Luke 12:35-40

When Jesus comes again, He is returning for those who are earnestly waiting. It’s not an idle waiting, but staying true to God’s purpose in our lives. It’s staying busy with the tasks at hand, while keeping watch with focused determination.

Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week.. Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First……. #boomchallenge

Your Bibles this morning and turn if you would to Luke chapter 12, Luke chapter 12 verses 35 to 40 this morning regarding when Jesus Christ comes again and I got news for you.
If the world is looking at the Bible as something no longer to be taken seriously.
If the message of the Christian is to not be listened to or uh received, then how much more we know this from the scripture?
How much more in the last days do we understand that when Jesus Christ comes again?
The Bible warns us that there will be people not believing in his return.
Jesus in fact announces that in various ways.
So as we march through Luke’s Gospel, we are now in chapter 12 verses 35 to 40.
And we’re looking at when Jesus Christ comes again, what does it all mean?
And what is it that Jesus Christ is teaching in all of the Books of the New Testament church?
You might want to jot this down in all of the books of the New Testament.
All but four of them teach regarding the return of Christ and what is called biblical eschatology.
That is the study of prophetic events regarding Jesus Christ in his return.
And the end time scenario, one out of every 25 verses of the New Testament refers to Jesus Christ and either his coming back to Earth in his second coming or the rapture of the church in his great appearing one out of 25 verses of the New Testament.
And Luke eight, 18 verse eight, Jesus said, when the son of man returns, will he find faith on the earth?
And those are two very, very vital things to keep in mind. Christ is coming back.
Jesus said, I’m coming back, the apostles announced that he’s going to return.
But Jesus warns that in the last days when he comes back, will he find faith on the earth?
Will he find faith in your hearts?
And one of the great things to attack more than ever before is the promise of Christ’s return.
People will mock it, make light of it and you may have various views about it.
I understand that this is Calvary Chapel. People come from all kinds of churches with all kinds of backgrounds.
You may have a view that Jesus is coming back at the end of the tribulation period.
Maybe you believe he’s coming back in the middle or maybe you believe he’s coming back before even today, that he’s coming back, no matter what your view is, you cannot deny the fact that the Bible teaches he’s coming back.
Christ is coming back now personally, I am a pre millennial theologian that is, I believe in the pre millennial view of scripture.
I believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible, which causes me to believe in what is called a pre tribulation rapture view.
If you don’t hold that view, that’s OK. But we’ll explain it to you on the way up.
Maybe if it happens today on how you might have missed it.
But it is our blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
As we look to the coming of the Lord Jesus verse 35 chapter 12, Jesus said, let your waste be girded and your lamps burning and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master when he will return from the wedding that when he comes and knocks, they will open to him immediately blessed.
Are those servants whom the master when he comes will find him watching.
Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat and will come and serve them.
And if he should come in the second watch or come in the third watch and find them so blessed are those servants.
But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.
Therefore, verse 40 you also be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour that you do not expect strong words by Jesus Bible students.
Number one this morning. First point when Jesus Christ comes again, mark it down, found in verses 35 to 36 he’s gonna be returning for those who are waiting over and over again through scripture.
The Bible announces that he’s gonna return for those who are waiting.
And so we want to ask this question this morning.
Are we waiting for him returning for those who are waiting? Number one, waiting earnestly jot that down, would you?
It is essential that you and I as Christians be waiting for Christ earnestly.
It says in verse 35 Jesus speaks and he says, let your waste be girded and your lamps burning.
This is a powerful picture that Christ paints here in the East, in the Middle East men wore in those days long flowing robes for you to have your waist girded about.
What does that mean? You would have a sash or a belt, we’ll call it a belt and you would take that, that gown.
And when you had listen, when you had something to do or when you were uh ready to respond to uh something urgent, then you would take that robe, you would bring it up and pull it under the belt.
Are you with me? You just feed it through and you let it hang over to one side and it comes down to about the knees and you are now ready to move.
You’re ready to work, you’re ready to plow or whatever you’re doing or you’re ready to run whenever someone in the Middle East, Middle East period.
