The Church Prepares For Her King

Be Ready

Don’t let Jesus find you naked.

Luke 12:35 ESV

“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning,

My friend John Koessler captured the essence of uncertainty when he writes about a season in his life when as a brand new Christian he read passages like Luke 12:35 and interpreted it as a call to never go naked. He was afraid to take a shower, lest Jesus should show up at that moment and find him in a compromising state.

I’m pretty sure that Jesus wasn’t talking about actual fabric covering our actual skin. Or to put it another way, none of these texts actually mean "don’t ever go naked in the shower.”

No.

They are all building on what I’m going to jokingly refer to as the “clothingology” of scripture and the culture that equates (in a similar manner to ourselves) being dressed, with being ready.

If I were to say to a group of history buffs, “It’s time to cross the Delaware” your minds might remember General George Washington and the Continental Army's famous crossing of the Delaware River on December 25-26, 1776. ... Washington crossed the Delaware River so that his army could attack an isolated garrison of Hessian troops located at Trenton, New Jersey.

If I were talking about something hard that needed done and used that phrase, “Time to cross the Delaware”, you would probably properly interpret that same image into a call to personal action to do the hard thing without delay. It’s unlikely you would think it was time to Drive to the Delware river and cross over it.

I would suggest when Jesus says “Stay dressed for action” he has in mind a very specific event in history as he, a Jew, speaks to the disciples, all Jews, using an image that would be directly related to Jewish History - a history they were all abundantly familiar with.

In Exodus 12 as God instructs Moses how to properly observe the Passover celebration he tells them very specifically how old of a lamb to use, how to slaughter it, how to prepare it, how to eat it, and then he tells them to eat it in readiness...

Exodus 12:11 ESV

In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.

For centuries, the Jews were told to eat the passover in that state of readiness.

On the night of the passover, it was necessary for them to do this, because immediately after they ate the large feast - the angel passed through Egypt slaughtering the firstborn; and the Jews were promptly expelled from the land. Fortunately for them, they were dressed and ready.

Throughout the Old Testament you will periodically come across the mandate to “gird up your loins”, which itself was a mandate to be ready for action. For example in 1 Kings 18:46 we read that … “And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.” (1 Kings 18:46, ESV).

So Jesus is telling the disciples to be ready. So what does that readiness mean?

Dressed in His Righteousness Alone

We sang “The Solid Rock” this morning, which is book-ended with the matching phrases, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. Then it concludes with that marvelous phrase: “Dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.”

From opening verse to conclusion, the song declares that salvation is exclusively through the work of Jesus. In the words often attributed to Jonathan Edwards:

“You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.”

― Jonathan Edwards

The same Isaiah who recorded

Isaiah 64:6 ESV

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

also recorded

Isaiah 61:10 ESV

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

We know the gospel of grace: God saves “...us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:5).

And that salvation also comes to us in “clothingology”.

Galatians 3:27 ESV

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

So we come to God through his mercy, clothed in his righteousness alone, but after that comes our participation in holiness.

Once Christ redeems you, then your labors done in faith are purified by the blood of Christ - to become acceptable offerings of worship to God.

Dressed in Our Righteous Deeds

Note then, that there is a DIFFERENCE between conversion and sanctification. Or to put it another way there is a difference between how a soul leaves the kingdom of darkness and becomes a citizen of the kingdom of light, and how that citizen then lives.

From the moment of conversion onward - God pours out his Holy Spirit into your lives and enables you to start living for Him.

Jesus does not want a church that looks like the world. This does not refer to any building at any time, but to the gathered collection of believers. As I’ve observed many times before: the church is not a location but a people. That does not however in any means indicate that we should not GO to church - because going to church means gathering with God’s people to praise and worship Him. Remember that while they met in one another’s homes, the early church clearly “devoted themselves to the apostles teaching” along with celebration of communion together and sharing of time together in fellowship.

That brings us to the point again, Jesus does not want a church that looks, acts, talks, and spends it’s time the way the rest of the world who does not know him does. Jesus wants to see a difference between the saved and the unsaved.

Church, if I can use the term as a shorthand for all of our activities and being together, does not exist as a country club where we can have it our way, or as a place only to be - but rather as a body of believers reaching out to the world around us.

Church isn’t just about worship - we can do that in heaven (better I might add!) Church is about encouraging one another as we journey through this world, and reaching out to the lost with love, compassion, and grace.

Church isn’t just about fellowship - we’ll do that pretty well in heaven I think when we’ve gotten passed the sin that so easily entangles us.

The Church is about serving, loving, and in that love speaking Christ to the lost while also serving, loving, and strengthening the found.

It is these activities of the church that should grip our attention today as we continue to look at the church in scripture. But I want to us to do so with a particular recognition that The church in the kingdom will be clothed with the deeds of today.

Look with me at Revelation 19:6-8...

Revelation 19:6–8 ESV

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

It is that final phrase that I want to hear again and again reverberating in my heart: the church has clothed herself in her righteous deeds.

How well are you dressed this morning? Are you fit, O church, for the kingdom? I do not ask now if you know Jesus - I must for this particular question assume that you do. I ask if your good deeds go before you to stock the wardrobe.

In the same way that we are tasked first of all to be clothed with Christ before we approach the gates of heaven, we must be ready to live there in fine linen which is the righteous deeds of the saints.

Once again, the image of the “clothingology” of scripture is of preparedness. Are you ready to die in that you have lived for Christ?

Be Dressed and ready for his arrival

In the parable of the virgins in Matthew 25, the image of readiness moves from clothing to oil...

Read Matthew 25:1-13.

Then in luke 12:35, Luke combines the imagery of both of them.

Luke 12:35–37 ESV

“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.

The lessons of scripture here are clear: be dressed and ready. Or to put it another way: be spiritually ready for the day of Christ’s coming. Jesus is coming back. And once this life is over we’ll be out of chances to live for him.

We are called to Trust in him - that is, to be clothed in Christ.

We are called to therefore live in him - ready for his coming.

We are called to live for Him in the doing of good and holy deeds that we may be dressed in the kingdom with the righteous deeds of the saints.