Ready When He Is

Sermon Transcript

I like baseball, I’m looking forward to the Major League playoffs, and I miss playing baseball, but I understand why some people find it boring. When you’re playing especially, in the course of a 2-3 hour game, you may do very little. Like in little league, if you’re playing outfield, there’s a chance you’ll go through a whole game without touching the ball. Your coach tells you to “stay ready” in case that ball does come to you, but what’s the temptation for most kids? That ball’s never coming to me, and I’ll have more fun playing with this grass or dirt than just watching whatever is happening at home plate. And what inevitably happens when they make that decision? The ball gets hit to them.

 

None of us particularly like waiting, especially the more we start to wonder whether the thing for which we’re waiting is ever going to happen. As we return to Luke’s Gospel today, we encounter Jesus once again, but in our day-to-day lives, we don’t see Jesus the way we see one another. He’s ascended into heaven, and he promises he will come again, but we too can begin to feel like that’s never really going to happen. And so what do we do? Instead of playing with grass or dirt, we dabble in sin, or we give ourselves to the more trivial pleasures of this life, while Jesus himself, and the hope of heaven he brings, slowly fade from our consciousness. In the passage just before this one, Jesus spoke to his disciples about seeking his kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, and so here, he talks to them about how to live between life in the present age, and the final coming of his kingdom. Stay ready for Jesus’ coming, and he gives us three reasons to do so in this passage: The goodness of the reward, the uncertainty of the time, and the justice of the judgment.

 

The goodness of the reward

 

Our passage today picks up in the middle of an address from Jesus to his disciples that we began looking at last week, and if you were with us last week, you already saw one flaw in the “heaven’s a long way off, so might as well just relax, eat, drink and be merry now” mentality. There Jesus told us the story of the man who was getting ready to tear down his barns to build bigger ones so he could do just that, but that very night was the night of his death, and that very night, he faced judgment.

 

In this passage, then, Jesus gives us another reason not to live like heaven is far off: Not only is the hour of your death imminent; the hour of his return is imminent. So he says in 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.” The first phrase, “Stay dressed for action” is more literally “gird up your loins,” a phrase you’ve perhaps heard before. The loins were a layer of clothing at the time that typically hung loose in front when one was relaxing, and extended down to the ankles. However, if you wanted to run or work, you would “gird up your loins” by taking that part of your clothing and tying it around your waist so that it was secure. Jesus is telling his disciples here, then, not to be like the man who thought he had enough grain stored up, and said to his soul, “Relax, eat, drink, be merry.” Instead, he tells them to remain in a working posture.

 

He also tells them to keep their lamps burning, and here the image is of servants who are waiting for their master to return from a wedding feast. In a world before electricity, the way you provided light at night was with lamps, and if the master was away at a wedding feast, which at the time were multiple days long, he might return at night. So if you were waiting for him and wanted to be able to serve him, or even just to open the door for him when he arrives, as Jesus says here, you would have to keep your lamps burning, and you would have to stay awake. So Jesus says in verse 37, “Blessed are those who the master finds awake when he comes.” He even says in verse 38 that if he arrives in the second or third watches of the night, which were probably 9 pm – 12 am and 12 am – 3 am, blessed are those he finds awake when he comes. 

 

Now this is clearly a parable, as Peter calls it in verse 41; Jesus doesn’t actually expect his disciples to never get dressed for bed, turn the lights off, or go to sleep. He’d already told them at this point in Luke’s Gospel that he must go to Jerusalem, be killed, and be raised on the third day, but now he’s beginning to teach them that after his resurrection, there will be a time in which he is taken away from the disciples, and this parable prepares them for it. We still live in that time today. Christ has come once, he has died for our sins, he has risen from the dead, he has ascended into heaven, and he has not yet returned. How then should we live now? We should live like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast. 

 

I’ve never had a job as a servant on an estate; I assume most of you have not either, and so my knowledge of what that would be like comes from what I’ve read in the Bible, in books, and what I’ve seen on television, especially shows that take place in England: Downton Abbey, The Crown, or the BBC edition of Pride and Prejudice. Servants feature prominently in these works, and what stands out about the servants is how their entire lives revolve around their masters. They work to make meals so the master and his guests can eat, they often assist the master with getting dressed, they clean the master’s house. They operate on the master’s schedule; the master does not operate on theirs. 

