So Luke chapter 12 beginning at verse 35. 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 he 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 in 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 to 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 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." Fear not man, fear not want, fear rather not being ready when our Lord returns. That is the message for us this morning, brethren. To be ready. Disciples of Jesus, be ready. Verse 35, stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning. Stay awake, Christian, and be ready. And even eager Be eager for our Lord's return. Maranatha is the cry of the disciple of Jesus. Maranatha, our Lord come. We must be made to long, brethren, for our Lord's coming. Long for the return of our beloved Jesus. Or put another way, our hearts must be set not on the things of this earth, but in heaven. If the disciple is indeed to long for our Lord's return, then his heart must be in heaven, set upon those things that are above. And that is why do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth is the crucial call to us all. For as our Lord instructs us at the end of last week's passage, Luke 12 and verse 34, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. If we are to long for his coming as we ought to, then we must be careful, brethren, not to be laying up treasure on earth. For the heart of a man is drawn to that which he lays up for himself. It is a law of nature, human nature. This verse 34 is most often understood to be teaching that what a man treasures reveals where his heart is. And while that is true enough, it is not actually the point that our Lord is making here in verse 34. Jesus is not saying here that your treasures reveal your heart, but rather this is a warning to be careful not to lay up things in this place for such outward action as that on our part has a most grievous inward result. Treasure here is simply a way of speaking of that which has been laid up or put away for self. And that is what Jesus is warning us not to do. And the reason he warns against it is because of the great danger that comes with such storing up or hoarding. And that danger is regarding what the heart of a man does in response to this action. You may say, even though I am storing up some wealth, my heart is elsewhere, even in heaven with God in Christ. I don't love this wealth. I'm just laying it up out of a sense of responsibility or the like. But Jesus says, don't do it. It is not safe. But even if your heart isn't there today, it will be there one day. For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also. As you lay up earthly treasures, your heart necessarily follows your actions. And before you know it, your heart is set upon that which is of this world instead of upon that which is of the next world. And that is a problem, a serious problem. For the heart is the center of the man, the control center of the thoughts and affections, the desires and motives, and the will of a man. And so what a heart set on earthly treasure looks like is an ever-growing concern regarding the things of this life. Your thoughts are more and more consumed with such things. Your affections are more and more drawn to such things. And you begin to make decisions and to act in a way that is influenced by the desire for such things. A simple example might be the difference between the man who has a great amount of wealth tied up in stocks and the man who has no investments at all. The one finds himself more and more watching the stock market. And as time goes on, he begins spending hours and hours researching companies and trading stocks, which only brings more anxiety and worry to life, to the point that decisions are now made based on stock performance. His charitable contributions wane as his portfolio dips. When his stocks are up, the man is happy. When his stocks are down, he is depressed. Well, the other man who owns no stock is not watching nor fretting over the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the S&P 500. In fact, should the market crash, he might not hear about it for days. Or think of a married couple, finally moving forward on their house build. They are building their dream home. For over a year, they plan everything out, hours and hours consumed with decisions on floor plans and decor. Worries and anxieties grow regarding financing. It becomes all-consuming to the point that relationships suffer. Their own marriage is taxed. And what of their relationship with the Lord during this time? How much are they longing for heaven, do you think, as they become all consumed with the design and build of their dream home down here? Where your treasure is, your heart will follow. That is the point. That is the warning. As someone has put it, you can serve God with money, but you cannot serve both God and money. Our hearts must be set upon the things above, brethren. If we are to be longing for heaven, as we must. Or put another way, our treasure must be in heaven and it must be evident. A disciple of Jesus is one whose treasure is in heaven, and it is actually evident, evident in his longing for heaven, his longing for Christ's return. The disciples treasure is in that which is above and it shows. It shows in his readiness. His readiness for our Lord's return. And so what a great question to ask ourselves. Am I ready? Am I truly ready for Jesus to return? Can I and do I from the heart pray, your kingdom come, O Lord? Or would I secretly have him hang back just a bit longer while I fulfill my desires for earthly profits and pleasures? Am I ready to run to him at his appearing? Or is there something that would have me shrinking back when he appears. Do I love the thought, do I revel in the thought of Christ appearing as Paul did? Paul in 2nd Timothy 4, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Loved his appearing. Love not the world and the things of this world, but love Christ's appearing. This is what it means to be ready, brethren. Those who are ready are eagerly anticipating, hoping in the second coming of Christ. Those who are ready are loving his appearing. And those who love His appearing will receive the crown of righteousness. In other words, they will be received unto glory and into the joy of the Master. And this eagerness for Christ's return is actually quite fundamental to what it actually means to be saved. We know from Paul in 2nd Timothy 4 that there is salvation for those who love his appearing, but a more fundamental question might be, is there salvation apart from this love for his appearing? Is it only those who are eagerly anticipating Christ's return that are saved? Well for the answer to that all important question we might turn to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 27. And