Faithful Service and Stewardship
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Verses: Luke 12:35-48
Theme: Faithful Service and Stewardship
Verses 35-40
Jesus is using an illustration to say that He wants us to stay faithfully engaged in serving Him.
The illustration is that of servants awaiting their master to return from a wedding feast. They know he is coming sometime soon. If they are there to receive the master when he comes, they will be rewarded. He’s coming back from a wedding feast, he’s in a good mood, and it’s in their best interest to be there to gladly receive him when he comes back. They will get to join in some on the celebration when he returns. The master will even serve them!
Like these servants, Christians should “stay dressed for action and keep our lamps burning.” That must surely be figurative for staying engaged in Christian service. True story, I remember as a little kid reading this literally and thinking some nights “oh man, what if Jesus comes back tonight? I’d better be awake!” So I’d try to stay awake a little longer and ultimately fall asleep. That surely misses the point.
The point is rather that we should keep on doing what we are supposed to be doing. We should be faithful in the responsibilities that the Lord has set for us. The responsibility of these servants was to await their master and receive him when he got home. They needed to stay dressed and keep their lamps burning to do that.
But what the Lord has assigned for you to do is very probably different from that. Perhaps He has you as a light in a school, or on a bus, or at a local hospital, or maybe farming to provide food for many – we all have our different jobs. Whatever we are doing, He wants us to be ready to share the Gospel with others – the Bible says “always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within you.” We are supposed to be loving, giving, praising, and praying. Our master has given us a number of responsibilities. Some of those we all have, some of those are unique to us. We ought to be fulfilling those, just like these servants were for their master.
Our situation is a bit different from these servants though, and that’s what verses 39 and 40 are about. The servants had a rough idea of when their master would return – maybe it would be the second watch of the night, maybe the third. But Jesus’ coming will be similar to that of a thief in the night – it will happen at an hour we don’t expect.
Having some experience with thieves recently, I find that pretty easy to understand. Who here was expecting the thieves to break into the outdoor shed over that weekend a few months ago? Don’t raise your hand or I’ll have to call the cops on you. Haha!
If we had known that thieves were showing up that weekend, things would have turned out a little differently wouldn’t they have? I think there would have been some officers there to meet them. Same with the break-in. Same with my totes on the front lawn – I wouldn’t have left them out on the front lawn.
Knowing what I know now, my totes will be going back inside at night. And the church board is actively looking for solutions to increase our security against break-ins here. We’ve heard about some very affordable cameras that can be programmed to detect motion within certain hours and will send notifications to phones if they detect motion within those hours. There’s also different security systems out there and we’re looking into things. And obviously, if we had known a while ago that we’d be broken into we wouldn’t be looking into it now – it would have already been done a while ago.
Well, let’s say that the Lord were to suddenly appear today – is there something that you would do differently? Would you be embarrassed to meet Him where you currently are in life? Is there some responsibility the Lord has assigned to you that you are not doing? Would you make some changes to your life if you knew you would meet the Lord tonight? It would be wise to address that!
There’s a major difference between the uncertainty of a break-in and the uncertainty of the Lord’s return. We may never experience a robbery again. There are plenty of people out there whose property is never broken into. We could improve security at the church only to never actually need it. Having the experience that we have, it’d be a bad idea not to improve security – but you never know. Might never need it.
On the other hand, the Lord absolutely 100% will come back. And if you and I aren’t there to see it – it will be because we have already gone to meet Him ourselves. You will see the master, it is not a question of if but when, so all the more we should all “stay dressed for action and keep our lamps burning.”
Verses 41-48
Peter’s question is “are you talking only to your disciples (i.e. Christians) or to everybody?” The reason that Peter asks this question is found way back in verse 1. All through chapter 12 the disciples have been surrounded by a large multitude of people – many thousands. But what Jesus has been saying has been intended for the disciples.
So Peter’s question is from that context: he is wondering “are we still only talking to disciples here, or is this message for the whole crowd around us?”
