Luke 12:37-38 / Blessed at the Master's Return

Introduction

Let’s turn to Luke 12:35. We’ll read verses 35-40, but we are going to focus on verses 37-38.

[Illus] A friend called me this week and said, “Things are crazy, Rock. I think it’s the rapture. I think Jesus is coming back.”

These crazy times may have some of us believing that the rapture of the church and the return of Christ is close. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. But we must certainly be ready.

We began talking about the return of Jesus last Sunday, and the big point was that we must be ready for the Master’s return. What do we do to get ready?

We get saved.

We get sanctified.

We get serving.

Today, we’ll talk about another big idea in this passage concerning the Master’s return.

[Reading] Let’s read Luke 12:35-40.

Luke 12:35–40 NASB95

35 “Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. 36 “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. 37 “Blessed are those slaves whom the master will 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. 38 “Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. 39 “But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 40 “You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.”

[Prayer]

[Context] As followers of King Jesus, we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. As we follow the King, we live for the Kingdom.

We are not worried about the threats of earth.

We are not wrapped up in the treasures of earth.

Our trust is in the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of the King.

We store up treasure in Heaven—where the King sits on His throne at the right hand of the Father.

But one day the King is coming back, and we are told by Him that we must be ready for His return; and [CIT/PROP] we are told that we will be blessed at His return.

Now, that may surprise us. Perhaps we’ve believed that we would be blessing Jesus at His return. After all, we will sing praises to Him. We will worship Him. We will bow down to Him. We will marvel at Him. And those things we will do for all eternity.

[Inter] How is it then that we will be blessed at the return of Jesus?

[TS] Verses 37-38 provides us at least three ANSWERS...

Major Ideas

Answer #1: Jesus will serve us.

[Luke 12:37] Blessed are those slaves whom the master will 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.

[Exp] If we are ready for the Master at His return, we will be blessed by the Master at His return. One blessing that Jesus will bless us with is the blessing of service. Usually the slaves serve their master, but in this case the Master will serve us slaves.

Some take this idea of Jesus serving us as figurative—a reflection of the honor and glory that Jesus will give to His people at His return. But we do see Jesus do this very thing in Scripture. Therefore, it should not shock us to see Him do it again at His return.

[Illus] In John 13, Jesus did something incredibly shocking to His disciples—He served them as if He were their servant! Listen to John 13:1-5...

John 13:1–5 NASB95

1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. 2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, 4 got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. 5 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

In the ancient world, people primarily wore sandals. As they walked from place to place, their feet would become dirty—sometimes coated with dust, sometimes caked with filth. Sometimes a homeowner would have water available where people could wash their feet or maybe a servant would be in charge of washing the feet of the guests. On the night before Jesus’ crucifixion, as Jesus and His disciples shared the Passover meal together, Jesus dressed like a servant and washed the feet of His disciples.

The act of service was so astounding that Peter asked, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” (John 13:6)

This is the Jesus that called Peter as an Apostle.

This is the Jesus that healed Peter’s mother-in-law.

This is the Jesus that renamed Peter “Peter.”

This is the Jesus that invited Peter to walk on the water with Him and then pulled him out of the water when he sank.

This is the Jesus that Peter saw in transcendent glory on the Mount of Transfiguration.

If anyone should be washing feet, it should be Peter washing the feet of Jesus! That’s how Peter saw it, so it was completely astounding to him that Jesus would gird Himself like a servant and serve him in this way.

[App] It will be no less astounding to us when we see Jesus serve us at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. This same Jesus who saves us, sanctifies us, and empowers us to serve others in His Name, is He who will gird Himself to serve us, to wait on us, as we gather around His table to celebrate life-eternal with Him. And I can imagine many of us will say, “Lord, do you serve me?”

When Peter asked that question in John 13, Jesus responded, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me,” (John 13:8). Likewise, if Jesus does not serve us at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, then we have no part with Him. The only ones invited to that celebration—the celebration of Jesus and the church being united in Heaven forever—are those who are ready for Jesus when He comes.

We will not get this reward unless we are ready. And we make ourselves ready by trusting Jesus, obeying Jesus, and serving Jesus until He comes or until we die.

I never want to presume on your salvation, but most of you here this morning have likely trusted Jesus.

You believe that you sinned against God, the Author of life, and so the consequence of your sin against Him was death. But you believe that God sent Jesus to pay that price of death on your behalf so that you could live with God in Heaven forever. So you trust Jesus. But do you obey Jesus? Do you serve Him? The blessing of being served by Jesus at His return is only for those of us who do.

We cannot seriously claim to trust Him, if we do not obey Him and serve Him.

And if we do not do those things, we are not ready for His return; and we will not be blessed when He comes.

[Illus] Jesus told a parable illustrating this point in Matthew 25. It’s what we commonly refer to as The Parable of the Talents. A master goes on a journey, leaving his slaves with certain amounts of money. (A talent was about 15 years worth of pay for a common laborer.)

To one he gave five talents—75 years worth of pay.

To another he gave two talents—30 years worth of pay.

To another he gave one talent—15 years worth of pay.

The master knew his slaves and knew how much each could be trusted with. But the master was most interested to see what each slave would do with what he had been given.

The slave with five talents traded with them and doubled his master’s money! He turned the 75 years worth of wages into a 150 years worth of wages, and his master said, “Well done, good and faithful slave! You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master,” (Matt. 25:21).