just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment. So Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time. Not to deal with sin but. To save those who are what. eagerly waiting for Him. Christ is coming a second time to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him. And those who are eagerly waiting for Him are those who are ready, ready for Christ to appear. And it is a matter of salvation. And so be ready. Be ready is the call. Be eagerly anticipating Christ's return. Be ready. Or in the words of our Lord from this text, verse 35, again, 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. The imagery that our Lord employs here and throughout this passage, really, is all of it concerning the household, concerning the home. And first here, the master of the house has gone away to a wedding feast and the servants of the house cannot be sure when he is going to return. For weddings could last days, sometimes more than a week. Or if the feast runs out early, the celebration runs out early. And so the servants of the master's house do not know when he will return, only that he will return. And so they must be ready. They must be ready at all times. They must be ready now. They must be dressed for action with a lit lamp in hand. It will not do for a servant to be aroused from his bed by the master's knock, only to keep his master waiting while he fumbles around in the dark to dress himself and to light a lamp. No, he must be dressed for action with a burning lamp on hand. He must have his loins girded is the imagery behind the ESVs dressed for action. That is his long outer garment must be gathered up around his waist and secured so that he's ready to go, ready even to run to meet his master. We find this same imagery employed by Peter in 1 Peter 1.13 where he says, therefore, preparing your minds for action, are literally girding up the loins of your minds and being sober minded set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is imagery used throughout the Bible in fact to indicate a preparedness for action Exodus 12 and verse 11 in this manner you shall eat it. The Passover with your belt fastened your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover for I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt both man and beast and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. There on the cusp of their exodus from Egypt, their deliverance, through God's coming upon the land in judgment, the people were to eat the Passover meal with their loins girded, their sandals on their feet and their staff in their hand. In other words, ready to move, ready to depart instantly. They were to be ready for the deliverance of the Lord that was coming upon them. And so it is, brethren, for us, we are standing on the cusp of a new and greater exodus. Our Redeemer is coming to deliver us once and forever from this fallen, sinful world. How much more? How much more should we be ready to go? How much more should we be eagerly anticipating our deliverance in Jesus from the very presence of sin? To be with our risen Lord and to look upon the happy fine beauty of his face for ever and ever and ever. The text is clear brother and this is not a time for sinking deep roots into this place. We are sojourners here. Pilgrims. Just a passing through. The people of God once again stand ready to be delivered as the Church of Jesus Christ perpetually partakes in the greater Passover meal, our Lord's Supper, on the cusp of that new and greater exodus. And so with the dwelling place of God with man before us, we sit at our Lord's table with loins girded, sandals on our feet, and a staff in our hand ready to go. Ready even to meet him in the air. Our Lord, come. Oh, to be free, forever free from the very presence of my own sin. Oh, what a happy day that will be. Amen? Come quickly, Lord Jesus. And notice again the sense of immediacy with regards to our readiness. There is no time to dress, no time to light a lamp, not even any time for one to gather up his outer garment. And the application is there is no time at Christ's second coming to get yourself ready. When the trump sounds, it is too late for making preparations. And this underscores the importance of that question we asked ourselves a bit ago. Am I ready right now? Am I ready? For the answer must be yes. And where it is not yes, there must be action taken today and every day. For there will be no time at his appearing to make yourself ready. As one commentator noted, This is a warning that there is no warning. So be ready. I liken it to the days before towns had tornado sirens to warn people that a tornado was near and potentially heading their way. Nowadays, we expect the sirens to go off and wake everyone and prompt them to take cover. But that's not how it was years ago. And that is not how the trumpet blast at King Jesus' appearing will be. The last trump is not a warning to make yourself ready, to prepare yourself. Rather, the last trump is a declaration of deliverance and of judgment. Deliverance for those who are already ready and judgment for the rest. Our Lord is here warning us all that there is no warning at His appearing. For those who are not already ready, the blast of that last trump will be as waking in your bed to the terrifying rumble of the tornado that is already overhead, already peeling back your roof. It's too late, far too late to do all those things you intended to do should such a calamity come upon you. So be warned, Christian, there is no warning that is coming. And be encouraged, brethren. Be encouraged for it is not only warning that we have here, there is as well a great blessing promised here for those who indeed make themselves ready. Verse 37, 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 recline at table and he will come and serve them. Shocking. If he comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them awake, blessed are those servants. First of all, let's consider this shocking promise here from the very lips of our Lord Jesus. The master of the house will dress himself for service and have them, the faithful servants, recline at a table and he, the master, will come and serve them. Now here is where this reasonable illustration turns fanciful. The master of the house serving the slaves of the house. This was unheard of. This is ridiculous. And as I say to Christ's first audience, this would have been fanciful. No master would do this. come and serve his servants merely for doing that which they ought to do anyways, even that which was expected of them? No master would do such a thing. Well, no master save one. Now, I don't think the point here is that Jesus will literally be our waiter for eternity. Nor even for a feast. The point, I think, is to recognize how our beloved Master has already served us in an infinitely greater way at Calvary and that at His appearing, the fullness of His salvific work on our behalf and all the blessings