Watchfully Waiting Luke 12 Vs 35 48

Luke chapter 12 verses 35 through 48 now this is the last passage of the whole section in chapter 12 of Luke that deals with how

Jesus disciples must live in this world right we went over how are they to live with persecution how are they to live in relation to possessions so the last couple of weeks we focus on how the disciples of Jesus must trust

God rather than their possessions this week Jesus shows us what that means to trust

God while we live in this world until he comes the question this passage asks us this morning is how must

Jesus disciples live knowing that Jesus will come back to judge the world and this is an important question to answer because how we live now is inevitably shaped by what we think the future will be

Victor mentioned this just now how the younger generation does not think about the second coming of Christ in fact

Lauren and I recently talked about this earlier about how our generation the

Millennials and the one coming after the Gen Z they're not having kids they're also delaying having kids but they're spending all their wealth and time on themselves and the reason why they do that is because they believe their lives are all there's to it there's really nothing more other than their lives so why not just do everything possible to enjoy every moment of it travel the world right go get whatever you want you gotta have all the new gadgets after all if they believe there's really nothing coming after death nothing to look forward to no one to wait for what is the point of waiting what is the point of living for someone else there's no incentive to live for another person much less of God most of this generation does not believe it and you may think that's just that happens with the youth that always happens well this mindset also happens with the older generation that's what midlife crisis is all about it's not hormonal they realize they've spent over 40 hours a week for the last decades earning all this money and they realize they don't have much time left but again it's the point is their eschatology their view on what's gonna happen in the future on the last days that completely impacts their present living this passage however completely opposes such hedonism this practice of living for oneself self -indulgence to the max by reminding us what will truly happen in the future and that is that Jesus will come back to this means we have to live with the constant awareness and alertness to the second coming of Jesus Christ and his present will for the church in the world that's really important the life that we live now is not the end all and be all there's something else to look forward to and that's actually a tremendous source of joy if you feel like the world is unjust you can look forward to the coming of Christ because Jesus will make everything right if you're longing for something that the world isn't offering you you can actually look forward to Jesus Christ because he will meet your every desire and longing for him so the main point of today's text is how must

Jesus disciples live knowing that Jesus will come back to judge the world how must

Jesus disciples live knowing that Jesus will come back to judge the world first we must watchfully be prepared for the coming of Christ because he may return at any time we must watchfully be prepared for the coming of Christ because he may return at any time

Jesus begins with the command using two metaphors in verse 35 let your waist be girded and your lamps burning these two metaphors are not part of the same context so the first metaphor refers to the manner of life in which we trust

God while we live in this world this imagery is the girding up of the loin cloths you might have heard of this before it's a very of ancient

Israelite metaphor girding up back in those days men wore robes and as you know long robes hindered movements you can't run wearing robes but what if you have to get to work right what if you have some major actions to do fight battles chase something right well what you would do is you would fold the robe and then tie it around your waist girding it up and that would actually dramatically increase the mobility and this would be done before some major physical action what this tells us is that trusting

God means being ready for action the manner in which you trust

God is you're always ready you're ready you're ready to go we don't dilly -dally when we wait for Jesus right waiting for Jesus is not passive rather it's actively waiting for the coming of Christ could be any day and that's that's really how the church has lived all throughout history that's how the

New Testament authors write he could come anytime it's imminent now while the first metaphor refers to the manner of how we trust the second metaphor describes how long it says your lamps burning right what does your lamps burning mean well when would you turn on the lamp when you anticipate something at night right at night you're not anticipating anything you turn off the lamp you go to sleep well you turn on the lamp because you anticipate something big is going to happen even during the time in which you normally would not expect any action what that means is be ready at all times be ready when it seems like he's not coming back anytime soon be prepared when others are not for us it may be be ready when the world's on lockdown be ready when the world is status quo be ready when everyone's living their lives be ready when people enjoy their lives you just don't know in the next four verses

Jesus illustrates this posture with two parables first is a positive one positive incentive to vigilantly wait the second is actually a negative one first from verses 36 to 38

Jesus shows us what this looks like positively verse 36 sets the context and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master when he will return from the wedding that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately the context is the disciples are to be like servants or slaves faithfully and vigilantly for the return of their master who is

Jesus the reference to the wedding cannot be the marriage supper of the lamb because the disciples would be part of that the wedding actually points to the unpredictability of the master's return here's what

