Waiting On His Return

Waiting for His Return

Now remember, Jesus started teaching at the beginning of verse 12. This is one long discourse that runs to chapter 13:9. And He is speaking to disciples.

This message is a call to them to embrace Him as Messiah. And it has elements that are absolutely important. If you are going to come into the Kingdom, if you are going to acknowledge the truth, if you're going to see Me as Messiah:

· First of all, verse 1, you must abandon the influence of the Pharisees. If you're going to come to the truth, you've got to shake the influence of false teaching. You've got to leave the damning influence of false religion behind you. You've got to come out of whatever false system you're in.

· Secondly, He says, you have to stop fearing men and being intimated by men and you have to start fearing God who has the authority to throw you into hell, verses 4 and 5. You then have to confess Jesus Christ as Lord before men...you then, verses 8 and 9, have to trust in the Holy Spirit, verses 10 to 12.

· You then have to avoid the love of money and become rich toward God, verses 15 through 21.

· You then must abandon the anxiety and the worry and the fear that comes from being preoccupied with this world so that you can seek the Kingdom, verse 31.

To put it another way, Jesus says you want to come to Me, you want to come into the Kingdom, false religion, fear of man, love of money, preoccupation with the world has to be set aside.

Those are the kinds of things that prevent the sinner from coming to salvation. And just to motivate you, I'm coming back and you don't know when.

You can't be indifferent toward the future. You can't have lethargy toward the future. You've got to be ready for the future.

And the future that He's talking about is His return in glory. He was there, He had come, but they knew that this was not the glorious coming of Messiah.

As the disciples said to Him in , “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

Jesus is saying you...you have to live realizing that the end is near...it can happen at any time. You want to be in My Kingdom,

· You have to have a heavenly perspective,

· You've got to be more concerned about the fear of God than the fear of man.

· You have to confess Christ, trust in the Holy Spirit,

· You have to be rich toward God,

· You have to seek His Kingdom and look for His coming.

Anticipation of the Second Coming is motivation.

Everything is not just going to go along the way it always has. There's going to be an invasion of the Lord Jesus Christ in final judgment. And the Bible describes it in the most horrific terms.

Now Jesus just cracks the door on this great doctrine of the Second Coming which has so much scripture written about it. And He says just two things that are foundational.

Go to verse 40. "The Son of Man is coming." That is an absolute fact. The Son of Man is coming.

Now if you were a Jew standing there that day, and you heard Him say you would think back to Daniel chapter 7.

They knew that Son of Man was a title; it was a title that belonged to the Messiah who was coming. "The Son of Man is coming," really is a reiteration of .

Daniel is having visions and in verse 13 he says, 13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, o coming with the clouds of heaven.

He is reiterating the promise of that one day a Son of Man is coming.

He will come with a Kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him, His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away and His Kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

This is the reason Jesus wasn’t accepted by many in this day. They expected the Messiah to come and set up his earthly reign. They expected a King to lead the people. But when they had a suffering savior they didn’t quite get it.

So he is basically saying look I came as a Lamb this time, but I will come as the Lion next time.

This is a great Messianic prophecy that all the Jews knew.

They knew then “Son of Man” as a title for Messiah.

Jesus referred to Himself constantly as “Son of Man”, He is drilling in the point that He is the Messiah.

And here then is the reminder, you better be ready for the Son of Man is coming in an hour when you don't expect it.

This is a powerful motivation.

Many people get a little squirmy if you try to use the end times as spiritual motivation, but listen in the Bible time and time again it is motivation!

.,

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

You better respond. You better deny yourself, take up your cross, follow Me. You better do it now because the Son of Man is going to come and He will repay every man according to his deeds.

When He comes there will be the righteous blessed and there will be the wicked cursed. That was part of the gospel invitation. It couldn't be separated.

“26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

So, you see, the Lord Himself uses His Second Coming as a motivation for people to respond to the gospel.

“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Warning after warning after warning, He's coming, He's coming, He's coming,

Now go back to and the second thing that I want you to see, just briefly, is a certain event at an uncertain time. "The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect."

In the disciples said, "When shall these things be?" And Jesus' answer to them was very straightforward “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. None of your business.

I don't know when He's coming and neither does anybody else.

"Of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only."

There are signs, there are warnings that the day is nearing, but we do not know the day or the hour.

· When Harold Camping claims that Jesus will come on May 21, 2011; we know it is against Scripture.

· When Edgar C. Whisenant writes a book “88 reasons why the Rapture will be in 1988,” Christians are not to be caught off guard by it.

· When there is hoopla over December 21, 2012 being the end of the world because of the Mayan calendar, as Christians we know better.

A question that often comes up, ‘well even Paul thought Jesus was coming back soon and that was 2000 years ago…

This is addressed in 2 Peter and I want you to know this scripture so you can use it if you are questioned about Jesus’ timing.

Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Let us examine our text now:

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.”

Four Analogies of Readiness:

1. Dressed For Action!

Verse 35, first half of the verse, “Stay dressed for action”

Everybody wore dresses in those days, long robes.