that flow to us from it will be realized. The Master has served us, brethren, and will serve us in a most shocking manner. Let yourself be amazed at this grace. We sing it all the time, amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Let yourself be amazed at this grace, this unmerited favor that our Master, King Jesus, would serve us, sinners like us, in this way. the way of the cross. Our Master is coming and when He appears, He will serve all those who are ready for His return. All those who have loved His appearing. All those who are awake. Verse 37, Blessed are those servants whom the Master finds awake when He comes. If he comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them awake, blessed are those servants. The second and third watch, according to the Hebrew reckoning of the night, are those hours after midnight until dawn. And I think we would all agree that these later hours of the night are the hardest hours to stay awake. Now perhaps our Lord was hinting here at an extended wait for his return. He was at least, I think, leaving the door open for it. And so here we are, some 2,000 years later, still waiting and anticipating our Lord's return in what I would characterize as the second or third watch those hours after midnight where it can be so hard to stay awake and so tempting to just rest the eyes for a moment or two, to just grab some quick shut eye, to let the guard down for a moment and sleep. For after all, it has been some 2,000 years that he has not come. What are the chances that he would come in our lifetime on our watch? Here on the back end of 2,000 years, it is very tempting to grow complacent, to assume he is not coming on our watch, and to drift into a disposition of comfort and ease, to slumber with regards to spiritual things and to be consumed instead with earthly things. Little time in prayer, little time in the word, and little time in fellowship with the body would be some signs of a slumbering Christian. Who is slumbering on the brink of eternity. How ridiculous is that? For just consider for a moment, brethren, that that this state of ease and sleep is the very state that we have been aroused out of by the grace of God in the gospel and by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit by which we have been quickened, made alive, born again, awakened, awakened to the reality of our sin and to the endless horrors of hell and the inexpressible joys. of heaven. It is utter insanity to let yourself slip back into the slumbering state from which you were once delivered by grace. The slumbering state of those who are right now perishing. What an anomaly, writes A.W. Pink, drowsing on the verge of eternity, slumbering saints, what an incongruity, taking their ease while threatened by danger, lazing instead of fighting the good fight of faith, rusting instead of wearing out in his service. trifling away opportunities to glorify their savior instead of redeeming the time. We speak with wonderment and horror of Nero fiddling while Rome has burned, but far more startling and reprehensible is a careless Christian who has departed from God, bewitched by a world which is doomed to eternal destruction. Brethren, should we not rather be using our time in the second and third watch to play the watchman? To stay awake and to warn those who are asleep of the impending danger, the enemy that is approaching, and the destruction that is quickly coming upon them. Blessed are those servants whom the Master finds awake when he comes. If he comes in the second watch or in the third and finds them awake, blessed are those servants. We do not know when our Lord will come, but we do know that he is coming. And blessed are those whom he finds awake and ready when he does come. Verse 39, 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. The main point here is just that we do not know when our Lord will come, so we must be ready at all times. And it hints as well, I think, at how the nature of his coming corresponds to one's readiness or lack thereof. If one is ready, then his coming brings blessing. However, if one is not ready, if one is asleep on their watch, then his coming is as a thief to steal away. even what the slumbering soul does have. Like with the rich and foolish farmer from the previous parable who said to his soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years, relax, eat, drink, be merry, slumber. But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. To such a one as this, I would submit to you, the Lord will come as a thief. However, if we are ready and watchful, if we are awake, His coming will not be as a thief to steal away, but to bless. Paul, I think, recognized this distinction. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, he says, Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying there is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape. But you, But you, says Paul, are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we might live with him. Therefore, therefore, says Paul, encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing. Here Paul equates their wakefulness and watchfulness with laboring among the body to encourage one another and to build one another up. As does our Lord now in this morning's text. Verse 41. 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 who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will will receive a severe beating. But that 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. Peter's question, is this word for us Lord, your apostles, or is it for all? Our Lord's answer, I think, no, it is not for you only, Peter, but for all in my household. And yet it is for you personally, Peter, whom I have given to feed my sheep. Our Lord will not let Peter assume that as an appointed leader over the sheep that the blessings here spoken of are for him only. Nor will our Lord let Peter assume that as an appointed leader in the church that the warnings here spoken of are only for those under him. These warnings and blessings are for all in the household of God and these warnings and blessings are very pertinent for any who would assume a position of leadership in the household. All in the church have potential for great reward and great punishment and those leaders in the church even more so. 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. The leaders in the church first and every disciple within the church are readied for the Master's appearing by living not for self, but for the sake of others, and not withholding from each other the true food of Christian fellowship and love in the gospel of Jesus Christ. again from Paul. So let us not sleep as others do but let us keep awake and be sober for God is not destined us for wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing. And blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Our Lord come. Amen.