In fact, remember the, the parable of the prodigal son, when the Bible says that when the old man, the father saw his son coming, that he ran after his son to greet him, what you don’t read there is that the old man would have picked up his robe and girded about his waist and then ran to his boy, Jesus is saying concerning his coming again, that we are to have our waste girded about and not only that our lamps burning.
So number one, we are ready, the things that would encumber us as believers today, we have removed those things out of the way and we’re living in a sense of expectancy regarding Christ’s return.
Very, very Crittle criddle. It’s critical that you understand that if I would say it clearly, it’s critical that we be earnestly expecting Christ and be ready so very, very important as that.
So that means that we’re gonna be waiting and earnestly waiting with a great intensity and care.
This is a key issue that for the believer in the last days, this is gonna separate those who are pretend believers or maybe they’re not serious, maybe they’re religious, but they’re not born again.
What will be one of the telling signs of a last day’s believer.
Jesus says you will have your waist girded and secondly, your lamps will be burning.
This word lamp burning is an amazing thing because it is not a torch that you would maybe suspect it’s a little pocket.
I’m gonna say pocket lamp. It’s a handheld lamp. It’s very small.
Uh, they have unearthed literally tens of thousands of these throughout the Middle East, throughout Israel.
It’s a little tiny cruise. You would call it or a bowl and uh it’s uh like a sauce bowl and you would have a wick that floats in it.
Have you ever seen those kind of uh, candles that has a floating wick?
That’s the principle is exactly like that you were to have that little personal lamp burning and so you’re to be dressed to go and you have your lamp burning.
Now, what Jesus said was a very real practical announcement. Everyone understood that uh they could relate to that.
We would say today, maybe, uh you would have your jogging or your work clothes on and you would have your gas tank full of gas.
You’d have your car fueled up waiting for that urgent moment.
And so if you saw a man with his waist girted about, you knew that he was engaged in something very serious that he was about to do something.
And if you saw him holding a lamp that meant that he was ready to do something 24 7 that night.
And day, day and night did not affect, listen, church did not affect his, uh being ready.
He was ready in season and out of season he was ready to go.
And Jesus is saying church be like that because you don’t know when he’s coming, your lamp should be burning.
And uh one commentator wrote that if somebody were to live like this, listen, every where they’re at in the darkest of nights, there would be a glow about them, there would be a glow coming out of the house because everywhere that they would go, they would take that lamp with them.
It’s not a light that you set on a, on a candelabra or a light post.
It’s a lamp, it’s a burning light that you would take with you.
No doubt symbolizing the work of the Holy Spirit and the life of the believer.
It is the Holy Spirit’s job to have you and I be ready for Christ’s return.
But you and I have to be willing to have him do that work in our lives.
In first Peter chapter one, verse 13.
1st Peter 1 13, the Bible says, therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, tie up the loose ends of your mind.
Stop thinking about the things that don’t matter.
He said, be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
That is good news. When Christ comes, there is gonna be a magnitude of grace revealed that all of us who are born again will be found acceptable in Christ.
Isn’t that good news? Listen, people will struggle.
I don’t know if I’m a lamb or a sheep or a goat. What am I?
I don’t know if I’m gonna be ready or not. Oh, I hope I’m ready or not.
Listen, if you’re born again, the Holy Spirit’s job is to see to it that you are ready.
You and I are to be willing. Yes.
As we come to the end of this message, there are things that you and I need to be doing every day.
We’re to keep ourselves in the love of God and we’ll talk about that as we come to the conclusion.
But it is the Spirit’s job to prepare the bride, the church for his coming.
And so listen, those of you who are wondering, am I a sheep or am I a goat?
Am I gonna be in the right hand or on the left hand?
Am I gonna go to heaven or I’m gonna, am I gonna go to hell? Listen. Are you born again?
If you’re born again, you’re gonna make it. The Holy Spirit’s job is to get you to heaven.
And that’s why you and I go through trials. That’s why we go through difficulties.
And when we grow you, have you noticed that when we study the Bible that we wind up having uh the Lord bring about those Bible studies into our lives so that we live what we’re learning.
