Revelation 3:3b …If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.
…If you will not wake up…The implication is the believers at the church in Sardis are asleep. This is the second time believers in Sardis are told to wake up. And if you don’t wake up, a consequence is coming.
Consequence, I will come like a thief. This is not the first time Jesus tells believers He will come like a thief. Other New Testament epistles make the same point. See Paul and Peter.
1 Thessalonians 5:2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
1 Thessalonians 5:4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.
2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
Revelation 16:15 “Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”
…and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.
Jesus is beyond fair. He is not leaking new information. Readers of the Bible should know He has spoken this concept before.
Matthew 24:43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. -Jesus
Do we think Jesus is kidding? Look at all of the examples given in the writing above. And this is not a comprehensive list. There were other verses expressing the same idea. We have been given fair warning. Get ready. He is coming again.
Luke 12:40 “You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” -Jesus
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