Nov 15th - It's Coming

It’s Coming Focus: Ours is the God who generously gives us good gifts Function: As Christians, we joyfully look forward to the life to come because of who our God is. There are different ways to take the words “it’s coming. If you’re stuck on an island in the middle of the ocean, “it’s coming” might mean a helicopter is finally in sight! But if you’ve already started swimming your back, “it’s coming!” might mean that the shark fin poking out above the water just turned around! If it’s right around the baby’s due date and your wife says “it’s coming!” it might be time to freak out and run to the hospital! If you’ve been naughty, hearing mom say, “Oh, it’s coming!” might mean it’s time to hide! “It’s coming” can be good news or bad news depending on who says it and what’s going on. So, when Christians think about the end of the world, we should think about how we say “it’s coming.” This parable invites you to think about the coming of the last day in light of who says it's coming and what’s going to happen. The Master is coming to settle accounts with His servants. The two faithful servants consider the Master’s return to be good news, and the unfaithful servant thought it was bad news. The two faithful servants double what the Master entrusted to them while the unfaithful servant buried what his Master entrusted to him. The two faithful servants are set over much and welcomed into the joy of the Master. The unfaithful servant is relieved of what was entrusted to him and thrown into the outer darkness where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth. All of the servants knew the Master was coming to settle accounts. For the two faithful servants, “it’s coming” was good news. For the unfaithful servant, “it’s coming” was bad news. Our Master, Jesus, is coming to settle all things. But when some Christians remember “it’s coming,” they act like it’s bad news. There are churches that teach that the end times are scary with unspeakable horrors and fear being “left behind.” And these same churches teach that Christians need to shape up, do better, dig deeper into the faith, and if they don’t quite measure up despite their efforts, they’ll go to hell. These churches make the return of the Master seem scary. “It’s coming” is bad news. They forget who says it's coming and what’s really going to happen. And that’s exactly what the unfaithful servant did wrong! The unfaithful servant feared his Master and thought his Master to be a hard-hearted, greedy, ruthless taskmaster who took and took and took from His servants. He said he was afraid of what his Master would do to him if he lost any of what the Master gave to him. He doesn’t believe in the Master. He didn’t know who the Master really was and what would really happen when He returned, and that made “it’s coming” bad news and not good news. Notice: it was not because the unfaithful servant tried and failed by doing too little or not being faithful enough. The faithful servants didn’t enter into the joy of the Master because they had done enough and had been faithful enough! The Master said, “Well done, good and faithful servant” to both faithful servants alike, and how much they presented to the Master didn’t make a difference! It’s not about “how much good” you do or “how much faith” you have when it comes to the Master. The only difference between the two kinds of servants is what they know about who their Master is and what they expect Him to do when He returns. The faithful servants knew their Master to be outrageously generous and abundantly kind! He gave the first servant 5 talents, worth about almost 2 million dollars! He gave the second servant over $700,000, and the third servant about $360,000! And He let his servants do with it what they thought best while He was gone! If the Master came back and the servants had lost money, their theology reminded them that their Master would be forgiving and still outrageously generous and abundantly kind. “It’s coming” was very good news to them! Dear Christian, your God is not a hard-hearted, greedy, ruthless taskmaster who makes impossible demands of righteous deeds and perfect faithfulness in order to get into heaven. When Christian’s hear “it’s coming” they know the Lord’s return is nothing to fear and they don’t need to worry about being “left behind.” Their theology reminds them who their God is: He is the God who is forgiving, outrageously generous, and abundantly kind. “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with Him” (1 Thessalomnians 5:9-10). The unfaithful servant did not believe in the true God, because he did not believe in a God of the Gospel who gives and forgives. When you believe it was God who created the world as a gift for you and that He redeems you by His Son’s death on the cross, you believe in a God of the Gospel who gives and forgives. The truth is, you have a God of gifts who gives abundantly to you. He’s the kind of God that provides spouses and children and family and friends, who provides good authority, undeserved income, sumptuous feasts and to-die-for treats, houses and homes, toys and possessions, love and passion, beautiful sights and captivating melodies—anything good in the world that exists is a generous gift of God. He gives you not just $360,000 or $700,000 or even $2 million, it’s better: you have a Master who gave you your life by purchasing it with His life. If He is the kind of God who gives all those good things, and He is also the kind of God who even gives His own Son to die for you so that you can keep your life forever, who forgives you all your sins so that you can live as if you had never sinned at all, and who gives you an eternal life in absolute bliss that you don’t have to earn or unlock the secrets of in order to enjoy, how can you not get excited when you are reminded that “it’s coming!”? You can get excited because you know who it is that says “it’s coming” and you know what will happen! You will hear those words, “Well done, good and faithful servant” and just as you have been faithful in the little of this life, you will be set over much in the next life! If He’s the kind of God that gives good things to you now, just you wait! You haven’t seen nothin’ yet! He’s the Master who will return to multiply what He’s already given you. He’s the Master who will invite you to reign with Him in the world to come! He entrusted you with life, and because He rose again from the dead, He will entrust you with life in eternity to the fullest! You will enter into joy of your Master: a new creation where you will be reunited with family and friends! Sumptuous feasts and to-die-for delights will be part of your daily diet! Beautiful sights and captivating melodies will feel ordinary! The world to come will be a home of wonder and exploration, full of riches and luxury beyond imagination! You will reign with Jesus in a perfect creation, and you will have the privilege of being set over much in a world where everything goes right. All your endeavors in the life to come will be successful and they will showcase the glory of God! Angels will bow before you, and creation will look to you as God’s appointed caretaker and steward. When you hear the words “it’s coming”, there’s only one way to take that, because we know ours is the God who generously gives us good gifts! Christians are people of joyous expectation. We are not unfaithful servants who act as though we don’t know what kind of God we have or what He will do. We know we have a God of extravagance and grace, with overwhelming love towards us. We know we have a Lord who delights to do good things to people who don’t deserve it. We know we have a Master who has promised to blow our socks off when He comes back. You know who your God is and what He will do, and that means there is no reason to fear. Just you wait, faithful servant! It’s coming!