Luke 12.35-48

We know, as Paul tells us in , that God predestined [us] to be conformed to the image of his Son. God’s goal in all that he does for and through his children is to make them like Christ. Christ took the punishment we deserve on himself, and he gave us the perfect life he lived in our place—there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus ().

So when God teaches us something, his goal is never to condemn us, or to leave us feeling beaten down or helpless.

But historically, preachers have often mistakenly taken texts like today’s text and used them to beat their people down.

It’s a tricky line to walk, because when we read the Bible we find that God has several different ways of pushing us forward to becoming like Christ. Sometimes he gives us simple commandments; sometimes he encourages us; sometimes he gives us promises; and sometimes, he gives us warnings.

It’s sometimes hard to know what to do with the warnings if we are Christians—if the condemnation that we deserved fell on Jesus, and if he truly has no more wrath for us why would God need to warn us about anything? Why not just encourage us?

Well, God understands, like any good parent does, that depending on our present circumstances, at any given moment we may need one type of direction or another. Sometimes our kids need us to encourage them, to tell them that they really can do whatever it is we’ve told them to do. But other times, they need a stern and serious warning: they need us to say, “If you don’t do this, it’s going to go bad for you.”

The warnings in the Bible don’t negate the promises, and they don’t negate the encouragements. It’s another type of help for another type of moment.

We may not like that—of course, naturally we all prefer to be encouraged—but as we saw last week, God doesn’t always give us what we want, but he always gives us what we need.

Risky text—there is a way to preach this text that would be harsh and condemning, and would have you leaving here feeling completely hopeless.

We need to bear in mind that when God drives us to holiness, he has several ways of doing it. Commandments, encouragements, promises, warnings. This text is a warning. But it doesn't negate the promises, and it doesn't negate the encouragements.

So my prayer for this morning is that I might preach this text, and you might hear this text, in such a way that Jesus’s motivation behind these warnings are clear: he warns us because he loves us.

This is one reason why I was convinced that the Bible is the Word of God—it has the complexity of real things. It doesn't just give us warnings, or just give us commandments. It understands, like any parent does, that sometimes we need encouragement, and sometimes we need stern warnings. So it speaks to us as we are, to help us get where God wants us to be.

That being said, let’s just quickly remind ourselves of where we’ve been the last several weeks.

Jesus has been speaking to the crowds and to his disciples, warning them against hypocrisy and encouraging them to not be afraid to follow him, regardless of the cost. And last week, he encouraged his disciples to not be afraid of how they will provide for their needs, but to seek the kingdom above all things, and to trust that God will provide for their needs (v. 31) and that he will joyfully give them the kingdom if they seek it (v. 32). He encouraged us to make the kingdom of God our highest treasure, our greatest desire, and assured us that this is the only way to actually receive and keep the treasure we’ve been seeking (v. 32-34).

It’s a wonderful call, but it’s a deadly serious call. Starting in v. 35 (so with no interruption from what we saw last week), Jesus gives us a series of images to help us see how serious it is.

He gives us four images, in fact, in four parables; and his argument is a bit cyclical—the first and the third are actually very similar, while the second and fourth stand apart. So we’re going to take this a little out of order today, just to help us grasp it.

I’d like to start with v. 39-40, just so we can have a clear idea in our minds of what Jesus is talking about.

The first image is one that always surprised me, because essentially, Jesus compares himself to a thief.

V. 39:

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.

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

You can see why it’s surprising. In this analogy, we are the masters of the house, and Jesus is the thief coming to break in. He says, “In the same way that a thief breaks into a house unexpectedly, the Son of Man”—one of Jesus’s favorite titles for himself—“is coming when you’re least expecting him.”

He says that

Parable 3: Persevering in our mission

(“The Son of Man” was one of Jesus’s favorite titles for himself.) Obviously, he wasn’t saying that he was coming to steal stuff from us, but rather that thieves show up when you’re least expecting them.

