Don't Be Caught off Guard

“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh."  (Matthew 25:13)

Seventy-seven years ago today, on December 7, 1941, America was attacked by the Japanese navy in a surprise air operation. We were not warned nor were we ready. Several of our ships were destroyed and sunk. The USS Arizona was sunk killing more than 1,100 soldiers. As a result the United States entered World War II and vowed never to be caught unprepared again. A popular song in that long ago time was, “Let’s All Remember Pearl Harbor.”

Sometime out in the future, at a time not revealed to man, the Lord Jesus Christ will come back and claim His own. Many people will be as unprepared as the nation was on December 7, 1941. You can be prepared if you will accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.  Jesus tells us to watch because we do not know the day nor hour when our Lord shall return.

Be Ready

“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.” (Matthew 24:44)

As we make preparations for Christmas we have a deadline marked on our calendars when we celebrate the first coming of Jesus in Bethlehem. However, no one knows the time of the second coming of Jesus. It is not marked on your calendar.

Damage is done to the Christian testimony when someone claims to have a new revelation from God concerning the end. We were told in 1988 when three comets aligned just right that Jesus would come at that time. It never happened.  Other false prophets have made similar announcements predicting the exact date that Jesus would return. The date came and went.

Jesus never told us when His return would take place. He simply said for us to always be ready. We are to live as though He could return today.  Don’t look for signs; look for the Son.

Worshipping, Doubting and Making Disciples

“Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw Him, they worshipped Him: but some doubted.” (Matthew 28:16-17)

Judas Iscariot, one of the original twelve, had betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. After a short while he was so filled with guilt and remorse that he committed suicide. Now there were eleven.

These eleven were imperfect believers. They worshipped, but some doubted. It was to this mixed group that our Lord gave the original “Great Commission” to go into all the world and make and baptize disciples.

When your church meets the next time, not everyone in the assembly will be perfect. In fact, you and I are imperfect. It seems that our Lord can “draw a straight line with a crooked stick.” That’s what He has been doing from that day to this.

Did you notice that even though there were doubters among them, they worshipped the Lord Jesus Christ? If you wait for your church to be perfect to worship or make disciples, your church will do neither.

The Truth of the Resurrection

“And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, ‘say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole Him away while we slept.’” (Matthew28:12-13)

There is a religious cult whose members will come to your door and attempt to teach you strange things from their bible. Their founder said concerning the empty tomb, “As for this man Jesus, we do not know what happened to him. His body may have been dissolved in the gasses of the tomb. Or, perhaps after lying in the coolness of the tomb, after a while he revived and just got up and walked out.” That is more absurd than what the elders told the soldiers to say.

All the truth of God’s Word from Genesis to Revelation is verified in these three words found in the Gospels, “He is risen.”(Matthew 28:6; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:6) What a wonderful, glorious, powerful, sufficient and praise-worthy Savior is Jesus.

He Is Risen

“And the angel answered and said unto the women, ‘Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead…’” (Matthew 28:5-7a)

Jesus is not in the tomb. Go to the graves and tombs of the founders of the world’s great religions and be assured that their bodies are there. Go to the tomb where Jesus was placed and forever hear it repeated: “He is not here: for He is risen.”

Look at the verbs in our text: COME, SEE, GO, TELL. That’s it in a nutshell. There is so much to tell. Luke tells us in the Acts of the Apostles that Jesus showed Himself to be alive by many infallible proofs being seen of the apostles forty days following His resurrection. Paul tells us in I Corinthians 15 who some of the eyewitnesses were: Peter, then the twelve, then more than five-hundred brethren (Christians), James, the apostles and then Paul himself. The Gospel writers are careful to include the women as eyewitnesses.

There is one established fact that cannot be denied and that is, Jesus is alive!!

The Tragedy of a Dead Bible

“Pilate said unto them, ‘ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as you can.’ So they went, and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.” (Matthew 27:65-66)

In what is known as Thomas Jefferson’s “dead bible” all the miracles and things supernatural have been removed. The final words in his bible are, “and rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed.”

What a disappointment. Aren’t you glad your Bible doesn’t end there? The Gospel story is not complete without the story of the resurrection. It was Jesus who said, “Because I live, ye shall live also.” (John 14:19) Our text for today in Matthew’s Gospel is not the end of the story.

Many false religions are like Jefferson’s dead bible; they are true as far as they go but they do not include all the truth. A poor lost soul would remain lost if his only hope were the crucifixion and death of Jesus without His resurrection.

Forsaken of God the Father

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)

Our Savior quoted the Old Testament scriptures when He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. On many occasions He let us know the Bible was dependable and without error. Here, on the cross He quotes Psalm 22:1 in Aramaic as His fourth saying from the cross.

The agony of the Father’s departure from Him was the worst agony of all. He suffered as every unsaved person dying without Christ will suffer for eternity – separated from God. Jesus, who knew no sin of His own, became sin for us. (II Corinthians 5:21) Habakkuk tells us that God is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity. (Habakkuk 1:13)

He did not just die for my sin; He became my sin and your sin and the sin of all mankind. He was forsaken of God His Father, and died a horrible death that you and I not have to spend one agonizing minute suffering alone and without God in hell. As you read these lines thank Him for loving you so and if you have never received Him as your Savior I encourage you to do so now.