Luke 12:35-59: “Jesus Teaches His Disciples That They Are
Always To Be Ready For His Return”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked
at verses 22-34 of chapter 12 where Jesus dealt with the topic of worry in His
disciple’s lives.
1.1.1. We saw that Jesus was training and preparing His disciples by helping
them to deal with worry, anxiety and fear.
1.2.
In our study today, we are
going to look at verses 35-59 of chapter 12.
1.2.1. As with the previous few lessons in Luke, we will see in this study
that Jesus is still trying to prepare His disciples for life without Him after
He has died upon
1.2.2. We will see that Jesus tells His disciples that regarding His return
they are to be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from a
wedding feast.
1.2.3. Jesus will tell His disciples that He did not come to bring peace but
rather division.
1.2.4. Jesus chides the people for not being able to discern the times they
were living in.
1.2.5. Jesus tells the crowds through a parable that they should try to settle
with the lawyer (who symbolizes God) before they have to go to court and get
thrown into debtor’s prison never to get out.
2. VS 12:35-38 - “35 “Be dressed in readiness, and keep
your lamps lit. 36 “Be like men who are waiting for their master
when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the
door to him when he comes and knocks. 37 “Blessed are those
slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to
you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the
table, and will come up and wait on them. 38 “Whether he comes
in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed
are those slaves.” - Jesus tells His disciples to be dressed in
readiness with their lamps lit like one waiting for their master when he
returns from the wedding feast
2.1.
Having admonished His
disciples about not worrying nor being anxious or fearful about anything, Jesus
now begins to explain to them the importance after His resurrection of always
being ready for His appearing.
2.2.
Weddings were big events in
Jesus’ day. Many times a wedding
ceremony might last an entire week. The
wedding feast was held in the evening.
Here we see a man’s servants were told to wait and be ready with lit
lamps for him when he should return from the wedding feast and need them to
open the door for him and serve him (and perhaps his bride) when he comes and
knocks.
2.3.
There are actually two
pictures of readiness shown in this story concerning these slaves.
2.3.1. Long garments and robes were worn in Jesus’ day and when a person
wanted to work hard or move quickly he would draw those garments up around his
loins.
2.3.2. The burning lamps are a symbol of being ready to move about in the
darkness. Moving about in the darkness
describes what is often our Christian experience, does it not?
2.4.
It is implied here that
Jesus’ disciples can never be certain when He shall return for them. Therefore, the only way for them to have their
hearts and lives prepared for His return is to always live their life in a
state of readiness for Him to return.
2.5.
Jesus speaks of the
different watches of the night here.
Roman guards had four different watches each night, dividing the period
between 9:00pm and 6:00am into four equal units. The Jews divided up the night into three
different watches. The master in this
parable might return at any hour of the night, so his servant should be ready
during every watch.
2.6.
Notice here that this story
illustrates the fact that when the Lord returns for His people that He is going
to gird Himself and serve them at the table.
This is a reference to the supper of the Lamb which is to occur after
the church is raptured up to be with the Lord just prior to the seven year
tribulation of the book of Revelation.
What an amazing thing it is to imagine our glorified and mighty Lord
Jesus serving each one of us at that feast that we shall attend one day!
2.7.
These verses also contain
yet another beatitude. Those are ‘blessed’
who are found ready and waiting for the Lord when He returns for them. Obviously, those who are not found ready when
Jesus returns shall not be blessed. They
shall be judged.
2.8.
We are ready and waiting for
the Lord’s return when we don’t have any unconfessed sin in our life and we are
walking in obedience to the Lord seeking His will and leading in all things.
2.9.
In our theology, we as God’s
people through faith in Christ need to include the fact that Christ’s return is
always “imminent.” In other words,
there is never anything which first has to be accomplished before Jesus can
return for His church. Jesus could
return at any moment. Believing in the
imminent return of Christ causes a purifying effect in the lives of God’s
people. Conversely, denying that Christ
could return at any time produces a lackadaisical attitude in people.
2.10.
The following is a poem
whose author is unknown :
“If Jesus Came Home”
If Jesus came to your house to spend a day or two.
If He came unexpectedly, I wonder what you’d do.
