The Coming of the Lord

In our Lord's last memorable address to His disciples, He touchingly assured them that, though He was going away to prepare a place for them, He would return. "I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." John 14:3. This was the bright and blessed hope He set before them.
It is true, the Holy Spirit would be with them, and in them, all through the time of His absence, and forever, but He Himself would come again. He left the world to go to the Father. He said, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father." John 16:28. He assured them that in His Father's house there were many abodes, that He would go and prepare a place for them, and come again to receive them unto Himself, that they might be with Him. No words could more plainly set forth His personal return from heaven.
From other scriptures we learn that the Lord Himself will descend from heaven, and that His saints will be raised or changed in a moment, caught up to meet Him in the air and so be forever with the Lord. (1 Cor. 15:51, 52; 1 Thess. 4:16, 17.) His coming again was the only hope He gave to the sorrowing hearts of His loved ones who would so soon feel bereaved, in a world that had hated Him and cast Him out.