 

Most Americans in 2026 have a gut-level revulsion to such an arrangement: This year we celebrated 250 years since the inimitable words were first penned in our nation’s founding document, that all men were created equal. And yet, if you’ve ever watched any of these programs, I wonder if you did find some part of you admiring the good and faithful servants in them: Carson in Downton Abbey, Tommy Lassels in the early seasons of The Crown, the head servant at Darcy’s Pemberly, Mrs. Reynolds. Lassels was the only real-life character of the bunch, but in each case, there’s never the slightest hint that any of them think, “Well now why am I stuck in this position? Why can’t I be the master?” To the contrary, they seem honored to serve the masters they serve. Mrs. Reynolds is proud to give Elizabeth Bennett a tour of Pemberly, though she doesn’t own a single square inch of it, and she speaks highly of her master, saying to Elizabeth at one point: “He is the best landlord, and the best master that ever lived.”

 

What makes a willing servant, after all? One who sincerely admires his or her master. Why do people work on a candidate’s campaign? Yes I understand sometimes it’s in hope of a kickback, but I have known some who did so because they really believed in the candidate. I recall one US senator’s staffer visiting a service here and just gushing to me about the senator. Why do Christians accept the position of servants? Because God has opened our eyes to see the greatness of the Lord Jesus. No offense to Mrs. Reynolds, but Jesus is the best master that ever lived. It’s ok with us if he gets glory and we don’t; we’d actually much prefer that he be in the spotlight, for he is able to handle it far better than we can, he is far more deserving of it, and he will do far more for you than we ever could. To be a Christian is to be a servant.

 

Our master is away in the body, but he is still our master. So while he is away, let us orient our lives around him as we wait for his return. That’s what Jesus is getting at here: Stay ready for his coming. Orient your life around his business, even while he is gone. What would that look like? The possibilities are endless! This is part of the glory of serving Jesus: He is not a domineering master who tells you exactly what to do with every moment of your day. There are countless ways you can live a life of service to him; his point here is simply that every moment of every day ought to be one of service to him, even while he is gone–no sleeping on service to him, no turning the lights out on that, no clocking out or signing off. Recall earlier when he said: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Now we might add “hourly” to “daily.” Keep the lamps burning, even in the second and third watches of the night.

 

There are some things that disciples of Jesus do in service to him that overlap and look similar to things the world does, but that disciples of Jesus do in a different way, for different reasons. Take work as an obvious example: Most of you here today work jobs that non-Christians also work. And yet, when scripture addresses even that work, it says, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Col 3:23-24). So you work the same job, but you work hard at it even when no one is looking, because you recognize your work is for the best master that ever lived. You work hard at it, but you also aren’t mad when someone else beats you out for a promotion, nor are you anxious about the approval of your boss, because you recognize your work is ultimately for Jesus, not for your earthly boss. Working like that is one way to stay ready for Jesus’ coming.

 

What about rest and recreation? These too are activities that Jesus’ disciples have in common with the world. You’ve perhaps heard the verse that says “Jesus wept”–well, Jesus also slept. But even the way Jesus’ disciples sleep is different from the way the world sleeps. Jesus’ disciples sleep because they recognize that the most important work of their lives, the work of their redemption, has already been accomplished by Jesus. Jesus’ disciples sleep because they know they have a Father in heaven who is running the world just fine without them, and who promises to supply their every need, such that they don’t have to work 24/7 to provide for themselves. And for similar reasons, Jesus’ disciples also take time to enjoy God’s creation through what we’d today call “hobbies” or pastimes, but rather than using them as escapes from an otherwise burdensome world, they receive them as good gifts from a loving Father who also has good works he’s prepared in advance for them to do.

 

So there is much activity that disciples of Jesus have in common with the world, even though we serve different masters. Christians work the same jobs, shop at the same grocery stores, eat the same food, live in the same cities, and sleep at the same time as many in the world. All sorts of people ride the Broad Street Line, even when they are heading to different destinations, for different reasons. But then there are a few strange individuals who hop off at Fairmount, and get on that rarely used line: The Broad-Ridge Spur. And so also, if you are a disciple of Jesus, you may have much common activity with the world, but because your life is oriented around your master, you will also do things that look strange, things the world doesn’t do. At some point, you will get off the train, and go another direction. Disciples of Jesus do things like pray, meditate on scripture, acknowledge Jesus before men, gather with their church on Sundays, take the Lord’s Supper, and use their time, talent, and treasure to build up an organization that most of them will never profit a penny on earth from: Jesus’ church.

 

Servants in an old English manor cook food, clean dishes, clean the house, and prepare clothing for their masters. Servants of Jesus work as unto him, rest as unto him, pray through him, gather to worship him, strive to build up his body–all that Jesus has commanded, because he is our master, and though he is away from us now in the body, he is coming again. Why serve him like this? We’ll talk about the judgment coming to those who don’t, but that’s not where Jesus starts. He starts with the goodness of the reward. So he says in 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. 

