BE PREPARED

Introduction

-{Matthew 24}

-This past week I read an article that saddened me about the state of the church and its leadership in America. Arizona Christian University with the help of the Barna group conducted an American Worldview inventory of senior pastors earlier this year to determine if the Bible was the foundation of their beliefs or if something else formed their faith. This is important, because whatever senior pastors believe is what they are going to teach and therefore what the people in the pews are going to believe.

~They split the results into different denominational families: non-denominational, mainline protestant, Catholic, evangelical, etc. We Southern Baptists would fall under the evangelical category—people who proclaim to believe the inerrancy of Scripture, etc. Most of your liberal Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist churches would fall under mainline protestants, but most of your conservative Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist churches would fall under the evangelical category. The results are stunning.

~Of the senior pastors in Evangelical churches, 30% do not believe you go to heaven through faith and repentance in Jesus Christ. 34% believe a person who is generally good or does enough good things for others will earn a place in heaven. 33% believe reincarnation is a real possibility. 39% believe that the determination of moral truth is up to each individual, there are no moral absolutes that apply to everyone all the time. And that’s evangelical, those who are supposed to be Bible-believers. For the other denominational categories (other than non-denominational) things are even much worse than that.

~Here is a portion of what the Barna group stated in response to this research: “We know that just 37% of pastors have a biblical worldview, and that the dominant worldview among pastors is syncretism [the combining of faith and beliefs and traditions]. As our survey demonstrates, large numbers of pastors have abandoned even the most basic and hallowed biblical teachings for ideas that now permeate our culture. Because pastors teach what they believe, many churches are becoming centers of syncretism and secular thought. Perhaps without even realizing it, thousands of pastors have become leaders of a movement away from God, toward narcissism. With so many churches and their pastors in the culture’s grip, rather than fervently committed to serving God and teaching His word you can clearly see why most church-going Christians are being more influenced by the culture than the culture is being influenced by America’s Christians. To see American culture transformed will require a time of Christians and pastors devoted to repentance and the scriptures unlike anything we have seen in more than a century. And until that happens, there is little hope of America becoming a godly, Bible-friendly nation once again.”

-And in reflecting on this survey, what struck me were the implications of this. What this means is that 33% of pastors and members of evangelical churches are not prepared for eternity. And when you add all supposedly Christian churches to that, 63% of self-proclaimed Christians in America are not prepared for eternity. If they were to die or some sort of judgment were to come or if Jesus were to return, they’re not ready. And Christians make up a minority in our nation now, so we’re not even talking about all the unbelievers who we’re not shocked to know are not prepared.

-How could a pastor turn his back on his most important priority of having people prepared for eternity? In light of this, today I want to make sure that all of us here today are prepared. I want us to be ready if we were to die or if Jesus were to bring judgment upon this nation or if Jesus were to return. In the passage that we are looking at today, Jesus warned that everyone needs to be spiritually prepared for His judgment and His eventual return. It doesn’t matter if you consider yourself a believer or not, everyone needs to be prepared if Jesus were to bring some judgment upon the world or if He were to return. So, I hope that this will lead you to assess your life choices and move you to make whatever adjustments you need to make in life to be prepared.

Matthew 24:36–51 ESV

36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. 37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. 42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. 45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 47 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. 48 But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know 51 and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

-{pray}

-To give you some context, Jesus just got done talking about a judgment that was to come. Some scholars believe that Jesus is talking about His second coming and some scholars believe that Jesus is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem that would happen in AD 70. I am probably among the minority here today that believes that in the first half of this chapter Jesus is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem, but the return of Christ is sort of kept in the back of the mind. Chapter 24 is like binoculars—you take binoculars and focus in on the object you want to look at, but then there are things in the background but they’re all blurry. In chapter 24, Jesus is focusing in on the destruction of Jerusalem, but His return is in the background a little blurry. The judgment of Jerusalem is sort of a picture or a type of what will happen in the end.

-But whatever view you might take about that portion of the chapter, the message that Jesus gives in our passage is quite clear. Whether Jesus will bring an earthly judgment or whether He will return, we need to be prepared for either circumstance. I want to quickly go over some principles about being prepared and then what we can do to be prepared.

