The Return of Jesus: Are You Actually Ready?

Back. [thunder] [thunder] (thunder rumbling) (thunder rumbling) (thunder rumbling) (thunder rumbling) (thunder rumbling) (thunder rumbling) (thunder rumbling) (thunder rumbling) (thunder rumbling) (thunder rumbling) (thunder rumbling) (thunder rumbling) (thunder rumbling) (thunder rumbling) (thunder rumbling) Hey, I'm back! (thunder rumbling) I told you I was coming back. (thunder rumbling) Did you expect that I was going to come back? (thunder rumbling) You know, when someone says something to you, like this, I'll be back, right? A lot of times, the validity of that statement is built on the relationship. Do you trust that person? Has that person been true to what they've said

in previous times, right? So I've got a question for you. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is coming back? Now, I know we say that on a Sunday, but let me ask you, are you living that way? Because you know, one day, everything that you're busy with right now will stop, and you'll stand before Jesus with the life that you've lived. And the question is, are you ready? In John chapter 14, the words of Jesus to all of us in your copy of God's word, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. Some of your Bible says many mansions. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself that where I am, you may be also. You're one and only life. What I hope over these next several four weeks is you to become aware that Jesus Christ is coming back and you see that this moment in time, of all the things that you are doing, raising a family, a career, going on vacations, all the stuff that fills your calendars that you'd begin to see that what you really need is to prepare for this moment in time

when you are going to have a one-on-one meeting with Jesus. Aware that Jesus is coming back soon and preparing for this meeting that you're going to have with Him. Now, I want you to know over these next several weeks what I'm not going to do is get caught up in all the signs of the times. Get into a Bible study about in times and prophecies and people like, "What's the signs of the times? What's the geopolitical news? Is this moment compared to this moment?" All that we need to know is that Jesus says, "Over and over and over, I'm coming back." We don't need to know the details. We need to know and believe that He has watched this. The greatest distraction from eternity may not be the bad things that are happening in the news. It may be the good things that make us forget the greatest thing. And I also know that, right, when I have a moment like this and I begin to have a topic like this, some people are like, "My goodness, mark, cup, mark." Hold on. Of all the topics, could you kind of maybe teach? What's the Bible say about having a healthy marriage? Or how do I overcome this habit that just has control of my life? I'm trying to raise my kids. I mean, I get it. We often would say, "Yeah, I've heard my pastor back in the day. This evangelist, my me, mom, my pop-pop." People are always talking about Jesus coming back.

And quite frankly, Mark, I'm just really not all that interested. And that's not lost on me. And I want you to know something. It's not lost on God. Actually, God speaks to this in the Scriptures. Look at 2 Peter, chapter 3. Knowing this first of all. Let's pause. He wants to be a part of God. That scoffers, what's a scoffer, that's not a word we use every single day, scoffers are people who make fun of or they ridicule something. That these scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, "Where is the promise of His coming? Forever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation." The scoffers will come and they'll say, "Wait, wait, wait. He said He's going to come and 2,000 years later you're like, "Come on, Mark. I mean, man, we've heard this forever. I mean, people have been saying this and so where is He? Here's the principle to write down in your journal. The passage of time doesn't weaken the promises of God." The passage of time doesn't weaken the promises of God. And I know we want security. We want to know about our future. We want to know where is history going. History isn't moving towards the chaos that you keep tuning into in all of the news. History is moving towards Christ. That's why the Bible tells us in Philippians 3, our citizenship is in heaven. And we, those who are Christ's followers, we are eagerly awaiting a Savior from there,

the Lord Jesus Christ. So the question is, are you? I mean, get honest with yourself. This past week, have you really been like, "Today, Tuesday, when you're watching the ballgame yesterday, where you, like, he might come back right now, I mean, the activities this upcoming week." Have you put in your outlook calendar that perhaps on Thursday, Jesus is coming again. Titus 2 says, "We wait," those of us who are Christ followers, "we wait for the blessed hope." I'm here to tell you the blessed hope isn't happening at the midterms. It's not happening when you think that the oil prices get back to what you think is normal. All the things that we look to as our blessed hope, Scripture says, "Our blessed hope is the appearing of the glory of our great Savior Jesus Christ." See, Christianity isn't simply looking back towards the cross. It's also looking forward towards a king. The cross tells us what Jesus accomplished. The second coming tells us where history is headed. And here's our problem this morning, write it down. We share this in our common humanity, spiritual complacency. Jesus hasn't returned yet. And so it's easy to become spiritually complacent, like, okay, slowly after time he hasn't come, so expectation of Jesus coming again begins to fade. Their urgency of living our lives knowing that perhaps today he's coming back, awareness fades in eventually we live as though he's never coming. And Peter predicted this. He said scoffers will say, "Where is he?" I thought you said he's coming back. We've been here in this for a moment. But he also said this in Second Peter. God's not slow concerning his promises.

