The need for the return of the King

Intro

[Put your hands up if you’ve already started your Christmas shopping.

Or started on writing your Christmas cards?

It was an exciting trip as a family.

What do we need to get ready for Christmas?

What do we need to get ready for Jesus?

Do you enjoy making cakes, decorating the tree, wrapping presents?

Do you enjoy making cakes, decorating the tree, wrapping presents?

But…Advent isn’t really about getting ready for Christmas… [Did you know that?]

It’s about getting ready for Jesus...

The word advent means ‘the arrival’ and the time of advent is all about waiting for ‘the arrival of Jesus’

We celebrate his birth at Christmas, but in Advent we’re mostly thinking about his second coming.

We know he’s already come once, God stepping down to earth to save us, to wipe away all the wrong that gets in the way so that we can know his love

But.. let’s have a think about this story.

I want you to think about a hotel, a travel lodge or premier inn, or maybe it’s a fancy block of flats.

All of them have someone at the door. Watching. Watching who comes in

In hotels, if they know someone like the Queen is coming, or a very important person, then their on the look out. They’re waiting for that person to arrive so that they can welcome them

3 years ago I was at a hotel waiting to be made a priest, and there was a secret. Someone was coming to visit us. An important person wanted to come and meet us as the new priests in the Derbyshire. We were all told to wear our black robes, and to wait at the door for roughly 4.30, but we didn’t know who was coming (although we’d guessed), and we didn’t know exactly when this guest would be arriving.

At nearly 5pm a black car pulled up outside the hotel, and out stepped the Archbishop of Canterbury.

We greeted

Imagine if we didn’t know when he was coming. Imagine we were waiting there for a few hours, maybe even waiting there for a whole day.

Would we be tired? Imagine if we all fell asleep at the front of the hotel, and there was no one to let him in.

Would we have missed him. He could have been knocking on the door and we’d have missed him

At nearly 5pm a black car pulled up outside the hotel, and out stepped the Archbishop of Canterbury.

We greeted him and he spoke to us for 10 minutes and then prayed for us. We all had a photo and then he left.

Imagine if we didn’t know when he was coming. Imagine we were waiting there for a few hours, maybe even waiting there for a whole day.

Would we be tired? Imagine if we all went back to our rooms and fell asleep at the and there was no one to let him in.

Would we have missed him. He could have been knocking on the door and no-one would have let him in.

Jesus says that’s like us. We’re like the watchmen at the door. We need to be ready for when he comes back.

Jesus says that’s like us.

[He talk about the fig tree, how we can see the change in the season through it’s leaves. the fig tree signifies the coming of summer,

for us the leaves dropping from our trees signifies the change to autumn which we know leads to winter.

We don’t know the exact day that winter is coming, but we know we need to get ready for it. We get out the scarfs, hats and gloves ready for it]

Jesus says that we’re like the watchmen at the door. We need to be ready for when he comes back.

Mark 13:33–37 NIV

33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. 34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. 35 “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. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’ ”

We’re like the watchmen at the door. We need to be ready for when he comes back.

Mark 13:33

Do you know what will happen when he comes back. The Bible promises that when Jesus comes again the whole world will be made right. All the fighting will stop, all the world will turn and see him coming. Jesus will then gather all his people, those who know him, to himself and they will go to be with God.

Do you know what will happen when he comes back. The Bible promises that when Jesus comes again the whole world will be made right. All the fighting will stop, all the world will turn and see him coming. Jesus will then gather all his people, those who know him, to himself and they will go to be with God.

But do you know, God loves us enough, that if we choose not to live with him he won’t force us. So anyone who doesn’t accept his free gift of love will live eternity without him

Advent is a time of getting ready. In the parable of the watchers at the house, Jesus is asking us a question. Are you ready?

We don’t know if Jesus will return in 5 minutes, 5 months, 5 years, 500 years of 5,000 years. What we do know is that it could be in a few seconds, and Jesus asks us, are you ready?

Mark 13:35 NIV

35 “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.

35 You, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know when the master of the household will return—in the evening, at midnight, before dawn, or at daybreak.

All of those times are in the darkness, at the point where there is little light.

All of those times are in the darkness, at the point where there is little light.

And I don’t know about you, but I look at the things going on at the moment, and there is a lot of darkness in the world. Sometimes the darkness is happening closer to home.

We have a God who is with us always, but just reading what’s going, with all the recent flooding, the constant wars, the changes in the climate which seems to be due to our reckless lack of care for God’s world, I wonder how long it will be before Jesus returns. The signs suggest sooner rather than later.

Mark 13:32 NIV

32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Is you’re life ready? If Jesus comes back while you’re at Sunday lunch, will you be ready. Will he find you living the way he askes you to live? Or will he find you asleep (by which he’s talking about not being ready – don’t worry you are allowed a Sunday afternoon kip).

Is you’re life ready? If Jesus comes back while you’re at Sunday lunch, will you be ready. Will he find you living the way he askes you to live? Or will he find you asleep (by which he’s talking about not being ready – don’t worry you are allowed a Sunday afternoon kip).

Are you ready?

How are you getting ready for Jesus?

How do you use Advent?

What will you do differently this year?

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