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). 

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