The Author of Life

I think Prince had it correct: We all struggle to make our way through life, and we all wonder about the afterworld. In Christian speak, the afterworld is the kingdom of God. That is the something else for which life was created: to find and enter the kingdom. How do you do that? Not by listening to Prince’s songs. We enter God’s kingdom by repenting of our sin and believing on his Son as our Lord and Savior. God’s giving to us begins with his giving us his Son. He sent his Son into the world to save us from the judgment to come by making atonement for our sins on the cross and rising from the grave for our justification. Christ Jesus takes our place in righteousness and in sin bearing. By his active and passive righteousness we are reconciled to God and we enter that life that really is life. This is the gift of God given to everyone who believes.

Luke 12:35-48

All of this brings us to a second question: How should we live life? Let’s assume that we are citizens in the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Now what? We’re not yet in heaven. How are we to live? The Lord provides us two lessons.

#StayWoke is a slogan and a hash tag. The phrase refers to what we used to call “consciousness.” It means to be aware of the cultural, racial, ethnic, and political realities of our time.

Our Lord teaches us to “stay woke” in a different, more important sense. Here, staying awake refers to being ready for the Master’s return (v. 35). Those who are awake when the Lord returns are the “blessed” or happy ones (v. 37). The master “will get ready, have them [the woke servants] recline at the table, then come and serve them” (v. 37). Isn’t that amazing? In the parable the master serves the servants!

This parable is really about “the Son of Man” coming back at an unexpected time (v. 40). The Lord Jesus will come again. He returns to get his servants and take them to his kingdom. He comes back to condemn those who do not trust and follow him. No man knows the day or the hour of his return, but when he comes the Lord of lords will in some indescribable sense serve the servants who have been awake and waiting for his return.

To “stay woke” in the Christian sense means to actively watch and wait for our Lord’s second coming. Titus 2:13 calls the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ “the blessed hope.” The promise of the Lord’s coming is our happy hope.

For those experiencing unhappiness right now, what are you hoping will make you happy? Where are you seeking happiness? Jesus just told us life does not consist in the abundance of possessions, life is worth more than our possessions, and worrying does not add to our life. Instead, God intends us to use our life to seek his kingdom. It’s there, in that kingdom, that God has stored our happiness. This is why the New Testament so often tells us that our joy is connected to Christ’s coming. If we only live for joy on this earth, then we find ourselves perpetually unhappy.

Why should we live this life in anticipation of that day? Second Timothy 4:8 tells us, “There is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me, but to all those who have loved his appearing.” If we love his appearing and look for that day, then when he comes he will reward us with the crown of righteousness, and joy will flood our souls. The happy ones are those who are waiting for Christ, watching for the Master’s arrival with diligence.

When we say, “stay woke,” we don’t mean sit around daydreaming, looking in the stars and zoning out. While we watch and wait for the Lord’s coming, we must also “stay on our grind.” That means we must do the work the Lord has given us.

The key verses are 43-44. The Lord’s teaching just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it? When Jesus comes and finds us being faithful stewards doing his will, then he will set us over all his possessions. If we are found faithful with the little of this world and life, then he will make us faithful with the many things in the next world and life (Matt 25:21). But the unfaithful steward will be condemned (vv. 45-47). We can’t think we’re Christ’s servants while refusing to do Christ’s work. God’s condemnation of that servant will be severe.

There’s a difference between an unfaithful servant and an ignorant servant (v. 48). The ignorant still receives a beating, a “light beating” compared to what the unfaithful servant receives, but it’s still a beating.

Here’s the principle: The knowledge of God’s will is a trust, a stewardship. The more you know of God’s will, the more you are required to do (v. 48). This suggests we must listen to God’s word eagerly. We must listen actively and expectantly. We do not wish to be like the man James describes, the man who looks into the mirror of God’s word then turns away forgetting what he saw, failing to do what he heard (Jas 1:23). We wish to be hearers and doers of the word. We do not wish to be stony ground hearers or hearers from whom ravens snatch the word of God from our hearts. So we must obediently apply God’s word in our lives.

What has God taught you about his will for you? What has the Lord called you to do? Are you doing it? Are you doing it knowing that he is coming again and he is bringing his reward with him?

So in this life we must not only stay woke, we must also stay on our grind. We must pray, “Command what you will, Lord, and grant what you command.”

