FBC Daily Devotional – March 15, 2021

Well, a good Monday to you. New week starting off, week's getting off to a good start.

I hope we got off to a good start yesterday on the Lord's Day. I hope you were able to gather together with God's people and worship the

Lord together. That always gets the week off to the right start anyway, and I hope you were able to do so.

Well, today in our Bible reading, we're in Matthew chapter 24 for one of the passages, and in this passage, the

Lord is talking about his return. Now, granted, in our day and age, the idea that Jesus is coming again is pooh -poohed by the mainstream culture, the majority of people don't even really give it any thought.

But for those of us who are followers of Christ, we have been given the promise from the very beginning of the church that Jesus is coming again.

He said he was. He said he would come again. And just as he said that he would be crucified and buried and rise again, and that happened, he also said when he was ascending into heaven that he would return.

And so in this passage in Matthew 24, Jesus talks about the timing of that return.

And one thing he makes very clear is that nobody knows when it is. So, let that be a help to you.

You know, right at the very beginning of verse 36, Jesus says, But of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my

Father only. Jesus is saying, look, don't listen to all of those prophetic soothsayers who can claim a date, a time when

Jesus is coming again. They have been proved wrong time after time after time through the centuries.

So, like, you know, at the turn of the first millennium, there were those who were saying, you know, it's the end of the end of a millennium,

Jesus is coming again. A thousand -year period is done, Jesus is coming again. We had the same kind of prognostication going on at Y2K, you know, that all the catastrophe that was going to happen with Y2K was just, it was just a, you know, just telling us

Jesus is coming again. I remember in junior high, maybe in ninth grade in high school, going to hear a prophecy preacher at the

McCormick Center in Chicago, and he had quite a following, packed the place out, and some of the things he said in that session, in those sessions, it was a series of meetings, actually.

Some of the things were fine, but other things weren't. For example, he made it pretty clear that Jesus was going to return by 1980, and all of the stuff going on in the

United States and with Russia, etc., that Jesus was going to come in 1980. Well, he obviously did not, and there have been many others who failed in that kind of prognostication, and they should fail, because Jesus said, look, no one's going to know.

No one knows the day or the hour. In fact, he goes on to communicate just how unexpected that is going to be.

He talks about this, he speaks of this time when Jesus returns, like the time of Noah.

He says, as it was in the days of Noah, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. And he goes on to say, as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day

Noah entered the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and took them all away.

So also will be the coming of the Son of Man. Now, I've heard some preachers, well -meaning preachers, speak on this and talk about this time at the end is going to be a time of great debauchery and wretchedness, like it was in the days of Noah, when every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually.

Well, you know what? The reality is, that's the way man is, and that hasn't changed after the flood.

Man is wicked. But this is not talking about how wicked the time is going to be. It's talking about the fact that people are just going to go be going about their daily stuff.

They'll be doing their jobs. They'll be having their parties. They'll be getting married.

They'll have their wedding celebrations. They'll eat dinner. They'll do all this normal everyday routine stuff, and then all of a sudden,

Jesus is going to return, just as it was in the days of Noah. They just kept eating and drinking and carrying on like nothing was going to happen, and then all of a sudden

Noah got in the ark, and the rain came, and it caught them totally unawares. So the point of this passage is that we are not to try to figure out the time of the

Lord's return. We are just to be ready whenever that time comes. And after that discussion about the days of Noah and so forth,

Jesus goes on to apply this and says, That's the question.

And so the point Jesus was driving home is that you don't know when he's going to return.

Your job is not to know when he's going to return. Your job, my job, is just to be faithful day in, day out, fulfilling my duty, fulfilling my responsibilities that have been placed upon me by his providence and by his gracious call.

So keep on keeping on. Just being faithful in the little things that Christ has called you to do, the big things

God's given you to do. Just be faithful day in, day out, and when Jesus returns, whenever that is, today, next week, week after that, next year, next century, we don't know.

But whenever it is, we want to be ready. We want to be ready by being faithful, fulfilling the calling that he's given to us.

Let's pray. At the end of Revelation, the cry of the Bride of Christ is,

Even so, come Lord Jesus. And that is our cry today. Even so, come Lord Jesus.

But if you tarry, help us to be faithful. Father in heaven, we do thank you for this challenge to our own hearts.

We contend to contend to become lax and lethargic and unfaithful, especially when we see things going on around us and make us think, well,

Jesus should be coming, Jesus should be coming, and nothing's happening. Lord, help us not to get caught up in the timing of your coming, but just to be faithful until that time comes.

This we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right.

Well, I hope you will have a good rest of your Monday and your week will get off to a great start.