Are You Ready? (Luke12:35-59)
If I were to ask you, are you ready, what would you say?
You might say, ready for what, ready for next weekend's party, ready for next year’s vacation, ready for what?
It seems that we're always in the process of getting ready for something. Jesus also told us to get ready he didn't put it in the form of a question he put it in the form of a couple parables, but he still told us in essence to get ready .
So to find out what Jesus said we need to be ready for turn with me to Luke chapter where I'm going to begin reading with verse 35.
35: “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36: like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks, they can immediately open the door for him. 37: It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38: It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. 39: But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40: You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
(Luke 12: 35-40)
Now the first key words here are about waiting and watching. Is there a difference between waiting and watching? What would you say is the difference between the two?
Well, obviously, you can wait and be irritated, and you can watch and be excited. Maybe the watching conveys an attitude of eager anticipation of the master coming back. So more than just doing them singly but waiting; and watching at one and the same time.
At the age of 15 or 16 my family moved to the coast of Northern Ireland and the area we lived was called the Ards Peninsula and it had several fishing towns with small fishing fleets located along the shore coastline one after another. Places with great names like Bangor Groomsport, Donagadee, Ballywalter, Ballyhalbert, Portavogie and Portaferry.
I knew a few fishermen who made their living working on the couple of trawlers that sailed out of Groomsport.
A conversation I had with a young friend of mine illustrates the difference between waiting and watching He tells the story of how his fellow older married fishermen used to view the catalogue of girl friends that he went through, advising that he should want a girl who was a watcher not a waiter.
You see the fishing vessels at that time in the mid 70’s used to go to sea for anything from 3 up to a maybe 11+ days. After returning to shore, they would message the local coastguard when they were about 6 miles out, about 1-2 hours away to say they were coming home and the wives would gather on the key side.
As they neared the shore, the sailors gazed toward the dock where the people were gathered to meet their loved ones. Aboard the boat, the skipper looked through his binoculars and identified some of them to the crew. "I see Bill's wife Elizabeth, Theres Davids wife Annes and Tom’s wife Margaret.
Our friend had a series of girlfriend and when he came home, she didn’t wait by the dock instead he would go to their house and call and she would greet him at the door and say, nice to see you back, I’ve been waiting for you.
The advice from his fellow fishermen was to choose a wife who would watch for him not just one who would wait for him.
Back to the text.
By the way, the Jews divided the night into three watches; the Romans had four. The second watch was 9 to noon or midnight, and the third watch was midnight to three. So what happened to the first?
What's the point? The point is if you are a wise servant that's not just waiting and watching, eager for the master's return, when he comes, he will honour you. So, the wise servant gets honour bestowed upon him by the master.
Now Jesus continues and he says in verse 39, but no, now he's going to change the imagery a little bit. If the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed the house to be broken into.
In other words, he is saying, all right, you're waiting and you're watching, but you don't know when the master is coming. It's like a thief in the night; it will be unexpected. Therefore, verse 40 says, be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
41 Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”
42 The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour, he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.
(Luke 12: 41-46)
Now Peter pops up and says, "Lord, are you talking to us or are you talking to everybody”?
And the Lord says in verse 42, "Who then is the faithful and wise servant who the Lord will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in their season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find watching, waiting, doing when he comes."
The wise servant is waiting, watching, and, in the meantime, he is working. He's doing what the master told him to do; he's working. Now, if you are in that category, and we've got a couple more, but if you're in the wise category, you're going to be honoured when the master comes. And more.
Look at verse 42, “The master will make ruler over his household” Look at verse 44: “He will make him ruler over all that he has”. So you're going to be blessed; you're going to be honoured; you are going to be given a position of authority in the kingdom when the Lord comes back, if you're a wise servant.
Can you tell me what the wise servant was like? He waits, he watches, and he works.
All right, that's the first servant and tThe point is, therefore, be ready when the Son of Man is coming because it's going to be in an hour that you do not expect.
