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Sermon: Stay Dressed For Action Date: February 18, 2024, Morning Text: Luke 12:35–48 Series: Luke Preacher: Brian Garcia Audio: https://storage.googleapis.com/pbc-ca-sermons/2024/240218-StayDressedForAction.aac
Well, good morning, beloved.
You have a Bible.
Please turn to the gospel of Luke chapter 12, Luke
chapter 12, verses
35 to 48.
When you have that, please do stand for the reading of God's word.
Again, the text is Luke chapter 12, starting verse 35, hear ye this morning the word of.
The Lord.
Stay dressed for action, and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come
home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.
Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.
Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and
serve them.
If he comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them awake, blessed are those.
Servants.
But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming,
he would not have left his house to be broken into.
You must also be ready, for the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Peter said, Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?
And the Lord said, who then is the faithful and wise manager whom his master will
set over his household to give them their portion of food at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.
Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.
But if the servant says to himself, my master is delayed in coming, and begins to beat the male and female servants
and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, in an hour
he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful.
And the servant who knew his master's will, but did not get ready or act according to his will,
will receive a severe beating.
But the one who did not know and did what deserved the beating will receive a light.
Beating.
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.
This is the word of the Lord.
You may be seated.
Join me as we pray.
Father, we come before you in the precious name of Jesus Christ, by
whom we have received reconciliation with you, by means of the regenerating work of the
Holy Spirit.
We approach you, O Triune Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit, beseeching you
this morning to give in us a heart to receive and ears to hear, that which you have laid
before us in the Gospel of Luke.
And we pray, Lord, that we would internalize these truths and that we would be, in fact, ready for action,
fit for action, waiting upon the Master's return for the sure promise of Scripture is this,
that the Lord Jesus Christ shall come again in glory.
And Lord Jesus, may you find us to be a people eagerly waiting and expecting
and with great joy and anticipation, that great arrival.
And Lord, may we not be like the covenant people of past who, when our visitation came,
they were found to be unfaithful servants.
May we be found to be faithful servants in this day for your glory and your namesake.
Amen.
Have you ever had great anticipation for an event, for
a day maybe?
Most of you know, I grew up as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, and as a kid, I always had this weird relationship with
Christmas because we get this time off in December.
And most kids are building up great anticipation for Christmas presents.
And as one of Jehovah's Witnesses in my upbringing, we didn't celebrate Christmas.
We didn't get any gifts on Christmas.
Maybe if we're lucky, we might get a gift in that season, but it certainly wouldn't be called a Christmas
present.
And so for me, I saw the world's anticipation, the kids' anticipation for Christmas and all the things that they were
expecting, eagerly awaiting, and I couldn't help myself also to have some form, some level of anticipation, even though
I knew I wasn't going to receive anything.
You see, anticipation can be a great thing.
It can be a wonderful thing in that it helps us, it motivates us, it helps us to look towards
something in the future that is yet to be realized and fulfilled.
Here in the gospel of Luke chapter 12, Jesus is calling for his people, for his disciples, for those who
love him, to have great anticipation for his return.
And he puts it this way in Luke chapter 12, verse 35.
He says, stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning.
Jesus is admonishing his people to be dressed for action.
If you received a bulletin this morning, you received inserts this week, and you can join along in the teaching
by filling in the blank spaces that Jesus admonishes us to be dressed for action.
Did you ever lose track of time and miss maybe an important
appointment or missed a flight or a bus ride?
In my travels back and forth to the East Coast to be with my family, we have had instances where
either I'm late or the plane is late and it makes a mess of the travel schedule.
The importance of readiness cannot be overstated.
In terms of domestic travel, for instance, they tell you if you go to the airport that you should be there at least
two hours ahead.
No, I like to flirt with destiny and I like to push the limits of that because I absolutely
hate waiting at the airport.
It to me is such a waste of time.
And usually when I go, there's no lines in the TSA, especially when you're flying out of here in San Jose, the lines are not that crazy.
But then there's been a couple of times where I meet the line and it is nearly at the door
and my flight is about to get ready to board in 30 minutes.