1) There is an urgency to be prepared

-Jesus is making an earnest plea with all who hear Him that they make themselves ready right then and there. There is no time to wait. There is no time to put this off.

-I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to procrastinate. Especially if there is something that I don’t particularly want to do, even though it needs to be done. But because I don’t want to do it I try to put it off as long as possible. There might be something I really need to do, but then I’m like: OH LOOK, SOCIAL MEDIA. OH LOOK, A VIDEO GAME. HEY, LET’S WATCH A MOVIE. Or something like that. I just kept putting it off and putting it off.

-But Jesus says, now is not the time to procrastinate. Why? What is with the urgency? The urgency stems from the fact that you never know when Jesus is coming, so you need to be ready at all times. You don’t know if Jesus will come to bring an earthly judgment against a nation and we get swept up in it. There is nothing in Scripture that says Christians will be protected against an earthly judgment like that. Yes, we are protected against eternal, spiritual judgment, but there’s no guarantee when it comes to earthly judgments. Are you ready to meet Jesus if caught up in a judgment like that? And of course, there is the second coming. Again, we don’t know when that’s going to happen. Are you ready if He were to return right now?

-There is an urgency to be spiritually prepared to meet Jesus because you just don’t know when it’s going to happen, so you make yourself prepared at all times. Be prepared right now. Be prepared 20 years from now. Be prepared 50 years from now. Jesus uses the picture of a homeowner and a thief. If a homeowner knew when a thief would break into his house, he’d do whatever it took to be ready to prevent that from happening. The problem is that a homeowner usually doesn’t know when a thief was going to break in to steal stuff. If a thief advertised when and where they were going to steal, they wouldn’t be very successful at it. So, a homeowner needs to be diligent to do whatever is necessary to always be ready to repel a thief.

-Being ready for Jesus has the same philosophy. You don’t know what’s going to happen or when it’s going to happen, so you just need to be prepared at all times. You need to be diligent in your life. You need to be disciplined with your life. Don’t put off doing what you have to do so you can spend more time on social media or in sports or entertainment. All that stuff is temporary, but life with Jesus is eternal. So, there is this urgency to be prepared. And then Jesus talks about...

2) There is a lifestyle reflecting you are prepared

-Jesus talks about what we might call the more practical side of being prepared for whatever type of coming we might face. First, there is the spiritual aspect. There is a distinct separation of people on this earth. You are in one of two categories—you are either a believer in Jesus Christ, or you are not. You are either part of the Kingdom of God or you are not. Jesus talks about the fact that at His coming in judgment and at His coming to wrap up history that distinction will play an important role.

-Jesus says that there will be two men in the field, one will be taken and the other not. Two women will be working the mill, one will be taken and the other not. There’s debate on what that exactly means. Are the men and women taken being taken away into judgment or are they being taken up in a rapture (if that’s more your end-time view)? Either way, the message is clear. One is right with God and the other is not? What makes the difference?

-The difference is what you do with Jesus Christ. Unlike what a good portion of pastors seem to think and preach, whether you go to heaven or not, whether you are in the presence of God’s love and peace or not is dependent on your faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible is clear, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That is the eternal, spiritual aspect of things. To be prepared for your eternal destiny, you believe in Jesus.

-But then there is the more ethical and livable aspect of preparedness. This is something for believers to consider as well, because we too can be unprepared for His coming. We can have sin in our lives or we can be very casual with our faith, and then all of a sudden we’re caught up in judgment or caught up into His presence, and we hadn’t been living the way He calls us to. And then all of a sudden we’re face to face with Jesus, and we’re ashamed for what we have done or for what we have left undone. Sure, in the spiritual sense we’re saved and will be in His presence, but we’ve missed out on some eternal reward and some eternal blessing. We as believers don’t want to look into the eyes of Jesus with shame because of what we coulda, shoulda, woulda done but didn’t.

-Jesus gives the picture of a servant where the master goes away for a trip and the servant has no idea when the master will return. It could be a short trip, it could be a long trip. But when the master is away, what will the servant do? The good servant will take care of the people around him or her—that’s pictured with the phrase that they give their food at the proper time. This servant had been put in charge of taking care of the other servants, so are they doing that? We could say that it’s about being a good steward with the responsibilities that the master left with the servant. Are we being good stewards with what gifts and talents and time and resources that Jesus gave us.