And he's patient. Why? Why hasn't he come back? Because he does not want people to perish. God in His mercy wants everybody to discover the hope that you've discovered in Christ. He wants everybody to discover that hope in Christ. And every additional day is another day somebody gets to meet Jesus. Another marriage gets restored, a prodigal comes home, a person repents and turns to Jesus. Another life is changed. So in this study together today in the next three weeks, we're not going to lean into to a timeline. I taught that three years ago. You can, if you get the weekend recap notes and if you don't get that, use the card and sign up or just stop by the front desk. And say, hey, I want to get that weekend email recap that Mark sends out. We'll have a link to all of those messages I taught in 23 where I went timeline all throughout scriptures and you can study. That's not what this is about. But what I do want you to understand, when we talk about Jesus coming again, it's actually in two steps. And again, let me just pause. Why is this important? I mean, I'm going on an important date on Friday. I'm trying to pay my bills. I understand this. But biblically, understanding that one day Jesus is coming again and you being aware and prepared for what will be the most important moment of your life. It is crucial to everything that you are and hope to be.

And this two step moment with Jesus. One step the Bible calls it the rapture. I'll explain that in a second. And the second step is the second coming. You who are here now hearing my voice, you want to be ready for the rapture. Let me teach. Look what the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians chapter four. The Lord Himself will come down from heaven. The dead in Christ will rise and believers are caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. This biblically is the rapture. Jesus is not coming and nearly stepping on the earth like He did the first time He came as a baby and became our Savior on the cross. He's coming in the air. Those who are still alive, we will meet Him up in the air. Notice what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians. We will be changed in a flash in the twinkling of an eye. Our mortal bodies will be changed to immortal bodies. I just want you to know I'm okay with that. Like there's a generation that doesn't die. Like I'm really okay. Like our mortal bodies, those of us who wear contacts or you wear glasses, you ain't wearing contacts or glasses no more. Those of us who have a hearing device inside of our ear, like you can hear again, right? Those of us who struggle with acid reflux

and it's always bubbling up and it's singing inside. Hey, hello, hashtag, those who have a hemorrhoid, they are all gone and we take on a immortal body and we ain't feeling that pain no more. There is this moment in time that is going to happen. And my question is, are you ready? Are you ready? Jesus says in Matthew 24, therefore as a result of all this, keep watch because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. And now he gives an illustration and many of us in this space totally understand this illustration. He says, understand this, verse 43. If the owner of the house, you had known at what time a bad guy of night, a thief was coming, you would be sitting on the front porch with your Smith and Wesson saying, come on baby, make my day. That's not in the Bible. But he said, you would have watched and would not let your house be broken into your family. If that's true in the physical space, Jesus is saying, wake up. This is equally true. You have cameras at your house. You have alarm systems on your house. You lock your doors on the house. There is an anticipation that this moment might happen. My question is, how have you become aware of the reality? Jesus Christ is coming again. How are you keeping yourself

becoming one of those scoffers that like, man, we've been hearing this forever. And you keep putting it off and putting it off rather than becoming prepared. Jesus summarizes in Matthew 25. Therefore, keep watch. Why? Because you don't know the day or the hour. And this is important. Prophecy or talking about the end times wasn't given to us so that we would become date setters. It was given to us so we would become difference makers. A lot of us, you're living, particularly some of you have been around church for a season, right? You're good at sitting on your blessed assurance. You're good church going folk and you want to look at the signs of the times, almost like a student. Like, you know you've got a term paper that's due in October. Instead of kind of chipping away it day after day after day, living with an awareness and preparing that one day your term papers can be due, you wait to the night before. Get a plug it all in there and clod and chat GPT and push that paper out. A lot of us are living that way. Here's the problem. Is in school, the teacher or the professor tells you the date of the exam or the date the papers do. The Bible teaches you clearly you don't know the date. We aren't called to be date setters.

