The Return Of The King will be, for some, the best time and, for others, the worst. Dr Philip Woodley from Hyde Heath Baptist returns to Chartridge to herald Jesus' ruling on earth.
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00:00As we start our service this evening, would you like to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 130.
00:19Psalm 130, a song of ascents.
00:23Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord.
00:26Lord hear my voice.
00:28Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.
00:33If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?
00:39But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can with reverence serve you.
00:46I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.
00:54I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning.
00:58More than watchmen wait for the morning.
01:01Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love, and with him is
01:11full redemption.
01:13He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.
01:21So this is a psalm that would have been sung by the pilgrims going up to Jerusalem, and
01:27it's a reminder that we come to the holy and just God as sinners.
01:36And we can come to the holy and just God as sinners, that he is a God who redeems his
01:41people.
01:43And here is a man who is in deep distress really, he is calling out for mercy because
01:52he recognises and understands the depth of his sin.
01:57And so he comes to God, and that too is what we should do, that we are sinners, that we
02:02too need to turn to the Lord, that we wait in hope for the Lord.
02:08We wait in hope for the Lord in the sense not only that he will be our help day by day,
02:13that we can see that help, but we also wait in hope for the day of the Lord's return
02:19when full redemption comes.
02:24I don't know if some of you I think may have been in the services or have been on shift
02:31work.
02:32I remember the times that I was on duty and doing a sort of duty watch during the night,
02:43and it is long and it is tiring just sitting there waiting, waiting.
02:50And so I can understand that he knows and understands more than watchmen wait for the
02:58morning the dangers that come or potentially might come at night, and how long, how they
03:04long for the daylight when they can see and be clear and understand what's going on when
03:11the busyness of the day starts rather than just the boredom of a night watch.
03:18But the Lord will return, and that's what we'll be thinking about through our service
03:22this evening, that we wait in hope for the Lord, for the day of his return.
03:31Well over at Hyde Heath two Sundays ago we had Sazra visit us, we had the scripture reader
03:38from RF Northolt come, Steve Docherty, and he's settled well into the work despite the
03:47fact that he still hasn't got his security pass, he's been allowed access to the base
03:52and they're waiting therefore for security and for a home on the base, but he's got good
04:01relationships with the chaplain there and they're holding a weekly tea and toast event
04:10which they're inviting people to come in and that's proving profitable.
04:14So he's witnessing not only to RF personnel, but there are army people based on RF Northolt
04:22as well.
04:23So I thought I'd share that with you, it would be good to pray for him.
04:28Well Heather's going to come and bring a reading to us now, and that is Matthew chapter 24.
04:35Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call
04:42his attention to its buildings.
04:44Do you see all these things? he asked.
04:48Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another, every one will be thrown down.
04:57As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately.
05:04Tell us, they said, when will this happen and what will be the sign of your coming and
05:11of the end of the age?
05:14Jesus answered, watch out that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name claiming
05:22I am the Messiah and will deceive many.
05:27You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed.
05:34Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
05:39Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.
05:44There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
05:48All these are the beginning of birth pains.
05:53Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by
05:58all nations because of me.
06:02At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other,
06:09and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.
06:16Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who
06:23stands firm to the end will be saved, and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached
06:30in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
06:39So when you see Standing in the Holy Place, the abomination that causes desolation, spoken
06:47of through the prophet Daniel, let the reader understand.
06:52Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
06:57Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house.
07:02Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak.
07:07How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers!
07:13Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath, for then there
07:19will be great distress, unequalled from the beginning of the world until now, and never
07:26to be equaled again.
07:29If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect,
07:37those days will be shortened.
07:40At that time, if anyone says to you, look, here is the Messiah, or there he is, do not
07:49believe it, for false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders
07:56to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
08:01See I have told you in advance.
08:05So if anyone tells you, there he is, out in the desert, do not go out, or here he is,
08:14in the inner rooms, do not believe it, for as lightning that comes from the east is visible
08:23even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
08:29Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
08:35Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will
08:41not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.
