Sincere Faith: Ready for His return.
Notes
Transcript
Text - Luke 12:35-48
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Theme -
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In rural Montana, there are things that we try to be ready for.
We try to be ready for emergencies of different sorts.
Keeping medicines and first aid materials on hand.
We try to be ready in the winter for significant snow storms.
Have some extra food in the house.
We try to be ready for if the power goes out for an extended period.
With a summer like we are having now, we try to be prepared for emergency fire situations.
There is a lot less that people do to be ready than in days gone by, but we think about it more here than people who live in town do.
In our passage for today, we see Jesus making a shift.
He spent some time teaching his disciples what to do with what they have been given, and to not worry about the things of tomorrow but to trust that the Lord will provide all they needed.
Now he shifts over to what we ought to be considering in the future.
34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
If your treasure is in the right place, you are looking forward to something truly wonderful.
I think a lot of the time, we only hear preaching about the second coming of Christ used fear as the motivation for readiness.
That can create a certain sense of resentment toward God and the idea of the second coming.
While yes it is there, there is a warning, and we must heed that warning, we must share with others that their eternal destiny is at stake.
Much of the New Testament teaching is that Christ’s return will be a time of great joy for those who are prepared to meet Him.
For those who are ready, that day will be a day of celebration and joy as Jesus’ followers enter His presence for unbroken fellowship with Him.
Such a joyful possibility should also be a major motivation to be ready for that day.
Depending upon where you are today in your relationship with Jesus, hearing of His return should cause either great joy, or great fear.
The truth of the matter is that Jesus is coming whether we are ready or not.
He is not going to ask us if it is okay to return at a certain time or hour.
So the question we must ask as we look at this text is Christian, are you ready?
35 “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, 36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. 38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” 41 Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” 42 And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? 43 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 44 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. 45 But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. 47 And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.
As I was preparing for this week I read a story of a a visitor to an elementary school.
This visitor told the children that upon his return he would give a prize to the student who had their desk in best order.
“When will you return” they asked.
He said, “I cannot tell”.
A little girl, who was known for keeping a messy desk said she meant to win the prize.
“You!” her schoolmates jeered, “your desk is always out of order”.
“Oh, but I will clean at the beginning of every week!”
“But what if he comes back at the end of the week?”
“Then I will keep it clean every morning”.
“But he may come at the end of the day”.
She thought & then said, “I know what I’ll do, I’ll just keep it clean.”
Easier said than done.
Do you think this girl kept her desk clean?
Perhaps for a time.
But I am betting it didn’t stay clean all the time.
Much like our lives as Christians.
Thankfully for us, when we trust in Jesus, instead of looking at our desk, it is His desk that gets judged for us.
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make an effort to keep our desk clean so to speak.
This is the essence of what Jesus is calling us to.
Jesus had just spoken of treasure in heaven and now focuses our hearts on the return of our greatest Treasure in Heaven, Himself!
Jesus showed through the parable of the rich fool and teaching to his disciples that too much focus on worldly possessions causes us to lose our focus on Christ.
Especially looking for His return.
You cannot keep your eyes on God, if your eyes are on gold
So Jesus says be ready, stay dressed for action!
Literally "Let your loins be girded" or "Stand, your waist having been belted."
"Gird your loins and light your lamps."
Jesus appropriately begins this section on watchfulness using the ancient picture of a man getting ready for action (work, war, running)
by first girding up his loins, which means he lifts up his flowing robe from his legs and tucks it into the belt around his waist so that nothing impedes him from full and effective movement.
That literal picture is what Jesus wants us to do in our mind, our thinking, our heart.
Jesus wants you and I know through the next that that we need to BE READY AND WAITING, for "I AM RETURNING!"
Dressed for readiness is in the perfect tense which speaks of a past completed action with ongoing effect or result and so speaks of the permanence of this action.
In other words, the implication of this tense is that one is not to wait until the last moment to tuck their long, flowing garment in, but is to always be prepared!
That is the first of 4 pictures in this passage that Jesus uses to make the point that we need to be ready.
Specifically to be ready for His return.
The second Jesus gives is to keep your lamps burning.
In the grand scheme of things, electricity is still a relatively new thing, especially on the scale in which we have it.
In Jesus day, there was not electricity.
No streetlights, no nightlights to help you find your way.
No switch to leave your porch light on.
If people were expecting visitors, they would have to keep an oil lamp burning for light when they arrived if it was late.
The purpose again is to be ready for someones coming.
The third picture is of servants who are awaiting their master’s return from a wedding feast.
Such feasts could last for days, often for a week.
The servants would need to be ready when they heard their master arrive to open the door and serve him.
The master could arrive at any point, even when they least expected him so they had to be ready.
The parable takes a surprising turn, because Jesus imagines the master becoming a servant to his servants.
Read again with me in
37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. 38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants!
For us this is a heartwarming scene of late-night fellowship, but for the people listening to Jesus this role reversal was almost unthinkable.
What master would ever wear a servant’s clothing, or invite his slaves to sit down to his own feast?
What master would ever make himself nothing by taking the form of a servant?
A master like Jesus, of course!
What would be unthinkable for anyone else was at the very heart of our Savior’s mission to the world.
He was the Master of the universe, the Lord of all creation.
Yet he had come to serve his people, and by serving them, to set them free.
The fourth takes somewhat of a negative tone.
It is a picture is of a thief breaking into a house in the middle of the night.
If the homeowner had known when the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into.
