Luke 12:35-39

Good evening.

Let's pray together.

Lord, we do pray that you would be glorified through us,

and I pray that you'd be glorified through me and these words that I speak.

I pray that your word would speak to us,

and I would love you more for having heard from you.

In the name of Jesus, I pray these things.

Amen.

I want you to imagine with me, or better, remember with me,

if you've had an experience like this,

a situation you may have experienced while taking a road trip.

You're on the highway, driving along at your usual seven miles an hour above the speed limit.

You know already that you're not going to arrive at your destination on time.

And suddenly it becomes clear to you that in a quarter mile,

the highway is going to fork.

And that one of the options holds the promise of getting you to your destination not so very late.

And the other one will mean a 20-minute detour out of your way,

and you're not sure which one to take.

So you inquire.

Which way do I go?

You ask your navigator, who took his eyes off the road and onto Facebook for a bit too long.

Let me check, he says.

And you speed toward the decisive point.

Which way do I go?

You ask again.

Just a second, your navigator says.

Your stress levels spike through the roof.

Your mind is filled with unholy rage at the fact that you ever let this navigator be your friend,

which is a problem you will soon remedy.

Left.

No, right.

No, left, he says.

And as you follow his direction and take the left exit,

you are distraught to hear those two words coming from your GPS

that signal you took the wrong turn recalculating route.

In our passage for tonight,

Jesus speaks of precisely this sort of decisive, dividing choice.

But the stakes are infinitely higher here than they are in following road directions.

Our passage for tonight is Luke 12, verse 35 to 59.

Luke 12:35–59

I'm going to read the whole passage together.

And as we read this passage and meditate on it tonight,

I want us to see one thing.

Christ divides.

So let's read that passage together.

Luke 12, 35 to 59.

Jesus said,

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.

And you also must be ready

for the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Peter said,

Lord, are you telling us 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 then to eat and get drunk

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 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 more,

much they will demand the more.

I came to cast fire on the earth

and would that it were already kindled.

I have a baptism to be baptized with

and how great is my distress

until it is accomplished.

Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth?

No, I tell you,

but rather division.

For from now on in one house,

there will be five divided,

three against two and two against three.

They will be divided.

Father against son and son against father.

Mother against daughter and daughter against mother.

Mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law

and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.

He said also to the crowds,

when you see a cloud rising in the west,

you say at once,

a shower is coming.

And so it happens.

And when you see the south wind blowing,

you say,

there will be scorching heat.

And it happens.

You hypocrites.

You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky,

but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

And why do you not judge for yourself what is right?

As you go with your accuser before the magistrate,

make an effort to settle with him on the way,

lest he drag you to the judge

and the judge hands you over to the officer

and the officer puts you in prison.

I tell you,

you will never get out of there

until you've paid the very last penny.

So, this passage has plenty of confusing material in it.

And so I want to walk through it bit by bit

and then come back and meditate

on what this passage means for us here today.

We just read it in the order that it was written in,

but I think that we can get a better sense of what's going on

if we read it a bit out of order.

I think the main idea of the entire passage

is this startling claim that Jesus makes in verse 51.

Do you think that I've come to give peace on earth?

No, I tell you, but rather division.

I think that's the heart of the whole idea.

I say this is startling

because we have a temptation to emphasize

that Jesus is a minister of peace.

He's a bringer of peace.

And indeed, the prophecies that tell of his coming

give us good reason to think that he does bring peace.

Isaiah 9 calls him a prince of peace.

So, I don't want us to misunderstand Jesus here

by saying that he comes to bring division instead of peace.

Rather, I think he's saying that he comes to bring division

so that we might finally have peace.

That is, a true peace, not a false peace.

Jesus is the one who brings true peace by dividing.

I'll return to that idea in a little bit.

So, I think that's the central idea.

He has inaugurated this division by his first coming

and he is going to complete it at his second coming.

So, he warns him in verse 40,

you must be ready for the son of man is coming

at an hour you do not expect.

