Always ready

Matthew 24:36 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³⁷ As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹ and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴² "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. ⁴³ But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴ So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

When Jesus returns, the hubbub of life will be going on as usual. The tornado sirens will not give advance warning so everyone can stop what they are doing and prepare to meet Christ. Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”

The people of Noah’s day were very violent and given to great wickedness. It was so bad that the Lord “was grieved that he had made man on the earth” (Genesis 6:6). But Jesus does not mention their violence and corruption. Rather, He speaks of their utter involvement with the secular. They were preoccupied with the commonplace and ordinary.

Still today, the majority of people – even Christians – act as though there is nothing more important than following our earthbound activities. We scurry around like ants, consumed by our activities, not acknowledging our God or His heavenly activities.

Black Friday and how many shopping days are left are what consume us. Making ends meet, losing a few extra pounds, feeding the kids, going to holiday parties – these are what consume us. Our mind is on earthly things and we have forgotten about heavenly things (John 3:12). We are so preoccupied with what is going on around us that we don’t have the time nor the inclination to consider what is awaiting us.  

Like Noah’s culture, our nation has its own list of violence and great wickedness – the holocaust of a million unborn babies a year, increasing divorce rates, sexual immorality and drunkenness, dissension and jealousy (Romans 13:13), teen pregnancies in the stratosphere – and Christians are just as guilty of these sins as the unbelievers.

But the main similarity between our time and the days of Noah is that we are just plain busy – preoccupied. Our calendars are full. Our lives revert to survival mode. Our days become drudgery. Our hope dims and the only thing we anticipate is the end of the work week. How can we be ready for eternity when we aren’t even ready for tomorrow?

Throughout Matthew 24 and 25, Jesus tells us again and again to be ready. Yet how many of you are procrastinators? I’m not talking about waiting to the last minute to get your work done. I’m talking about being a spiritual procrastinator. Someone who says, “Eventually I’ll get my act together spiritually. But right now, I have too much going on. Right now I need to chase my kids to their next practice, earn another degree and get away on another vacation. I’ll have more time for Jesus in eternity.”

Every time you put a child’s practice before prayer, that is spiritual procrastination. Every time you make your paycheck or your sleep or your recreation more important that worshiping God, that is spiritual procrastination. Every time you curse or gossip or belittle or complain without repenting and begging for forgiveness, that is spiritual procrastination.

Preparing for Christ means prioritizing for Christ. You do all the things you normally do, but Jesus is number one. Worship with other Christians is at the top. Bible study with other Christians and on your own is at the top. Speaking to God in prayer by yourself and with your children is a priority. Receiving the Lord’s Supper on a weekly basis is a priority. Sharing your faith so others may also be prepared is a priority.

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” “Keep watching; constantly watch; don’t stop watching.” There will be a deceptive normalcy before the last hour. Don’t be lulled into complacency, as the masses were in the days of Noah. Don’t gamble on the time of His coming as the householder did. “If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.” In His coming, Christ will be unexpected like a thief, and a thief doesn’t tell anyone what week, month or year he is coming.

Jesus’ words are not an academic discourse on what will happen to unbelievers. They are full of urgent instruction and warning for believers, too.

The return of Christ will be sudden. Paul wrote, “Destruction will come on them suddenly” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). There will not be time for last minute conversions. Some people will be taken immediately to meet the Lord, and the others will be left for condemnation. Jesus says there are only two classes of people in God’s judgment. On the day of Christ’s coming, they will be decisively, eternally and officially separated. For now, the two may be associated in their work or even members of the same household. “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.”

To be taken is understood in the sense of taken to be with the Lord, accepted by Him for eternal joy in His presence. “By faith Enoch was taken from this life” (Hebrews 11:5). To be left is the opposite. It means to be abandoned to eternal desolation. The one was like Noah and taken into the safety and security of God’s ark. The other was left to the deluge of destruction because of his own choosing.

The Lord’s coming will be a blessing for those who are ready, but it will be a disaster for those who do not keep watch.

The Bible’s picture of the Last Day reminds me of the destructive tsunami in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004. On that day, a powerful earthquake occurred off the coast of Indonesia. Two hours later and a thousand miles to the west, terrific tidal waves pounded the coast of Sri Lanka, and no one had any idea that they were coming. People along the coast were going about their everyday lives when giant waves suddenly blasted their homes to bits and swept away everything in sight.

