We’re travelling through the Gospel of Luke, learning so many valuable lessons about the Kingdom of God. When we are on the Lord’s side, filled with the Holy Spirit, we really don’t need to worry about anything. Seek first the Kingdom of God and all the other things we need will be added. However, we are engaged in a spiritual war and we need to prepare ourselves for battle.
Our weapons found in Ephesians 6 such as prayer, salvation, righteousness and so on are very non-threatening humanly speaking but they are threatening to our true enemy who is the opposite to all of them. The key point is we are not fighting against flesh and blood but against evil principalities and powers.
People are living in darkness unaware they are in Satan's camp and why they are hostile to the Gospel. As a result, they have bad eyes and are not able to judge correctly, some going so far as to outright reject the Lord Jesus, our only hope of salvation. Outright rejectors of the Gospel are in great danger, when you see someone turning others against the Lord, they stand on the edge of the abyss, close to committing the unpardonable sin and bringing final judgement on themselves.
The other thing we noted is how important it is to pay attention to who Jesus is speaking to, in the passage we are going to read today it is to his disciples with a crowd of people listening in.
Luke 12:
“Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning;
To gird your waist means to tighten a belt or sash around your midsection to prepare for physical action, work, or battle. As we know, we are engaged in a spiritual war like it or not. What part of the spiritual armour is Jesus talking about? The belt of truth. We need truth to make right decisions. Sincerity, honesty, frankness, integrity, having a clear conscience, these are part of the belt of truth. Letting our yes be yes and our no be no. We are fighting the Father of Lies so we’d better know the truth or else we’ll be deceived and defeated.
Seeing things accurately gives us a good eye, provides true light and helps us judge accurately. Jesus said the Pharisees had bad eyes because they called the work of God of Satan and in doing so moved into danger of blaspheming the Holy Spirit; the unpardonable sin.
What does it mean to have your lamp burning? First of all, it means it’s dark. No one needs to burn a lamp during the day. Lamps must be filled with oil first. We must be filled with the Holy Spirit, we must be reading the Bible and praying daily so we have a continual supply of oil. But we also have to have our lamps lit to make our faith known and expose darkness. That’s what it means to shine our lights.
Luke 12:36-40
and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
In Jesus’s day, once the couple became betrothed, the groom spent this time building a new room or home addition at his father's house, while the bride waited and prepared her garments.
The groom did not know the exact day he would go get his bride. Only his father could inspect the new home and give final permission to go claim her.
Once the father gave the word, the groom and his friends would head out toward the bride's house, often late at night.
This year our son Sean got married on July 4th. Of course we knew the date. Nevertheless, there are a lot of things to prepare for a wedding to run smoothly. Sean and Hannah created a run sheet with a lot of details - times, tasks and responsibilities but when we came to do the rehearsal the day before, Hannah’s Dad asked the question, what exactly does the task entail and we all looked blankly at each other. We worked it out on the spot, but we needed to do the rehearsal to find out there were some gaps. It’s all very well to do Church in theory but you’ve got to actually do the rehearsal, to practice what you preach, to find the gaps ! That way you know you’re ready for the real event.
Similarly, at work we used to do fire drills so that if a real fire occurred, we knew what to do.
Now in this story Jesus told, it was not known when the Master was coming for the Wedding. So hopefully the servants did a few fire drills and were keeping watch for the unannounced return of the Master otherwise it would be panic stations when the trumpet sounded.
In ancient Roman and biblical tradition, the night was divided into four guard shifts or "watches".
The third watch ran from 12:00 AM (midnight) to 3:00 AM.
It coincided with the darkest part of the night.
In folklore, 3:00 AM specifically is often dubbed the "witching hour" because it marks the very end of this deep midnight watch right before the final morning shift begins.
So, when you hear the saying the darkest hour is just before the dawn, this is what that means. And boy, the world has gotten really dark when it cannot recognise the truth of even basic biology.
Jesus did describe his coming like a thief in the night. If he comes to take his Church in the 3rd watch, it will be at a time when it is really dark spiritually. For many people, his coming will be a complete surprise. But not for us because we are keeping watch and recognise the signs of his soon coming which are plainly obvious now.
Luke 12:41
Then Peter said to Him, “Lord, do You speak this parable only to us, or to all people?”
Are you talking to me?
Peter wanted to check who Jesus was addressing because Jesus himself had said he spoke parables to the crowd so that they would not understand, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy. So, Peter wasn’t sure if the parable was meant for him and the other disciples. It was a valid question.
