Servants Are Watchers

Jesus is actually talking about His second coming. Second coming. We don't have problems with His first coming, but I want to suggest this morning that we might have some issues with His second coming. In fact, we love His first coming, don't we? There's the star in the sky.

There's the baby in the manger. There are shepherds out in the fields watching their flocks. We love the idea of singing carols under candlelight. We like to echo the choruses sung by those angels that filled the night sky at His first coming. But we do, I suggest, have a lot more trouble with His second coming because it is exactly the opposite.

Instead of a star in the sky, there are actually prophecies about stars falling out of the sky. And He won't be looking like a little baby in a manger. He will come as the glorified King of heaven and earth riding on the clouds. And there won't be shepherds out in the fields at night. Instead, there'll be many who are asleep, too many who are sleeping.

And instead of singing carols, there are many who'll be distressed. There'll be bitter tears and much gnashing of teeth. And still others will be there with joy, finding their great reward in the confidence of recognising who He is, the King of kings and the Lord of lords at His glorious return. Now to the best of my knowledge, a lot of churches have a lot of difficulty talking, much less preaching, about the second coming. For some, it's an issue that is just too divisive.

It's not that they don't believe Jesus is coming again, but it is controversial. How and when Jesus is coming is debatable, so they say. They study a lot of the details in the Bible. They try to figure out what kind of political events have to take place in order to predict when Jesus is coming back, but they haven't even come close. Other churches are not concerned with when He's coming back.

They act, they seemingly act as if He's absolutely not coming back at all, and they demonstrate they have no particular interest in it. But when you go through the Bible, you see on the one hand, the second coming of Jesus is one of the most important, if not the most important subject referred to time and again throughout the New Testament. On the other hand, the Bible gives us no details to help us understand when it is going to happen. The point of the Bible's teaching on the second coming of Christ is not to help us find the great day. It's not how we will find that great day, but how the great day will find us.

The point of the teaching of the second coming is always ethical, moral in its application. The Bible is saying, don't worry so much about when Jesus is coming back. Just know that He can come back at any time. But do consider what kind of lifestyle you should have, what kind of urgency, what kind of joy, what kind of optimism, what kind of energy that would characterise anyone who lives with the second coming of Jesus in mind. Because the Bible says some amazing things about how the second coming should affect us.

In the letter of the aging apostle John, he writes, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as He is pure. That simply means that the second coming of Jesus is going to be so glorious, so significant, so hope for it, want it, and allow that to transform you, to change you. For example, you know, some people can look at a plate of spaghetti bolognese, and it begins to change them just because they're looking at it. They look at it as if it's going to be their last meal, and they say, I can put on weight just by looking at the spaghetti itself.

I can just apply it to my hips. I don't even have to eat it. And the older I get these days, I can look at certain foods and feel my waistline expanding. Teenagers too can relate to this. Just looking at that delicious, melt in your mouth chocolate can make your face break out.

I've heard of those kinds of jokes. In other words, there's a chocolate so powerful that even if you just have a craving for it, it will give you zits. Actually, the Bible is saying there's a day so glorious that just longing for it will transform you into its likeness. It will begin to change you even though the day actually hasn't happened. It says in Colossians 3, our life is now hidden with Christ in God.

And when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. That's an extremely bold and profound statement. On that last day when we see Jesus, when Jesus appears, we will appear with Him in glory, and we will know Him as He truly is, not by faith, but by sight. And that will definitely change us, glorify us along with the rest of creation as we've already seen in places like Psalm 96. About the resurrection, Paul says, we will not all sleep, but we'll all be changed in a flash, the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

So the more we long for that day, the more we live in the light of that day, the more I order my life towards that day, the more my life is changed. My life begins to be filled with purpose and meaning, power and peace. This is extremely practical. This is not just some abstract thought or some ideology that I want to put as an idea in your head this morning. This is something that can give you real hope and give you priorities in your life that perhaps you never ever dreamt of.

And we're going to see some of those priorities come out in these two short parables that Jesus tells to His disciples in Luke 12. Now remember what a parable is. Literally, a parable is the telling of a story that you get one idea contrasted with another. It's the sense of comparing or throwing one idea beside another. That's at the heart of the word.

Two parallel stories helping you to make the application or the meaning clear. In Sunday school, I was taught as a kid what a parable is. Maybe you know it too. A parable is simply an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. I see some of you nodding your heads.

So here we are. An earthly story with a heavenly meaning about how to live in anticipation of Jesus coming again, both in good times and in bad. His second coming has an influence on us now, though it has not yet happened. Two parables here both complement each other. Both come to us from the ancient world of masters and servants.

