Acts 1:11

KJV 11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

How did he leave?

Visibly seen ascending up into the sky (maybe only the eleven apostles saw Him)
Lifted then hid by a cloud
In a 33 year old Jewish body
He took the Holy Spirit with Him
He was sabbath day's journey outside Jerusalem 
He was, I assume, fully clothed
While standing 
While teaching
As head of a new covenant with only Him in it
He left at an unexpected time and manner

How does He return?


Revelation 1:7  With clouds?
YLT 7 Lo, he doth come with the clouds, and see him shall every eye, even those who did pierce him, and wail because of him shall all the tribes of the land. Yes! Amen!

Those tribes who crucified Him in the land and tried to keep the old covenant saw Him come with the clouds (plural). They did not see Him drop out of the singular cloud and levitate down to land. And they were not pleased to see Him coming. He came in judgment to destroy the old covenant wench.

On a horse?


Revelation 19:11 

YLT 11 And I saw the heaven having been opened, and lo, a white horse, and he who is sitting upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness doth he judge and war,

With powerful messengers to bring relief to the persecuted Christians?


2 Thessalonians 1:7

CLV 7 and to you who are being afflicted, ease, with us, at the unveiling of the Lord Jesus from heaven with His powerful messengers,

To His (physically having died) friends first?


1 Thessalonians 4:16 

ALT 16 Because the Lord Himself with a shout of command, with [the]voice of an archangel and with [the] trumpet of God, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first,

He sent His Holy Spirit presence so believers could stand {rise} for the new marriage before He completely ended the old adulterous bride; who still claimed she was not a widow, yet they had not entered the new betrothal. They were still claiming the old covenant man while getting into bed with Rome. 


At an unknown hour?


Matthew 24:43

YLT 43 and this know, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief doth come, he had watched, and not suffered his house to be broken through;

He came in judgement to end the old covenant at an unexpected time and manner. The Messiah rejectors in the land were in a peace agreement with the Romans who then destroyed their land in war.


1 Thessalonians 5:1-4

CLV 1 Now concerning the times and the eras, brethren, you have no need to be written to, 2 for you yourselves are accurately aware that the day of the Lord is as a thief in the night - thus is it coming! 3 Now whenever they may be saying "Peace and security, then extermination is standing by them unawares, even as a pang over the pregnant, and they may by no means escape." 4 Now you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day may be overtaking you as a thief,

Matthew 24:34

KJV 34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

'How He left' was in a manner and at a time that His apostles were not expecting. They did not expect to see Him float up into a cloud while He was teaching them. Yet we expect to see Him float down from a cloud because that is 'how He left'?


John 20:17 (They knew He was going to ascend.)

ALT 17 Jesus says to her, "Stop holding Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father. But be going to My brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your(p) Father, and [to] My God and your(p) God.'"

He left while teaching them through the Holy Spirit that remained on Him alone. After ten days He sent the Holy Spirit to remain on them, so He could continue teaching them through the Holy Spirit. They did not know the day or the hour or the manner the Holy Spirit would return. They were symbolically sitting when the Holy Spirit returned; for the new marriage covenant betrothal. 


Acts 1

CLV 1 The first account, indeed, I make, O Theophilus, concerning all which Jesus begins both to do and to teach, 2 until the day on which He was taken up; through holy spirit directing the apostles whom He chooses, 3 to whom also He presents Himself alive after His suffering, with many tokens, during forty days, being visualized to them and telling them that which concerns the kingdom of God." 4 And, being foregathered, He charges them not to be departing from Jerusalem, but to be remaining about for the promise of the Father, "which you hear of Me, 5 seeing that John, indeed, baptizes in water, yet you shall be baptized in holy spirit after not many of these days."

The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a peaceful dove. The Holy Spirit came down on the corporate body of Christ like a hurricane and like fire. 


Matthew 24:27 

JMNT 27 "You see, just as the brightness (the brilliant beam; the bright shining) is habitually and progressively coming forth from [the] rising in the eastern parts [= a figure of the sunrise] and then is progressively and habitually shining and giving light as far as [the] western parts (or: until the [recurring] settings), in this way will proceed being the presence of the Son of the Man (the Son from humanity; = Adam's son; or: = the eschatological Messianic figure; the Human Being).

Luke 18:7-8

JMNT 7 "Now [think about it]! Would (or: Should) not God by all means make the situation right (or: do that which will bring the fairness, equity and justice) for His picked out and chosen people – those constantly crying, or calling, out to Him day and night – and will He continue long in rushing with passion upon them (= will he continue to delay acting and keep them waiting)? (or: and He will be continuing with forbearance and patient endurance on them). 8 "I am now telling you that He will proceed quickly making the situation right (doing that which will bring fairness, equity and justice) concerning them. But more than this, at the coming of the Son of the Man (= Adam's Son; = the anticipated messianic figure), will He really (or: in fact; consequently) continue finding trust upon the Land (or: faith and loyalty on the earth)?"

Matthew 24:1-3

YLT 1 And having gone forth, Jesus departed from the temple, and his disciples came near to show him the buildings of the temple, 2 and Jesus said to them, `Do ye not see all these? verily I say to you, There may not be left here a stone upon a stone, that shall not be thrown down.' 3 And when he is sitting on the mount of the Olives, the disciples came near to him by himself, saying, `Tell us, when shall these be? and what is the sign of thy presence, and of the full end of the age?' 

