Home Coming

John 14:33 "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also."

Has there ever been something you have been waiting for, that felt like an eternity to finally receive? Maybe you saved up for a particular item and those last few weeks, days, or hours felt like they crawled by. Maybe it was not even something that you were going to buy. I remember in the last day of school before summer, it was game on! That last day of the school year seemed to be the longest day of the year.

Whatever it is that we are waiting for, we know it is coming so we take the necessary steps of preparation to be ready for the anticipated event. My younger brother is a Cavalry Scout in the US Army. He has been in Iraq for the past twelve months, but it has felt like years since he left. Time seemed to crawl while waiting for his return. The last few days have been days full of preparation. My sister-in-law got an apartment, moved stuff out of storage, and decorated the house. The day of his arrival was approaching and I thought the preparations were done. Nope! We made signs, bought flowers, bought an outfit for his 9-month-old son that he had only seen once. There was a lot of preparing to do; even down to the request he made about Taco Bell being the first thing he would eat when landing on US soil. We prepare ourselves when there is something in store we look forward to. What if I wasn’t sure when my brother was to come home? What if I didn’t have time to “cram” for his arrival? It would make it a lot harder to be completely prepared.

John 14:3 "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

How are we to be prepared for Christ’s return for us, His church, and His bride? We will not get a five-minute, one hour, or twelve-month notice as to when the Lord shall return for us. So how do we prepare for the arrival? There are two different answers here. For the non-Christian, the only way to prepare for the return of Jesus Christ when He comes for His bride is to become the bride. The only way to become the bride is by grace through faith in person and work of Jesus Christ (Rom 1:16, 1 Cor 15:1-4). To become the bride you have to believe that Jesus Christ is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, that He paid the debt of sin for you with His life on Roman Cross when He died for sin, that God the Holy Spirit raised Him from the dead three days after His burial, and that He has ascended to Heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the father. If you believe this, then you are prepared; you are ready for His arrival.

What about the believer, how is the believer to be prepared for the return of our Lord? The believer is prepared if he/she is saved, period! No believer will miss the Lord’s return through lack of preparation. However, do you really want to meet someone that you don’t know much about? We seem to know more about Jennifer Anniston and Brad Pitt than we do about the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. Don’t you want to know Jesus; I mean really know Him, before you meet Him face to face? 1 John 2:25 “This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.” If you are a believer then you always have the promise of eternal life, but how well do you (the bride), know your groom (Jesus Christ)? 1 John 2:28 “Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. 1 John 2:28 is a promise of the believer seeing Jesus Christ at his coming for the church, but notice the two attitudes of the believer: confidence or shame. The believer who “abides” in Him (the Living WORD) has confidence at His coming. That is preparation! The believer that does not “abide” in Him (the Living WORD) is shamed. Why? Because although he is saved, he has failed to know Jesus Christ intimately through a consistent study of the Word.

An unbeliever is prepared for the return of our Lord simply by faith in Him and His work. The believer is prepared for His return because he has believed in Him, and has grown in the grace and KNOWLEDGE of Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). Christ is coming for His church. Are you prepared?