That I am counting the days and years until Jesus’ return.
Before Jesus came as a baby, grew up, and sacrificed Himself to make His people right with God, the people of God were waiting for Jesus’ first coming. Now, since Jesus’ ascension into heaven, we are waiting for His second coming.
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1:6-11 ESV
As each year passed in the B.C. era, the people of God knew they were one year closer to Jesus’ coming. Then Jesus came. He accomplished the work on the cross of making God’s people right with Him and went back into heaven, saying before He left that we will receive His power and be His witnesses to the ends of the earth.
Then, in verse 11 of this text, we see that Jesus’ followers waited. But they waited by standing there “looking into the sky.” Jesus' followers seemed to be waiting to know what was next by looking into the sky. Today, it could seem to us to be a good thing to wait for Him by standing here looking into the sky.
But the angels corrected Jesus’ followers when they did this. The angels told them that this same man who they did not want to be taken from them and who they longed to come back to them would come back in the same way. This promise was the promise they needed to help them go and do what waiting for Jesus is.
Waiting for Jesus is being His witness to the ends of the earth by the power of the the Holy Spirit.
So if I am a Christian in the A.D. era, I am waiting for Jesus’ second coming by being His witness to the ends of the earth by the power of the Holy Spirit.
January 1, 2024 means that I have been His witness in order to wait for Him for one more year. I am one year closer to this same Jesus coming back “in the same way [Jesus’ followers] saw him go into heaven.” It means that in 2024, I am to be His witness, His evidence or proof, that He came, grew up, sacrificed Himself, and made His people right with God.
So may I remember this year, that I am waiting for Jesus. And may many know Jesus because I waited for Jesus in 2024.
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