08:49Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then all the peoples of the
08:54earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power
09:00and great glory.
09:03And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from
09:08the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other.
09:14Now learn this lesson from the fig tree.
09:17As soon as its twigs become tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.
09:25Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.
09:32Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have
09:38happened.
09:40Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
09:47But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the sun, but
09:55only the Father.
09:57As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
10:03For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
10:09marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark.
10:14And they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.
10:21That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
10:25Two men will be in the field, one will be taken and the other left.
10:32Two women will be grinding with a hand mill, one will be taken and the other left.
10:39Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
10:47But understand this, if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the
10:52thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken
10:59into.
11:01So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not
11:07expect him.
11:09Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom the Master has put in charge of the servants
11:16in his household to give them their food at the proper time?
11:21It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.
11:27Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.
11:33But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, my master is staying away a long
11:39time and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.
11:48The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and an hour
11:54he is not aware of.
11:57He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will
12:02be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
12:07The return of the King.
12:10In Matthew 21, Jesus comes to Jerusalem as King.
12:17He cleanses the temple and then leaves.
12:22During the following few days, Jesus visits the temple and teaches the people.
12:27On one of these occasions, as Jesus leaves the temple again, the disciples come to him
12:33and direct his attention to the magnificence of the building.
12:38This is the temple that had been rebuilt and embellished by Herod the Great and his successors.
12:44And John 2 tells us that this rebuilding project had been going on for 46 years.
12:54Jesus' reply to their wonderment is somewhat dismissive, as it says in verse 2.
13:03These things are all going to be destroyed.
13:07It is probably evening time as they are going back to stay with Mary, Martha and Lazarus
13:13at Bethany, but Jesus pauses and sits down on the Mount of Olives overlooking the temple.
13:21The disciples come to him bewildered by Jesus' dismissive comments on the temple.
13:26They ask him a question that is clear in their minds, but which is actually rather confusing.
13:34They mix two events together which are separated by millennia.
13:39So let's start by separating the two elements.
13:45The first part of the question is simple.
13:47When are these magnificent buildings going to be destroyed?
13:52The second question is, what will be the sign of your coming into your kingdom and of the
13:57end of the age?
14:01In many senses, these two questions are not linked.
14:06But you could legitimately argue that the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem is
14:10linked to the Jews' rejection of Jesus as the coming king.
14:16It brings to a formal end the sacrificial system which pointed to Jesus as the ultimate
14:23sacrifice.
14:25But with the real completion of the sacrificial system on Good Friday, Jesus would rise again
14:32and would return to heaven to claim his kingdom.
14:38Then one day the second question will become relevant as Jesus the king returns, not just
14:44to cleanse the temple, but to cleanse the whole of creation, to claim his new remade
14:52kingdom.
14:54And so chapter 24 deals with the answers to these two questions.
15:00Some say that the answer to the first question is given in verses 4 to 25, and the answer
15:07to the second question is given in verses 26 to the end of chapter 25.
15:14Now we don't have time to go through the whole of these two chapters in detail, but
15:19first we have a knotty problem to resolve.
15:24Look at verse 15.
15:28So when you see standing in the holy place the abomination that causes desolation spoken
15:35of through the prophet Daniel, let the reader understand, then let those who are in Judea
15:42flee to the mountains.
15:46Matthew has interjected into Jesus' answer by referring his disciples, by referring his
15:52readers to Daniel chapter 9 verse 27, where the vision given to Daniel refers to the establishment
16:03of an abomination that causes desolation at the second temple.
16:11In chapters 11 and 12 of Daniel, there is a repetition of this phrase.
16:20These references are typically taken as referring to when Antiochus Epiphanes set up an image
16:28glorifying Zeus and asked for pigs to be sacrificed on the altars in the temple, acts that were
16:37to trigger the Maccabees' revolt.
16:41All that was centuries before the time of Jesus.
16:46So we are left with a bit of a conundrum.
16:48Jesus is apparently referring to something that has already happened as though it will
16:54happen again.