I mean unlike the modern weddings where everything is scheduled right be there at 430 for the ceremony and get to this location at 530 for the reception and dance until 930 you better go home after that rather unlike our modern wedding ancient

Jewish weddings were unpredictable they could last for days even a week so hence the servants were to be alert at all times to serve their master the moment he returns that could be at any moment and the truly trustworthy servants were always ready to immediately respond to that knock

Jesus disciples must be prepared for the return of the king at any time and in the subsequent verses

Jesus pronounces blessings on the servant who is ready the faithful ones blessed are those servants whom the master when he comes will find watching they're watching they're not sleeping they're watching assuredly

I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat and will come and serve them the blessing here is actually a divine favor blessing in the

Bible is intimately connected to God and who he is blessing means security that you find only in God everything else that you trust may fall apart crumble betray you but not

God he is secure blessing means fulfillment joy contentment the jet there's just no lack that's blessing so all of which are from God and for those servants who are alert and faithful to watch ready to receive their master they are the blessed ones not only that look at the content of the blessing the master is so overjoyed at their at his faithful servant that he is the one himself to serve

I think the point of the parable this almost absurdity of this picture is the point the blessing is that the master is guarding himself to serve the servants what kind of master does that the one who is overjoyed by the watchful servants who are ready to respond to his return it's a total reversal at the reality of the prepared servants the master will be the one guarding himself it's normally the servants gotta get to work not so here it's the master and he will serve a feast what a splendid picture what an honor now verse 38 emphasizes the unpredictable manner of the master's return and if he should come in the second watch or come in the third watch and find them so blessed are those servants the meaning of watches second watch third watch that's how the ancient people divided up their times there are two ways how the ancient people divided their times in this region of Israel so one would be the

Roman time the Roman time they would divided up by each watch would be three hours from 6 p .m.

to 6 a .m. so it would be divided up in four the second watch would be actually 9 p .m.

to 3 a .m. second to third watches 9 p .m. to 3 a .m. because the first watch would be 6 p .m.

to 9 p .m. second watch 9 p .m. to 12 a .m. midnight to 3 a .m. would be the third watch and that the fourth watch the last watch would be 3 p .m.

to 3 a .m. rather to 6 a .m. that's the Roman way the Jewish way they divided 6 p .m.

to 6 a .m. into three so the second and third watch for the

Jewish way would be 10 p .m. to 6 a .m. right so I think

Luke is going with the Roman way because in Acts 12 for he divides it up into four but the meaning does not change either way whether Luke is saying 9 p .m.

to 3 a .m. or 10 p .m. to 6 a .m. the point is that the master would come back in an unexpected time whether it's 9 p .m.

to 3 a .m. or 10 p .m. to 6 a .m. it's during a time frame in which most people are not alert or awake to receive the guest or in this case the master so what

Jesus is saying blessed are the servants who are ready even in the times when it's unexpected unpredictable right a careful night watch is depicted here stay awake to hear the knock and respond and there's a huge incentive to be prepared and the second illustration here actually depicts a negative side but know this that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into so this is a completely new parable this time there's the master of the house the owner of the house and if he had just stayed awake and had been alert he wouldn't have suffered the damage done by the thieves stealing his goods so while the last illustration showed the positive incentive the reward for our preparedness this illustration shows the damage done if we're not prepared just like the owner of the house the owner of the house would not have been robbed if he had stayed alert at night in fact if he had known that the thief would come that night he would have been prepared and what this means is that watchfulness in Christian life is a must whether positively

Jesus reward or negatively a tremendous damage to your own household and Jesus restates the command in verse 35 and adds the reason in verse 40 therefore you also be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect the son of man all this phrase here is an allusion to Daniel 7 in Daniel 7 there's a huge heavenly vision the

Prophet Daniel sees the thrones being set up which is odd that there are multiple thrones in heaven when there's one king

God all their thrones set up and thousands thousands of angelic hosts surrounding the thrones and God sits down the ancient of days he sits down in his throne and before the ancient of days what looks like a son of man a human figure shows up and the ancient of days gives authority all authority over all the nations to this human figure and what

Jesus is saying here is that he is that son of man he's the one who has the full authority to judge all the nations and what we must keep in mind is that as disciples of Jesus we must always be ready for the coming of Jesus to judge the world make all things right and as Christians we need to not be dissuaded from watchfulness there are so many competing factions for our attention