Then the Lord says, but if that servant says in his heart, "My master is delaying his coming," and begins to beat the male and female servants and eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he's not looking for him and at that hour when he is not aware and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
So, the first servant in this passage is the wise servant, and the second servant in this passage is what Matther in his account calls the wicked servant.
Who is the wicked servant based on what it says about what he does? He abuses other male and female servants and gets drunk. And what happens to him? He's cut in pieces and appointed with unbelievers.
Please not he's called a servant. He's not called an unbeliever; he is a servant. Look at verse 45, this servant also refers to him as "My master," he recognizes the master. As a matter of fact, he believes the master is coming back. So here is a servant who believes in the Lord and even believes in the second coming. So, I conclude this fella is a believer.
You say, "How can you say that given what he does?" Well, let's look at what he does. He begins to beat the male and female servants and to eat and drink and get drunk.
Do you think this is to be taken literally, that he literally took out a whip and beat people? Ihe may very well have but I am also going to suggest it's probably a little more figurative, as I'll get to in the next verse.
I read this and thought this was interesting. He's a servant who mistreats other servants. And you'll forgive me if I say I've heard stories like that of senior pastors who mistreated people in their church.
Not only does he mistreat other people, but he lives for himself. He eats and drinks and even gets drunk. Is it possible for a believer to do that, of course it is.
All right, then how do you explain what happens to him in verse 46? The master of that servant will come on a day when he's not looking for him and, in an hour, when he's not aware and will cut him in two. What does that tell you?
He dies. By the way, is the cutting in two literal? No. How do you know that? Because he's still alive in the rest of the verse. It says he's going to cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
That's proof positive he wasn't saved; he's appointed with the unbelievers. However. The Greek word translated "unbelievers sometime is more foten translated as the unfaithful.
Back up in the passage where it says in verse 42, "we talked about a faithful and wise servant?" Here we are now talking about a foolish, unfaithful servant.
I submit to you that this is a guy, this servant. He is a believer, and what is being described to us is in figurative language, to be sure, but he's going to get a portion. It's just that his portion is going to be with the unfaithful, so he is not going to fare well.
Alright, there's another type of person. Look at verse 47:
47 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
(Luke 12: 34-48)
He will be beaten with many stripes." Perhaps this is an extension of what I'm calling the wicked servant, but based on the fact that there seems to be two different punishments,.
I'm going to suggest that this is a third type of servant, and I'm going to call this one the wayward servant. Because in verse 47, that guy knew the master's will and did not prepare or do according to his will. He's not a faithful servant; he is a disobedient servant. He just went off his own way.
So number three servant gets beaten with many stripes. What do you do with that? I found myself saying this a lot lately:. I don't like it, but I think we're talking about the judgment seat of Christ where believers are going to appear, and it's not going to be the proverbial Sunday school picnic for some.
I think there's going to be some real sorrow at the judgment seat of Christ. As a matter of fact, John says, "Little children, abide in him, that when he appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed at his coming."
There are verses in the New Testament that say that you're going to have to give an account for you Christian life and that there is some sort of conscious loss of reward awaiting you.
You won't be honoured; you won't be elevated; you won't receive the rewards that you could have received.
So, in this passage there has been, a wise servant who's working, a wicked servant who knew what to do and did not do, and a worthless servant.
So, what I want you to notice is this: there are two things that I want you to notice.
Number one, there are degrees of punishment.
Number two, there are degrees of reward in heaven.
We're not all just going to go to heaven and float around on clouds. Rewards in heaven, we have to give an account of the way we lived our lives.
The second thing I want you to notice is to whom much is given, much is required. And that's a statement in verse 48: "For everyone to whom much is given, from him much is required." There is personal accountability and responsibility.
I've made one basic point so far, and the basic point is: be ready for the Lord's coming. How do you get ready? Well, it depends on what kind of servant you are.