You see, anticipation and readiness have to go hand in hand.
One can have great anticipation, but if you're not ready, if you don't give yourself the time, the space
to ready that anticipation, then you will be lost.
You will be found not ready when the appointment comes.
You see, in the previous section of Scripture, Jesus warned us not to be caught up with the anxieties of this life, the anxieties of this
world, which can easily divert our attention from the kingdom hope which we have in Jesus.
But now he turns his attention to give this admonishment to be prepared for action, to
be watchful, to be prepared for our master's return.
And the call is simple.
He says to stay dressed for action.
In the Greek here, you might see a footnote in your Bible if you're reading from the ESV, the term that is
used here in the Greek literally means to gird up your loins.
Loins, this is, again, reference to the style of clothing back in the day.
If you were seeing imageries or pictures of Jesus or other first century characters in the Bible, you
see that they're wearing something akin to what you might recognize as a dress.
It's not actually a dress, but it looks kind of like a dress.
And one of the components of this dress at the time is that there are ways in which
you can roll up kind of the sleeves of the bottom dress
so that if you needed to, you could run and you can be found
ready and meet the needs of the moment.
And so Jesus is literally calling them to gird up their loins, to take their clothing and to roll it up to be
ready for action.
And the call to stay dressed for action or to gird up the loins, Jesus is calling or recalling to his disciples
the archetypical image of preparedness by conjuring the image of an
Israelite taking his loins and wrapping it to actually make a belt.
You see, they would take that fabric of clothing and not only would they roll it up, but then they would also
make it as such that it would become a belt to hold the rest of their dress.
Up.
And so this was done so that a man's legs were not hindered for
running or battle.
Like we see in Exodus chapter 12 verse 11, where God commands his people to gird
up their loins to be ready for action, to be ready on this Exodus trip.
It's akin today to the phrase that's used in the business world or in
work when they say, today's going to be a tough day, son, so roll up your sleeves.
It is a imagery of action and not simply reaction.
Christians today are very reactionary.
We're not always ready for the moment.
We're usually reacting rather than being proactive.
And Jesus is calling his people to be a proactive people, to roll up their sleeves, to
gird up their loins, to be ready on that great day of action, on that great Exodus, to be
ready for the Lord's work and for his return.
This is, of course, alluding to a constant state of readiness for the Christian.
Notice again, verse 35, stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning.
You only burn a lamp at nighttime, recognizing that sometimes in life,
one must be found ready, not just during the time of day, but also at night.
There's a spiritual metaphor that is at work here.
Not only is he referring to the distinction of day and night as we would understand today, but he's also alluding to the fact
that the world in which we live in is spiritually dark.
You look out these windows, these great windows of this church edifice, and obviously you see the outside.
It's a beautiful day.
The light is coming in.
It's shining in, bestowing light and warmth to us.
But when you really consider what's outside of these doors and windows is a
world not filled with light, but instead filled with darkness.
And so the Lord Jesus reminds us that the world is dark.
Therefore, you must always have your lamp burning.
Your lamp meaning your spiritual state of readiness, your walk with the Lord.
The light that you have in you being the light of the gospel of Christ ought to always be
on and ready to illuminate, to shine brightly in a world that is so
darkened by sin and wickedness.
And so the Lord Jesus calls us to keep our lamps burning.
So if you want to write this in the notes as well, Jesus admonishes us to be dressed for action, keeping
our lamps burning, meaning this, that we are to be ready for
our master, being ready for our master.
Now if you would turn your attention to what the word of God says here in verse 36, and be like the men who are waiting for their
master to come home from the wedding feast, so they may open the door to him at once when he comes and
knocks.
Jesus again is pointing to the state of spiritual readiness that his people must
have.
In what sense should the Christian be ready?
The Christian ought to be ready for a couple of things.
One, for every good work.
We are called to be a distinct people, ready for every good work.
Meaning that in our day -to -day lives, in our interpersonal relationships, at our job site,
in our school, wherever it is that we have a field of responsibility or influence,
we are called to be ready for kingdom service.
