Mark 13:24-37 contains a remarkable word from Jesus. Three times He calls the people either to “Keep on the alert” or “be on the alert” (vs. 33, 35, 37). These things He says in the context of a promise that the Son of Man is going to come “with great power and glory” (vs. 26). At that time He says He will “gather together His elect from the four winds” (vs. 27).

Sounds like a very special day in history, doesn’t it! One you won’t want to miss. It will be a day of great joy from some, a day reckoning for some, and a great day of revelation when the world will know that Jesus Christ is who He says He is. And, what do we do until that day? We stay alert. The One who comes into human history as an infant born in a stable will come again into human history as the One before whom all history bows. It’s going to be quite a day.

The baby born in Bethlehem, now an adult, ready to go to the cross and die for the sins of the world, tells His people to stay alert, not to be lulled into complacency, and always to remember that even though heaven and earth will pass away, His words will not pass away (vs.31).

In these days when everything Christian is under assault and Jesus is being marginalized into unimportance, be alert and don’t buy into the lies and fabrications. The world will do to Jesus what it has always done to Jesus. It will nail Him to a cross. And, Jesus will do what He always does. He will burst out of the tombs into which the world lays Him, and He will come forth alive, embracing with redemptive love the very world that killed Him.

Whether or not the world will receive His love is its issue, but make no mistake about it; while heaven and earth are passing away, His “words will not pass away.”

Amen. Come Lord Jesus.