 

Do you see the reward held out to faithful servants of Jesus? He will come and serve them! He is truly the best master that ever lived. He’s the master who will assume the position of a Carson, and serve you! So Isaiah prophesied a feast that the LORD himself would prepare, “a feast of well‑aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined” (Isaiah 25:6). The kingdom of God has been prepared from before the foundation of the world for his people, and Jesus says now that those who enter it will eat a meal that he himself has prepared. When Jesus returns, he will raise our bodies from the tombs, give us resurrected bodies like himself, and in those bodies, in a new heavens and new earth, we will eat the meal that he has prepared, and will serve to us. He is not a master who is unwilling to serve.

 

And we know that he is not a master who is unwilling to serve, because look at the form he took on, the form he was even in, when he spoke these words to his disciples. This is the one who is truly God, the one with every right to be served, the true master over all, and yet, he became a human, one whose very nature it is to serve. And once a human, he did not assume the position of the Roman Emperor. Instead, he was born in obscurity, laid in a trough where animals feed, and eventually, killed on a criminal’s cross for the sins of his disciples, so that they, though sinners themselves, could feast with him in the kingdom of God. Isn’t our master the best master that ever lived? John Newton once said, “Ah, what a poor, cold, confused, inconsistent creature! I am a poor servant, indeed! and my only comfort springs from thinking (which yet I do too seldom and faintly) what a wondrous Master I serve.”

 

Stay ready for his coming because of the goodness of the reward: He will come and serve you. And next, stay ready for his coming because of the uncertainty of the time.

 

The uncertainty of the time

 

In verse 39 Jesus switches the image slightly. Now he speaks of a situation in which the master knew at what hour a thief was coming, and he says in that situation, he would never leave his house to be broken into. His conclusion: We also must be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour we do not know or expect. That’s why we must stay awake even in the second and third watch. The Son of Man, of course, is not a thief, but he has this in common with a thief: He comes at an hour you would not expect. And so we must stay ready at all times for his coming.

 

Sometimes this can be confusing for Christians, because there are other passages of scripture that seem to suggest other things must still occur before Jesus returns, which can create the impression that we don’t need to stay ready for his return. Obviously that’s not the case, because Jesus literally says in verse 40: You also must be ready, even to disciples that lived 2000 years ago. And yet, let’s grant that Jesus does say the gospel must first be proclaimed to all the nations of the earth before the end comes (Matt 24:14). Let’s grant that he says a man of lawlessness must first appear (2 Thess 2:3-4). It doesn’t seem like the gospel has been proclaimed to all the nations of the earth; we’re still aware of at least a thousand language groups globally with no gospel witness among them. And yet, Colossians 1:23, written in the first century, says that the gospel had been proclaimed in all creation under heaven. And it doesn’t seem like the man of lawlessness has come yet, but what if he’s alive now and we just don’t know it?

 

Putting the biblical evidence together, theologian Wayne Grudem concludes that it is unlikely that Jesus will come back in the next hour, let’s say, but not impossible. He compares it to putting on your seatbelt when you get into the car: Even though you know it’s unlikely that you’ll get in a car accident, you know it’s possible, and so you stay ready for it. It’s similar even to death: It’s unlikely that you’ll die today, but you could die today, you will die at some point, and you don’t know when that will be; so stay ready for it. So also, even though we shouldn’t expect the Son of Man to come in the next hour, Jesus specifically tells us that he is coming at an hour you do not expect, and therefore, we must stay ready for his coming.

 

Let us seek his kingdom, then, not thinking that heaven is a long way off, and therefore we can rather let off from that and devote ourselves to relaxing, eating, drinking, and being merry now. One of Jonathan Edwards’ resolutions was “never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if I expected it would not be above an hour, before I should hear the last trump,” there referring to the return of Christ, and since he is coming at an hour you do not expect, that is an eminently reasonable way to live. 

 

One great temptation disciples of Jesus face is to delay their obedience to him, but delayed obedience is disobedience. They know they should stop committing a certain sin, but they still want to enjoy it a bit longer before really giving it up. They know they should start giving more of their money away, but they tell themselves they’ll get to it next month. Why do we think that’s ok? Isn’t it because we just assume we’ll have next month to do it, like a servant who just assumes the master isn’t going to return in the second or third watch of the night, and so lets down his loincloth, and puts out his lamp for a short nap.

