Jesus Requires Faithfulness

Luke 12:45-48

GOLDEN TEXT: “To whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required.”—Luke 12:48

FOLLOWING up His instructions to His disciples respecting His approaching death and resurrection, and after the transfiguration vision which emphasized this lesson to the apostles, our Lord began to explain to them something respecting His second coming and what their attitude should be in the interval. The present lesson emphasizes this matter.

During the Lord’s absence His people were to be continually on the alert. Their loins girded would represent that they were to be ready for service all the time—actively engaged in promoting the interests of the Kingdom. We are not to become charged with the cares of this world and slumber and sleep, and thus refrain from attending to the duties properly devolving upon us.

Each one of the Lord’s servants is represented as a light-hearer, and exhorted to let his light so shine before men that they, seeing his good works, may glorify the Father in heaven. The picture is that of general darkness, ignorance, superstition and sin in the world, while the Lord’s disciples have been granted the light of divine revelation, wisdom and understanding. This light not only transforms them and makes of them New Creatures, but also shines through them unto all with whom they come into contact—“Ye are the light of the world.”

The parable of our lesson implies that at our Lord’s second coining He will have arrived before any of His faithful servants will be aware of the fact. His presence will be made known by the knock, and the knock would correspond to an announcement, through some special servant or servants, either orally or by the printed page, setting forth the evidences of the Master’s presence. Such testimonies are in the nature of a knock, which would be heard by such of the servants of the Lord as would be awake at that time. It is not for the servants in general to do the knocking, but for the Master Himself to set in operation the forces and agencies which He may choose to use for producing the knock, the announcement.

No particular time for the Master’s coming is set, but the intimation is clearly given that it is not for them to know the times and seasons, but for them to be on the alert continually, not only during the first watch, but during the second and during the third, that at whatever time the Master’s knock may be heard, they may respond promptly. Wherein would be the use of the knock if the servants were not to know when they heard the knock? The knock is to be the evidence of the Master’s presence, and the servants are not to know in advance, but are to know at the time of the arrival and that without seeing.

What will be the special reward of these servants? The parable states it. Their Master will “gird Himself [He will become their servant] and will make them to sit down to meat and will come forth and serve them.” This implies that those who will hear the knock will be such only as are awake and ready, expecting Him, and on the alert for the knock. These will receive a special spiritual feast.

It will be special because it is on a special occasion and intended as a special reward for their manifestation of interest and devotion. It will be special also, because the Master of the household, as a servant, would have the keys to all the riches of grace and blessing, and as elsewhere explained, will bring forth from His treasury things new and old, essentials and delicacies.

These things we understand have already been fulfilled. The knock, or proclamation of he Lord’s presence, as indicated by the Old Testament prophecies, and the signs of the times, has been going out for over sixty years and is still being given. The servants of the household have been taking notice during this period, and each one as he has opened his heart and mind to the fact of the Lord’s presence, has received a fulfillment of the blessing promised—a rich feast, an understanding and appreciation of the divine plan and nourishment and strengthening such as was never his before. That this serving of the servants by the Master should be understood to be an individual work and not merely a collective service or feast, is evidenced by the Lord’s statement in Revelation 3:20. Here the Lord represents the same event in connection with His message to the last phase of His church, the Laodicean phase. He says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any man [individual] hear My voice [knock] and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with Me.”

The coming of our Lord as a thief upon the world signifies a quiet coming, unostentatious, unknown, without herald or any commotion likely to disturb. The breaking up of the strong man’s house—the breaking up of present institutions, civil, religious, political, financial—is already under way, just as the knocking for His servants is in progress. The entire social structure is under the control of the new Prince. He is supervising the affairs of earth and will cause even the wrath of man to praise Him and to work out His purposes in the overthrow of every institution built upon selfishness.

Great will be the fall thereof—“A time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation”; but upon the ruins the King of kings and Lord of lords will rear the grand Kingdom of the Lord, for which all who are already His, pray “Thy Kingdom come.” When that Kingdom is established by the Lord it will indeed be “the desire of all nations.”—Haggai 2:7

The essence of our lesson is summed up in the 40th verse: “Be ye also ready; for in an hour ye think not the Son of Man cometh.” His knock would be the first intimation of His presence, and so it has been fulfilled. None of us knew in advance when the Lord’s coming would take place: it was after it had occurred that we heard the knock. His voice through the prophets of the Old Testament and the New, declared to us that we are already in the Harvest time and in the days of the presence of the Son of Man. And likewise we have seen fulfilled the promise of a special servant to act as the Lord’s representative and steward in spreading before the household these wonderful truths, which have so blessed and refreshed us. The harvest message has indeed been “meat in due season.”

One feature of the truth that has been served to the household of faith during the harvest, and which has truly been meat in “due” season, is the doctrine of restitution—the “restitution of all things spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” (Acts 3:19-21) This wondrous doctrine of the divine plan was little heard of after the death of the apostles until it was again made prominent at this end of the age. It is a truth that applies to the future age of blessing for the world, hence the church throughout the age was not in special need of it. But at the end of the age this truth was meat in due season because it was needed to round out the witness message the church was to deliver during the harvest.

God announces in advance the important things He intends to do. The restoration of the world was due to follow the return of the Master, hence as soon as He returned, the announcement of this great restitution purpose was in order. For this reason the doctrine was restored to the consecrated by the returned Lord through the servant of his choosing.

The blowing of the jubilee trumpets announcing the incoming jubilee year back in the days of typical Israel is a fitting illustration of the present proclamation of the restitution message during the incoming new age. As the Israelites did not regain their lost possessions immediately when the jubilee trumpets began to blow, so now the announcement of restitution precedes the actual restoration of the lost paradise.

QUESTIONS:

Does the Bible indicate that any of the disciples of the Master were to know in advance the time of His second coming?

How did Jesus indicate His servants would first recognize the fact of His second presence?

Has the Master’s “knock,” announcing His presence, yet been heard by the household of faith?

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