Always Ready

Always Ready

so good to be with you guys this morning. My name is Professor Dan, or Dan coke. If you’re new to soar welcome, Glad you’re here. Um we’re going to continue walking through the gospel according to luke, We’re going to be in chapter 12 this morning And we’re going to read versus 35 through 48. So if you don’t mind going to go ahead and turn their um, and while you’re turning their, let me set the stage by way of comparison, I guess. Um in 1996, deliberate pause there for the young people over here because, you know, they weren’t born at that time, But in 1996, the hip hop group, the fuji’s released a track entitled Ready or not. Somebody is a fuji fan. That’s good. I didn’t, I didn’t miss You, I got you, I’m with you. But they released a track that year that was entitled Ready or Not, and it um, Lauryn Hill sang the hook and I’m Not Lauryn Hill and Lauryn Hill can sing, I mean that girl can sing, right? And she may have had a conversion to christ to at some point, um, afterwards. But anyway, the hook goes like this, Ready or Not, Here I Come, You can’t hide. I’m going to find You and make you Love me Now. This was a hip hop group that wrote this track, right? And so the premise behind it was that they were bursting onto the scenes as a new group and they were going to take over the music industry and in the process, they were going to expose all of the artists who were capitalizing on rapping about violence and perversion and that they would become the darlings, the new darlings of the hip hop industry. So they were speaking to two groups, the artists and the fans and they said, Ready or not. Here I come. I’m gonna find you. You can’t hide, I’m gonna find you and I’m gonna make you love me. No. Did the fuji’s make good on their promise? No, they didn’t because some of you guys don’t even know who they are, right. But today’s passage, jesus talks about coming And no one will be able to hide and he will come and he will make good on his promises. And so we’re going to read about that in the passage. And I’ve entitled this passage always or this teaching always ready because he is going to come and he will make good on his promises. Unlike the fuji’s. So without further ado, let’s read the passage Beginning in Verse 35. So 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 it 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 also must 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 that 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, and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and put him with the unfaithful and that servant to 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 a 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. Let’s pray Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your promise that you will come Lord at a time where we least expect it. But Lord, we pray that because of this word and this teaching today, we would be further encouraged to be ready. Always ready for your appearing. I pray God, you would help me and help us during this time to embrace this call to always be ready in jesus name. I pray Amen Amen. So this passage is about the second coming right, jesus gets into the second Coming a bit and in this passage, he wants us to be aware of something. What does he want us to be aware of? He wants us to be aware of the fact that we cannot know won’t know when he will return. But we are expected to be ready for his return. We don’t know when but we are to be ready and that’s important. We are to be ready for his return. We are not to exhaust ourselves trying to predict or figure out when he will return, but we are to be ready for his return. And so this morning we’re gonna unpack that. What does it mean to be ready for his return? Well, first, we’re gonna talk about for a brief moment. Some of the conversations surrounding the nature of his Second Coming or his second advent, because that has divided the church in about four different camps and that can become such a divisive issue for many, it can become um an issue that that shapes a person’s view of Christianity and their walk with the Lord in such a way that may not be honoring to the Lord. So we want to first look at that because I think that will help us in the process of being ready. Amen. You can say amen to the fact that you hope that I will do what I said, I will do. And so there are four different views on the millennium And Millennium is a reference to the 1000 year reign of Jesus on the Earth. You can find that in revelation. Chapter 20 And when we talk about the end or the Second Coming or the study of Last things, we are talking in more proper theological terms. We’re talking about eschatology. It’s a big fancy, $10 word. It just simply means the study of last things. And so the church or the christian community can be divided into four different camps. The first one is dispensation or pre millennialism again, that’s a mouthful. I’ll explain a little bit about that later. The second camp is the historic pre millennialism, third, post millennialism. And then the fourth camp on millennialism. Pay attention to the prefixes, they mean something as it relates to the understanding of the millennium. So dispensation a LPA pre millennialism again, that is a mouthful. But when you think of this camp think of a strict literal interpretation of prophecy, so when there is a reference to 70 weeks in daniel or if there’s a reference to Locusts in revelation, they begin to think of that in terms of modern day um occurrences. So maybe the Locusts are Apache helicopters or something like that, I don’t know, but they have a very strict literal interpretation of prophecy and they view God as having two distinct redemptive plans. One for Israel and one for the church. Rapture theology um is prominent within this camp in a different way in the sense that christ’s second coming will