In the same way, when Jesus returns, people will be eating and drinking. Some will be in the field. Some will be at the grind stone. Then destruction will come suddenly. The end will be unknown, unexpected and sudden.

If we knew the day, we might be tempted to be careless and put off repentance and godliness until a later time. We might lose our urgency to share the Gospel with others. We might forfeit our need to live the Gospel for Christ. Any attempt on our part to predict the date would be presumptuous. Ignoring Jesus’ words on the subject would be disastrous. God wants the end to be unknown so that we will be ready at all times. “So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

When Jesus comes, that’s it – judgment. It cannot be reversed by taking it to a higher court. God is the highest court. His is a conclusive judgment that settles the eternal destiny of a person. The writer to the Hebrews wrote, “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment (9:27).

There is profound significance in the status of a person at the moment of death. The Lutheran doctrine teacher Johann Gerhard wrote, “The manner in which we will exist in the future, either in blessedness or in misery, is determined in the one hour of death. In this one moment, eternal blessedness is obtained or lost.”

Therefore, how you live your life – but even more importantly – for whom you live your life – is of paramount importance. Our lives on earth are a “time of grace” when we have opportunity to come to faith in Jesus Christ and receive eternal salvation by God’s grace. If we waste our time of grace on earth in frittering away after frivolous things, we will have no second chance. If we squander our time of grace with impenitence and unbelief, we cannot escape hell. If we throw away the heavenly things Christ has won for us so that we could chase after the earthly things that moth and rust destroy, we will have lost our place in heaven. As Paul said, “Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Throughout His Gospels, Jesus said that we are to be like managers of an estate who are waiting for the owner to return (Luke 19:12). We are to be like young ladies who are waiting for the bridegroom to come (Matthew 25:1). We are to be like the owner of a house who is watching for a thief (Matthew 24:43). The prophet Isaiah said that we are to be like watchmen waiting through the long, dark night, waiting for the break of dawn and the safety of a new day (Isaiah 21:11).

Advent is not the time to prepare for Christmas. Rather, Advent is the time to be prepared for Christ’s second coming because Christ has promised that He will return. And Jesus always keeps His promises. He kept His promise to be Immanuel – God with us in human flesh (Isaiah 7:14). He kept His promise to crush the devil’s head (Genesis 3:15). He kept His promise to be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5). He kept His promise to take the repentant thief home to paradise (Luke 23:43). He kept His promise when He told Lazarus to come out of the grave (John 11:26).

Jesus has also promised to never leave or forsake us. He has promised that no one can ever snatch us out of His hands. He has promised that because He lives, we will live, too.

He has kept all of those promises – and many more. Because Jesus keeps His promises, when He promises to return, we ought to believe Him.

On Tuesday I received one of the great joys of the pastoral ministry. I visited Ryker Mann who was born on Monday evening. And I visited Betty Erickson who was in hospice care at All Saints Hospital. A day-old child taking his first breaths before he goes home with his father and mother and a 92-year-old Christian taking her last breaths before her heavenly Father calls her home. The gifts of life and eternal life within a few rooms of each other.

The only difference between the two is that one was ready and the other was preparing to be ready. Being ready at all times begins with baptism, when we are washed of our sins and made saints in God’s family. We continue to be ready by altering the focus of our lives. We take time to step back and get a truer perspective on life so that we do not obsess over our daily drudgery. Worshiping in church, receiving communing, confessing sins and having sins forgiven, fellowshipping and singing with fellow Christians, studying the Bible and praying are spiritual disciplines that will enable us to be ready.

Always being ready means focusing on Jesus and what He has accomplished for our salvation. It means recognizing that our sins separated us from God, but we are comforted with the truth that Jesus has reconciled us to God by His death for us. Keeping watch for Jesus’ return means that we confidently anticipate that He is coming to take His believers to be with Him in heaven.

The motto for the United States Coast Guard is the motto for us as Christians: Semper Paratus – “Always Prepared.” The church father Augustine (354-430) said it well, “The last day is hidden from us, that every day may be observed by us.” We don’t know when the Last Day will be, so we must always be ready because the next day could be the Last Day. Amen. 

A video of Always Ready