We are called to step up and to make a difference. in villages. We have put wells in villages. We have a medical clinic. We have a women's center. Why? So these pastors, like you have to understand, the curiosity when villagers come and say, "Man, where did you get this light from? How about this clean drinking water?" It's not just the light. It's not just the clean drinking water. These pastors getting in to tell them about Jesus because we are difference makers. The goal isn't to know every detail of the timeline. The goal is to be ready whenever Jesus comes. Matthew 24, about that day or hour, no one knows. Not even Jesus himself, only the heavenly Father knows. At one point he's going to look over at his son and say, "It's time. I've waited. Everybody who's coming to repentance has come. Go get the bride that you love." One person in this gathering is ready. You and me will be ready. We'll go together. Acts 1, Jesus has resurrected. People have seen him. He's about to ascend back into heaven. The disciples are hanging out with him. And the angel says, as he's ascending, he says, "It is not for you to know." They want to know, "If you're leaving now, when are you going to come back?" And the angel says, "It's not for you to know the times or dates that the Father has set by his own authority." He simply said, "I will be back." Jesus doesn't tell us when he's coming, but he modeled and he taught how we should be living until he comes. Do you know this? If not, I hope the weight of this reality settles in on you. In your Bible, the Bible where you've done the whole John 3, 16, like, okay, I'm going to be saved. You had your little prayer moment, like, okay, I want to go to heaven when I die. That Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, you understand the whole book is God's Word. Do you know that the second most frequent topic from Genesis to Revelation is the second coming of Jesus Christ? Did you know that in the New Testament, the second coming of Jesus is in every single book, except for four. Three of those books are just one chapter books, and in Galatians, it's not. The theme, 318 times, in the New Testament, every 30 verses, one in 30 verses is always speaking about the second coming of Jesus Christ. He wants us to be aware and he wants you to be ready. So my question is, are you? You're more prepared for going on your next vacation than you are for meeting Jesus face to face, and my prayer this morning is that begins to change. That you begin to see that the life that you want, that you cherish, that as a believer and follower of Jesus, that this sense of urgency settles in your soul. I have given you just a small sampling, I can't put 318 verses on the screen right now, but I've given you a small

sampling so you can see how over and over and over Jesus is saying to us, be aware this is happening. Luke chapter 21, they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 24, Matthew 24, Jesus compares this coming to a lightning visible across the sky. Verse 64, Jesus tells the high priest that they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven. Acts 1 and 9, the angel tells disciples, this same Jesus will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven. Matthew 24, therefore keep watch because you don't know the day or the hour in which you'll come. The Son of Man will come at an hour when you don't expect him. The parable of the 10 versions is all about preparedness and how they weren't prepared. Luke chapter 12, you must be ready because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you don't expect him. Revelation, look, I'm coming soon. My reward is with me. Yes, I'm coming soon. Look, he's coming in the clouds, but here's the tension. We get caught up in our everyday life and you're like, Mark, I hear that, but I haven't seen it. So the question isn't whether this morning Jesus is coming. The question is, will you be ready? Will you let the Spirit of God stir you up, stir up how you spend your time and spend your cash, rather than trying to spend our life, trying to figure out when Jesus is coming, spend your life becoming who Jesus wants you to become. Someone I lean into those two words and make an action plan for us this week, because being aware means I believe Jesus is coming, and when you believe something, belief always becomes practice. If you really believe that you need some money in retirement, can I tell you what you begin practicing? Even if you're in your fifties or sixties, you begin practicing saving. If you come to the conclusion and you really believe that you need to hydrate because your doctor told you that hydration is important, you begin to hydrate.

What you believe you practice. Now, for some of us, this should cause us to sweat under our arms right now and get a little bit nervous, because you say that you believe in Jesus, but you don't practice following Jesus. Something has to change. What you believe you practice, you do reps, you do the sets, you lean in, you have activity. And when you become ready, it means that belief is changing how I live. To say I believe something and not live that way, is the pure definition of insanity. To say that you believe in Jesus Christ, but we don't live with the anticipation that perhaps today Jesus Christ is coming back. That space, that gap needs to be bridged like two things this morning. Number one, it needs to be bridged by awareness. We need to be aware. It's easy to get busy building a life and we forget that Jesus is coming back for our lives. I get it. Life can keep you so busy planning what's next that you forget who's coming next. Right, parents, you prepare your sons and daughters for whatever athletic event that they're a part of, which is good and it's responsible. Parents, how are you preparing your sons and daughters for the second coming of Jesus?

You prepare them for the SAT and the ACTs. You prepare them for where they're gonna step out into the world as an adult. How are you preparing them for the reality that Jesus Christ is coming again? Live today like Jesus could return tomorrow. While at the same time plan your life like he may not return in your lifetime. In other words, build your career. Keep on living this incredible life that he's given to you. Love your spouse, raise your children. Take a vacation, have a hobby, do a puzzle, watch a ballgame. I mean, enjoy this incredible gift that God has given us called life. But always looking through the lens, Jesus is coming again. Because when eternity disappears from our thinking, urgency disappears from our living. And if you could get honest with yourself this morning, that's where many people are living. The sense of urgency that I'm a follower of Jesus. Like I've put my hope in Jesus. Like I'm a follower. Like I'm thinking one day when I die, I'm gonna go to heaven. I mean, think about this. You're like, I wanna spend all of eternity, which like, how long's eternity? Forever.