be the rapturous of his church from an intense seven year world tribulation. So right before there is a seven year intense world tribulation, christ will appear and rapture his church from the earth. Okay. And then at the conclusion of this seven year period of intense tribulation on the earth, christ will come again and set up his earthly kingdom in Jerusalem and rule over all nations. That is dispensation all pre millennialism. Now, I didn’t address the first part of that title, dispensation Eliza. Um that’s the idea that God operates in various dispensations throughout history. Pretty obvious one being Israel and the church, right? So we are in the church age or another. One would be in terms of the old testament. That was the dispensation of law. Alright and now we’re in a different dispensation but moving on, we get to historic pre millennialism there we have a mixture of literal and symbolic interpretation of prophecy, historic pre millennial lists. They differ from dispensation analysts in the sense that they view the church as the fulfillment of Israel. There is for the historic pre millennial is there is a time of great apostasy and tribulation and that occurs right before christ returns. The Kingdom of God is spiritual, it’s now and it will be a physical kingdom upon christ return again, the rapture occurs right before christ returns and begins his millennial reign, his 1000 year reign. But then after christ reigns for 1000 years, satan who during that time of the 1000 year reign has been bound and placed in prison. But at the conclusion of the 1000 year reign, satan is released and then there’s great apostasy and then christ comes again for one final judgment. So that is historic. Pre millennialism, moving onto a post millennialism again, pay attention to the prefixes post um Post millennials believe that there that the millennium is not a literal 1000 years, but it’s simply an era and that era began when christ was resurrected from the dead and ascended into heaven to be seated on the throne that he is ruling now and that the church is also the fulfillment of Israel and that christ reigns over the earth through the growth and spread of the gospel and lives being changed, the world becomes more christianized and as the world becomes more and more christianized christ returns and then at his return he judges the wicked and he brings the saints into their eternal state. And so the Second Coming is after the millennium, a final and fourth camp all millennialism, again, paying attention to the prefixes on millennial lists, believe that there is again no literal millennium period, but for them, the millennium itself represents the time of christ being resurrected and appointed as Lord and king and that the church is the fulfillment of Israel, that the kingdom is a spiritual reality, that the church part takes up by faith and that the Second Coming is the consummation of the Kingdom of God on earth. The difference between the posts and the on millennial list is that the post, believe that they have a a task to christianize the world. The all millennial ists believe that they that may not happen. They simply say the world will probably get darker and the church will get lighter as time unfolds Now again, these are four different camps. The church tends to fall into one of these four camps sore we do not make this a primary doctrine for our church, We believe the Second Coming is important, but we understand that there is some diversity of viewpoint among very prominent theologians, past, present and um well, past and present, right, The future hasn’t happened yet, but we will say this though, there are some of these viewpoints are a bit wacky and I think you can get caught up in trying to decipher things in a way in which God hasn’t really intended us to, I mean jesus was quite clear, he will, he will come back at a time when you least expect it, when you do not know a time that you will not know and that only the father knows and so why should we then exhaust ourselves trying to figure that out right? We shouldn’t and so that’s where for us as a church, we’re not really wanting to die on either one of these hills, but we will stand with the rest of the church and saying that we all can agree on this, that christ is returning, that christ is returning and that we ought to pray Marinoff the prayers, oh Lord come and that we are to anticipate and hasten the day of the Lord’s return, we are to do those things and we believe that jesus christ is king and that he is seated to the right hand of the father as psalm 1 10 says that he is Lord and even as we sang that he um and uh the kings bow before him, we believe those things to be true, we take him at his word, he is trustworthy, he is unlike that hip hop group, the fuji’s making a promise that they could not fulfill he is faithful. He will fulfill his promise. He will return When we do not know. It has been 2000 years since he gave this teaching it maybe another 2000 years before he returned. Or it may not, we do not know. But we know that he is faithful and trustworthy. Why do we know this? Because he promised to rise from death and he did. He did. He rose from the grave. In fact, the scripture says that in in first Corinthians 15, that more than 500 eyewitnesses can attach to the fact that he rose from the grave. So when he says that he will return, we believe him when we do not know, but we have a responsibility to be ready. Always, always ready for our Lord because that’s what servants of the Lord do. They are ready for his appearing as though in our passage this morning. When we looked at Luke 12, there, Jesus begins the passage By saying, stay dressed for action. In verse 35 and keep your lamps burning. Now when he says, say dress for action, this is without a doubt, a reference to the exodus from Egypt. So in exodus 12 verse 11, as God is getting ready To deliver