).</p> <p class="ng-scope" style="margin:5.55pt 0in 5.55pt 0in;">Then a few moments later He said this, “Do not let your heart be troubled (shaken) or let it be fearful (terrified). You heard that I told you, ‘I depart and I come to you’” (literal) (Jn 14:28).</p> <p class="ng-scope" style="margin:5.55pt 0in 5.55pt 0in;">He was telling them not to be sorrowful, because He was coming back. He would be gone for a short while during which they would see Him on occasion by encountering Him in His resurrection body. Then, after ascending into heaven He would return, and an entire new era in God’s plan of salvation would begin. He said if they understood what He was telling them they would actually be glad to see