I mean the whole tech social media thing that rose up in the last couple decades is about attention no one pays for social media accounts because what you're paying them is your attention it's what you're focused on and for the younger saints who are prone to have these competing factions for your attention because you're the major people who spend time and money there are entertainment connections and even negative fear of negative opinions of men that compete for your attention all time you might have heard phrases like just live a little the world will try to persuade you that you're actually missing out on something you're missing out on life right now by choosing when you choose to do this instead of that you're missing out or when you abstaining from doing something you're go for these entertainments use these substances pursue these unwise relationships connections networks this passage tells us that if we are truly anticipating

Jesus to come back at any time our lives now would reflect that many things that occupy our minds in fact would not be there if we are daily reminding ourselves that Jesus could come back even today we wouldn't feel we missed out on anything but the world claims to be valuable if we believe that Jesus would be back today to make all things right you're not missing out by not smoking pot or getting high if you believe that the coming of Christ could be at any moment because Jesus when he comes back will fill you with eternal happiness that the whole world cannot buy you're not missing out by not sleeping around if you believe the coming of Christ will fill fulfill you all of your longings and you will experience the type of love that you cannot gain experience from the whole world and Jesus himself offers to you you can really be watchful because you know he's coming watch for Christ long for his return make that your utmost desire not saying don't don't look forward to special events vacations with family good food time with friends those are all great things but first and foremost every day you wake up it's a day closer to his return that's something to celebrate every single morning

I'm one day closer to Jesus return now for the older saints those things you might be

I don't want any of that I don't have social media I don't want to smoke pot but we have a different temptation you fought the battles but now your battle worn you wonder if they the year this year is the year that Christ takes you home you've seen various heresies seep into the church the last decades and you faithfully spoke against all of them communism materialism naturalism hidden ism atheism attack on scriptures in errancy right oh not every part of the

Bible is correct right that's the heresy challenge on the substitutionary atonement right the heresy is that oh

Jesus didn't die for your sin he just died as a model for love well then sin still remains in us that's a big problem the new age movement that was a huge thing decades ago perversion of marriage and disfigurement of genders that's the current one and add to that cultural marxism and new age spiritualism again returns and questioning the sufficiency of scripture and there's there just seems to be no end in sight just like the weeds the more you remove the more they pop out the next day you're one staunch booming opposition against these things you you vocally spoke against them against them and that that fight that has become a whimper or just dejected silence this passage tells us don't let your guard down now fight the good fight run the race faithfully keep running even if it hurts and that could be physical continue to disciple the next generation take them under your wings like you used to invite them over to show them what faithful living looks like they have a lot to learn they need that wisdom they need to learn how to go through suffering persecution mockery losing jobs losing family how to grieve in a godly manner how to defend the faith in a loving way how to pray for the loved ones who keep to rejecting

Christ sure the young ones may call you bigots but in the end none of their negative opinions matter the only opinion that matters is that of Christ for the older Saints the mature

Saints our goal is to be remembered for our watchfulness until the end faithfulness who knows

Christ could come back before rather than call you back now to whom does this instruction apply the command for faithful watchfulness applies to all because we all will have to give accounts to Jesus for what he has entrusted to us the command to faithful watchfulness applies to all because we all have to give account to Jesus for what he has entrusted to us now after sharing the these parables

Peter asked Lord do you speak this parable only to us or to all people instead of directly answering

Peter's question Jesus paints a few portraits of faithful and unfaithful servants from verses 42 through 47

Jesus gives us four types of servants faithful servant that's the first one deliberately disobedient servant consciously unprepared servant and the ignorant servant the one faithful servant versus three different types of unfaithful servants unprepared servants first verses 42 through 44 described the faithful servant who then is the faithful and wise steward whom his master will make ruler over his household to give them their portion of food in due season now this servant is not only faithful he is also wise now wisdom here does not mean the amount of information known we'll see later on that the amount of information does not help the last the next two unfaithful servants but it's rather wisdom means living with the knowledge of the

God -given responsibility and God's interest in our lives awareness of God's will and awareness of God's interaction how

God affects our lives it's a deep awareness of that wisdom is making choices which

God would have us to choose Wisdom is making choices in which

God would have us to choose so what does this faithful servant do when the master is gone well he gives other servants others in the household the portion of food in due season this is a picture of sound stewardship while the master is gone the faithful servant takes care of the rest of the household with what belongs to the master in the first place he is stewarding the master's goods for the purpose of serving his master's plan and the master's household he distributes their food so that they are all well cared for he executes the master's will for the house faithfully even in his absence verse 43 then pronounces the blessing on such a servant blessed is that servant whom his master will find doing so when he comes and verse 44 describes the reward that is due truly

