John 14:3
And 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.
The Scriptures are peppered with an overall theme of the second coming of Christ. This week’s verse brings awakening to the present and hope for the future.
The second coming brings awakening to the fact of how we live. Are we living in light of the second coming? Are we serving Christ and others? Are we loving others with our words and actions? Are we sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ? The more we focus on the promise of Christ’s return, the more we yield to the motivation of the Holy Spirit to live in obedience.
The second coming of Christ also gives us hope for the future. When Christ returns, He will make all things new. When Christ descended the first time, He died for our sins and was raised for our justification. The first coming dealt with paying the penalty for sin and the second coming deals with the removal of the sin’s presence.
I heard a story of a small town who got news that their town would eventually be flooded out of existence due to the construction of a hydroelectric dam. The town was falling apart between the announcement and until the day when it was flooded. One asked a resident, “Why aren’t the residents keeping this town up?” The resident replied, “Where there is no faith in the future, there is no work in the present.”