Oh, I know you’d give your nicest room to such an
honored guest
And all the food you’d serve to Him would be the
very best,
And you would keep assuring Him you’re glad to have
him there …
But … when you saw Him coming, would you meet Him at
the door
With arms outstretched in welcome to our heavenly
visitor?
Or would you maybe change your clothes before you
let Him in,
Or hide some magazines and put the Bible where
they’d been?
Would you turn off the radio and hope He hadn’t
heard,
And wish you hadn’t uttered that last, loud and
hasty word?
Would you hide your worldly music and put some
hymnbooks out?
Could you let Jesus walk right in, or would you rush
about?
And I wonder. … If the Savior spent a day or two
with you,
Would you go right on doing the things you always
do?
Would you go right on saying the things you always
say?
Would life for you continue as it does from day to
day?
Would your family conversation keep up its usual
pace?
And would you find it hard each meal to say a table
grace?
Would you sing the songs you always sing and read
the book you read?
And let Him know the things on which your mind and
spirit feed?
Would you take Jesus with you everywhere you’d
planned to go,
Or would you, maybe, change your plans for just a
day or so?
Would you be glad to have Him meet your very closest
friends,
Or would you hope they’d stay away until His visit
ends?
Would you be glad to have Him stay for-ever on and
on,
Or would you sigh with great relief when He at last
was gone?
It might be interesting to know the things that you
would do,
If Jesus came in person to spend some time with you.
2.11.
This study reminded me of a
funny story that my mother told me when I was a youngster about a friend of
hers named Wilma one day who had the minister of her church come to visit her
at her house unannounced. Wilma was
smoking a cigarette when she saw the minister through the little window in her
door and immediately as she saw him she threw her cigarette on the floor behind
her as she opened the door. Then as she
was trying to tell the minister that her house was a mess and that she wasn’t
completely dressed and couldn’t let him in she was at the same time with one of
her feet trying to stomp out the shag carpet behind her that was now on fire.
2.12.
Louis Pasteur once said, “Chance favors only the mind which is
prepared.” There is a sense in which
if a person is truly prepared for the situations that might occur in his life
that he will be in the best position to take advantage of them. Good fortune is more likely to occur in the
life of someone who works hard and is prepared mentally for the challenges he
faces. A person in the business world
once expressed, “I have found that the harder I work the luckier I get.” How greatly we shall be blessed and used by
God if we are found always ready for His return.
2.13.
The following is written
about “readiness” by Oswald Chambers in “My Utmost For His Highest” :
“Readiness means a right relationship to God and a
knowledge of where we are at present. We are so busy telling God where we would
like to go. The man or woman who is ready for God and His work is the one who
carries off the prize when the summons comes. We wait with the idea of some great
opportunity, something sensational, and when it comes we are quick to cry—“Here
am I.” Whenever Jesus Christ is in the ascendant, we are there; but we are not
ready for an obscure duty.
Readiness for God means that we are ready to do the
tiniest little thing or the great big thing, it makes no difference. We have no
choice in what we want to do; whatever God’s programme may be we are there,
ready. When any duty presents itself we hear God’s voice as Our Lord heard His
Father’s voice, and we are ready for it with all the alertness of our love for
Him. Jesus Christ expects to do with us as His Father did with Him. He can put
us where He likes, in pleasant duties or in mean duties, because the union is
that of the Father and Himself. “That they may be one, even as We are one.”
Be ready for the sudden surprise visits of God. A
ready person never needs to get ready.”
2.14.
Are you living each day of
your life as if the Lord could come at any moment?
3. VS 12:39-40 - “39 “But be sure of this, that if the
head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not
have allowed his house to be broken into. 40 “You too, be ready; for
the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.”” - Jesus tells His disciples
that His coming will be like a thief in the night therefore since they will not
know the hour they must always be ready for His return
3.1.
When thieves robbed a house
in Israel in Jesus’ day they would wait until the middle of the night when
everyone was fast asleep. Then, they
would quietly dig a hole through the mud wall, crawl in, and rob the house.
3.2.
