Each Servant Has Work To Do
Notes
Transcript
You may have noticed that Stanley read from the book of Mark earlier, and I said last week that we were taking a break from our verse-by-verse study of Mark . Well, just when you thought you were done, I’m pulling you back in. No, in all seriousness, we are in a different series, it just so happened that this passage from Mark fits right into the theme of this new series, Called to Serve. And my whole point in doing this series is to teach us that as believers we are all “called to serve”. We are to be servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we need to understand that we have limited time to complete the work that He has given us to do.
I said something last week that seems to strike a chord with people. I said that we need to find another gear. And I mean that. It is time for us to develop a sense of urgency around our service to the Lord Jesus Christ. For far too long we, as a part of the body of Christ ,have been content to coast or stay in the same gear that we’ve operated in for years. We need to change that. Our service to the King can’t be about staying in our comfort zone, and doing things the way we’ve always done them. It time for us as a body of believers to lean in now. It’s time for us to press forward and accelerate. It is time for us to stop settling for yesterday’s pace and find another gear.
“Let me read a couple of verses from the book of Acts. This scene unfolds during one of Paul’s missionary journeys, when he and his companions arrive in Thessalonica. As was his custom, Paul begins in the synagogue, reasoning with the Jews from the Scriptures. His message, however, stirs up a massive uproar. Some are persuaded, but others harden their hearts. Those who refused to believe form a mob, determined to silence the gospel. In their rage, they storm the city and go searching for Paul and Silas. Well, they come to the house of a man named Jason—apparently where the missionaries were staying—hoping to drag them out before the crowd.
Let’s pick up reading right here.
5 But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.
Notice how they describe them, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too”.
Paul’s ministry was so impactful that they were known as “those who have turned the world upside down”. Man, that is what we need to strive for. We need to be known as the church that is turning Paulding county upside down. And to start impacting the world around us like this, we need to find another gear. We need to develop a sense of urgency and passion.
“I came across an article this week on church growth, and the author made a striking point: the number one way to grow a church is to be more passionate. He said, ‘It’s shocking how little passion church leaders exude. You don’t need a polished church to reach the next generation nearly as much as you need a church that is passionate about your mission. Because when it comes to teaching the next generation, passion beats polish every time.’
That hit me hard. Passion is contagious. Passion is what convinces people that the mission matters. Without it, even the most polished programs fall flat.
Legacy I don’t want us to ever be accused of lacking passion. We should be on fire to serve the Lord. We have the most amazing mission on planet Earth. We get to proclaim Jesus and His gift of eternal life. We get to preach about the coming King who will right every wrong, dry up every tear and establish an eternal kingdom that will be beyond anything our minds could ever dream up. This is a mission that demands urgency, passion, and joy. Let us be a church that burns with a holy fire , because the world will never be changed by a lukewarm witness.
We’ve got to find another gear and get passionate about our mission. We need to wake up to the reality that our Lord could return at any moment, and we need to devote ourselves to the work the Master has entrusted to us. And this is exactly what Jesus is going to teach His disciples in our passage of Scripture this morning.
Jesus uses a parable to teach His disciples that He was going away for a time, and in His absence their mission was to carry out the work He had left for them. In the parable, the Master of the house departs for a far country, leaving His servants in charge. Their responsibility was to care for His household faithfully, but also to remain watchful. They were commanded to always be ready for His return. In other words, they were to live with the constant expectation that the Master could come back at any moment.
That is what I want us to grab on to this morning.
Each Servant Has Work To Do
Each Servant Has Work To Do
As believers all of us are called to be servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. We all have work to complete while our King is away, and we should live our lives watching and waiting for the Master of the house to return.
Let’s put it this way. We are servants of a King who is currently away, but we expect Him back at any moment.
Ok, I think we are ready to dig into our text for this morning. But before we do let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
32 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
As we get rolling here the first thing we need to figure out is, what day Jesus is talking about? He says, “But of that day and hour no one knows”. What day is the Lord referring to here? He is referring to the day He is going to return and rapture the church. The next prophetic event in God’s timeline is the rapture of the Church. The Lord is going to descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and the trumpet of God and the church is going to be caught up into the clouds and be with the Lord. And Paul says, from that time onwards, we shall always be with the Lord.
So we, as the church, are commanded to live our lives expecting this event to happen at any time. We are watching and waiting for the Lord’s return. This exactly what the Lord says in the next verse. He says,
33 Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.
