In the early 1960s, a hugely popular singing group from Detroit called The Temptations use to come out on stage dressed in tuxedos, dance to a finely honed routine, and sing (one of their many smash hits) a song titled, “Get Ready, ‘Cause Here I Come”.
There is a story of a new young preacher who had just begun to preach his sermon for the day. He was a little bit nervous and about five minutes into his sermon his mind went blank. He started to panic but remembered what they had taught him in seminary to do when this situation came up. If this occurred, he was taught to go back to the last point made and repeat it. Many times this jogs the memory as to what is supposed to come next. So he thought he would give it a try.
“Behold, I come quickly,” he said. His mind was still blank. He tried it again. “Behold, I come quickly.” Nothing! He tried it again. Only this time, he said it with so much force that he fell forward, knocked the pulpit to one side, tripped over a flowerpot and fell into the lap of a little elderly lady sitting in the front row! A bit flustered and trying to apologize and explain what had happened, the young preacher heard the lady say, “That’s alright young man. It was my fault. I should have gotten out of the way. You told me three times that you were coming!”
“Children of Light, get ready, for here I come!” Jesus Christ has told us that a whole lot more than three times throughout Scripture. And that is the hope of the Christian faith. When God makes a promise in the Bible, we can expect that promise to be kept. So our hope is based on a promise, an expectation and a belief.
We Christians believe that Christ died, was buried and rose again. His resurrection is the very core of faith and hope. Because Christ rose from the dead, we also shall rise! Jesus says in John 11:25, “I Am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me shall live even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” Jesus Christ lives! And because of that we have hope. We have hope of a better, eternal life after this one ends. We have the hope of no more pain, no more sorrow, no more sickness, no more disappointments, no more death.
We are told that Jesus will come back with a shout! Ever wonder what it is that He will shout with a voice like a trumpet? I think He will shout something along the lines of “That’s enough! That’s enough suffering! That’s enough indignity! That’s enough pain! That’s enough hopelessness! That’s enough terror! That’s enough disease! That’s enough fighting and killing! That’s enough death! That’s enough!”
Paul writes, “The Lord Himself will come down…” Christ is coming again, and this time, this time it will not be like the first time at all. The first time, Jesus came as a helpless baby. He grew up to be mocked, beaten, spit upon, pushed, shoved, rejected, tortured and nailed to a cross to hang there until He died, with His precious blood pouring from His broken body. But this time it will be different.
One day, (and we do not know when; it could be before I finish this sentence; it could be next week, next month, next year, or a thousand years from now) it will happen that the sounds of this world we live in will be shattered by the voice of the archangel and the blast of the call of God to gather His people to witness the return of their King. And Christ will return in glory, clothed in power and might.
But for those who have died believing in Christ as their Savior, and for those who believe in Christ Jesus as their Savior and are alive at His return, there is Good News indeed! The Thessalonians (like some of us today) were concerned about their loved ones who had passed away believing in Christ. They were worried that somehow those Christians might be at a disadvantage, or even miss the boat, so to speak. Fear not! For Paul tells us that, “The dead in Christ shall rise first…”.
See, when we die, our physical body is separated from our spirit, which goes to be with the Lord. However, this is not our permanent state of being. God has created us to be both body and spirit. So when Christ returns, our spirit will be reunited with our body. But not this type of body, to be sure. We shall receive a better, immortal, imperishable body, the likes of which we cannot be sure, except that we know that it will be free from defect, free from disease, free from pain, and most importantly, free from sin!
Yes friends, we are told in scripture that, “in the twinkling of an eye” the dead will rise, clothed in their Heavenly body, and “in the twinkling of an eye” those who are alive will be “changed” as their “perishable body is transformed into their imperishable body” and they shall “rise to meet the Lord in the air!”
Jesus says, “Get ready, for here I come!” What if the trumpet sounded today? Are you prepared? Are you ready? Some people in Thessalonica were worried that they may not be prepared for the Lord’s return. So Paul tells them (and us) how we can be prepared for the second coming of the Lord. He actually begins by telling us the wrong way to prepare. The wrong way to prepare is to try and figure out the date of Jesus’ return.
Why is that wrong? Well, think about it for a moment. Why do people want to know when the boss is coming back from a trip? Or, why do kids home alone want to know when their parents are returning? If we know exactly when someone in authority is coming back, we humans tend to use that as an excuse to do whatever we want, behave however we want, right up to the moment of that authority’s return. That is not the way to prepare for the return of Christ the Lord.
Paul uses a wonderful metaphor when describing the nature of Jesus’ return. He says that it will be like a “thief”. No, he does not mean that Jesus is a thief. He means that Jesus’ return will be like the coming of a thief, in that it will not be announced far in advance. A thief does not phone you first, or send you a letter, or even an email, to tell you exactly when he plans to come to your home to rob you. Neither will Jesus Christ tell you exactly when He is returning to take you home with Him, until the moment it happens.
Paul also tells us that, “while people are saying ‘Peace and safety’ destruction will come on them as labor pains on a pregnant woman.” Put these two metaphors together and we see that Christ’s return will be:
Since we do not know exactly when Jesus will return, our solution to the problem is that we remain spiritually awake. We are not called children of the Light for nothing. We must always be “spiritually awake and alert”, living in the Light of Christ and not in the darkness of this world. That way we will never be taken by surprise at the moment Jesus chooses to return for us.
Those who continually live in the night, in the darkness of sin, spiritually asleep at the wheel, will indeed be unprepared and taken by surprise. That, my friends, is not a good thing! Matthew 24:42-51 tells us that when Christ returns, those who are not ready are not simply left behind. Rather, they are “cast into Hell and everlasting torment where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Revelation 20:14 tells us that those who are not ready at Jesus’ return are “thrown into the lake of fire, that is the second death.” That is bad, bad stuff. Paul says, “So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self controlled.” The question becomes, “Alert to what?”
Oh, they may not accept what you have to give them; that is their choice. But you need to offer it to them anyway. For they are stuck in mankind’s natural state of sin, and that sin leads to eternal death and torture. It is a terrible and serious problem, but we have the answer. Hear the words of God through His servant Paul in Romans 6:4-5. “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.” Amen!