Please open your Bibles this evening to the Gospel according to Luke, the Gospel according to Luke, and turn there into chapter 12, wherein Luke has gathered together several episodes of warnings and encouragements to the church from our Lord Jesus Christ. We will take up our consideration this evening at Luke chapter 12, verse 35. I'm going to read through verse 48 for the context, but we will focus on verses 35 through 40 in particular tonight. So hear now the word of God from Luke chapter 12, beginning at verse 35. Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning. like men 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. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table, and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. 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. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. Peter asked, Lord, are you telling this parable to us or to everyone? 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. It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose the servant says to himself, my master is taking a long time in coming and he then begins to beat the men servants and maid 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 is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. 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. Here ends the reading of our God's word and we pray that he would add his blessing to it this evening. Well, we've gathered this evening to mark the end of another year, the year of our Lord 2009. And the beginning of A.D. Anno Domini 2010. for centuries Christians have been looking back and counting up from Jesus' incarnation remembering that the eternal Son of God came into time in the flesh Jesus Christ our Lord remembering his earthly ministry that culminated in his death on the cross for our sins his resurrection from the dead on the third day for our justification and his ascension to the right hand of our Father in heaven for our sanctification and for our glorification. Jesus Christ came and he accomplished redemption. And then he ascended into heaven out of sight. Therefore many, even some who will admit to his historic reality, don't give him a second thought, let alone worship him. What's the saying? You know it. Out of sight, out of mind. And it seems so logical, so reasonable, as long as you don't take into account that which Jesus teaches us in our text this evening. But Jesus taught this more than in this place. He taught it very clearly in John chapter 14. On the night before his death, he prepared his disciples for his leaving. Not so much for his death. He told them of that several times before that date. He was more concerned about their well-being at his leaving. That they would be left alone. That they would be troubled in heart. And in John chapter 14, we read that he said to them, Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you so. I'm going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come back. And take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am. What a wonderful promise that our Lord gives to his disciples, that he gives to us. That though he is away, though he is out of sight, he will come back to bring us to himself. But knowing this promise is not the same as believing it. Trusting that when Christ returns, he's coming for us to bring us home. According to the Apostle Peter, ever since Christ's ascension, there have been and there will continue to be scoffers. Those who know the promise, but who count the time. And they say, where is this coming He promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning. They know the promise, but they're marking time. Well, Jesus anticipated our propensity to doubt from doing the math, from counting the time. And in our day, looking back nearly 2,000 years and being tempted to think, well, how long? He provided a corrective to his disciples long before his death as early as Luke chapter 12. And the corrective is that instead of having his disciples look back and to count up from the time of his incarnation, he would turn our direction to look forward and to count down to his return. When he will come again, we cannot know. He doesn't give us the day or the hour. That's the secret in the mind of God, that he's revealed to no one. But that he will come again, that he will do it, is certain. He's coming. So although we can't literally count down in the same way that we've been counting up 2009. Our zero, as it were, will come. Christ will come again in the flesh. And everyone who does not live to see that day will have already faced their own hour zero in their death. So one way or the other, the end is coming. Every year, every day, Every breath, we move closer to our zero. Indeed, whether we believe it or not, we are living with Christ at the threshold as though He were right outside that door at any moment to knock. To bring us home one by one or to bring home all the saints. And in our text today, in parables, Jesus teaches His disciples to live according to His command that He gives us here anticipating his reward that he promises here in attending to this warning that he would have us heed this day. Well, according to his command in verse 35, Jesus prescribed for his disciples how we are to be, how we are to exist in the time between his ascension to heaven and his return in glory. And the NIV has well expressed the sense of Jesus' command, Be dressed and ready for service and keep your lamps burning. But let's consider for a moment the graphic picture that stands behind this interpretation, this presentation that Jesus used to convey this message. Jesus addressed them rather forcefully. He says, be you, almost like a finger in the chest. Be you. Be you girded up in the loins and the lamps burning. What does that mean? Well, to gird up the loins was to lift up the hem of a robe up into the belt so that the feet were free to move in any direction at any time without hindrance. To gird up the loins was to be in your work clothes, so to speak. It was to be ready to go, ready to work. It meant you were on duty. You basketball players might call to mind the triple threat position. That's the position you're in for