Watchfully Waiting Luke 12 Vs 35 48

Watchful Readiness for the Coming of Christ

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 focused 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, right?

I mean 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 the one coming after the Gen Z, right?

They're not having kids. They're also delaying having kids but they're spending all their wealth and time on themselves, right? And the reason why they do that is because they believe their lives are all theirs to it.

There's 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 got to 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. Oh 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 whom most of this generation does not believe in.

And you may think ah 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. They gotta start spending. But again it's the point is their eschatology, their eschatology, their view on what's going to 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 judge the world.

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 loincloths. You might have heard of this before. It's a very 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. Well, 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 actions. 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 really how the church has lived all throughout history.

That's how the New Testament authors write. He could come any time. 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 lamp's burning, right?

What does your lamp's burning mean? Well, when would you turn on the lamp? When you anticipate something at night, right? At night, if 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 are enjoying their lives.

You just don't know. In the next four verses, Jesus illustrates this posture with two parables. First is a positive one. It's a 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.

But you better go home after that, right? 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 knock 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. 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 his faithful servant that he is the one girding himself to serve them a feast. I think the point of the parable, almost the absurdity of this picture is the point.

The blessing is that the master is girding himself to serve the servants. What kind of master does that? Well, 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 girding himself. It's normally the servants, got to get to work. Not so here. It's the master who will. And he will serve a feast to them.

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 time, 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 up their times in this region of Israel.

So, one would be the Roman time. The Roman time, they would divide it up by each watch would be three hours from 6 p .m. to 6 a .m. So, it would be divided up in four, right? So, the second watch would be actually 9 p .m. to 3 a .m.

Second to third watch is 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 the fourth watch, the last watch, would be 3 a .m. 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 .4, 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 being 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, right?

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, 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. Well, there are thrones set up, and thousands and 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 your 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 group of people who spend time and money, there are entertainments, connections, and even negative fear of negative opinions of men that compete for your attention all times.

You might have heard phrases like, just live a little. The world will try to persuade you that you are actually missing out on something. You're missing out on life right now by choosing to live for Christ.

When you choose to do this instead of that, you're missing out. But when you're abstaining from doing something, you're missing out. Right? 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 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 it 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 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 like, I don't want any of that.

I don't have social media. I don't want a smoke pot, but we have a different temptation. You fought the battles, but now you're battle worn. You wonder if 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, hedonism, atheism, attack on scriptures inerrancy, 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 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 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 generations. 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 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. And for the older saints, the mature saints, our goal is to be remembered for our watchfulness until the end.

Faithfulness until the end. 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 account 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. After sharing these parables, Peter asks, 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 -47, Jesus gives us four types of servants. Faithful servant, 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 -44 describe 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 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 in our lives. 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 is 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, oh gee, more work. No, it's a 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. Oh, he's delayed. But what he does, right? It's both and. He starts beating his master's servants.

So it starts to cost, right? First, the abuse. 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 it. Second, he's self-indulging, right? He's serving himself at the cost of his master's goods.

Whether human capital as 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 master's 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 one. 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 in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.

The irony is that this servant who abused his master's 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 he will know what happened in his absence.

Hence, the master will dismember the servant and kick him out to be with the unbelievers. 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 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. It doesn't matter how long you've ministered in the church. It baffles me when people try to justify pastors who have abused by saying that they've been faithful for 20, 30, 40 years.

It doesn't matter. That does not negate the abuse that happened. It does not matter how long you've served the church. If you abuse God's people in any way, 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 unconcerned. He disregards Jesus' return. At the core of this response is the servant's 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 ought to do. He just chooses not to do it. And you can even see this in even children, young students. Young students have the sense to be quiet and pretend to be working right before the teacher enters the room.

He's coming, he'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, verse 48. 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.

Thus, 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. Now, Jesus will still be just and fair to give what they're due. And some people might receive lighter punishment because they didn't know as much.

But they're still guilty before God. 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 119. 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 sinful part. In the end, the nature even proclaims that there's 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. I mean, 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 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 prison, you know, serving prison ministry after my own retirement.

What's the minimum amount? Just 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 to lose my friends and family. I've heard people ask me, is it okay for former Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, still to go to the temple and bow down, but then in his mind, he's still bowing down to Jesus, right?

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 even in our culture, it's like, is it okay if a transgender person tells me to use the wrong pronoun?

And 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 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.

These are 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 are disappointments. You've invested so much of your time and effort into a person. Countless hours of praying, but even during those times, 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've dealt with what he has given you, and for the faithful ones out there, you will be vindicated.

Every tear shed, every hour of prayer, every time they rejected your gospel of 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 done, my good and faithful servant.

Enter into the joy of your master. That is the goal. That's what we put our sight on. 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 Christ face to face would fill our hearts daily and encourage us to get through the day or the life season, however hard it may be.

Help us to focus on you today. In Jesus' name.