I’ve often wondered why Jesus used this particular analogy; and after all these years, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. People are afraid of having their homes broken into. Even considering the idea fills us with a kind of unease, like we should be doing something to prevent it. This is what drives people to put security alarms in their homes: no one likes to be caught off guard like that.

THE GOAL OF OUR WORK: Pursuing our treasure in the kingdom of God by following his commands (cf. v. 47-48).

And that’s exactly the point. When Jesus comes, it will be unexpected; and that truth should make us somewhat uneasy, not for the sake of unease, but rather to drive us to do something about it.

Or let’s put it more positively: if you knew you had guests coming for dinner, and you knew they were coming at 8:00, you’d want to start getting ready at, say, 6:00—time enough to clean the house and start cooking the meal. But what if the guests show up, unexpectedly, at 8:00 in the morning? You answer the door in your pajamas, bedhead on full display, breath so bad you can actually see it coming out of your mouth. You’d be caught off guard, because there’s no way you could have known they’d show up twelve hours earlier than you thought they would.

Jesus says, I am coming, and it’s going to happen when you least expect it.

Now, we need to take a minute to clarify what he means when he says he is “coming.” Isn’t he already there?

REDO:

Recap last few weeks

Fold theology lesson into v. 40

Maybe put that point at the beginning?

Or, say you’re the one giving the presentation. You know you have three hours of time to fill, and that seems like a lot of time to fill. Then you give the presentation, and the time goes by so fast, you’re caught off guard when you have to stop.

This last example is, I think, a good analogy of what it feels like to be young.

I don’t feel like a particularly old guy. I have very vivid memories of my time in high school, and it doesn’t seem like that long ago. But this summer, I received an invitation to my twenty-year high school reunion, coming up next spring. It’s when you say things like that—“I graduated from high school twenty years ago”—that you realize just how much time has gone by, and just how old you actually are.

We’ve all heard the expressions—Where did the years go? It seems like just yesterday I was a teenager. Time flies… And so on. These are, of course, clichés, but they’re clichés for a reason. And yet somehow, young people very seldom actually believe the clichés will be true for them.

We’ve all know how time seems pliable.

None of us actually believe in the urgency of time, on the large scale of things. We understand it on the small scale—when we’re late for a meeting, or when you’re wife’s in labor and you’re on your way to the hospital—but when we think about the trajectory of our lives, what we’ll be able to say of our lives when we’re on our deathbeds, we always seem to think we have all the time in the world.

In today’s text, Jesus tells us in a very particular way that that’s just not the case. We take it for granted that tomorrow we’ll wake up to the same lives we’re living today, and Jesus says that we shouldn’t.

But anyone over thirty-five or so will tell you that the time it took to get to thirty-five (or forty, or fifty) went by so quickly, we don’t know where all the years went.

In this text (), Jesus presents us with four separate images which are all related. And there is one overarching message to these four images, and this message all has to do with the same thing: the imminent return of Christ.

So we need to do some work. I don’t often do this, but we’re going to do a mini theology lesson before we get into the text, which will help us understand exactly what Jesus is talking about here.

In verse 40 of our text, Jesus says this:

…the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

“The Son of Man” was one of Jesus’s favorite titles for himself, and the disciples had surely figured that out by now. So Jesus says, “I’m coming at an hour you do not expect.”

To which they would have undoubtedly thought, But you’re already here… So…

Jesus said a lot of things that would have been confusing to the disciples at that time, but that they would understand later. At this point, Jesus saying he’s coming when they least expect it would probably have been confusing.

But what happens later on? (Spoiler alert!) Jesus died on the cross, he was buried, and three days later, he rose from the grave. He stayed with his disciples for about forty days. And then (we read in ):

9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Jesus is standing there with his disciples, resurrected—he’s not a ghost, he’s not a spirit, he’s physically there with them. He’s eaten with them, he’s touched them. He’s physically there. And as he’s standing there talking to them, he ascends into heaven, in his body.