his people from Egypt from over 400 years of bondage. He is delivering them from Egypt to bring them into the promised land and it’s going to take place at night and they are to eat this Passover meal. God tells them to to fasten their belts and their get their sandals on their feet, their staff in their hand as they eat this meal as they are about to to taste their salvation and deliverance because of jesus undoubtedly is playing on that word when he says stay dressed for action, for your master will come in the night. Likewise, Ephesians six speaks of the full armor of God and being and girding ourselves up with the with the with truth and righteousness. And so when the Lord says be ready, stay dressed for action. Here it is, it is the call to to have our lives always being adorned with the righteousness of christ, it is the call for our lives to always be the pleasant aroma of christ. Let me break that down for you. Some people consider themselves to be night persons and some people consider themselves to be morning person. What happens when a night person has to get up early in the morning to go to work? They typically show up a bit groggy, not in the best attitude, not willing to engage or talk as much Right, well, this passage says that you are to be dressed for action, you are to be adorned in christ. So what do we say to our Lord Lord? I’m not really a morning person. So when I show up at my job early in the morning don’t expect me to be the pleasant aroma of christ in that place because I’m not really a morning person. Lord, you know me. Yeah, your master expects you to be dressed in him. So whatever I gotta do, I had to die to myself. I’ve got to engaged with the Lord, commune with the Lord, give myself to the Lord so that I’m dressed and ready for action. Always ready to please my Lord. Always ready. Could you imagine a christian coming before the Lord and saying Lord, I didn’t preach the Gospel that morning at work because I just wasn’t in a good mood. It ain’t gonna fly. Always dressed for action. The righteousness of christ. The pleasant aroma of christ being your life. The second he says, keep your lamps burning, Keep your lamps burning. Now we know that there is a reference there, Matthew five where Jesus says that you are not to take the lamp and put it under a bushel or under a bed. Right. And then there’s also a reference in Matthew 25 of the five Wise Bridesmaids and the Foolish Bridesmaids who’s lamps ran out of oil. So when he says, keep your lamps burning, he’s calling us to a zeal for the Gospel. Always having a zeal for the gospel. It annoys me when christians think that they have outgrown the Gospel or when they’re bored with the Gospel. It annoys me because they don’t fully understand the Gospel the implications of the good news. It’s, it’s an incredible treasure trove of wisdom and understanding for life. You realize your new testament was paul expounding upon that good news peter expounding upon that good news, john and the other writers talking about that good news and we’re bored. Perhaps we’re bored because we have a false understanding of the Gospel, a reduction, reductionist IQ view of the Gospel meaning it’s truncated. We’ve made it smaller. It’s a ticket to heaven when I die. Nothing else matters. So I’m not ready when the Lord returns because I got my ticket. So I’m ready kinda but really not ready, not ready to be the aroma of christ, not ready to faithfully serve christ. Not ready with the zeal for the word of God and the Gospel, he says, keep the lamps burning. That’s one of the reasons why we take communion every every week. For some people, they get lulled asleep during that time. It’s just ritual. It’s just going through the motions for them And for others of us were being shaped by were being prepared by this is what our Lord has done for us. And every time we taste of that sacred meal, we are reminded of the great banquet, we will join him in later. He says, keep your lamp burning zeal for the Gospel zeal for the word of God praying without ceasing that’s spiritual readiness, that’s spiritual alertness and he goes on to say in that passage verse 38. That if he if his master comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them away, blessed are those servants. Now, I want you to hold on to that because those are the faithful servants. Throughout the passage, we get exposed to the wicked servants, and then later on, we’re exposed to the ignorant servant. But what I want you to To hold on to is that idea of the faithful servant don’t lose that one. It’s easy to be offended by what happens to the wicked servants. Cut to pieces, jesus said jesus, You’re supposed to be a nice guy. This has cut him to pieces. That’s what he’s gonna do, he returns. But He says, it may be in the second watch or in the 3rd watch, what we do know it’s going to be at a time when you least expect. And so when he says second or third watch, he’s saying in the middle of the night, why is that relevant for a servant? Well, in this day and age, the people there, they are quite accustomed to what happens to slaves and servants. And if a master was called away to a wedding banquet, that servant couldn’t say, well, I’m off the clock tonight. Master isn’t home, I’m going to bed. Good luck getting yourself in the house master. You couldn’t do that, usually because of slaves. He didn’t have the freedom right to act on his own will, he was placed in subjection to his master’s will. So if the master left the house, I can’t sleep till he comes home. I can’t not be found waiting for my master. When he arrived, Jesus is speaking the language of that culture and that day and age where people understood exactly what he meant, but in the middle of the night is when the slave might be the most tempted to want to sleep, to want to be at ease, not think about what he is called to do. So he says, I’m going to come