And Jesus confirmed that yes, he was chiefly talking to the disciples…
Luke 12:42-44
And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has.
Jesus called us stewards and servants. He has invested in each one of us physical gifts such as family, work, health but also spiritual gifts. Do you know what your spiritual gifts are? Are you using them to serve others? Do we need to do a refresher course on spiritual gifts like we did a few years ago?
So we can see the signs of his coming, what should we be doing. Well it’s not as the meme said - look busy. Nor sweeping the dust under the carpet. Neither is it the time to relax as if everything will carry on as it has ever done. This was Peter’s warning;
2 Peter 3:3-4
knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”
In the last few years since COVID, quite a few have dropped out of Church gatherings for a more comfortable participation online.
As elders we have cause for reflection on what to do differently to get them back and go and win others. We each have a big responsibility at this time.
Each one of us needs to ask ourselves the question, how can I best serve the Lord now. I can’t think of a better use of your time now than to grow the Church in your community.
PCC is known for Community and there is no better place to be at this time than in a live church, serving the Lord and others.
Luke 12:45-47
But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
The only thing worse than being unprepared, is to be behaving like an unbeliever when the Lord returns.
Being a disciple means the potential for great rewards but it carries the risk of severe punishment for failure to do your duty since a disciple should know better.
But then he extends the warning to others in the crowd who had ears to hear;
Luke 12:48
But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
Once you hear and understand this message, it puts you in the dangerous position of someone who has been given much. Keith Green once said, always be afraid of getting more light! We are responsible for our reaction to the light we have been given. I love to learn new spiritual things but what’s the point if I don’t do anything with the information. In the parable of the talents, the one who received 10 talents immediately went out and started trading, but the one who received 1 talent went and buried it in the ground and was condemned by the Master. Jesus will ask us one day what we did with what he gave us. It’s something to seriously reflect on but not only that, to take action over. In the parable, the only one who was condemned was the one who did nothing.
Luke 12:49-53
“I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided 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 her mother-in-law.”
Jesus refers here to his coming death on the Cross as a baptism, one of distress, of suffering.
In summary there are three different types of baptism, some say seven.
• Water Baptism
• The Baptism of John
• The Baptism of Jesus
• The Baptism of the Israelites (Red Sea)
• Baptism of Fire
• The Baptism of Suffering (The Cross)
• Baptism of the Holy Spirit
You can think of baptism as going in the deep end over your head, a moment when you depend on God for a miracle. Some of you may have been through that in your life, where the only way through was to fully trust God.
And baptism is a way of dividing us, setting us apart from the World. Jesus says even in families there will be division over Him, a certain amount of brokenness. You can’t stay neutral with Jesus.
Jesus is both a divider and uniter - He separates the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the chaff. But he prays for his disciples to be as one as he and the Father are one.
The fact that we have a Church divided on major doctrinal and biblical themes such as Creation, the Holy Spirit, Hell, The Virgin Birth, The Resurrection, Marriage, the Sanctity of Life, implies that the Church is a mixture of true and false converts.
Since the Spirit leads us into all truth, major differences between believers should slip away over time, not the opposite. Jesus will continue to divide people but as believers we should be coming closer to Christ and each other. That’s a challenge for every Christian and every Church.
This passage concludes with Jesus turning to speak finally to the multitudes who’ve been listening in and gives them one final challenge.
Luke 12:54-57
Then He also said to the multitudes, “Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. And when you see the south wind blow, you say, ‘There will be hot weather’; and there is. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it you do not discern this time? “Yes, and why, even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right? When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, make every effort along the way to settle with him, lest he drag you to the judge, the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. I tell you, you shall not depart from there till you have paid the very last mite.”
Jesus didn’t smooth talk the crowd in the way some preachers do today. Yet his congregation wasn’t small.
Jesus called the multitudes hypocrites, hardly the worldly way to win friends and influence people. Hypocrisy is self deception, making you blind to the truth. Nobody will have an excuse on Judgement Day. None of us will be able to say we didn’t know because everyone receives some light. If we can make an accurate forecast of the weather or make a prediction of a sports match and get it right, then Jesus said we are all well able to understand the signs that Jesus sends us. Nobody will be able to say there was no evidence for God. There’s plenty of evidence, it’s just that people don’t really want to be accountable. That’s the truth. Amen.
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