It’s really important to emphasize that these things are not mere stories. They happened. There were thousands of eyewitnesses to his life and death, and over five hundred eyewitnesses to his resurrection. These eyewitnesses told Luke what they had seen. Hearing a story that even ten eyewitnesses attested to would make it pretty hard to disbelieve—the eyewitness testimony to Jesus’s life, death, resurrection and ascension was far more exhaustive than that.

These things happened. Which means that if we trust what the Bible says, what comes

So Jesus, in heaven right now, isn’t there as a spirit—he has a body. Still. Today. The same body that came out of that grave two thousand years ago.

Then we read in v. 10:

10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

That’s probably when the disciples went, “Oh, that’s what he meant when he said he’d come back!”

We see this teaching all over the New Testament.

Paul tells us in :

16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.

John tells us in :

7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.

So here’s the point. One day, Jesus Christ is coming back. He’s going to come back in the same way he left—in his body, physically present on this earth, for all to see.

And his return isn’t going to be a private affair—it’s going to make massive waves. Every human being alive will be aware that he’s returned. Every eye will see him. All nations and tribes and peoples of the earth will wail on account of him. It’s going to be a spectacular event.

We don’t have time to go into all the various possibilities of what this might look like—there are several different schools of eschatology which come to different conclusions about exactly how this is going to play itself out. And we don’t really need to go into all of that, at this point, because all Christians for whom the Bible is the final authority, even if they disagree on the details, they all agree on the end result.

The end result of Christ’s return will be judgment for those who have rejected him, and eternal life for those who have faith in him. Those who have rejected him will be eternally separated from God in a place of torment (a.k.a. hell), and those who have faith in him will live with him forever in the new heavens and the new earth, where there will be no more sin, no more pain, no more sorrow.

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No matter what their differences on the details, all Christians who take the Bible as their final authority agree that the final and ultimate result of Christ’s return will be the judgment of unbelievers and the final reward of believers, and that believers will live with Christ in a new heaven and a new earth for all eternity. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will reign and will be worshiped in a never-ending kingdom with no more sin or sorrow or suffering.

Grudem, W.A., 2004. Systematic theology: an introduction to biblical doctrine, Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House.

That moment—the moment of Christ’s return—will be quite literally earth-shattering. It will be a moment of unspeakable horror for those who persist in rejecting Christ, and it will be a moment of unspeakable joy for his followers.

And Jesus says that this moment—the moment of his return—will happen unexpectedly.

…the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

There are charlatans out there who claim to have discovered hidden signs in the Bible, or interpreted world events (sometimes even trying to use the Bible to do so), to be able to say when Christ will return. Let’s be clear: if Jesus is telling the truth (and he always tells the truth), then anyone who claims they know when Jesus will come back is either hopelessly deluded, or they are full-on lying to you.

But no one can say for sure whether or not these events have taken place, or how long they will last when they do. No one knows when Jesus will come back. Anyone who claims they know when Jesus will come back is either hopelessly deluded, or they are full-on lying to you.

No one knows when he’s coming back—or to put it another way, he could come back literally at any moment.

Jesus will return, and we won’t see it coming. In the same way that a thief comes unexpectedly, Jesus will return unexpectedly.

They’re lying. Anyone who claims they know when Jesus will come back is either hopelessly deluded, or they are full-on lying to you.

I’ve often wondered why Jesus used this particular analogy, in v. 39-40—why he likens himself to a thief breaking into a house. It’s not exactly a positive image! But after all these years, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.

People are afraid of having their homes broken into. Even considering the idea fills us with a kind of unease, with the feeling that we should be doing something to prevent it. This is what drives people to put security alarms in their homes: no one likes to be caught off guard like that.

No matter what the Bible says about the things that will happen before Christ’s return—tribulation, the gospel being proclaimed to the nations, celestial events, etc.—no one can say for sure whether or not these events have taken place, or how long they will last when they do. No one knows when Jesus will come back.