It is a very important question. In Bible interpretation, we need to know who is being spoken to in order to apply it properly. Some things are to believers, some to unbelievers, some to everybody. Some things might just be for one particular person long ago, like Noah and the Ark! When interpreting, we want to know the audience.
Now, I’m certain that Jesus does answer Peter’s question. The difficulty is He doesn’t do it directly with an easy yes or no. He answers with a parable. And parables are filled with symbolism. It’s an indirect answer using a parable filled with symbolism. That kind of makes “who is Jesus talking to?” a little difficult to answer. So, we’re going to have to think hard about this parable some in order to see the answer to Peter’s question.
Let me begin by saying that I think the reason Jesus doesn’t answer Peter’s question directly is because it isn’t simple. The answer is not “the disciples” or “the crowd.” It is “different outcomes for different folks.” He doesn’t answer it with an easy yes or no answer because it isn’t an easy yes or no answer.
Jesus will come back someday, and everyone on earth is going to have to answer to Him, but it isn’t going to be the same for everybody. In His answer we see a lot of different kinds of people.
Slide 1
If you are a believer, that will be a factor when He returns.
If you are not a believer, that will be a factor when He returns.
If you are obedient, that will be a factor.
If you are disobedient, that will be a factor.
If you know a lot, that will be a factor.
If you don’t know a lot, that will be a factor.
So instead of answering the question directly, He gives a parable to talk about these different factors.
In verses 42-44 the Lord basically says: “who is the faithful and wise manager whom the master will set over his household and all of His possessions? It is the one that the Lord finds being a faithful and wise steward when He comes.”
We see several factors here: This is a faithful disciple. The word πιστος is used for faithful – that also means believing. In many places in the Bible πιστος is used to indicate a Christian, a believer. The person described here must certainly be a Christian – He believes in his Master, he obeys his Master, he knows that his Master is coming back. The fact that he knows the right thing to do and does it makes him wise.
Slide 2
Going back to the factors then – this guy is a Christian, this guy is obedient, this guy knows the right thing to do and does it – he is wise. This is what it will look like for him when the Lord returns – a rich reward, an eternal inheritance. If you are the audience being spoken to here – that’s awesome! Keep being faithful and you will be rewarded.
So that’s the first scenario, the first audience – if you are a faithful disciple, then you don’t need to worry about what follows. It’s not going to apply to you. You aren’t the audience. What applies to you as a faithful disciple is a generous reward – getting to enjoy all the things of God. Honestly, this is what we all should be. Just focus on being this because none of the next three scenarios are good scenarios.
Here’s the second scenario – this servant notices that the Master hasn’t come back yet. He says “it’s been a long time.” By his behavior and by that comment, it is evident that he has surmised his Master isn’t coming back. And then, he doesn’t just abandon his duties – He doesn’t just become lazy. He becomes indulgent, cruel, and wicked. He physically hurts other people; he indulges in food and drink selfishly to the point of drunkenness. So this guy is just guzzling food and wine, getting drunk, beating people, “It’s been a long time since the Master left. I don’t think He is coming back.” It’s a picture not just of unfaithfulness, but active selfishness and cruelty.
When the master does come back, this individual is cut to pieces and thrown in with the unfaithful. Unfaithful is απιστος and can also be translated unbeliever, which is how the King James Version translates it.
So the first guy was πιστος, faithful or believing, this second guy is απιστος, unfaithful or unbelieving.
Now, taking the evidence – this person doesn’t believe Jesus is coming back, this person is put with unbelievers, this person is destroyed, this person gives no evidence of the new birth – this scenario appears to be directed to people who are not genuinely Christians.
Slide 3
So here are the factors that describe him – he is unbelieving, he is disobedient, and he is foolish. Worse than disobedient, he is an outright bad guy. This is what it will look like for him when Jesus returns – being destroyed and cast with the unbelievers. If you are a Christian and not behaving this way, you are not the audience – but if this does fit you, beware! You should change your life to match the first group.
