Does anybody remember the Neighborhood Watch? When I was growing up here in Orange County, I remember there would be these signs with the image of the quintessential thief on them, and I remember thinking, Neighborhood Watch, what is that? And the idea that the neighbors would be on the lookout for any thieves in the neighborhood, I was like, this is great. The neighbors care about each other; they're looking out for each other. I like the Neighborhood Watch. I used to think that in like a naive way. I had a sense of security in that until one day the Punks came walking down my street. I grew up in the 1980s. Does anybody remember the Punks? I mean, I'm talking about full-on mohawk, going all the way down. I mean, massive mohawk! Leather jackets with spikes on them. Am I speaking to anybody right now? Combat boots. I just remember this group of people dressed like that. It came down my neighborhood. Here come the Punks. I run inside. Mommy, Mommy, the Punks are coming. It's not safe in the neighborhood. Where's the watch, Mommy? You know, right? And so, today, what I'd like to invite everybody here to is the Maranatha Watch. Okay? Maranatha is a word of Aramaic in 1 Corinthians 16:22, and it means, "Come, O Lord.” We are the people watching for Jesus, because Jesus famously said that he is coming like a thief in the night for those who are not ready. And so, we want to be ready. We want to be on the watch.
And so, open your Bible with me to Matthew 24:42, and I want to take you to where Jesus gives that analogy. Because we're studying Mark 13, we're hearing Jesus' teaching on eschatology, the study of the end, the time that is coming when he will return. But he doesn't give the thief analogy in Mark 13, but it's recorded here in Matthew 24. Matthew 24 has a little bit more of what Jesus taught there on the Mount of Olives than Mark 13 does, and so I want to start with this idea that Jesus says he's coming like a thief, and you need to be ready, you need to be on the watch. Look what he says here, Matthew 24, verse 42, “Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched 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.” Have you ever talked to someone who had their house or their business broken into by thieves, and their possessions were stolen? Have you ever sensed that feeling that they had of this isn't right? And I wish I could have done something to prevent this. And why would they do this? Jesus brings up that idea, and he says that he is coming like a thief, and so you don't know when he's coming, so you have to get ready now. So, I invite you to turn with me to Mark 13, and to really pay attention to the conclusion of Jesus' teaching, and to really ask yourself a personal question. I'm here today to ask you a question. Are you ready for Jesus? And I want to ask you, what does it mean to be ready? And how can you be confident you are ready? Or if you know you're not ready, how can you get ready here today? So, I'm going to read for us Mark 13, verses 28 to 37. And out of respect for God's Word. I invite everyone to stand up for the public reading of Scripture. If you don't have a Bible, you can look at the handout there in your bulletin. The verses have been printed for you. This is Mark 13, verses 28 to 37. Please follow along as I read. This is the Word of God.
“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. 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— lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead, have your seat. And I really think that last line, verse 37, summarizes so well this masterful teaching of Jesus in Mark 13, because it says here, “what I say to you, I say to all,” and I think that dual audience is what has made this teaching so fascinating. If you go back to the beginning of chapter 13 and verse 3, he's on the Mount of Olives. This is referred to as the Olivet Discourse, where Jesus teaches on the Mount of Olives, but look, they're outside the city, overlooking the temple, and it's Peter and James and John and Andrew in this private teaching. But notice at the end of this private teaching with four of his disciples, he's saying, I'm speaking to you, and I'm speaking to all. So, he is both talking about something that's going to happen in their lifetime that they need to be looking out for, and he's also talking about a future time that nobody knows when it's coming, and that everyone needs to be ready for.
So, the way Jesus teaches here, to me, it's so masterfully done, because he's describing the experience of his disciples in their generation, and then he's also talking to me and you as we study Mark here today, and so I would love for you to grab this handout and take some notes as we go through this passage. And he starts with the fig tree. Look at verse 28. He says, just like the fig tree, when its branch becomes tender, when the leaves begin to come, then you know that summer is near. You can tell when it's time for the figs. Now, the fig tree, we know, was very common around Jerusalem, where Jesus is teaching. In fact, do you remember back in Mark 11, when they were coming into Jerusalem, he cursed a fig tree because it had no fruit on it, which was kind of a foretaste of him saying there's going to be judgment on Israel? And so, the fig tree, we've already seen one fig tree get referred to. Now he's bringing this up, like you can tell by what's going on with the fig tree that summertime is coming. Well, you should be able to tell by what I'm teaching you when these things will take place. Notice how he says that in verse 29. If you're taking notes, circle “these things” there in verse 29. He's saying, when you see these things, you know that he, or you could translate it, you know that it is near.
