READY OR NOT

Introduction

-{Luke 12}

-While I was growing up, there were neighborhood kids around my grandma’s house that I would hang out with all the time, and we would go late into the night playing games. One of the games we would play is hide and seek. Because we were outside and there was a lot to it, we had to set up certain boundaries that you couldn’t go past otherwise it’d be impossible to find anyone. They’d be halfway across town if we didn’t have some rules.

~That love for the game continued when I had my own kids, and we’d play for hours on end, mostly playing the game inside and yet still finding all sorts of places.

~You know how to play the game—a person who is “it” has to cover their eyes and count to whatever number while the others hide, and when they are done counting they shout out READY OR NOT, HERE I COME to give a little heads up that they were about to start searching. And if the hiders weren’t ready, they’d be easily caught.

~If you were either ready or you weren’t.

-Being ready or not for a game isn’t necessarily life-changing. You just get caught and have to be it. But there are some things in life if you are ready or not that are not only life-changing, but they can also be eternity-changing.

-We have been going through various parables that Jesus taught, and through the parables that we are looking at today Jesus taught that He would return one day, and when He does, He expects to find His disciples being faithful.

~The point of it all is that Christ’s disciples (and in all honesty, everyone) must be spiritually ready for His return at all times.

~So, when we all leave here today, we want to leave here awakened from our spiritual slumber so that Christ will find us faithful at His return, and pray that God uses us to get others ready for when He arrives.

READ Luke 12:35-48

-What are the main points for us to consider about being ready or not:

1) The return of the master

-As seems to be the case here, Jesus sometimes mixes together several parables and pictures, but the main gist of the larger parables is that there is a master who has gone off for an extended period of time, with the understanding that he would return to his home at some point.

~So, for example in v. 36 the master went off to a wedding feast, which in Jewish culture of the time could take days or weeks. Even though the master went off, there was an expectation that he would return.

~The master then returns, and the question then becomes whether or not the servants are prepared when he returns.

-Within the parable, Jesus is the master. V. 40 references the Son of Man coming. Jesus is referring to His return, or as we more commonly refer to it, the second coming of Christ or the Parousia (which comes from the Greek).

~Jesus, God the Son, came the first time, born to a virgin in Bethlehem, would die on the cross for sins, and would rise again, and He would ascend into heaven. That was Jesus’ first coming.

~But Jesus is going to return again. When He ascended, an angel announced to the disciples that Jesus would return the same way He left. That means Jesus will return bodily and visibly.

-Now, I know that when we talk about end times, there are a lot of different views that teach a lot of different things about the millennium and what happens before and what happens after. There is a lot of debate about certain details. However, for anyone who holds to a Biblical view there is one thing that you cannot deny: Jesus is returning bodily and visibly.

-Now, at the time of Jesus teachings with the parables, He had warned the disciples that He would be killed and would rise again, but the disciples were a little slow on the uptake and didn’t fully understand Jesus’ mission. So, most likely, they weren’t overly sure what Jesus was referring to when He talked about a Master leaving and a master coming again, but now that we are able to look back to the fuller picture, we know exactly what He is referring to.

-But in these parables Jesus gives us some principles about His return that would be good for us to know since it bears weight on our own personal conduct in reaction to His return:

a) It is certain

-In the first section of the parables, it is a foregone conclusion that, although the Master went off to a wedding feast, the Master is going to return, and so the servant’s need to be ready.

~In the last part of the parables, there are servants who have the mistaken notion that since the Master has delayed His coming, they can just go and do whatever they want because it probably means He’s never coming—but that’s a mistake.

~Jesus refers to the certainty of His return. He is going to return beyond a shadow of a doubt.

-Here we are some 2000 years after the events of Jesus’ first coming and we’re still waiting. And that might discourage some people into thinking that Jesus is never going to return.

~But we can hold on to hope because Jesus here, and elsewhere, reminds us that it is a 100% guarantee that He is going to return to the earth someday. Jesus Himself promised:

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:1–3 ESV)

-It is a certainty that Jesus is coming back again. But Jesus also testified about His return:

b) It is unannounced

-What I mean by that is that it is going to come at a time when people aren’t expecting it. Things on the earth will be going along as normal and then all of a sudden, He has returned. Jesus likened it to the days before the flood:

“For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” (Matthew 24:38–39 ESV)

-In the first part of the parable in our passage, the servants are waiting and waiting and are to be ready because they don’t know when the Master is returning. In v. 38 Jesus says it could be during the 2nd or 3rd watch of the night—in the middle of the night when most people are sleeping, but the servants are to be awake and ready

-Jesus then gives a parable within a parable mentioning that if the master of a house knew when the robber would come, he wouldn’t let it happen. But the problem (and the point) being, you don’t know when a robber is going to be breaking into the house. A robber doesn’t announce himself; he just comes.

~And so it is going to be with Christ’s return. There will be no announcement, but it will be like a thief in the night—it will just happen. The apostles also testified to that fact:

For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. (1 Thessalonians 5:2 ESV)

~And Jesus Himself said:

“Behold, I am coming like a thief!” (Revelation 16:15 ESV)

-The theological term used for this is the IMMINENCE of Christ’s return. This means that Christ could return at any moment; nothing else has to happen before His return. It will just happen without any sort of announcement.

-But there is something else Jesus teaches about His return:

c) It is revealing

-What I mean by that is that Christ’s return will reveal whether someone was a true believer or not, and they will be rewarded accordingly.

