Recently I have been preaching through Matthew and the past few messages have involved the ministry of John the Baptist. As I prepared for last Sunday’s message, Presenting the King, about the arrival of Jesus to the wilderness of Judea to be baptized, I was struck by the fact that John was busily doing as God had told him to do when Jesus came. It would seem that John did not know when Jesus would come, he just knew that Jesus would come and that until then, he had been given a job to do – prepare people for Jesus’ coming. In John 1, we see that when Jesus came, John was actively doing that which God had given him to do. Though we don’t know exactly how long John was preaching and telling people of the soon coming Messiah, we do know that he kept doing it until Jesus came. I’m sure there were times of discouragement in John’s ministry as in any ministry, but John was faithful to keep at it.

As I pondered John’s faithfulness, I thought of how all of us as Christians have been given a job to do – to serve the Lord and spread the Gospel, letting people know that Jesus came to save them, so that they can receive His gift of salvation and thus be ready when He comes again. Yes, Jesus is coming again – He told us so in His Word. Although we don’t know exactly when He is coming (it seems to me that it will be soon), the question is, will we still be busy serving Him like John was? Will we be actively trying to reach people with His Gospel message? Or will we have given up, got discouraged or distracted and quit? In speaking of His return, Jesus said, “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.”

The challenge to us today is this, if Jesus was to come back today, would He find us “so doing”?