Ready or not…here I come! MARANATHA!

Growing up in a small-town rural area in the 60’s and 70’s the neighborhood kids played a lot of night games. When the sun went down, everyone gathered at someone’s home to play Kick the Can or different variations of Hide and Seek. When the person who was “It” closed his eyes and began counting to a certain number, all the other players would hide themselves in unexpected places. After having completed the count, “It” would say, “Ready or not, here I come!” Undoubtedly, there was always that one who was running around frantically searching for a place to hide who was not ready.

I vividly recall a dream I had one night in the late 80’s. I was standing at the top of the hill above the home I grew up in, and at that moment, I knew the Lord was coming on the clouds. I screamed, “No! I’m not ready!” Immediately, I woke up. Now, whether it was in response to a sermon I had heard or for whatever reason I had that dream, it was a wake-up call for me. Why? Because before that time I had not actually contemplated that exact moment which surely is to come. Hebrews 10:37-39 says: FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY. BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIFE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. The Lord is coming back. For some it will be the ultimate dream come true. For others, it will be their worst nightmare! God has set a day in time when He will bring about the end of this world and judge all those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. The clock is ticking down to its final countdown.

The Old Testament predicted Jesus’ first coming; He came just as His Word told us He would. It also predicted His Second Coming. While Jesus was on earth, He continually taught His disciples to be ready for His return. He told them who He was, why He came, about His death, burial, and resurrection. He also told about His return to earth as the victorious King who will judge all the earth’s inhabitants alive and who had ever lived. In Matthew 24:36-51, Jesus told us three things about His Second Coming which is always a good reminder for those of us who are watching for His return, ready and eagerly anticipating that moment when we will see Him face to face: (1) No one has ever known exactly when He is coming back. (2) We always need to be ready for Jesus’ return because He is coming at an hour when we do not expect. One thing we can be certain of is that He is coming. (3) Believers are to be faithfully serving Him, being about His business, until He returns. 

In 1 Corinthians 16:22 Paul seems to put two strange thoughts together. He says, “If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Maranatha.” This word Maranatha means “O Lord, come!” Christian people who were Jewish back then used to greet each other with this word. He was saying, ‘Anathema, Maranatha.’ Anathema means devoted completely to destruction or cursed. Here we see the gospel in such a simple final salutation. If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. That is the prophetic warning. Then, He’s coming! Wherever you see the true gospel, you’re going to see these two things side by side. People want to hide behind God’s love and sell a deceptive gospel that appeals to the flesh in every man. That is a false gospel that can never save.  As believers, we need to be sharing our faith; but we also need to be sure the gospel we are sharing does not give a false sense of peace and assurance. We give the hard parts of the gospel about the true state of man before ever offering the good news. That will continue to get more and more difficult as the days go on. My generation has lived in a world where being a Christian in this country has been relatively easy. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to freely speak the truth. We can also give a false sense of peace and assurance when we fail to speak out against false ideas and belief systems. Not saying anything speaks volumes to those who hold to heretical teaching. 

At the end of the book of Revelation, after John had been given a vision to see the things that will take place in the end of days—"the things which must soon take place,” the message of the Lord through His angel to John was: “And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.” (22:7) Then, in verse 10 John is told not to seal up the words of the prophecy (as were the prophecies in Daniel), “for the time is near.” 

The next verse is very interesting. Verse 11 says: “Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.” Daniel 12:9-10 says something very similar. He said, “Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time. Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand.” 

Thousands of years ago, the sound of a hammer driving nails into the ark filled the air. The earth had exploded with evil and violence. Every intent of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually. Only one man found favor in the eyes of the Lord. When God told Noah His intentions to destroy the earth because of the wickedness, Noah believed God. How do we know? God instructed him to build an ark, and construction of a massive ship began. Noah obeyed God. No doubt, it appeared to those around him that Noah was out of his mind. Noah faithfully, selflessly, pounded nails and preached judgment that was to come for approximately 100-120 years without a single convert. With every stroke of the hammer and each word from his mouth, people watched, listened, and sealed their destinies as they mocked Noah turning away from the ark of salvation to lives filled with wicked frivolities. They turned away from the only thing that mattered in life to the things they valued most—their own happiness. Today, people mock or spiritualize away an actual Flood account. When God destroyed the earth by Flood, He did not destroy what was in man. 

Luke 17:26-27 says: And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. The people in Noah’s day were totally depraved, and it did not concern them at all. It is not hard for us today to imagine that the people in Noah’s day were relishing in their freedoms to be themselves in every imaginable form of wicked debauchery and vice. Verses 28-30 says: It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. The people continued to go through their daily life oblivious to what was coming and without a single thought of the judgment of God. 

Peter ties it all together in 2 Peter 2 speaking of the judgment that is to come. He speaks about false prophets secretly introducing destructive heresies, exploiting people with false words because of their greed. He says their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. Verses 4-10 says: For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. 

Going back to Revelation 22:11. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Even before the Flood came, God gave the people another week to repent. Then, He shut the door behind Noah, his family, and all the animals. We see in every instance, men in their depravity, while exposed to the truth, will not repent. In Revelation 22, John was told not to seal up the book. The Revelation of Jesus Christ was complete. Let the depraved men continue in his depravity; and let the righteous practice righteousness. There will always be unbelievers among believers until that day. In fact, there will always be more who do not believe than those who do. No one will be able to say on that day, “I didn’t know.” Nobody will be able to say, “I wanted to be saved, but You didn’t save me.” 

Revelation 22:12—"Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.

How do we respond to the promise of His coming? The Spirit and the bride say, “Come,” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. All who are thirsty for the water of life are invited to come to Jesus. Now. Run to Christ and hide yourself in Him, the ark of salvation, before God says, “Time’s up. Ready or not, here He comes!” We say, “Come, Lord Jesus!”