Watching, Ready and Serving

Luke 12:35-48

I. Introduction: The Context

In the previous video in this series we discussed Jesus’ parable in Luke 12:13-34 regarding greed and especially our attitudes towards material possessions. Jesus’ parable told of a certain rich man who had already been blessed by God and had barns full of surplus grain, and was then blessed abundantly with even more. Rather than trusting the Lord and sharing this blessing with those less fortunate, he decided to tear down his old barns and build even bigger ones so that he could relax, eat, drink and enjoy his wealth. 

But God demanded his life that very night. Perhaps the abundant harvest was a test, a test he failed miserably, but in any case, rather than obey the command to love his neighbor as himself, he chose to invest solely in worldly possessions, rather than invest in the kingdom of God. From 12:22-34 Jesus’ challenges our faith in God’s provision. He commands us to seek first God’s kingdom and the Lord will provide all of our needs. There is a distinction here between our needs and our desires, and like the rich man in the parable, the challenge for us is, what are we doing with the surplus of the blessings the Lord had given us.

Jesus tells us to sell our possessions and give to the poor. He is not commanding we do not provide for our families or leave ourselves homeless. Remember that in the parable the rich man already had surplus stored away and was not condemned for that, but rather being confronted for the fact that, even though he had surplus, he wasn’t (a) willing to trust the Lord for future surplus, and (b) didn’t care for his fellow-man.

Jesus point is this: It is wise to put a little away when you have a surplus, but investing in God’s kingdom is when we trust Him for His future provision and use His blessings to bless others. Will we stand before God with thousands, tens of thousands and even millions in earthly possessions and little or nothing in our heavenly accounts? That which we give away for His kingdom’s sake in this life, is credited to us in the next. Furthermore, if when we meet Him face to face we find there is nothing in our heavenly account, we may hear the words ‘depart from me’ and be taken away as one of the goats for eternal judgment. Our actions towards those less fortunate reveal whether or not Christ dwells within us, motivating us to love Him and our neighbor.

In this next parable Jesus calls us to be ready for His return, for none of us know when we may be called to give an account.

II. Luke 12:35-40. Dressed for service and shining the light of Christ.

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 must also be ready because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” (Luke 12:35-40)

The words translated in the NIV as ‘be dressed ready for service’ are literally ‘let your waist be girded about’. The word ‘perizoneumi’ means to fasten your garments with a belt or to gird up your loins. ‘Girding up your loins’ is a common phrase in Scripture and means to gather up your clothing so that you can work. In modern lingo it would be to put on your work clothes and get busy. 

We are to be both dressed for service, and keep our lamps burning. Jesus has already spoken of Christians as the light of the world. He told us we must shine that light to bring light to the entire household and we must be like a city on a hill. We are to shine the light of Christ at all times for He is the source of that light which we reflect in the way we live for Him. The message and challenge here is very clear. Are we dressed to work and serving the Lord and are we continually bringing the light of the gospel in the way we live for Christ? Are we using the gifts, talents and blessings He has given us for the kingdom of God, or is our focus on the world and ourselves? The way we answer these questions will reflect the reception we get when we stand before the Lord face to face.

Too many people claim to be Christians and think that their attendance in Church once a week is all that is required of them. They give a little of their income to pay the professional pastor, musicians and other church staff, and believe they have done their bit. In reality, such people are not motivated by love for Christ, but reluctantly do the least they believe is necessary to get them to heaven. Such people are not disciples of Christ, are not walking the narrow path, but are consumed by the world. They may find themselves assigned a place with the goats rather than the sheep. 

The picture Jesus portrays here is of a house in the night. The servants are dressed to work and their lamps are burning to give them light to carry out their tasks. They go about their work whilst at the same time listening intently for a knock at the door. They are expecting their master and everything is prepared for Him. This picture portrays the expectation of those who love Christ. Their minds are focused on heavenly things, they are looking forward to being in the presence of their master, for they love Him and desire to please Him. 

III. Christ as Lord and Master.

And notice the word master. This word means that to whom we belong. Salvation is far more than a change of mind as free-grace adherents and others claim, but a change of ownership. For Christ to be our master means He is our Lord. If you were taught that you can have Christ as Savior without surrendering to Him as Lord, then think again and run from such teachers. You are either a disciple of Christ, one who belongs to Christ, or you still belong to the world.

