Morning Message Text: Mark 13: 24-37
24 “But in those days, following that distress, “ ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light;
25 the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
26 “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.
27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.
28 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.
29 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door.
30 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
The Day and Hour Unknown
32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
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!’ ”
Morning Message:
We begin Advent once again. What is Advent? The word quite simply means “coming”. We celebrate the season anticipating the celebration of Christmas, but Advent is not truly a time to look forward to what has already taken place, it is a time to practice watching and waiting for the second coming of Jesus. Remember it means coming not came. We celebrate Advent for a four-week period every year, but truthfully, we should live in anticipation of Jesus’ coming every second of every day. I think that it’s safe to say that none of us lives like this. Raise your hand if you think about Jesus coming every second. How about twice a day? Maybe every day? How about once a week? So, this is why we celebrate Advent, to practice.
Now today’s scripture is divided into two parts. Everything in Mark 13, verses 24 through 31 speaks of the Second Coming of Jesus. In Old Testament language this would be considered the great and terrible Day of The Lord. This is a terrible time, and I am hoping to already be in heaven when this takes place. I hope and pray that all of you are with me, and we have all been raptured. So why preach this? I gave this a lot of thought this week. I realize that I am not always preaching to the saved and many who hear my messages might miss their opportunity to come to Jesus before he returns to take his church out of this world. If you find yourself, God forbid, still here when the rest of us are gone, and you don’t know what to do. Remember the lessons from the fig tree. Lord help you! You will have to endure horrible things, but God still loves you and God never gives up on you. When you see these things happening. All the signs in the heavens, know that Jesus is about to return. Don’t be confused by verse 27, it is not referring to the rapture. The angels will gather all the elect, even those who survived the great tribulation and turned to Jesus. If you are procrastinating and not giving your life to Jesus, and you are thinking to yourself, I can wait for this, please don’t.
The second part of today’s scripture applies to all of us. We have no way of knowing when Jesus will come back for his church. Many have tried to guess, and many have been wrong. We are called to be vigilant, to stay awake, to pay attention to what is taking place all around us. There are verses in scripture that are very instructive. They don’t tell us when Jesus will return, but they draw us a picture of what the world will look like before his return. 2 Timothy 3: 1-2 says: But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves.
Please listen carefully to this reading from my daily devotional: These verses give us three layers of truth: (1) There will be a period of history known as the “Last days” of earth; (2) these days will be perilous, a word that means dangerous and savage; (3) the most dangerous thing about them will be a pandemic of self-love. When people love themselves, the driving forces for everything become ego, self-admiration, personal ambition, and a disregard for anyone else. Unmitigated selfishness is the mother of peril. Without the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus, we are all selfish people, more concerned about ourselves than about anyone else. We need to think long and hard about this. Am I the only one who sees this? We live in a time in this world when it seems that everyone is out for themselves. Not only that, but a total disregard for anything or anyone that doesn’t suit their personal needs and wants.
It’s Jesus alone who teaches us to love others, to care for someone besides ourselves, and to humbly obey God’s Word: In this time that we live in these words from Philippians 2: 3-4 are so important for us to remember and focus on: “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too”. I think that this is what Jesus means when he tells us to keep watch. We are not going to see him coming. We cannot literally stand at the door constantly and watch for him to appear in the clouds. What we can do is practice our faith, live like he is coming back at any moment, because he is. As we watch the world around us become more and more selfish, we understand that the direction the world is going will lead to the return of our Savior. We can see the signs. We don’t know if it will be today or tomorrow, next week or next month, next year or ten years from now, but we can see the handwriting on the wall and we know, if we are watching, Jesus is near.
Friends, this is what Advent is all about. We should practice getting ready for Jesus. We all need practice because, well let’s be truthful this morning, we don’t live like we are ready. Let me ask you this: Are you ready for Christmas? If you are like me, you never feel ready, there always seems like there is something else to do. So, what do we do? We work at getting ready for Christmas every day until it is here. Are you truly ready for the Advent of your Lord and Savior? Be honest, we all have work to do. I pray that none of us will need the lessons from the fig tree, but they are there just in case. We all need to watch for Jesus. Don’t watch with your eyes, watch with your actions.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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