Jesus tells His disciples
that if a head of the house had known at what hour the thief would rob him that
he would have stayed up and been ready for that thief when he showed up. A person can never know when a thief is going
to appear at his house. In the same way,
Jesus tells His disciples that He will return for His people ‘at an hour you
do not expect.’
3.3.
Since we have no idea when
the Lord may return for us the only way that we can know that we will be ready
is if we are always ready for His return.
4. VS 12:41-48 - “41 Peter said, “Lord, are You
addressing this parable to us, or to everyone else as well?” 42 And
the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master
will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper
time? 43 “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when
he comes. 44 “Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of
all his possessions. 45 “But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My
master will be a long time in coming,’ and begins to beat the slaves, both men
and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; 46 the master of that
slave 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 assign him a place with the
unbelievers. 47 “And that slave who knew his master’s will and did
not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, 48
but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a
flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much
will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the
more.” - Peter asks Jesus if this teaching about
readiness applies to them or to everyone else as well, and then Jesus tells His
disciples about what characterizes faithful and sensible stewards
4.1.
Peter was unsure who Jesus
was referring to with this teaching concerning the need for readiness. He sensed that the teaching definitely
applied to the 12 but he wasn’t sure that the rest of the 70 or even all people
were also included by Jesus.
4.2.
In Jesus’ answer to Peter’s
question it is obvious that all of the Lord’s servants are being
referenced. Every person on the earth
has the opportunity afforded them to become Jesus’ servant however so this
parable can apply in everyone’s life.
4.3.
Note that Jesus’ servants
are called “stewards” here. We as
God’s people are “stewards” of all that the Lord has entrusted to
us. As “stewards” we are
responsible to take care of the Lord’s goods.
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance has the following entry for this Greek
word ‘’ which is translated ‘steward’ here:
3623 οἰκονόμος [oikonomos /oy·kon·om·os/] n m. From 3624 and the
base of 3551; TDNT 5:149; TDNTA 674; GK 3874; 10 occurrences; AV translates as
“steward” eight times, “chamberlain” once, and “governor” once. 1 the manager of household or of household affairs. 1a esp. a steward, manager, superintendent (whether free-born or as was
usually the case, a freed-man or a slave) to whom the head of the house or
proprietor has intrusted the management of his affairs, the care of receipts
and expenditures, and the duty of dealing out the proper portion to every
servant and even to the children not yet of age. 1b the manager of a farm or landed estate, an overseer. 1c the superintendent of the city’s finances, the treasurer of a city (or
of treasurers or quaestors of kings). 2 metaph. the apostles and
other Christian teachers and bishops and overseers.
4.4.
Jesus enumerates the reward
for those who are found a ‘faithful and sensible steward’ by the
Lord. He tells them that the Lord will
put him in charge of all of His possessions when He returns. Increased responsibility in God’s kingdom is
promised to every ‘faithful and sensible steward.’ Christ’s Millennial Kingdom will not be a
place of idleness but rather a place where much creative energy is used, and
the faithful will rule cities and townships as they are ruled over by Christ.
4.5.
In Jesus’ day a landowner
would sometimes leave his slaves in charge of his vineyard or fields when he
would go away on a journey. The steward
in this story by Jesus has as a primary task making sure that all of the other
slaves are taken care of and fed properly.
This reminds me of what Jesus’ asked Peter after His resurrection, “Do
you love Me? Then, feed My sheep.”
4.6.
Jesus uses the example of
three different unfaithful servants to illustrate that punishment will be based
upon how much a person knows and how they respond in obedience to what they
know:
4.6.1. The first unfaithful slave is one who believes that his master is not
going to be returning for a very long time.
So, as a result he ‘begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and
drink and get drunk.’ This man is taken over
by rebellion against the Lord. He is
really a false or spurious believer. His
life is consumed with dissipation as he beats those whom he has been given charge
over, both men and women, and he becomes gluttonous and a drunkard. As a result of his having turned completely
away from following the Lord, this man will be completely dismembered and be
assigned a place with the unbelievers, which is to say that this man shall
spend eternity in hell separated from the Lord.