If there is no surrender of our will to God’s will, there will be no death to self, no death to that self-ruling principle. If there is no death to self there will be no new birth. God does not share His divine nature with those who refuse to yield their will to His will. God does not submit to the demands of fools who teach that, and I quote, ‘a person can just believe, live any old way they like, and go to heaven’. Those who teach such heresies have never seen their sin in the light of the holiness of God, never knelt before the cross of Christ in repentance and godly sorrow, and never experienced being freed from the power and penalty of sin. They have no real love for Christ, and although they may have a nice churchy social club on Sundays, their hearts are firmly rooted in the world. 

In short, if Christ is not your Master, a master who is your first love by virtue of your gratitude for His sacrifice as Savior, then you do not belong to Him (Romans 8:9), you are not ‘God’s own possession’ (Ephesians 1:14). 

IV. The Return of the Master

This parable is obviously about the return of Christ for He is the Son of Man who will come. There is a great deal of debate regarding the Lord’s return. Almost all agree that there will be a Great Tribulation which lasts seven years. During this time there will be horrific persecution towards Christians and frightening events throughout the world. This is a time when God pours out His wrath on an unbelieving world for the purpose of encouraging people to repent. At the end of the Tribulation the Lord returns to judge. 

Some Christians believe that there will be a rapture event prior to the Tribulation where Christ comes as a thief in the night and takes faithful and ready Christians out of the world before the Tribulation begins. Contrary to what some claim, this is not a new idea, for it is found in early Christian literature such as the Shepherd of Hermas and alluded to in the writings of Irenaeus.

This position points out the passages which use the thief in the night language as contrary to the description of coming in the clouds with His holy angels for all the world to see. The argument is that these cannot be the same event, as one is to be unseen as a thief, and the other that every eye will see. For a deeper discussion on this topic please see my video entitled ‘Rapture, one event or two’.

Early in this parable Jesus uses the analogy of the master returning from a wedding banquet. Jesus never used random analogies or metaphors and we know that Scripture speaks of the wedding feast of the lamb. The implication of Jesus’ words in this parable is that a wedding feast is already taking place in heaven and that the Lord leaves this feast to come and take those who are ready for Him out of the world. Jesus told the thief on the cross that on that very day he would be with Him in paradise (Luke 23:43), told His disciples that he was going to prepare a place for them and that He would personally come and take them to be with Him (John 14). 

There are countless testimonies of Christians seeing Christ in the moments before their passing from this world. I was with my 93 year old grandfather in his last moments in this world. He was sitting up in bed in his own home, completely lucid and at peace and chatting to me. 

Then, quite suddenly, his eyes lit up in joy as he stared across the room, then turned to me and said, ‘I have to go; He has come for me.’ He then leaned back, gave a gentle sigh, and left this world. There was this beautiful and powerful sense of holiness in that room, and I got on my knees beside his bed and waited for the presence to leave. To this day, I have absolutely no doubt that the Lord came and escorted my grandfather to his heavenly home. If one reads Foxes’ ‘Book of Martyrs’ you will find such testimonies, and I have no doubt that Christ was there with His disciples and others when they left this world.

Would the Lord have them wait 2000 years before they could enjoy a heavenly wedding feast with Him? On the night of the last supper Jesus took the cup of wine and told them He would not drink the fruit of the vine again until He drank it with them in His Father’s kingdom (Matthew 26:29). I have no doubt that those who are truly born again are already ‘citizens of heaven’ (Philippians 3:20) and ‘aliens and strangers’ in this world (1 Peter 2:11) and that when we pass we will immediately enter into our heavenly home, transformed into our new heavenly bodies.

Therefore, in terms of the returning Lord this parable may be interpreted two ways. Firstly,  Christ is leaving a wedding banquet with the saints in heaven and returning as a thief in the night to bring those who love Him out of the world before the Great Tribulation. He is coming for those who serve Him with joy, who shine the light of Christ for all to see, and live to see Him face to face. Those who are left behind were not in love with Him, were not serving Him or shining their light for Him, and were not longing to see Him face to face. On the contrary, they were living for themselves and fooling themselves they had done just enough to get to heaven. Such people will be forced to make a choice, to bow down to the coming Antichrist, or swear true allegiance to Christ and lose their lives.

Or secondly, that there is no pre-tribulation rapture, and this is Christ returning to bring final judgment on the world. In this scenario we would need to ask why the servants have not understood the signs of His coming as in the horrific and terrifying events recorded in the prophets, Revelation and Luke 22. Furthermore, how do we understand the language that ‘at that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and glory’ (Luke 21:27), for this does not sound like coming as a thief to break into a house and take something. 