16:56And indeed, in one sense, perhaps it did.
17:00In AD 70, the Romans destroyed the temple.
17:05So Jesus is probably linking the Roman desecration and destruction of the temple with that of
17:14the Greeks centuries earlier.
17:17Therefore we do see history repeating itself.
17:22Perhaps therefore we can't totally dismiss these early verses of chapter 24 as simply
17:28referring to the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple.
17:35Perhaps there will be similar events in the final days that the enemies of God will again
17:41attack Jerusalem in the end times.
17:47But after that somewhat long introduction, we're going to look at three points today.
17:54Jesus is coming again.
17:56Second, we don't know when.
18:00And then we must be ready.
18:02So first, Jesus is coming again.
18:07In verse 30, Jesus says,
18:09Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then all the peoples of the
18:15earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power
18:22and great glory.
18:23Jesus is predicting his own return.
18:28But in the Old Testament, there are predictions of a day of judgment and reward.
18:33Now of course, we don't have time to go through a survey of the entire subject.
18:39But for example, I just picked out Isaiah 13, where we see a day of judgment on Babylon.
18:48Verse 6,
18:49Wail, for the day of the Lord is near.
18:53It will come like destruction from the Almighty.
18:58But this of course could simply be a judgment on Babylon of the Old Testament times.
19:05But when we get to the New Testament, and Revelation in particular, we find Babylon
19:10again as a picture of the world.
19:14In the same way, we see in chapter 22, a prophecy about Jerusalem.
19:20Verse 5 says this,
19:23The Lord, the Lord Almighty, has a day of tumult and trampling and terror in the valley
19:28of vision, which is a term which is used to refer to Jerusalem.
19:33A day of battering down walls, of crying out to the mountains.
19:39But as we've already seen, some prophecies seem to have a repeat effect.
19:45So maybe again, there will be a day when Jerusalem is battered down.
19:52In contrast, Isaiah 60 proclaims a day, a year of the Lord's favour.
19:58Verses 19 and 20 say this,
20:01The sun will no more be your light by day, nor the brightness of the moon shine on you.
20:07For the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.
20:13Your sun will never set again, and your moon will never wane no more.
20:19The Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end.
20:26So not only is this a day of God's favour, but of a different creative order, unlike
20:33anything that we have ever known.
20:38Jesus also spoke of his own return.
20:41In Matthew 16, verse 27, he says,
20:45For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he
20:50will reward each person according to what they have done.
20:55And in John 14, verse 3, he says,
20:58Do not let your hearts be troubled.
21:01You believe in God, believe also in me.
21:04My Father's house has many rooms.
21:06If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for
21:11you?
21:12And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me,
21:20that you may also be where I am.
21:25But this is also a theme of the epistles too.
21:291 Corinthians 15 is the famous chapter on death and resurrection, and Paul states in
21:34verse 24,
21:36Then the end will come when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has
21:42destroyed all dominion, authority and power.
21:48In 2 John, verse 7, John speaks against those who deny the return of the Lord.
21:55I say this because many deceivers who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the
22:00flesh have gone out into the world.
22:04Any such deceiver, any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.
22:11And of course the climax of the book of Revelation is the return of the Lord in judgment.
22:18But not only in judgment, he will bring eternal blessing to all his people.
22:25So the return of Jesus is clear throughout scripture.
22:30Even at his ascension, the angels spoke to the disciples about the return of the Lord.
22:36To deny the return of Christ is to deny the truth of scripture.
22:43So secondly, when will the Lord return?
22:49More than 50 years ago, my older brother and sister and I went to the evening service at
22:55church.
22:56Dad was preaching somewhere else, Mum was at home looking after our younger brother
23:01and sister who were too young to attend the evening service.
23:06It was just after Christmas.
23:10I can clearly remember the speaker saying,
23:13I don't believe we shall see another Christmas.
23:17I believe the Lord will return before then.
23:22It shocked us somewhat, although I think I had a degree of scepticism even as a young teenager.