What's he going to do?

He's going to judge his servants,

those who have been found faithful

and those who have not been found faithful.

He's going to divide them at his coming.

This is the big idea.

He does this work of dividing

through kindling the world with fire.

Verse 49,

I came to cast fire on the earth

and would that it were already kindled.

A strange idea.

But throughout the New Testament,

this metaphor of fire is used frequently

as a cleansing, purging force.

Not a destroying fire,

except against evil.

Our God is a consuming fire

for all things that are evil.

He comes to cleanse the world with fire.

The function of Jesus

purifying the world by fire

is in fact a purification,

not a destruction.

Our God is a consuming fire,

Hebrews tells us.

Everyone's work one day will be manifest

for the day of judgment will disclose it

because it will be revealed by fire.

And the fire will test

what sort of work each one has done,

1 Corinthians 3 tells us.

It's been predicted by the prophets

over and over

that Jesus will do this sort of thing

with fire.

Most closely,

John the Baptist says this,

I baptize you with water for repentance,

but he who is coming after me

is mightier than I,

whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit

and with fire.

His winnowing fork is in his hand

and he will clear his threshing floor

and gather his wheat into the barn.

With the chaff,

he will burn with unquenchable fire.

That's Matthew 3.

So you see the same dynamic

that John the Baptist is predicting there.

He's going to purge the world with fire.

He's got a winnowing fork in his hand.

A winnowing fork separates out

the wheat from the chaff,

the good usable produce of the earth

from the unusable husks.

So he's coming with fire to divide.

Same idea that Jesus is speaking of here.

Hundreds of years before John the Baptist prophecy,

Malachi prophesies a very similar thing.

He says,

behold, I send my messenger.

Jesus,

the Lord speaking through Malachi says,

behold, I send my messenger

and he will prepare the way before me.

And the Lord whom you seek

will suddenly come to his temple.

And the messenger of the covenant

in whom you delight,

behold, he is coming,

says the Lord of hosts.

So predicting the coming of the anointed one,

the Messiah,

this is a great day of great rejoicing for sure.

But then the verse immediately following is,

but who can endure the day of his coming?

And who can stand when he appears?

He's like a refiner's fire.

He's like a fuller's soap.

So do you see again?

He's coming,

but who can stand in his day?

Why?

Why is it a question?

Who will stand in this day?

Because he's like a refiner's fire.

He's like a fuller's soap.

He's coming to wash,

clean the world

and purge it by fire.

So Jesus comes to divide.

He brings division on the earth

through his coming.

He does this through a cleansing fire.

That's the heart of this text

and the rest of it flows out of that claim.

There are two stories that bracket this idea

and they illustrate what we ought to do

given that there is a decisive moment

of division and judgment that's coming.

These two stories,

they bracket the central idea.

They frame it like a picture frame.

The first story is the parable

of the servants of a house

whose master is away at a wedding feast.

They know that their master is returning,

but they don't know when.

Therefore, Jesus says,

they ought to be constantly ready

so that they can be prepared for him

when he returns.

For at his return,

he will make sure his house is set in order.

And if it is,

he will reward his servants.

And if it's not,

he says they will cut those servants in pieces.

Make them go with the unfaithful.

This is no playful master who's coming back.

This is a master who has a concern

for the way his house is organized.

He will not let his house languish in disorder,

but he will come and clean it.

And similarly,

the parable at the end of this passage

is about going with your accuser to court.

The man is walking with his accuser to court.

He knows he's guilty.

He knows the judge is going to find out he's guilty.

And what is he encouraged then to do?

To make amends,

to settle with his accuser

before he gets to court.

So both of these parables

are preparation parables.

Something is coming

for which you ought to prepare.

And guess what?

You're probably not prepared for it.

That's the central idea.

Those are the picture frames

that bracket the central idea.

What's the thing that's coming?

Christ is coming

to divide,

to purge by fire.

