Thursday, February 04, 2021

2021.02.04 Hopewell @Home ▫ Luke 12:35–59

Read Luke 12:35–59

Questions from the Scripture text: What does Jesus command (Luke 12:35) as a way of maintaining treasure in heaven (cf. Luke 12:34)? What should disciples be like (Luke 12:36)? For Whom should they be ready? To welcome Him how quickly? What will the Master do for such disciples (Luke 12:37)? And what if the time is inconvenient (Luke 12:38)? But what can’t disciples know (Luke 12:39-40)? What does Peter ask (Luke 12:41)? How does the Lord respond (Luke 12:42)? To what kind of servant was Jesus talking (Luke 12:42-43)? How will the master reward him (Luke 12:44)? What other kind of servant is there (Luke 12:45)? What does he do to others? What does he do to himself? What will the master do to him (Luke 12:46-47)? In answer to Peter’s question, what difference does knowing these things make (Luke 12:48)? What will Jesus do at His return (Luke 12:49)? But to Whom will similar happen first (Luke 12:50)? What word does He use to describe it? How does He feel about it? What didn’t Jesus come to give (Luke 12:51)? What did He come to give? Along what lines will that division fall (Luke 12:52-53)? What do people say when (Luke 12:54)? What else do people say when else (Luke 12:55)? What does He call them (Luke 12:56)? Which time do they fail to discern? What/whom else do they misjudge (Luke 12:57)? What should they be sure to get done before they stand before the j(J)udge (Luke 12:58)? What if they don’t?

It is far more important that we discern the time that we are in (Luke 12:56), so that we may attend to serving His interests and always being ready for Him (Luke 12:35-36Luke 12:43), than that we figure out when the Master is returning. His coming will be unexpected (Luke 12:40Luke 12:46a)—and how much worse for those who are not focused upon serving Him well (Luke 12:45-46)!

Christ Himself is our great example for this. He (rightly!) desires His second coming, and the judgment and wrath that He will pour out (Luke 12:49). But He was focused upon the task before Him—going to the cross (Luke 12:50). 

And we are to be focused upon the task before us—aligning ourselves with Him, even if it costs us much conflict with those who set themselves against Him (Luke 12:51-53), serving Him constantly (Luke 12:35), responding to Him instantly (Luke 12:36), and resting in His sacrifice and righteousness by which we have been squared away for the judgment (Luke 12:58).

For those whose focus is upon following Christ, rather than full (Luke 12:59) and furious (Luke 12:49) wrath, they can look forward not only to the Lord’s pleasure in them and reward (Luke 12:42aLuke 12:44), but even His fellowship and kind attention to our own provision and joy (Luke 12:37bLuke 12:42b)!

Like our Lord, let our attention be upon the ways that He has appointed for us to be serving Him now, remembering that we are always before Him, always being tenderly and instantly responsive to Him in His means (Word, sacrament, prayer), and living as we will wish to have been “caught” doing when He returns.

In what roles has the Lord placed you? What parts of your obeying/serving Him need the most work?

Suggested songs: ARP1 “How Blessed the Man” or TPH389retu “Great God, What Do I See and Hear!”


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