23:29But I also remember in the mid-70s when I first worked in London, there was a man who
23:36walked up and down Oxford Street wearing an old-fashioned type sandwich board which said,
23:43the end is nigh.
23:45And if you turn to Revelation 22, the last chapter in the Bible, the words of Jesus in
23:51verse 12 are, look, I am coming soon.
23:55And again in verse 20, yes, I am coming soon.
24:02Even in the early church, there was a belief that Jesus would come again soon.
24:07James 5 verses 7 and 8, be patient then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming.
24:13See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the
24:19autumn and spring rains.
24:22You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near.
24:31Hebrews 10 verse 37 refers back to Habakkuk 2 verse 3, when the writer says, for in just
24:40a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.
24:48Despite the use of terms such as soon, the Lord has not yet returned.
24:55Many might say that he is delayed, but see what Jesus says in verses 37 to 39 of Matthew
25:0324.
25:05As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
25:11For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
25:17marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark.
25:21And they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.
25:28That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
25:33The people of Noah's day watched Noah building the ark.
25:37It's said that it took him a hundred years.
25:40His work and witness spoke of a coming judgment and a potential for safety, of rescue from
25:47coming disaster.
25:50But the people ignored the message.
25:53They just carried on in their normal daily lives.
25:57And so they were caught out when the rain and the flood came.
26:02That is why the warning is given in verse 42 to keep watch.
26:07Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
26:15It is a repeat of the warning of verse 36.
26:19But about that day or hour no one knows, not even in the angels in heaven, nor the Son,
26:27but only the Father.
26:30Now that may seem surprising.
26:32We do not fully understand what that means.
26:35So we have to take it at face value.
26:38Yet down through the ages, people have tried to predict the return of the Lord.
26:43Notably, the Jehovah's Witnesses.
26:46They predicted that Jesus would return in 1874.
26:52Then it was going to be 1925.
26:56And when that didn't happen either, they decided that it already happened in 1914, but that
27:03Jesus was only given his kingdom and hasn't actually yet come to claim his kingdom.
27:10Sadly, we have a neighbour who is generally a lovely Christian man, but he has written
27:17a book saying that he has calculated when Jesus will return, probably sometime about
27:23the early-mid 2030s.
27:28This is a denial of the truth of Scripture and risks leading people astray.
27:35The danger is that people will think that they have time before the Lord returns.
27:41Or when it fails to happen on the due date, they will be like the people of Noah's day.
27:46They will decide that it's not going to happen.
27:52Nowadays we lock the doors and windows when we leave home.
27:57Perhaps we even have a burglar alarm to protect our home and property.
28:03But these days thieves are also getting more sophisticated too.
28:08They steal cars without the key.
28:10They use deceit to rob us through our banks and so on.
28:18But if we are wise and alert, we can still defeat the thief.
28:24Things were much simpler in Bible times, but still there was the need to keep alert.
28:30Jesus uses this example to warn the disciples in verse 43.
28:36But understand this, he says, if the owner of the house had known at what time of night
28:41the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken
28:48into.
28:50Jesus is telling people to be watchful because he will return unexpectedly, just as a thief
28:58comes when we are not prepared.
29:03Verse 44 is a verse that is familiar to me.
29:06It's the motto of the Sazra, the Soldiers and Aviators Scripture Readers Association.
29:13So you also must be ready because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not
29:19expect him.
29:21It gives its name to the Sazra magazine, ready.
29:26When I worked for Sazra, I remember scripture readers telling stories of soldiers dismissing
29:32the message of salvation, saying that they would think about it a bit nearer the time
29:39as they got towards their death.
29:42One scripture reader would make a point about this by getting out his diary and asking the
29:47man, well, when are you going to die then?
29:50I'll come and see you and talk to you about it then.
29:55But even if we die before the Lord's return, we equally need to be ready because we do
30:01not know when we will die.
30:04Recently, there was a man and his family got on an aeroplane to travel to a wedding in
30:11Australia.
30:13About 12 hours into the flight, the aircraft suddenly dropped dramatically.