And that’s exactly the point. When Jesus comes, it will be unexpected; and that truth should make us somewhat uneasy, not for the sake of unease, but rather to drive us to conduct ourselves a certain way. Remember Home Alone? A kid who knows his house is going to be broken into does something about it. He doesn’t sit idly by.

So the question is, what is Jesus calling his disciples to do, in the light of that truth?

So all that being said, what does Jesus say?

Let’s go back to v. 35.

35 “Stay dressed for action...”

Now stop for a minute. This phrase—“stay dressed for action”—literally translated, says something like this: “Let your loins stay girded.” It’s an embarrassing image, but it’s perfect.

Men in Israel at the time of Christ wore long robes. These robes were not made for getting places in a hurry. So the men had a particular way of pulling up their robe, wrapping it around their upper thighs and tucking it into their belts, so that you could run fast, without tripping over your robe. This was called “girding up your loins”—your sensitive parts were protected and your legs were free to move.

So when Jesus says “stay dressed for action,” that’s what he means—be ready to move, all the time.

REMOVE IF TO LONG: [You parents will understand. You take your kids to the park when they’re little. Parents at the park with their young children are like coiled springs. The kids want to do things by themselves. So you let them, at least to a certain extent, but you’re just positive that at any moment, this kid is going to fall backwards on the swing, or trip on something, and you’re going to need to get in there fast.

That’s the attitude we’re called to have.

Be ready. Stay dressed for action.]

So to illustrate what he means, Jesus tells the disciples two parables which are very similar—one is positive and one is negative. The first (v. 35-38) is of servants in a house, who are expecting the imminent return of their master:

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!

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

One of the hardest commandments in all the Bible: Stay dressed for action. Keep your lamps burning. Stay awake.

All of these amount to the same thing: BE READY.

So many Christians can look back on their Christian lives, and point to the period of time in which they fell asleep. When they met Christ, they were on, all the time—every moment was a divine appointment; every conversation was an opportunity to learn from God or to speak about him; every choice was an opportunity to obey.

But then, after a month or a year or several years, they get used to it. They see that even after meeting Christ, routines settle in. They still go to bed every night and wake up every morning. They still go to work every day. Their conversations begin to look like most of their other conversations.

And self-sufficiency takes over. They stop feeling like they need God to provide for them at every moment, because they fall to the mistaken impression that whatever they’ve done well, they’re the ones who have done it. They fought temptation so many times in the past that they forget it was God who made that fight possible.

So they don’t pursue God with as much vigor; they don’t fight sin with as much zeal; they stop paying attention to the opportunities God gives them to grow in him.

They fall asleep.

Don’t go to sleep.

But Jesus says, “Don’t fall asleep. Stay awake. Stay alert. Sleep with your clothes on, and keep the lights on.” And notice, Jesus appeals to their desire here: he says that if he returns to find us awake, we will be so happy we did.

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.

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

Those Christians who stay awake, who stay dressed for action, enjoy an intimacy with God and growth in him most Christians never experience, and will enjoy him all the more for it when he returns.

That’s the positive image. The second parable is much more frightening, which is I think why Jesus precedes it by likening his return to the coming of a thief in v. 40:

Stay awake. Be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

V. 41:

41 Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?”

It seems like a weird question, but it does make sense. He doesn’t yet know the specifics of Christ’s return—will it be a kind of rallying call for the disciples, or will something bigger happen that includes everyone else?

what will wondering if Christ’s return only applies to the disciples, if they are the ones who are meant to be ready.

Jesus doesn’t directly answer his question, but he'll give us a clue to the answer a little later on.

V. 42:

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.

Now again, we have a similar encouragement to the one we just saw. A house manager was a servant who was tasked with taking care of the master’s house—the manager is responsible for making sure the house runs per the master’s requirements, that those in the home who need food, get food. And such a master is constantly aware that the master could be coming home at any minute, and if the master comes home and finds his servant doing what he was meant to do, that servant is “blessed”—literally, he is happy to be found doing what he’s supposed to be doing.

