MY CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

JESUS IS COMING AGAIN: ARE YOU ALERT OR ALARMED?
Text: Matt 2:1-3
 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, in the time of King Herod, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem 2 saying, "Where is the one who is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." 3 When King Herod heard this, HE WAS ALARMED and all Jerusalem with him.

Beloved friends, this is the message The Lord gave me for this Christmas period. It is part of Matthew's account of the first coming of Jesus, the Saviour of the world. From the text, it was revealed to some wise men from the East who travelled that long journey to Jerusalem to seek and worship the new born king. The records have it that when King Herod heard their message, he was greatly alarmed. Why was he alrmed? It was due to the fact that his position was threatened.
But why were the inhabitants of Jerusalem also alarmed? Did they have the cause to be alarmed? Instead of rejoicing for hearing that they are are now going to have their real king,  the Prince of Peace and Saviour of the world in their midst, they were paradoxically alarmed!
In the first place, they were greatly alarmed because they were not prepared to receive Him. No official preparations had been made to receive him. They had been reading from the Scriptures that the king would be born. They had heard where he would be born. They had heard a virgin will conceive and and give birth to him. If they had been alert, they would have heard about how Mary became pregnant and quickly link Her story to the biblical prophecies.
Secondly, they didn't allow God to remind them through prophetic utterance. For 400 good years, God refused to talk with them. From the post-exilic to the Maccabean period, God was silent because his people had gone astray. If Israel was in tune with God, He would surely have made it plainly known to them the birth of Jesus.
The wise men were able to identify and locate the saviour of the world. But His own people who knew it had been foretold and written in their scriptures were ignorant of his birth. It was a shame for Israel to be ignorant of the birth of the very Saviour they were supposedly waiting for. It was even more shameful that God had to use the Magi, people of questionable religious background to inform His own people that their Saviour is born.
Just as the Jews could not realise his birth, many Christians of today will never realise his second coming. It is now evident that many churches today have stopped preaching about his second coming. For a whole year, some Pastors deliberately refuse to remind their church members that Jesus is coming soon.
Let me finally remind all of us that the greatest event the world is about to witness is the RAPTURE. Jesus is about to snatch the faithful and alert Christians who are waiting for His glorious appearance. What will be your fate if you are left behind? What feelings come to you when you hear about the Rapture? Are you alert? Remember, the people of Jerusalem were alarmed because they were not alert! It is better to be alert than to be alarmed. Jesus is coming soon, don't be alarmed.... Be alert.