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The Book of Luke, Stewardship, Part I - Lesson 163
Luke 12:35-48, Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; 36And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. 37Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. 38And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. 39And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. 40Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not. 41Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? 42And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? 43Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 44Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. 45But 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; 46The 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. 47And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
If a student of the Bible were asked to categorize the 12th chapter of the book of Luke one word would come to mind and that word is stewardship.
Stewardship is the office of a steward.
The word steward has in it the word “ward” which means a keeper.
A warden is a keeper of prisoners.
Adam was a warden of the garden of Eden for God said in:
Gen.2:15, And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
The sense used there by the word keep is to watch, to guard, to protect, to attend to, to observe, to preserve and to save.
The dictionary definition of the word “steward” in its simplest form means a keeper of a room.
In a broader sense a steward for a rich man is employed to manage the domestic concerns, superintend the other servants, collect the rents or income and to keep the accounts.
In scripture a steward is a minister of Christ, whose duty is to dispense the provisions of the Gospel, to preach its doctrines and administer its ordinances.
But a steward is to be a keeper.
A steward is not an innovator, he is not a creator, he is not to stray into something other than what the Master instructs to keep, for he is simply a keeper.
He is not to rearrange the room, to add or subtract from the room, but he is to keep the room so that the master can enjoy the room in the way he organized it for his pleasure.
I Cor. 4:1,2, 1Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
Every gift of God is received in trust for God’s use.
Man is not an owner, but a trustee, managing another’s goods and estates.
God is the one original owner of all things.
We have seen this requirement for stewardship in verses 1-12 where the disciples were instructed to be good stewards of the gospel.
The gospel in a sense is the room that the steward is to keep.
It is already set and needs no rearranging, no additions to or subtractions from.
The disciple must make good use of the gospel by boldly living and proclaiming God’s gospel, not a gospel of his own making.
And then the Lord in verses 13‑34 addressed the stewardship of possessions.
Our preoccupation must not be with material things, but with true “life.”
We need not worry about our physical life, but we should use things to minister to men’s needs now, which is laying up treasure for ourselves in heaven.
A steward does not own anything of his own but manages that which the Master provides.
Therefore to worry about that which the master provides as if he will not provide it, is not a mark of a good steward.
In these verses which we have read today the Lord Jesus Christ instructs his disciples in the stewardship of time.
He instructs as to how we are to view and use the time which remains until he returns, for it is required of a steward that he be found faithful.
The first thing that the Lord brings to our mind is the requirement of the steward to be a good waiter.
This is something that in our fast paced world we are not very good at for we expect things to come our way when we want it and not a minute later.
Go to a restaurant and you expect to be waited on by a waiter or waitress that will provide your every need the moment that need is known.
That waiter is good at waiting on your desires and will be rewarded depending upon how well those needs are met.
But over and over in the Bible we see that men and women of faith are called upon to wait.
All of those named in the “hall of faith” in Hebrews 11 had to wait for the promised blessings of God.
Their wait was even longer than we would like to consider — they were still waiting when they died and they are still waiting.
Jesus calls upon His disciples to wait, for although He will return to the earth, to rule over it as King, it may be a considerable period of time before this occurs.
But this passage implies to the disciples that there will be a wait and we know from history that the church has already been waiting 2,000 years for Christ’s return.
So, if in fact we are required to wait, then we need to learn how to be good waiters.
Jesus Christ does not leave us hanging in this but instructs us in how to be a good waiter.
Luke 12:35-37, Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; 36And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
The first “how” to be a good waiter is to be dressed for work.
Be prepared for work! Be ready for action.
Let your loins be girded about
You are not ready for action when you still have your pajamas on at 10:00 o’clock in the morning.
In the vernacular of Jesus’ day it had to do with girding up a robe to the height of your loins, that area around your waist so that the robe did not get in the way of work.
A servant could hardly work with a flowing robe in the way, so it would be tucked into the belt, so that the servant could work with ease and be ready to wait on his master.
In our day Jesus would have said, have your sleeves rolled up and be ready for the work.
Don’t come to the work day in your Sunday clothes but come to the work in clothes suited to the type of work that is called for.
I believe it would not be stretching this command to include all preparations necessary for serving God.
What about your fitness, what about your education, what about your discipline.
Are you growing as a Christian that you might serve more effectively?
The second “how” to be a good waiter is for the waiter to keep his lamp burning.
Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;
At our house if there is anyone out and expected to return while it is dark the entrance door lights must be left on.
Even if their expected return is at 11PM the lights are turned on when darkness comes so that there will be light to find their way if perchance they return at 9PM or even earlier.
It is a social faux pax on our part for anyone expected to come to our house to come there without the lights on.
This is the message that Christ gives his disciples.
Be ready for the master with light to light his way regardless of the time.
The servant is to be light and not darkness.
The good servant would listen for the sound of his master’s return, perhaps a dog barking in the distance, perhaps the sound of the horse or wagon, and would have his light already lit, so that he could illuminate and thereby make his way easy.
The servant is to discern the times.
So, too, with the disciple who awaits the Lord’s return.
One’s waiting should be spent making all the preparations needed, so that the Lord’s return is not a surprise, and so that we can be a part of the return.
This is what it means to occupy till he comes.
Make preparations and be at the ready regardless of when he returns.
So waiting on the Lord is a busy time, not a time of lethargy and sloth.
The third “how” to be a good waiter is to be like a devoted servant, who eagerly awaits his master’s return, as if he were coming from a wedding banquet.
Jesus did not suggest that the master was himself married, but only that he attended the banquet.
It was a wedding banquet which is normally a joyous occasion and many times calls for a lengthy stay and therefore there is a possible delay in returning.
The mood, then, of the master’s arrival would be joyful and festive.
And a joyful and festive mood should be returned by a joyous and festive servant with lights ablaze and doors opened immediately.
This is the picture of a servant who is eager to meet his master, and to engage and share in the master’s joy and happiness.
The eager servant would be ready, able to immediately open the door to the master, not one who had to be awoke by persistent knocking and considered it a bother to be disturbed from his lethargy and sloth.
So we wait for the Lord’s return.
What do we do?
We prepare for the Lords’ service, we keep ourselves in the light, and because of this we therefore look for his return with expectancy and joy.
In verses 37 and 38 Jesus promises “blessedness” for those who wait for His return as He has described above: |