ILLUS: I have a friend that I respect a lot. Just this last week, he told me that he’s coming to see me. He says he’s coming soon!
-This is a person of high status, so I want to do my best to be ready for him,
so I asked, “When are you coming? What day” -
He said , “I can’t tell you that. It will be a surprise.”
-“I said, well could you at least tell me WHAT TIME OF DAY it will be?” And he said, “no”.
-“Well, could you at least call me on the day you’re coming?” And he said, “no”.
-“Could you send me an e-mail or a text message and give me a vague general idea?” And he said, “no”.
-But you definitely ARE coming, right? “yes.”
-“Well what if you get here while I’m eating lunch?” “Then you’ll need to be ready”
-“What if I’m busy taking a shower?” “You need to be ready before you get in the shower.”
-“What if I’m asleep when you come?” “You better prepare for my arrival BEFORE you go to bed!
-“What if I’m at church over in Rose Bud in the middle of preaching a sermon when you get here?”
He said, “you better be ready for me before you stand up there and start
preaching.”
-So I started getting a little flustered, because if an important person is coming, then you need to be ready, don’t you! I know I want to be ready!
-So I asked him, “Look, is there anything at all you can tell me about when you’ll be coming.”
-Jesus never would say exactly when he was coming. But in his Word, he has told us some things about that day.
Let me read to you from Luke 12:35-40
"Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."
At the beginning of last week, I knew I would be preaching from our daily Bible reading, so on Tuesday I sat down in my office and opened my Bible to 1 Thessalonians.
-I prayed, “OK God. This coming Sunday, I’m going to have to preach from one of these two books. I want to be Biblical, but I want to make sure that the subject I talk about is something practical.
-These people have jobs, they have families, they have newborn babies. Some of them have been wrestling with their health, or with their children’s health.
Some of them have wrestled with changes in the weather.
-Some of them will probably have lost sleep this week over the elections.
-Some of them may get into arguments with other members of their family. Some of them may have even argued with someone else present in the room!
-For some, all they’ve been thinking about is the start of hunting season.
-For others, all they’ve thought about is Razorback football.
-Some will have a great week; some will have a depressing week.
-But despite all of this, I’ve got to stand there on Sunday morning, and I need to give them a lesson that SOMEHOW relates to ALL of these people and affects their lives in a meaningful and practical way.
-So, God, I need a good, practical passage from one of your letters to the Thessalonians.
I told Him I wanted something practical that all of you can practice in your daily life.
-You know, while I was reading through these letters, it seems like the only thing Paul wanted to talk about is the fact that JESUS IS COMING BACK.
-Is that practical?
-Jesus says he’s coming back. It will be soon, but we don’t know when. All we know is that it will be a surprise.
-What does that have to do with the rest of your life? Is that a practical thing to know?
-Paul seems to think it has at least SOMETHING to do with each of us!
He even said we ought to talk about Jesus coming back as a way to encourage each other!
-Can you believe that?
(Open to 1 Thessalonians 4) Read what he said!
1 Thess. 4:13-18
-Paul says that ought to encourage people. But why?
-Sure, when Jesus actually ARRIVES, we’ll all be aware of it, but I ask again, “Is this a practical thing to talk about?”
-Knowing that Jesus will come back; Knowing that we will see our loved ones again who have died in Christ; knowing that when Jesus returns, we’ll be with the Lord forever…
-Is that something that each of us can take with us as we leave here?
-Can you take that to the office tomorrow? Can you take it with you in your school?
-Is it practical to know that Jesus is coming again?
ILLUS: There was a man named Glen Adsit who was a missionary in China. He was there with his family, trying to evangelize quietly and secretly, but he got caught.
-He and his family were under house arrest for a while.
-Finally, one day some soldiers came to his house to inform him that he was allowed to return to America.
-They said, “You are allowed to bring 200 Lbs with you.”
-So then the battles began. They had been in China for years and had plenty of accumulated stuff. How can you decide what gets left behind?
-So mom, dad, and the two kids went into all their quibbles.
-We can’t think of leaving this vase behind! Well what about this new typewriter? We just bought it! What about all my valuable books? What about our pictures? What about this painting?
-So they got out the scales and carefully weighed everything until they got it exactly at 200 Lbs. 200 Lbs to the dot.
-The soldiers said, “Are you ready to go?”
-“yes” “Did you weigh everything?”
-“yes” “Did you weigh the children?”
-You know, all of a sudden, the new typewriter and the vase became trash. Trash.
-Jesus is coming back, and that ..changes..everything.
