Watchfulness

Luke 12:35-40 — Watchfulness
"Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like men 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. 

37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 

38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night.

39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.

40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

 

People were always pressing Jesus. They always wanted to know when it was going to happen. "When are You going to restore the Kingdom of David? When are You going to establish the promise that we got from the Old Testament prophet? When are You going to announce who You are and run off these pesky Romans so we can establish the Kingdom of David right here in Jerusalem and of course, as humble disciples, we can take our place of power with You?"

Perhaps the greatest sacrifice we make on a daily basis is our time. Whether you are graced with resources, gifts or talents, time supersedes them all because it is something that every human has in their possession. You can waste your time or use it wisely. The choice is yours. Similarly though, we all have the choice of what we do with our time and how we spend it. In our present culture of increased productivity and efficiencies, time is a precious commodity and supremely valued. Therefore, we are typically protective of our time and (let's be honest) reluctant to share it if it is not self-serving. What is of greatest importance to God though is how we spend the time that we have been given.
Upon reading Luke 12:35-40, it is easy to gloss over the admonitions that Jesus is making concerning our use of time here on earth. For if God sees a day on earth as equivalent to a thousand years in heaven, it is fairly easy to presume that we do not have all the time in the world to live according to our own set of rules. Jesus highlighted this point in the parable of the rich fool when he taught that living without a concept of God's sovereign will and timing results in eternal judgement. "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" (Luke 12:20-21).
Preparation is essential to Christian living. If you are not prepared on how to handle and respond to trials and temptations that undoubtedly come your way, how would you ever feel equipped to stand firm in righteousness? The apostle Paul expounded upon this idea as such: "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified" (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). If an athlete or a soldier is not properly trained, he or she is not prepared for action and subject to injury or even death. Why then do we believe we can stray from following God's teachings and not succumb to the same painful fate? Are we not fooling ourselves by thinking we are awake and standing watch while in actuality we are sleep-walking through our obedience and submission to Scripture?

The Rich Fool

Luke 12:15-21 — The Rich Fool

Then he said to them,

15 “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.  17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18   "Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 

19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’20  But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21   “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is

not rich toward God.”

It is not wrong to be rich. Abraham, Solomon and Job were not simply rich; they were "very rich" (cf. Gen. 13:2). The rich man of our text is not criticized or condemned because he was wealthy. Wealth itself does not damn. Poverty does not save. Wealth is not a vice. Poverty is not a virtue. Many will go to hell over riches who never had money in the bank. At least, Paul intimates as much when he says, "they that will be (not, "they that are") rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition" (1 Tim. 6:9). It is not riches but the "trust" in riches that dooms men (Mk. 10:23-35).

It is this trust, this belief in material substance, that condemned the rich man. Five times he used the personal pronoun "my." He referred to "my fruits, my barns, my fruits, my goods, my soul. " That is not evil, either, for there is a sense in which things do belong to us; we "own" them (Acts 5:4; Matt. 20:15). However, it was the absorbing, consuming thought of his life, and that is wrong. He acted wisely in building greater barns for his surplus lest it rot or be devoured by scavengers. He acted foolishly in allowing his goods to secure, as he thought they did, his soul.

He imagined "many years" of solace, succor and security. "Take thine (another possessive pronoun) ease, eat, drink, and be merry." How does the rest of it go? "For tomorrow we die" is how it ends, but the rich man did not consider death. He stopped with "merry." He forgot, "for tomorrow we die." But even if he had said it, he would still have been in error. It was not, "tomorrow, " but "this night thy soul shall be required of thee."

"Then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" Neither the devil nor this world can give you one itern that will not be snatched and taken from you the moment you die. We go into bankruptcy at death. We leave and lose it all (Eccl. 5:15). The wise man of Ecclesiastes wondered whether his riches might not go to a fool who would throw it all away (Eccl. 2:18,19). "He heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them" (Psa. 39:6). The rich man did not foresee this eventuality. He was oblivious to eternity. "They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him . . . that he should still live for ever, and not see corruption" (Psa. 49:6-9).

Being "rich toward God" is the antidote to covetousness. It is the man who has his priorities in order who sees to the wealth and prosperity of his soul. "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy" (1 Tim. 6:17). Do not ever forget who the real beggar turned out to be in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Lk. 16:19-31). Ironic, is it not, that the rich man of our narrative will also be the impoverished beggar in spiritual rags in the day of Judgment?

Lamp On A Stand, Wise & Foolish Builders

Parable #3 — Matthew 5:14-15 — Lamp on a Stand

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.”

 

Many Judean cities were founded on the summits or sides of mountains, and travelers could see them from afar. Perhaps Jesus pointed to such a city, telling His disciples that they were like it. The city built on an important location can be seen by many eyes over a wide area, representing a disciple’s far-ranging and widespread exposure to others.

Jesus’ illustration of a shining lamp illuminating the home suggests a disciple’s more intimate influence. A Christian’s actions cannot be hidden from the eyes of either our families or the world at large. This being the case, one should live a righteous, holy, humble, and pure life, letting “your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

Parable #4 — Luke 6:47-49 — Wise and Foolish Builders

 

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47 I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. 48 He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.

49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

Here’s the Lord speaking to the most religious people possible, the people in the right religion, Judaism. Jesus says, “The problem is you call me Lord but you don’t do what I say.” That’s the problem. I’m not looking for your curiosity, I’m not looking for your fascination. I’m not looking for your admiration. I’m telling you what it is to be a true follower. But He says it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t do what I say.

What Jesus says is, you have to recognize your sin, see that you are prisoners, blind and oppressed, that you are the poor, that you are the hungry, that you are starving spiritually, that you are the sad over whose lives there should be endless mourning because of your alienation from God. He says, “I’m telling you, you’ve got to look at yourself and see yourself as a sinner, then you’ve got to look at me and see me as your Lord and cry out to God for mercy.”

Jesus gives an illustration that is unforgettable. “The one who comes to Me hears My words and acts upon them,” that’s obedience, “I’ll show you whom he’s like. He’s like a man building a house who dug deep,” that’s kind of the idea of repentance, getting really down to the realities of my own life and down also deep into the truth of God, “and laid a foundation upon the rock.”

Rock is an Old Testament term for God, isn’t it? And foundation is a New Testament term for Christ used a number of times, e.g., 1 Corinthians 3:11. So what you have here is the message of Christ which is about God as the rock, about Christ as the foundation, and the gospel. So whoever builds his life on the gospel, on the great cornerstone of the gospel from Matthew 16, “Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God.” That’s the rock bed, cornerstone foundation.

When you go down and you build your life on God in Christ and the gospel, storms of judgment can never move your house. That’s somebody who just doesn’t admire Jesus, but who embraces Him as Lord and Savior.  The key thing here is not to admire Christ, it’s to obey Christ.