The slave with two talents likewise doubled his master’s money. We are not told how he did it, but he somehow turned 30 years worth of pay into 60 while he waited for his master to return. And how did the master respond? The same way that he responded to the first slave; “Well done, good and faithful slave! You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master,” (Matt. 25:23).

But then there’s the last slave—the one only entrusted with one talent, which was still a significant amount—15 years worth of pay. But this slave didn’t do anything with what he had been given. He simply dug a hole, buried the money, and gave it back to the master when he returned. He didn’t do anything for the master with what he had been given by the master. And how did the master respond? He said, “Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” (Matt. 25:30).

Jesus has given us many things. He’s given us money, houses, and cars. He’s given us minds and bodies. He’s given us relationships and interests. He’s given us skills and abilities.

How are we putting these things to work as we make ready for the Master’s return?

We should not think that we will receive the blessing of the Master serving us if we aren’t making ready for His return by doing something with what He has given us.

But if we are using what we’ve been given to serve the Master, then we be blessed by the Master’s serving us when He returns.

And what a blessing that will be.

[TS] Answer #1: Jesus will serve us.

How will we be blessed at the Master’s return? Jesus will serve us. AND JESUS WILL REST US. THAT’S THE SECOND ANSWER.

Answer #2: Jesus will rest us.

[Luke 12:37] Blessed are those slaves whom the master will 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...

[Exp] This too is astonishing. The slaves have been dressed and ready for the master’s return. Ready to work. Ready to fight. Ready to take action whatever the action may be. But the master says, “Take a seat. Recline. Rest. I’ll take care of everything.”

[Illus] It reminds us of what Jesus told his first disciples after they had been sent to teach, cast out demons, and heal the sick. When they returned they told Jesus everything they had done, but Jesus said to them in Mark 6:31, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” The only difference is that, at Jesus’ return, the rest that He invites us to will be eternal rather than for a while.

[App] We cannot comprehend just how restful it will be when Jesus serves us at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Not only will the wine overflow, so will the thankfulness in our hearts! Not only will food be eternally abundant, so will the love we feel from and for our Savior! AND IT WILL NEVER END! THE REST WE HAVE IN HIM WILL NEVER END!

Isn’t that always the worst part of vacation? Isn’t always the worst part of sleep? Don’t we tend to wish the vacation could last just a little bit longer? Don’t we tend to long for just a little bit more rest at night? That longing for just a little more rest actually creates in us a sense of dread and anxiety. We think to ourselves, “This vacation sure is nice, but I got to go back to work in a couple days.” Or, “This bed sure is comfortable but I’ve got to be up in five minutes or I’m going to be late.”

The rest that we experience with Jesus at His return will be rest with no sense of dread and not even a modicum of anxiety. The Master will take care of everything.

It will be peace like we’ve never known, joy like we’ve never known, celebration like we’ve never known; and Jesus invites us to enter that rest spiritually even now! He said in Matthew 11:28...

Matthew 11:28 NASB95

28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

If we’ve trusted Jesus as Savior and bowed to Him as Lord, the rest that we will experience physically at His return is the rest we already have spiritually through faith in Him.

The salvation that we have in Jesus Christ means no dread before God, no anxiety when we think about eternity.

God counts us righteous in Christ!

And just as Jesus rests at the Father’s right hand, so we too shall rest in Christ before the Father for all eternity!

O come to Jesus, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and He will give you rest! And then reward you with rest when He comes!

[TS] ...

Answer #3: Jesus will find us.

[Luke 12:38] Whether he comes in the second watch, or even the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

[Exp] Both v. 37 and v. 38 mention the master finding his servants. The master will find his servants. There is no version of this story in which the master does not find his servants. There is no version of the story in which the master doesn’t show up even though he might be later than his slaves expect.

The Romans divided up their nights one way, and the Jews another—but either way, the second or third watch of the night pretty much means the middle of the night. One translation of Luke 12:38 reads...

Luke 12:38 NIV

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.

But whether the master comes in the middle of the night or at daybreak, the point is that he will come, and he will find his servants. The question is, how will he find his servants?

Will he find them dressed in readiness? Or will he find them unprepared?

[Illus] This reminds us of another parable Jesus told in Matthew 25—The Parable of the Ten Virgins.

These gals were waiting on a wedding party, but the timing of the party wasn’t exact, so they had to wait on the groom to come. Then the party would begin.

Five of the virgins kept their lamps full of oil, so they could see the way to the party when the time came. But the other five ran low on oil. They should have prepared better by buying oil earlier in the day because when the bridegroom came, they missed him. They were out in the middle of the night trying to get oil when the others went with the bridegroom into the wedding feast and the door was shut.

Five of the virgins were found ready to meet the bridegroom.

Five of the virgins where found unready to meet the bridegroom.

How will the bridegroom find you?

How will the Master find you when He returns?

[App] The Lord Jesus will come. Maybe in the second watch or the third; we don’t know. But we do know that He will come. Perhaps because His return is taking longer than we thought it would, we’ve began to think that He’s been delayed or that He’s not coming at all. That way of thinking is sure to make us unprepared for His coming. To that way of thinking 2 Peter 3:9 says...

2 Peter 3:9 NASB95

9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

The Lord will come. He will come in His time. But He is patient in His coming, not longing for anyone to perish but for everyone to be saved.

And if we have been saved, then let the Master find us showing the same concern He has for the lost. When He comes, let the Master find us calling all to repentance by proclaiming the Gospel and making disciples.

If we do that, we are sure to be ready for His coming.

If we do that, we are sure to be blessed when He comes.

[TS] ...

Conclusion

[Prayer]