Ready Or Not, Here He Comes Series

Intro: Our whole family would be getting ready to go out to eat, and my twin brother Larry would be in his room watching everybody else taking their showers, getting dressed, etc. When we started to leave and yelled for Larry, He replied, "I’m not ready, no one told me we was leaving." It should have been obvious to Larry and He should have been ready. He had no excuse not to be, today I want us to be informed about the Lord’s return, so we will all be ready.

Let’s look at (I Thess 5:1-11.) Keep Bibles open.

I. The Day will Come Unexpectedly (vs 1-3)

-Paul said, "We don’t need to write to you about times and dates." The reason why is that it isn’t for us to know that.

-NIV Acts 1:6-7 So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the

kingdom to Israel?" He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own

authority.

-There are some things that we are not meant to know until it happens, when we will die, surprise birthday

parties, your mother in law is coming to stay, and the day the Lord will return. Yet the idea that we are not supposed to know doesn’t satisfy some people, and they have got to try to figure it out.

-Some have gone so far as to set a date. You might remember a man by the name of Edgar Whisenant. He was

a NASA engineer who used his mathematical skills to set a date for the return of Jesus. He wrote a book called, "88 reasons why the rapture will take place in 1988" The book caused a real buzz in the Christian community. He was so certain that Jesus would return on Sept 10 that he said, if I’m wrong than the scripture is mistaken.

He knew for certain that Jesus would be here that day.

-Now this is amazing to me. Jesus said in Matthew 24:36 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

-The angels didn’t know, and Jesus didn’t know, but amazingly enough, Edgar did. But the day came and passed and Edgar didn’t know half as much as he thought he did. The old saying held true, if first you don’t succeed, fail and fail again." Edgar wrote a second book the next year claiming that he forgot that the calendar didn’t start with 1 but year 0, so he said he was a year off. Failed again. No one knows, be weary of anybody who claims to know.

-That day will come as a surprise. Jesus said in Matthew 24:37-39 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 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; 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.

-What He is saying there is that life was going on as normal. People were going about their normal routine, and then when the least expected it, the rain started to fall. They had warning the rain was coming, Noah preached for 120 years, but they ignored it. (Read vs 3)

-The day will shock people and find them unprepared. Listen to these verses and try to catch the reoccurring

theme.

-NIV Matthew 24:43 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.

-NIV 2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the

elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

-NIV Revelation 3:3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

-Read (vs2) How does a thief come? He comes unexpectedly. He comes while you are safely tucked in your beds, you are comfy, you are unaware. It is a surprise. He comes suddenly, and he doesn’t announce his coming. A thief doesn’t call ahead.

-When the Lord returns, it will be sudden. Matthew 24:39-44

-Many will not be ready when He comes. How awful that would be. Perhaps one of my greatest fears is not