If you were going to go into action, that was a very inconvenient way to be dressed and so what they would typically do would be take a belt and pull it around their waist and pull all of that loose material together. And very often they would take the corners of their robes, pull them up through so that they would shorten them up so that they could move with more ability and more speed.

This goes even back to the ~The angel of death was going to come and it was moving time. After four centuries in Egypt, they were going. Israel was going out of Egypt. God was going to deliver them. And you remember what He said? This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover. He's saying you've got to be ready to be going.

It's going to happen so fast, you don't know when it's going to happen, you better be ready to move.

2. Lamps

“keep your lamps burning”

This is not time to be wondering around in the darkness.

This is no time to be fumbling and stumbling.

Be alert, be aware, be watchful, have everything ready.

“Parable of 10 Virgins” Jewish Wedding Customs

“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. (They thought it would be ok, no preparations needed.) 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. (They thought they had more time~ no rush.) 6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ 7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ (They thought others could prepare for them) 9 ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ 10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. 11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ 12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ (It’s too late) 13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

, “The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”

He's saying that two thousand years ago. "Let us cast off the works of darkness. It's time to live godly lives." Jesus is coming, could come at any moment. You need to be alert, have the light on and not be in spiritual darkness.

3. Servants

Verse 36, "And be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master shall find on the alert when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will gird himself to serve and have them recline at the table and will come up and wait on them whether he comes in the second watch or even in the third and finds them so, blessed are those slaves."

That's just a very, very familiar picture to them.

And as I said earlier, a wedding feast was something that just sort of happened in a general sense at a general time.

They would send out wedding invitations and it would say, "In the month of April and we'll let you know when it starts." And by the way, they would last, as I said, up to seven days or even more, depending on how wealthy they were, how many people came and how much food there was available.

They weren't sure exactly when it would begin because all of the accumulation of the food and all that needed to be done was somewhat undetermined.

And so here's a perfect illustration. A master goes to a wedding. And he has to tell his people, "I...I don't know when I'll be back," because that's how weddings were. "So I'm just going to put you in charge of everything."

Now they could take it seriously or not so seriously.

And so he says here, It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns.

he's saying, "You need to be like that, you need to be like servants waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast which carries the idea of you don't know when it's going to be, so that he may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks.

You've just got to be there waiting so that when he arrives and puts one hand on that door, that door is open and you're ready to receive him and give a full account of everything.

Now they knew that a master would bless servants like that. “Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.”

Isn't that amazing? That's turning the tables.

When he comes home and he finds you ready, everything is ready, everything is as you know he would want it to be, you are prepared for his arrival.

He is going to be so thrilled and so thankful for that that he is going to say, "Folks, sit down, I'll cook dinner. I'll feed you. You are now my honored guests."

And by the way, verse 38, “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak.”

The Romans had divided the night military watch into four parts,

The Jews divided into three parts,

The point is this, the second or the third watch would be late.

In a Roman setting, it would be between nine and three A.M.

So you're talking about a very inconvenient time when people would normally be asleep and they had finished their day of work and he said,

"But you know what? If you're ready in that most unexpected time, if you're ready even if he comes in the third watch of the night, even if he comes in the dark when you should be asleep, and you're ready, He is going to light everything, He's going to set a table, He's going to sit you down and He's going to feed you."

This is a picture of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb at which the bridegroom Himself will serve His bride ().

In He taught very similar truth. V.44, “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when He comes. Truly I say to you, He'll put him in charge of all His possessions."

It's the same idea. When a master comes and you've been waiting and you're ready for His coming and you have fulfilled His will and done everything you know He wants you to do, He will put you in charge of all His possessions.

This is another way of saying, He not only will serve you, He not only will give the feast in your honor, He will give you His Kingdom.

But on the other hand, the evil slave who said, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, 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 is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.

Pretty self explanatory, the one who is not ready, the one who is living a vile, godless life, There is no reward for that.

Talking about the servants I believe is an analogy to our service, It’s an analogy to our fruit, which is mentioned so often in Scripture.

“Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

“You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”

You probably know we could stay here all night looking at what the Bible says about fruit in the life of the believer.

The Bible makes it clear that a genuine believer will in fact have fruit in his life.. and so the time is now to do the work of Christ!

4. Thief

verse 39, But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.

And so if a man knew when the thief was coming, he would make sure that no thief could do his dastardly work. A thief's stock-in-trade is surprise, when you don't expect it.

And this is the picture of the coming of the Lord. He's going to come like a thief, not in that he's going to do damage, not in that he's going to take something he's not entitled to, but it's the element of surprise that is carried in this metaphor.

Listen to verse 2, "You yourselves know full well the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night

, "The day of the Lord will come like a thief."

What’s the point… It’s pretty simple really: Jesus is coming back, when he does there is no do over, there is no second chances.

This is your life and what you do here will effect what you are for all of eternity. He’s coming quickly, He’s coming at an hour you don’t have any idea about. You must be ready, it is so important that you be ready.

Illustration: Ryan.