anything, any way, any time. You're always ready. That's the attitude that this attire is to have us think of. It's the attitude and the action that we're called to by this dress code. Jesus wasn't telling us how to dress. He was telling us how to think and how to act by this picture of girding up the loins, of lifting up the robes. And he emphasized the perpetual nature of this service, of this work with the lamps burning. We don't think a thing about the lamps burning, at least in my house. They seem to be burning all the time. But the lamps burning, in that day, a household lamp was no bigger than the palm of my hand. A terracotta bowl with some oil and a wick. And to keep those burning meant you had to pay attention. You had to replenish the oil. You had to replace the wick. It was an ongoing and ever necessary duty. so the picture Jesus is painting here by girding up the loins and keeping the lamps burning is a picture of not only readiness for action but ongoing activity maintaining the house in a way that when the master comes back we're ready to receive him to welcome him and in verse 36 Jesus goes on to illustrate the character of this ready and able service to which he's called his disciples and he compares them to men 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. Immediately. Our house is long from door to door. It can take me a few minutes to get to the doorbell. That would not be satisfactory for the master coming home in this scene. Knock open. Wedding banquets like the wedding in Cana could last for days. And the servants would have no idea when the master would be coming home. They knew he was coming and they were to be ready, but they didn't know when. And he didn't have a cell phone to call or to text to say, I'll be there in five. They had to be ready all the time. And even if he could send a message, he wouldn't. According to verse 38, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night, Long after bedtime, long before the rooster crows, if he came at that time, he expected his servants to be expecting him, ready to open that door at first knock. And the connections between this parable and the reality it represents are not hard to make. The parable is about Jesus' disciples and about himself as their divine Lord to whom they belong as slaves. The disciples of Christ are his slaves. This might rankle our American sensibilities. We don't think we're slaves to anybody. The disciples of Christ are his slaves. The fact of the matter remains, as Bob Dylan sings, it may be the devil and it may be the Lord, but you're going to have to serve somebody. He's just echoing Paul, who says that everyone is either a slave to sin or a slave to God. There's no middle ground. Jesus himself said in Luke chapter 11, He who's not with me is against me. And in chapter 16, No servant can serve two masters. Either he will love the one and hate the other, or he'll devote it to the one and despise the other. There is no middle ground. You belong to somebody. And Jesus' servants, Jesus' disciples belong to him. And with this parable, Jesus was preparing his disciples, his servants, for his departure and letting them know that he expected them to continue serving him even while he's gone. Watching and ready for his return. And over the years, over the centuries, the names have changed, but the expectation remains for us today to be ready, Watching, prepared. We must ask the question, how is such service possible? What is at the root of this fruit? Because we must admit that we're not always ready. We're not always watchful. We're easily distracted. There's so much noise. There's so much to give ourselves to. There's so much to do. how is it possible? Well, Jesus is not explicit about the root here, but he implies it with his words. He doesn't give an explanation of it. He just assumes it when he tells his disciples. First of all, by calling his disciples servants or slaves, Jesus affirms that we do belong to him, that we enjoy a status, A status that cannot be attained because of our ambition, that cannot be earned because of our hard labor. It's a status that only God can give. As Paul says, it does not depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. By calling his disciples, by calling us his servants, his slaves, he affirms the status that God has given. Only by grace and through the gift of true faith, that not only believes that Jesus is the Savior of his people, he's the Savior not only of other people, but we trust that he's the Savior for me too. If you can say that, you are proud, you are pleased to wear the title slave. And secondly, when Jesus commands his servants to be girded up, he does so in this sense, having been girded up, continue to be girded up. Having been made ready, continue to be ready. This ever ready and willing service to which Christ calls His disciples is not a new obedience. It's not something added on to our salvation. It is continued obedience. Obedience motivated by and enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit given to us in our conversion. The Holy Spirit, God himself who is at work in you to will, to want to, sir, and to do, to act according to God's purposes. Imperfectly to be sure, but the desire will be there, and the effort will be spent, and by God's grace progress will be made. Indeed, the root from which such service springs is love for our Savior. love that comes from God. In 1 John chapter 4, we read that God sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love, John writes, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins. We love because He first loved us. That's the root. That's the only root that can sustain this service. All else is pretension. All else is self-deception. All else leads to despair or to pride. Love of Christ, our Savior, is the root from which this service springs. Indeed, on the night he was betrayed, Jesus again and again told his disciples, If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. Therefore, living with Christ at the threshold involves exerting ourselves out of love for Christ in the strength of the Holy Spirit according to His command. But this exertion does not take place in a vacuum. Like runners, we're