Today’s passage: Luke 12:35-48
Helpful thoughts:
- Jesus is coming back!
- We don’t know when, but we are to live as though it could be today.
- Being ready = Seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. If I am busy loving and serving God and others and pursuing righteousness when Jesus returns, I will be found “awake” (Verse 38).
- Peter’s question in verse 41 brought up a set of expectations for church leaders.
- The pastor’s job as described by Jesus Himself: Give them their portion of food.
- John 21:15-17 – “Feed my sheep”
- Pastors are responsible before God to feed the Word to God’s church!
- When a pastor thinks that church growth has to do with anything other than the Spirit of God, using the Word of God to win and then feed the children of God, he thinks too highly of himself, he thinks too lowly of God, and he also disrespects the people of God.
- The pastor’s job as described by Jesus Himself: Give them their portion of food.
- No one is going to be cut in pieces or beaten in Heaven. These servants/slaves represent false teachers who will suffer in Hell according to how much truth they were exposed to, were aware of, and then rejected or abused to manipulate people for their own personal gain.
- “To whom much is given, much is required” is not a verse about how much a genuine Christian should serve Jesus. It is a verse about how much people will suffer if they had greater knowledge of God’s Word and then rejected and abused it.
Questions to consider:
- Are you ready for Jesus to come back? In what ways might you need to wake up?
- Who will do the serving when the master arrives (Verse 37)? How great and kind is our God?!? How does this promised service charge you up to serve Jesus all the more?
- How must our pastor preach/teach? If he changes the message because getting people in seats has become more important than accurate exposition of the Word of God, what category will your pastor have just entered into in this passage? Whose intellect and power will he be trusting in? What would the actual result of that exchange truly be? Will he see the people of the church as God’s people or as his own accomplishment?