And then he even says in verse 30, he says it again, “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until,” circle it “all these things take place.” So, there are things, “these things” that are going to happen that you can see when they're going to happen, just like you can see when the figs are getting ready on the tree, so you should see when these things are about to happen. So, what are the things that he's talking about here with “these things”? Well, you got to go back to chapter 13, verse 2, when one of the disciples was talking about how wonderful the stones in the buildings at the temple, and he said in verse 2, the thing that started our whole conversation, Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings?” Or you could translate it, “Do you see these things of these great buildings?” So, he's like, look at the buildings, they're going to be thrown down, look at all the stones, they're going to be thrown down. Jesus makes a prophecy that the temple in Jerusalem is going to be destroyed, right? When the disciples are like, look, how epic this place is. Jesus is like, yeah, it will be destroyed. And so, he's saying, “See these things?” And then look at the question they ask in verse 4. The question is, tell us when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished. Well, in their context, “these things” refers to the destruction of the temple. And so, when he's saying these things, you should be able to see when they're going to happen, and they're going to happen within this generation, you will see these things. I promise you, truly I say to you, these things will take place. He's talking about something that's going to happen within the lifetime, or that generation of these disciples, and he's been giving them things to look at.
Do you see the scribes, the religious leaders of the Jews? They will be judged. Do you see the temple? It will be destroyed. And then I want you to see how many false teachers are going to come and lead people after false Christs. I want you to see that you're going to be delivered over, you're going to be betrayed, you're going to go before councils and synagogues, before governors and kings. I want you to see the abomination of desolation, when they're doing something in the temple, when they stop the offerings, when they go into the holy places. If you were here last week, we talked about this, has actually happened at certain times in history. We looked at Maccabees and Josephus, not as Scripture, but as historical records, that there have been times where people desecrated the holy place of God in the temple, and they went in parts of the temple you're not supposed to go to, and Jesus is saying, when you see that, you know the destruction is coming, get out of town, flee for your lives, get out of Judea, because then you know the destruction is near. These things he's saying are the temple is going to be destroyed.
So, let's get that down for number one: “You should see the temple destroyed in 70 AD.” Exactly what Jesus prophesied. We know from history it happened in the generation of the disciples, the Jewish religious leaders. In fact, the whole Jewish people were judged. God used the Roman Empire to come in and wipe them out and destroy the temple. There was no Israel from 70 AD for hundreds of years. It wasn't until after World War II that Israel was a nation again. Why? Because Jesus said so. And so, we should all be thinking that if Jesus says something, it's going to happen. Look at 70 AD, that's the proof that when he said it would happen, and within that generation, that's exactly what took place. In fact, look at how Jesus says it in verses 30 and 31. He says, "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” Well, we know that happened, and then notice how he says it here, verse 31, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” You should build your life on the words of Jesus Christ. Whatever Jesus says is what's going to happen. So, he told them something they should expect in their generation, and then he gives in verse 32, “But let's talk now about a day or an hour that nobody knows when it's coming.” So, you can see, as we're going through this, Jesus is talking about two different things. He's talking about one thing that you should be able to see; it coming. You should be able to see, based on what he said, when these things will happen, and the temple will be destroyed.
But now he's going to start talking about a future time, and you won't know when it's coming. In fact, that's the whole key of this future time, is nobody knows when it is coming. The angels don't even know. Jesus is saying, I don't even know. Only the Father knows the day or the hour. In fact, he says in verse 33 “be on guard.” If you're taking notes, cross out “be on guard” and write “see,” because it's the same word that he's been using all the way since he told them to look at the religious leaders, look at the temple, they're going to be judged, look at all the false teachers that are coming, look at how they're going to deliver you over to testify, look at all that I'm telling you beforehand, so you can be ready now.
Jesus wants you to see this is the climax of his teaching. There is a time coming that nobody knows, and you might be tempted to say, I don't think it's coming right now. Yeah, that's what a lot of people think, and you should be ready for that time rather than acting like the time's not going to come. You need to see this time is coming, that's his whole idea. You need to wake up, he says, or keep awake. You need to be alert. You need to be ready. I need you to see that the time is coming, and I need you to be ready for the time. Verse 33 For you do not know when the time will come.
Let's get that down for number two. Here's what Jesus is telling us to “See the time is coming you do not know.” We don't know when the time is, but it is coming, that's what he's saying. Can you see that? Do you believe that? Now, in my lifetime, when I was growing up, there were people acting like they knew when the time would come, and this has been a classic thing of cults, or people trying to get famous. I figured out the prophetic, Jesus is coming back at this time, or he's coming back on this day. Anybody who tells you they know when Jesus is coming back, you know right away they don't know what they're talking about, because the whole point of this time is there are no signs, there is no way to figure it out. There was a way you could figure out when the temple was going to be destroyed, but there was no way you could figure out when this time is coming. Anybody who claims that they know when the time is, you immediately know not to listen to them, because nobody's going to know when the time is coming. It can't be like a thief in the night if everybody knows when it is.
And so, can you see that a time is coming, and it's going to catch most of the world by surprise, to their utter dismay and destruction? And will you be one of the few who are ready? That's where we're going in this text. Are you seeing it? Are you awake for it? And then he gives this analogy, and this is a clear theme in the teaching of Jesus, starting in verse 34 all the way to verse 37, He talks about a master who's gone away, and a master's going to return, and when the master returns, will he find his servants awake, or will he find his servants asleep? If you heard Jesus teach, this is recorded in Matthew. Here it is in Mark. It's recorded in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus even says this again in the book of Revelation. So, if you ever really got to hear Jesus teach, one of the themes of his teaching would be, will the master find his servants awake and ready, or will he find them asleep and not ready? This is a paradigm that Jesus regularly builds into his teaching.