the time when men of low character who lack discipline, who lacks zeal for me least expect. But the faithful servant, even in the middle of the night, he’s looking for kingdom opportunities. He’s looking for opportunities to honor and glorify his master and for some of us hidden in plain sight or kingdom opportunities that we sleep, walk by every single day. It’s because we’re not ready. But we’re called to be ready. We are to look for those opportunities. We’re moving on in the passage, jesus talking about this idea of coming in an hour, that we least expect. He does something that for many of us it makes us again makes us uncomfortable. Right? When he talks about the master in this analogy in these parables, we know that he’s referencing himself, right? We know that he’s talking about himself. And then he goes on to say That when in verse 39, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, He would not have left this house to be broken into whose he calling a thief? He’s calling himself the thief. Is it because he’s sinning? No, no, he’s driving home a point. What is that point? Don’t miss out on what’s most valuable in life. You see last week, Pastor Mike talked about anxiety for things of this life, clothing status, how we appear before man, our comforts and that anxiety shapes and forms us and makes us unready. Is that a word? I look at my wife, she helps me with my english. And jesus said that if you’re in that place where you’re not ready, then like a thief in the night I’m going to come and that which is supposed to be most valuable to you. Eternal life eternity with me, jesus. That means jesus, not me, jesus eternity with him. Forever with him. You’ll lose it because you were found unfaithful, unprepared, not ready. And the thief doesn’t come at a time when the little christian wants to play christian and show everyone how cool they are, flashing it all over social media, the good deeds that I’ve done. No, it’s in the hour when you don’t feel like it or tired, attempted to compromise, tempted to sin, that’s what he may come, that’s what he says. You know that brings me to a subject that I really wasn’t planning to touch on this morning. But I do want to say something briefly about it. There’s this whole concept of deconstruction is um in the faith where young people are tearing down and tearing apart their christian faith and supposedly they’re they’re doing this so that they might possibly find truth or better foundation for themselves. And I don’t know, it’s not working out that way. And many of them are abandoning the faith because of it. It becomes the door for them to leave christ. But I would say to those who think that that’s a good thing. That deconstruction is a good thing. That are you not putting yourself in a position of being unready for the Lord when he returns. When you do that, you see deconstruction tearing down, right, ripping apart, pulling apart. I think that’s a dangerous thing. Re examining right thinking through what I believe. I think that’s healthy, that’s good. We want to be more biblical, we want to be more sound, We want to be more faithful. We give ourselves to to examining the faith and whether or not we’re in the faith, but we don’t take apart the faith and destroy the foundation and think that we’re going to come back to it. That’s a presumption we shouldn’t be comfortable living with. Anyway, I I digress, he’s going to come in the middle of the night in time when we least expect. 3rdly, moving on in this passage, spiritual alertness is serving christ in a manner worthy of christ. And this is where jesus gets to Peter’s question. Right? Peter asked a question, Peter in Verse 41 says, Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all? I love it. Right, Peter, he’s got a mouth shaped like a foot, right, I mean, why would he ask that question? Right, like, like jesus, can I exempt myself from these things? Kind of question? Right, should I be worried about this, or or should I, you know, can I can be exempt or you know, surely you want this heat on them, Right, not me. Right, jesus just tell the same parable again with more details, right? He says that truly, I say to you right, I’m sorry, in verse 14, he says, 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, he says, blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes so, yes, peter, I’m talking to you. Yes, peter, I’m talking to them. And then he says In verse 44, truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. That faithful servant, he says. And if that servant says to himself, he says, But if that 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, and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful that’s gonna hurt if you’re wondering, he’s that’s going to be painful In verse 47, he says. And that 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 a beating will receive a light beating. And then he ends it with 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 jesus assigns culpability in proportion to the degree of the knowledge that one had the servant that News Master’s Will, but didn’t live in a manner worthy of his master, who didn’t treat his brothers and sisters well. By the way, that is the testimony of the spirit of God in you, that you love the church, not the building the people that you love the church. And so christians, who constantly struggle with being in relationship with other christians, President’s sister. That is a terrible symptom that you need a gospel cure for. But he says that wicked servant who did that would receive a severe beating again. The people of that day understood these things, they saw servants beaten for not pleasing their masters. And so that’s the wicked servant. But then he talks about an ignorant servant, one who didn’t quite know his master’s will, but he still received of beating. He didn’t receive as many blows. I was the one