Ways to Prepare for Christ’s Return Day 6: Is Today the Day? (1 John 2:28)
“And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming” (1 John 2:28).
Do you ever count down the days to a specific future event? My family has a countdown calendar that we use to prepare us for special days. We’ll use it for birthdays, holidays, vacations, etc., and the children love it! We get so excited as it gets closer and closer to the special day. It is nice being able to prepare for a day when you know when it will come. On the other hand, it is difficult to prepare for a day that we know will come, but not when. How do we prepare for that?
The Bible is very clear that Jesus Christ will one day return to collect His followers and take them from the earth. Many Christians struggle with that because we don’t know when that will happen. Jesus never gave us a countdown calendar so we could count down the days, so what do we do while we wait? Well, the Bible gives us several references as to what Christians should do because today just may be the day that we have been waiting for.
Matthew 24:42 – 44: “Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 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. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Mark 13:32 – 33, 35: “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake — for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning — .”
Luke 12:40: “You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Titus 2:13: “[W]aiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”
1 John 2:28: “And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.”
Have you ever done something you knew was wrong and then got caught red-handed? Maybe you were sneaking a cookie from the cookie jar when your parent walked in or you knew you were speeding and then a cop pulls in behind you. We have all been caught doing something we should not have been doing, but have you ever been caught doing something nice? Maybe you were caught leaving a gift for someone that was intended to be anonymous. When I was younger, there were times when I would make sure I was behaving myself if I knew that my parent was on their way to check up on me. I think we are all guilty of that at one time or another.
What God is trying to tell us in these verses is that Jesus is on His way back to pick us up and we need to be ready. We have no idea when He will come, and nobody wants to be disobeying Jesus when He comes. Because we do not know the day or time, we need to be diligent and do our best to follow God in every aspect of our lives at all times. If we are doing what God wants us to, then there will be no shame when Jesus Christ returns. If Jesus comes back today, right now, what will He catch you doing?
Pastor David Guenin