called to exert ourselves toward a goal. A finish line. And so Jesus continues his teaching by setting before us a finish line so that we can exert ourselves anticipating his reward. In verses 37 and 38, Jesus makes a startling revelation about his return, what it will mean for those servants who are ready and waiting for him. And we're told at the beginning and the end of these two verses that it will be good for them. It will be good for them. In a word, they will be blessed. They will be blessed. According to the parable, those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes, verse 37, those servants whose masters find them ready, verse 38, are blessed by their master's return. In one sense, the master's return is a blessing in and of itself. It is its own reward. Servants who love their master are blessed. They're happy. They're fortunate to have him back. They've missed him. They've longed to see him. And in his coming, that longing is fulfilled. Blessed are those servants. And if that were all, that would be enough. Nothing more could be hoped for in the relationship between a master and a slave. Servants do not deserve gratitude. Servants do not merit reward by doing their duty. That just, I know that has to rankle you. It rankles me to hear it. We live in a culture that you do something, you get paid. If you don't get paid, you don't have to do it. That's not the relationship between masters and slaves. That's not the relationship between God and his people. Servants do not deserve gratitude nor merit reward for performing their duties. That's not just me saying this. Jesus made this point and he applied this point to his people, to his disciples in Luke chapter 17. Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he, that is the Lord, say to the servant when he comes in from the field, come now and sit down to eat? Would he not rather say, prepare my supper? Get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink, and after that, you may eat and drink. Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? The expected answer is no. So you also, Jesus said, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, we are unworthy servants. We have only done our duty. there's no reward that we can expect as the disciples of Christ because of our duty, because of our service. The coming of our Savior is in and of itself reward enough. And it will be reward enough, but that's not all it will be. A master owes his servants neither gratitude nor reward for performing their duties. And when we remember that and remember that in this scene. How magnificent it is when this master bestows on these servants a reward that is all of grace, neither earned nor merited, but he gives to them. I tell you the truth, Jesus says. Amen, he says. Pay attention now. This is important, he says. This master will dress himself to serve. He will gird up his loins. He will have them recline at the table and He will come to wait on them. This Lord does not seek His own ease and retire for the night. He instead treats His servants as Lord. He elevates them. He does not order other servants to wait on them. He serves them Himself. He humbles Himself. He girds Himself. He gives them the table. He prepares a feast. He serves them. He serves them fair like what he's just come back from at the wedding banquet. Such reward was not only far greater than anything the disciples could have asked or imagined. It was utterly inconceivable. If you start from the baseline that there's nothing earned or deserved by the servant to have a master do this, it would blow your mind. It's astounding. It turns the world on its head. And yet Jesus, in this parable, is telling us how it will be at his return. It's intended to give us pause to contemplate and to appreciate as much as we can the wonder of this reward that awaits us when Christ returns. All we can say is that we'll be beyond our current capacity to imagine. I can't conceptualize it. And that's the picture here. This is something the disciples would not be able to grasp. Unheard of. Impossible. Even though it's more than we can imagine, at the same time it will not surprise us because we know and we love our Lord. Our Lord who came in the flesh, That's the Lord of glory who humbled Himself to serve us by living and dying and being raised for people like you and like me. That's the Lord who's coming back to serve us, His people. Luke tells us in chapter 22 that Jesus explained the reality that this parable portrays. Chapter 22, beginning in verse 27, Jesus asked, Who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves, Jesus said. You are those who have stood by me in my trials, and I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. That's the promise for the people of God. We will sit at His table. We will eat of His fare. For He is bestowing upon us the kingdom that His Father has bestowed upon Him. That's the reward. This heavenly reward is portrayed as this feast, but it's not about food. It's merely a picture, a glimpse of the gracious reward that Jesus will confer upon His disciples at the end of days. We can't know the details until we experience it, but we can live and we can work and we can strive in anticipation of it. How grand it will be. Neither earned nor deserved, but all of grace. Well, this parable reminds us that the glories to come will make not only the trials and the tribulations of this life, but also the joys and the delights of this life pale in comparison. As C.S. Lewis said, we're too easily satisfied. We have no idea what's coming. Sadly, as finite creatures who are easily distracted by the urgencies of life and the noise of our surroundings, we often forget that we're living with Christ at the threshold. And all of that could be moments away. Sure, Jesus is coming again someday. Sure, I'm going to die someday. But Jesus won't let His people live in terms of someday. We don't do anything for the sake of some day. And in verses 39 and 40, he pulls us up short with a warning and we would be wise to attend to this warning. Jesus tells another parable to drive home a point. He says, 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. Indeed, for some of you, this