"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:19-21 NKJV).
Have you ever been talking to someone about bible prophecy, and how the signs we are seeing today are all pointing to Christ's soon return and they mockingly correct you by saying 'my great grandmother thought Christ would return in her day and He still hasn't come'?
I know I've heard that used on me a number of times as an attempt to discredit my concern for the lateness of the hour in which we find ourselves in. More often than not, it's from well-meaning Christian's who perhaps don't know any better due to their denominational upbringing. But from others, the condescending nature of their rebuttal seems as if there is a hidden resentment against the very idea that Christ would have the audacity to return.
There are three instances in the New Testament that the Apostles themselves called the times in which they lived, either the 'last times', or the 'last hour'. Even Paul expected Christ in His day when he concluded on a number of occasions by using the wording "we" and "us" as being included in the group that could see Christ return. We know that the Apostles (Paul, John and Peter in particular), didn't write what they wrote arbitrarily, but rather, by inspiration from God the Holy Spirit ... so it's not there by mistake. It was their deeply held belief in the imminent return of Christ for the Church, which could happen at any moment. Since then, it has been some 2,000 years since Christ's departed planet earth, and if they thought they were in the Last Days, how much closer are we?
"Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8)
The departure from expectancy was not missed by Christ. He foresaw the way the world would become even before He laid the foundations of the earth. He knew all that would transpire between Adam and Eve's fall from grace, to the conditions the world would be in prior to His Second Coming.