He would have been ready and waiting.
The application of each of this is verse 40
40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Since Jesus spoke these words, every generation since then has thought that it was the final generation before His coming,
but they all died without seeing it happen.
Skeptics try to tell us to face reality: It’s just not going to happen!”
This is nothing new.
Peter wrote
1 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 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. 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
The present heavens and earth are being reserved, not for a judgment of water, but of fire.
Also, with the Lord, a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years are as a day.
His view of time and ours are vastly different!
The only reason He has delayed judgment is His great patience as He waits for more to come to repentance.
As a follower of Jesus, are you ready?
Do you want to be ready?
How can we be ready for Jesus coming?
To begin, Jesus must be your master.
Jesus is Lord over every person and has the authority to be the rightful judge of everyone who has ever lived.
Have you submitted to him as your personal Lord and Master?
In doing so, as mentioned, you will be blessed.
Jesus came not to be served by to serve.
He gave His life as a ransom for many.
When He comes; the rest will face His punishment.
You can’t say Jesus is my savior without also saying Jesus is my Lord.
There is no biblical evidence for that to be possible.
A Christian can truly be saved and fall into sin.
We all struggle daily against the world as believers and followers of Jesus.
As Christians though, we will not be comfortable living in sin.
If you claim to know Christ, and yet shrug of sin as no big deal, you might need to go back and revisit where your relationship with the Lord stands.
To be ready is to struggle against sin daily.
To seek to bring every area of our lives under His authority/Lordship.
If you are not engaging in that struggle, you need to examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith.
5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
Being ready for Jesus coming is being His servant.
Being a servant of Jesus Christ is first and foremost a mindset and secondarily a specific ministry.
My ministry is that I am a pastor, but I am a servant of Jesus 24-7.
No matter where I am or what I am doing, I am representing Jesus to the world around me.
If you are not serving Christ in some capacity or looking for a place to serve, you are probably living for yourself.
True servants seek to serve their Master.
When He comes, He doesn’t want to find them sitting on a hill waiting for His return.
He wants to find them serving Him.
To be ready for Jesus coming, we must live in expectation of His return.
When we have guests coming over to our homes, we do things differently don’t we.
We attempt to tidy up, put things away, vacuum the carpets, clean the floors.
If you’re expecting a guest, especially an important guest, you live differently than if you are not expecting anyone.
Think of someone you truly look up to, what would you do to prepare for them to come spend a few days with you in your home.
If you’re expecting the King of kings, how should your life look?
Would you have been comfortable if He had come back during your activities this past weekend?
Are there things in our homes that you need to get rid of before He comes to our home?
What if He were to look at our Netflix or browser history?
Spurgeon uses the analogy of his dogs to show how we should expectantly be awaiting our Master’s return.
He said that at the very moment he was speaking, his dogs were sitting inside his front door, awaiting his return.
At the first sound of his carriage wheels, they would lift up their voices with delight because their master is coming home.
Then he adds,
Oh, if we loved our Lord as dogs love their masters, how we should catch the first sound of his Coming, and be waiting, always waiting, and never happy until at last we should see him!
Pardon me for using a dog as a picture of what you ought to be; but when you have attained to a state above that, I will find another illustration to explain my meaning (12 Sermon on the Second Coming af Christ [Baker], p. 141]).
So to be ready for Christ’s return, make sure that He is your Master;
be involved in serving Him all day every day;
and, live as if you expect His soon coming.
I read of how John F. Kennedy often closed his speeches with the story of Colonel Davenport, the Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives.
One day in 1789, the sky of Hartford darkened ominously, and some of the representatives, glancing out the windows, feared the end was at hand.
Quelling a clamor for immediate adjournment, Davenport rose and said,
“The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment.
If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty.
Therefore, I wish that candles be brought.”
Rather than fearing what is to come, we are to be faithful till Christ returns. Instead of fearing the dark, we’re to be lights as we watch and wait.
In Peter asking his question in verse 41, he is essentially asking why must we be ready?
When the Lord returns, He will judge everyone in accordance with the light they have been given.
At Jesus return, some will be rewarded for being faithful stewards.
Others will be punished because they did not faithfully await the master’s coming and did not use the resources given to them wisely.
Still others will be punished because they knew his master’s will and did not get ready.
Some will be punished less severely because they unknowingly did wrong.
Even those who have never heard of Christ have enough revelation through creation and conscience to know that there is a righteous God.
Jesus sums up the principle in the end of 12:48:
Luke 12:48 (ESV)
Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.
Those who have been given the most light have the most responsibility and will be judged the most severely.
It appears that there will be gradations of punishment after Jesus return and judgment.
Jesus clearly assumes His own authority to judge every person!
Each person needs to answer the question, “Do I have a ‘welfare mentality’ regarding spiritual things?”
Am I living for today only, with no regard for the Master’s return and the accounting that He will demand?
Am I foolishly putting it out of my mind by thinking, “I’ve got time”?
Having done everything that needed to be done for our salvation, Jesus calls us back into God’s service.
He tells us to be watchful and faithful as we wait for his coming.
Whether or not you came to know Christ at an early age, and whether or not you serve in the church full-time,
God has called you into his service and prepared you for that calling.
He has provided for your daily needs.
He has given you sound spiritual instruction through the preaching of the gospel, through good Christian literature,
and through the personal discipleship of godly men and women.
How much God has given you!
And how much he will require on the day when Jesus comes again!
Are you ready to give him that much, or not?