Luke 12:35ff - The Master's Return Unexpected

Introduction

[Illus] Years ago a sheriff’s office in Florida had a bunch of arrest warrants out on various people for various reasons. These people weren’t turning themselves in, and law enforcement didn’t have the man power to hunt all the people down. So, they came up with a pretty innovative plan. They would send a letter to the last known address of every individual telling them that they had won a free cruise. The letter would say that they needed to report to a certain office space at a certain address at a certain time on a certain day in order to claim their free cruise. These people unknowingly walked right into the waiting handcuffs of deputies because they thought they had won a free cruise. And the deputies—the deputies were ready because they knew when the criminals were coming.

[Context] We’ve been talking about the return of Jesus the last couple of weeks, and we’ll continue to talk about the return of Jesus this morning as well.

Those who follow Jesus follow the King of the Kingdom of Heaven.

They speak the truth from Heaven, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

They listen to the Spirit from Heaven, which is the Holy Spirit, when they don’t know what to say.

They store up treasure in Heaven.

And one day the King of Heaven—He who was crucified, resurrected, and ascended—He will return to gather His people home.

When Jesus first spoke the words we find here in Luke 12, His first disciples couldn’t have understood all this, but soon they would.

And they, like we, would be waiting for the Master to return.

So far in Luke 12:35-40 we’ve seen that we must be ready for the Master’s return.

That involves being saved, sanctified, and given to service.

We’ve also seen that we will be blessed at the Master’s return.

Jesus Himself will invite us to rest—to recline at table—while He humbles us with His own humility in serving us during the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And this morning we see that the Master’s return will be unexpected.

He will come like a thief in the night.

[Reading 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]

[INTER] Why is the Master’s return unexpected?

[TS] I want to give you three ANSWERS to that question, and then give you a few things to do with the unexpected nature of Jesus’ return...

Major Ideas

Answer #1: The Master’s return is unexpected because of the uncertainty of it.

Luke 12:40 NASB95

40 “You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.”

Matthew 24:36 NASB95

36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

[Exp] Imagine for a moment that you’re home has been robbed. You’ve come back from vacation and all your stuff—the good stuff anyway—is gone. You call the police. They come, look around, ask about the stuff that was taken, and then ask you, “What time did you expect the thieves to show up?” What would say? No doubt you’d say, “I didn’t expect any thieves to show up. If I did, I’d have called you guys beforehand… I’d have purchased an alarm system… I’d got a dog, a gun… I wouldn’t have gone on vacation… I’d have been ready!”

But there’s a reason police don’t ask questions like that—they know thieves comes at unexpected times.

In vv. 39-40 of Luke 12, Jesus uses a thief breaking into someone’s home unexpectedly as a metaphor for His own unexpected breaking into our world at He second coming.

Now, Jesus is not thief, but just as there is no doubt that thieves will break in and steal on this earth, there is no doubt about the return of Jesus.

And just as thieves strike at unexpected times, so the return of Jesus will come unexpectedly.

He will come in an hour we do not expect—at a time we do not think.

The timing of His return is uncertain.

[Illus] Charles Taze Russel, the found of The Jehovah’s Witness cult, predicted that Christ would return and the world would end in 1914, but it didn’t happen, so he had to claim that Jesus’ return was invisible, which contrary to what Scripture teaches.

1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 NASB95

16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

A Baptist preacher, William Miller, predicted that Christ would return in 1844. His followers sold their stuff, followed him out into a field and waited… for nothing. Jesus didn’t come and many of Millers followers rationalized their confusion by starting the Seventh Day Adventists, which believe that Christ began cleansing the heavenly sanctuary in 1844—a cleansing in preparation for His second coming.

Ok. In any event, ol’ Miller and his followers were wrong because the timing of Christ’s return is uncertain.

Even in our own day people predict that the return of Christ on this day or that day, within a year or two, but frankly… no one knows the day or the hour. This is what Jesus said in Matthew 24:36...

Matthew 24:36 NASB95

36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

[App] So what do we do with the uncertain timing of the Master’s return?

Well, you trust God with it.

When Jesus’ first disciples were about to watch Him ascend to Heaven, they asked Him about the timing of His second coming when He will make visible His Kingdom on earth. He responded in Acts 1:7-8...

Acts 1:7–8 NASB95

7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Now, when I say, “Trust God with the uncertain timing of Jesus’ return,” Acts 1:7-8 is what I mean. We trust God with what we don’t know (i.e., the timing), and we do what we do know (i.e., we bear witness to Christ starting here and extending to the remotest part of the earth.”

The Master’s return will be unexpected because we cannot be certain of His timing.

But until He comes we certainly know that we are to be bearing witness.

[TS] Answer #1: The Master’s return is unexpected because the timing is uncertain—at least from our perspective.

Answer #2: The Master’s return is unexpected because of the denial of it.

Matthew 24:36–39 NASB95

36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. 37 “For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. 38 “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

[Exp] Noah knew that the flood was coming. He believed that the flood of God’s judgment was coming on the wicked world. Just as the world was full of evil, God was going to fill the world with His holy judgment.

But beyond Noah and his family, no one else believed. They heard Noah’s warnings and dismissed them as the ravings of a mad man. They kept right on eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. They surely burst out in a belly laugh when old crazy Noah got on this boat with his family, his animals, and shut the door. But then the flood came and took them all away.

Why didn’t other people believe? Why didn’t they repent and get in the ark with Noah?

