Return of the King

Introduction

There will be another Palm Sunday - &

We hope for this day, when our joy will be totally complete.

Today we celebrate the beginning of Holy Week: Palm Sunday. We’ve been going through Lent, preparing our souls, and we’ve got just one week left before Resurrection Sunday! And we’ll celebrate with souls made ready. That’s what we’re talking about today: Souls made ready.

Read with me:

English Standard Version Chapter 12

12 The next day rthe large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of spalm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, t“Hosanna! Blessed is uhe who comes in the name of the Lord, even vthe King of Israel!” 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,

15  w“Fear not, daughter of Zion;

behold, your king is coming,

sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

Notice what the crowd says about Jesus. They call him the king of Israel. Now, you and me might be tempted to say, “Silly Israelites, you’re wrong again! He wasn’t coming as king, he was coming as Savior.” But then Matthew gives us Scripture that describes the situation, Jesus riding on a donkey, that Jesus purposefully set up, and that scripture calls him king. See what Jesus did? He calls himself king by making sure this scripture is fulfilled as he rides into Jerusalem. So we’d be the silly ones. Jesus really did come as king. But he left again. says that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead. He’s the king with the throne, and the way he took his throne was by defeating death by rising from the grave. Only one person left their grave because they had the power to defeat death, and that was our Lord. So he’s king, don’t doubt it for a second.

But our king left. He’s not here. promises that the king would reign from Jerusalem, and Jesus isn’t in Jerusalem right now, and he’s not reigning over the earth. What’s he doing? He’s sending us to share the news about the king. This king is the rightful ruler of the earth, but we have snubbed him. We’ve dishonored him. And so this king said that when he’s coming back he’s going to execute everyone. Everyone has dishonored him without cause, and everyone must die for it. Think of ,

“He will render to each one according to his works: for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil...”

Or think of

But the king loved us so much that he came and he died so that if we would receive that king as honorable and lovely, and we would act towards him in a way that honors him and shows that we truly care for him we would be spared. If we would believe that he’s actually who he says that he is we could even be a part of his royal family! He would give us his own righteousness so that we would not have to perish and he would entrust us to share in ruling his vast kingdom!

So here we are, our king is gone, and if people don’t accept the king as lovely and incredible, if they don’t delight in the king and stop dishonoring the king they will be executed. And the king has entrusted us with the job of telling his subjects that good news! Because that king is coming back one day, and when he comes back his reception will sound like this:

English Standard Version Chapter 7

After this I looked, and behold, ba great multitude that no one could number, cfrom every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dclothed in white robes, with epalm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, f“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and gthe four living creatures, and they hfell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 isaying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Those who can’t say that from the bottom of their heart won’t be there. They will have been banished from the light of the king forever.

What Must We Do? -

We must endure to the end.

We must be ready at that time.

How do we get ready?

So how should we react to this news? What should we do? Very simply, we need to get ready, but how do we get ready? What specifically does the king say about getting ready? Before Jesus left did he give us any instructions on how to be when he returns? He sure did. Right where I hope you are in .

How to Get Ready -

He gives us three parables, and the parables have these two things in common:

They are about the kingdom of God and the returning of the king.

They are about success and failure on our part. About inside and outside, saved and unsaved. So these parables are going to give us positive and negative examples of being ready and what will work and what won’t.

So let’s get into it and figure out what Jesus is telling us about being ready.

The Unworthy Servant -

First we have this parable about a servant who is set over everything that the master has and then the master leaves. The servant’s job is to represent the master well while he is gone. But instead this servant starts to abuse those that he has been put over. And he is dishonorable. And Jesus says that the master will catch him in his improper conduct and violent dispose of him.

represent the master well

So here we has success and failure, ready and not ready, saved and unsaved. The one who is ready represents the master well. He feeds the servants and takes care of them. He dos his tasks honorably. He makes his master look good. He glorifies his master. He represents his master well by remembering that he could be home at any time.

be concerned with more than the present

But the one who is not ready doesn’t remember that the master could be home any moment. He lives just for this second and does what he wants. he abuses his power and dishonors his master by representing him poorly. This one his cut into pieces and thrown away.

