Transcript
Our text is found this morning once again in the Gospel of Luke chapter 12. Turn with me please to Luke 12. Our passage actually begins in verse 35. But for the sake of connection I would like us to read from verse 32.
So Luke 12, beginning to read from verse 32.
Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms. Provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Now our text begins with verse 35.
Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning, 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.
Let me reread that verse with a little closer translation.
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 dug into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
I would like to issue a warning to all of the criminals of the city of Dallas. Watch out for John Day Jr.
You see in the early 1970s a gunman walked into the Detroit real estate office of John Day’s father, John Day Senior. Grabbed the man’s weapon but he was shot in the leg and in the stomach. He spent almost a year in the hospital. And when he was released from the hospital he had to walk with a cane.
The very day that his dad was shot John Day Jr. promised himself that he would get involved when he saw a crime being committed. And from that time and forward he was always ready to get involved.
And that is why in 1980 he received the Dallas Police Department citizen of the month award for chasing down two auto theft suspects and holding them for police.
But wait till you hear this. On Monday morning, March the 21st, 1988, John Day Jr. heard someone scream. He looked up and he saw a stocky man running away. Ready as always he jumped into his pickup truck and he chased this man’s car through South Oak Cliff and into Duncanville at speeds that exceeded 80 mph.
The car ran two red lights and several stop signs. And it didn’t come to a stop until it ran into a signpost at Camp Wisdom Road and Oral Drive.
That’s when Day made his move. He jumped out of the pickup truck and he ran over to the car. While the man was still in the car he grabbed his arm and pinned it behind his back so that he couldn’t get away.
Later Day said, “He had a knife and he was slashing at me. The knife already had blood on it. I didn’t know what he had done but I figured he had done something bad.”
And Day was right. The man that he had caught was thirty-six-year-old Mitchell Kay, whom police later arrested for investigation of the murder of his girlfriend Patricia Greer.
That morning Patricia had been using a pay telephone in the parking lot of an auto supply store in the 4000 block of Camp Wisdom Road. And she had been stabbed several times. An hour later she died at Charlton Methodist Hospital.
But fortunately, evidently her murderer was already in the hands of police thanks to John Day Jr.’s readiness to get involved.
Now folks I am not recommending that you imitate John Day Jr.’s behavior the next time you see a crime in progress. And I think that the Dallas Police Department wouldn’t recommend it either because obviously Day is a special breed of man.
But I think we can all admire, can’t we, in a day when people don’t want to be involved, we can admire this man’s willingness to be involved even in situations that were dangerous.
And that’s what I want to talk to you about this morning. Readiness to get involved. Readiness to get involved.
Now I bet some of you think you already know what Zane is going to preach about this morning, right? And you’re guessing that I’m going to talk to you about getting involved in the church or getting involved in the Lord’s work. And I admit that those would be very nice topics because they’re very important topics to preach on.
But if that’s your guess, guess again. And then guess again. And then guess again. Because I’m willing to bet you will not guess what I want you to be involved with until you have heard my sermon.
So I’m going to keep you in suspense for a little while. And all I’m going to tell you right now is the title of my sermon which happens to be an expression that we have all of us heard from our youth up.
The title is Get Ready! Get Set! Go!
How’s that for a title? We all know that expression, don’t we? Get ready, get set, go.
I think we all know. I can’t imagine that there’s anybody here who doesn’t know this. Coming Thursday is Thanksgiving Day.
And I’m happy to inform you that once again an invitation graciously extended to me has saved your bachelor preacher from the horrible fate of having to eat his Thanksgiving dinner in a restaurant or, worse yet, cook his own turkey.
And you know I can’t count the number of times that I have participated in this kind of a scene on Thanksgiving Day. There I am dressed up and wearing my overcoat. And I’m standing outside of somebody’s door. And when I knock on the door and when I ring the bell, whichever I do, my host or my hostess opens the door immediately. And they greet me warmly and invite me to come in.
Of course if I’m standing before the Rodriguez front door which I often have, by the way, and if Viviano happens to open the door the greeting is likely to be “We don’t want any” or “What do you want?” But I assure you that I go in anyway.