-But a wicked servant is not a good steward. In fact, the wicked servant mistreats the people around him or her and lives a self-centered, licentious lifestyle where it is all about fulfilling their lusts and desires. They think that since the master has been gone so long that it’s highly unlikely he’ll return anytime soon, so might as well live it up. Jesus has been gone for 2000 years, I’m young, I have a lot of time ahead of me, I might as well get out of life whatever I can. And then all of a sudden there’s a car accident, all of a sudden judgment comes upon the nation, all of a sudden Jesus returns…then what are you going to do? Because you need to know...

3) There is a heavy cost if you are not prepared

-For those who are in the camp of the wicked servant—whose life is lived in unbelief—Jesus says that the master who returns at the unexpected day will punish that wicked servant and put him in with the hypocrites where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. I find it interesting when people embrace a liberal / woke faith and say they just want to be like Jesus and be all about love and such, because according to them Jesus never said anything about judgment or hell. I mean, quite literally, this entire chapter is Jesus talking about judgment and hell.

-Jesus says that if a person is not prepared they will go a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth—a place where one experiences the most intense sorrow but also the most intense anger. Hell is the place where God’s wrath against sin is given free reign. There is sorrow for all that has been lost. But there is also anger. We tend to think that people in hell are remorseful and wish God would get them out of there, when in reality their sinful nature is given free expression and they actually hate God even more in hell than they did on earth. Their teeth are clenched and their fists are raised against God—they’re still cursing God even in the midst of their agony. That’s how bad human nature has been corrupted.

-I also find it interesting that He called it a place with the hypocrites. The reason I find it interesting is because in the chapter right before this one Jesus calls out the Jewish religious leaders for their false religion and false worship. Jesus begins each section with WOE TO YOU, SCRIBES AND PHARISEES, HYPOCRITES! And then Jesus just waylays on them. And so the place of hypocrites is the place that the scribes and Pharisees were going because they were not true followers of God, and they died and were not ready, and many of them perished in the destruction of Jerusalem and they were not prepared.

-And I know the doctrine of hell is not a teaching that will grow a church—but nevertheless it is true and it is biblical and it is the destiny of all who are not prepared for Jesus coming. But that doesn’t have to be you. That does not have to be your destiny. God made a way out through Jesus, but you have to receive Him to be prepared.

-But before I close, I just want to quickly give some application to Christians on what you can do to be prepared and not have to look Jesus in the face with some shame:

*Live in light of His Word

-Let the Bible, the Word of God, form and shape everything you do and all that you are. Let the Bible be the foundation of your worldview and may it guide you in all your choices and decisions. May it be the map that you follow for this journey of life. The Bible will never steer you wrong.

*Love in light of His sacrifice

-We are called to love people like Jesus who gave Himself for sinners. You can never go wrong in loving on people, even those who don’t agree with you or who don’t believe like you. Jesus hung out with sinners and loved on people with the purpose of bringing them to repentance and faith, and then He died for sinners—sinners like us. He sacrificed Himself and we are called to sacrifice our life in service to others out of our love for Jesus.

*Lament in light of your sin

-Even Christians have to go through a time of confession and repentance. This doesn’t happen once, but is to be constant. Don’t let a lot of water go under the bridge of your sins, but confess and repent instantly and constantly.

*Lie still in the light of His mercy

-We are never going to be perfectly prepared, but that doesn’t mean we have to stress out about it. Yes, we do whatever we can to be prepared, but when we fall short we rest in the fact that He loves us and is gracious and merciful to us in light of His sacrifice.

-For the Christian, consider the words of Pastor Jim Cymbala:

Like Christ’s return, we don’t know the day or time of our death. But we do know that there will be a final moment to all of our lives, and at that time there will be no going back and fixing things. We will not have a second chance at living better. There will be no occasion for further witnessing for Jesus; no opportunity to again pray for a loved one; not another chance to encourage a struggling soul; and no more chances to be light in the dark world God rescued us from.

~Christian, you don’t need to have regrets. You can prepare yourself. Maybe you want to come to the altar to repent and ask God for a change of heart so you can prepare yourself.

-But maybe you are one of those that if you would die or Christ would return, you would have your place with the hypocrites where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. That doesn’t have to be your eternal destiny. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ today and be saved.