The whole of the Christian life is humble service. And this is why Jesus’s answer to Peter’s question is that this parable isn’t just for the disciples, but for everyone who serves Christ, in any capacity, large or great.

You don’t have to be a pastor to serve faithfully. For everyone who comes to know Christ, and who places their faith in him, their life becomes one of faithful and humble service to him.

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23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

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23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Paul says that we should work heartily for the Lord, whatever it is that we do, because we know that we will receive the inheritance as our reward. This is simply astonishing, because the “inheritance” he’s referring to is Christ’s inheritance for having fulfilled the law. All that Christ has—the glorious reward of his suffering—he shares with us.

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

What more incentive could we possibly need or want?

:

When we are faithful in serving Christ—whatever that service might be—we are happy, because that’s what we were created to do, and we’re receiving a reward infinitely beyond what we’d actually deserve for doing it.

23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

But there is a flip-side to this coin: Jesus gives a very solemn warning afterward, v. 45:

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

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.

If you read that, and you find it somewhat jarring, good. That’s what he’s going for.

So many Christians, throughout history and still today, have done exactly what he describes.

It doesn’t always seem as if Christ is coming back soon—so much time has passed already, even in our own lives, and Jesus hasn’t come back. So we begin to forget that his coming will be at a moment we didn’t expect it: we forget that he really could return at any moment.

So what happens?

Firstly, abuse happens. Christians set themselves up as the masters of the house. They set themselves up as the arbiters of salvation, and hold it over people’s heads until they give them what they want.

For example, the selling of indulgences. This was one of the main practices of the Catholic church which spurred on the Protestant Reformation. The church at that time taught a false doctrine about a place called purgatory—a place where you’d go after you die in order to “work off” the sin you committed in your life, which you hadn’t confessed. And mainly to finance St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the church began selling “indulgences”—basically, tickets to get out of purgatory early. The more you paid them, the more time they shaved off your sentence in purgatory.

This was abhorrent. It was abusive. It was absolutely unbiblical. And thankfully, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back for at least one German monk named Martin Luther.

This still happens today. American televangelists tell people that God has spoken to them, and if you give them a hundred dollars towards their private jet, you’ll receive ten times as much from God. In France, too—so-called “apostles” in fancy suits hold seminars in churches which draw huge crowds, claiming to be sent by God, and promising the people prosperity if they will invest in their ministry.

And it doesn’t have to be ministers. Christians who claim to have the gift of prophecy often claim to speak for God, and

Brothers and sisters, if these people actually believed that Jesus could come back at any moment, they wouldn’t dare act this way. They wouldn’t dare be caught taking advantage of the Master’s children.

Secondly, when we forget that Christ could return at any moment, we get lazy. We eat and drink and get drunk. We spend all of our time stuffing ourselves with entertainment, with frivolous things that may be fun, but which are of no eternal significance. We lose sight of what our treasure should be, and we replace it with a million counterfeit treasures.

You see, it’s not just a question of greed, or of what we want. It’s because we aren’t entirely convinced that Christ could return before I finish this sentence. If we really did believe that, how much of what we spend so much of our time doing wouldn’t just seem ridiculous, but downright frightening?

Think of it this way. Consider what you spend your time doing, and how you spend your time doing it. (You can do good things for the wrong reasons.) Now ask yourself, Would I be happy if I was in the middle of doing this when Christ came back? Would I be happy if Christ found me like this?

Of course, all of us sin. All of us sin every day. Jesus isn’t just talking about a moment, but an entire disposition of the heart. This servant says, “My master is delayed in coming,” and so allows himself to become something other than the faithful servant he was called to be.

And what is the result, if the servant pursues this course until the end? He proves that he was never actually serving Christ, but himself. Christians like this servant, who persist in rejecting their Master’s reign and will, prove that they were never faithful to begin with. And upon his return, the Master will put them in with those who have nothing to do with him: the judgment reserved for those who reject Christ—eternal separation from God—will fall on them, because they never really had any real faith in him to begin with. As Jesus will say in chapter 13, verses 26 to 27:

26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

I hope you see that Jesus is not suggesting those who have faith in him will be cast aside because of bad behavior. This is why the gospel is “good news”—there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus ().