One is positive. The other is negative. The first one comes across as a great encouragement and a great hope. The second is, well, a warning and a great challenge for us and for this world. First of all, we're going to see Jesus giving us two instructions for how we should live and then two motivations for why we should live that way.

One negative and the other positive. Jesus gives us the how and why of living for the great day of His return. First question, how to be ready? Well, there are two ways mentioned here in the opening verse, verse 35. Be dressed, says Jesus.

Ready for service and keep your lamps burning. Be dressed. First of all, we'll deal with the lamps. Keep your lamps burning. It's interesting that both parables happen at night.

It's dark. And Jesus uses the illustration of a master who's left, who's gone away from his household, left his servants, and he's going to return, but he's left at nighttime when it's dark. And in all the parables about the second coming, the master, sometimes referred to as the king or the bridegroom, is away at night. What's the significance of that, you think? Why does it matter that Jesus refers to nighttime here?

Well, unless you're a shift worker among us, nighttime, of course, is when most of us go to sleep. That's when you feel sleepy. For example, the cheapest ticket you can buy when you want to fly somewhere, that is when you think you've got yourself a real bargain, and then you look at the departure time. It just happens to be twenty three hundred hours or midnight or 1:00 in the morning. And you know you're on what's called the red eye special.

And you know why they call it that? Because people sleep at night. Those who don't have red eyes. They arrive at their destination sleep deprived. And your eyes are so heavy, you've simply got to sleep.

Jesus is pointing out that this is the spiritual condition of the world. It's where we find ourselves today. It's nighttime, literally. It's the age between the first coming and the second coming, the time at which it is night. And that means it's a time that makes it easy for people to, well, nod off, for people to be sleepy, spiritually speaking.

Now the servants in the first parable are a good example of what it means to stay awake, to be alert. So these servants keep their lamps burning, says the text. They keep watching, and for that reason, they need lamps to shed light. They have fuel for their lamps so they can see, and they want to be ready at the time the master returns. To immediately open the door, says the text, for the master.

They're alert, ready for action. And the opposite of that is to nod off, to be sleepy, not able to act, not able to open the door for the master. Physical sleep means that you are affected by dreams rather than reality. You go to sleep, you're controlled by your dreams, and you have an experience that's not real. In fact, a person could be smiling in their sleep, dreaming of a sunset or a nice beach or a holiday.

And then in a moment of absolute terror, the car they're driving is actually going to go off a cliff, crash, and the consequences are devastating. But the person's been smiling, responding to a dream, not reality. Spiritually speaking, what does it mean to be asleep? To live in a dream world, a world that's not real, that has devastating consequences. This is a big deal in the Bible.

The Bible's constantly talking about the darkness of this age that we live in. Paul will write in Romans 13, the hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over. The day is almost here. So what does it mean to be spiritually awake, to live in the day?

It means that the eternal realities will affect us much more than temporary ones. Temporary ones can be compared to living in a dreamlike reality. Eternal realities come into view when we watch with a lamp and a light, and we know full well Jesus is coming. So we can ask the question this morning, what really controls you or me? What is it that's guaranteed to get your attention every time?

This is a very practical thing. I want to say that when you are actually sleepy, you're inclined to be listening to what your boss tells you as being more important than what God's word says or what Jesus is telling you. You're sleeping, dreaming even if you obey man rather than God. You could have been yawning your way through life for a long time, but now it's time to wake up. Keep your lamps burning, says Jesus, so you can see the day coming, the day when I will return, the return of your master.

He's the real boss, the one to whom we must give an account. We actually see God being in charge of all of history, and that's reality. Not man. That's temporary. God is eternal.

What does it mean to keep your lamps burning? It means watching, living in the light. It means you're more affected by what God says than you are by the darkness or the nighttime around you. It means staying awake, saying to yourself, praise the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits. It means talking to yourself, reminding yourself the only thing that really matters are the benefits that God gives.

My Father in heaven cares for me, provides for me, and my heavenly inheritance is secure in the salvation He offers through His Son. I cannot lose that. It depends absolutely on the work of Jesus and His mercy and grace. For that reason, keep your lamp burning. Keep it bright.

And we can do that by giving constant and continual effort to keep a fresh grasp on the magnificence of knowing who Jesus is, on the wonder of knowing Him. That can happen here in church, under the ministry of His word, through the ministry of song. It can happen in your own home, in your own devotional time. It can happen in your small group, when and wherever you meet. And as someone shares their life and witness of Jesus, it's like lighting the lamp. It creates a vision through the darkness, and you can really see what is happening.