So this passage then

is about the warning

of the second coming of Christ

to cleanse the world.

And now that we have

a general sense of what's going on,

the main moves of the passage,

I want to spend the rest of our time tonight

thinking about

what this might possibly mean

for us today.

I have four things

this might mean for us.

First,

this passage

is an encouragement

to God's people

because it tells us

what he's doing

in the world.

I was

with some Jewish friends

in Israel

a couple summers ago

and we got,

as we always do,

got talking about

why they don't believe

Jesus is the Messiah.

And they say to me,

look,

the text says

that he will be

a prince of peace.

Does this world

look like it's governed

by a prince of peace?

Therefore,

he must not have come yet.

Plausible argument,

it seems to me.

If he comes to bring

good news to people,

if he comes to make

his people rejoice again

and we look

and we read the newspaper

and that's not what we see,

we might think

that he's not

the Messiah.

But this passage

is comforting

to God's people

because it tells us

why we do not yet

see the peace

overcoming

the entire world.

Why?

Because he has come

to divide.

Who among us

has not felt

at some time

like his own life

is out of control?

That it's directionless?

Perhaps even meaningless?

And history itself

equally meaningless?

What are we to do

when we hear

of famine in Africa

or ISIS

in the Middle East

or Zika

in South America

or racism

in New Haven?

What are we to do

with these things?

What are we to do

when the Bible

makes the claim

that Christ

is a prince of peace

and we do not

see that peace?

I think we ought

to understand

that God

has introduced

a sword

into the world

not because

he is a God

who loves violence

but because

this world

is held

by a usurper.

There is a kind

of peace

that comes

with tyranny.

It's the peace

that allows

no kinds

of quarreling

at all

because it's

enforced by a sword.

It's a false

sort of peace.

Tyrants

pride themselves

on this sort

of peace

but the people

are not free

and the peace

in that regime

is not a true peace.

And Christianity

says that this

is the world

that we live in

that has been

taken over

by a usurper

an evil one

and that God

has launched

an invasion

into this world.

He's launched

an invasion

into this world

to purify

for himself

a people

to reclaim

those people

for himself

and to bring

them home

with him.

That's what he's

doing

in this world.

So this world

is redemptive

in the midst

of all of its

pain.

The peace

the prince

of peace

brings

we do not

yet see.

In this

astounding passage

Hebrews says

that the Lord

God

has put

all things

into subjection

to Jesus.

But

and then

in the most

astounding

parenthetical

we do not

yet see

all things

put in

subjection

to him.

That could be

the headline

for the New York

Times tomorrow.

Headline

things still

not in

subjection

to him.

Today

the world

not in

subjection

to him.

But this

passage

tells us

what God

is doing.

It allows

us to read

the signs

of the times.

Do you see

that bit

there from

54 to

56?

We know

how to

interpret

the weather

but we

don't know

how to

interpret

the times.

This

interpreting

the times

knowing

what God

is doing

in the

world

this is

what Jesus

would have

us do.

So the

first

function

this

passage

plays

for us

is to

encourage

God's

people

about

what he's

doing

in the

world.

He's

come

to

refine

the

world

with

fire.

Paul

in

Romans

speaks

about

these

refining

sufferings

of the

world

like this

in Romans

8.

He says

I consider

that the

sufferings

at this

present

time

are not

worthy

to be

compared

to the

glory

that

shall

be

revealed

in

us.

For

the

creation

waits

with

eager

longing

for the

revealing

of the

sons

of

God.

For

we

know

the

whole

creation

has

been

groaning

together

in the

pains

of

childbirth

until

now.

The

pains

of the

world

are not

the

pains

of

a

sickness

leading

to

death.

They

are

the

pangs

of

a

pain

leading

to

birth.

New

life.

That's

what God

is doing

in the

world.

And

again,

Paul

applies

this not

only to

the

world

but

also

to

himself

individually.

