Mark 13:32-37 “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back — whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”
You do not know when that time will come, but Watch! This is the message to Christians over the centuries: Watch! Watch! Watch! Violence has been a part of the Jewish experience from the time of Christ. Violence and corruption have been an integral part of man's existence. But someday all we call life in its present form will end, for God will put an end to it. However, the Bible is very clear about one thing: No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. . . You do not know when that time will come. No man, not even the Son of man, knows the final day. We do know when the temple was destroyed, we do know the Jewish people fled from the Romans, we do know the slaughter of the Jewish people, we do know of the diaspora. But we do not have a clear knowledge of when the very last days will happen. Many people have written books speculating on the timing of the last days, proposing elaborate suppositions or offering hypotheses for when and where the antichrist will appear and describing the geopolitical nature of the world at the end of time. Of course as the decades and centuries pass, these varying predictors of the last days have had to adjust or to discard their ideas depending on how errant they were from the present realities. Nevertheless, we do know for sure that Jesus warned us to watch with alert minds, always ready for the coming of the Lord. We should be cognizant that these are the last days as Peter preached on the day of Pentecost: No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’" (Acts 2:16-21) Because we are living in the last days, we should be ready and long for the return of Christ.
Though we may not know the exact day and hour, we who are born of Christ have reason to rejoice in the Lord's coming. I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:50-57) We know whether Jesus comes to us in the last days or whether He comes to us in our demise, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. We cannot be with Jesus unless we have been changed from the inside out, WE MUST BE CHANGED FROM THE MAN OR WOMAN OF DUST TO THE LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT: The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. (1 Corinthians 15:45) The earth-bound or creatures of dust have no inheritance with the heaven-bound, those who have fixed their eyes on heavenly matters and not on earthly matters. We must be prepared when Jesus comes: we must watch for his soon coming, clothed in his righteousness. If we are not clothed appropriately in his holiness, we are hopelessly lost. If we are still clothed in earth-bound clothing of good works and self-aggradisement, we will never be accepted by a holy God. Dear friends, the Spirit would say to you: "If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”
How do we know we are waiting and watching as Jesus asked us to do? If we are watching as He has asked us to do, we will always be prepared, wearing the appropriate garments of righteousness and doing the Father's will. We will have accepted Jesus' righteousness for our own righteousness. We will not believe that doing good or obeying the law through our own abilities will grant us entry into the kingdom of Heaven. As the prophet Isaiah wrote: All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. (64:6) Good works will not span the gulf between a righteous God and sinful men. As those who know our purpose on Earth is to display the glory of God, we will shine brightly for him. We will be as the five wise virgins who took oil for their lamps so they were ready when the cry came: Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him! (Matthew 25:6) Yes, we are truly light, and we are salt to the world. Just as Jesus was a servant to everyone, we serve in his name. Knowing our lives are HIDE IN CHRIST, we are always his ambassadors. Our lives should constantly reflect the Lord: our voices and actions are to be different from the world's voices and actions. As redeemed people, we are to reveal a good God, who deserves to be worshipped as the one and only God who created all things. If we live as his followers as we watch for Jesus, we will do all we can to help people find God and be filled with his Spirit. We will lead them away from their sinful nature and a body that turns dust at death and lead them to Christ, for life IN CHRIST IS LIFE EVERLASTING IN THE SPIRIT with a new body in heaven. Breakfast companions know this for sure, life comes only through Christ. There is no other way, no other gate, to life eternal. Live today as if this is the last day, the day you will see the Lord. For if you do, out of your innermost being will flow living water: the life-giving water of the Spirit; the water of love that will heal the wounded, the broken hearted, the dying. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58)
No comments:
Post a Comment