4.6.2. The second unfaithful slave is one who ‘knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act
in accord with his will.’ This man did not live
his life in complete disregard for the Lord and His will. However, he knowingly allowed some
disobedience to exist in his life. The
punishment for this slave is that he will ‘receive many lashes.’ This slave will not spend eternity in hell
but he will be punished severely.
4.6.3. The third unfaithful slave is one who whose disobedience to the Lord
was done in ignorance. This man should
have known better because he should have sought the Lord’s will more
diligently. However, because this man’s
rebellion was done in ignorance he will receive few lashes as his punishment.
4.7.
To sum up His response to
Peter’s question about who this teaching of Jesus applies to, Jesus says, “From everyone who has been given
much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will
ask all the more.” In answer
to Peter’s question, since the 12 have spent the most time with Jesus and He
has entrusted the most to them, then it is more important that they be found
faithful with what they have been taught and told to do. All should be faithful servants but those to
whom the Lord has entrusted more will have more that they will expected to be
faithful with as God’s steward.
4.8.
Notice in Jesus’ use of the
word ‘they’ here that He is indicating that it is a general concept in
this world that great privilege brings great responsibility. For instance, if someone gives you great
privilege, say through a promotion at work, then they expect that you will
respond to that privilege and not disappoint them by your performance in that
job.
5. VS 12:49-53 - “49 “I have come to cast fire upon
the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 “But I have a
baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! 51 “Do
you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather
division; 52 for from now on five members in one household
will be divided, 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.”” - Jesus tells His disciples
that He has come to ‘cast fire upon the earth’ and to bring ‘division’
5.1.
When we first began our
study of this gospel we saw that when the angels announced the birth of Jesus
they announced, “Peace on earth and good will towards men.” At that time we talked about the fact that
Jesus, the baby that was being born, is the “Prince of Peace,” and we
even acknowledged that God makes all of His people into “peace makers.” Now, how can it be that Jesus is saying that
He did not come to ‘grant peace of earth’ but rather ‘division’
? The answer to this question has to
do with the fact that people on this earth are in most cases not going to want
to come to Jesus and face the light of the truth of God in their lives. The majority of people love darkness and
don’t want to come to the light (John 3:19).
It’s the sinfulness of men that causes this division.
5.2.
Unfortunately, as we have
discussed many times, when you become a Christian the people in this world do
not get very excited about your decision.
In fact, it is rather the case that when a person becomes a Christian
that he suddenly finds himself facing huge persecution. Many times this persecution comes from his
family or those he previously knew as his friends.
5.3.
In our world today, have you
noticed that there is really only one division amongst people? It is Christian and non-Christian. Christians are set apart from everyone else. For instance, if any other religious group
wants to have a prayer meeting on a high school campus they will probably be
allowed to do so. However, if a group of
Christians want to meet they will encounter fierce opposition. Why is this?
It is because in this world the Devil is trying to hinder the work of
God in people’s lives. He especially
wants to cause as many people as possible to go to hell. Thus, he will always try to hinder the
witness of any faithful Christians.
5.4.
It is only the Lord who can
bind Satan’s power and attempts to hinder our witness. Therefore, it is imperative that we as
Christians be prayerful and claim victories for God in people’s lives wherever
we go.
5.5.
Jesus also speaks here about
a ‘baptism’ that He has to undergo.
This is sort of a mission statement from Jesus. Since Jesus has already been baptized in
water and the Holy Spirit, the baptism that He is referring to must be the
suffering and death that He is soon going to accomplish upon Calvary’s cross to
pay for the sins of the world.
5.6.
He also says here that He is
‘distressed’ until that work is accomplished. Jesus reveals in this statement the fact that
His intent is and has always has been focused upon being the sin bearer for all
mankind and doing for men and women what they could and would never be able to
do for themselves.
6. VS 12:54-56 - “54 And He was also saying to the
crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘A
shower is coming,’ and so it turns out. 55 “And when you see a
south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it turns out that
way. 56 “You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance
of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time?” - Jesus chides the crowd for
being able to see the signs and predict the weather but not be able to predict
what God is doing through Jesus at this time
6.1.
In these verses, we see
Jesus acknowledging to the crowds on this day the fact that they were pretty
good at predicting the weather by the simply observance of the signs in the
sky. In Israel storms typically come
from the west across the Mediterranean Sea.
