Parables: Ready Or Not Here I Come
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Introduction
Introduction
“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, 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. 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. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! 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. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Lets keep reading until verse 48 for the full context:
Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” 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? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. 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, 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. 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. 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.
Luke 12:
A faithful, sensible servant:
A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them.
Tyndale House Publishers. (2013). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.
Juxtapositions
Juxtapositions
So, in this passage we have a little bit of a juxtaposition. As in almost everyone of Jesus’ parables. You have a description or an image of what something should look like… and then you have an image or a description of what it shouldn’t be.
You have a series of items:
faithful servants vs non-faithful servants
sons that leave home and end up “getting it” vs sons that stay at home and never “get it” (and the “get it” there is the love and generosity of the father)
The religious who are ‘supposed to do good’ vs the "non-religous” mixed blooded individuals that are ‘mudbloods’ but who end up doing the good
You have those who have been forgive an enormous debt who should go forgive other debts but who end up following their own selfishness
You have those who have received blessings upon blessing and who should be confident in the Lord’s provision but instead they scheme to get more…
This parable is no different. We have servants of a master who should be vigilant and who should have the ‘house in order’ but you’ll have the ones that party, get drunk, mistreat others and live as if the master will never come home… and then you have the sensible servant who sees the responsibility they have been given and who manage the household well and who act as if the Master never left to begin with.
Scripture is a mirror. Which servant are you? Which servant am I?
What type of servant am I?
What type of servant am I?
Jesus pushes this idea of staying vigilant in this passage. We also see in other parts of Scripture where Jesus instructs his crew to stay watchful or to stay awake.
Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.
Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.”
Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
So, are we called to an existence of insomnia? Obviously not. So, what does it mean to stay vigilant and to stay awake?
Stay close to Jesus. Be in your Word. Maintain a life marked by prayer. Prioritize Gospel communities. Why?
Because the enemy is always on the prowl (cf. )
You are called to live as sent ones
You have a responsibility
Responsibility
Responsibility
You have a responsibility. In this passage Jesus instructs his disciples to “be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning.” Keep the engine running my friend.
Be dressed= be ready to roll
Keep the lamps on= Be on the watch
In other words: have the metaphorical ‘bags packed’ and leave the car running.
Huge disclaimer: This isn’t an excuse to circle the wagons or to sit in the corner rocking back and forth chanting ‘Jesus come quick.’ We see this far too often. We develop this phobia of the world where instead of doing or jobs and being ambassadors of Christ we stay in our comfort zones and wait for the dinner bell. We become the servants who dig a hole and hide our denarius instead of investing it and expecting a return on our labors for the Kingdom. Be bold. Be upright.
Saint Luke’s Gospel The Need for Vigilance; The Parable of the Steward (12:35–48)
God will ask everyone to render an account of his doings: everyone has a mission to fulfil in this life and he has to account for it before the judgment seat of God and be judged on what he has produced, be it much or little.
I want to take a few minutes and read you all something. Many of you are probably familiar with the pastor John Piper. Many of you are also familiar with his famous “Don’t Waste Your Life” sermon/book/ etc. I want to read this to you all because it’s important. He spoke these words back in May 20, 2000 and I’ve found myself going back to this message at key moments in my walk with the Lord:
John Piper Excerpt:
You don’t have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by a few great things.
If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on for centuries and into eternity, you don’t have to have a high IQ or a high EQ. You don’t have to have good looks or riches. You don’t have to come from a fine family or a fine school. You just have to know a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things, and be set on fire by them.
Piper: “Not everybody wants their life to make a lasting difference — you just want to be liked. That’s a tragedy.”TweetShare on Facebook
But I know that not everybody in this crowd wants their life to make a difference. There are hundreds of you — you don’t care whether you make a lasting difference for something great, you just want people to like you. If people would just like you, you’d be satisfied. Or if you could just have a good job with a good wife and a couple good kids and a nice car and long weekends and a few good friends, a fun retirement, and quick and easy death and no hell — if you could have that, you’d be satisfied even without God.
That is a tragedy in the making.
Three weeks ago, we got word at our church that Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards had both been killed in Cameroon. Ruby was over eighty. Single all her life, she poured it out for one great thing: to make Jesus Christ known among the unreached, the poor, and the sick. Laura was a widow, a medical doctor, pushing eighty years old, and serving at Ruby’s side in Cameroon.
The brakes give way, over the cliff they go, and they’re gone — killed instantly.
And I asked my people: was that a tragedy? Two lives, driven by one great vision, spent in unheralded service to the perishing poor for the glory of Jesus Christ — two decades after almost all their American counterparts have retired to throw their lives away on trifles in Florida or New Mexico. No. That is not a tragedy. That is a glory.
“To make a difference in the world, you just have to know a few great, unchanging, simple, glorious things, and be set on fire by them.”TweetShare on Facebook
I tell you what a tragedy is. I’ll read to you from Reader’s Digest what a tragedy is. “Bob and Penny . . . took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their thirty foot trawler, playing softball and collecting shells.”
That’s a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. And I get forty minutes to plead with you: don’t buy it. With all my heart I plead with you: don’t buy that dream. The American Dream: a nice house, a nice car, a nice job, a nice family, a nice retirement, collecting shells as the last chapter before you stand before the Creator of the universe to give an account of what you did: “Here it is Lord — my shell collection! And I’ve got a nice swing, and look at my boat!”
Don’t waste your life; don’t waste it.
Reward
Reward
I have a tendency to end on the ‘punch you in the mouth’ moments. But I want to end on a reminder: I want to remind us of the fact that we will receive a reward for our faithfulness. All of this talk in Scripture of the glory to come…the mansions, the crowns, etc. They won’t matter when we get to eternity. We will cast everything down at the glorious feet of our savior. These rough seasons and spiritual warfare will seem so trivial in eternity. You want to be ‘better’ on this planet? You want to be faithful? You want to be a better witness/friend/spouse/ parent? Start becoming more eternally-minded.
When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.
We have been given much and we have been entrusted with much my friends. Let us live lives that are for his glory. Let us cloth ourselves and get our lamps ready. Not to flee this world but to better manage the household that the Lord has entrusted to each of us.
Let’s pray.