And you know it very frequently has happened that my host has graciously offered to take my coat and hang it up. Then he will conduct me to a chair perhaps in his living room. Maybe my hostess will offer me some juice to drink and point out some very delicious looking appetizers while I’m waiting for the main meal.
And you know it’s really always nice not only on Thanksgiving Day but other days too to be at a home where they’re expecting you, where they invite you in warmly, where they’re eager to serve every need that you have.
And I can’t help but wonder this morning. I really have to wonder if those of us who are born again by faith in Jesus Christ really understand that there is a sense in which you and I are to be the host and the hostesses, the hosts and the hostesses of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Do you remember the words we read just a few minutes ago? Words that Jesus spoke to his disciples.
And Jesus said to them, “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning, and you yourselves be like men who are waiting for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately.”
Now try to capture the real life situation that lies behind these words of Jesus Christ.
Here is a big house and it has a lot of servants. And the master of the house is away from home. He’s attending a wedding celebration. He’s attending a wedding feast.
And because wedding feasts in those days usually were held at night and because they could go on and on and on into the wee small hours of the night, none of the servants knew exactly what time the master of the house would come back. And it might be very, very late indeed.
But these servants didn’t take off their clothes and lie down on a bed or a couch and go to sleep. No. They girded up their waist. They pulled up the long flowing pieces of their garments and took them under the belt that was around their waist. And that was something they always did when they were getting ready to serve their master.
And these servants did not allow that house to become totally dark because they kept their lights burning. And they were on the tiptoe of expectation. And they were ready that the minute the master came back and knocked they would open the door to him.
And then they would serve his needs. Maybe one servant would take from him his staff or his cloak. Maybe another servant would take the turban from off his head. Another servant might bring a basin of water, remove his master’s sandals and wash his master’s feet.
And then if he needed something to eat and to drink they would furnish this. And using their lamp they would guide him through the darkened corridors of the house to whatever room he wanted to go to. And if he needed help in retiring they would do that.
Don’t you see that these servants were supposed to be ready to get involved in the service of their master the moment the master came back to the house?
And guess what, my friends? Guess what? You and I are to be prepared to serve Jesus Christ the moment he comes back.
Does that surprise you? Have you ever thought of that?
Oh yes, we should serve Him here and now. And any Christian who doesn’t serve Him here and now doesn’t have his head on straight.
But listen to me. We are supposed to be ready to serve him when he comes again. Or to put it another way, we are to be prepared to act as hosts and hostesses of Jesus Christ.
There’s a very delightful story about Napoleon Bonaparte, the emperor of France, who was out on the battlefield somewhere with his soldiers. And he was sitting on a horse. And suddenly the horse was spooked in some way and began to rear out of control.
A French foot soldier, somebody that we would have described as a buck private, a French foot soldier grabbed the reins of the horse and brought Napoleon’s horse under control.
Napoleon looked down at the buck private with favor. And his next words constituted a promotion. And he said to him, “Thank you, Captain.”
And this ex-buck private who was always ready to serve his emperor replied, “Of what regiment, sir?”
And Napoleon answered, “Of my personal guard.”
Remarkable, well-acted service. Grabbing the reins of that horse led to a promotion which involves service in the presence of the emperor himself.
And listen to me. If you are now engaged in serving Jesus Christ, if you are letting the light of your Christian testimony shine in this world, then your waist is girded, your lamp is burning, and you are ready to serve Jesus Christ when he returns.
Or if I may put it another way, you are ready for a promotion. You are ready for a promotion.
Now folks I have to admit to you that over the course of my life I have not been promoted as often as I would like to have been. And therefore one of the significant promotions of my life took place when I was in fifth grade.
You see I started school in Kenville, Michigan. But when my dad was transferred to Letterkenny Ordnance Depot in Chambersburg I wound up in the fifth grade at Mary B. Sharp School in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
Now it turned out that the schools in Kenville were a lot harder than the schools in Chambersburg. And pretty soon I found the work in the fifth grade at Mary B. Sharp School very, very easy.