If you look at Matthew 24:39, it says, “...they did not understand...”

Some translations say they were unaware or knew nothing about the flood until it was too late.

But the people in Noah’s day didn’t understand because they didn’t want to understand; they were unaware because they wanted to be unaware; they knew nothing about God, sin, wrath, and salvation because they didn’t want to know anything about it.

The people in Noah’s day did what people in our day are doing—they are denying what the know to be true.

They know that they are sinners, that there’s a holy God that they’ve sinned against—a God that they’ll have to answer to.

But rather than give up their sinful pride, they deny what they know. Thus, they’ll keep on partying until the Master returns, and then they’ll be caught unaware.

[Illus] People get caught unaware because they deny what they know to be true.

Take a husband whose wife develops a bit of a drinking problem. It starts small but grows and the husband notices but… he doesn’t want to notice… so he ignores it; pretends it’s not happening… and then his wife is an alcoholic with her falling apart. Someone asks him, “Did you see this coming? I mean, how could she hide this from you?” He says, “I had no clue.”

He had no clue because he didn’t want to have a clue. He left the clues he saw right where they were. He denied it. He denied what he knew to be true, so he was caught unaware.

People did the same thing with God’s judgment in Noah’s day.

And they do the same thing with God judgment that will come with the return of Christ.

Jesus’ return will be unexpected because deny the fact that they know He is coming.

They know.

But they don’t want to know.

So they deny what they know.

[App] What do we do with this?

Well, we must admit that we know that He is coming rather than deny it.

That admission results in trust Jesus for salvation and living to store up treasure in Heaven rather than being satisfied by the things of earth.

But we also call other to admit what they know.

When are sharing the Gospel, we can say, “You know there is a god. You know that you were created by Him. He’s put eternity in your heart. You know that what I’m saying is true. You know that you’ve sinned against God and that judgment is coming. You know you need Jesus. But will you admit to what you know?”

The Master’s return will be unexpected, but we don’t have to be caught unaware.

If we will admit that what we read in the Bible about Jesus and ourselves is true and respond as it demands, we will expect the unexpected—we will not be caught unaware.

[TS] Answer #2: The Master’s return is unexpected because it is denied—at least by some—but not by us!

#3: The Master’s return is unexpected because of the suddenness of it.

Luke 17:24 NASB95

24 “For just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day.

Matthew 24:27 NASB95

27 “For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

[Exp] Lightning is sudden. It not there, and then suddenly… it is. So it will be with the return of our Master, Jesus. He is not here… but then suddenly… He will be.

[Illus] The other day, during one of our afternoon thunder showers, I decided that a bag of garbage needed to go out even if it meant my life. I grabbed the bag and head out into the storm. I made it to the can, deposited the bag, and was almost across our front yard to the driveway when BOOM! — thunder rocked the sky. I instinctively crouched and shuffled up the driveway. When I came in the house Cheryl asked, “You dead?”

But thinking back on it now, I realize something. It’s not the thunder that was going to get me… but the lightning that followed. The thunder is scary, but the lightning is the real danger.

[App] In our world, there are rumblings; there is thunder, and it is scary. There are wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes and famines, persecutions, etc… but all those things are just thunder before the lightning.

People today point at COVID-19 and say, “Be afraid.” They point at social unrest, and say, “Be afraid.” They point at political foolishness, and say, “Be afraid.” But all this is just thunder before the lightning—and the lightning is what you really need to be concerned about.

Matthew 24:27 NASB95

27 “For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Don’t fear the thunder, brothers and sisters. Fear the lighting. Fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell forever.

Be ready for the suddenness of the Master’s return by trusting in Him today.

[TS] ...

Conclusion

Now, we’ve been talking about preparing for the Master’s unexpected return for a couple weeks, and that’s what we should do first—we should prepare for the Master’s unexpected return.

But let me give you two other things to do in response to the unexpected nature of the Master’s return:

First, warn others about the Master’s unexpected return.

[Illus] Sharing the gospel with a man many years ago, I asked him if he would like to trust Jesus. He said that he would like to think about it a bit more but he appreciated the conversation. Immediately I said to him, “Sir, Christ may come at any moment. What if he comes while you’re still thinking about it?”

It didn’t change the man’s mind in that moment but the warning of Christ’s unexpected return was right, and it’s something that I need to do more of today.

[App] Let the unexpected of Jesus’ return motivate you to share the Gospel, and let it move you to warn those who reject the Gospel. Once Jesus’ returns, there will be no more opportunity to trust and follow Him.

Second, encourage one another with the Master’s unexpected return.

[Illus] I saw a show the other day where a man sat in the same diner, at the same table, day after day for three years watching the bus stop outside the window because a loved one promised that one day they would return for him. You would think that the man would get sullen and bitter, thinking to himself, “Well, I guess they’re not coming back.” But every morning he had a joyful disposition, and when the bus arrived, he looked expectantly for the one who promised to return.

One of the waitresses at the diner marveled at the man, saying, “I wish I had faith like that.”

[App] That kind of joyful expectation is what we are to encourage one another with day after day. We should wake up thrilled to think that today could be the day—the day when the Master returns!

Listen to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18...

1 Thessalonians 4:16–18 ESV

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. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

When we live with the reality of Christ’s return before each moment of the day—even though it will be unexpected—we will...

...be prepared...

...faithfully warn others...

...and be a great encouragement to one another.