Reflection Questions – Advent 2

1. Read Matthew 24.30-31 and Matthew 25.31-46. What are the two possible outcomes for human beings, when we face king Jesus at his return? 

2. Read Matt 24.35-41. How will Jesus’ return be similar to the experience in Noah’s day? What is the lesson for our lives? 

3. Read Matt 24.42-51. Those who demonstrate genuine faith, fulfil their duties & show love for neighbour, will be ready for Jesus’ return. They will be preserved through his judgement and reign in a renewed creation (Matt 24v47, see also Matthew 25.21, 23).

Application Reflections
We don’t know the precise time when the Son of Man will return. So keep watch, live in faith, be diligent in your duties, the whole time. Let us be less concerned about  predicting the precise timing of Christ’s return, and more concerned about knowing Jesus and doing his will in the world now, today. 

Christ’s return will be a public event, observable to every eye. The Lord’s return will mean a permanent division between those who welcome him, and those who do not. 

4. What duties has the Lord given you, that you may need to renew your commitment to? Perhaps duties as a family member, volunteer or worker, or duties of being in a community or caring for creation in some way? 

History is not meaningless. It is not, as Shakespeare’s Macbeth put it:

‘a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.’ Act 5, Scene 5.

Those who say that history has no purpose, often do so to justify their own choices. If history has no meaning, my moral choices, my character, matters not.

But we say: history does have purpose. That purpose is a person. We all must face him one day. We who love him will pass through his judgment, sheltered by our saviour, and receive our share in his risen life, in creation made new and put right. Come Lord Jesus, come.

5. Are you tempted to feel that the story of humankind is meaningless? That world events are out of control? Spend some time praising Jesus for his glory and his unveiling at the end, the final victory of good and God.