who knew, but he still received a beating. There’s a call right there in that passage for you and I to not be ignorant of the will of the Lord. That yes, you may not know some things about God. You may not consider yourself a theologian, which I disagree with you on because as soon as you step in the arena of having thoughts about God, you have become a theologian. You may not be a very good one, but you are a theologian. That’s where a W. Tozer says that whatever uh, the most important thing about a man is what he thinks about God. And R. C. Sproul says, everyone is a theologian Because as soon as you start thinking about God, you become one until there is no room for us to be in a continued and long state of ignorance about the will of God christian, read your bible to know and to understand your God to know and to understand the depths of his love for you, the wisdom of God, the mysteries and the treasures surrounding your salvation in the kingdom of God and how you’re called to represent him in his life. Read to understand and to know your master’s will. And if you don’t understand some things, there are plenty of tools and resources to help you to help you get it. Now we want to help you get it will help guide you and direct you in the right places. There are some bad places you want to stay out of. But by and large, there is an opportunity for you to know more, to understand more that you will not remain spiritual babes forever, that you will mature in the faith. I’m talking about Ephesians four there, so you have the wicked servant, you have the ignorant servant. But again, I told you to hold on to one other servant that we can often Overlooked, and that is the faithful servant. And that’s in verse 37, where Jesus says that 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 reclined at table and he will come and serve them. Wow! I really blew my mind when I first began to take that in as a community group last week. As we were looking at this passage immediately, we saw jesus applying this in the last supper when he began to wash the feet of his disciples. Do you know how counter this is to the thinking of the world at that time, and in our day and age there are king would honor his subjects in that way, lowering himself to that of a slave to serve and honor his own subjects. We are called to always be ready to christ because it’s his joy, it’s his honor to welcome us into his kingdom and to serve us in his eternal kingdom. We’re called to always be ready because our Lord desires to bless us in his kingdom to honor us in his kingdom church. This is way more important than trying to read the newspaper or listen to your favorite media outlet and trying to predict when christ will return, getting this point about always being ready to him, always being ready to be the pleasing aroma of christ always being ready to give your life for the kingdom of God. Do you know for the christian our retirement plan is eternity. Not this life the american dream is get a nice nest egg, put your feet up and you know chill out for the rest of your life, live your paradise here, not for the christian you know as we age and and our capacity shrinks and our abilities diminish a bit. Yeah our roles make change but for the rest of our lives, every breath we have on this planet it is to honor and glorify it, we will retire in the eternal kingdom and our Lord will come and he will bless us and it will be his joy and delight to serve us. This jesus must be our treasure. This jesus must be our delight. We can give ourselves to the anxiety of life worrying about this thing and that thing in life, we can’t be consumed, things that aren’t eternal nature, Jesus must be our treasure. We must give ourselves honoring him. And you know what? If you’re in this place this morning, maybe you realize you’ve you’ve fallen short, maybe you’ve been the lazy or the ignorant servant. There’s hope for you. God doesn’t want you to leave this place feeling condemned about where you’re at. No, I want you to turn to him now. He wants you to acknowledge that you’ve sinned against him. But he also wants you to receive his love and forgiveness and begin the process of being his servant, ready to honor him, ready to be a pleasing aroma for christ. And so if you’re in that place, I invite you to just pray with me this morning. In fact, I invite all of us just pray. Let’s pray for any of our brothers and sisters that may be in that place this morning, that God would open their eyes to see that now is the time not to take on the cloak of condemnation, but to put on the garment of praise of forgiveness of sin and a new opportunity to glorify him. Being ready to glorify him in all things. And even when you fall short to know that you can get back up again, that it doesn’t diminish his love for you. That doesn’t change his mind about you, but that you are in the process of growth and transformation to be that faithful servant, always ready to please him. Amen. I mean, So let’s pray for Lord. I thank you for this is good news that you are God who gave your life that we might be forgiven of our sins brought into your eternal kingdom as sons and daughters. That it’s your delight and joy to greet us and to and to serve us with this privilege blessing God, we thank you for this Lord and I pray God for any of my brothers and sisters in this place. God, I’ve been there before in life. God, I simply was not living in a state of readiness. God, I pray God, if there would be brothers and sisters in this place, Lord, that they would hear your voice this morning and respond to that call to be faithful in you and in your kingdom. God, that they would know that your love for them is to call them in, not to beat them down, but to raise them up as sons and daughters, not to spit them out. God will hear your voice this morning. I pray that they would hear your voice in jesus name. Amen