And along about the middle of the year they gave me a battery of tests. Guess what? They promoted me to the sixth grade. And I completed the fifth and the sixth grade in one year.
Now that didn’t do my self-image any damage, folks. I want to assure you. As a little boy I didn’t know anybody else who had completed two grades in one year.
But since then I have been greatly humbled because now I have read about kids who have been promoted to college while their peers were still struggling to finish grade school or high school.
And so I realized now that my little old promotion was exactly that. It was a little old promotion.
So I’ve made my mind up to aim for a big leap forward. I’m aiming for a major promotion.
Now as you all know I’m a preacher and teacher and writer. That’s no big deal. When I go out to the airport people don’t recognize me and rush up to me and ask me for my autograph.
And if I meet a stranger and tell him that I’m a writer he’s probably going to say, “What have you written?” And Robert Ludlum who never leaves home without his American Express card has those kind of problems but I don’t.
So I’m aiming for the big time. And I’m aiming for promotion to the role of a king. Did you hear that? I’m serious.
I’m a preacher, a teacher and a writer. But I’m aiming to become a king.
Remember the words that Jesus spoke to his disciples just before the passage that we are talking about right now. He says to his disciples, “Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
And that simply means the Father wants you to become kings in His kingdom. Because the Bible says if we endure we shall also reign with Him.
You’ve all heard the expression, “It’s a dirty job but somebody’s got to do it.” Well when I’m talking about the job of a king I want to change that around. It’s a terrific job, folks. It’s a super, super job.
And there are people probably sitting in this room this morning who are going to do it.
Would you like to know what it’s like to be a king? Think back to the words that Jesus spoke next to his disciples.
Jesus says to His disciples, “Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, shall find so doing. 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.”
Say what? Say what? I thought servants were supposed to be ready to serve him. And of course in the true life situation that is in the background of these words that’s exactly the case.
And I’m sure they did. If they listened for their master’s knock and they’re ready I’m sure that they would take his turban and take his cloak and take his staff and wash his feet and do everything that he needed them to do.
But then would come the surprise. Then would come the shock. Because then the master whom they have served and are ready to serve will say to them, “Come over here and sit down at this table.”
And they will watch as their master pulls up the flaps of his long flowing garment and tucks them under his belt as if he were a servant. And then he goes to the cupboard or the storeroom where the very best food and drink are stored. And he begins to lay it out for his servants.
Amazing. The master of the house is serving his servants.
Listen carefully. Don’t miss this. There are two sides to being a king in God’s kingdom.
Yes, as a king we will serve Him. And we will see that his wishes are carried out in whatever part of the world we are assigned to.
But the other side of the coin is that the king will serve us. And all of the deepest desires, all of the deep yearnings and hungers of our heart will be supplied and met and filled by him as he, so to speak, lays a table before us that is loaded with blessing, with joy, with fulfillment and with eternal reward.
And you see why I would like to become a king. That’s a promotion worth having.
Eventually Howard A. Kelly became a famous doctor and surgeon. But during the days that he was going to medical school he would sell books on the summer holidays to help pay his bills.
One day he was out selling books and he got very, very thirsty. So he stopped at a farmhouse. And a girl came to the door of the farmhouse. And he asked her for a drink of water.
And the girl said, “I will give you a glass of milk if you wish.” And she did.
And Howard A. Kelly drank that cool refreshing milk and was grateful for it.
The years passed. Dr. Kelly graduated from medical school and he became the chief surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, one of the famous hospitals of Baltimore, Maryland.
One day a lady was brought into the hospital seriously ill. She was from a rural area. But she received some very special attention. She got a private room. She got a private nurse who sat with her. The chief surgeon made sure that everything was right.
Her surgery was successful and she was convalescing rapidly.
One day the head nurse said to her, “Tomorrow you will go home.”
The lady felt very joyful about that. But her joy was dragged down a little bit by the thought of the enormous bill that she must have run up in her hospital stay.
And so she asked the nurse for the bill. And the nurse said, “I’ll bring it to you.”
The nurse brought her the bill. And she began to read a long bill with all these items for which charges were made. And as she went down with this her heart sank until eventually her eyes reached toward the bottom of the page.