 

Why would you think you need to take a break from him? Has service to him begun to feel burdensome to you? Have you lost sight of the greatness of our master? He knows a life devoted to rest and recreation, a life with no greater aim than self-indulgence, is ultimately a petty, narrow, unfulfilling life. What he’s doing by his Spirit in his disciples is expanding us into people who are less narrowly curved in on ourselves, that we might know the joy of serving such a great master, and being an instrument in his hands for the good of others. 

 

So you should not be afraid to go to bed, enjoy some aspect of his creation, or work a secular job as unto him, if you expected it would not be above an hour before you heard the last trump. But you should be afraid to give up good works in favor of self-indulgence. You should be afraid to work merely to store up more treasure for yourself on earth. And you should not indefinitely delay acknowledging Christ before men. If you really believed that the Son of Man was coming at an hour you did not expect, who would you want to make sure heard about Jesus before then, so they at least had an opportunity to repent before it is too late?

 

If you’re here today and you aren’t yet a disciple of Jesus, what are you waiting for? I understand that it may take you some time to really understand who Jesus claimed to be and what he’s calling you to do; that’s reasonable on some level. But I also don’t want to deceive you into thinking that you have forever to make up your mind about him. He is coming at an hour none of us expect, and the first and most basic way to ensure you are ready for his coming is to ensure that you are reconciled to God through repentance and faith in him. If you’d like to consider what that might look like in your life, I’d be glad to talk with you after the service.

 

So we must stay ready for Jesus’ coming because of the goodness of the reward, because of the uncertainty of the time, and finally, because of the justice of the judgment.

 

The justice of the judgment

 

So in verse 41, Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples, upon hearing this teaching from Jesus, asks if he’s telling the parable for them or for all. We know from verse 22 of chapter 12 that Jesus was addressing his disciples, but we also know from verse 1 of chapter 12 that there was a crowd of thousands gathered around him as he was doing so. Jesus doesn’t respond directly to Peter’s question, but in what he says next, he does address four kinds of hearers, and what they should expect when he comes.

 

The first, in verse 42, 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. So here now he gets into a differentiation among the servants, and this was often the case in a household with many servants: Some servants were set over other servants, and one servant in particular was set as head over the others, like Carson in Downton Abbey, and that manager, as he’s called here, was not set over the other servants for his own benefit, but to give them their portion of food at the proper time.

 

Here Jesus is likely speaking of his original twelve disciples, whom he gave authority to proclaim his word, and who therefore had authority over other disciples and eventually over the churches that would begin after Jesus’ ascension. Today these words have special application to pastors or elders, who are men set apart in the church today to teach the word of Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5 describes them to Christians as those who are “over you in the Lord” (1 Thess 5:12) and yet they are still under the Lord Jesus. What, then, have they been set apart to do? Like the manager in this story, Jesus says elsewhere they have been set apart to feed his sheep (John 21), and they feed the sheep with his word. Pastors do this when they preach the word in the gathering of the church, they do it when they lead the church in worship, and they do it through their interpersonal ministry, what the apostle Paul described as “house to house” ministry (Acts 20:20). To my brothers Mark and Vinh who are fellow elders in this church, may our master find us so doing when he comes.

 

The work is hard, and sometimes we find ourselves feeding the word to sheep who are biting our hands as we do so, though our normal experience in this church is of hungry sheep who love to receive the word! Jesus’ point here, though, is that we don’t ultimately work for you all; we work for him, and it is for his approval that we must ultimately work. He doesn’t hold us responsible for the response of others; he simply requires that he find us “so doing” when he comes. He says in the parable that the master who finds his manager so doing will set him over all his possessions, the idea there being that there will be a special heavenly reward that Jesus will give to faithful pastors. So Peter writes to his fellow elders to shepherd the flock that is among them, and follows it up by saying, “when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory” (1 Peter 5:4). Would you pray for your pastors to labor in the word so that our master will find us so doing when he comes?

 

There is also a principle here for those men who aspire to the office of elder or pastor: It is the one who is faithful over what is in front of him, who God will set over more. The servant who feeds the other servants is the one who gets set over all the master’s possessions. So also, if you aspire to the office of elder, are you faithfully managing the responsibilities God has already placed in front of you? Are you faithful in your workplace, in your giving, in your service to the church, in your attendance at church gatherings, in your hospitality? Are you loving your wife and giving yourself up for her if you have one? Are you bringing up your children in the discipline and instruction of Christ if you have them? If you don’t have a wife or kids, are you taking intentional steps toward that unless you have the gift of continence? I don’t ask those questions to burden you; I ask them to encourage you to seize the opportunities to serve the Lord Jesus that are right in front of you! 

