“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” Matthew 24:7-8
Our Lord has told his followers what will characterise this age, an age that rejects God in rejecting His King, our Lord Jesus, and their occurrence, including in our own times, is a reminder that this is still the ‘present evil age’ that is destined to pass away when our Lord returns.
But when these wars and rumours of wars involve Jerusalem and the Jewish people many find them more unsettling, can become pre-occupied with the ‘signs of the times’, and some can even succumb to the temptation to indulge in calculations about the time of the return of our Lord Jesus.
We cannot know the time of our Lord’s return
Our Lord has told us very clearly that we will not know that time, for not even He knows the time of His return.
He said to His disciples: “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, not the Son, but the Father only”, and a few verses later He warned them to “stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” He emphasised that his return would be unannounced and unexpected by comparing it to the visit in the night of a thief to a house, concluding with the warning “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” [Matthew 24:36-44]. Not knowing the time of our Lord’s certain return calls, He says, for constant readiness for that day.
Calculation is not a substitute for readiness. In fact it will frustrate the constant readiness the Lord calls for from His people, from those who heed His word that He will return in glory at an unknown hour.
What is it to be ready?
But what is it to be ready, to be ‘awake’, the term our Lord uses in 24:42 and Paul repeats in 1 Thessalonians 5:6. Our Lord has not left us to guess. He describes the readiness His disciples must practice in the next three parables that follow His call to be ready, and both Paul and Peter also tell us what it is to be ready, to be awake at our Lord’s return [1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, 2 Peter 3:1-18]. While I will summarise that teaching here I would encourage you to go over the passages yourself, asking prayerfully whether the Lord would reckon you ready to meet Him – today, tomorrow, any day.
Three parables describing the readiness of Jesus’ followers Matthew 24:45 – 25:30
Readiness consists firstly, says our Lord, in being the faithful steward who is diligently carrying out the task entrusted to him or her by our Master [Matthew 24:45-51]. We are to persevere in serving our Master by serving those entrusted to our care and not exploiting our position and gifts to gain power, position and pleasure for ourselves. Readiness is persevering in faithfully carrying out the responsibilities entrusted to us by our Lord.
And readiness is secondly being like the wise virgins [Matthew 25:1-13] who used the time they had, the present, to prepare for a future event that was certain but of an unknown time, a time when they would have no more time. And our Lord stresses in the parable that each of us must prepare individually for that future time when we will have no more time. We will not be able to borrow another’s preparation then. We must not foolishly neglect to prepare now for that day and hour we do not know. But what is the wise use of the present that will prepare us for that day? In Matthew’s gospel Jesus has already let us know what it is to be wise in the light of His coming at the end of the sermon on the mount. To be wise is to hear what Jesus teaches and do it [Matthew 7:24-27]. Here is a very concrete test of our readiness. Are we repenting in response to the proclamation of the gospel of the Kingdom, the gospel that proclaims that Jesus is Lord? Are we forgiving, loving our enemies, being people whose word is truthful, seeking to be pure in heart, not idolising money. You can read the sermon, but are you among the wise?
And thirdly to be ready is to be diligent, and not lazy, in using what the Lord has entrusted to us to increase His assets, to be fruitful in His service and enhance His honour [Matthew 25:14-30]. The cause for the ‘wicked, lazy servants’ failure was the lies that he had told himself about His Lord, self serving lies to justify his neglect to use what was given him by his master for His master, to justify his living only for himself. Our Lord has entrusted to every believer the great gift of the gospel. Do you believe our Lord is a good and faithful Master who has joy in and generously rewards all that we do for Him with what He has entrusted to us? Are you using the treasure of the gospel to increase Jesus’ honour in the world?
Faithful obedience and diligence in our Lord’s service is readiness.
Readiness in Paul and Peter
Both Paul and Peter also give instruction on what it is to be ready for our Lord’s return, Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5 in response to what appears to be a heightened interest in ‘times and seasons’ [that is speculation about our Lord’s return], Peter in 2 Peter 3 in the face of the denial by some that our Lord would ever return.
Paul reminded the Thessalonians that ‘the day of the Lord will come life a thief in the night’ when people are thinking everything is safe and secure [1 Thess. 5:2-3]. Paul says the Thessalonian believers should not be caught out by that because they have embraced the gospel [1 Thess. 1:9-10] and know our Lord’s return is certain. Because of that they should be living awake and sober lives, which Paul characterises as lives marked by faith, love and hope. “Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.” [1 Thess. 5:8]. Faith and love are things Paul has spoken about already in the letter. Faith is turning away from idols to trust the risen Jesus to save us from the wrath to come [1 Thess. 1:9-10]. Love is abstaining from sexual immorality, giving ourselves more and more to love our brothers and sisters, and “Aspiring to live quietly, minding our own affairs, working with our hands” so that we “may live properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.” [1 Thess. 4:1-12] This is readiness in the present, the sign of the confident hope we have in Christ because we know “God has not destined us for wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” [1 Thess. 5:9] So faith, hope and love expressed in daily living is our readiness.
Peter, in the face of the denial of some that our Lord will return [v. 4] reminds his readers that the Lord will most certainly keep his promise and bring “the day of the Lord” which will come life a thief, at which time this age will be destroyed and the new heavens and earth in which righteousness dwells will be established [2 Peter 3:8-13]. And in this context, knowing the certainty of that day, he asks his readers “What sort of people ought you to be?” Peter’s answer is that we are to be people whose lives are characterized by holiness and godliness, people who are diligent to be found by God on that day to be ‘without spot or blemish, and at peace.” [2 Peter 3:11, 14]. And he adds that we must not be carried away by ‘the error of lawless people and lose our own stability.” Readiness is believing the Lord Jesus’ promise that he will return in glory to judge all and bring the new heaven and earth, recognising\ that this world is not forever, and living holy lives, lives characterised above all by love and truth [2 Pet. 1:3-11]. Lives which are stable, not running from one enthusiasm to the next, from one new teaching to another, but established firmly on the gospel, living each day to please our Lord by conforming our thinking and acting to His teaching in the gospel, what Paul describes in Colossians as putting off the old self, and putting on the new self renewed in the image of Christ [Colossians 3:5-17].
Encouragement to be ready
Let current events encourage you to be ready for our Lord’s return. Ready, not by indulging in faithless calculation or feverish speculation, but by practicing the readiness God’s word calls for – living godly lives of faith, hope and love, faithfully persevering in the responsibilities the Lord has entrusted to you, practicing the wisdom of hearing Jesus and doing what He says each day, trusting that the Lord is a faithful Master and so being diligent to be fruitful in His service with the great gift of the gospel given to us all. And if you think that is not a description of your present life, then now is the time to wake up, for our Lord will come like a thief in the night, and He calls us to be ready.
