Coming Ready or Not
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 NKJV.
Do you know what your future is? Because it’s easy to be distracted by the events of life, and forget what our destiny really is. For those who believe in Jesus, there awaits us a future we need to be reminded of from time to time. And I believe this is one of those times.
Let’s not forget this great fact – Jesus is coming back again! We know His first coming was prophesied something like 300 times in the Bible. Every one of those prophetic words came to pass exactly as predicted. There are something like 500 prophecies about His second coming. I think we can confidently say they too will be fulfilled in exact detail.
Pauls says the coming of Jesus will be very visible, and very audible. People the world over will see and hear Him coming. Everyone will see Him, the whole world will. He will come in the clouds, that’s where we will see Him coming. It will be so glorious, such as we have never seen the likes of before. There will be a great and distinct sound of a trumpet, heralding something like we’ve never heard before. There’ll be a huge voice, the voice of Jesus Himself, booming around the world and announcing His coming. There’ll also be the loud voice of the archangel announcing Christ’s coming. What a sight and sound that will be! Every living soul on earth will know it is Jesus coming again.
The dead in Christ will rise first from their graves then we (if we are still on the earth at that time) will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and … thus we shall always be with the Lord.
This thought needs to encourage us. We who believe in Jesus and have given our lives to Him, will be taken up, and then we will be with Him forever! As it has been said before, “I’m not meeting the undertaker, I am meeting the up-taker!”.
But the thing is, we don’t know exactly when that will be.
We get a sense that His coming is not far away. Many are saying it could well be in our generation. The signs are there.
My message is simply this: we must be ready. Are you ready? Am I ready?
Here’s how we can be ready.
Stay Centred on Christ.
Make sure our affection is Him, make sure He is our everything. Make sure the Kingdom of God and Christ the Lord is the absolute centre and core of our being, where nothing else really matters. It’s what we think about moment by moment, it’s what we talk about the most; He is our everything.
Stay Committed to the Word.
Don’t let fear, or anxiety, or busy-ness, or relationships, or work or anything or anyone, take away our love for and commitment to the Word of God. Stay a believer in the Word of God. Allow the Holy Spirit to open and illuminate things we don’t understand, but in the meantime stay in the Word. Keep reading, meditating and studying the Bible. It is God’s revelation.
Stay Compassionate for one another.
There will be people all around us who need reassurance, comfort and caring. Let’s be the people to give that. Some we know will be filled with fear, and not know where to turn or what to do. Let’s be Kingdom people who minister love and hope and with a smile share and care with practical helps and with the Gospel.
Stay Connected to the Church.
It’s easier now with much online ministry to stay away from connections with our fellow believers. Let’s not make the excuse that we are connecting online, when we know there is nothing as powerful as real face-to-face conversations and communication. As we are able, let’s not stop getting to Church, to small groups and meeting with one another to encourage and care and love.
Stay Calm. [1]
There may well be days in which we feel just the opposite. But we must remember that God is with us. He is in us. He is walking this journey in us and with us. Let’s not forget His words to us before He left:
Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:1-3 NKJV.
Notice those words, that where I am, there you may be also. Jesus wants us to be with Him. God wants you in Heaven.
Not only that, God wants to be with us on earth, before we get there! Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. John 14:23 NKJV.
Again did you notice these words? We will come to him and make Our home with him.
Wow! That’s God the Father, and God the Son promising to make us — little old me and you — their home! That is an incredible thought.
While we wait for His imminent return, we have the assurance that Jesus has gone ahead, and is getting things ready there in Heaven for us, and that He is coming back for us pretty soon.
The key thing to know is that your name is written on the Lamb’s Book of Life! If it is, then you will be taken up with Jesus when He comes.
We must get this message out to the people of our nations. We need to tell them that time is running out. God’s love for us and the claims of Jesus must be weighed up and decisions need be made. Now is the time for people to come to know the Saviour, and know that they too have their names in the Lamb’s book of life.
[1] Inspired by Pastor David Jeremiah.
