#115 Lu. 12:39-40  READY FOR THE LORD'S RETURN

Introduction:

    In the text last Sunday Jesus used a parable to teach His
disciples about His return to this world.  In today's text He uses
a second parable to teach about His return.

I. A review of the previous parable

    In the first parable the man who was gone was an earthly lord,
the owner of a great estate.  He had left his home and went away
to the home of his prospective bride to get married.  In his
absence he left his servants in charge of his household.  When
nighttime would arrive, he would expect his servants to lock up
all the doors and windows securely so as to prevent burglars from
coming in a carrying away his possessions.  However, he did not
want his servants to pile up in bed and go to sleep.  He and his
bride and their attendants would be arriving late in the night and
he did not want to spend his wedding night locked out of his
house.  What a wedding night that would be!  He wanted all to be
in readiness for a great celebration when he arrived with his
bride.  He wanted a delicious meal with all the trimmings to be
cooked and ready to serve.  He wanted decorations placed around in
the rooms to give a festive atmosphere.  He wanted musical
instruments to be on hand and all of the stringed instruments
tuned and ready to make music.  He wanted his servants to be
watching and waiting and ready to rush to the door at the first
knock to open up and let them in.
    The lord in the parable, of course, represented the Lord Jesus
Christ, Himself.  He had organized His church.  He would soon die
on the cross and arise from the grave.  He would soon be leaving
going away to heaven.  But Jesus would not stay in heaven forever.
The time would surely come when He would return to this world and
to His churches.  He would come and raise the redeemed from their
graves.  He would come and put down the Anti-Christ who would be
making so much trouble for the world shortly before His return.
He would come and re-establish the throne of David and rule the
world from Jerusalem for a thousand years.
    The servants of the lord in the parable represent His
disciples.  Our Lord's servants are instructed to watch and wait
for His to return.  But they are not to just sit down and idly
wait.  They are to gird up their loins and work.  They are to have
everything in readiness when the Lord returns.  They are to carry
on the Lord's household affairs in a manner that pleases Him.
They are to do all the work that was assigned to them in the Great
Commission.  They are to carry the gospel message to every
creature in all the world.  They are to live godly lives so as to
let their lights shine in the darkness of this sin cursed world.
Let me tell you that this world needs light.  This is a wicked
world that we live in and it is getting worse and worse each day.
The world very badly needs the light of Jesus Christ to shine
through God's people to give light and to expel the darkness.

II.  A new parable

    In our text today Jesus continues to teach His disciples about
His return to this world.  In this text He stresses that He wants
His disciples to be watching and waiting and to be ready when He
returns.
    However, instead of continuing the same parable about the
servants waiting for their lord to return from his wedding, He
uses an illustration about a household which has been
burglarized.  V.  39, "And this know, that if the goodman of the
house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have
watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through."
In this illustration Jesus is not speaking about any particular
man.  Rather what He says here could well apply to anybody whose
household has been burglarized and his goods stolen.
    He is talking about something that I think most of you can
surely relate to.  Even if you have never been burglarized
yourself, you have surely had it happen to a friend or neighbor.
You are also aware that it could happen to you.  You have probably
had some fears that it would happen to you.
    Jesus said that if a man just knew at what hour the burglar
would strike, he would be waiting and watching and he would make
sure the thief would not get into  his house and steal his goods.
That householder would be well armed and he would give that thief
the surprise of his life.  The problem is that the householder
does not know at what hour the thief will come.  Nobody knows when
the burglar is going to strike.  Nobody knows at what hour or what
night or what week or what month or even what year a burglar will
come.  One cannot be sure that a burglar will ever attempt to
break into his house.  But if he did know and if he just knew what
time he would come he would be prepared to protect his property.
    Since one does not know, then the thing to do is take
reasonable precautions at all times lest he be burglarized.  One
can lock his doors and his windows every time he leaves the house.
One can lock up the house at night before he goes to bed so that
at least the burglar would have to make noise in order to get in.
Then, of course, one can get a dog to bark and warn him that
a prowler is trying to get in.  In our modern times one can also
get all manner of electronic devices that will warn if a burglar
tries to break in.  Out in California where my brothers live they
put iron bars across all windows and doors to make it extra hard
to get in.  There is a lot that one can do to protect himself and
his property.
    The point that Jesus is making is that just as nobody knows
when the burglar is going to come, even so nobody knows when Jesus
is going to return to this world.  If we knew just when Jesus is
going to return we would start broadcasting it on every radio and
television station.  We would publish it in every newspaper.  We
would ring every telephone.  We would send letters to every
mailbox.  We would knock on every door.  We would tell everybody.
We fill up the church houses.  We would rent huge auditoriums.  We
would assemble in large crowds.  We would sing the great hymns of
God.  We would publicly read all the great texts of the Bible that
promise His return.
    We would begin a count-down.  We would start weeks and perhaps
months in advance.  We would count off the remaining time by
months and until there was not a full month left.  We would count
off the remaining time by weeks until there was not a full week
left.  We would count off the remaining time by the days until
there was not a day left.  We would then count off the remaining
time by the hours until there was not a full hour left.  Finally,
we would count off the remaining time by minutes and seconds right
down the moment of His arrival.

