“Therefore be alert, since you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. But know this: If the homeowner had known what time the thief was coming, he would have stayed alert and not let his house be broken into. This is why you are also to be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Welcome to week 10 in our “Foundations of Faith” devo series. This week, we will be looking at the foundational belief that Jesus is in fact returning again one day. We believe that the second coming of the Lord is imminent (meaning it is approaching, at hand, near) and will be personal, visible, and premillennial (meaning Christ will return before the thousand-year reign.) As believers, we can take hope in this promise, and it is the incentive to live holy lives on mission for the Gospel. We eagerly await His return, anticipating the day when Christ will set up His eternal kingdom, finalize the defeat of sin and death, and usher all those who believe in Him into His eternal and perfect presence. Until then, we live as citizens of heaven, urgently sharing the Gospel with the nations, inviting them into an eternal relationship with Jesus our King.  

Sometimes the return of Jesus can feel scary or unpredictable. We might feel confused or uncertain and we might worry about the details. But we have a lot of comfort in what the Scriptures teach us about Christ’s return. And this week, we’re gonna take a look at some key passages that will not only help us to be prepared, but also will help us to live abundantly in light of this truth.  

Jesus, when speaking to His disciples in Matthew 24, told them about when He would return. Just a few verses before out passage, Jesus explains starting in verse 36, ““Now concerning that day and hour no one knows — neither the angels of heaven nor the Son — except the Father alone.” He likens His coming to the days of Noah. God had promised Noah that He was planning to send a flood and told Noah to build an ark. God didn’t tell him the day or the hour (although God did give Noah a 120-year timeframe to be expecting the flood), but still Noah was expected to be about His Lord’s work until the day God sent the flood.  

Historians estimate that it could have taken Noah and his sons around 40-50 years to build the ark not to mention the additional time it would take to outfit it for all the animals, gather supplies and food, and get it ready to receive the family along with the animals. All the while, the world around him would have watched in fascination and wonder as this man and his family built a gigantic boat sharing the promise of a coming flood. They most likely seemed absolutely crazy to the world around them!  

Unfortunately, when the flood did come, it was a surprise to everyone. Jesus explains that they were going about their every day lives, living out their pleasures like they always did, completely unaware and unwilling to consider the testimony of this family. And when the flood waters came, it was too late. Their chance had passed them by, and doom awaited them.

Try to take yourself back in time in your mind. You are Noah or a member of his family. The Bible tells us that every intention of every person’s heart was only evil. Can you imagine a world where there are NO righteous people beside your family. Surely, Noah felt like the ultimate outsider, he may have even questioned his faith on more than one occasion. But he held firm and raised his family to love the Lord.  

And then God speaks to Noah and warns him that a flood is coming and instructs him to build a ship. And not just any ship, God gives Noah very specific instructions. Can you imagine as Noah and his family built the ark how the people around them would have scoffed? Can you imagine how strange a worldwide flood would have sounded? Can you imagine how rejected, isolated, and ridiculed this resilient family might have felt?

As believers today, we can find ourselves in a similar situation. Though, thankfully we still have many in the world who are righteous, we are still surrounded by those whose hearts are ever growing in evil desires. We can often feel like the outsider, rejected for our faith and isolated from the world around us because we believe in God. And the idea of Christ returning in the clouds someday sounds to the world around us as crazy as the flood sounded to Noah’s world.  

And yet, we can look back over the history of the world and see that God ALWAYS follows through on what He says He will do. There isn’t a single time when God has said He would do something and failed to do it. ZERO. His track record is perfect. And He has remained faithful to His word for thousands and thousands of years.  

So, when we read that Jesus assures us that He will come again, we have a strong history to tell us that He means what He says, and He will bring it to pass. And we need to be ready! As Jesus says in today’s passage, “you are also to be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” With the same diligence that Noah had, we are to be expectant and ready to respond.  

And, we have work to do in the waiting too! Just like God gave Noah a task to complete, we are given that too. Before Jesus left, He commissioned all His followers to go and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them and baptizing them into the family of God. Friends, THIS is our ark. This is our mission.

Too many Christians today look around at the world and assume the time of Christ’s return is looming. But as bad as the world is getting, it’s been this bad and worse before. And there are still approximately 7,200 people groups (of the estimated 17,400 total) worldwide that are unreached by the Gospel (according to the Joshua Project). That means that41% of the world is unreached by the Gospel!!! In addition, there are over 5,000 languages that do not have a translation of the Bible- this represents 20% of the global population and 75% of the world languages.  

Friends, we have work to do! I know the world is getting crazy. I know we can look around and feel scared or unsure. But Jesus IS coming back one day, and He has told us what we should do while we wait. So instead of worrying about how the world is falling apart (something the Bible has always predicted it would do, by the way), lets pour our energy, our finances, our resources, our talents, and our time into spreading the Gospel to our neighbors and throughout the world. There are still a LOT of people who need the Good News. So, let’s build the “ark” God has called us to build!

Jesus,

I trust You when You say that You are coming back. And I recognize that You have given me a mission. Help me to see how You want me to actively step into that mission, in Your name and through Your strength. Guide me to whatever specific areas you are calling me to engage in the Great Commission. Help me to not be afraid of the darkness that surrounds me. Help me to stand, as Noah did, on the truth of who You are and to faithfully build the “ark” you have called me to build.

In the name of Jesus Christ,

Amen