 

I remember when I first moved to Philadelphia and told my pastor at the time, Matt Cohen, who is still today the pastor at Citylight Manayunk, that I aspired to be a pastor. He didn’t give me a job or affirm that sense of calling right away; he just encouraged me to join the church and to start serving. So we did. My wife and I started going to services, and then to a Citygroup. In the Citygroup I met a few guys it seemed like no one was discipling, so I started getting together with them to get to know one another, read the Bible, and pray together. My wife and I met a couple who didn’t seem very connected, so we started just spending time with them on the weekends. We served in the kids ministry together, because kids ministries pretty much always need more volunteers. As we did, eventually someone in the kids ministry asked us to lead in the kids ministry. Then Matt asked us to lead a Citygroup together. A year later, he asked me to join a group of guys he was discipling; I said yes, and just kept doing things like that until one day he and the other elders sensed the Lord was calling me to join them as an elder. I’m not saying that’s what your path will look like; I don’t know what the Lord has planned for you. But I do know the best path to whatever he has for you in the future is faithfulness in what he has for you now.

 

Lamentably, though, not all pastors remain faithful. So Jesus tells us next about the head of the servants in this parable who instead of feeding the other servants, uses his position to hurt both the male and female servants, and who eats, drinks, and gets drunk at their expense. He does it all because he tells himself that his master is delayed in coming, and so he figures he can do what he wants now with no repercussions. Though most pastors are not abusive, some really are, and perhaps some of you here today have suffered under one’s ministry at some point in your life. Here Jesus likely has in mind the religious leadership of his day, who loaded God’s people with heavy burdens, pressuring them to do things God had nowhere commanded, and doing nothing to help them, while taking money from them to satisfy their greedy desires. So also we hear stories of pastors today who burden the consciences of their people with things God never commanded, who embezzle funds from the church, who are literal drunkards and adulterers, and who even verbally berate the sheep Christ sent them to feed. We hear of others who are more so negligent of their office, and who allow the sheep to be led astray by their own passions or false teachers while they give their days to eating, drinking, and being merry. Such shepherds do significant harm to the sheep, and look at how Jesus illustrates what will happen to them when the master comes: He 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.

 

This is why James says “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:2). To bear the name of Jesus in this way, to claim to speak on behalf of heaven, is a weighty responsibility. It is one that some must take, no doubt, but it is one that none should take lightly. Those who abuse it will suffer great pains, and far from simply being demoted from their office, they will be put with the unfaithful, in the place Jesus elsewhere calls hell, to suffer eternal, conscious, torment.

 

What about the rest? Next Jesus goes from the manager to the other servants. First there are servants in verse 47 who knew their master’s will, but didn’t get ready or act according to his will. They are not teachers who led others astray, but though they knew the will of the master, they too delayed their obedience. They’re presented here as more inert, rather than perpetrators of heinous sins. And yet, there was work the master gave them to do that they did not do. They too receive a severe beating, though less severe than being cut into pieces like the unfaithful manager. Then there are those servants who didn’t know the master’s will, perhaps because they were under false teachers, who nonetheless still did the things that deserved a beating, even though they didn’t realize that’s what they were doing. Their ignorance does not then excuse them, though it does lessen their guilt. They too receive a beating, though a less severe one.

 

What’s the point, then, for us? Well Jesus tells us at the end as he summarizes in verse 48: 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. If you are entrusted with time to study, attend conferences, prepare sermons, and shepherd the sheep, more will be expected of you, and therefore the judgment in the end will be more severe than the one who had little to no access to the Master’s words. As the Bible teaches degrees of reward within the paradise of heaven, so the Bible teaches degrees of punishment in the torment of hell. 

 

So what’s the important thing? The important thing, again, is to be found faithful in the end with what you have been given. The important thing is not to try to identify the time of Jesus’ coming, the important thing is to stay ready for it, knowing for a fact that it will not happen when you expect it to. None of us have offered to him the service of which he is worthy, but because of his service to God on our behalf in his life, death, and resurrection, it is actually possible for us now, through faith in him, to be found faithful when he comes, and to enjoy the blessing of the feast that he himself will prepare. But there is no blessing promised in this passage, even to the most ignorant servant, who does not stay ready for his coming. To the contrary, even those who profess to be his, even those who hold an office in his church, if they persist in orienting their lives around themselves, and live as though Jesus is not returning, will face a just judgment according to what was given to them. So stay ready for his coming.