"The Last Days According To Jesus pt.7"

Introduction

When the Lord returns we want to be ready but no one will know when He will come.

Whenever you schedule an event that you need to be ready for you usually put it on your calendar with a date and time and then you get ready for the event that you have scheduled.

But Jesus has already told us that no one knows the day nor the hour of His return. Only the Father knows when it will take place.

Our text this morning instructs us as Christian disciples on how we can be ready even though we don’t know the specific time of the Lord’s return.

And Jesus instructs us using a contrast between two types of servants. We will look at these two servants and then apply what the contrast reveals about being ready for His return.

First we see the Faithful servant in verses 45-47:

I. The Faithful Servant (45-47).

In verse 45 we see that Jesus is asking His disciples a question on what characterizes a faithful and wise servant.

And then notice that He defines the faithful and wise servant as being the one that is serving the master’s household faithfully, even though they don’t know when the master will return (45-46).

They are doing what the master has given them to do by serving the master’s household. I don’t think it is by accident that we have the parable of the talents given to us in chapter 25:14-30.

There we see that servants have been given talents according to their abilities and they are expected to use those talents to advance the master’s investment in the world by increasing a return on that investment.

The one thing you don’t want to do is bury you talent in the ground only to present it to the master when He returns. That will not be good.

The context reveals to us that the faithful servant is one who is busy about his master’s business. And they are promoting and advancing the master’s agenda in the world.

And we are told that this faithfulness has a reward attached to it in verse 47. The faithful servant will be set over all the possessions of the master. Faithfulness is worthy of reward in the eyes of the master.

The faithful servant is then contrasted with the Unfaithful Servant in verses 48-51:

II. The Unfaithful Servant (48-51).

Notice that the apparent delay of the master has caused the unfaithful servant to reason in a way that is the antithesis of wisdom in verses 48-49.

He has convinced himself that the master is delayed and therefore becomes self-serving in living for his own appetites instead of being obedient to his master.

He beats his fellow servants and indulges in drunkenness all because he believes that his master’s return is not imminent. He reasons that it won’t be happening anytime soon.

There is no reward for such actions but only punishment from the master as verses 50-51 tell us.

The master will return when the unfaithful servant will not expect it. And the master will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This is the picture of the severity of the final judgement. It is not only denoting the return of Christ to defeat the wicked but also the final condemnation of the eternal judgement.

Why will the unfaithful servant be put with the hypocrites? Because he claimed to be a servant but yet he did not live out what being a servant really was in the way he lived. His life was not a reflection of his allegiance to his master. He was living for something else, namely himself.

III. The Application

The Spiritual implication for the faithful servant would be that he has as his objective the advancement of the Kingdom of God. This is done by the glorifying Christ in the world by gospel proclamation and service to others in the name of Christ.

Remember we have already seen that the gospel of the Kingdom will be preached to all nations in Matthew 24: 14 and you can read Matthew 25: 31-46 and see this being displayed in Christ’s final judgement as He separates the sheep from the goats.

The Lord Jesus did not hold back in warning of the coming judgement and neither will a true minister of the gospel. Christian that is what we are actually saved from, God’s judgement.

Christian this text is here to inspire us to be faithful servants and to be busy about consistently promoting the Kingdom of God in the world, as we continue to hope in His imminent return.

Real Christians are not the ones who call themselves Christians and live ultimately for self-indulgence. And tell themselves that they have plenty of time to get their act together.

They perceive they have plenty of time and push off any sense of urgency. They have it all figured out and have a backup plan for their lives to get their act together just in time.

The problem is that fulfillment of tribulation events on the earth may not be like it is sometimes charted. The events will come to pass leading up to the second coming but over the span of how many years? Or what is it that God considers fulfillment? Is it all at the very end or have there been events fulfilling prophecy ever since 70 AD?

There is a lot of mystery associated with the second coming and the unknown is what we most often love to speculate on instead of just focusing on the stuff we know that we are to be doing as faithful servants.

This should be our focus in the practical application of the second coming because when He comes we want to be caught doing His work in this world.

We want Jesus in His return catching us red handed advancing His kingdom in the world.

Living out authentic discipleship advancing His agenda in the world through gospel proclamation and ministering to bring Him glory.

This is not the idea of living self-serving lives and trying to get with the program just before the trumpet sounds. I am all too familiar with this because when I was a young man in my late teens and early twenties, I lived this way.

I would have even called myself a Christian. I had been raised in church and knew the lingo and the form that one could project but I was living out a self-serving pursuit of my own fleshly appetites. And at that time, if you asked me, I would have called myself a Christian.

There was nothing faithful about it on my part when it came to being a servant of Christ. I was living for myself.

Today I find that situations in life compete with the Christian life. I know that many of us find life so draining that we can loose initiative when it comes to being faithful servants. We want to have a greater zeal and passion for Christ but the trials and tribulations of life so easily pull us down. Looking to the world and to the self for our ultimate purpose has a tendency to pull us down in the world.

Corrie ten Boom said, “If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. But if you look at Christ you’ll be at rest.”

We need to move from thinking of Christianity as being compartmentalized in our life; to adopting our Christianity as a lifestyle that we live out every day. Not just something we turn on.

A faithful servant of Christ strives to do this very thing. They live out transformed lives that reflect their eternal hope of the return of their master. Christianity is woven into the lifestyle of the believer.

I once listened to a young Lady reflect on her childhood on how happy she was as a small child during the day looking forward to her father’s return home from work. She said she would get so excited the closer it got to his arrival. She had so much anticipation of his return that she was ecstatic

The older and more independent she became the anticipation and excitement went away. Her focus changed over time.

Self-serving indulgence is the competing pleasure that detracts from living a Christ centered focus out in the world. We will become preoccupied with other things that distort our focus and we will become complicit with the denial of Christ imminent return.

There must be a greater joy in Kingdom advancement and a greater passion for Christ’s return than the superficial joys and passions for the world.

At times I actually try to imagine what the picture of the grand assembly will be like. Christ on His throne and this massive congregation that no one can number. And I look around me and I see so many of the people I know and the innumerable crowds of angels. All in one loud and beautiful sound giving Him praise.

Christian if the things of eternity are not before us advancing the Kingdom can seem more like a dead end job than a future promotion to something glorious beyond words.

Conclusion

Unbeliever what is it that drives your ambition in the world? You need a saviour.

Believer our hope of the eternal should be clear. If not then what is it that robs you of that hope and certainty of the eternal? Christian what in the end has been taking the place of Christ?

Confess your sin and rest. Lets Pray!