Notice that the Lord gives three commands here, take heed, watch, and pray. Let’s talk about the first two take heed and watch. Some of the more modern translations translate this as, ‘Be on guard! Stay awake!’ . I like this translation. It stays true to the meaning of the Greek words, and it communicates the urgency behind the Lord’s commands. The point is that believers must remain spiritually alert. We cannot afford to drift into complacency or spiritual sleep. We need to be attentive to the times, urgent in how we serve, and awake to the reality that Christ could return at any moment.”
As believers in the Church age we must live our lives expecting the return of the Lord at any moment. This is the entire point of the Lord’s parable in the next verse.
34 It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch.
Obviously, the man going to a far country is the Lord Jesus Christ. He has left this earth for the time being, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven. And notice what this verse says next, “who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work.
Now we need to understand that is was very common during this time period for wealthy men to travel and leave their homes in the hands of their servants. Each servant had a specific responsibility to carry out during the master’s absence. Their task was to do exactly what the master commanded so that, upon his return, he would find everything in order as he expected. In this parable, the disciples are clearly the servants. They do not yet fully grasp that Jesus will be leaving them, but He is preparing them for the reality that His mission must continue in His absence.”
And this same parable speaks directly to us as well. In fact, at the end of this passage listen to what Jesus says,
37 And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”
I can’t overstate the importance to this verse. This verse, let’s us know that what He was teaching HIs disciples here applies to believers of all ages. He says, “what I say to you (my disciples), I say to all… We are the all in this verse. So, this same message that Jesus gave to His original disciples can be directly applied to our service and how we approach our Christian lives.
34 It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch.
Here is the big takeaway. We, just like the disciples are commanded to continue the Lord’s work in His absence. We are to manage the Lord’s house faithfully while the King is away. We are His servants and He has entrusted, “to each his work”. You see, very believer has a role, every believer has a responsibility, and every believer has a mission to carry out until the Master returns.”
Now, let’s zero in on the word servant for a moment.
Last week during our deacon ordination service we learned that the word deacon is actually formed from the Greek word, diakonos, which simply means servant. Well, in today’s passage we see a different Greek word that gets translated servant.
δοῦλος (doulos) - slave
Legacy, the Bible teaches us that we were bought with a price and we are not our own. Our flesh doesn’t want to hear that, because deep down we want to call the shots. But the truth is, we belong to the Lord now. He is our Master, and we are His servants. At first, that may sound negative to our ears—after all, no one wants to be a slave to anyone. Yet Scripture uses the word doulos—a slave of Christ—to describe our relationship to Him. And here’s the paradox: being a slave of Jesus Christ is actually the most liberating experience you will ever know.
Now I realize you may be thinking, ‘Wait a minute, William, that doesn’t make sense. How can being a slave be freeing?’ But here’s the answer: every one of us serves something. We either serve sin, which leads to death, or we serve Christ, which leads to life. To be bound to Jesus is to be freed from the chains of sin, freed from guilt, freed from fear, freed from condemnation. The Lord Himself tells us, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest...My yoke is easy, My burden is light.”
“You see, in this life you will serve something—and whatever you serve will become your master. There’s no way around it. You will either be a slave to the flesh and to sin, or you will be a slave to God and to righteousness. And believe me when I tell you, I’ve tried the other way. I lived for myself—for adventure, for pleasure, for all the things this world insists we need—and I ended up a miserable, empty slave with no hope. Don’t fall into that trap. Take the Lord’s yoke upon you and learn from Him. He is gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your soul. He is the only Master worth having, because His service is perfect freedom.”
34 It is like a man going to a far country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch.
“So, we have two extremely important duties as servants of the Master of the house. First, we must faithfully complete the work the Lord has given us to do—caring for His house and building up the body of Christ. Every one of us has a role to play in strengthening and edifying His church. Second, we must remain watchful. One of the most transformational shifts you can make in your Christian life is to begin living each day with the constant awareness that the Lord could return at any moment. That perspective changes everything—it fuels urgency, deepens faithfulness, and keeps our hearts fixed on eternity.
Watching for the Lord’s return is one of the most powerful ways to keep our spiritual focus. Yet, it is also one of the most neglected disciplines in Christianity today. We tend to think that we’ve got all the time in the world, and that we can straighten up our act tomorrow, but that is an unbiblical mindset. Our time is short, and we must get busy.
Let’s move on to verse 35.
35 Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning—
Once again, the Lord commands His disciples to watch—and He explains why it is so important. He says, ‘because you do not know when the master of the house is coming.’ The point is simple: since we do not know the exact moment of His return, we must always be watching. Our responsibility is to live in such a way that, whenever He comes, He finds us faithfully doing the work He has entrusted to us. Watchfulness is not about predicting the time—it’s about being ready at all times.