Let's look at it here in verse 34. It's like a man going on a journey, and when he leaves home and he puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and he commands the doorkeeper to stay awake, and then Jesus says it like a command here in verse 35. “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, lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. So, what I say to you, I say to all: stay awake.”
Now, when you hear about household in Bible context, it's not how we use the word household today. If I talk about your household today, I'm thinking your immediate family or maybe you have extended family members at your house, but in Bible times we're talking about not just your family, but your servants, we're talking about your whole business would be a part of the household. And so, when the master of the house goes away, he has servants who are supposed to be doing the work of the household and one of them is the doorkeeper, who's supposed to be waiting for the master to return and awake and ready to open the door for the master. And the warning is in this scenario, verse 36, “lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.” That's the outcome you don't want, that's why he commands you stay awake.
Now, this word, it's used three times when he says “stay awake” at the end of verse 34, then he commands it at the beginning of verse 35, then he commands it again at the end of verse 37. You could translate this word that's translated “stay awake,” you could translate it “be on watch,” like be looking out, be ready, just like they would have people who would watch throughout the night to guard the city, they would be there, and they would watch, maybe he gives the four shifts that they would think of throughout the night. In the Roman Empire, there's evening, when the sun goes down; there's the midnight, as we get further into the night; there's the rooster crow shift, the graveyard shift. You don't want to be on watch during that one. Then there's the shift when the sun's coming up at the end of the night. He gives four different times, and he says this doorkeeper better be on the watch. If you're asleep, you don't want to be asleep when the master comes. You want to be awake. So, this idea of being ready, Jesus is already framing this here in our text, like, which one are you? Are you one of those who are staying awake, or are you one of those who are going to be asleep when the master comes?
And go over to Luke 12, just a few pages over to the right, where we get even more of this same kind of teaching, and this isn't even in the Olivet Discourse. So, Jesus, he taught like this regularly, and here Luke records some of it for us, starting in verse 35, Luke 12:35, he says, “Stay dressed for action.” I love that. Get ready like something is going to happen. Stay dressed for action. And he says, “Keep your lamps burning.” Have you ever heard the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25, where there are ten ladies who are waiting for the bridegroom to come, and the wedding is going to begin, and they all have their lamps, and but five of them brought enough oil, and five of them did not, and so only five of them still have their lamps burning when the bridegroom comes, and they get to go into the wedding feast, but the five who didn't have enough oil, they come late, and they're pounding on the door of the wedding feast. Let us in. And what does the bridegroom say to the five who didn't have oil for their lamps? He says, I don't know you, and they're not welcomed into the wedding. So, this idea of like, are you dressed and ready, or has your lamp got the oil? Is your lamp still burning? Like this is a big question that Jesus wants to raise in our minds. And he says be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast.
Now one of the questions about Mark 13 is, well, why is the master gone and coming home in the middle of the night? Well, here we get a reason why the master's gone, because he's at a wedding, and I don't know what kind of weddings you've been to, but I've been to a bunch of weddings, and I've been to some weddings where I'm ready to look at my wife and, like, are you ready to go? Because I'm ready to go. Have you been to that kind of a wedding? And I've been to some weddings where the vibes are immaculate, I'm so happy for the couple, we're just celebrating Jesus over here, praise God for joining these people together. And I don't care when I ever get home, we're just worshiping the Lord here at this wedding. Have you been to those kind of weddings, too?
So, they don't know when the master's coming. So, you can see the scenario. They've got to be ready whenever he comes, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks, but could it be soon or could it be late? They don't know. “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.” What kind of a master comes and serves his own servants when he gets home late at night? There's only one master, there's only one Lord that I've heard of who serves his own servants, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, that's who you want to be awake for. You will be so blessed if Jesus finds you ready. But then it goes on, and it says this in verse 38, “If he comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them awake, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Now, so far we just have this positive example that you're going to be so blessed, so happy, so rewarded if you are one of the ones who are awake, who are ready when the master comes, but then Peter asked this question, verse 41. Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all,” which is what Jesus said at the end of Mark 13:37, Right? What I say to you, I say to all. So, we know what the answer, this is not just for those disciples there. This is for all of us to hear, and look what Jesus goes on to say in verse 42, “And the Lord said, ‘Who then is the faithful and wise manager whom his master will set over his household to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.” Who's the good and faithful servant that Jesus can put in charge of his household? Because when he comes and he finds that servant still serving him, he's going to promote that servant, he's going to reward that servant, he's going to set that servant up over all his possessions. And a lot of these parables they talk about that, that those who are faithful with what Jesus gives them to do in this life, when his kingdom comes, he will reward them with even more in his kingdom. And so, Jesus is saying that. But then he says this in verse 45, “But if that servant says to himself, my master is delayed in coming and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful.”
