March 3: Waiting with Expectation

Acts 1:11 “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

Jesus Christ is coming back!! And it’s not going to be another Jesus, it will be the same One. The one who was crucified was the same one was rose from the dead and is the same one that will return back a second time. There are many scriptures that speak of the return of Jesus. Here are a significant few:

• Matthew 24:27, 30-31For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

• John 14:1–3Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

• 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

• 1 John 3:2–3Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

• Revelation 1:7–8Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’

The assurance of Jesus’ return cemented the disciples’ responsibility to commit to the work that was assigned to them. Just like the parables of Jesus, where He compared His return to a master returning from his long journey and expecting returns from the servants (Mathew 25:14-30).

God chose you and appointed you for a reason. To bear fruit for Him (Jn 15:16). To work for His kingdom. To be His witness to the people. To be a channel for God’s saving grace to the lost.

We read that as soon as the angel made this announcement to the disciples and left, they headed back to the house where “they all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.” (Acts 1:14). They even appointed a twelfth apostle to take the place of Judas who betrayed Jesus and later died.

And as they prepared themselves, something supernatural was about to happen. An event that would transform ordinary men and women to powerful witnesses for Christ.

Preparation matters. The Holy Spirit will come to those who wait with expectation:

But those who wait on the LordShall renew their strength;They shall mount up with wings like eagles,They shall run and not be weary,They shall walk and not faint.

-Isaiah 40:31