Now, the second part of this verse is fascinating. Jesus commands His disciples to watch because ‘you do not know when the master of the house is coming.’ Then He lists four possible times: ‘in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning.’ Notice that the Lord gives four options for His return. What’s interesting is that the Romans divided the night into four sections, known as the four watches of the night. The first watch began at 6 p.m., and the fourth watch ended around 6 a.m.
In other words, Jesus is saying His return could happen at any time, during any watch of the night. Now I believe that the night here is symbolic. Let me explain. Jesus is the light of the world, and while He is gone His followers continue to live in a world of darkness. So, this whole time that Jesus has been away is “the night”. And it will be during this present night—this current age of spiritual darkness—that the Lord will suddenly return.
The challenge for us as believers is to stay awake during the night—and that is not easy. At night, we naturally want to sleep, to rest, to let our guard down. It is far more difficult to remain alert and watchful in the middle of the night. Spiritually speaking, this world and its darkness are designed to lull us into sleep. In other words, the world is designed to put us into a moral and spiritual slumber. But Jesus calls us to resist that pull. He calls us to stay awake, to remain spiritually alert, and to live every moment with the expectation of His return.
Listen to the warning Paul gives to the Thessalonian church.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.
Jesus is commanding us to stay spiritually alert during this present night. As Paul explains, the world is full of people who are in a spiritual sleep and a moral stupor. They live in darkness, unaware of the coming day. But we, as servants of the Lord, are not called to live this way. Jesus commands us to be busy serving and watching for His return at any moment. We cannot afford to drift into spiritual sleep or conduct ourselves like the rest of the world. The message for believers is clear: stay awake, stay sober, and stay faithful until the Master comes.”
Here is another take away for us.
The world wants to rock us to sleep, but Christ calls us to stay awake.
The world wants to rock us to sleep, but Christ calls us to stay awake.
You see, spiritual sleep is the enemy of spiritual readiness, and we are commanded to be ready.
So, back to verse 35.
35 Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning—
We do not know when the Lord’s return is going to interrupt this “night” in which we currently live. We must fight the temptation to go to sleep because Jesus could return at any moment, and we don’t want Him to return to find us sleeping. Which is exactly what the Lord says in the next verse.
36 lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. 37 And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”
We looked at verse 37 earlier, but let me drive the point home again. Jesus is teaching His disciples in this verse, but His words reach far beyond them. He says, ‘What I say to you, I say to all: Watch!’ The ‘all’ includes you, it includes me, it includes every believer who has lived since Christ ascended into heaven. Our lives must be laser-focused on one event—the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And while He is away, we must be working and we must be watching. Notice that Jesus concludes this passage with the command to ‘Watch!’ He uses this word three times in just six verses. That repetition is intentional—it is meant to press the urgency into our hearts.
Let me give you a definition for the Greek word that is translated watch three times in our text.
In other words, Jesus is not calling us to occasional awareness, but to a lifestyle of vigilance. Watchfulness is not a momentary act—it is a continual posture of the heart.
Legacy, the point of this whole message can get summed up this way. It is time to find another gear. It is time for us to break out of this rut that caused us to lose our sense of urgency. It is time for us as a body of believers to awaken out of our slumber, and and get busy. We have an urgent mission, with limited time, so let’s start living our lives with the constant expectation that Christ return could happen at any moment.
And this is not my original idea. This attitude is commanded throughout the NT. Listen to what Paul says in Romans chapter 13.
11 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
Paul says it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The salvation Paul is talking about here is our glorification. Let me tell you what that means. When Christ returns we will receive our glorified bodies, and we will no longer have to deal with sin. That is the final stage of salvation. This is when we will be delivered from the presence of sin altogether. Amen and amen. And Paul says, this day is closer for us than when we first believed becuase each day that passes bring us closer to the event. So, Paul says it is time to wake up. Then in verse 12 He says,
12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
Paul uses the same imagery as the Lord Himself. This night is far spend. This age of spiritual darkness is almost over. Paul says, the day is at hand. When Paul was writing this letter He believed the return of the Lord could happen at any moment. And if Paul lives that way, how much more so should we live that way. Paul, was urgent about HIs mission. Let us be urgent about our mission. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
Legacy, I want this work to operate the why the Lord and the Apostle Paul commanded us to live, with a sense of urgency, constantly watching for the return of the Lord. The night is far spend, the Lord’s return is at hand. So let’s find another gear. Amen. Let’s pray.