See, when I was growing up, verses like that used to haunt my thoughts. See, I grew up here in Southern California at a time when eschatology was sensationalized, and you did not want to be left behind. I heard a lot about that growing up, and so what did it mean to be ready? If Jesus was coming back, I don't know, but I know that sometimes I wasn't thinking about Jesus coming back, and sometimes I thought he would be delayed. And I grew up with these two younger brothers, and sometimes I thought I needed to teach them a lesson, which I might have been right about sometimes, and I was ready to go, but then after I would teach one of my brothers a lesson, I'd kind of think, oh, maybe I shouldn't have done that. What if I'm not ready for Jesus to come back? I remember sometimes I would be at school and some of the guys on my basketball team would be laughing at things that weren't really funny, but they're all laughing at it, and so I felt like I should laugh with them, and then later on I'd be like, "Oh no, I don't think I should have been laughing at that. Am I not ready for Jesus to come back? Like, what's going on? I used to think being ready was up to how I was acting in the moment, like I think I was ready on Tuesday, but I'm not sure if I'm ready today, and I used to have this crushing burden of what does it mean to be ready for Jesus. Is it up to me to get ready? I'm not sure I can always be ready for him all the time. And it used to be this heavy thing upon me. I don't know if anybody else ever felt that way.
I just want to show you what Jesus just said, there, verse 46, “The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, at an hour he does not know, will cut him in pieces.” That's the part that used to freak me out. But look at what it says here. Put him with the who? The unfaithful. Can you write that down if you're taking notes? Unfaithful equals faithless equals unbeliever is what it say. The person who's not ready for Jesus is the person who has not put their faith in the gospel of Jesus. They have not transferred their trust to Jesus, dying for their sins and rising again. So, being ready is not based on works that we do. Being ready is based on our faith in the work that Jesus did to save us. This person who's saying, my master's delayed, I've got time. And then they get in fights with the other servants, and they get drunk and live for their pleasures, because they think they've got time to live for whatever they want. They don't think he's coming back right now, so they've got time to live for themselves. The person who thinks that is the person who doesn't believe in Jesus. So, see this whole thing, where I thought being ready was some work I had to do, when I found out that being ready for Jesus, if you believed in Jesus, then you were ready for him to come and save you, that all that was such that removed such a burden from me, and I would love to take that burden maybe off of some of you.
This is about those who believe in Jesus, are the ones who are awake, they're the ones who are ready, and those who have not put their faith in Jesus, you are asleep and you are not ready for his return. See, the people who think I've got time, and notice that's so important. What it says there in verse 45, the servant who says to himself, my master is delayed in coming. Notice they're not saying, I don't believe he's coming. Notice, they're not saying, I don't believe in all that return of Jesus thing. No, they're just saying, I don't think it's right now. I think I've got time, and as soon as they think they've got time, guess what? They start hating on other people. Guess what? They start living for the pleasures of their own sin.
As soon as you think I don't need to know when the time is, I'm fine. That's the problem. That's unbelief. So, all you have to do is think, I don't think this is going to happen right now. Great, that's the wrong answer. That's what Jesus is teaching you not to think. Some of you are going to hear this sermon, and you're going to be like, yeah, he's coming, but I don't know when he's coming. I think I'll be okay. That's the wrong example here. No, the only response to what Jesus is teaching is to make sure that you're ready. Make sure that you have put your faith in Christ. If you know you're not ready, don't put it off. You need to get ready today. You need to stay awake. You need to be awake now. That's the idea.
Go with me to 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5. This is the passage that helped me see that we're equating being ready with those who believe in Jesus, and I went to 1 Thessalonians in the first sermon when we were going through Mark 13, and I need to go back here because when Jesus is speaking in Mark 13, he's talking about judgment coming on the Jews, that the temple is going to be destroyed, and in fact, their whole religious system is going to be wiped out in 70 AD. So, the assumption of that teaching there is that a judgment is coming, and if you're not ready, you need to wake up, you need to watch out, you need to get ready. Now, here in 1 Thessalonians, this is a different context, and Paul is writing to a church of people. In fact, the Thessalonians were known for their faith. When they heard the gospel, their faith echoed, their faith resounded. In fact, he sent Timothy to find out if the Thessalonians were continuing in the faith, and Timothy comes back and tells Paul they are standing firm in the faith, and so Paul is writing this whole letter to rejoice that they have faith. And look at how he says it here in 1 Thessalonians 5. He says, "Now, concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you.” So, when let's talk about that mystery day, that mystery hour, the time that is coming that nobody knows when it is. Yeah, you guys don't need to worry about that. You don't need to have me write to you about that time. Look at what he says in verse 2: “For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security.’” Look at our technology, we're so advanced, more than ever before “then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. “But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.”
Do you see how he's writing to the believers in the Thessalonian church, and he's saying you don't need to worry about the times, you're not going to be surprised like a thief, they will experience the labor days, the labor pains of those tribulation days, they'll experience that they won't escape, but not you, you're not of the darkness, you're of the light, you're not of the night, you're of the day, you're not asleep, you are awake, he says. I just need to make it very clear that if you're my brother or sister in Christ, and you have put your faith in Jesus, you are ready for his return. Is that good news for anybody here? That's what he's saying to this church. I wish somebody had taught me this when I was growing up, freaking out of my mind about being ready. Right? I wish somebody had said to me, hey, do you believe in Jesus? Then you are ready. You think he's your Savior? Yeah, guess what? He's going to come back to save you, and so you don't need to worry about the day of judgment that is coming. No, you won't be surprised like a thief. You won't go through the labor pains of that judgment. You're already saved.