So here, what do we learn about Jesus leaving and our being ready for his coming back?

He set us over something and expects to find it in good order when he returns.

We have responsibility! You have your own abilities and the power you’ve been given over others to do good. You’ve been given a family and friends and people you can influence. You need to do that well remembering the person that gave all of that to you could be back any second. Here we remember well to represent well.

The problem with the unworthy servant is that he makes his master appear harsh and unkind and the master is displeased by this.

The 10 Girls -

So in the first parable the way we be ready is by remembering so that we represent well. In this second parable there are 10 girls waiting for the bridegroom to come so that they can be at the wedding feast. The bridegroom gets delayed, and they all fall asleep. That’s not the problem here, because all of them are asleep, and all of them are surprised when he shows back up. But some of them weren’t ready, and they have to leave to try to get ready, and those ones don’t get in. Those ones are the picture of unreadiness in this parable.

What’s Jesus trying to say to us? There is will be second chance when he comes on the clouds. You need to be ready right then and you’ll enter into the joy of the wedding feast, but it’s not a choice you can reverse on command a the last second. The thing we learn about readiness here is that if we’re not ready right then there’s no going. Remember, the king is coming back, we don’t know when, to execute everyone. And no one gets to change their mind when he returns. So it’s crucial that we’re ready. He will close the door and then no one else is getting in.

Slaves and Money -

Now we know two things about being ready:

We remember the master could be back any moment so that we represent him well now.

We need to be ready when he comes back. That’s the moment of no return.

Jesus has one more parable for us, and it’s the most instructive I think. This one is about three servants and their master. Their master calls them together and gives them each a ton of money. A talent was 20 years wages! So this is an outrageous amount of money to be handing your servants without instruction. he divides the money based on ability (so talent is a euphemism for talent), in other words, he thinks that the guy who gets five talents will do better with it, and the guy who gets one might not do as great. But again, this is a ton of money! So he certainly trusts him plenty. Then he leaves, again, without instruction. The one with 100 years of someone’s paycheck goes and trades with it, would have been terrifying, but he ends up making another 100 years of money. This means that his master, while he could have previously hired 3 people for 30 years can now hire 7 people for 30 years. That’s way more help! The guy with two talents does the same, but the one given just one talent just buried it.

Now think, has he really done something wrong? Well, since the master immediately goes to settle accounts, he was looking for some money back, so to the master’s point he should have invested the money, but he also didn’t lose anything. To the servants point, the master gets what is his back. Why is he so upset?

Put yourself in his shoes, you’ve given someone 20 years of money for an indiscriminate amount of time. They likely didn’t deserve the opportunity, but you trusted them and gave them the opportunity of a lifetime. Imagine your boss handing you 20 years of your salary and saying he’ll be back later. Now you’re about to get it. The problem wasn’t that he didn’t do anything, the master did get back what was his, the problem is that the servant didn’t care anything about the master. The reason your boss would have fired you for doing the same thing is that it would have been clear that you don’t care about him or the company.

That’s what Jesus is saying! He distributed abilities differently and he distributes opportunities differently, but he expects that everyone, no matter their ability and opportunity will do something with it! Why does he expect this? Because as his servants we need to desire his good! We need to take time out of our lives to work hard attacking difficult problems for his sake!

How Much Attention does this Take? -

We need to give ourselves to this readiness and care for the master. We train like olympic athletes but our prize is way better!

Our Lord Has Already Conquered the World, He just Hasn’t Come Back Yet -

So we can be encouraged, and then work really really hard

Jesus said he’s coming back to execute everyone. Everyone deserves it and is getting it unless they receive him as the king and stop their rebellion. Anyone not ready will not be spared.