“Second-Advent Preparedness”(Luke 12:35-40)
We should not regard Jesus’ promises as empty words. They will surely come to pass exactly how He said it, but He may not go along with our calculations and predictions. Maybe His return is something that will surprise us all, as we will study here.
“Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning. Be like men watching for their lord when he returns from the marriage feast, that, when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open to him. Blessed are those servants whom the lord will find watching when he comes. Most assuredly, I tell you that he will dress himself and make them recline and will come and serve them. They will be blessed if he comes in the second or third watch and finds them so. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore, be ready also; for the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you don’t expect Him” (Luke 12:35-40).
Bible teachers refer to the return of Jesus on earth as the Second Advent because the first time Jesus came here on earth was when He was a baby. After saving us from our sins, Jesus resurrected, thus overcoming the power of death. When He was about to ascend to heaven from where He came, He promised His disciples that He will return.
This is the hope that we, modern disciples of Jesus, hold on to. Paul teaches in his letters to the Thessalonians and Corinthians about a certain catching up in the air or “rapture” of the believers. It may happen before or after the seven-year great tribulation that John prophesied in the book of Revelation.
This topic is fascinating, edifying, and reassuring to discuss. But whatever may actually happen in the end times, what is more important is that Jesus will return just as He promised. Jesus’ return on earth is as sure as the sun rises in the east although it is taking too long.
When Paul was writing his letters, he said that Jesus may return anytime soon; and yet it didn’t happen during his day. The same thing did John expect when he wrote the book of Revelation. Faithful disciples of Jesus throughout the centuries anticipated His soon return, and yet He never returned during their lifetimes. Some of them even tried to precipitate it. Evangelists of the recent past decades were uniform in their loud and emotional plea for people to repent because they say that Jesus is coming soon, yet nothing as earth-shattering as Jesus’ return still occurred. Life went on as usual, and we are now living in a postmodern era.
Believers in this generation, including myself, still desperately hope for Jesus’ soon return. It seems that life here on earth is not getting any better anymore. We will only see the perfect life when the Lord Jesus finally rules the earth. And yet, it is still possible that our hopes would be dashed and we would die waiting for Him. Or He may return soon already. Who knows? We may already be indeed in the last days.
We should not regard Jesus’ promises as empty words. They will surely come to pass exactly how He said it, but He may not go along with our calculations and predictions. Maybe His return is something that will surprise us all, as we will study here.
Characteristics of Jesus’ Return
1. It is a surprise.
But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into (39).
This is how the Lord Jesus usually describes His return. So do Peter and Paul. The exact date of Jesus’ return is up to God the Father and Jesus. It is an information not to be leaked or divulged. God has a perfect time for everything. How He will carry out all the things He said He would do it still beyond our comprehension.
Jesus’ return may come as a surprise in this manner: Some may not notice that the believers have already been raptured. Life may go on as usual to most people. But to those who did notice and are aware of this Bible teaching, this will prove to be a horror. They did not take Jesus’ words seriously, and now they are in consternation at seeing them come to pass.
The Second Advent may be that kind of tight secret, but Jesus will not return in secret. He will not be concealed. All the world will see Him. His return will be a spectacular event, definitely an unheard-of occurrence.
2. It is unexpected
“Therefore, be ready also; for the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you don’t expect Him” (40).
The cataclysmic effect of the Second Advent may defy all human expectations. Therefore, let us brace ourselves and expect the unexpected, especially us who say are followers of Jesus. God may not go along with our predictions and calculations, but we already have an idea based on our study of the Bible.
3. It can happen anytime.
“They will be blessed if he comes in the second or third watch and finds them so” (38).
The Second Advent may still be decades or centuries from now. Or it can be anytime soon, as we are doing the everyday things in life: combing our hair, washing the dishes, watching TV. The Lord said in other places in the gospels that His return will be like the days of Noah wherein people engage in the daily matters of life oblivious of or mocking the coming deluge.
How should we prepare?
1. Suit up.
“Let your waist be girded” (35a).
This talks about our attitude of constant preparedness for Jesus’ return. We should always be dressed as if we are ready to be fetched by Jesus any moment. We should be in that form, in that get-up.
When we live a life of sin, it is as if we are disrobing and leaving ourselves open, naked, and oblivious of the coming train. We won’t realize that it has arrived, fetched passengers, and left. We missed it because we chose to be distracted by the things of the world and wallow in sin.
Therefore, we should now be serious and behave, act, and put on a mindset as if Jesus is returning anytime soon. We keep doing that until we grow old and die and still He hasn’t returned.
2. Keep shining.
“…and your lamps burning” (35b)
Let us not allow the negative things in life to put out the light in our lamps, though they be flickering, not even for a single second. Pressures, irritability, tragedies, loneliness, heartaches, and, generally, evil works concocted by Satan to make our lives miserable should not stop us from constantly reflecting God’s glory. We want the Lord Jesus to find us faithful and ready when He returns. How will we keep shining? By constantly living out His teachings, being His good representatives, and producing fruits of the Spirit.