In

2nd

Corinthians

he

says

after

confessing

a few

things

he

says

that

he

has

this

terrible

sentence

of

death

in

himself.

He's

under

so much

persecution

and

suffering

that

he

counts

himself

as

good

as

dead.

He

says

this

light

momentary

affliction

is

preparing

for

us

an

eternal

weight

of

glory

beyond

all

comparison.

This

is what's

happening

in the

history

around

us.

It

is

not

meaningless.

The

world

is

convulsing

in the

pains

and the

pangs

of new

life.

And we

individually

are

through our

sufferings

being

transformed

into an

image of

glory.

This

is happening

day

by day.

That's the

first in

this passage

does.

The

second

thing

I

think

is

that it

warns

us

of the

coming

division

that

Christ

will

bring.

It

warns

us.

In the

example I

used at

the beginning

of this

sermon,

the problem

with that

fork in

the road

is that

your

navigator

didn't

see it

coming.

It

snuck up

on you.

You're

caught off

guard.

But here

Christ is

warning

all of

us,

be on

your

guard.

God

said

if you're

here

tonight,

you no

longer

can

ever

say

that

you

did

not

know

that

Christ's

return

was at

any

minute.

You

are

now

without

an

excuse.

Christ

has

told

us

that

he's

coming.

He's

advertising

it to

us.

And so

what are we

supposed to

do?

What are

supposed to

do in

the face

of this

warning?

Well,

if you're

here tonight

and you've

not yet

made your

decision to

be with

Christ,

to claim

him as

master and

be his

servant and

work in

his vineyard,

if you're

not yet

allied with

Christ through

faith,

flee to

him.

That is

the main

message of

this text.

he is

coming,

he is

like a

refiner's

fire,

he will

purge the

world of

evil.

And if we

put on the

jersey of

evil rather

than the

jersey of

Jesus,

you will

be purged.

This is a

promise.

Jesus

comes and

says this.

Jesus

himself,

the docile

one that the

children play

with,

he talks about

coming and

purging the

world in

fire.

God

the way we

avoid this,

Christianity

teaches,

is that we,

as these

songs sung,

we claim

Jesus' blood

for ourself.

We plead

guilty.

At the end

of this

passage,

when we're

going to

the court

with our

accuser,

we plead

guilty.

We make a

plea bargain.

And Jesus

has come and

said that he

will take

the penalty.

if only we

trust in

him,

if only we

have faith

and believe

in him.

If you're

not a

Christian and

you want to

talk more

about that,

at some

time,

I'd love to

talk to

you after

the service

or the

pastors would

love to

talk to

you as

well.

That's

what you

do in

response to

Jesus'

warning if

you are

not yet

a Christian.

If you

are a

Christian,

I think

this passage

is comforting

to us

because it

gives us

final hope

that the

sin that

so easily

besets us

is doomed

to pass

away.

This is

the third

thing this

passage teaches

us.

It's comforting

to the

Christian because

it gives us

final hope

that the

sin that

so easily

besets us

is doomed

to pass

away.

Think of

this metaphor

that the

prophets

say about

Jesus.

He is like

a refiner's

fire.

He divides

between good

and evil.

And he

does this

not only

for

peoples,

but he

does it

with the

loves in

our own

heart.

This

world,

Christianity

says,

is a mix

of those

who have

claimed

allegiance

to Jesus

and those

who have

set their

mind

against

Jesus.

And so

is all

of our

heart.

Each of

our heart

is precisely

that same

sort of

ambiguous

mixture

of good

desires,

of good

love of

Christ

and love

of neighbor,

and of

evil,

perverted

self-love,

the desire

to use

other people

around us

manipulatively

for our

own benefit.

The

refiner's

fire is

not only

for the

world,

but is

also for

our

hearts.

If you

are a

Christian

in this

room,

and you've

been a

Christian

for any

amount

of

time,

you know

what it

is to

fight

your own

sin.

You know

what it

is to

be in a

battle with

the world

and the

flesh and

the devil.

