How to be Ready to Meet Your Maker

Forty years ago, in the year 1954, the Milwaukee Braves opened the National Baseball League season against the Cincinatti Reds. There were two rookies playing their first game in the major leagues that day. One of them played for the Reds, the other for the Braves.

The rookie who played for the Reds was a fellow by the name of Jim Greengrass. He had an unbelievable game that day. He hit four doubles in four times at bat, helping his team to win the game by a score of 9-8. What a way to start your major league career!

The other rookie - the fellow who played for the Braves - didn’t do anything. He went 0 for 5 at the plate. It wasn’t a very auspicious start to his career. Too many days like that and he wouldn’t last long in the major leagues.

If you and I had been in the stands that day, we probably would have predicted that Jim Greengrass would end up in the Hall of Fame someday. But we would have been wrong. Jim Greengrass never ended up in the Hall of Fame, but the other rookie did. His name was Henry Aaron, and over the next 22 years, he would hit 755 home runs - more than any other player who ever played the game.

In baseball, true greatness is not measured on how you start out, but how you end up. And the same is true in the Christian life. True faithfulness as a Christian is not a function of how you start out, but how you finish up, and what you do along the way.

We have been studying the book of First John, and today we come to a passage that has to do with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. And we’re going to see that the Second Coming has a lot to do, not only with how we end up, but with how we live our Christian lives along the way.

When we talk about the subject of the Second Coming, a lot of Christians click into a prophecy mode. They put on their End-Times glasses. They get out their prophetic charts and they want to know all about the Tribulation Period and the identity of the two witnesses and when Russia is going to invade the Middle East and all that.

But I want you to know that this is not the Bible’s emphasis. Whenever the Bible speaks of the Second Coming, it does so for our moral benefit, not just to satisfy our theological curiosity. The fact that Jesus is coming again is supposed to make a difference in how we live not just in how we think. That’s John’s emphasis in the book of 1 John. Let’s look at that passage we read earlier…

1 John 2:28 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

There are three words in that verse that I want you to zero in on. The first word is the word appears. John uses this word four times in this section of his book: here in v.28, again in ch. 3 v.2, v.5, and v.8. The word means to make clear something that was previously hidden or unknown. It means to reveal something as it really is.

Now John says in v. 5 and v. 8 that Jesus appeared (past tense). He appeared to take away our sins and to destroy the work of the devil. That’s what Jesus did at his first coming.

But in v. 28 and v.2, John is talking about a future appearing of Christ. He’s coming again, in other words. Just as surely as Jesus came the first time, he’s going to come again.

The second word I want you to notice in v.28 is the word confident. It means to be free, and open. It even means “to be bold”.

A few months ago, when Pastor Mark came up to the pulpit to lead the service, his little son Seth, who was sitting in the front row caught sight of him and called out in a big voice “Hi Daddy!”

What made little Seth do that when he saw his Dad is exactly what this word means. It means that when Jesus comes again, a true child of God is going to respond with that kind of freedom and boldness. There’s going to be no hesitation, no holding back, because he’s going to be glad to see Jesus. He’s going to welcome his coming.

The opposite of giving Jesus this kind of welcome is to be ashamed at his coming.

When I come home from work, my four year old usually hears me come in. That’s his signal to run to the door as fast as his little legs will carry him and hurl himself into my arms for a big hug. That’s what usually happens.

Unless he’s been bad. When he’s done something he wasn’t supposed to do, he’s not so quick to come running to meet me. Sometimes I have to go looking for him. Kind of like God had to go looking for Adam and Eve in the Garden after they ate the forbidden fruit. They were hiding from him. They shrank from his presence. They didn’t want to see him. They were ashamed at his coming.

This is how it is going to be for some Christians at the Second Coming of our Lord. Because they have been living for themselves instead of living for him, they are going to be ashamed. There’s going to be no freedom there, no openness, no glad, boisterous welcome.

Ask yourself this question: If I were to tell you that, beyond a shadow of a doubt, Jesus were to come back next Sunday, how would it make you feel? Would you feel a sense of regret? Would there be a sense of disappointment that now you weren’t going to be able to do all those things you had planned to do?

Would there be almost a desire in your heart to say “Jesus, please go back to heaven. Don’t come just now. I’m not ready for you yet. I’ve got a lot of things I want to do. Come again when it’s more convenient.”

Or would you say “YES! He’s coming this week. This is what I’ve been waiting for. This is what I’ve been living for. He’s finally coming!”

In 2 Timothy 4, Paul says “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

Are you longing for his appearing this morning? Whether you are has a lot to do with that third word I want you to look at in verse 28. It’s the word continue. “And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

The word “continue” means to abide, to remain, to stay in one place. It means to hang in there. What is God trying to say to us here? Simply this: Keep it up! Keep going! Keep growing in your faith. Be consistent! Keep walking with Jesus. Don’t give up when the going gets tough. If you hang in there, you’ll be ready to meet Jesus when he comes again.

When you first become a Christian, a lot of exciting things happen to you. You get a home in heaven. You don’t have to fear death anymore. You gain a new purpose in living. Life becomes meaningful - you realize that life isn’t just an aimless existence of accumulating things and trying to find pleasure.

You realize that you fit into a big picture, and now you are a servant of the Almighty God. You become part of His cause - an epic struggle of good over evil. You begin to see yourself and other people in a new light. Life becomes an adventure.

But after awhile, you begin to discover that living the Christian life isn’t always thrilling and exciting. It takes commitment, and sacrifice, and sometimes it even involves suffering. And that’s when your enthusiasm for living the Christian life might begin to cool down. Instead of being spiritually hot, you become lukewarm, tepid.