In fact, go back to chapter 4 and look at what he says to this church. He starts with how they believe. Look at verse 14. He says, “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, he's starting on the foundation of the gospel with them.” He says, here's what you should be thinking is going to happen as people who have believed in Jesus' death and resurrection, and one of them had died, and so they're like, 'Oh no, they weren't alive when Jesus came back. What's going to happen to them? And so, he says in verse 14, I'll just read this here. “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” That's what you should be looking forward to. If you believe that Jesus died and rose again, if you know that after his resurrection Jesus ascended into heaven on the cloud. Well, the angels promised in Acts, chapter 1, Jesus will come again in the same way. And when Jesus comes to get his people, we will be caught up and we will meet Jesus in the air, and from that moment forward we will always be with the Lord. Can I get an amen from anybody on that?
So, this is what I'm saying. As I bring up Jesus coming back to some people, that sounds like rapture, and to other people it sounds like an interruption of their regularly scheduled lives. Which one of those people are you? See, rapture has become this endtimes event that people make fun of on the internet. It's become this thing that even Christians debate about. When's it going to happen? The word rapture means ecstatic joy. That's what you're going to experience when Jesus comes to get you. When you get to see Jesus, and you're caught up to be with him, and you're always with him. See, salvation, the fullness, the completeness of our salvation, the Scripture says is still yet to come. Yes, if you believe in Jesus, you are saved. You are justified by grace through faith, but the fullness, the fullness of grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. We haven't experienced that yet, and so we have hope to look forward to Jesus coming back. We have this expectation, this longing of the future return of Jesus. We know that the real joy, inexpressible and full of glory of our salvation, will not be when we're in a long-distance relationship with Jesus, but when our faith becomes sight and we get to be with Jesus. That's when we'll experience the fullness of our salvation. And so, we say, Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus, I'm ready for you. I want to see you. It will be the highlight of my life to be with you.
Do you think that? Do you think yes, sign me up for the clouds, or do you think I don't know about this Jesus coming back stuff? I got stuff I need to do in my life right now. I think it's delayed. I'm not going to worry about this. I think it's not going to happen. Which one of those two people are you? Because one of those people is ready, and one of them is not. If you go back to chapter 1, verse 10, look at what it says in chapter 1, verse 10 of 1 Thessalonians. This is really the key to this whole church, because they had a reputation for their faith. Everybody knew that when Paul preached the gospel to the Thessalonians, something happened. The gospel rang out. It's like it echoed from these people, and their faith was talked about far and wide. People knew that they had turned from their idols, and they were serving the living and true God. People knew about their repentance, that their life had changed, and people knew about their faith. And look how their faith is described in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 1, verse 10, it says, “and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.” What were the Thessalonians known for? A faith that was waiting for Jesus to come and get them, and they thought that Jesus would deliver them, rescue them, save them from what? The coming wrath. The Thessalonians thought there's a time of judgment, a day of the Lord, a day of tribulation, a seven year time period that's coming, where God is going to judge the whole world, and they thought Jesus would get them out of there before the wrath came, that's what these people believed, and that meant that they were on the watch, they were waiting, they were ready. This is the kind of church that we want to be in Huntington Beach, and this is the kind of person that you want to be. If somebody says Jesus is coming, you think, yes, I'm ready. I want to see Jesus. That's not going to interrupt my life. That will be the pinnacle of my life, the climax.
They were known for waiting for Jesus to come. See, we were talking about this at camp this week with the high school students, and I, I can talk about the high school students right now. I can tell you something awesome happened. They're in their group right now with Shane, but this week it was so encouraging for me to be there. People say, "Have you recovered from camp? People look at me like, you must be exhausted hanging out with those young people all week. Have you recovered from camp? I hope I never recover from this camp. My whole goal today is to bring camp to you. You need some of this camp in your life, all right? Because here's what happens with the high school students when you talk to them about the hope of Jesus coming back, the grace that is coming at the future revelation of Jesus, they're not so puffed up in their pride that they won't listen to what the Scripture says. See, these young people, they hear this and they think, wow, you're telling me Jesus is coming back and I know I'm not ready. Here's what they think: I should probably talk to someone about that.
See, I did this sermon on Tuesday night at camp, and I literally, at the end of the sermon, like, drew a line, and I said, who here really has your faith in Jesus, and you're really ready to trust him all the way till he comes back? And immediately, when I was done preaching that sermon, I was even overwhelmed with how many students got up and went to go find a leader, like I need to talk to them about my faith and make sure my faith is sure. I'm going to go talk to somebody right now. It was powerful. Students even came up to me, and I'm talking to this young man, and he's sharing his heart. He's saying, I feel like my heart is hard. I feel like this. I feel like that. He's just opening up, saying totally honest things about his life that you can tell the spirit has convicted him about his sin, and he's talking to me, and he's sharing with me these things, and I'm pointing him to Scripture, I'm showing him verses that he's describing his heart, and I'm like, you sounds like you're saying this right here, and he's like, wow, this is so great talking about this. I feel like I could change, I feel like something exciting could happen in my life, and I won't be the same. And I'm like, we have a word for that, you know what we call that, right? He's like, what? Hope, that's what we call that, hope.