-Jesus says that in v. 37 that those who are truly His servants and were ready for His coming are going to be rewarded. He describes it as the master actually serving the servants. This is a reference to the Messianic banquet at the end of the age, also referred to as the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. After Christ returns, there will be a celebration for those who will be in His presence forever. His returning will reveal those who belong to Him.

-But then there is the flip side. There are those in vv. 45-48 who claim to be His servants that reveal themselves not to really be His servants by the way that they act. Jesus says that they will receive their punishment. For those who did so with intent, there will be great punishment. For those who did not do so with intent there will be lighter punishment—but either way, those false servants are going to be punished.

-Not everyone who claims to be Christian is Christian. Not everyone who says they love Jesus actually love Jesus. Not everyone who serves through the church are actual servants of Christ. And it is going to be the day of His return that will reveal the truth.

-So, the master is returning. It is a certainty that He will, but the day or the hour of His return are unknown to us. But when He returns, He will reveal the hearts of men and women, and the truth will become abundantly clear.

-But with this fact of the master’s return, the Jesus uses the parables to turn the mirror on us, and so it speaks about:

2) The responsibility of the servant

-Jesus uses these parables to warn all who are listening that He, being the master, will go away for a while, but He will return, and when He does the servants ought to be doing what the servants ought to be doing.

~Jesus is giving everyone fair warning that His return is certain, coming at a time they don’t expect, and so they should be at the ready for His return at all times, fulfilling their responsibilities.

-And so, there are certain aspects of the readiness of the servant the parables touch on. First, the parables tell us to:

a) Be watchful

-Jesus uses various terms throughout the parables that warn disciples (and really everyone) to always be on the alert. Always be ready. Always be prepared and watch expectantly for the master’s return.

-He says in v. 35-36 to stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning and be like men waiting on the master so that when he does come home, they can get straight to serving the master without any delay.

~In v. 37 Jesus says that the servant who remains awake is blessed. The servant who has himself prepared and ready and is actively looking for the return of the master is blessed indeed.

-It’s talking about spiritual readiness. First, you need to clothe yourself in Christ. That is, you need to first come to saving faith in Jesus Christ, believing He died and rose for you, and that He is Messiah and Lord. But it doesn’t stop there. Then you clothe yourself in holiness and righteousness. You need to build Christian character through spiritual disciplines of Bible study and meditation and memorization and prayer.

-But it doesn’t stop at being watchful, Jesus also wants the servants to:

b) Be active

-A servant who is ready for the return of Christ isn’t passive. We are not to just be sitting back doing nothing, just biding our time until the Master returns. I fear that certain end-time beliefs lend themselves more to that attitude—things are bad on earth, so let’s just hold on for the ride until Christ finally gets back. But that’s not the attitude Christ wants for His servants.

-In the second half of the parables, not only are we likened to servants, but we are likened to managers or stewards—someone who has been put in charge of things while the master is away. According to v. 43 the master expects the steward to be doing stuff.

-There is an expectation that the steward will represent the master while he is away and according to v. 42 the steward will be serving the people in the master’s name while he is away. And the master expects to find the servant obedient and at work when He returns.

-But then a warning is given to those who aren’t doing the expected work of the master, but instead they are lazy and living for themselves and living for the world. They are living out the old cliché that when the cat is away the mice will play. The master is gone, he isn’t looking over my shoulder, I might as well live it up.

~That’s the servant/steward who will be punished. The one who is disobedient and not doing the work of His master.

-The question for us is if Christ would return today, will He find us serving Him with wild abandon, or are we more spiritually akin to the cliché of sitting around on the couch eating bon-bons.

-Readiness means being active for the Lord, and it is also a call to:

c) Be faithful

-At the end of v. 48 is something we really need to reflect on. EVERYONE TO WHOM MUCH WAS GIVEN, OF HIM MUCH WILL BE REQUIRED, AND FROM HIM TO WHOM THEY ENTRUSTED MUCH, THEY WILL DEMAND THE MORE.

-When someone comes to Christ, the Holy Spirit gives them gifts and talents for the service of God through the local church. The Christian is entrusted with much, and so much is expected. The question we have to ask ourselves is if we are being faithful with what we have been given.

-Are you using your gifts and talents to further His kingdom? Are you using your time, energy, money, resources, to minister in His name? Are you active in the body of Christ in the church serving His people and making His name great.

-To whom much is given much is required. There is an expectation that God gave you what you got so that you do something with it while on this earth. He entrusted you with much, and now He is demanding more. Because the opportunity to use those gifts on earth will be gone when He returns.

~So, will He be able to truly look you in the eye and say WELL DONE MY GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT. Are you ready?

Conclusion

-I remember after first moving here, I knew the history of tornadoes around here, but I guess I didn’t think anything of it when one day there was prediction of severe storms and tornadoes in the evening. I had gone to see one of our members at their house and they asked me if I had a storm plan. I said, A WHAT? We didn’t do those in Mississippi. They meant a plan to be ready for action on where you’re going to go (to a shelter) and what you’re going to take and things like that. I learned quickly, around here you need to be ready for storms, because they could come at any time.

-Do you have a Parousia plan? Are you ready for Christ to return? He can come back at any time.

~Christian, are you actively serving the Lord, using what God has given you, ever alert to the fact of His imminent return?

~Are you spiritually ready for Him to come back? Have you trusted in Him for salvation?

-I hope you’re prepared because READY OR NOT, here He comes…