Meaning that we should always be ready once to be prepared to give,
as the Scripture says in 1 Peter 3 .15, to give an answer to the hope that lies within
us.
To be ready to give a defense for the Christian gospel, to be a witness to unbelievers.
We ought to be ready for that action.
We also ought to be ready and be found ready, not only to be
a good witness in our lives and community, but we should also be found ready
to be of service in the kingdom in the local church.
Meaning that when there's areas of opportunity, of service, that we make ourselves available
to the master and to his work.
Again, what we see here is this dichotomy that Jesus sets up between a master and his servants.
Understand the nature of those roles and of the
responsibilities that come with it.
The master is calling us to service.
He says, stay dressed for action.
It's like if you had a security job and your boss lets you know, hey, there's some
things that might go down, so I need you to be ready and alert.
Imagine if on that day you were found, instead of being ready and alert, you're found to be
in the office snoozing.
You may not know this about me, but I worked a security job once before.
I was what's called an asset protection officer at my local
Walmart.
Yes, Walmart has secret undercover agents that are watching people and making
sure that there's not shoplifting activities.
That was one of my jobs and responsibilities.
When my son, my firstborn was born, Nehemiah, I was very restless,
as you can imagine, being a first -time dad and not having a lot of sleep.
One day, on one of the most important days when our district manager for asset
protection was coming into town, I was found to be snoozing for maybe about
15 minutes.
The person who checks the cameras, which was me, I didn't realize that someone was checking that
camera, which was my boss.
When the hour came, he asked me, what were you doing?
I said, well, I think it's pretty self -evident.
I was tired.
Thankfully, they were gracious enough to work with me in the understanding of my situation.
How embarrassing was that for me?
I was so embarrassed, and I was terrified of what the implications would mean if I was to be let go.
In the same way, in the same fashion, brothers and sisters, and even with more anticipation, we ought to be found
ready and not snoozing when it comes to kingdom work in action.
We have to be a people that are ready to serve both out in the world for
the Christian witness and testimony, but also within the local church.
And of course, there is an eschatological expectation that Jesus is also asking
us to consider and to build up, and that is for His glorious return.
Jesus Christ came in the fullness of time, born of the Virgin Mary,
lived a holy, perfect, sinless life.
As a result of His perfect obedience, He purchased for us an eternal salvation by going
so far as death, even death on a cross.
And the Bible says in Philippians chapter 2, therefore God has highly exalted this Jesus and given Him the name that is above every
name.
So in the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
And this Jesus is now ascended at the right hand of the Father where He now lives forever as our
high priest and He intercedes for us even now as we speak.
This great and exalted Jesus is coming again.
As sure as He has come the first time, so He shall come again,
not dealing with sin, but rather to bring forth salvation to all those who are eagerly
expecting Him.
Jesus has certainly come.
You see, I like a lot of things in the apologetic world, and I've been listening more and more
to this debate surrounding what's called the theory of the historical Jesus.
And there are people out there who believe that Jesus did not exist, that rather He was a
mythological character that has been reincarnated through other various myths.
So for instance, they make Him akin to the Horus god of the Egyptians who
supposedly had 12 disciples, who died, who was resurrected.
And also akin to the Greek god called
Mithras, or the Persian god of Mithras, and He also supposedly had 12 disciples.
He also had a ministry.
He then also died, and then He was resurrected.
And that Jesus is just a neat retelling of this ancient mythology.
And when you dig a little bit deeper down the surface, you actually recognize this, that all of it is a
farce.
I'm a person who I loved studying Egyptology as a kid, so when I heard this, I was suspicious because I
never heard of Horus being referred to as this messianic figure, son of God, light of the world, having
12 disciples, and then having a death and resurrection.
This was all foreign to me, and so when I digged a little bit deeper, I saw that Horus had no such equivalency
to Jesus.
When they say that He had 12 disciples, that's not true.
When they say that Horus died, well, that is true.
He was cut into several pieces.
And then they say He was resurrected.
Well, not really.
His mother, Isis, came and had to bring all the pieces of His body from the Nile
River and bring them back completely, and then kind of raise them in a weird sense, nothing even
close to the resurrection account of Jesus.
And so they bring these farce comparisons.
And even individuals like Bart Ehrman, who's an apostate, who's a scholar, who was a previous evangelical
scholar, even testifies that Jesus Christ was surely a historical
person, that Paul had an actual, probably
mythical encounter that changed his life.
Even someone like Bart Ehrman would agree that Jesus actually existed.
Jesus truly came.
Jesus actually existed.
Jesus truly made these incredible divine claims.
And among His claims, brothers and sisters, is that Jesus said He will come back.
Are you ready?
Are you dressed for action?
Is the return of Christ something that is part of your daily anticipation, desire,
and walk?
Now, of course, without getting into too much controversy, the spectrum of
eschatological expectations runs the gamut within Christianity.
You have all sorts of theories and theologies and understandings of the second coming.
So I want to focus on some things that we would all at least hold in common.
When you look at the great ecumenical councils of the church that touch on the return of Christ,
most of them, and even along with some of the great confessions of the faith, all basically agree on one thing.
Jesus Christ is coming again to judge the quick and the dead.
Amen?
So we can all agree on that.
Jesus Christ is coming.
He is the judge of the world, and He shall judge the world in righteousness when He appears in the brightness of
His coming.
Jesus is building us or asking us to have this innate desire for
His return.
Notice what it says in verse 37.
Blessed are those servants whom the Master finds awake when He comes.
Truly I say to you, He will dress Himself for service and have them
recline at a table, and He will come and serve them.
So, beloved, I want you to write this into notes.
Blessed is the one who is found awake
at our Lord's coming.
Along the theme of anticipation, again, another question I would have for you to consider.
Have you ever been so excited for something that you could literally not sleep?
Again, I think to the kids around Christmas time.
Maybe the kids have so much anticipation like mine is that they can't even sleep.
Maybe they're just too excited.
Waiting for Christ's return means to be waiting in a state of action and readiness,
not in a state of passivity.
It's not a passive, wake me up when you're ready type of waiting.
Instead, it's a being found awake, alert, ready to go
when Christ is revealed from heaven.
You see, in this wicked age, in this wicked world that we live in, be sure to find yourselves
awake and not woke because the two are not the same.
Be awake to the Lord's return.
Be awake to the matter of God's justice.
Be awake to the matters of righteousness, but not woke in the sense in which the world has
twisted these words and meanings.
See, wokeness today is more of a mental disease or illness that on the
outside seems to be kind of good.
The term to be woke from a couple years ago and still kind of used in our vernacular today
was to be a person who was conscious of people's privileges, a person who is
conscious of people's struggles, whether it's through racial
struggles or poverty struggles or socioeconomic status, and these are all things on the outset that
seem to be good things to be aware of, but rather what the world does is that they then offer a
solution that is not based upon God's word.
Are there problems in the world today?
Yes.
Matter of fact, Jesus says you should expect trouble in this world.
You should expect there to be wickedness.
You should expect there to be wars.
You should expect there to be diseases.
These are all things to be expected as we are expecting the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But what's the solution?
The world says that the solution is that we all share in the common misery, whether it's through
cultural Marxism or it's through some social theory, but the reality is that the only
answer to the sickness of today's world is not
wokeism, but it's being awake to the gospel, and the gospel is the
only thing that can make eyes to see and that give hearts that can be
changed and transformed.
You see, all the social theories in the world will fall short of changing the human heart.
All of them.
The only thing that can effectively change the heart is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The world will never be able to offer what Christ through his gospel offers.
Therefore, we should be awake to the truth of God's word.
We should be awake to the realities of this world, the reality of God's love, the reality of God's justice, but also the
reality of Christ's coming.
Every Christian should have an eschatological expectation for the world that is to come.
Why?
Because all the woes that we see in this world, all the pain, all the suffering, all the
inequality, will one day find its resolve and find its
answer in the new world that Jesus is establishing through the church.
You see, there's a new world that's coming, that's coming into being, and it's happening right now.
You, the church, are part of the ushering in of a new heavens and new
earth where righteousness will dwell.
This is the eschatological climax of human history.
It's Jesus returning at the end of the age to bring and to make all things new again.
But he began that work.
He began that work at Pentecost when he sent forth his Holy Spirit to anoint the new
temple of God, tongues of fire descending upon the people.
And the people of God, now anointed for sacred service, are to be found awake serving the Lord
until he comes.
And when he comes, though we be the firstfruits of his resurrection, we are the
firstfruits of the new birth being regenerated by faith, we'll one day find the
consummation of all these things in the new heavens and new earth when Jesus returns in glory.
And so, we are called to be found awake
during this time.
Blessed are those who remain awake, though the world will seek to weigh you down and tire
you out with its many anxieties.
Beloved, it is indeed tiring to be a Christian in a world and culture that
celebrates and elevates sin and tramples upon truth and righteousness.
It's hard to be a Christian.
Can we be real transparent right now?
Maybe it was really hard to come to church this morning.
No?
You guys had it all together this morning?
You guys were all perfect?
You woke up, no issues, ready to go, singing hallelujah, praise the Lord right out of the bed?
I don't think so.
Let's be real.
It's hard.
Sometimes it's hard to be here on Sunday morning.
Sometimes it's hard to read our Bibles.
Sometimes it's hard your devotions.
Sometimes it's hard to do family worship.
Some of these things can be hard.
And it's so easy to be weighed down by the pressures and the anxieties of this world.
Be awake.
Be found ready.
Be dressed for actions.
Gird up your loins.
Roll up your sleeves.
It's time for work.
It's time to be found awake for Christian work and duty.
It's time to be found awake, awaiting the blessed return of our Savior,
Jesus Christ.
Because in the end, blessed is the one who is found awake, waiting for our Lord's coming.
This is what we see again when Jesus says, Truly I say to you, He will dress Himself for service and have them recline at the table.
He will come and serve them.
Jesus is waiting and eagerly expecting that you are expecting Him so then He can
come and serve you.
The Son of Man who came to serve and not to be served is ready to serve you.
Should you be found ready?
Should you be found watching and waiting and awake?
And it says in verse 38,.
And if he comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them awake, Blessed are
those servants.
Blessed.
Yeah, beloved, we know. We know.
It's hard sometimes to stay awake because the world can tire you down so much.
The stresses of illness, the stresses of work, the stresses of finances, these are all things which work
against us to weigh us down.
But we have in our possession something that outweighs all those things.
And it's our faith in Jesus, not just in what He has done and accomplished,
but what He has yet to do as we await His glorious return.
And so, beloved, have this joy and anticipation.
Don't fall asleep.
Live with such an eagerness and expectation of the Lord's return that you do not slumber spiritually,
but you live with anticipation and joy in His return.
Jesus puts it this way in verse 40.
He says,.
You must be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not
expect.
Eschatologically, I believe in the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, though many Christians will agree with that statement on the onset of it,
they seem to agree with that statement, most, because of their theological preconceived notions, actually
don't adhere to an imminent view of Christ's return, especially those
who hold to a dispensational view of the end times, meaning that there are
steps and things that are to be chronologically followed before Jesus comes.
And so, for instance, many would be waiting for a third temple.
So, Jesus can't come imminently.
He can't come at any hour because there first has to be a temple.
So, that's keeping Jesus from coming, so that's not an imminent return.
There would be other things that, in that framework, would keep Jesus from coming, like the revealing of the man of
lawlessness, who, according to our confession, is the Pope.
There would be also other things that would keep Jesus from coming imminently, which would hinder
Jesus from coming imminently.
And I believe that Jesus Christ can come at any moment because there is
little, if anything, left in eschatological history that would stop him
from returning.
Jesus is coming soon.
He is coming soon.
What does that soonness look like?
Beloved, would you tarry if Jesus were to come back in a year
or a thousand years?
Would the soonness and the imminency of his return change
anything in your Christian life?
Here's the expectation.
Jesus Christ is coming again.
But should it be in our lifetime?
We don't know.
But there's an even more microscopic view of eschatology that you should not
overlook.
There is biblical eschatology, study of the end times, looking at it from a historical
perspective of future events.
And then there's a personal eschatology, meaning there will come a day,
and in some it may be sooner than others, in which you shall see
the Lord Jesus, because you will die.
This is a personal, imminent eschatology that we all must grapple and face.
So then, in one sense or the other, you shall see him as he is.
The question is, will you be ready on that day?
And the personal eschatology of your own life and death, and therefore, as the Bible says in Hebrews 9, verse 27,
it is appointed for man to die once and then to judgment.
You shall see him.
You shall be judged.
On that day, will you be ready?
And how about if he should come before our death, will you be
ready on that day?
I heard a preacher once say that there are only two days that matter, today and that
day.
Truly then, consider where you are in your walk and
relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Are you one of those who are dressed for action with your lamps burning?
Are you among those of whom the Master shall say, you are a good, faithful, and wise
servant?
Or will you be found unfaithful, not waiting, not eagerly expecting the Lord's return?
Notice how the Lord Jesus goes on to answer Peter.
Peter says in verse 41, Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?
And the Lord said, who then is the faithful and wise manager,
whom his Master will set over his household to give them their portion of food at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his Master will find so doing when he comes.
So the question that is presented and posed by Jesus is this, who
is, I'm going to write this in the notes, the faithful and wise
manager?
Who is the faithful and wise manager?
Well, Jesus answers the question of who is that faithful and wise
manager when he says in verse 43, blessed is that servant whom his Master will
find so doing when he comes.
Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.
The one, the faithful and wise manager or servant is the one who is found
serving at the proper time.
You see, knowing Jesus is a responsibility, beloved.
Part of that responsibility of being faithful and wise as we manage that which Christ has entrusted
to us.
And the greatest of our responsibilities as Christians is indeed the great commission,
sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
This is among the highest priorities and callings and responsibilities and duties
of the Christian.
This is not just the work of the pastor or the clergy class.
This is the role and responsibility for anyone who wants to be found faithful
and wise before the coming of our Lord.
This is your obligation.
Now, of course, this obligation doesn't just stop there.
There's other areas of responsibilities that are included here in this call.
Among them are relationships, our family, our finances, our friendships, our
obligations, our businesses.
We must serve honorably and be found faithful stewards of God's grace in
every area of our life and influence.
Truly then, who is the faithful and wise manager?
Jesus has given every single person here something to manage.
Some great, some small, some little, some much.
But be assured of this.
Whether you're young or you're old or somewhere in between, God has given you an area
of responsibility.
How are you doing in that?
Ask yourself.
Are you rolling up your sleeves?
Are you girded up?
Are you ready and dressed for action?
Is your lamp burning in whatever area of responsibility God has entrusted to you
this morning?
Are you being found faithful and wise over the management of what
God has given you?
Certainly, there are so much spiritual applications here that we can't and should
not overlook.
But consider this in verse 45.
But if that servant says to himself, my master is delayed in coming, it begins to beat the male and
female servants and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not
expect them and an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the
unfaithful.
This is a serious call and a call to concern, a call for self -examination.
Jesus is saying that there will be among those who will not be faithful, who will not be wise.
Instead, on that hour of visitation, they will be found beating their fellow servants,
being unfaithful as stewards of God's grace.
This should worry us or call us to reflection in our interpersonal relationship with God's
people.
Are we burdening them beyond despair?
Are we putting on them a yoke of slavery?
Are we beating our fellow servants?
Are we beating the fellow heirs of Christ's kingdom?
Are we loving them, being compassionate, walking with them?
This is a call especially for those who serve in ministry.
How we treat Christ's people, how we treat one another is an area of great concern
even eschatologically.
When you consider what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 25, when he comes in judgment among the questions that
shall be asked is what did you do with the least of these?
How did you treat your fellow brother when he was found naked?
When he was found in despair?
When he was found without food and clothing?
When he was sick in the hospital?
What did you do with Christ's fellow sheep?
This is not just an area of concern for the clergy or the minister, but for every Christian.
You have a duty and responsibility.
Friends, even within our own context in our own church, if you've noticed someone hasn't been around in
several weeks, have you done all that you could on your end to reach out?