It's like you're watching hope dawn in someone's eyes for the first time, where they're no longer living in fear and anxiety, but they're living in faith in Jesus Christ. See, I wish that at church on Sunday it could be like camp, where people weren't so on their way to the next place, people weren't so about their appearances, that people would actually stop and talk to someone, like I'm saying, Jesus is coming, and you don't know when. Are you ready? And if you know you're not ready, what if you actually talk to somebody about it after this service, or are we like too set in our ways, too set in our appearances to really open up and talk to people? That's what I want to know, because at camp it's awesome that people will have these conversations. My favorite thing to see in life is when I walk around after I got to talk to some of the young men I was blessed to talk to, I just walk around camp. There are people everywhere talking, although there's two people over there by the pond, or oh, look, there's two people over there at that table, or there's two people over here on the grass, two people over here on this bench, and they're all having the most important conversation of their lives. Is your faith in Jesus Christ, are you ready for him to come, and it's just amazing to see Jesus working through these life-changing gospel conversations. If you know that you need to talk to somebody about getting ready for Jesus, please don't be too proud after the service.
Please let the high schoolers inspire you to talk to someone. And we now have a permanent place. Did you see this canopy out there in the courtyard? I don't know what we're going to call it, the Repent Tent, maybe out there, the Conversion Canopy, I don't know, the Salvation Station. We're still brainstorming names here, where it's a work in progress, but there is now a place that you can go after a service like this. There are people waiting there, and if you say, hey, I want to talk about being ready, I want to make sure I know I'm not ready, or I've always thought it won't happen, but now I'm realizing, what if it does happen? I don't want to be asleep. I want to be awake, and if you would just humble yourself and go and admit that to somebody, today could be the best day of your entire life. Some of you, you don't even need to go to a tent, because you're maybe already sitting next to somebody that you know would talk to you, but if you know if, if this idea of who's really ready for Jesus, if that creates a question in your mind where you're like, I'm not sure I'm ready, then why would you keep that to yourself? Why would you act like he's probably not coming? That is what Jesus is teaching you not to think. He's teaching you to wake now, be on the watch now, because you don't know when it's coming, you don't know when the thief is coming. So, get ready ahead of time.
And so, are you going to hear the words of Jesus today? Because I get so sick and tired of how the idea that Jesus is coming back has become a point of debate, even among Christian people. It's like you would think that the one thing all Christians should be able to agree on is it's going to be awesome when Jesus comes back, but instead it seems like all Christians want to do is argue with each other about when is Jesus coming back, particularly this idea of the rapture, where, like 1 Thessalonians describes, which also Jesus refers to in John 14, that he's going to come and get his people, or in 1 Corinthians 15, it says we won't all sleep, as in we won't all die, but we will all be changed. So, there will be people who don't go through death, but they're changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. And perhaps the best description is what we read in First Thessalonians four, that there's a group of people who are left, they're still alive, and when Jesus comes, they're caught up in the clouds to be with him.
The rapture, we should all be celebrating it, but we're endlessly debating it. When's it going to happen, and for some reason there's a large group of Christian people who want to say we're going to go through this time of tribulation, and so they think the rapture is going to happen post the tribulation. Other people think it's going to happen in the middle of the tribulation, right before it really gets bad, and then there are people like me who think, no, no, no, we're not going through the tribulation, and I'll quote verses, verses like 1 Thessalonians, chapter 1, verse 10, where it says these people are waiting for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from what, everybody? The wrath that is what? To come, this future day of the Lord, this future tribulation. It is known throughout the prophets as a time of wrath. What did they think Jesus was going to rescue them from? The time of wrath. So, they weren't thinking they were going through the wrath, they were thinking that Jesus would get them before the wrath. In fact, go back to chapter 5 of 1 Thessalonians. Look at chapter 5, verse 9, where it says, "For God has not destined us for what everybody for wrath.” So, the Day of the Lord, which all the prophets warned about is the same time as the tribulation, this time period of seven years, and it is known as a time of wrath, where God will express his judgment. Right now, God is being so patient with us. Right now, God is being kind to lead us to repentance. Every morning, we know the mercy of God. Right now, we have not ever gotten what we deserve, not in our lifetime.
It happened once before, when the world was flooded, and it's going to happen again in a time known as the Day of the Lord, the Tribulation. God is going to pour out his wrath for our sins. Wrath is being stored up for a future day to come, and I want to tell you, if you're a believer in Jesus, you were not destined for wrath, and if there's a day of wrath coming, then you were not destined for that day. Is that good news to anybody here? We're supposed to encourage one another with these words. I don't know why Christians want to endlessly debate. I think we're going through the wrath when it's saying you were not destined for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. If Jesus already drank the cup of God's wrath for us on the cross, why would he want us to go through a time period on earth known as the day of wrath? Jesus already took God's wrath on our behalf, and Jesus is going to rescue us from the wrath to come. Now, I was preaching this at another church one time, and a guy who wanted everybody there to know that he didn't believe we would get out before the wrath, he thinks we're going through the wrath, and he was making sure everybody knew that after I had just preached this, and I was like, well, what are you doing about this verse, and this verse, the verses I just read here? And he said to me something I haven't forgotten, he said to me, you make a good point. And I was like, brother, what in the world does that mean? Like, you and I are having some debate, and I got one point on my side, and you got other points on your side. This is the Bible, this is the Word of God. This is written to a group of people who think that Jesus is going to come and get them before the day of wrath comes, and the writer Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is saying to those people, guess what? You don't even need to know when it's coming. You won't be surprised like a thief. You're not going through the labor pains. You're not destined for wrath. That's not a point. That's the whole argument right there. We’ve got to go by what the Scripture is saying. And most people, when they're debating eschatology, they don't even refer to 1 Thessalonians when it's given an answer.
