Sermon for 12-10-23
Luke 12: 35-40
Advent 2, 2023
“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, 36 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. 37 Blessed are those servants[g] 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. 38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Charles Taze Russel predicted that the end of the world would take place in 1914. For those of you unfamiliar with this name, he is the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Sadly, false prophets had duped some people over the years. Even sadder, someone will come along again to say that they have searched the Scriptures and found the formula which when added up will tell the exact date of the return of Christ.
Sadly again, foolish people will believe their predictions in spite of the words of the Apostle Paul, “Now concerning the times and the season brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”
However, while this is sad, there is another side to this coin. It is this side of the coin which I see as a much greater threat and problem among God’s people. While most people recognize false predictions as the words of “nut-cases,” there are millions more today that know that Christ will return like a thief in the night but still scoff at our Savior’s words: “The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” This scoffing takes on several characteristics.
• First of these characteristics is not that they disbelieve that Jesus will return as a thief in the night; they simply do not take His words with the seriousness of repentance.
• The second characteristic is that many no longer believe in an actual hell, so eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you die.
• The third characteristic is that many who claim to be Christian are immersed in matters of this life which drown out the many warnings of our Savior regarding the Last Day. Unfortunately, Satan uses the ease and pleasures and possessions of this life to blind even Christians to the horror of hell. This morning, let us take our Savior at His word as we consider:
BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAMPS ARE BURNING.
Read Luke 12: 35-40 here.
In this text, Jesus is speaking to Christians, as stewards of the mysteries of salvation. We hear Jesus say, “Stay dressed for action,” and “Like men who are waiting for their master.” With this particular phrase, Jesus purposely takes the reader back to Exodus 12:11 where God gives Moses specific instructions on how to eat the Passover. Speaking to Moses, the LORD says, “Now, you shall eat it in this manner, with your loins girded, with your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste—it is the LORD’s Passover.”
Therefore, this particular warning is not for unbelievers, but for those who are among the saints as encouragement to remain faithful. In other words, these words of Jesus speak directly to you and me. Jesus wants us to be ready just as the Children of Israel were to be ready to leave their slavery under the Pharaoh. Part of this readiness would involve trust in God’ promise that the blood of the lamb would save them from the final curse and plague against Egypt: the death of every first-born in the family.
In the same way, our Savior wants our loins to be girded, that is gathered around His Word and Sacrament and around His table, continually eating the Passover Lamb by faith in the Lord’s Supper while trusting that the Blood of the Lamb of God will be our salvation from the curse of hell for our sin. This is another reason why we need to dine with our Savior every Divine Service.
So we challenge each other with the words of our Savior, “You must also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Given this, the question or challenge is this: What is it that might hinder us from being ready at the final return of Jesus to judge the living and the dead? Satan has his arsenal that is not so obvious to the human eye.
I ran across a commentary on a video game. This game is unique in that it actually uses the word “sin.” Apparently, the game player does battle against this thing called “Sin.” However, this thing called “sin” is depicted as an ugly, scary, huge dragon-like monster, something you can see, something outside of you, something that can even be destroyed by you. Indeed, that seems to be the object of the game.
Satan is not that stupid. He doesn’t want to let you see the real monster of sin because that monster resides inside of us, not merely outside of us and that is the greater hindrance to our salvation. Only our blessed Savior shows us our sin through the Law. Sin is a disease that permeates our very being and it wants to rule.
And like a monster it throws a fit when it does not get its way. You can’t see it in the mirror. Rather it is the universal tendency of humans to prefer self-serving actions and to speak self-serving words because we are constantly thinking self-serving thoughts so that we can get the most we can for ourselves.
This ugly monster manifests itself, not in the form of a terrible fire-breathing dragon, but in lovelessness, hatred, sexual lust, bickering, envy, impatience, greed, selfishness and a whole host of ugly little monsters that scream and throw their fits when they don’t get to come out.
What makes these things so frightening is this: St. Paul says that those who continue to do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of Christ. But Jesus wants us to see these sins in our lives so that we might come to repentance each day.
However, Jesus also warns us about becoming tangled up in the things outside of us, the pleasures, ease and possessions of this life. The underlying motif here is the danger of the entangling problem of possessions. Having possessions is not sinful in and of itself. It is how we use those possessions, whether to satisfy our flesh or to give glory to God. But that is where the problem is at.
As I said, Satan is not stupid. Satan uses the ease, pleasures and possessions of this life to blind people to the horror of hell which forces me to speak about hell. We don’t hear much about hell today. It is a concept that many don’t want to discuss. Many who call themselves Christians have stated that they no longer believe that a loving God would damn people to such a horrible place. They call themselves “Enlightened.” The early church taught about hell very graphically.
Some may be offended that I speak of the horror of hell. But I would rather have you offended at me now than have you curse me on Judgment Day saying, “Why didn’t my pastor warn me about this horror? Why did he remain silent allowing me to go on as if hell did not exist?” I speak of hell to ensure that you are ready for the final coming of Christ to judge the living and the dead.
Jesus wants you awake when your Savior returns ready to meet Him when He knocks for the last time in your hour of death or at His sudden return. It is my job to keep you awake for His Glorious Coming because Jesus is coming at an hour we do not expect.
This text for the Second Sunday in Advent rings out an urgent message to be prepared. And we might wonder if there is any comfort here for us as we struggle with our sins. For our comfort, Jesus says, “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.”
Our Savior wants us in heaven with Him for all eternity and why this loving warning stands in the pages of Holy Scripture. Think about it: What if our Good Shepherd had never warned us? We would simply live our life to the fullest here and be cast into hell for all eternity.
Instead, He warns us as a loving Father warns his children to stay away from dangerous situations. Like the Children of Israel, He bids us to trust in the Blood which He shed for us on the cross; indeed, to paint His blood, not on your doorposts, but on your troubled conscience. In His Holy Supper He has already dressed Himself for Service by offering His sinless life in our behalf on the cross. He now has us recline at His table today and through the called servant of the Word, serves us with the eternal food of forgiveness.
If your conscience bothers you this day; if you are troubled with the nagging thought that you are not ready for your Savior’s return, remember what the Apostle John said, “The Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.” That Blood and all that it accomplished for your forgiveness and comfort Christ has given you in Baptism.
That Blood your Savior invites you to take in His Supper which is the cure from the sin that resides in you and tempts you from the outside. In that Blood, the curse of eternal death cannot touch you or harm you and immersed in that Holy and Precious Blood you are ready for His glorious return. Go in peace because you are covered in the Blood of Christ through Baptism. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria