BUSINESS AS USUAL
For this message, our reading is taken from Luke 18:26-30 in the Living New Testament. It deals with a momentous event, the coming again of our Lord Jesus. He said, “When I return, the world will be as indifferent to the things of God as the people were in Noah’s day. They ate and drank and married – everything just as usual right up to the day when Noah went into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot: people went about their daily business, eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and brimstone rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. Yes, it will be ‘Business as Usual’ right up to the hour of my return” (emphasis added).
A large crowd gathered recently at Ground Zero in New York, where people paid tribute to those who lost their lives in the appalling attacks on the World Trade Centre Twin Towers. Within a few minutes, that tragedy claimed the lives of thousands. People were going about their usual daily routines, unaware that this day was to be their last.
Here in Australia, we have experienced some of the worst fires and floods in our history, resulting, sadly, in much loss of life. In New Zealand, Christchurch suffered the loss of many lives and the destruction of scores of homes when an earthquake rocked the city. Think, too, of the devastation in Japan, brought about by earthquakes and tsunami. How differently people would have acted if they had known that these sad events were about to occur without warning.
The Lord Jesus gave us good advice when He said, “So be prepared, for you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. He will arrive unannounced and unexpected”. In Matthew 24:42-44 He said, “Therefore, keep watch because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this; if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not let his house be broken into. So you must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him”.
The Lord repeatedly gave us teaching about His coming again. The parables of the ten virgins, the talents and the sheep and goats in Matthew 25 are all second coming parables. He wants us to think often about the fact that He is coming again and to live each day as though this could be THE day! On his office desk, a friend of mine had a small plaque which read, “Perhaps Today!”
This article was written by Pastor Geoffrey Davies. He is a frequent contributor to this column. He lives in Melbourne, Australia, where he pastored a church for over twenty-five years. Since 1983 he has traveled widely, continuing his ministry of encouragement and Bible teaching.