parable is not a hypothetical. You know what it is to come home to a ransacked house. When you left, it felt safe and secure. When you came back, you're shocked at how easily it was breached. If you had known that someone was coming at that time, on that day, to rob your house, you would certainly have taken measures to prevent it. You would have somehow made yourself ready. You would have somehow accomplished watching and waiting, whether it was you or police officers or someone at your behest. You would do something if you knew. That's the point. With regard to Jesus Christ's return, you also must be ready, Jesus says. Why? Because it's not a question of if. It's not a question of whether if he's going to come, Jesus, the Son of Man, will come. How often have you heard the maxim, past performance is not indicative of future performance? All you investors have heard that. You should have read it on your portfolio. Past performance is no indication of future performance. And as true as that is, and as much as we know it, and as much as we know that Jesus Christ is coming, we still make decisions like it's not. We like to invest in stocks and bonds that made money yesterday, even though they could lose money tomorrow. We all like to get in the housing market when it's going up, even though it could crash tomorrow. We all like to root for the championship team, even though they won't be champions forever. We find it hard to believe that things will change, that things can change. And when they do change, we still can't believe it. Jesus warns against that kind of self-deception, that kind of delusion with regard to His coming. Just because He has not yet returned in glory doesn't mean He won't return tonight. And just because I'm alive to speak to you now does not mean this won't be my last breath. It's not a question of if. It's a question of when. When He will come again. And to this Jesus answers, the Son of Man will come at the hour when you do not expect him. Like the thief. We need to get this warning. It's for our good. The disciples got it. It shows up all over the biblical record. In every strain of apostolic ministry, we find it. The Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 says, Now brothers, about times and dates, we do not need to write you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying peace and safety, destruction will come on them suddenly as labor pains on a pregnant woman and they will not escape. The Apostle Peter in 2 Peter chapter 3 explains the seeming delay in this coming. He writes, Do not forget this one thing, dear friends, with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come, like a thief. And Jesus Himself announced His return to the Apostle John in Revelation chapter 16. He says, Behold, I come like a thief. Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed. Jesus Christ is coming whether in glory or through death and it will be when we least expect him. From Jesus' mouth to our ears you also must be ready. This year, perhaps more than any other I can remember, reminded me of the importance of this message that Jesus has given to us tonight through his message to his disciples. You know, we're never really ready for the death of a loved one. Sometimes we can read the signs and we can begin to prepare ourselves. We have a sense that the end is coming and we try to gird ourselves up for that. Even then, we can't ever be totally ready. but several times this year there were no signs to read in the deaths of the saints. I don't know about you, but it set me back. Jesus came for Vera on the operating table when everyone expected a positive outcome. He came for Ingrid in her sleep when her friends were looking forward to seeing her tomorrow. He came for Paul and for Shirley through unexpected falls. He came for Casey through an unexpected aneurysm. No signs to read. No preparations to make. No anticipation of anything. And in the death of every saint, even those that we were not as surprised by, those that we saw coming, so to speak, the day and the hour was unknown. Coming like a thief in the night. Another reminder, a picture of the coming of Christ. He'll come like a thief in the night. Now we're right to mourn their absence, those who've gone this year, those who've gone before. But we can do so with the certainty that Jesus' reward is already theirs, at least in part, until the day of the resurrection when all the saints will inherit and receive that reward in its fullness. So we don't mourn as those who have no hope. But though we can never really be ready for the death of a loved one, we can, says Jesus, be ready for our own death. We can, he says, be ready for his return. What Jesus commands, He gives grace to obey. Be dressed, ready for service, and keep your lamps burning. Be watching and waiting in service to our Lord, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him. So as we leave behind the year of our Lord 2009, let's do so as disciples living with Christ at the threshold looking forward counting down according to His command anticipating His reward and attending to His warning. Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven we thank You for Your Word to us this night. through Jesus Christ our Lord, as recorded for us by the physician Luke. We thank you, Father, for the reorientation which has been given to us about who we are and where we are and where we're going. We thank you, Father, that you have renewed in us an awareness of that task which you have given to your disciples in this meantime as we wait for Christ's return. And we thank you, Lord, that it comes to your people, those equipped by your Spirit to hear it, to desire it, and to pursue it. And we thank you, Father, for the reward that you set before us, a reward that we know we cannot earn and that we certainly will never deserve. And yet, Lord, you have promised to give it. We pray, Lord, that we would keep that hope in mind, that goal in mind when days are hard, And perhaps even when times are great that we would remember our bearings as we live each day counting down, looking forward to the return of our Lord and Savior in glory. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.