“Days were filled with guns and war and everyone got trampled on the floor –
I wish we’d all been ready.
Children died, the days grew cold, A piece of bread could buy a bag of gold.
I wish we’d all been ready.” (Larry Norman)
There is one truth which the first Christians believed but which the church over the centuries have mostly lost sight of. That is the happy certainty the Jesus Christ is going to return. Jesus is coming back to earth, not this time as a baby in a manger but as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, surrounded by armies of angels in the glory and splendour of Almighty God. And Jesus himself warns us all to be ready for his return.
Mark 13:32-33 32 “No one knows about that day or hour, 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.

KEEP WATCH
Here is a challenge to stay spiritually awake, spiritually “on the ball.” None of us can afford to be spiritually asleep. We might as well be sleeping the sleep of the dead. What we are meant to be is like
Servants waiting for the Master to return.
34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his 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!’ ”

Decades ago when I was a schoolteacher I occasionally had to leave the laboratory momentarily to collect something from the prep room. It was always amusing when I went back into the classroom to see which pupils were ready for my return, and which were not. Woe betide the servant who is not awake and doing his job when the Master returns.
Each has his assigned task. God has given every Christian duties and responsibilities as we wait for Jesus to return. Responsibilities of service and witness and holiness and growth in grace. There’s no time for sitting back and putting our feet up. We each have to play our part in God’s church preparing the house for the Master’s return. We must not let Him find us asleep on the job! As in the parable of the talents or the parable of the ten gold coins, we must be using everything we have for God’s glory. We must live our lives now in the light of eternity. Jesus Christ is coming back and our greatest desire should be to be found not idle or sleeping but working for Him.
In Mark 13 Jesus points forward to TWO future events. The first is the fall of Jerusalem, the second is His return. The warnings and commands Jesus gives apply just as much to Christians today as they did to his first disciples in the days before Jerusalem fell to the Romans in 70 AD.
WATCH OUT THAT NO-ONE DECEIVES YOU
We should take that warning seriously. Jesus would not warn his disciples about being deceived if that was not a genuine danger. People don’t usually put up a sign saying “Beware of the dog” if all they have is two goldfish and a budgie. Jesus is warning us just as much as He was warning the first disciples about the real dangers which the church will always face until Jesus returns in glory.
5 Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many.
21 At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect—if that were possible. 23 So be on your guard; I have told you everything ahead of time.

God is light and truth. The enemy the devil is all darkness and lies and deception. Lies like, “evangelism is unnecessary,” says the devil, “prayer is a waste of time,” says the devil, “there’s nothing wrong with being lukewarm: it isn’t good to go over the top,” says the devil, “it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are nice to people” says the devil. We must be on our guard against all these lies the devil tells.
We must guard the truth in the church. I find myself increasingly troubled by the number of preachers who keep Christians entertained for three quarters of an hour without putting any Bible truth in their sermons. I am even more troubled by the number of Christians and the number of churches which are happy with that diet. Bible teaching is important. Theology is important. What we believe does matter – it is a matter of life and death!
And we must also proclaim that truth in the world. With all the other religions and cults there are a hundred and one false saviours out there. And then there are the atheists and secularists who just assume that God doesn’t exist. We must be a church which believes what it preaches and which preaches what it believes. We must preach the truth in love – Jesus commands it.
PREACH THE GOSPEL
10 And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.
Wycliffe Bible Translators have as their motto, “Every person in every nation, in each succeeding generation, has the right to hear the news that Christ can save.” Jesus is coming back soon. Today could be the last opportunity that our neighbours and our friends will have to hear the gospel and repent and believe and be saved. “I wish we’d all been ready.”
9 “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them.
It won’t be easy to be known as Christians. It will get us into trouble. Always has – always will! But we are not alone!
11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

God gives each Christian the power of the Holy Spirit living inside us and the words to say to being glory to Jesus. Here is a great reassurance for ordinary people who may still find themselves defending their faith and proclaiming Jesus in courts or in councils or in front of kings.Those early Christians spoke up boldly for Jesus in the face of horrible persecution and torture and even death. The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. Our brothers and sisters around the world are still doing so even today. We don’t face the kind of opposition they do – so how dare the church in Britain stay silent. The gospel must be preached!
Romans 10 9 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. …. 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

The gospel must be preached!! And then we must
STAND FIRM IN YOUR FAITH
He who stands firm to the end will be saved!
It isn’t going to be easy. We must show that we are true Christians by our steadfast perseverance.
12 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13 All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

The parable of the sower reminds us that not all seed produces fruit. Some seed falls on the path and is snatched away by the birds of the air. Sometimes the devil snatches the truth out of the hearts of new believers. Some seed falls on shallow soil and rocky ground so it has no roots, and some fall away when the going gets tough. Some seed falls among thorns – some fall by the wayside because of the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth, Jesus warns us. We need to stand firm, and prove to be those who produce fruit.
It will be tough. There will not be any easy time for the church until Jesus returns. There will be all kinds of vast disasters.
7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning
of birth pains.

There will be opposition from rulers and nations.
9 “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them.
Christians will sometimes even experience opposition from their own families.
12 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13 All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

We must stand firm to the end! Some people think that being a Christian is meant to be easy. They think that if problems come along they have somehow done something wrong. But that is not the case. The Christian life is NOT meant to be easy. If our Christian life IS easy, something is wrong. It has always been hard to be a Christian in a world which is running away from God and it always will be hard. We must stand firm to the end.
Times of great distress are on the way, Jesus said.
15 Let no one on the roof of his house go down or enter the house to take anything out. 16 Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. 17 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 18 Pray that this will not take place in winter, 19 because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.
This warning was initially for Jesus’s followers who would still be alive at the fall of Jerusalem. But it applies to the “last days”, the whole of the period between the first coming and the second coming of Christ. Hard times are still to come. But in it all, God is in control.
20 If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them.
God WILL look after his children. And the sufferings of the church simply follow the sufferings of Jesus Himself.
Mark 10 33 “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”
John 15 and 16 tells us that Jesus warned his disciples in the Upper Room on the night before He died that they would face persecution.
John 15 18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.
16:1 “All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. 3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.

If you will not bear a cross you can’t wear a crown. We cannot avoid the inevitable opposition of a fallen world. Only He who stands firm to the end will be saved.
32 “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
We don’t know when Jesus is coming back – but he is definitely coming!
31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

So we have to be ready!

33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.

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!’ ”

“He is coming for the ones, Who is ready to meet Him.
He is coming for the ones, Who are ready to greet Him.
He is coming for the ones, Whose lamps are burning bright.

He is coming for the ones, Who are watching and waiting.
He is coming for the ones, Who are separating,
Themselves from the world, And walking in the light.

Moving in the stream of the Spirit’s leading,
Living of the love of the Lord and feeding,
On the Holy Word that can purify the soul.
Running in the race for the crown of glory,
Taking up the cross and telling the story.
Waiting for the One who has saved.
And made them whole.

He is coming for the ones, Who await His appearing.
He is coming for the ones, Who are persevering.
He is coming for these
Is He coming for the you?” (Jimmy and Carol Owens from “Come Together”)