30:19Like many, the man was tossed out of his seat and some of them hit their heads on the ceiling
30:24of the aircraft.
30:26The drama caused this man to have a heart attack and he died.
30:32Just like the people of Noah's day, he was swept away in a moment unexpectedly.
30:40And that brings us to our last point.
30:43Be ready.
30:45Be ready for the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
30:53The return of Christ will be a surprise.
30:56And indeed, that is the theme of the parables used in Matthew 24 and 25.
31:03The unfaithful servant in verses 48 to 51 of Matthew 24 is not ready for his master's
31:11return.
31:13And consequently, he is cut to pieces and assigned a place with the hypocrites.
31:20Matthew 25 starts with ten bridesmaids.
31:24Five are ready for the arrival of the bridegroom and get their places at the wedding supper.
31:31Five are described as foolish and have no oil for their lamps to light the way for the
31:36bridegroom when he comes in the night.
31:40They are left outside of the wedding festival.
31:43Though they knock to regain admittance, they are left outside.
31:48In the following parable, the servants are given bags of gold to serve their master in
31:53his absence.
31:55When the master returns, the servants are treated differently according to their service
32:00during his absence.
32:03The one who does nothing is thrown out into outer darkness, while the others are rewarded
32:09with positions of authority.
32:13And in the third parable of the separation of the sheep and the goats, those who have
32:18failed to serve God will be bewildered by the judgment against them.
32:24They have not treated God well because they have failed to care for his people.
32:30They are not ready to meet God on his terms.
32:34They want to be judged by the criteria they set for themselves.
32:39But instead, they go to eternal punishment.
32:46Today there are people who believe, like the preacher fifty years ago, that the state of
32:51the world is such that it must surely indicate the imminent return of Christ.
32:59Maybe they are right, but maybe not.
33:04There have been periods of turmoil in the past that prompted people to think that the
33:09return of Christ was imminent.
33:12Think of the Great War, World War I.
33:14The recapture of Jerusalem caused many to think that this was an immediate precursor
33:20to the return of Jesus.
33:23And undoubtedly things have got much worse since those days.
33:27Wars are going on all around the world.
33:30I heard the figure recently of 43 different wars, which probably includes terrorist activity.
33:37And in recent years, there have been a number of big earthquakes.
33:42And this is referred to in Matthew 24, verse 7, along with famines.
33:48It's therefore a serious probability that Christ will return soon.
33:53And we should not dismiss such a possibility.
33:57But if you read Revelation and make a serious study of it, one way of interpreting it is
34:03that it describes a series of cycles of judgment, which become more and more severe.
34:12That would fit with the pattern of the plagues in Egypt, with the judgments of Israel in
34:18the time of the judges, and the judgments on Israel as it descended into apostasy, leading
34:25eventually to exile.
34:29The way that the plagues of Egypt are often taught to children in Sunday school probably
34:35helps to shape our thinking into believing that these plagues took place over a couple
34:41of weeks, when in fact they probably took place over a period of months, if not years.
34:49The destruction of the crops by the locusts could not be immediately followed a short
34:54time later by the destruction of crops by a hailstorm.
34:59Similarly, the cycle of judgments and recovery in the book of Judges probably represents
35:06about 400 years, a similar time to the coverage of the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles.
35:16We must therefore recognize that there might be many years before the return of Christ,
35:22but perhaps not in the lifetime of anyone here.
35:26I leave that idea as no stronger than a possibility.
35:31Why?
35:32If you were told that you had cancer and were going to die in two weeks, that would shape
35:38the way that you lived your remaining days.
35:42The way that you planned those remaining days would be different to the way that you would
35:46plan if you were told that you had cancer and that with current treatments you would
35:51probably live another 20 years.
35:57As I said earlier, the parables of Matthew 24 and 25 are about the way that we live our
36:03lives.
36:06In verses 45 to 47 of Matthew 24, the wise servant who serves faithfully is like those
36:14who serve industriously in the parable of the bags of gold in chapter 25.