Go over to Revelation, chapter 3. Revelation, chapter 3, Jesus has something very specific to say about the Christians and the day of wrath. Here in Revelation 3:10 there's a very interesting promise made to one of the two faithful churches. Jesus writes to seven churches here in Revelation 2 and 3. Two of them he commends, five of them he calls out, rebukes. Here's one of the ones that he commends to the church in Philadelphia, and Revelation 3:10, look at what he says, “Because you have kept my word, word about patient endurance.” He's talking about the one who endures to the end will be saved, and they are keeping his command to persevere, to endure, “because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming.” And when does he say he's coming, everybody? Soon. Now, if you're one of these people, and Jesus says he's going to keep you from the hour of trial, does him coming soon sound like a good thing or a bad thing to you? Oh, I think it sounds really good. So, notice how it says it. Notice how Jesus says it. He doesn't say, like, I hear people argue, well, yeah, we go through it, but he's going to keep us from the wrath. We'll go through the time period, but we'll be protected from the wrath. That's like saying you'll be in the horror movie, but you'll be one of the people who survives. That doesn't sound very appealing. Notice what it says. He will keep you, not just from the trial that's coming on the whole world, not just from the tribulation on the whole world. He'll keep you from the what? From the hour of trial, from the whole time, from the whole day. You will be kept. And when it says to try those who dwell on the earth, if you keep reading through Revelation, those who dwell on the earth are those who are judged by the wrath of God. So, here's Jesus saying, you keep believing in me, you keep my word about patient endurance, I'll keep you from the tribulation that's coming on the whole world. That seems like a pretty clear statement from Jesus Christ. So, I'm here to encourage everybody who believes in Jesus, that there is a great day of wrath coming, and you won't be here for it. And you should look forward to Jesus coming. You should be on watch. You should be saying, "Come, Lord, come quickly, Maranatha.” And you should look at all your brothers and sisters in Christ, and you should say, stay ready, keep on the lookout. He's coming soon. We don't know how much longer we're going to be here, so let's make the most of our time until he comes.
That's how we should be thinking that we're the ready people, and we can't wait for when Jesus, our Savior, comes, we will experience the fullness of our salvation. Now some people will not be ready, and he talks to those people earlier here in chapter 3. Look at what he says in Revelation, chapter 3, verse 1. Here's one of the churches that gets a rebuke. Halfway through verse 1, he says, “I know your works. You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard, keep it and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.” Wow, so we have in 1 Thessalonians, Paul telling a church of people, you won't be surprised like a thief, you're already aware he's coming like a thief, but here's a church where Jesus is saying that this church is not awake, they are asleep, they're not alive, they are dead, and Jesus is telling church people, wake up, or I'll come like a thief, and you won't be ready, you won't know when I'm coming.
What a word for churches to hear, that there are people who think I go to church on Sunday morning, I'm ready to go, I've read the whole Bible, I'm ready to go, I do good things for other people, I'm ready to go, and Jesus says to those people, I have not found your works complete. Like you're trusting in your good things, you're trusting in what you believe, you're trusting in something about yourself. There's only one way to get right with God, and it's not based on you, it's based on the finished work of Jesus Christ. It's through the sacrifice of his body and his blood, it's through his resurrection. There's only one kind of righteousness, and you can't get it for yourself. You don't have it, you can't earn it. There's only one righteousness, and it comes from Jesus as a gift of grace through faith. Only when you transfer your trust to Jesus, and what Jesus has done, are you considered right before God? And these people, they were going through the motions of Sunday morning nonsense. There's a lot of that in American church. Ther are a lot of people who will feel better about themselves because they went to the service, even though they didn't talk to anybody after the service, even though nothing really changed in their life, even though there was no expectation or hope in Jesus coming back. I feel good because I went to church. If you're thinking that way, Jesus is saying to you today, wake up, like don't think going through the motions of having an external reputation and that you're alive is going to get you ready for Jesus, because when Jesus comes back, it's going to be personal between you and him. He's going to know whether you were ready or not. You don't ultimately get to evaluate whether you're ready or not. Jesus is the one who will decide if you're ready or not.