And at the bottom of this long bill there was a notation which said, “Paid in full for one glass of milk.” And it was signed Howard A. Kelly, M.D.
Listen to me. Those little acts of service that you do and the hardships and the frustrations and the disappointments that are a part of serving God in this life will be repaid in full. They will be repaid in full by the King Himself.
And we who are to await Him as servants will find ourselves being served by our King.
So what’s the bottom line? What’s the bottom line?
Well Jesus gives it in the closing words of our passage today. Notice them in verse 39.
But know this, says Jesus, that if the householder had known in what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and he would not have allowed his house to be dug into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man comes at an hour you do not expect Him.
And here the story has changed a little bit. In this world in which we live is compared to a house which is under the supervision of a householder or a manager. And this manager I might point out to you is a wicked manager. His name is Satan. He is the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. He is temporarily in control of the house.
And he knows that the King is coming. He knows that the thief is coming. And if Satan is as proud as the biblical picture presents him, and I’m sure he is, he probably thinks he’s got it all figured out, that he knows almost to the day when the Lord will come back.
If human beings have thought they figured it out I’m sure the Devil considers himself smarter than everybody. But the Devil Himself will be caught by surprise.
And before he barely knows what will happen the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, the trump of God. He will break into this house which is under the devil’s control. He will take out of the house His people who are valuable to Him. And they’ll be gone, meeting Him in the air, before Satan can do one single thing.
What’s the bottom line? If Satan is going to be caught by surprise, will you? Will I?
If you are serving God now, your loins are girded and your lamp is shining. You’re looking for Jesus Christ. Good.
But watch out. If your attention begins to flag, if you spend even a day out of fellowship with God, the Son of Man may come and surprise you.
Therefore, says Jesus, “You also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not expect Him.”
In Philadelphia there was a small third-class hotel. And one night into that hotel came an elderly couple who looked very tired. They went up to the night clerk. And the husband said, “Mister, please don’t tell us you don’t have a room. We’ve been all over the city and all the hotels at which we usually stay are full. We didn’t know about the big conventions that are in the city right now. We’re tired and it’s after midnight. So please don’t tell us that you don’t have a room.”
The night clerk looked at them silently for a moment. And then he said, “I don’t have a single room except my own personal room. I work at nights and I sleep during the daytime. And although it’s not as nice as the other rooms at least it’s clean. And you would be very welcome to be my guest for the night.”
The woman said to him, “God bless you, young man.”
The next day as this couple sat at the breakfast table they told the waiter to go bring the night clerk in because they wanted to talk to him about some important business.
The night clerk went in, sat down at the table with them, asked them how their night was, and they thanked him sincerely. And then the man said this. He said, “You’re too fine a hotel man to work in a third-rate hotel like this. How about if I build you a big luxurious hotel in the city of New York and make you the general manager?”
The night clerk was stunned and he wondered whether something was wrong with this guy that was at the breakfast table making him this offer. But he finally managed to stammer out, “It sounds wonderful.”
And then the man introduced himself as John Jacob Astor. And he was as good as his word because he proceeded to build the world-famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. And he made this former night clerk his general manager.
And in the course of a number of years this former night clerk became the most famous hotel man in the entire world.
Just for your information, in 1956, recently as that, the 47-story Waldorf Astoria Hotel with its 1,900 rooms served approximately 750,000 guests in that year.
And yes, my Christian friend, the humble Son of a carpenter from Nazareth of Galilee, the dirt-poor traveling Rabbi who ended His life nailed to a criminal’s cross, He is the one who is building something. And it’s not a hotel. It’s a kingdom that will last forever and forever.
And He’s looking for general managers. He’s looking for kings who will serve Him in His kingdom and be served by Him.
Do you qualify? Are you prepared? Are you ready to get involved with the King of kings and Lord of lords?
Get ready! Get set! Because when He comes we can go.
Shall we pray?
Father it would be enough that our souls are saved by the grace that has reached us in Jesus Christ. But we marvel that You want to raise us to the level of kings who will reign with Your Son. Help us to take this seriously and be ready to do this when He comes. We ask it in Christ’s name. Amen.