READY FOR THE BIG SURPRISE
By: Frank Tunstall, D.Min.
Robby Robbins was an Air Force pilot during the first Iraq War. After his 300th mission, he was surprised to receive permission to pull his crew together immediately and fly his plane home.
They soared across the ocean to Massachusetts and then had a long drive to Western Pennsylvania. They drove all night, and with his buddies dropped him off at his driveway just after sun-up. There was a big banner across the garage:
“WELCOME HOME DAD!”
How did they know?
No one had called and the crew themselves hadn’t expected to leave so quickly.
“When I walked into the house,” Robbins related, “the kids about half dressed for school, screamed “Daddy.”
Susan came running down the hall – she looked terrific—hair fixed, make-up on, and a crisp yellow dress.
“How did you know?” I asked.
“I didn’t,” she answered through tears of joy. “Once we knew the war was about over, we knew you’d try to surprise us, so we stayed ready every day.”
These five illustrations say so very much about the second return of our Lord. They certainly can be used in a sermon,
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“Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 24:44).
“Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen” (Revelation 1:7).
“The day of the Lord will come as a thief…” (2 Peter 3:10).
“Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people, and He will appear a second time not to bear sin but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him” (Hebrews 10:28).
“Men of Galilee,” they said. “Why do you stand gazing into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into Heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into Heaven (Acts 1:1).