But like the idea of getting up in the morning, or before you go to bed at night, spending five minutes with God is just foreign. I mean, have you not seen the latest show that's on Netflix? I mean, my goodness. I mean, we got ball games to watch. We got things to do and all this kind of deals. This morning, we are bridging that gap. We are becoming aware. Aware, not afraid, ready, not reluctant, faithful, not fearful. Enjoy this incredible life that God has given you. But avoid letting the activity of today make you unaware that Jesus Christ is coming back for you. Awareness creates action, and that action is you getting ready. So be aware, we have made that crystal clear this morning. No, you can come to the conclusion, say, Mark, I just ignore that. That's fine, but you need to say I'm ignoring God, because God has said be aware. It's the second most frequent topic in all of the scriptures. In the New Testament, one of every 30 verses He is saying to you, wake up, stop. You might be able to do that in school. You might be able to do that in business. You might be able to do that in your health. But when it comes to following Jesus,

there is no procrastination. Today is your day. Be aware and be ready. Biblical readiness is not like looking to the sky. Do we see him? Oh no, that's just Santa Claus flying on his sled. No, wait, that's not biblical readiness. Biblical readiness is faithfully serving on the ground, leveraging your life so that men and women, boys and girls, moms and dads, around you discover the same hope that you say that you've discovered in Jesus Christ. Awareness of Christ coming impacts how we live today. Perhaps today, it used to be back in the day, there was a little lapel button that a lot of guys would wear. It simply said perhaps today, it was a constant reminder that maybe this was the day that Jesus Christ would come again. Jesus promised he would return. So tomorrow morning, get up and go to work. Be early, be fully caffeinated, be ready for a great day in whatever career God has given to you. Raise your kids, be a part of their after school activities and go to the ball fields and cheer them on. Love your spouse. If you're not married, date somebody. I mean, live into this life, serve people. Give generously, see where you can invest your time and your cash so people discover the hope that you have.

And his name is Jesus. You plan for your future, but do everything remembering this world is not the end of the story. What happens if you forget? That's a good question. I think apathy can settle in. I think Jesus becomes peripheral. He's just kind of a side, small picture in your life. The eternity becomes theoretical for some of us in this space. That's what eternity is. It's theoretical. And what's most dangerous is culture becomes more influential than Christ. In a moment, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to change some things in your life. Perhaps one of the most important changes you could take today is rather than letting culture, what influencers, what newscasters, what politicians say to influence your life and let Christ influence your life, then imagine waking up every day and living. Today might be the day that my king's coming. I mean, is there a better way? Is there better caffeine than just kind of waking up and saying, hey, listen, I don't know about you, but today might be the day somebody, some generation gets to be transformed and not die. I'm just signing up. I would just be like, okay, perhaps today is the day. I still have my cup of coffee.

I'm still gonna enjoy Linda's home cooking. I'm still gonna enjoy life. I'm still gonna limp when the Buckeyes blow a big lead in the fourth quarter and lose to Texas. I mean, I'm still, I'm still gonna live this one and only incredible life, but I want you to know I'm waking up every single day with this idea that perhaps today Jesus Christ is coming again and everything I've ever believed, all that I've ever read in the scriptures, it is going to happen and I'm gonna be with Jesus forever. How about you? How about you? I'm glad that you're clapping, but I want you to live it on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and Fridays. I wanted to become the grid in which you live your life. No fear, just hope, no panic, just purpose, not an obsession, but an expectation that perhaps today Jesus comes for me. Don't let his delay, 'cause I know how many people think, don't let his delay make you doubt his promise because the one who said I will come again has never broken his word. Thank you. Being together in this space today is really good. If you've never begun a relationship with Jesus, I'd like to invite you to do it. It's not about your behavior.

It's not about your church attendance. It's about the reality that Jesus is for you. God's not managed you. He's madly in love with you. Would you right now pray this prayer with me? Hey, God, it's me. I've sinned and I know it and I can't fix me. But today I receive you, Jesus, as my Savior. I believe that you died on that cross for me and that you were buried for three days and then you became alive again. And I invite you into my life to guide me and direct me all the rest of the days of my life. And with that prayer, my friend, welcome to God's family. I'd like to continue our friendship. If you would email me [email protected]. I'll follow up with you and together we'll celebrate Jesus in your life. Peace. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)