God’s goal in all that he does for and through those who are in Christ is to make them like Christ. Christ took the punishment we deserve on himself, and he gave us the perfect life he lived in our place, in order that through faith in him, we might become like him. Sometimes, he’ll use encouragements and promises to drive us in this direction; other times, he’ll use warnings.

Warnings in the Bible—particularly in the New Testament—generally serve two purposes.

This is a sobering reality, brothers and sisters, because many Christians today, even if they won’t say it out loud, live out of an attitude of heart that says, “My master is delayed in coming.” They never consider the imminent return of Christ; they never imagine that today—before their next breath—they might be standing face to face with Jesus. They think they have all the time in the world to work their faith out in practice. And all the while, they’re unwittingly digging a hole for themselves that is getting deeper and deeper, never realizing they may well be in the process of proving they have no faith in Christ.

First of all, the warnings are for Christians. It’s sometimes hard to know what to do with these warnings if we are Christians—if the condemnation that we deserved fell on Jesus, and if he truly has no more wrath for us why would God need to warn us about anything? Why not just encourage us?

This is why the gospel is “good news”—Paul tells us in , that God predestined [us] to be conformed to the image of his Son. God’s goal in all that he does for and through his children is to make them like Christ. Christ took the punishment we deserve on himself, and he gave us the perfect life he lived in our place—there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus ().

Well, God understands, like any good parent does, that depending on our present circumstances, at any given moment we may need one type of direction or another. Sometimes our kids need us to encourage them, to tell them that they really can do whatever it is we’ve told them to do. But other times, they need a stern and serious warning: they need us to say, “If you don’t do this, it’s going to go bad for you.”

It’s sobering. But Jesus is going to add one last image that, while ramming the point home even more, reminds us of God’s justice in all of these matters.

The warnings in the Bible don’t negate the promises, and they don’t negate the encouragements. It’s another type of help for another type of moment.

So Jesus doesn’t warn us to make us afraid of losing our salvation. He’s warns us to force us to examine our faith, to help us identify sin in ourselves, and root it out, and kill it.

The second use of warnings is not for Christians, but for unbelievers.

CHANGE: [And we can clearly see that it is this loving help that motivates Jesus’s warning in his final parable, which contains both a profound encouragement for us, and a sobering reminder for us.]

Why? Because if we knew the exact date and time, we sinful human beings would procrastinate until the latest possible moment, and then get ready in a hurry. But Jesus wants us to be ready all the time. Whether we have a thousand years or five minutes, his call to us is always the same: be ready.

v. 47:

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.

[Let’s start with the warning first. It’s different from the one we just saw, in] v. 45-46: there, he speaks of a servant who completely shirks his responsibility and doesn’t actually serve Christ, but himself. He’s talking about someone who is not a Christian, who has no faith in Christ, but who is pretending to be a Christian for selfish gain.

Anon, 2016. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

It’s not the same thing here. He’s not just talking about abuse, about sinful acts that we do. He’s talking about anyone who knows what God’s will is, who knows what God calls them to do, and who don’t.

The second use of warning

In other words: God will never punish someone for something they didn’t know. No one will be punished for not obeying a revelation they never had.

Now, Paul tells us in that all human beings, without exception, have access to the knowledge of God, simply through the world that he has created; so everyone, Paul says, is without excuse. Even that small knowledge is enough to deserve punishment from him if we reject it.

However, Jesus makes it clear that God’s punishment on unbelievers is not uniform—he will not mete out the same punishment for everyone. Jesus says that the punishment for rejecting God will be fair, because it will be based on what every person knows: those who know God’s will but refuse it will receive “a severe beating,” but those who didn’t know, while still guilty, will receive “a light beating.”

The Bible never says what the difference between a “severe” beating and a “light” beating will look like. Jesus’s point here is that the judgment of God on every human being will be in accordance with what they know.