You know

what it

is to

say,

never again

will I

do this

sin,

and the

next day

to do

that sin.

You know

what it

is to

come to

church

Sunday

after

Sunday,

repenting,

hoping,

praying that

you never

sin again,

only to

have to

confess the

same sin

the next

week.

And the

glorious

teaching of

the Bible

is that

one day

those evil

desires in

your heart

and mine

that we

fight with

every day

that easily

beset us

will be

scrubbed

away,

will be

purged in

the refiner's

fire,

that we

ourselves

will be

separated

not only

from other

sinners,

but from

our own

sin.

This is the

message of

Christianity,

and this is

why God's

cleansing,

purifying fire

for us

is good

news.

C.S.

Lewis writes

a book

called

The Great

Divorce.

It's an

allegory about

heaven and

hell,

and in one

scene,

there's a

ghost person,

a person who

may or may

not have

died,

the imagery

is strange.

The important

thing is a

person has

got a

lizard on

his shoulder,

and this

lizard represents

lust,

and it

whispers into

his ear over

and over

and over

lustful

thoughts.

An angel

comes to

this man

and says,

do you want

me to get

rid of that?

Oh,

yes,

it has been

annoying me

for quite

some time,

that'd be

quite nice.

Okay,

can I

kill it?

Can I

kill your

lust right

here?

And the

man says,

I don't

know if I'm

ready for

that,

I'm not

quite sure,

it might

hurt.

The angel

says,

it will

surely

hurt.

I am

a messenger

of fire.

And after

some back

and forth,

the man

decides finally

that yes,

he will allow

the angel

of fire

to grab

the lizard

of lust

off his

shoulder that

whispers lustful

thoughts into

his ear and

break its

back.

And when

his lust

is broken,

that man

ceases being

shriveled up

and becomes a

strong and

sturdy man.

the lizard

now dead

is transformed

into a

stallion

that the

man gets

onto and

rides in

the direction

of the

heavenly

mountains.

The idea

Lewis is

saying here

is that

your lust

keeps you

away from

God,

but when

it is

broken,

the love,

the good

love,

is actually

a vehicle

to wing

you on

your flight

to heaven.

And the

good news

of Christianity

for Christians

is that

our warfare

against our

own sin

will one

day be

over.

He will

cleanse us.

He will

wipe away

our sins

and those

evil temptations

that beset us

day by day

we will be

freed from.

That's the

third thing.

And the

fourth and

finally,

the thing

that this

passage

teaches us,

for those

who are in

Christ,

this passage

is an

exhortation

to continue

waiting for

his return.

For those

who are in

Christ,

this passage

is an

exhortation

to continue

waiting for

his return.

How much

of your

life and

each of

your days

is spent

eagerly

meditating

and waiting

for the

return of

the Lord?

For myself,

not so much.

I'm far

more interested

in trivial

concerns and

cares.

We find it

difficult to

wait for

Christ eagerly.

it's

difficult to

wait for

him eagerly

because it's

so easy

to live

lives

forgetting

about

his

promises

of

return.

Do you

find yourself

to be like

the man

in the

passage

right before

this one?

The man

who builds

bigger

barns

after a

windfall

crop.

He concerns

himself with

his economic

status rather

than the

condition of

his soul.

Jesus calls

him a fool

for being

concerned about

these sort

of things

to the

exclusion of

being concerned

about his

soul.

Maybe you

don't care

about barns

and crops

but do

your thoughts

run more

often to

paying bills

or advancing

in your

career and

less on

preparing for

this decisive

day when

Christ shall

return?

To meditate

often on the

return of

Christ is to

remind ourselves

that a great

reckoning is

coming and

we ought to

spend our days

in preparation

for that

reckoning.

for those

who are in

Christ we

know that

this reckoning

will be a

good day

rather than

an evil

one.

And so our

hearts ought to

be uplifted in

desire for

this day to

come.