III.  Knowing that He is coming, but not knowing when

    We don't know when He will return, but we do know to be ready.
V. 40, "Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at
an hour when ye think not."  We don't know the time of our Lord's
return.  The word "hour" in our text simply means "time."  We do
not know the hour and the minute and the second.  We don't know
the day nor the week nor the month.  We don't know the year nor
the decade nor even the century for sure.  The best of Christians
do not know.  The best of Bible scholars do not know.  The best of
students of Bible prophecies do not know.  Nobody in this world
knows for sure when Jesus is coming.  He cannot know.
    But now this does not mean that we should be caught totally by
surprise like the man whose house is burglarized.  We can know
that we are getting close to the time of His coming.  The Bible
gives us certain signs to look for and when we see these things
come to pass, then we can know that the coming of Jesus is near at
hand.  In Matthew chapter twenty-four Jesus gave ten signs by
which Christians can tell that His second coming is approaching.
    He listed five long range signs that point to His second
coming:
1.  The rise of false Christs, Mt. 24:5
2.  Wars and rumors of wars, Mt. 24:6
3.  Famines, Mt. 24:7
4.  Pestilences, Mt. 24:7
5.  Earthquakes, Mt. 24:7
These first five signs are called "the beginning of sorrows" in
Matthew 24:9.  That is, they are long range signs.  They tell that
the coming of Christ is ahead, but do not tell us whether or not
it is close at hand.
    He also listed five short ranged signs of His return:
1.  Persecution of Christians, Mt. 24:9
2.  Division within Christian ranks, Mt. 24:10
3.  The rise of false prophets, Mt. 24:11
4.  The love of many Christians will wax cold, Mt. 24:12
5.  The spreading of the gospel to all parts of the world, Mt.
    24:14
These last five signs are not called "the beginning of sorrows."
They are not long range signs.  They are short range signs.  They
tell us that the coming of Christ is close at hand.  Mt.  24:33,
"...when ye shall see these things know ye that it is near, even
at the door." There is no reason for Christians to be caught off
guard concerning the second coming of Christ.  We cannot know when
He is coming, but we can tell that His coming is getting near at
hand.  We can know that it is very near at hand.

IV.  The command to be ready

    But since we don't know and cannot know for sure when He is
coming, then the only sensible thing to do is to be ready at all
times.  The only safe thing to do is to be ready at all times.
Let me repeat verse forty of our text, V. 40, "Be ye therefore
ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think
not."
    Let me ask you some very serious questions.  Do you think that
the average church in our day is ready for the Lord to return?  Do
you think that the average church is busy doing the work that has
been assigned in Scripture or do you think that the average church
program is based more upon worldly activities?  I think you will
admit that many of the activities within the average church of our
day has little or nothing to do with the work that the Lord
assigned.
    Let me ask you this.  Do you think that our own church is
ready for the Lord to return?  Very likely some are, but not the
church as a whole.  If so, where are they this morning?  Where are
they week after week on Sunday morning?  And where are they on
Sunday nights and Wednesday nights?  I think we do have one of the
best churches in the country, but I also think you know that even
we fall far short of what the Lord expects of His churches.
    Now let me ask you this (and this is a question that I have
personally asked myself):  Do you think that you personally are
ready for the Lord's return?  Now I am not asking if you are
saved, even though that, too, is a very important question.  You
have professed to be saved and I am going to assume that in the
case of most of you that profession is genuine.  I am assuming
that all of you who are professed Christens are really saved.  But
what I am asking is this:  In your own opinion, are you ready for
the Lord Jesus Christ to return?  Are you living as you think you
ought to be living at His return?  Are you living the way you
would want to live if you knew He were about to come?  Or, do you
think that you need to make some changes in your life before the
Lord returns?  Are there changes in your life that you would
really like to make before the Lord returns?
    If you are  not saved, there is no need for me to ask you if
you are ready for Jesus to return.  I think you know that you are
not ready.  There is no way you could be ready until you are
saved.
    But let me get back to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ as
is recorded in our text.  Jesus said, "Be ye therefore ready..."
I have been asking if you are ready.  Jesus doesn't ask.  Jesus
just said, "Be ready!"  In other words, "If you are not ready,
get ready!  Get ready for Jesus to come!"

Conclusion:

    There is a song that was popular a few years ago that some of
you may remember.  It said, "The shrimp boats are comin'; their
sails are in sight."  Well, I can say to you, "Jesus is comin';
the signs are in sight."  The sails are not in sight, but the
signs of His coming are in sight.  The signs that Jesus gave all
indicate that Jesus is on His way.  Even the short range signs
indicate that He will be here very soon.  We do not know the day
and we don't know the hour, but we know that it will be  soon.
Jesus is coming soon!
    Are you ready?  If not, then get ready.  Get ready while there
is time.  Get ready today.  Get ready this morning.  Get ready
now.