It can happen when you're outdoors and you're exposed to the wonders of creation. They take us ever closer to the heart of our Creator. But when your lamp's not burning, when you're not busy with those kinds of things, there's no light, then Jesus is not real. And then I, for one, am ridden with guilt. I become anxious.

I don't have any hope. I find no purpose in this world. Literally, I'm in the darkness, and I can't even see for looking. There are wars and rumours of war. There are famines, people with so called food insecurities.

There are natural disasters, there are political mischievous things happening, and they do my head in. But it's not until I think about His coming again. When the lamp lights up, then I can see. Then I need to pray. I need to open my Bible.

I need to work at it. I need the company of Christian friends. I need to talk about my faith. I need to go to worship. I need to stay at it.

I need to keep my lamp burning bright. I remember Jesus and all His benefits to me. The second thing Jesus tells us to do is to be dressed, to get dressed and be ready for service. It even says down further on in verse 43, it will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. Doing what?

That is getting dressed. You know what it means to dress yourself to serve? In Jesus' day, people wore long flowing robes. You might have wondered, how on earth did they ever get any work done? They would trip all over their robes.

So to get ready for service, the idea was that they would gird up their loins. Literally, that's what the original Greek is saying here. That means they'd pull up their robe, gather it together, and stick it under their girdle or into their belt. They would stick it there, and then they would know they were ready for action, ready for battle, for a fight, ready for service, ready to go to work. What we're talking about here is real activity.

Jesus is saying, make sure you're in a condition you'd want to be found in if suddenly you found out that tonight was your last act. If the last act in your life, the curtain was coming down and this was it. Are you busy with the kinds of things you would want to be the final thing you were doing? Would you want to be busy in such a way that God would find you doing this or that or the other thing? Be dressed.

In other words, live in the light of His coming again. We get both strength and humility from the reality Jesus can appear at any time. Back in the day, I used to have a church education class or a catechism class, as it's known. And if you were in my class, I can guarantee you you would have been one happy student. I always have happy students in class.

But the day comes and I tell you that you're going to have an exam, and the results of that exam will go directly to your parents and then, if necessary, to the elders of the church. Just one exam, but it will be your assessment for a whole year's work, and it will happen in three months from now. Well, you can go home and kick back, bring out the Nintendo, eat more potato chips, and do that at least for a month. But if I say the entire assessment will depend on one test, and it could be any month or any week, and I'm not going to tell you when the test is, suddenly, there's a different disposition, isn't there? There's a sense of urgency about your participation in the class and about what you do every week.

You become the model student. You want to do your very best whenever and however you can prove that. You're dressed and ready for service. Well, in a similar way, maybe not that similar, but we've got to be living as if the day is coming and it's irresistible because in the end, no one will be able to avoid it. The great day could come at any time, any moment.

And besides, none of us know when this hour will be our last hour, when our life is over. Think of it this way. In a minute or two, we could all stand before the throne, and the great day will reveal what sort of person we are. Christians know the only way to be dressed so that we would be ready is to be active, to be a servant, serving. Servants are both watchers, having their lamps burning bright, enabling them to see, but they're also dressed, ready for service.

As His servants living in the night today, we're never more awake than when our lamps are burning and we're dressed for service, always ready for our master to come back, even in the second, third, or fourth watch of the night. Now last, but by no means least, these parables also give us the motivation to be ready. And here is what you've got to make sure of, that you are ready. And Jesus gives it to us in both a negative and a positive way. First of all, the negative, which is a warning really.

Jesus says, if you're not ready, that is when I return, I will appear and I'll cut you into pieces. Verse 46, he will, that is the master, will cut him into pieces and assign him a place with unbelievers. Remember Jesus is speaking to disciples here. He doesn't pull any punches. What He's talking about in the second parable is if the servant takes the gift the master gave him, enabling him to serve, and the master isn't coming back, or maybe the servant thinks the master will never come back, at least not in my lifetime.

And then he begins to use the gifts that he has that are designed to enable him or her to serve, the status, the blessings that come with discipleship, and he begins to use those things for him or herself. Then when the master comes back, he'll appear and destroy him or her. Now let's be very clear. Every believer in this room this morning has something from the master. A gift, talent, your health, your brain.