But there's

another reason

it's so hard

to wait for

Christ's return

and I think

it's just that

we're just bad

at waiting for

anything for

any amount of

time.

waiting through

tribulation is

hard.

We're like the

servant in the

night in Jesus'

parable here.

The night watches

at 4 a.m.

The servant who's

tempted just to

sit down on his

cushion because his

master is not

home and is not

coming home.

Do you remember

ever trying to

pull all-nighters?

Do you remember

how your eyes

begin to close

involuntarily

against your

control?

How your brain

begins to go on

protest against

you pulling

any more

information out

of it?

And is not

waiting for

Christ in this

world like that?

Our desires are

low.

We can't sustain

a desire for him

coming back very

often or very

strongly.

We individually

have passed

decades here on

this earth and

our earth has

passed thousands

of years since

Christ's ascension

and still we

don't see him.

surely then the

temptation to

think that he's

not coming is

great.

But if we

would be

faithful and

heed the words

of our Lord,

we cannot

allow ourselves

to slip into

imagining that

he will not

return.

We cannot

allow ourselves

to slip into

thinking that our

greatest concern

is the building

of bigger barns

to hold our

great harvest.

Christ's promise

of return is

as sure as

his promise

that he has

wiped away all

of our sins.

And if we

would believe him

that he has

wiped away our

sins, we must

believe him as

eagerly and as

sincerely when he

promises to

return.

But will we not

grow tired in

waiting for the

return of the

Lord?

I think we

will.

So how do we

rouse ourselves

awake again and

again as the

night watches

pass and the

nights grow

darker and

darker that we

wait for the

coming of our

Lord?

Two things we

can do to help

us wait eagerly

for the coming

of the Lord.

The first thing

we can do is

recall the

faithfulness of

God that we've

seen in our own

lives and in the

lives of other

Christians.

Recall God's

faithfulness to

us in our own

lives and in the

lives of other

Christians.

This by the way

is one of the

reasons church

history is really

useful.

Seeing God's

faithfulness not

only across my own

27 years but

across 2,000 years

of church history

has so inflamed my

trust in Christ.

again if you want

to have a

conversation about

what church history

you ought to read

I'd be happy to

talk to you about

that.

We can recall the

faithfulness of God

that we've seen in

our own lives and

wait patiently

because we know

that those

faithfulnesses are a

down payment of

his greater final

faithfulness.

The medieval

theologian Bernard

of Clairvaux in his

exegesis of Song of

Solomon he observes

that the bride

waits and pines

away after her

husband on the

bed and as she

waits for him she

is refreshed in

her desire and

prevented from

fainting by desire

by eating the

pomegranates of his

garden and smelling

the flowers there.

Bernard writes

what are these

pomegranates and

what are these

flowers?

with these fruits

and flowers the

bride begs to be

surrounded and

nourished now.

I believe that she

does so sensing that

the warmth of her

love can easily

cool if it's not

encouraged and

supported until she

is led into her

husband's chamber

where she will be

held in the long

desired embrace and

she can say his

left hand is under

my head and his

right hand has

embraced me.

This means that as

long as the world

lasts in which one

generation is succeeded

by another God's

chosen ones will not

be without the

consolation of memory

until they can enjoy

the feast of God's

presence.

So memory which is

signified by these

pomegranates is for

the generations of

people in this world

the presence of God

belongs to those in

the kingdom of heaven

and the memories of

God's faithfulness are

those on earth.

This generation on

earth which is still

on its pilgrimage to

heaven is comforted in

the meantime by

memory.

We remember the great

works that God has

done for us and we

trust that those are

the down payments of

his future faithfulness.

That's the first thing

we do to help us wait.

The second thing we do

we trust not only in

memories but in the

promises.

We look back and we

look forward.

Look at the great

promises set out here

for us.

Look particularly in

verse 37.

This is astounding to

me.

When the master returns

he does not demand that

the servants serve him

but rather this happens.

Blessed are those

servants whom the

master finds awake when

he comes.