To see how they're doing?
To pray with them?
Let them know that you're there for them?
This is not just the work of the clergy, this is the work of every Christian.
You have a role, a duty, stay dressed for action, be ready for action.
Even in loving and caring for your neighbors, not only in the community but also in the church.
Neglecting to be ready for the Lord's return is spiritual apathy.
I want you to write this in your notes.
Neglecting to be ready for the Lord's return is indeed spiritual apathy.
And it's an act of desertion that according to Christ here in this text will count you among the
Don't desert God's kingdom.
Don't desert the brotherhood.
For then you shall be counted among the unfaithful on that great day.
The Lord Jesus goes on to say in verse 47,.
And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will
Believers who know God's will yet did not act
on His will will receive severe chastisement from
the Lord God.
Because according to scripture, in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 6, the Lord disciplines
His own.
There is severe discipline for not doing what God requires, for
not acting upon His will.
And if you know what His will is, what is perfect and His pleasing will is, but do not do it,
there's consequences even for the believer.
And so please consider the severity, the love of
God this morning.
His patience, His kindness, but also His severity as you consider to do His
will, that which is perfect and pleasing in His sight.
So then, we leave with this text of scripture in verse 48.
It says, but the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating.
Everyone, here's the great principle of life, everyone to whom much was
given, of him much will be required.
What we see here, beloved, is that there is a great
responsibility on the shoulder of every Christian.
Because whether God has given you much or little, you will have to give an account
for how you managed it.
Notice again the call of Christ in verse 42, who then is the faithful and wise
manager.
Manager, you are all managers of something.
Even if you're a small child and you're given the responsibility and roles of having to clean your room
or clean the dishes or some household chore, that is an area which God has given you to now
manage, to do well.
God does not celebrate nor does He exalt mediocrity.
And sometimes as Christians, we lose sight of that.
We look at God's grace as a means to mediocrity.
But by no means, beloved, mediocrity has no place in the Christian life.
You were called by the excellencies of His grace.
You were called for a life far more of purpose than that which the world can offer.
So whatever, as the scripture says, whatever your hands find to do, then you can do with all
your might.
Because there's now purpose.
The gospel injects purpose into everything for the Christian.
Whether you have a mundane job that seems to be purposeless, it can find purpose
when you know that who you are actually working for is the Lord.
That all that you have in life to manage over is for the glory of God.
So then Paul can see in that which is right and true that whether you're eating or drinking or doing
anything else, you do all things for God's glory.
Truly then, beloved, that lifts us up from a life of mediocrity of just getting by
to a life of substance, a life of purpose, a life that is driven by the
gospel of grace.
So then it is true when Jesus says, Everyone to whom much was given of
him much will be required.
The more you have, the more you're required to be a blessing.
The more you're required to use your talent and your resources to advance the kingdom cause.
And it says again,.
This is part of the joy and responsibility of the Christian.
Then, beloved, stay dressed.
Be ready for action and keep your lamps burning.
And whatever it is that God has given you over to manage, manage it well for his glory until he
comes again in glory.
Even our Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Savior, our great God and Savior.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, because we have come to so great a salvation,
we are then called by this word to stay dressed for action, awaiting the
revealing of Christ, awaiting that glorious coming from heaven.
Even the great shepherd of the sheep, the great Lord Jesus Christ, who calls us now to repent, to
trust in him for eternal salvation.
Lord, we do wait with eagerness your great revealing from heaven, the great manifestation of our
great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who shall be revealed from heaven.
And as he comes from heaven, he shall have protruding out of his mouth a two -edged sword, that sword being the
word of God.
He shall be dressed in white, white but dripped in blood, the blood of his own enemies.
The Lord Jesus Christ shall come forth from heaven riding on a steed, ready to conquer as King of
kings and Lord of lords.
Lord Jesus, may we be found ready on that great day.
May we be dressed for action today.
For while it is still called today, you beckon and you call us to repentance and faith towards you.
And we look forward to that day, whether upon death or upon your visitation,
in which we shall see you for the day in which the Christian sees you.
We shall see you.