I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has the reward for faithfulness is in fact greater responsibility over what belongs to the master he was faithful with the household now he will be faithful as a ruler in the coming kingdom this is a greater administrative post when the king returns a modern -day example would be when a presidential candidate wins the election the faithful and trustworthy campaign manager often becomes the chief of staff no longer is he just managing a branch of people of interns he's the chief of staff to the president of the

United States everyone who is anyone who needs to see the president must go through the chief of staff that's kind of the modern illustration of that reward greater responsibility it's not just like more work no it's greater honor now on the other hand we see the action and response of the deliberately disobedient servant in the following two verses but if that servant says in his heart my master is delaying his coming and begins to beat the male and female servants into eat and drink and be drunk this servant even from his heart has no concern for the master and we can see this not only from what he's meditating in his mind but what he does it's both and he starts beating his master's servant so it starts to cost first he abuses the other servants indiscriminately male female doesn't matter

I'm going to beat you and then he starts to eat and drink which is not a bad thing then he gets drunk what that means is first the others in the household who need to eat and drink are not getting in second he's self -indulging he's serving himself at the cost of his master's goods whether human capital is in the other servants or the material capital as in food and drinks this servant at the delay of his master is indulging himself deliberately in our modern day these are the so -called

Christian leaders who fleece the flock for their benefit they guilt -trip the lay people to give more so that they could afford another private jet they set up an impeccable avatar and abuse

God's people for their benefit in secret financial abuse sexual abuse manipulation spiritual abuse because they think their masters not watching that's that's important those pastors priests whatever elders speakers theologians if they are abusing

God's people or their resources it screams unfaithfulness you don't need them to say a heresy they're living now what will happen to such a servant the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and then at an hour when he is not aware and will cut him into and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers the irony is that this servant who abused his master servants and wasted the master's goods thought his master was not looking that's why he was doing this but the master in reality will appear when the servant is not looking for him and in reality and and and he will know what happened in his absence and the master would dismember the servant and kick him out to be with the unbelievers it's it's it's the type of judgment it's the harshest form of judgment in this passage a deliberately self -indulging disobedient abusive servant will be treated just the same as an unbeliever on the judgment day that's because he does not belong to the flock he does not belong to Jesus this is because whenever abuses happen and I mean all forms of abuse it doesn't have to leave a physical mark physical emotional spiritual sexual financial manipulation any of that they occur only when the abuser believes that deep inside that Jesus Christ is not really coming back because you can't be doing that to God's people unless you you in implicitly don't believe that Jesus is coming back how can you how can you do that to God's people how can you do that knowing how much

God loves them how can you dehumanize them use them like tools so a household manager that exploits

God's people is precisely the enemy of God and his people it does not matter how theological sound you are doesn't matter how long you've ministered in the church it baffles me when people try to justify our pastors who have abused by saying that they've been faithful for 20 30 40 years doesn't matter that does not negate the abuse that happened does not matter how long you serve the church if you abuse

God's people in any way what it's what the passage is saying is that Jesus will deal with you as an unbeliever the next example of unwatchfulness is that of a conscious disobedience without the exploitation or abuse of others and that servant verse 47 who knew his master's will and did not prepare himself or do according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes now this servant does not really care for the master's return he is on concerned he disregards

Jesus return at the core of this response is the servants unbelief in that God will return and unless you believe that the master will not return how could you know his will and not do them so this servant actually knows what he's ought to do he just chooses not to do it and you can even see see this in like even children young students young students have the sense to be quiet and pretend to be working right before the teacher enters the room it's coming the footsteps but this servant doesn't have even the sensibility to do that now this servant is not abusing

God's people he's just not ready and hence his punishment will be lighter and the last example of unwatchfulness is that of disobedience by ignorance but he who did not know yet committed things deserving of stripes shall be beaten with few it is the least serious case of all because he did not know it the punishment is the lightest out of all of them yet this servant is not guilt free he is still guilty for not being prepared for the return of his master just because he did not know how to prepare doesn't let him off the hook right on the last day sin committed by ignorance will not be accepted before the judgment seat of now

Jesus will still be just and fair to give what they're due and and some people might receive lighter punishment because they didn't know as much but they're still guilty before and this is because the whole realm of nature proclaims the power and the nature of God to whom we must give account and that's from Romans 1 in fact most of civilization in the world wherever they are they look at the nature they look at all of creation and then they realize there is someone out there who's greater than them the problem however is they start creating

