Pastor Slaughter
Last Sunday of the Church Year
November 20, 2022
Theme: Am I Ready for Jesus to Come?
Text: Luke 12:35-40
Are you ready? (Pause for dramatic effect) Well are you? I guess you are thinking, “Ready for what pastor?” Are you ready for the pop quiz I wrote up about last week’s sermon?! I am guessing not. If pastor Bentz told you there would be a quiz today on the sermon last week. You might have taken a few notes to help remember what he talked about. Maybe you would’ve rewatched the sermon last week to make sure you are ready. If you know something is going to happen, you might make sure that you are ready for it.
In the grand scheme of things, a pop quiz or a test isn’t really that big deal. There are some things that are more important. There are some things that have an eternal consequence. We have to ask the question, “Am I ready for Jesus to come?” Because if I am not ready, then the consequence is everlasting punishment in hell. So, if we know that Jesus is coming, and we know how important it is to be ready, then the next question we have to ask ourselves is “What can I do to make sure that I am ready for Jesus to come?” As we tackle these questions, we need to ask ourselves the question “What is our motivation to be ready?” Or “what makes being ready worth it?” So, are you ready?
Jesus said, “Be dressed, ready for service, and keep your lamps burning. And he uses a picture of a servant and master. Jesus said, “Be like people waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks, they can immediately open the door for him.” You have this picture of watchfulness. The servants are watching, waiting for their master to return. They don’t know what time the master will come back, so that they have to be in a constant state of watchfulness to welcome him when he comes. It isn’t like the master said I will be back at 3 in the afternoon, or I will be back at midnight. The servants don’t know when he is coming so they have to be constantly ready, waiting and watchful
To underscore this point of being ready and watchful Jesus uses another picture of a master of a house and a thief. If you knew that someone was going to break into your house, what would you do? Would you say, “I am just going to allow the man to break in and steal my possessions.” No. You would have watched. You would have been ready. You would have taken the necessary steps to keep it from happening. It’s like if you knew there was a pop quiz coming, you would’ve prepared for it. So Jesus makes the comparison and says, “You also be ready, because the Son of man is coming at an hour when you are not expecting him.”
The first question “Am I ready for Jesus to come?” Jesus tells us he is coming back. And he will come back at a time when we are not expecting him. So we could ask the question in another way, “Are we living our lives like Jesus could come back at any moment?” We might say that we are ready now. As we are sitting in the pews, half listening to the sermon, singing hymns of praise to God… it’s like yeah I am ready for him. Our lights are burning, we are dressed and ready for service, ready to great the master after the banquet.
What about last week when you were out with your friends were you ready then? What about a couple days ago as you spoke to your family, where you ready when you spoke in anger and not in love. Where you ready to greet the master, when you gave into sin?
The temptation is real, isn’t it? Because the devil will whisper subtle doubts. You have plenty of time. You can shape up tomorrow. You can change tomorrow. You don’t need to go to church now, you have plenty of time to take care of your spiritual life. A subtle shift begins to happen where we become spiritually lazy in our lives, where our lamps begin to fade and we begin to prioritize other things. This person, this thing, this activity is more important than my Lord because there is always tomorrow.
The real danger of priories is that we separate ourselves from hearing God’s promise. The drowsiness sets in and before we know it we fall asleep. If the drowsiness and sleepiness has gone so far as to loose faith, then there is no hope for salvation. The step from a heavy eyes and a dimly lit lamp of faith to closed eyes and no light isn’t a far jump.
Recently it has been weighing heavily on my heart and mind about our children. I read a statistic that 64% of Generation Z are leaving the church. I also read that if someone grew up in the church and left, they are most likely never to return. If we are spiritually sleepy, if we are busy prioritizing other things over our spiritual needs, if we model spiritual laziness and they grow up seeing that. How likely will they stick around? You might still have that spiritual faith that saves (even if it is dim) but what about your children or your children’s children?
So, are you ready for Jesus to come? Will your children? Your children’s children? Because it will come like a thief in the night, at a time where we least expect it. I think we all recognize times where we have been lax in our spiritual lives. So that leads to our next question “What can I do to make sure I am ready for Jesus to come?” It starts right there and now. It starts by understanding that there is urgency in Jesus’ Word. We want to be ready, keep our lamps burning so we can open the door immediately.
We need a priority shift in our lives where we begin to prioritize the things that strengthen our faith. What does the Holy Spirit use to strengthen that faith? God’s Word. If we center our lives around that word, think about how that will overflow to other areas of our lives! If the center of your lives and your children is God’s word, what will you all take when you go out in the world? His word.
So how do we make God word the center of our lives? It begins at the Family Table. We take the time to ready God’s Word devotionally. We read God’s Word devotionally with our children and grandchildren. There are lots of wonderful resources for Children Bible story books and devotional book. We talk about his word with others. We talk about God’s word with our children. We model that life that is equipped and ready for service. And then we come back here to church to gather with fellow believers not only to worship God (because you do that at the family table) but we gather here to encourage others with God’s, so we encourage each other to be ready with God’s word. We study in bible study. We model the importance of it for our children.
When we are in God’s Word it strengthens our faith because we hear/learn/reminded of God’s promises which leads to our last question, “What makes being ready worth it?” There are lots of passages that talk about and give encouragement to be ready for when Jesus comes but this section has a unique picture. This is probably the most important point I make in this message today. What does tech master do for those he finds watching when he comes? Jesus said, “Blessed are those servants, whom the master will find watching when he comes. Amen I tell you: He will dress himself and have them recline at the table, and he will come and serve them.” First of all, God promises to bless us! Secondly draws our attention to what he will do. He will put on his apron. He will have them recline at the table. And if that wasn’t enough, he will serve us. The master will serve the servants!
What makes being ready worth it? That God will continue to pour out his undeserved love on us. The servants know that they have no right to claim this special treatment they were simply doing what they were supposed to be. What makes it work being ready? Jesus will grant us the right to sit at his heavenly table and enjoy the heavily meal he has prepared for those that are his. The food that Jesus will serve at the heavenly table is the food which he himself prepared while on earth by his work of forgiveness of sins, of life and salvation. We have the motivation to continue to be ready! It is found in the promise of God’s Word which points us to Jesus and the forgiveness he secured for us on the cross.
So are you ready for Jesus to come? Yes! Because God has given you that saving faith that when he calls you home or comes back on judgment day, you can stand confident that Jesus has already given you the forgiveness of sins yes even for those times we became drowsy. Today we started taking the steps to grow our faith by being in God’s word, so that we continue to remain ready. Let us remain ready by being in that word in our personal lives, in our homes and then let us come back to encourage each other to be ready as we wait for Jesus to return because Jesus will come soon and welcome us to our heavenly home. Amen.