And that’s when it becomes crucial to continue in Him. Because it’s not how you start out in the Christian life, it’s how you end up that matters to God. And how you end up depends on whether or not you continue in Him.

Jesus told us a story about this. He said a farmer went out to sow some seed in his field. Some of it fell on the pathway, and the birds of the air came and snatched it away. Some of it fell on rocky ground. Some of it fell among the weeds. And some of it fell on good soil.

The seed that fell on rocky ground sprang up right away. It grew faster than the other seeds, because the shallow soil warmed it up more quickly. But as summer wore on, and the sun got hotter and hotter, that seed withered and died because it was shallow and had no roots.

Jesus said “That’s how many people are. They receive the Word of God with joy, and they spring up spiritually. They look like they are really growing in the faith. But when trials or persecution come, they fall away, because they have no roots.” And we can see that all around us in our society today.

There are a lot of Christians who seem to start out well, and then fall away. Why is this so? I’ll tell you why. It’s because the culture in which we live pulls us away from continuing in Jesus. Our culture can be defined by four little words.

1. WOW - People today are experience-oriented. They love thrills, excitement, and pleasure. They seek it out. They spend their dollars on things that will give them a sense of fulfillment. Modern Americans are addicted to experience. They’re thrill-seekers.

2. NOW - More and more, people are focusing on the present. They are not like previous generations, who were willing to work hard and save money for future goals. They want it all right away, NOW. Instant gratification. Americans care less and less about the past or about tradition, either. They don’t feel bound by tradition, because today is all that really matters.

3. HOW - Modern Americans are highly pragmatic in their approach to life. They don’t care about theory: they want answers. If they can’t see how something will help them with a problem they have today, they won’t bother with it. You walk into a bookstore, and you’ll see hundreds of self-help books with the word “HOW” in the title. People are buying them because they want solutions.

4. DOW - Americans are extremely materialistic. They want the good life and they think that money can buy it for them. So they spend billions of dollars on luxury and leisure.

This is the culture in which we live. A person who has been raised in this culture, and who becomes a Christian, will sooner or later find himself or herself asking:

• Why should I continue in Jesus, when the Christian life seems at times to be so unfulfilling?

• Why should I continue in Jesus when my faith and my prayers don’t seem to produce any results in my life right now?

• Why should I continue in Jesus, when it means making sacrifices of my time and my money to serve others rather than myself?

So they fall away. They give up. They don’t continue in Jesus. Listen, if this is where you’re at today; if you’re thinking of packing it in, let me encourage you to hang in there a little while longer.

Jesus is coming back! You want to be confident at his appearing, not ashamed. So keep on keeping on. If you continue in him, there are some great benefits:

1 John 3:2-3 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

There are three great truths for us here:

1. We are children of God

2. When Jesus comes again, we will be like him.

3. Having this hope purifies us today.

1. We are children of God.

Back in v.1, John exclaims “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” It’s almost like he’s saying “Pinch me, I must be dreaming!”

We are actually children of God because of what Jesus has done for us. God has adopted us into his family.

After the Korean war, there were many Korean children whose parents had been killed in the fighting. They had been left as orphans, with no families and no future. But many American families had compassion on these children and adopted them. They brought them over to the States, gave them a new name and a new home, new opportunities and new hope.

Just think of how those children must feel today, knowing what they had come from. That gives you just an inkling of what John is talking about here. We are tremendously privileged people to be God’s children.

2. When Jesus comes again, we will be like him.

Many people ask the question: “What will it be like in heaven?” And the answer is “I don’t know!” John says “what we will be has not yet been made known.” God hasn’t revealed everything about heaven to us yet. But he has revealed one thing: We will be like Jesus.

It has always been God’s intention to make us like Jesus.

Romans 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And even now, God is working on us to make us more like Jesus.

3. The hope of becoming like Jesus in the future is a hope that will purify us today. Look at verse 3:

1 John 3:3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

If you set your hopes on seeing Jesus when he comes again; if you set your hopes on becoming like Him, then this hope will have a powerful influence on the way you live each day.

A couple of years ago, a major company did an ad campaign around Michael Jordan. The theme of the campaign was to “be like Mike.” They had catchy music, with kids singing “I wanna be like Mike.” The idea was to get kids so focused on being like Mike that they would go out and buy whatever Michael Jordan had. If he wore Nikes, they would wear Nikes. If he ate at McDonalds, they would eat at McDonalds. If he drank Gatorade, they would drink Gatorade.

Now that’s a very pale and trivial copy of what John is talking about here. Christians should want to be like Jesus. We should want to walk like Jesus and talk like Jesus and think like Jesus and love like Jesus. He should be our hero. And if he is, that’ll make a difference in the way we live.

A little while ago, I told you the story of how Henry Aaron began his career in 1954. Well, something else happened in 1954 in the world of sport. That year marked the first time that a man ever ran a mile in less than four minutes. It happened at Oxford, England, and the man who did it was Roger Bannister. His name will be remembered forever as being the first man to break that four-minute barrier.

But there was another fellow who ran in that race that day. He happened to be a good friend of Roger Bannister. His name was Chris Chattaway. Before the race, they agreed that Chattaway should go out and set a blistering pace for the first part of the race. He would be what milers call the jack-rabbit.

When the starter’s gun fired, Chattaway raced to front of the pack, and that’s where he stayed for the next couple of laps around the track. But he couldn’t keep up that pace for long, and pretty soon he tired and dropped back. That’s when Bannister made his move.

Chris Chattaway finished the race in last place, and that’s why nobody remembers his name today. Because in running the mile, it isn’t how you start out that matters, it’s how you finish.

And that is also true of being a Christian. If you continue in Jesus, you’ll be ready to meet him when he comes again.