Luke 21:34-36

YLT 34 `And take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts may be weighed down with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and anxieties of life, and suddenly that day may come on you, 35 for as a snare it shall come on all those dwelling on the face of all the land, 36 watch ye, then, in every season, praying that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are about to come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.'

Only believers know to leave the city before judgment day; some leave reluctantly.


Luke 17:28-30 

YLT 28 in like manner also, as it came to pass in the days of Lot; they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; 29 and on the day Lot went forth from Sodom, He rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed all. 30 `According to these things it shall be, in the day the Son of Man is revealed;

Matthew 24:14-16

JMNT 14 "Furthermore, this good news which pertains to the reign (or: this message of goodness, ease and wellness which belongs to and comes sovereign action and influence of the kingdom) will be progressively publicly proclaimed within the whole inhabited area (or: the Hellenistic world, as opposed to barbarian lands; or: = the Roman Empire) – [leading] into a witness and evidence for all the ethnic multitudes (or: unto a testimony among all the nations), and at that point the purposed goal will proceed having arrived and continue here (or: and at that time the final act will have progressively come, and its product will continue being here; or: and so then the destined end will be progressively arriving). 15 "Therefore, whenever you men can see (or: may perceive) ‘the effect of the loathing and nauseating [event; condition; thing; situation] from the desolation (or: the result from the abhorring abomination associated with, or which causes, the devastation and abandonment; or: the resulting effect of the desecration, which is an act of ruining, forsaking and leaving uninhabited like a desert),’ that was being spoken through Daniel the prophet, standing ‘within the midst of a set-apart place (or: [the] holy place) ’ [Dan. 9:27; 11:31; 12:11] – let the person presently reading continue to use his mind and intellect for the comprehension [of this] (= figure out what this means!) – 16 "at that time, let the people within the midst of Judea progressively escape (flee; take flight) into the hills and mountains.

Some saw the glory of God coming upon them.


Matthew 16:27-28

ECB 27 For the Son of humanity comes in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he gives each according to his acts. 28 Amen! I word to you, Some standing here never no way taste death until they see the Son of humanity coming in his sovereigndom.

Some saw the destruction of God coming upon them.


2 Samuel 22:8-14

ECB 8 then the earth shakes and quakes; the foundations of the heavens quake and shake because he inflames. 9 Smoke from his nostrils ascend and fire from his mouth consumes: coals burn away by it. 10 He spreads the heavens and descends; and dripping darkness is under his feet: 11 and he rides on a cherub and flies - and is seen on the wings of the spirit/wind: 12 and he places darkness - sukkoth/brush arbors all around him; dark waters and thick clouds of vapour. 13Through the brilliancy in front of him coals of fire burn away: 14 Yah Veh thunders from the heavens and Elyon gives his voice:

John 17:24-26

ECB 24 Father, I will that whomever you gave me also be with me where I am; to see my glory that you gave me: for you loved me ere the foundation of the cosmos. 25 O just Father, the cosmos knows you not; but I know you: and these know that you apostolized me: 26 and I declared your name to them; and declare that the love with which you love me be in them; and I in them.

Those still alive left the same way He left


1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

LITV 13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who sleep, that you not grieve, as the rest also, not having hope.14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will also bring with Him all those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. 15 For we say this to you in the Word of the Lord, that we the living who remain to the coming of the Lord not at all will go before those who have fallen asleep. 16 Because the Lord Himself shall come down from Heaven with a commanding shout of an archangel's voice, and with God's trumpet. And the dead in Christ will rise again first. 17 Then we who remain alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to a meeting with the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. 18 So, then, comfort each other with these words.

John 21:22-23

LITV 22 Jesus said to him, If I desire him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me. 23 Therefore, the word went out to the brothers that that disciple does not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he does not die, but, If I desire him to remain until I come, what is that to you?

Stories, legends and ballads about a wondering Jew that lives until judgment day may derive from these verses. There is even a plant named "Wondering Jew" that moves around but never seems to die.
 

The new covenant marriage


Hebrews 9:28 

YLT 28 so also the Christ, once having been offered to bear the sins of many, a second time, apart from a sin-offering, shall appear, to those waiting for him—to salvation!

1 Peter 1:1 (To the scattered Jews)

ALT 1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the chosen [or, elect] sojourners of the dispersion [i.e. the scattering of Jews outside of Judea] of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

Hosea 2:23

LITV 23 And I will sow her to Me in the earth. And I will have mercy on No Mercy. And I will say to Not My People, You are My people! And they shall say, My God!

1 Peter 2:10 (To the scattered Jews)

ALT 10 who at one time [were] not a people, but now [are the] people of God; the ones not having found mercy, but now having found mercy.

The astonished Jews acknowledged that Gentiles were coming into their Church; to fill up the wedding hall for the new covenant consummation. The new covenant is better than the old because it has all believers. Nobody is in the old covenant anymore! Believers are the sanctuary. 


Acts 10:45

ALT 45 And the believing ones from the circumcision were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the free gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.