In fact, everything you have has been given to you to love and serve the master more and more. So love one another as I have loved you, says Jesus. So when the master comes back, He'll ask, have you been using the things that I've blessed you with for my kingdom, for my glory? Using gifts and talents for your comfort, for your own peace, in order to do yourself a favour, will result in judgment. In fact, already, if your life revolves around getting comfortable and doing yourself a favour, you're going to plunge yourself ever deeper into the darkness that is nighttime, and the result of that will be catastrophic.

Your life will literally turn to dust and ashes, and it'll come to nothing. Look. I think of somebody who says to me things like, I'm lonely, and the only way I'm going to keep this relationship going is if I sleep with him or her. I know what the Bible says, but I'm lonely. Or somebody else says, I've got to make ends meet.

I know I shouldn't be lying to achieve this business goal, but I have to do it. And Jesus is saying to you and I, don't you understand? You're saying you have to. That's the dream. You're sleeping.

It belongs to the nighttime. And the reality is this, that you cannot have a joy that is greater than the joy that comes from knowing your master, of loving Him, obeying Him. You can't be smarter than your master. You can't be wiser than your master. Wake up.

You're asleep. Or at the very least, you're yawning your way through life, spiritually speaking. That's the warning. But there's a positive side to being ready. Thank goodness.

We've touched on that a little bit earlier on in the service. Jesus says the most important thing, the most astonishing thing, the most amazing verses in the whole Bible is this, in my mind at least. Verse 37. Erica read it to us a minute ago. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.

I tell you the truth. He, that is the master, will dress himself ready to serve and have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. What's going on? This is saying that if you keep your lamp burning, if you're dressed ready for service, Jesus Christ Himself will come and serve you. He'll dress Himself to serve, says the text, and will have them recline at His table, and He will come and wait on them.

That's what the master will do for the servants. With all power and authority and with absolute pleasure, Jesus comes to wait on us, to satisfy, to heal, to cleanse, to gladden you. And if the omnipotent God who scattered stars at the creation of the world and made you and made me. Try to get your head around this. If He brings all of His love to bear on you and I, what kind of job do you think He can do when He wants to serve you and me, when He wants to wait on you and me, when He invites us to His banquet table?

And this Bible verse is telling us what you and I are in for. Take your seat at the table, says Jesus, and I'll come and wait on you. Nothing less. It says in Romans 8 that even now nothing in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Verses like that, and there are many others in scripture, are appetisers.

They're teasers in a way. They want to get us ready for the great banquet at which Jesus Christ Himself will serve. The Old Testament says much the same thing from the much loved psalm, Psalm 23. You know how it finishes. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely, goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. What an honour. What a blessing awaits those who now watch and are ready and dressed.

Today, we have the appetisers of His love working for you and me in the nighttime. They're the things that fuel our lamps and the reasons we get dressed ready for service. These appetisers offer us a clean conscience and a confidence and a freedom of conscience that goes with it. These things are so enticing that we become the envy of those who live in the darkness. And if we enjoy those things now, we must be wondering, what's the main course really like?

What's it going to be like to be present at that banquet that He's prepared for you and me? What's most important, of course, is how we get there. How do these appetisers for the banquet excite us, motivate us? We have to know Jesus, of course, and about His love and forgiveness. We know that our short life on this earth, His life was on this earth was marked with feasting and celebration, with dinners and banquets.

And most often, Jesus ate with unbelievers. Jesus would eat with unbelievers so that they too could hear the good news of salvation and be given a clean conscience and the confidence to watch and to serve. Jesus invites us all to partake of that banquet only because of His kindness and goodness to us. So what does it mean to be a servant of the risen Lord Jesus today? It means that we're watchers.

Watchers know what to expect. They've woken up. They're not asleep. They've stopped yawning their way through this life. If you're like me, I was sleepy last week, didn't really have a good night's sleep, but that's not what we're talking about this morning.

When we're tempted to impurity, tempted to be dishonest, it's because we're sleepy. See, the day is coming, and it won't be night for very much longer. Wake up. Get your lamps burning. Be dressed, ready for service.

Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we ask that You would show us how we can keep our lamps burning brightly. We fully admit the darkness threatens to overwhelm us, but we pray that You will fuel our lives with the energy necessary to be dressed and engaged in service that would honour You and indicate that we obey You and love You more than anything this world has to offer. We ask that You help make us here at this church a community that knows and fully expects the return of our King, where we are radically willing to serve each other, to give each other to each other in all sorts of ways, to show people the meaning of what it does when we live in expectation of Your great coming again.

We pray, Lord, You'll give us the grace and the humility to do it. Keep us close to You, faithful to You, we pray. In Jesus' name alone. Amen.