“Be Ready”
[Matthew
24:36-44]
November 27, 2016 Second Reformed
Church
We begin the season of Advent this
morning.
When we say “advent,” we think about
a period before Christmas. But the word
“advent” generally just means the period before something or someone comes.
When we think about the Advent of Jesus
– of God coming to earth in the person of Jesus, we understand that the forty
days that we observe are symbolic of the period of waiting. Adam and Eve were first promised the coming
of the Savior back in Genesis – as God curses the serpent and says, “I will put
enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head, and
you shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15, ESV).
And four thousand years later, the Son of God incarnates in the person
of Jesus to save a people for Himself.
On the first Sunday of Advent, we
look forward to Jesus’ return. The
period from Jesus’ incarnation to Jesus’ return is often called, “the Second Advent”
– we are in a period of waiting for Jesus to return and restore the Creation
and banish evil – and we have been waiting for 2,000 years.
Some have been trying to figure out the
exact date of Jesus’ return: there have
been more than fifty dates posed for Christ’s return – all of which have passed
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictions_and_claims_for_the_Second_Coming_of_Christ).
After Jesus condemns the Pharisees
and prophesies the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, Jesus’ disciples ask
Him what the signs will be of the end of the age and what the signs will be of
Jesus’ coming again.
Jesus tells them what the signs will
be, and then He speaks the words we heard this morning.
And He tells them, first, it will be
like the days of Noah when Jesus returns.
“But concerning that day and hour no
one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For
as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in
those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving
in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware
until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son
of Man.”
Jesus tells them and us – and all
those people who “figured out” the year and even the date of Jesus’ return – no
human, no angel, not even the Son, knows the date of His return – only the
Father.
And so, we learn that setting dates
for Jesus’ return is futile and lack of trust in His words. Yet, if God the Father knows when Jesus will
return, why doesn’t the Son know? If
they are the same One God, why doesn’t Jesus know?
We need to remember that Jesus is
100% God and 100% human in one person.
He has the Mind of God and the mind of the human, Jesus of
Nazareth. And God the Son kept His human
mind from knowing the time of His return.
However, He tells the disciples that
His return will be like the coming of the flood in the days of Noah: people will be eating and drinking and
getting married – it will look like an ordinary day – there will be nothing
special to alert to Jesus’ return until it is too late. The people of the world will continue on in
blind indifference to the Gospel until it is too late to believe and repent.
This is what God tells us the days
of Noah were like:
“The LORD saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his
heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on
the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, ‘I will blot out
man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping
things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But
Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD” (Genesis 6:5-8, ESV).
The world was carrying on, doing
whatever it thought was right in its own eyes.
All the world was wicked. All the
world sought evil continually. Except
for Noah.
Jesus will return when the world is
again like the days of Noah. Jesus will
return when the world is happy in their wickedness – when all seems at peace
and normal and calm. Jesus will return
when no one expects or believes He will come.
And then it will be too late to change your mind.
Jesus will return on an utterly
normal day when people are going about their normal life.
Second, there will be an instant
separation.
“Then two men will be in the field;
one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one
will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what
day your Lord is coming.”
On the day that Jesus returns, people
will be about their normal business: men
will be working, women will be working, and suddenly – as Jesus returns – there
will be a separation of all the peoples of the world: on one hand will be those who never believed,
on the other will be those who do believe.
John describes this sudden
separation like this:
“Then I saw a great white throne and
him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no
place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before
the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the
book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books,
according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it,
Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each
one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown
into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if
anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the
lake of fire”
(Revelation
20:11-15, ESV).
Suddenly, unexpectedly, Jesus will
return and take His people to Himself and judge all the people of the world,
taking His people into the Kingdom, and sending those who reject Him to their
wage in Hell.
And so, Jesus says to stay
awake. He tells us to be alert. To be ready whenever He does return. To always be about those things which are
pleasing to Him – holding fast to your faith in Him alone.
Third, Jesus says we are to be ready.
“But know this, that if the master of the
house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have
stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you
also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Jesus puts His return to His disciples and
us like this: If you know that someone is
going to break into your house at 2:30 A.M. tomorrow morning, would you just
let it happen, or would you stay awake and call the police so they could
capture him in the act?
If you knew your guests were arriving for
Thanksgiving dinner at 3 P.M. in the afternoon. Would you not bother to get ready
for them – setting up the table and preparing food – or would you get ready for
their arrival, so you could entertain them and share food with them?
Paul puts it to us this way:
“Now concerning the times and the
seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you
yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in
the night. While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden
destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and
they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to
surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the
day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as
others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at
night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the
day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for
a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to
obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether
we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another
and build one another up, just as you are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, ESV).
Are you ready? Are you awake? Are you ready at any moment to be taken away
by Jesus into His Kingdom?
Or are you wasting your time and
your gifts, not sharing them – especially with the church?
Or are you doing things that you
would not want Jesus to see you doing when He returns?
Or will you tell Jesus on that day
“just a minute, Lord, I need to finish this or that”?
We have seen in our look at the
Gospel of John that Jesus has gone to prepare a place in the Father’s house for
all we who believe – the Kingdom is being readied for us. Jesus promised to return for us and take us
there.
Are you ready?
Do you love God with all your heart
and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength and your neighbor as
yourself?
Are you getting ready by loving God
with your emotions and all that is spiritual about you? Are you getting ready by loving God with your
mind by learning everything you can about Who God is and what He has said? Are you getting ready by loving God with your
body – using it in respectful ways and to God’s glory as you have joy in
it? Are you getting ready by loving your
neighbor first and foremost by telling them the Gospel?
Are you getting ready by encouraging
and building up your fellow Christians in the faith and the hope that we have
together?
Get ready.
Be ready.
Jesus is coming on a regular day –
on such a normal day we would never think it would be today.
But what if it is?
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we look forward to the
return of Your Son in glory and the restoration of the Creation. Keep us from being self-centered and thinking
His return is all about us. Lead us by God
the Holy Spirit to be ready for His return, preparing for His return in our
lives – with all of our being – and in making sure we have told everyone the
Gospel. And may we be an encouragement
of the truth of the Gospel to our brothers and sisters. And then, come, Lord Jesus, come. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