Go back to Matthew 24 where we began, and let's just see how he ends his teaching in the Gospel of Matthew, as he gets back to this idea that the master of the house is coming back. Here at the end of Matthew 24, he describes it, starting in verse 45. So, how can you know if you're the faithful and wise servant? So, we know that when Jesus comes to some people, Jesus is going to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master.” Jesus is going to know you were my servant, you did believe in me, you are awake, you are ready, and now welcome into my kingdom. But to other people, they're going to say, 'Lord, Lord, look, I did this, I did this, I did this. And what is Jesus going to say to them? I don't even know you. And so, who is the good and faithful servant? It says, “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? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed.’” See, that's all you’ve got to think. Notice that the wrong answer here is not Jesus isn't coming back. The wrong answer isn't, oh, I don't believe in the return of Christ. All you have to do to think the wrong answer is I've got time. It's not going to happen right now. I don't have to get all worked up about this today, he'll be a little bit more delayed. That's what Jesus is teaching you. “You don't want to leave here thinking that if that wicked servant says to himself, my master is delayed, and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the” who, everybody? The “hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Let's get this down for point number three: “To be ready is to meet your master.” See, this is the real question: Which servant are you? And really, the question is, which servant does Jesus think you are? Does he think you're the wise and faithful servant who's ready for him, or does Jesus think you're the servant who thinks he's delayed and you've got time, and he's going to treat you as one of the hypocrites. See, I used to worry about Jesus coming back, but I don't worry about it anymore, because now I'm on the watch, now I'm on the lookout. Now I say, Maranatha, like, bring it on. I want Jesus to come back, and every day until Jesus comes back, I'm on the lookout. I'm praying for it. I'm ready for it. In fact, when I see people, when the Punks come down the street, they don't really dress like punks anymore these days, but when the people come on in, I don't run and hide anymore. I actually welcome them in. I remember when God sent me to Huntington Beach, and I was at Chipotle over there by HB High, having a burrito, and I looked at this dude next to me, and he was just tattooed up all over his body, and I noticed that I was like, whoa. I was like, intimidated by this guy. He looked tough next to me with all these tattoos. I can tell you now, after being here in Huntington Beach for a while, I don't even see tattoos anymore. I don't even see people who look tough. They just look like a soul who needs Jesus to me. And you know who the scariest people are? The people that come here from other churches, they're the scariest people. I'll tell you right now, they come here, they want to tell you all the bad things about their previous church. Give that person six months, they'll be telling you all the bad things about your church. They're ready to fight with their fellow servants. There are a lot of hypocrites. There are a lot of people who have a name that they are alive, but they are dead, and they are not living like they want Jesus to come back, but they're here at church nitpicking on what everybody else is doing. And to the people coming in off the streets, to the hypocrites who are coming from other churches, I say to you, welcome, because you need Jesus to wake you up. Jesus is coming back. Everybody's going to see him. You will believe this message now, or you will see it later. And I want to encourage you to get ready today, while there's still time to join those of us who are on the watch, who are ready for Jesus.
And I want to say to all my brothers and sisters, we should encourage one another with these words, we should encourage one another to stay ready, keep awake, be on the lookout. I'm on the watch. Are you on the watch? Because Jesus is coming to get us before the wrath comes. Can I get an amen from anybody on that? And if you know you're not ready today, let me just tell you, there is no shame in walking into that tent and talking to somebody. There's no shame in coming forward and saying I'm not sure I'm ready. Let's have a real conversation about Jesus Christ. To hear Jesus say I'm coming, you don't know when I'm coming. Make sure you're ready, and then to walk out without making sure you're ready, that's where there will be shame, but there is no shame in talking about it here right now, hear what Jesus is saying to you. Jesus is saying that he's the master, and he's coming back, and you better not be asleep. And so, I ask you, are you awake? Because Jesus says to us, stay awake. Let me pray for us right now.
Father in heaven, thank you for this teaching of Jesus. Thank you for bringing everybody here to hear it. This might be hard for us, some of us to hear, but we want to thank you for the words of Jesus Christ that he says we need to see that some time is coming and we don't know when it is, and so we should ask ourselves, are we ready now? And he gives us the picture of the master who's gone coming back. He gives us the picture of the thief coming in the middle of the night, and we don't know when it's going to happen, so we need to make sure we're ready now. We need to stay awake and be on the watch. And so, I pray for everybody here who believes in Jesus, that you would encourage them that Jesus is coming soon. He's coming back to get us, and we will be caught up with him in the clouds, and we'll get to see Jesus in his full glory, and we will have joy inexpressible. It will be the highlight of our lives. It will be the pinnacle of our salvation, the fullness, the completeness that you saved us for will be revealed at the coming of our Lord God. Please let us be on the Maranatha watch. Let us say, Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, come soon. We're waiting for you to come and deliver us from that wrath that is coming. Let us be these people who are encouraging one another. And Father, I come to you right now in the name of your Son, Jesus, and I pray for the person that you brought here today who feels like they're not ready for Jesus to come back, and maybe they've been acting like they were a Christian for a long time. Maybe it's their first day here. God, I just pray that they wouldn't be proud right now, that they wouldn't want to look like they're alive to everybody else when really Jesus is calling them dead. I pray that they would be like one of those high school students, running to go talk to someone, because they want to be saved, because they want to be ready, they want to have hope. God, please don't let people just go here and go on with their day, like life's going to continue as it always been. When Jesus just told us that's not going to happen, that we won't know, but he will come. Please don't let everybody say, oh, it'll be delayed, I've got more time. Let today be the day that they come to you. Let today be the day that they talk to someone. Please, Father, save people here. Father, draw people to your Son, Jesus. Let today be the day we've been waiting for, the day that you will save many souls before Jesus comes. We pray this in his name. Amen.