ILLUS: It may be morbid of me, but I’ve always been really fascinated by some of the things people are saying and doing at the moments leading right up to the end of their life.
-James Dean was a young hot shot. He and his stuntman were cruising at high speeds around Salinas, California. They were going down a 2-lane highway at night when they saw a car starting to turn onto the road ahead. Just before slamming into the other car, Dean said to his buddy, “That guy’s Got to stop…he’ll see us coming.” James Dean died upon impact. The other two men involved were only injured. It came upon Dean like a thief in the night.
-Bucky O’Neil was a Arizona lawyer, miner, cowboy, gambler, newspaperman, sheriff, and congressman. He was also one of the most important members of Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War. Just before a famous charge at Kettle Hill, O’Neil was standing with his troops, smoking a cigarette and making jokes while the enemies were firing at them. One of his men shouted, “Captain! A bullet is sure to hit you!” O’Neil replied, “Sergeant, the Spanish bullet isn’t made that will kill me.” Immediately, he was shot in the head and died.
-William Saroyan was a well-known writer of plays and short stories. From his death bed he contacted the associate press and said, “Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now what?”
-Paul said that we don’t have to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like those who have no hope. Is this what he meant?
Joseph Addison was an English politician and member of a literary clique that included Jonathon Swift. He was a devout Christian all of his life. On his death bed, he sent for a nephew of his who had been living a wayward life. As the young man entered the room, Addison uttered his last words, “Do you see in what peace a Christian can die?”
Jesus is coming back, and knowing that makes all the difference in the world.
-Jesus talked about his return a lot, but mostly in parables. It seems like some of the hardest teachings of Jesus to accept are the ones about his return.
Fred Craddock is a college professor who was one semester studying parables with his students.
-They liked all the ones that were about reversals. Grace was given to the prodigal son; the tax collector was the model of humility; the 11th-hour worker who got the same wage; the servant who took big risks with the master’s money.
-Some of the other parables they didn’t like at all. They frowned on punishing lazy stewards; they frowned on slamming the door in the faces of those virgins who forgot to bring their oil.
-It’s as if in the way we live that grace has become so expected, it is just taken for granted. Grace is expected as a right, and therefore it becomes something cheap.
-So Craddock told them a story about a seminary professor. He gave no introduction or explanation. It went like this: “There was a certain professor who was very strict about the due dates for papers. At the beginning of the semester, he announced all the due dates, and told them that if they failed to meet the due dates, they would receive an F for the semester.”
-At the end of the semester, there were three students who did not meet the deadline.
-One explained to him, “Professor, unexpected guests from out of state came the evening before the paper was due, and I wasn’t able to finish it.”
“Then you receive an F,” said the professor.
-The second explained to him, “Professor, on the day before the paper was due, I became ill with influenza and was unable to complete it.”
“Then you receive an F,” said the professor.
-Then finally, the third student came. He was visibly shaking in fear at what he had heard happened to the first two. He said nervously, “Professor, my wife and I were expecting our first child on the day the paper was due. But the evening before, my wife started having labor pains, so we rushed to the hospital. Shortly after midnight, she gave birth to a boy. Our son weighs 8 Lbs. We named him Kenneth.”
-The professor listened with interest, he moved his chair back from his desk and looked at the ceiling. After a long pause he looked at the student and said, “Then you receive an F for the course.”
-When the students heard, they were furious. News spread all around. They got a large delegation to come to the professor to protest. “Why are you so harsh!”
-The professor replied, “At the beginning of the semester I gave my word concerning the papers. If the word of a teacher in a Christian university cannot be trusted, whose word Can be trusted?”
I don’t imagine that what we’ve talked about this morning is something you’ve never heard about before.
-But Christ has given us his Word. And you can bet he’ll keep his word. He is coming. When he comes, as Paul tells us, we’ll hear the thunderous voice of the archangel. The dead in Christ will rise, and those of us who are Christians will meet our loved ones in the air.
-You are a group of people with all sorts of interests and hobbies. You have different family lives and different cultures and personalities. You have different talents.
-But one very important thing we share in common: All of us need to be prepared for Jesus to come back, because we know he’s coming, but we have no idea how much time we’ve got.
- If you need to get your life cleaned up for the coming of this most important guest of honor, we’re going to give you an opportunity right now to do what you need to do.
- If you pass up this opportunity to make things right with God, what excuse will you have left?
-It is an encouraging thing to be a Christian and to know that every hour of every day, no matter what happens, I’m one hour closer to seeing my savior face to face.
-Are you ready to meet him?
