I have been teaching through various passages of late on who will be found "ready" when Jesus returns to take His people and to destroy the rest. To be honest, I have been shocked at how little I knew and that what I thought I knew was false or incomplete.
If you study through the book of Matthew, you will find that Jesus spent the majority of His teaching helping His "followers" or disciples understand that He would be coming back "soon" and that He would divide the world into two categories, only two.
From Matthew 5 through the end of the book, Jesus started explaining to, wooing and warning His disciples ( including His most beloved friends the apostles) concerning His expected return and what He expected to find in them and from them. He had especially strong warnings for His servants ( all of us) about how we must serve Him faithfully until He returns or we would lose....... our ministry?, our status in heaven?, our reward ? Nope. Our very souls. This is what shocked me.
From Matthew 5 on Jesus warned His disciples that they must continue to be salt and light or they would be worse than dung, that no matter how much they called Him Lord and had apparent power, that not actually doing the will of the Father would cast them into Hell, that they should base their life on hearing His words and obeying them or they would be destroyed by the horrible destruction of His second coming, that they must shout what He gives them to say from the rooftops and not fear men but instead, fear Him who can cast their body and soul into Hell for denying Him before men, that they should serve Him faithfully and not be given to dissipation and anger towards His people or they would be cast into Hell, that they should be faithfully prepared and ready when He returns or be cast into Hell, that if they should take the gifts He leaves them for His Kingdom and do nothing with them ( that is do nothing good or bad ) to serve His Kingdom then they would be cast into Hell, that they should pray for strength to endure until His coming so that they might survive His coming, that they would feed, clothe and visit the needy among His brothers and sisters in the Kingdom or He would cast them into Hell.
ALL these warnings were to the followers..... I was shocked when I put all these warnings together. My summary does not do justice to the actual texts. Remember He was intentionally and pointedly speaking these words to His closest friends and companions in the ministry. No one was exempt.
What added fuel to my shock was that Jesus said He could come back at any time. His concern was that His people would relax, become complacent, busy with worldly activity, distracted, lacking in commitment, fearful of man, presumptuous about their status in the Kingdom and lacking in urgency to the work and labor of the Kingdom in the same way that the OT people of God had rested in their calling from Egypt, their false or misguided trust in their temple, and failed to manage and produce the fruit of the Lord's vineyard and Kingdom.
Please believe me when I tell you I'm not writing this to change any view of salvation that we hold or to diminish what Jesus accomplished on the cross. I am unchanged myself in all I have ever believed about salvation, forgiveness, Christ's love or His sovereignty in salvation.
What has happened with acute revelation is that Jesus spent a great deal of His final days with His beloved disciples helping them be aware, alert and prepared as to what He expected to find when He returned to earth. His warning were crystal clear but I was apparently unwilling to see. Would He find faithfulness to His word, His calling and the fruit of His vineyard.
The warnings of Jesus for unmet expectations are so clear. They are loving instructions on how to be "ready", loving warnings about how serious He is and how serious the repercussions are, and they are clear indications that while OT Israel failed to manage His vineyard, that He expected His people, with new hearts and the indwelling Spirit, to heed the warnings and accomplish the work of the Kingdom.
If you find what I have written offensive or objectionable or even just contrary to what any have been taught, please, and I mean please, read through Matthew 5 to the end and note the number of warnings, the consequences and who was being addressed with the warnings.
My fear is that we who disciple others may not be ready ourselves, or have not sufficiently and urgently helped others get ready and warned them, and have not honored Jesus as we ought with the reward of His sufferings and with a fruitful vineyard well cared for and beautiful in all Her ways. I honestly don't think we believe Jesus could come back tonight. Like the people of Noah's time, we marry, do business, conduct our lives as if all is well and all will always be well. Noah warned and He worked unabated in the fear of the coming terror of the Lord until the drops from the sky signaled the day to work is over, the night has come.
"Why do you call Me "Lord" and not do what I say.