The good news of the gospel, that Christ lived our life and died our death, in order to reconcile us to God. Because of what Christ did for us, God calls us all now to turn away from these sins, and to accept the free gift of his grace, and to eagerly wait for Christ’s return, when we will be welcomed into eternal life with him.

If you’ve never heard the gospel, you will be judged according to God’s revelation in creation; if you have heard the gospel, you will be judged according to how you respond to the gospel.

I hope you understand the massive stakes here. Please don’t allow yourselves to hear these words without seriously consideing that your reaction will determine your eternity. This is not merely an intellectual or a philosophical exercize. This is a matter of eternal significance for you—a matter of great and wonderful promises for those who respond to these warnings by running to Christ for salvation, and of great and terrible consequences for those who persist in rejecting him.

The good news of the gospel, that Christ lived our life and died our death, in order to reconcile us to God. Because of what Christ did for us, God calls us all now to turn away from these sins, and to accept the free gift of his grace, and to eagerly wait for Christ’s return, when we will be welcomed into eternal life with him.

But whether you are a Christian or not, if you are here this morning, then you have heard the gospel. We sung about it before I got up here; we spoke about it during the worship time; and just now, you heard it again. The good news of the gospel is the greatest gift he has given humanity outside of his Son, because it is through the gospel that we learn what he gave us when he gave us Jesus.

Here’s the point: you have been given much. And everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required. So don’t reject it.

So let me be clear—if you have heard the gospel, and you persist in rejecting the gospel, you are in the first category. You know the Master’s will, but you are not getting ready or acting according to his will; so unless you repent, your punishment will be severe. Because you know better. He’s told you his will.

Here’s the point: you have been given much. And everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required.

But even in the midst of what seems like a massive heap of awful news, if this is you, and you have rejected the gospel up to this point, there is still good news here.

And the good news is this: as of this moment, Jesus Christ still hasn’t returned. So it’s not too late.

God gives warnings in the Bible for two main reasons, often at the same time. He gives warnings, first of all, so that no one who has read his Word can stand before him and say, “I didn’t know.” God gives us warnings to be as fair with us as he can be.

But he also gives us warnings for the same reason any loving parents gives warnings to his children. “Don’t touch a pot you see on a stove. Don’t put your fingers in an electric socket. Don’t eat that thing you found on the ground.” How much of our time is spent telling our kids the bad things will happen if they do stupid things? Why do we keep doing it?

Because we love them. Because we know that although encouragement and promises are good and necessary, sometimes they need warnings too.

So here’s the good news: as of this moment, Jesus Christ still hasn’t returned.

So it’s not too late.

In these warnings, Jesus isn’t just assuring us that God’s judgment will be fair: he is calling unbelievers to change. To repent. To not assume they have all their lives to figure these things out. To not wait until the Master comes home before deciding to trust him, because then it will be too late.

I hope you understand the massive stakes here. This is not merely an intellectual or a philosophical exercize. This is a matter of eternal significance for you—a matter of great and wonderful promises for those who respond to these warnings by running to Christ for salvation, and of great and terrible consequences for those who persist in rejecting him.

If you know the gospel, if you’ve heard what Christ did for you, then accept what he did for you. Come to him in faith, and begin your life as the servant who isn’t condemned, but blessed because at Christ’s return, he found you doing what he created you to do.

And these warnings are for us too, Christians. I hope you see that Jesus is not suggesting those who have faith in him will be cast aside because of bad behavior. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus ().

God’s goal in all that he does for and through those who are in Christ is to make them like Christ. Christ took the punishment we deserve on himself, and he gave us the perfect life he lived in our place, in order that through faith in him, we might become like him. And like the loving Father he is, he warns us of danger to protect us from danger; he uses these loving warnings to shape us into the image of Christ.

So don’t be afraid of what Jesus says here: rather, get to work. Let the knowledge that Jesus will return when we do not expect it, that he could return at any moment, stir you to action.