Two more scenarios are described:
Slide 4
One individual knew his master’s will but simply chose not to do it. He wasn’t an actively evil person, but he wasn’t really trying to be righteous either. He was just negligent.
Slide 5
The other individual also failed to do his master’s bidding, but it was because of ignorance, not intentional negligence.
The degree of disobedience is the same – neither did what they were supposed to do. But the degree of punishment is different and that is because the degree of knowledge is different.
It doesn’t say whether either individual is believing (faithful) or unbelieving (unfaithful). If the individual is believing, then we are looking at loss of rewards. If the individual is unbelieving, then we are looking at severity of the eternal punishment.
Because he uses the word “beat,” He is most probably talking about unbelievers. What disobedient believers face when they are judged by Christ is loss of rewards – not a beating. When Jesus comes again or you go to be with Christ, He is going to embrace you in His loving arms – not beat you up. You may not get all the rewards that you could have gotten had you lived an obedient life, but it’s not going to be a beat down for you – there is no wrath, your sins are all covered and forgiven.
But either way, the principle is the same – if you know the right thing to do and don’t do it, then that is a more severe transgression than if you don’t know the right thing to do and don’t do it.
Now, I know what you might be thinking because I’ve thought it before too: It says that people will be judged more severely if they know the right thing to do and yet fail to do it. You might then conclude, and many have concluded this: “well, I had probably better stay ignorant then! I don’t want a stricter judgment!”
But here’s the thing – you know you are not supposed to stay ignorant, right? So if you know the right thing to do is to grow in wisdom, and yet you actively choose to stay ignorant, then who are you? You’re servant number 3. You know the right thing to do but are failing to do it. Ultimately, you are doing exactly what you are trying to avoid. God can’t be tricked. If you are intentionally trying to make yourself fit scenario #4, or fit that audience, then you’re in scenario #3.
So, if you’ve got a Bible on the shelf and you say “I’m not going to read that because I don’t want to be held accountable for it,” then you’ve just done what you’re trying not to do.
Now, most people don’t get the opportunity to read the Bible all the time – they have jobs, kids, chores etc. I’m sure the Lord understands that. I’m not trying to say something so ridiculous as you’re sinning if you don’t go to seminary.
And most people when they read the Bible they don’t understand everything that it says – they understand a lot, but there are parts that are difficult. I’ve yet to run into anybody who understands it all. If I ran into someone who claimed they did my gut reaction would probably be to roll my eyes.
For some people it’s easier to understand than for others.
But you should be making an effort to grow in wisdom. If you aren’t then you are just doing the same thing that guy number 3 did and so this message is for you.
Jesus then gives one more general principle of judgment, but before we cover that, let’s review real quick the factors that we see in this parable:
Slide 6
*talk about, review*
Slide 7
The phrase “with great power comes great responsibility” is not found in the Bible, but the concept is and the concept is right here. The Lord gives different lots to different people. And He expects different things from different people, based upon what He has given us. Some may be given a large gift of intelligence. Or perhaps a large gift of wealth. A large gift of wisdom. A large gift of compassion. The Lord may place them in an environment where they can make a great impact. The Lord expects big things if He has given you big things.
But others may be born in a poor village with little educational opportunity. Others might grow up in a poor family. For some, you gotta work your butt off to get Bs and Cs in classes. For others, a B is a sign of tremendous laziness. Learning a new language or learning advanced math might be beyond you. You could be extremely gifted but placed in powerless circumstances.
The Lord isn’t going to look at a poor man in a village in Africa and say when He meets him “man, you should have been a rocket scientist. What was with all the slacking?” He’s going to say “You did well to love and feed your family. Your circumstances were hard, but you loved and worked well. Well done.”
Conclusion: We’ve been given different allotments – let’s be faithful to the calling God has given us, serving Him. We will be richly rewarded. He knows your circumstances and His judgment isn’t a static inconsiderate thing – it is fair and takes many things into account.