Be Ye Also Ready

Be Ye Also Ready

Matthew 24:42-44

Series Slide

Good morning and welcome to worship on this day that the Lord has made.  We have had a great week, kicking off our Wednesday night studies… relaunching all our activities, and preparing for all that God has for us in this 175th Year in ministry here in Corsicana.  Don’t forget!!! Next week will be our mini-celebration as we welcome Suzanna Wesley, portrayed by Dr. Shellie O’Neal.  We will have ONE worship service at 10:30.  I’ve had some ask about Sunday School.  If you want to have Sunday School, go ahead and meet… just wrap up a little early so you can be here at 10:30 as we worship together and celebrate together.

Then… after worship, we will break bread together.  Well, bread or whatever you bring as we gather for a good ol’ fashioned pot-luck lunch.  The church isn’t supplying the meat this time… so you need to bring your best and bring a lot… bring enough to share!  This will be our last mini-celebration before our big celebration in October!

Now, as we continue our Windows to the Faith series, we are looking at the window that comes to us from Matthew 24. We heard the passage a moment ago in the NIV, but now, we can hear it in the language that is emblazoned on the window itself.

Matthew 24:42-44

“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”

Would you pray with me?

<Prayer>

Young Ladies Society Windows

Last week, we talked about the fact that this and the “Where Hast Thou Gleaned” window were originally given by the Yough Ladies Society, a forerunner of today's First Methodist Women.  But what I find most interesting is that the windows of these ladies were restored in honor and memory of two amazing sisters.  We talked about Billie Love last week; this week we get to hear briefly about Mary Louise Garner Bristol Vanderbilt McKie… but I knew her as Mary Lou MacKee.

Mary Lou was a beautiful woman who touched many lives, but a little you may not know about her: she was once a New York fashion model.  As if that wasn’t enough, she was a John Robert Powers teacher (Teacher of the Year), the Maid of the Mist at Niagara Falls, and the director of the Charron-Williams Commercial College in Miami.  From Corsicana to New York, to Miami and back… she was an amazingly accomplished woman.  However, what she was most known for was her service to this church and this community.  It is truly fitting that this window about being ready to meet our Savior was restored in her honor.

So, now that we know how we got the window, let’s look at what the window means as we dive into the scripture behind the window.

Sermon Slide

This passage is familiar to many of us, but it is also one of those passages that will not let us sit still. Jesus is speaking to His disciples, and He is talking about being watchful. He is talking about being ready. Not scared. Not anxious. Not trying to figure out the day or the hour. Just ready.

It’s no secret that I grew up in a denomination and in a time that focused heavily on when Jesus would return and what that would look like.  We would have revival meetings where we were told that Jesus was coming back at any minute… we were told about the rapture and what that would look like… we watched movies at the church about the guillotine that awaited those who refused the Mark of the Beast if we got left behind.  In other words, we were scared into following Jesus… which is not the most effective technique to understand the love and grace of our Lord and Savior.  Jesus isn’t trying to scare his disciples here; he is simply telling them, and us, to be ready.

Be ready. Be prepared. Be awake to what God is doing. What that means is that we are not just sitting around waiting on Jesus to come back. We are living in the grace of God, growing in holiness, loving our neighbor, and joining in the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Be Ready Because the Time Is Unknown

Jesus says, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” Now, notice what Jesus does not say. He does not say, “Get out your charts and figure it all out.” He does not say, “Spend your life trying to predict what only the Father knows.” He says, “Keep watch.” In other words, live today in such a way that you would not be ashamed to meet Jesus today.

We know how to get ready for things, don’t we? We get ready for school to start back. We get ready for company to come over. We get ready for ball games, doctor’s appointments, vacations, and supper after church. We know how to prepare for all kinds of things that may or may not happen the way we think they will. But here is the thing, friends: Jesus is not asking us to be ready for something that MIGHT happen. He is calling us to be ready for something that WILL happen. The Son of Man will come. The question is not if. The question is whether we will be ready when He does.

And here is the other side of that coin… none of us get out of this life alive.  I believe that most of us will transition from this life to the next before Jesus returns.  Could his return happen tonight, or tomorrow? Of course… But I, and many of you, will probably die before that happens… and we all know life is too short! None of us know when the end of our life will come.  An accident, an illness… at any moment we may be called home.  What I do know is this… Jesus return is one day closer than it was yesterday, and I am one day closer to being united with him in heaven than I was yesterday.

So, the question remains, will you be ready when your time comes?

Be Ready Because the Thief Comes Unexpectedly

Then Jesus gives an illustration that everybody can understand. He talks about a homeowner who would have stayed awake if he had known when the thief was coming. I mean, if you knew someone was going to break into your house at 2:00 in the morning, you wouldn’t just go on to bed and hope for the best. You would be watching. You would be listening. You would be ready.

So it is with the coming of the Son of man. Jesus is not comparing Himself to a thief in character, but in suddenness. His coming will interrupt routines, expose hearts, and reveal who was truly watching. The farmer may be in the field, the worker may be at the mill, the family may be at the table, and the world may be going on as usual—but suddenly the Lord will come.

In Matthew 25, Jesus gave another picture of readiness. This is actually the image portrayed in the window.  It’s the story that Jesus tells following the passage we read a moment ago.

In this story, Jesus tells us about a wedding ceremony and celebration.  Now, the entire story sounds a little strange because it doesn’t match our understanding of a wedding today. Remember, we are talking about a Jewish wedding in about 29 or 30 AD.

Jesus tells us that 10 virgins took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five were wise, and five were foolish. Outwardly, they looked alike.  They were all dressed for the party.  They all had their lamps. They were all waiting for the same bridegroom.  They all waited together as the planned time passed and they all heard the same midnight cry. But there was one difference that made all the difference: the wise had brought extra oil for their lamps, and the foolish had lamps with no extra oil.

While the bridegroom was a long time in coming, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. Then at midnight the cry rang out: “Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!” All ten arose and trimmed their lamps, but the foolish didn’t have enough oil. They asked the wise for oil, but readiness cannot be transferred at midnight. The wise entered with the bridegroom to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut.

You can not rely on someone else’s preparation to take care of you when the time comes.  Your parents, or husband, or wife, or children can’t make a decision for you… You have to make your own decision to be a follower of Christ.  You have to make your own decision to be ready.

The closed door is one of the most solemn pictures in Scripture. The foolish virgins came later crying, “Lord, Lord, open the door for us!” but the answer was, “Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.” Jesus ended the parable with the same warning: “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”  The lady in our window was one of the wise, she was ready… are you?  So, you may ask, what does it look like to be ready?

What True Readiness Looks Like

First, true readiness begins with salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Church attendance, religious language, and an outward lamp are not enough. Our outward appearance isn’t what gets us into heaven.  Our public persona doesn’t truly give us a relationship with Jesus that transforms our life today and prepares us for the next.

A person must know Christ and be known of Him. We do not save ourselves by works, discipline, or church membership; we are saved by the mercy of God in Christ.  Yet saving faith is living faith, and living faith bears fruit.  Your life as a follower of Jesus should be an observable life.  Others should be able to look at the way you live and know that there is something different about you… but that is the result of the grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

That is why we believe that, true readiness continues in sanctifying grace. To watch, to be ready, is to live awake before God. It means yielding to the Holy Spirit, growing in holiness of heart and life, confessing sin, forgiving others, practicing the means of grace, and refusing to let the “spirit of the age” lull us to sleep. The ready believer is not merely waiting for heaven; the ready believer is being made more like Jesus.  That is our goal in this life.  That is why we, as the Global Methodist Church, are seeking a return to the Class Meeting and the Band Meeting… because we see from history that it is this gathering together and sharing life together that leads us to be more and more like Jesus.

Thirdly, true readiness serves faithfully until the Lord comes. Readiness is not idleness. The ready believer works while waiting, prays while watching, witnesses while hoping, and keeps the lamp burning in a dark world. We are called to make disciples of Jesus Christ and spread scriptural holiness across the globe; therefore, our watching must become worship, our holiness must become love, and our hope must become witness.  You and I, those of us who call ourselves “Followers of Jesus,” must be the light of Christ in a world of darkness.

The Urgency of Today

I am going to wrap up with this truth.  Jesus said, “Therefore be ye also ready.” Not tomorrow. Not after the next season of life. Not when things slow down. Be ready now. The foolish virgins intended to be ready later, but later came too late. The homeowner would have watched for the burglar if he had known the hour, but the hour was unknown.

The Lord’s appeal is not complicated: wake up, watch, and be ready.

If Christ came today, would you be ready? If the midnight cry sounded tonight, would your lamp be burning? If the door were shut, would you be inside with the Bridegroom?

The good news is that the door of grace is open now. The Spirit is calling now. Come to Christ now. Trust Him now. Receive His pardoning grace now. Walk in His sanctifying grace now. Live ready now.

Sermon slide

The message of Matthew 24:42-44 and the image of this beautiful window is the same: the Lord is coming, the hour is unknown, and every soul must be ready.

Let the church trim her lamp.

Let the believer keep oil in the vessel.

Let the sinner come to Christ while mercy calls.

Let us watch over one another in love, pursue holiness without which no one shall see the Lord, and bear witness to the transforming power of God’s grace.

“Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh.”