God in their own image that's the simple part in the end the nature even proclaims that there is

God out there it's only when we get to the really corrupted version of the

Western civilization we start denying that even but really no one is off the hook because it's utter foolishness to believe that the intricacy of life and all there's to it could have happened by chance you have to actively rebelliously ignore evidence to get that far and in fact even babies when they do wrong and know they've done wrong and they will try to hide like they know it you don't have to teach them how to hide from sin ignorance does not justify unpreparedness and ignorance does not justify unfaithfulness either after all ignorance cannot blot out sin because only

Jesus atoning death on the cross his pure blood erases our sin and its record however it is important to note that the last unfaithful servant will not face the same punishment as the first two unfaithful servants

God judges justly and fairly he omnisciently takes into account every detail of each case and rules justly now how does he do it for everyone to whom much is given from him much will be required and to whom much has been committed of him they will ask the more the more you're given the more responsibility that's expected of you the goal of this parable with the four different types of servants one faithful and three unfaithful must not be to receive the least number of stripes the temptation is there what is the minimum amount of watchfulness that I'm committed to that's required of my life after all

I don't I don't want to be one of those crazy people who give up everything for Christ kind of like Donna Wolfhard I don't want to be serving in serving prison ministry after my own retirement what's the minimum amount give me that I'll serve the time it may even become it may be

I mean the desire might even be because of persecution right how long can

I stay silent without compromising my faithfulness after all

I don't want to lose my job I don't want people ask me is it okay for former you know fill in the blank

Muslim Hindu right Buddhist you know you know still to go to the temple and bow down but then you know in his mind he's still bowing down to Jesus right it's that it's that minimum requirement right but it's about the heart isn't it right can

I be watchful sort of can I be faithful at the lowest level and be okay and in and and even in our culture is like is it okay if a transgender person tells me to use the wrong pronoun

I just go with it because I don't I don't I want to be a loving neighbor now

Jesus answers none of those questions but rather he gives us four different types of servants and the only one of the four will live faithfully and watchfully until the end this faithful servant does not look toward his own interest but the interest and the will of his own master and the rest of the servants his focus is not his own life his focus is on his master and his household what we are not told is how much the servant must have given up to serve the master well during his absence how much grumbling did he have to silence from the other servants how much ration did how much of his own personal food did he have to give up to feed other servants what we also don't see is how many countless nights he stayed up stayed up because staying faithful is that difficult you know the servants who work for you they start grumbling you said the master's coming what's happening are you sure are you sure that we need to keep doing this he's not even here he hasn't been here for years we'll keep working

Jesus doesn't give us the microscopic view of this faithful servant's life but rather a telescopic one when the master returns he will reward his faithful servant with greater responsibility the master will promote him to much higher position for his past faithfulness the focus in the end is the return of the master the countless tears shed countless sighs that came from his mouth we'll never know because that's not the point the point is the master is returning and that is what shaped the servant's faithfulness all of you have been entrusted with some measure of responsibility before your master

Jesus Christ whether you're called to raise your kids in Christ whether you're called to be the light to your unbelieving family friends and colleagues despite how many times they've rejected the gospel or make fun of you whether you're called to be faithful husbands or faithful wives they're all callings there's these are all what

God has given you Jesus has placed you in those positions now so that you may faithfully live there are disheartening seasons dry seasons so much labor yet no fruit you planted the seeds of the gospel over and over again but it seems like there's no growth there disappointments you've invested so much of your time and effort into a person countless hours of praying but even during those time our focus is on Jesus and his second coming because in the end you're not judged by the amount of fruit you produced you're judged on the faithfulness watchfulness that you waited for the master how the other servants or other people who are placed in your lives that you're responsible for how they responded to faith is none of your business we surrender the outcome to God but when

Jesus comes back you'll stand before him with how faithfully you dealt with what he has given and for the faithful ones out there you will be vindicated every tear shed every hour of prayer every time they rejected your gospel sharing would have been worth it because Jesus will reward you the first thing you want to hear during your exit interview when you meet

Jesus is well good and faithful servant and turn to the joy of your master that is the goal that's what we put our sight father we're thankful that we can be watchful and faithful until the end because you empower us to do so help us to not be distracted by menial things sinful things unnecessary things but that we would focus on the coming of Christ and the joy at the sight of seeing