If you're a wise servant, you are waiting, watching, and working.
If you are a wicked servant, you're living for yourself and mistreating others. If you're a wayward servant, you know, but you don't get ready.
And if you're a worthless servant, you don't even bother to find out; you don't know. The question is, which kind of servant are you, ready to face the Lord and give an account of your stewardship?
Now, the first part of the passage, there's more.
49 “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
(Luke 12: 49-53)
Fire in the Bible is used of judgment, so I'm going to suggest that in the first part of this passage, he's saying you need to be ready for the Lord to come back, and embedded in that, implied in all of that, is that when he comes back, we have to give an account.
And now he states it, so I'm going to say it like this: you need to be ready, in the second place, for the judgment. You need to be ready for the fire.
Everyone agrees that's the baptism referred to in this passage is a reference to his death, viewed as a baptism, and he's going die on the cross.
One way to tie all these verses together is to recognise they all fit around the theme of being ready. So, I think he's saying you need to be ready for the second coming.
That’s why he discusses the different types of servants. I think he's saying you need to be ready for judgment, which in essence is saying the same thing; it's not going to happen. And I think he's saying to be ready for division because if you are a wise, faithful servant, there's going to be division.
And he says this: "I came to bring peace on the earth, but I didn't come the first time to bring universal peace; I brought personal peace the first time. The second time, I will bring peace on the earth. In the meantime, if you follow me, there will be division, between those who achieve that spiritual peace with God and those who reject it.
And he lays it out in example format.
From now on, he says, five in one house will be divided, three against two and two against three. A family of five, they're going to be split into two groups. Then he gets specific: "Father will be divided against son and son against the father, mother against the daughter and daughter against the mother."
That sounds pretty heavy. The point here is that there will be divisions even in families. So again, be ready, be ready for judgment, and be ready for divisions.
When Peter asked at the beginning, 'Are you talking to everybody?' Jesus now makes it clear that he is talking to everybody.
54 He said to the crowd: “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. 55 And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. 56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?57 “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? 58 As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled on the way, or your adversary may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59 I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”
(Luke 12: 54-59)
Jesus addresses the crowd, calling them hypocrites. He points out their ability to predict weather patterns but questions why they cannot discern the spiritual significance of his coming. In essence, he emphasizes the need for spiritual awareness and readiness.
In tomorrow’s study we will see Jesus challenges them further, questioning their inability to judge what is right. He advises them that when faced with a dispute or conflict, they should make every effort to settle it before reaching the judge. The underlying theme is to be prepared and avoid unnecessary consequences.
The passage concludes with a call to readiness. Jesus urges his listeners to settle matters and be prepared for the judgment that is imminent. The overarching message is clear: be ready for the Lord's return, the judgment, and potential conflicts by being vigilant, discerning, and proactive.
Throughout Luke 12, Jesus covers various aspects, warning against hypocrisy, covetousness, and worry. The common thread is the call to be aware, discerning, and prepared.
The chapter serves as a cohesive unit with a central theme of spiritual readiness in the face of challenges and the impending judgment.
But the point is this. Clearly in these verses he's saying do the will of God, be ready by doing the will of God and that involves waiting, watching and working.
I would like to suggest that in the context of the chapter this includes beware of a greed and worry.
So the best way to conquer hypocrisy greed and worry is to be looking for the Lord and being busy for him until he returns.
So, are you ready ?
Travel writer Hunter Davies wrote of his travels in Switzerland and by chance came upon a beautiful villa and estate situated on the shores of a lake.
He spoke to the gardener and caretaker who was an elderly man who'd been there for 30+ years who gladly showed him around the gardens.
He asked how long have you been since the master had visited. H said in the 30 years he had been there the master had visited four times.
He then asked, when was the last time he was here to which the man replied, about 12 years ago.
Davies said but you always keep the gardens so perfect is that in case the master returns tomorrow. N he said the master might return, today.