The First Forty Days
Acts 1:1–11
This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. Acts 1:11

We know that the Lord Jesus Christ is returning to judge the world, because we are told about it elsewhere in the New Testament. The disciples also had been told that one day Jesus would return to render judgment. But when the disciples were told that “this Jesus” would be coming back, they would have thought of the Jesus they loved, not a judge. It was this gentle, loving, gracious but sovereign, holy, and majestic Jesus who would come back. He would stand with them and would say, Well, brothers, how have you done? What have you accomplished during all these years that I have left you to carry out my Great Commission? Have you done the work well? Or have you let your opportunities slide? The disciples, as they thought of Jesus’s return, would have been encouraged for the task at hand.

In the summer of 1986 I was in England taking part in the great Keswick convention, and one of my blessings at that convention was meeting Derrick Bingham, an Irish preacher. He had a great work in Belfast, where every Tuesday night he taught more than one thousand young people. He shared with me how he was called into the ministry. His dying mother said to him, “Derrick, my boy, you have the gift of gab. But you don’t know the Word. If you’d learn the Word, the Lord might be able to use you.” That was how Derrick Bingham received his call to the ministry. Within three weeks of his mother’s death, Derrick Bingham was preaching.

Bingham was greatly impressed with the Keswick convention, as was I. One evening, as we were walking home late at night after speaking to perhaps five thousand or more people, he said, “You know, as I was sitting there on the platform, I was thinking about my mother. And I was thinking that if my mother could come back from heaven for a moment and walk in here and see this great convention and me sitting there on the speaker’s platform, I’d say to her, ‘Look what we’re doing, Mom. Here we are. We’re doing what you wanted us to do all the time.’” Derrick was encouraged by that thought.

If that was an inspiration to him, if that kept him going, if that fired him for the task at hand, how much more should we be inspired by the thought that one day the Lord Jesus Christ himself is going to return. He is going to say to us, “How are you doing, my brothers? How are you doing, my sisters? Have you carried out your assignment?” Jesus will not be harsh but he will come expecting that we will have carried out the task.

Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865

Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.