This is the 14th in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com. 

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In the last column, we explored several defining attributes of “this same Jesus” (Acts 1:11). Now, let’s consider what the angels may have meant when they told the apostles Jesus is returning “the same way” they witnessed his departure. 

First, Jesus himself is coming. 

When Jesus returns, he’s not sending a prophet, apostle, angel, cherub, hologram, selfie, MailChimp marketing blast, or any other substitute. He’s coming himself. Further, Jesus isn’t appearing as a theophany – a flame in a desert thorn bush, a pillar of cloud and fire, a rider on a blazing chariot-throne, or a voice in a whirlwind. He’s coming as the same resurrected Son of Man who ascended physically into heaven in the presence of his apostles (Acts 1:9). 

The return of Jesus always is portrayed in personal terms. Jesus tells his disciples, “I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3). 

Second, Jesus is coming physically. 

Jesus pins his messianic claims on his physical resurrection. He foretells his resurrection as the one sign given to the unbelieving generation that witnesses the Incarnation (Matt. 12:39-41; cf. John 2:18-22). And after he rises from the dead, Jesus and the apostles make it clear he is glorified flesh and bone, not an apparition (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:24-29; 1 Cor. 15:5-8).

The apostles gaze into the sky as Jesus ascends into heaven (Acts 1:9), perhaps in part because they wonder how a physical body can enter the unseen realm. Nevertheless, Jesus has told them he is returning to his Father (John 16:5, 10), and he’s promised to come back to earth one day. All of this involves a physical body. 

Third, Jesus is coming visibly.

It’s clear the apostles witness Christ’s ascension with their own eyes. Luke tells us Jesus is taken up as they are “watching.” A cloud takes Jesus “out of their sight.” As Jesus departs, they are “gazing into heaven.” Two angels question the apostles, asking why they stand “looking up into heaven.” And the angels assure them that Jesus will return “in the same way that you have seen him going into heaven” (Acts 1:9-11).

All of this reveals that Jesus’ ascension is an observable event to which multiple eyewitnesses attest. Further, the angels say Jesus’ future return is going to be a similar spectacle.

Fourth, Jesus is coming powerfully – on the clouds of heaven.

First-century Jewish readers of Luke’s account of the ascension would take special note that “a cloud” escorts Jesus into heaven (Acts 1:9). In the Old Testament, storms and clouds often accompany “theophanies,” or appearances of Yahweh. For example, the Lord’s presence in the pillar of cloud and fire leads the Israelites across the desert (Exod. 13:17-22). Lightning, smoke, and fire accompany the Lord on Mount Sinai (Exod. 19:16-18). And God is depicted elsewhere as a consuming fire (Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:28-29).

But perhaps the single Old Testament passage that most intimately connects clouds and the presence of Yahweh is Daniel 7, as “one like a son of man” comes with “the clouds of heaven” and is escorted before the Ancient of Days. Daniel records:

He [son of man] was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom; so that those of every people, nation, and language should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed (v. 14).

It appears that Daniel’s vision is a view forward to final judgment, which makes the approach of “one like a son of man” all the timelier. In fact, Daniel 7:13 is the most-often quoted portion of Daniel in the New Testament. 

Fifth, Jesus is coming back to the Mount of Olives. 

The Mount of Olives is a ridge flanking the east side of Jerusalem, separated from the city walls by the Kidron Valley. The mountain bears historic and prophetic significance. When King David’s son Absolom seizes control of Jerusalem, David and his followers take an eastern route of escape via the Mount of Olives.

Years later, King Solomon builds a high place for Chemosh, the god of Moab, and for Milcom, the idol of the Ammonites, on “the hill across from Jerusalem” (1 Kings 11:7). In one of Ezekiel’s visions, he sees the glory of the Lord depart from Jerusalem and come to rest on “the mountain east of the city” (Ezek. 11:23). 

Jesus visits the Mount of Olives many times during his earthly ministry, even spending the night there on occasion (Luke 21:37; 22:39). His visits to Bethany, where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus live, take him from Jerusalem, across the Kidron Valley, and over the Mount of Olives. During the week of his passion, Jesus visits the Mount of Olives at least three times. 

After Jesus’ resurrection, he stands once more on the Mount of Olives with his followers. Luke tells us, “Then he led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. And while he was blessing them, he left them and was carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:50-51). 

As one commentary puts it, “The very location where David wept in defeat and where Jesus was betrayed and rejected will be the place where Jesus returns in triumph over all His enemies.”

Next: Coming on the clouds