Are You Ready?

More than forty-five years ago, my husband and I waited for the results of my pregnancy test. We were elated when it was positive. We read books about pregnancy, compared the signs in the books with signs from my body, and prepared the nursery for our baby’s arrival. As the days flew by, our anticipation grew. We had to be ready!

Jesus wanted His followers to be ready. While they traveled toward Jerusalem for Passover, Jesus warned them that He would be mocked, scourged, crucified, and then rise again.

In John 12:7-8, when Mary anointed Jesus with costly perfume, Judas asked if she should have sold it for the poor. “Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.” This points to His death and burial.

After His resurrection, Jesus spoke with two discouraged followers on the road to Emmaus. “Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”
Luke 24:25-27

In John chapter 14, Jesus had promised to give them the Holy Spirit in His absence, hinting at His ascension and the future of the church. In John 14:29 Jesus said, “And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.” But even though Jesus warned them, they weren’t ready.

The apostle Paul wrote, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” Romans 15:4

Some Bible scholars estimate that one third of the Bible is prophetic. The Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy lists over 8,000 prophetic verses from the Bible. Thousands of these verses have been fulfilled, while some are yet future. Fulfilled prophecies include verses about Israel, the first coming of Christ, Jesus as our Savior, prophecies regarding specific locations and individual people, and prophecies about the rise and fall of kingdoms.

Other prophecies were partially fulfilled but will be completely fulfilled in the future. An example is in Luke 4:18-19. Jesus was in the synagogue reading from Isaiah 61:1-2. He stopped reading in the middle of Isaiah 61:2 and said He’d fulfilled that prophecy. However, Jesus only fulfilled the part He read that day. He’ll fulfill the remainder of Isaiah 61:2, “the day of vengeance of our God,” in His Second Coming.

Peter wrote, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
II Peter 1:20-21

Fulfilled prophecy makes the Bible unique among religious books. God even points to it as evidence of who He is. “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:”
Isaiah 46:9-10

Unfulfilled prophecies include the rapture of the church, the rise of the Antichrist, the tribulation, the second coming of Christ, the millennial reign of Christ, and the new heaven and new earth. We know these prophecies will be fulfilled because God delights in making and keeping His promises.

In Matthew 24 Jesus gave an important prophetic message with signs of the end times. In verse 44 He says, “Therefore, be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” Then, in Revelation 22:7, 22:12, and 22:20 Jesus says, “I come quickly.”

The Glorious Appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ in the clouds is the Blessed Hope for believers, but the people who are still lost will be left behind.

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:1-3

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” I Thessalonians 4:16-17

Are you ready for His return? If you’re not ready, what should you do? Make sure you’ve put your trust in the Lord Jesus. Consider these words from the apostle Paul:

“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”
I Corinthians 15:3-4

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9-10

After we’re saved, God wants us to live for Him! “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen.” II Peter 3:18

All scripture is from the KJV.