We should also have a pleasant and happy disposition although we are not actually happy and, in fact, heartbroken, depressed, and miserable. A true believer can still shine even if he is at the rock bottom. It is possible. It’s not a contradiction.
3. Stay alert.
“Be like men watching for their lord when he returns from the marriage feast, that, when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open to him” (36).
Our eyes should always be on the lookout at the faint dot on the horizon indicating that it is our Lord already, approaching. One way we can do this is by heeding the signs of times. However, in every generation, believers have always seen signs of the end times, but the world always remained in a standstill. What shall we do, then? Maybe we should just always set our minds on heavenly things and keep our spiritual senses sharp.
The Blessedness of Preparedness
What are the good things that can come out of having an attitude of constant preparedness for Jesus’ return? How will the Lord reward us for patiently waiting for Him?
Blessed are those servants whom the lord will find watching when he comes. Most assuredly, I tell you that he will dress himself and make them recline and will come and serve them (37).
1. He will humble Himself.
Jesus is our Lord, Boss, Master, and God. But when He returns and finds us faithful and ready, instead of assuming an aristocratic air and expecting to be attended to, He will forget that He is ever the Boss and will act instead like a servant for a while. The thing is not new to Him, anyway. He had always been meek, mild, and humble during His lifetime on earth. He never had a haughty attitude. He even washed His disciples’ feet. Therefore, switching character from that of a Lord into that of a Servant will simply be like reminiscing to Him.
2. He will make us sit down to eat.
Instead of asking us to prepare and serve Him food, He will cook for us, telling us to just wait for the excellent dish He is preparing. He had always been the Master Chef anyway, and we were only household cooks. He may chat with us from time to time to keep us from getting bored. Then, after He has finished His work in the kitchen, He will, one by one, fill the table with His culinary masterpiece, and we will be presented with a spread so bountiful and elegant that we won’t even feel we deserve it.
Such foods, we have never seen; and such treatment, we have never experienced because we have become so accustomed to a life of serving Him.
Then as soon as He tells us to start eating, we will wolf the food down like fatigued galactic warriors until the table becomes a mess, our bellies swell like balloons, and we basically become like potatoes that simply can’t move by themselves out of sheer fullness. What is left to do is perhaps scratch our tummies and take a nap.
3. He will serve us.
When we haven’t put our faith in Jesus, all we cared about was ourselves, how to make ourselves happy and look awesome in the sight of people around us and those outside who look upon our lives. That was the focus of our lives then. But now that we have become disciples of Jesus, things have turned to a different direction. We have learned how to make some sacrifices to obey Him.
At first, we didn’t like it. We were upset about it. Our earthly thinking simply initially repulses the idea. There’s a big world out there for us to enjoy. Why would we allow ourselves to be deficient of the good things in life just to follow and serve a Man who lived 2,000 years ago? But as the days go by and we see that He is real and that His works in our lives are real, we have become used to the idea of serving Him, with love, and we have come to terms with it. It has grown on us. We have come to appreciate it for the outstanding thing that it is; and now, we don’t want to let it go.
As disciples of Jesus, it is no longer about us. We no longer live for ourselves. True believers throughout the history of mankind have always been overlooked and unappreciated, disregarded and despised, overworked and underpaid. Yet people still expect too much from us. They even have the guts to demand us to be perfect, as if we have ceased to be humans; and as soon as we make a mistake, they will pounce upon us like a lion upon a deer.
It is because that is how the principalities in the air, which Paul talked about in the book of Ephesians, operate in the minds of people. Therefore, it is us who should always adjust, turn the other cheek, and stand on a higher moral ground. As much as we can, we make use of every means and convenience that we find to carry out the will of God and do good work.
Of course, we should still look after ourselves, practically speaking. We can be finesse in our work, so as not to invite persecution and fall prey to creatures whose only source of enjoyment in life is to suppress, hurt, and take advantage of the weak, unfortunate, and uneducated. We don’t want the principles Jesus imbued in us be abused by such creatures no matter who they claim to be.
No one has the right to stop us from doing what is right especially if the innate good nature in man generally agrees that it is good. No one has the right to deprive us of our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness especially if we are responsible about the latter. That’s the freedom that we have in Jesus: the freedom to do what is good and not be a slave of sin. But it seems that no matter what we do, Satan will always find a way to attack us.
But when Jesus returns, we will already know what it is like to be masters and lords just as He is because those who have always been faithful to Him will rule the earth Him. Jesus knows every single sacrifice that we have ever made, big or small; and those sacrifices won’t go in vain. He said that if we exalt ourselves, He will bring us down; but if we humble ourselves, He will lift us up.
Passage by Passage: Luke 12 series, episode 7
by: Marven T. Baldo