36:21The wise servant is rewarded when the master returns to find things in good order.
36:30The wise bridesmaids get into the wedding feast because they were ready and they were
36:35able to light the way for the bridegroom into the wedding feast.
36:41God's people represented by the sheep in the final parable have served faithfully,
36:48not discerning the way that God was watching them, and so chapter 25 verses 37 to 39 has
36:57to be compared with the way that the others respond in verse 44.
37:04God's people have been faithful, diligent, compassionate servants, not even thinking
37:10about their sacrificial service, and so they are surprised when God pronounces blessing
37:18on them.
37:19But the selfish and ungodly missed the opportunity to serve God's people because they counted
37:26them as nothing.
37:29There are two aspects to this warning to be ready.
37:33First, we must repent and have faith in the work of Christ as our Redeemer who paid the
37:40penalty for our sins.
37:43We believe that he died for us and rose again to bring us to eternal life.
37:50This is the hope that we have in Christ.
37:56But secondly, if we have truly trusted in Jesus, it will change the way that we live.
38:04The Holy Spirit will work in our lives to cause us to live for Christ.
38:11We will want to live for him.
38:12We will want to serve him by doing the things that he calls us to do.
38:18The parable of the sheep and goats is particularly illustrative of that.
38:23We will want to serve our fellow Christians.
38:25We will want to proclaim the gospel so that others will be saved.
38:30In short, we will want to live as Jesus did.
38:35We will no longer be living for ourselves, but living to please God.
38:41We will be willing to take up our cross and serve sacrificially, giving our time, our
38:47energy, our money, our abilities to serve God.
38:53Living the Christian life will be something that we do day by day, not just on a Sunday.
39:01So let's draw things to a conclusion.
39:05Jesus is coming again for those who love him.
39:09For those who have confessed their sins to him and trusted in his sacrifice as their
39:16means of salvation.
39:19This is a constant theme through scripture.
39:23We do not know when Christ will return.
39:25The Bible is clear on that.
39:28So we must be ready.
39:32Being ready is not about keeping a constant watch for his return.
39:37It is not about studying the TV news or the newspaper and trying to fit what's happening
39:43in the world to scripture texts.
39:45It's not about going after every crackpot who declares that he is the Messiah and who has
39:53come to claim the kingdom.
39:55No, being ready for the return of Christ is about faithful service.
40:04It doesn't matter when Christ returns.
40:08We don't have to worry about that if we are walking faithfully, living out the Christian
40:14life moment by moment.
40:18We may not see the return of Christ in this life.
40:22And in one sense, that should make no difference to the way that we live our lives day by day.
40:29Each day should be lived as though it were our last, but it should also be lived as though
40:34we were going to live a full lifetime, our three score years and ten, as the old King
40:39James Version says.
40:41Although I recognise that perhaps many of us, including myself, have already passed
40:46that mark.
40:49Grandma and Grandad are coming.
40:53The children are excited and watch at the window from early morning.
40:59Mum busies herself cleaning and tidying rooms and getting a meal ready.
41:05The children get bored and are distracted and don't see the car when it pulls up outside.
41:13Everyone is surprised by the ring on the doorbell.
41:18But Mum is ready.
41:20Her work is complete.
41:24And so we conclude with two simple questions.
41:29Are you trusting in the Lord Jesus for your salvation?
41:34If you are, then one day you will join Christ in glory.
41:41Whether you die or whether you are still alive when Christ returns, we are promised that
41:46Christ will reclaim his people.
41:50Second, are you walking in God's ways?
41:56This is the sign of the true believer.
41:59The wise servant of verses 45 to 47 is not worried about when the Master will return
42:07because he is always walking faithfully.
42:11But the foolish bridesmaids miss out on the wedding banquet because they only seemed to
42:17be ready.
42:19But in the end, they weren't prepared for the coming of the bridegroom and they are
42:24condemned by the words,
42:26Truly, I don't know you.
42:31May we each be ready for the return of Christ.