Truly I say to you he

will dress himself for

service.

He will have them

recline at table and

he will come and serve

them.

Do you get the vision?

This master has returned

from a wedding feast.

Perhaps his own wedding

feast.

He is overjoyed.

He abounds in joy and

rejoicing.

And what does he do as

soon as he sees his

servants?

He invites them to

rejoice with him.

He gives to them their

food.

He serves them.

The promise that we

wait for at the coming

of our master Jesus is

for him to serve us.

It would be blasphemy to

say we're not the Bible so

very clear that this is what

we wait for.

Jesus himself will prepare a

table before us.

Jesus himself will not

drink of the fruit of the

vine, the wine of rejoicing

and of grand marriage

supper until we drink it

with him.

Jesus himself prepares a

house for us.

Jesus himself shall fill his

people with glad rejoicing

by inviting them to his

bridal feast.

The Christian in this life

waits with eagerness

knowing that the eternity

that waits in front of us is

not an eternity of being

cajoled and commanded

but an eternity of being

wooed by the great lover of

our souls.

He will gird himself

and serve his servants.

This is a sweet grounds

for our hope in the future.

But why does he tarry so

long before he comes?

I think there's a reason for

this too.

Note how Jesus specifies the

time for these servants.

Verse 38.

If he comes in the second

watch or in the third

and he finds his servants

awake, blessed are those

servants.

Now I don't want to make

too much about a parable

right?

In every parable you can't

find something out of every

particular detail but I

think there's something

significant about the

waiting of the coming of

the Lord.

Why does he wait?

We live in an Amazon

Prime world where we

the first generation in all

of human history can get

almost any object with free

two-day shipping.

This means we rarely have

opportunities to wait and

eagerly long for anything we

want.

We get frustrated when we

have to wait 20 seconds for a

YouTube video to load.

How are we prepared to wait

decades for the coming of

Christ?

Christ.

When I was younger my parents

would make Christmas a big

deal.

They would start talking about

it two, three months in

advance.

My sister still does this.

In October and November her

eagerness for Christmas is so

profound she could explode.

You don't get that with Amazon

Prime.

And on Christmas Eve she is so

excited for the coming of

Christmas precisely because she

has waited for so long.

This time of waiting has

heightened her longing for the

coming of Christmas.

I think this is one of the

reasons that Christ tarries.

So that our desire for him might

be heightened.

Like those servants who the

master returns to in the second

and third watches at midnight

and 3 a.m.

They yearn for him to come back.

Every hour they wait they yearn

more and more for him to come

back.

The psalmist says something

similar.

I wait for the Lord.

My soul waits and in his word I

hope.

My soul waits for the Lord more

than watchman for the morning

more than watchman for the

morning.

The watchman a soldier set at his

post all night long yearns for

the morning and he yearns for it

more at 1 a.m. than he did at

midnight and more at 2 a.m. than

at 1 a.m.

And as the waiting continues so also

does his desire increase.

I think this is one of the reasons

why Jesus tarries.

Because only when our desires are

high do we fully realize how

desirable Christ is.

The watchman, his aching body and

fatigued mind cry out all the more

for the dawning of the day.

And then at the pinnacle of his

desire dawn.

Light shall arise in the darkness for

the upright the psalmist says.

And so also will Christ come to all

those who love him and desire his

coming.

Let's pray.

Lord we do pray that you would give

us the grace tonight to place our

trust in you and faith in you so that

as you come to divide the world we

would not be on the side of those who

have set our minds and hearts against

you.

But we would be among those who

eagerly desire your coming.

And we pray that you would sustain us

with memories of your faithfulness in

the past and the promise of your

coming to dwell with us forever in the

future.

I pray that you would give us a renewed

desire to see your kingdom come and

your will be done on this earth.

I pray that you would come quickly Lord

Jesus and satisfy the desires of your

people.

In the name of Jesus I pray all these

things.

Amen.