Luke 12:49–13:9

We’ve considered two questions so far: What is life? How should we live life? This brings us to our final question: What will we face in life? That’s a critical question. Many people don’t live life as they ought because they’re overwhelmed, surprised, or preoccupied with the things they face in life. They get caught up, caught off guard, or caught sleeping.

The Lord turns his attention to describing the times. He was, of course, describing his own time, but not much has really changed since then. These words apply to our time as well. The Lord warns us about these trials so we are not overwhelmed, distracted, or discouraged by them.

The first trial we will face is distress. The Lord spoke of his own distress in verses 49-50. He’s referring to the fire and baptism of the cross and all the suffering that goes with it. That’s why he was distressed: death was closing in on him.

But he also warns of our distress (vv. 51-53). If we follow the Lord Jesus, we may find ourselves divided from loved ones who don’t follow him. In that sense the Lord brings a sword of division. Following Jesus may cost you your family. That is distressing, but it’s worth it.

The second trial we will face is hypocrisy. The Lord preached to religious people who could look at the sky and tell you the weather, but they could not look at their present times or at Jesus and tell you what God was doing. Jesus rebukes them as “hypocrites” (v. 56).

Why call them “hypocrites”? A hypocrite is someone who pretends to have religious belief and virtue but doesn’t. The fact they didn’t know the will and work of God proved they didn’t know God himself.

Right now there are many professing pastors who can tell you all kinds of things about business, psychology, politics, and so on, but they can’t tell you where to find John 3:16 even when you say, “John 3:16.” And there are a lot of professing Christians who claim to know God but can’t tell you much about Jesus or what he demands. Our challenge is to avoid being one of them. We must inspect our hearts for any measure of hypocrisy. We should ask the Lord to prevent us from praising him with our lips while our hearts are far from him. Let us ask him for grace to praise him with our hearts first and also with the fruit of our lips.

A third trial we will face is strife inside the church. That’s what we see with the lawsuits in verses 57-59. In our strife we’re tempted to appeal to secular and ungodly authority rather than judge righteously among ourselves. Paul addressed the same problem with the Corinthians (1 Cor 6:1-7).

Haven’t some people turned away from the local church and away from Christ because they’ve experienced strife in the church? They tell you of their hurts. They tell you of their difficulty trusting. My point isn’t to deny that such hurts take place. They do happen, and they really hurt. My point is that, by telling you of such strife, we won’t be surprised when it happens. And because you’re not surprised you won’t be so offended that you stop waiting and working with Christ’s return in mind. When strife comes, may we leave our gifts at the altar and pursue reconciliation (see Matt 5:23-24).

Then, fourth, we will face disasters. In Luke 13:1 some people asked Jesus about the Galileans who were killed by Pilate and had their blood mingled with their sacrifices. In verse 4 Jesus mentions the eighteen who were killed by a tower that fell in Siloam.

It’s easy to look at tragedy and doubt God’s goodness, to see tragedy as absurd. It doesn’t make sense to us. If we’re not watching, waiting, and working, we could be overwhelmed.

But in verses 3 and 5 the Lord gives us one purpose of disaster. It’s not the only purpose, but it’s an important one for survivors. The Lord allows these tragedies as a reminder to repent. The natural disaster communicates a spiritual demand: repent or perish. We could all die in an unexpected instant just as these people did. The only way to be prepared for that possibility is to be repentant before the Lord. Why think that only sufferers need to repent? Survivors need to as well. Martin Luther wrote that when Jesus said “Repent,” he meant repent and keep on repenting. We need to constantly turn from the brokenness of a sin-stricken world to our sin-atoning Lord. Suffering and tragedy invite us to come to the Lord.

Finally, while we stay woke and stay on our grind, we will face judgment. The parable of the fig tree symbolizes religious people in Jesus’s day. They were given opportunity to produce fruit. They were only worth something if they did produce fruit. A good tree produces good fruit, but if it doesn’t, it will be cut down.

The Lord is being patient. He gives more time. He waits for his servants to bear fruit. But he will not always wait. He will not always be patient. One day he will inspect us for fruit. The question is: Will we be fruit bearing, or will we be fruitless?

The life we have been given is not that long. It’s really a commercial spot for the life that is to come. The life we’ve been given is a stewardship entrusted to us. We should not use this life to store up treasure in this world, but instead we should send treasure ahead to glory. We are to be rich toward God in our service to him and to one another. That’s what life is for. That is how we get through this thing called life. It’s how we lay hold of that life that really is life.