Title: Holiness And Christ’s Return
Scripture Reading: Luke 12:43-46
Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
44 Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.
45 But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken;
46 The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
Luke 12:43-46 is one of the outstanding parables that teaches our responsibility in light of our Lord’s coming.
The Lord’s coming is our blessed hope. So, we should be filling our ‘hope chests’ with works that we can one day lay at His feet.
The theme of holiness and Christ’s coming are deeply intertwined throughout the Bible, especially in the New Testament, a reference to the church.
Holiness means being set apart for God, living in a way that reflects His character. 1 Peter 1:15-16 says, ‘But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do: for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’
The Second Coming of Christ is the blessed hope of all believers. Titus 2:13 says, ‘while we wait for the blessed hope – the appearing of the glory of our Great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.’
His return will bring judgment for the world but reward for those who live faithfully.
- Christ’s statement to a steward.
Luke 12:45 says ‘But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken.’
This verse is clearly a statement of Christ to a steward.
The title for Luke 12:43-46 is ‘a warning against hypocrisy,’ or ‘beware of hypocrisy.’ This portion of scripture is a repeated emphasis from Luke 12:35-38, signifying ‘the danger of hypocrisy.’
The word ‘if’ which means ‘but’ implies potential action if it is otherwise.
The phrase in verse 46, ‘will cut him in pieces’ means capital punishment in the Old Testament.
The second part of the phrase in verse 46 ‘will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers’ shows the gravity of the punishment. He will be treated like an unbeliever.
He says in verse 45, ‘My master is delaying His coming.’ This steward lives without the expectation of his master’s return and he shows it in several areas of his life:
- He mistreats the Master’s other servants. He begins to beat the male and female servants.
- He is excessively given to the pleasures of this world. He loves to eat and drink.
- He is given to intoxication and is drunk often.
Jesus here clearly connected the readiness for His return to a life of love, spiritual focus, and self-control.
‘My master is delaying his coming’ relates to low and fruitless life.
- He gets weary of waiting for His return and has become cynical about the return of Jesus
This parable teaches us two important lessons. Skepticism about the Lord’s coming again produces:
- The mishandling of authority.
- Laziness in one’s conduct.
Finally, the master will return on a day when this steward is not looking for him. The return of Christ will be similar to the day of Noah.
Ready or not, one day the master will come. When He comes, He will punish those who were not ready and denied His coming and will reward the ready. In truth we will have to account for ourselves in that day when He comes.
Jesus says, ‘Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when He cometh shall find so doing, of a truth I say unto you, that He will set him over all He has.’
But there is a wonderful blessing for one who prepares for His return by living a life of love, spiritual focus and self-control. Verse 42 says, ‘the Lord shall make him ruler over his household, to give him a portion of meat in due season.’
Christain’s heavenly rewards will be the most accurate reflection for what they have done on earth. And the rewards will be far greater than anyone can imagine.
- A revival of holiness
I assess this ‘revival of holiness’ the Grace of God.
The young Christians, and especially young ministers, are sick and tired of all the religious game playing.
They are people in the church that are hungry for a faith that will keep them clean and pure in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation.
A prophetic word for the church. Jesus is coming for His church. He is going to sovereignly move upon His church and awaken it anew to Bible holiness. The chosen of God are going to be stirred in their inner man; the Spirit is going to convict and tug and pull – until believers are once again yearning for spiritual cleansing and deliverance from the power of sin.
- An Axe and a Fan
Matthew 3:10-12 says, ‘”And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the tree: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire…Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the barn; but he will burn up the chaff with unquencible fire…”
When John the Baptist prophesied concerning the first appearance of Christ, he saw Him coming with an axe in one hand and a fan in the other hand.
John did not see Christ coming with a bag of favors on His back (like the first coming), like some kind of divine Santa Claus. He was not coming to make mankind prosperous and successful. He was coming with an axe and a fan! Christ was going to appear in His house to purge it out!
To purge means “to cleanse, to get rid of, to carry away, that which is impure.” The fan is the Holy Spirit, whose mighty wind is about to blow away all the chaff of lukewarmness and sin out of God’s holy temple.
The axe is the convicting power of God’s Word going forth under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
I call this the final shaking. What will happen when God begins to shake everything that can be shaken? When all false values tumble and earthly dreams and plans lose their meaning?
If we are honest with ourselves, we lived unholy lives. We are not prepared for the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ. There is so much temptation and sins are abounding. There is even no conviction of sin among us. We lived in the dark ages similar to the 400 years of spiritual darkness before the first coming of Christ. But God sent his only begotten and a light broke through the darkness. Jesus lived a life of holiness, manifesting God’s character and convicting people everywhere. His conviction was so heavy that Peter even said, ‘Depart from me, for I am an unclean man.’ But God allowed him to be crucified among those that are unholy. He was punished along with the greatest sinners at Golgotha. Why? Because of our unholiness that needs to be judged. He was judged for our unholiness. So that when Jesus was resurrected, we can be holy again. He gives us the Holy Spirit that enables us to depend on God to awaken the spiritual deadness in us. The Holy Spirit was also given to be convicted of our state of life. Jesus, when He was resurrected make it possible for a revival of holiness, a revival of spirituality and a revival of conviction. This was seen in the book of Acts. So today, it is not hopeless because Christ has already died and has made holiness possible through the Holy Spirit to prepare us for the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ. You just need to be honest concerning your state of life and coming to Jesus in humble adoration and ask him to revive you and prepare you for His coming.