V. Christ: The Servant King

This parable also reveals the heart of Christ as the servant-king who serves those who serve Him. Verse 37 states;

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. (Luke 12:37)

When Jesus uses the term ‘truly I tell you’, it often signifies a powerful truth that we may find difficult to accept. Here He tells us that when He returns and takes His faithful disciples to be with Him, that He will change His clothes, have us recline at the feasting table, and serve us. Jesus foreshadowed this on the night of the Last Supper, the evening before He was arrested and crucified the next day. John 13:1-17 tells us that while the meal was in progress, Jesus stood up, removed His outer garment, wrapped a towel around His waist, took a bowl of water and proceeded to wash His disciple’s feet.

This was before the Passover Festival when hundreds of animals had been driven through the streets to the temple for sacrifices. The roads would have been filthy with dung and no doubt the disciple’s feet were just as filthy. Here was the Lord of glory washing dung off the feet of His disciples. Peter objected. This was the role assigned to a slave, and none of the disciples had offered to do the job. Jesus’ intention was to teach them about serving one another and that He would also cleanse them of sin, acts of agape love in action, and an attitude they would understand after they were filled with the divine nature at Pentecost.

And after His resurrection His disciples returned to Galilee and went back to their old jobs of fishing. So Jesus, knowing where they would put into shore, called out and asked them if they had caught anything, and when they answered ‘no’, told them to throw their nets over the right side of the boat. The nets immediately filled with 153 large fish and it was too heavy to haul into the boat so they dragged it ashore. Jesus had already started cooking them breakfast of fish and bread, and told them to bring some of the fish and come and eat with Him. On that morning, He did the providing, the cooking, and the serving (John 21:1-16).

This is the King we love and serve. Not a King who demands we continually grovel at His feet after serving and loving Him faithfully, but one who exemplifies love and service by serving those who love and serve Him. Why should this surprise us? Our infinitely powerful Creator, set aside His glory and was born in a stable as a helpless child. He joined Himself to our humanity, called us His brothers and sisters, and said He came to serve, not to be served. This is His very nature, the nature of the servant-king and His nature did not change at His resurrection or ascension.

Yes, He is coming as a Judge, and although He never needed to, He has destroyed any criticism that He has no right to judge. He did not sit on His heavenly throne detached and judge us on our failure to meet His standards, rather, He entered into our mortality and suffering, He served us even to death, was tempted in all things but never sinned, and offered the gift of His righteousness to all who would obey His call to repent and be saved. To those who reject and hate Him, those who follow and promote evil, He will be the uncompromising King of justice and judgment. But to those who know and love Him in gratitude for reaching out to us as helpless slaves to sin, to those who belong to Him, we will enjoy His presence as brothers and sisters, we will as Peter said;  

…receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:11)

VI. In Summary

This parable, like so many of the Lord’s parables, challenges those who claim to be believers to examine our lives against His expectation of how a true disciple acts. In the previous parable Jesus asked if we are storing up treasure in heaven, giving our surplus to those in need. The question is, are our eyes on heaven or on the world? In this parable He is asking the same question. Are we dressed to serve and serving, and are we shining the light of Christ to the world in how we live and act? 

He constantly uses the word ‘master’, a word many dislike because it challenges their autonomous nature. This word asks the question, who or what do we belong to? Do we demand that we can call ourselves believers and retain the right to rule our own lives? Such a demand simply testifies to a person who does not belong to Christ. Self-rule is the root of all sin, the heart of rebellion, the creature stating ‘I will rule my own life’. It is this self-ruling principle which must be surrendered to Christ as Lord and Savior or the person will not be crucified with Christ, for Christ will never simply tack Himself onto us. 

But what kind of master are we called to surrender to? Is He a wrath-filled tyrant who has condemned all to hell for the crime of being conceived totally depraved as Calvinists claim, a tyrant who predetermined 90% to eternal conscious torment with no explanation of why a tiny few were spared His lust to hear people scream without hope for all eternity? No, that is a demonic caricature of God invented by unregenerate men who do not or never knew the God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.

In this parable we get another glimpse of the character of the one who is the ‘master’. He is the one who healed every person who came to Him, who fed thousands to instill faith, who washed His disciple’s feet, and who took the just punishment for our willful sin upon Himself, who died in our place. He is the servant-king, the infinitely powerful and infinitely just and loving Creator of all that exists, who humbled Himself to enter His own creation, fulfill His own standards of the law and holiness, was tempted in all things as we are, and desires to serve those who love Him, as we serve Him and adore Him for all eternity. 

Are you ready and shining His light in the world. Are you excited to see Him face to face, or are your eyes fixed on the world and earthly things? How you answer these questions will reveal who you are in relation to Christ.

I pray this video/article has been both an encouragement and challenge.  

God bless