When the sky is red in the west this means that there are clouds in the
distance which are diffusing the sun’s light.
This is the same thing that causes pretty sunsets, clouds, dust, or pollution
in the west on a clear day when the sun is setting will cause the sky to take
on pretty hues of red. These clouds
often produce rain.
6.2.
Likewise, people knew that a
wind blowing from the south would bring a warm day. This is the case with south winds.
6.3.
With all of the
perceptiveness of the crowds in determining weather patterns based upon
observance of the sky and direction of the wind, it is interesting that they
had so little spiritual perceptiveness of the signs of the times regarding the
coming of Jesus, Israel’s Messiah.
6.4.
We see this same
characteristic in people today, do we not?
With all of the scientific advances that mankind has made in the last
generation the advancement of knowledge has not grown incrementally it has
grown exponentially. It has been said
that in the previous ten years alone knowledge has increased more than in all
of the previous years on this planet put together. However, with all of this advancement is
mankind any better? Is mankind any
closer to understanding spiritual truth than they were in Jesus’ day? No, not at all! Today, people for the most part are more
blind to spiritual truth than they ever have been before.
6.5.
Jesus calls the people of
His day hypocrites because they are so blind to spiritual truth yet so
perceptive in other areas of knowledge.
If they were hypocrites, I wonder what Jesus would say to the people of
our world today?
7. VS 12:57-59 - “57 “And why do you not even on your
own initiative judge what is right? 58 “For while you are going with
your opponent to appear before the magistrate, on your way there make
an effort to settle with him, so that he may not drag you before the judge, and
the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. 59
“I say to you, you will not get out of there until you have paid the very
last cent.”” - Jesus encourages the people
to reconcile with God their judge while they are on the way to court and not
wait until they are in the court and it is too late
7.1.
In these verses, we see
Jesus telling the story of a man who is being taken to court by a lawyer. The man demonstrates wisdom by trying to
settle his case before it goes to court and he has to face a judge and be
thrown into prison.
7.2.
In Jesus’ day people were
thrown into debtor’s prison when they could not pay their bills. While in prison they were not able to work so
they could never pay off their debt and they would remain in prison. Debtor’s prison appears to be the reference
here by Jesus.
7.3.
Because of sins committed,
all people in this world have a huge debt of their sin that the scriptures tell
us will cause them to be judged and sent to hell if something is not done to
reconcile that debt. Jesus paid the debt
of everyone’s sin, however to gain the benefit of that payment it has to be
appropriated by people when they place their faith in Jesus and His death on
their behalf. People who are lost and
headed to hell would be wise on this side of eternity if they were to come to
the Lord and allow Him to apply the price paid by His only begotten Son for
their sins.
7.4.
Paul Lee Tann tells the
following story about the late president Dwight Eisenhower who served our
country during the second world war :
“Just before General Eisenhower died, Billy Graham
was invited to visit him at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C. He was
told he could stay thirty minutes. When he went in, the general was wearing his
usual big smile, even though he knew he didn’t have long to live.
Later Billy Graham told what happened:
“When the thirty minutes were up, he asked me to
stay longer and said to me, “Billy, I want you to tell me again how can I be
sure my sins were forgiven and that I am going to heaven, because nothing else
matters now.”
“I took my New Testament and read him Scriptures. I
pointed out that we are not going to heaven because of our good works, or
because of money we’ve given to the church. We are going to heaven totally and
completely on the basis of the merits of what Christ did on the cross.
Therefore he could rest in the comfort that Jesus paid it all!
“After prayer, Ike said, “Thank you I’m ready!””.
8. CONCLUSIONS:
8.1.
Have you made peace with the
judge so that you know that if you died today that you would go to heaven? If not, I encourage you today to place your faith
today in Christ for your salvation.
8.2.
Lets make a commitment today
to live each day of our lives as if the Lord were to return for us. Lets trust in Jesus and His sacrifice alone
to be the atonement for our sins. Lets
be committed to doing His will, whatever it may be, that He wants us to
do. Lets be committed to seeking Him
first in our life and living by faith in His provision for our lives.