This past weekend was Breaking Free for our youth ministry. Breaking Free is like a DiscipleNow weekend where the students were divided into their age groups, sent into host homes for the weekend, studied God’s word in small groups and gathered a few times for worship. The weekend culminated with our youth pastor, Steve Hunt, delivering the sermon on Sunday morning.
I have not had the opportunity yet to hear all the reports from the weekend, but the few I have heard already seem to be good. I was very thankful to hear Steve preach yesterday. That means I have the Sunday off : ) and gives me more time to mingle and meet other people. That means that today I am reviewing Steve’s sermon! Don’t worry, Steve, I won’t be passing out grades, just recapping the content.
The theme this weekend was on the return of Christ. The challenge was: Are you ready? The two questions that immediately pop into my head are: What does it mean to be ready? What does it matter to be ready?
1. What does it mean to be ready?
Christ is going to return to a world that will be deep in sin and rebellion like at the time of Noah (Matthew 24:36-44). People will go on eating and drinking, totally oblivious and uncaring about God and his ways. When Jesus returns, He will be coming for judgment. When He returns, this world will pass away and a new Heaven and a new Earth will come down. There will be no hope for those rebels when Christ returns. The time for mercy will end. God's patience with the rebellious will run out. Christ will come and settle accounts for eternity.
To be ready for his return means that we must be right with God. There is only ONE way to be right with God: we must repent of our sins, submit to Christ as LORD and believe in Him as our Savior. When we do this, when we respond to the gospel call, God will forgive our sins in Christ, He will cleanse us in Christ, and He will give us the righteousness of Christ. Then we will be right with Him.
There is no other way to be right with God. We have all sinned and fallen short of his glory. We deserve the wrath and judgment Christ will bring on that terrible day. If we put our hope in our own works, we will spend eternity separated from God in Hell. There will be many on that day who cry out to God calling his attention to their good works (helping the poor, coming to church, reading their Bibles, praying), but He will not save them because He never knew them (Matthew 7:21-23). Our only hope is in Christ alone.
2. What does it matter to be ready?
You may be wondering, “If I received ALL of Jesus’ righteousness at salvation, what does it matter if I am living right when He returns? Am I not already right with God?” These are good questions. Yes, when you are saved, you are completely forgiven and completely right with God… However, the Bible tells us that the way to know that we have been truly converted is if we endure to the end.
Matthew 24:9-13
Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
In a world where the love of many grows cold toward God, it is the Christian who endures in the faithfulness of Christ to the end that is saved. This means that we are not saved by our own righteousness or good works, but that by faith in Christ we daily and consistently rest in Him and work in his strength his righteousness until He returns. We love, evangelize, forgive, worship, and serve until our last breath. That glorifies God. That is why were created.
So, even if you have already placed your faith in Christ and have been saved, you must continue to live in Christ’s righteousness until the end for that is what the children of God do: they obey because of their changed heart.
Be ready. Be converted to Christ. Be consistent in living in Christ until the end.
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