That’s the spirit’s job. He does that and you will be girding up the loins of your mind.
Peter said tying up the loose ends that could trip you up, get control.
Jesus is saying, Peter is saying of your mind and be thinking about his return.
You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs.
You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series. Just go to Jack Hibbs dot com.
That’s Jack Hibbs dot com. And for now let’s get back to our teaching.
Once again, here’s pastor Jack in Ephesians six verse 14, Paul said to the church at Ephesus stand there for having girded your waist with truth.
That belt that you put around your waist allowed you to go, allowed you to fight or allowed you to work or allowed you to be.
And the Bible says there in Ephesians that it’s God’s truth. So Jesus is saying, be ready.
Secondly, we wait with an uh earnest passion.
Secondly, effectively waiting, effectively that is that we are waiting with a great purpose and a meaning verse 36 you yourselves be like men who wait for their master when he will return from the wedding.
Effective waiting as a Christian, I’m to be waiting for the return of Christ.
But how am I to be waiting?
And Jesus says you’re to be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding.
What’s interesting about this church? You might want to mark it down, return from the wedding.
This implies that the master just got married. It’s kind of cool. Maybe you’ve already already thought about that.
But what’s beautiful about it is this watch this, the master has gone away to the wedding.
He’s now married when he returns, he ain’t coming home alone. He’s coming back with his bride.
What is the job of his servants?
Those that are waiting, they are to be fully equipped, fully prepared because he’s coming back and it is a glorious event.
Now, many scholars and I don’t wanna go off on this, but many scholars believe that what Jesus is teaching here is a reference to a second coming that the Lord is going to go and take his bride, the church up via the rapture into heaven and that he’s gonna come with his bride Revelation 19 back to earth in the second coming.
Who does he come to the nation of Israel? After the seven year tribulation period? He returns.
And who does he return with the book of Revelation chapter 19 says he comes with the bride of Christ.
You can think about that and chew on that if you’d like. It’s quite a beautiful thing.
The point is that he’s coming back and he’s to expect those to be ready.
And so they’re to be busy about their father’s business and staying busy in the things of God Christian regarding the task that God has given you and I to live is what we’re to be occupied with finishing that thing, completing that thing for Christ could come today.
What is it that God is calling you?
And I to do, we need to be faithful to do that thing.
So waiting effectively means that we’re going about doing what God has called us to do.
And I don’t want to see a show of hands.
But how many of you know what God has told you to do?
This is a, a tremendous question because if you and I don’t know, then we better find out quickly and that is fully incumbent upon you to find out for you.
I need to find out for me, God.
What do you want me to do for your kingdom and for your glory?
It’s not just our jobs, it’s not just our homes in these last days, Lord, what is it that you’ve called me to do?
And we need to be very serious about doing that in Matthew 24 46.
There, the Bible says, Jesus said it blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes finds him.
So doing assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.
And so if we believe Jesus is coming back, then we will be busy about our father’s business.
Amen is a serious thing. Now, you might be sitting here saying I’m kind of convicted about this.
I’ve been playing tiddly winks and, and, uh, Xbox and whatever the things are and I haven’t been doing much for God.
Ok, great. Put that stuff down.
You guys, we’re losing opportunities to reach people or we’re losing opportunities every day that goes by.
I don’t know how you think, but this is how I think.
In fact, Lisa will often tell me now just calm down.
But the day that goes by today that is, that is gone.
When we put our head down tonight, that day is lost forever.
And I want to ask myself every night when I lay down, Lord, how was this day invested for your glory?
And we need to do that thirdly, returning for those who are waiting, they’ll be expectantly waiting, waiting expectantly and this expectantly we get from verse 36 is a great anticipation and hope of his return.
Verse 36 goes on and says that when he comes and Knox, they may open to him note it immediately.
Two words that are used in the Greek language that speaks about time and timing circle him if you’d like.
It’s the word when that is a time word when and the word immediately, you can’t separate them.
Jesus says when he comes and he’s gonna knock those that are ready. They’re gonna open the door to him.
What later at the third knock.
The word means immediately meaning this, that in fact, the old English word is straight away.
The watch the moment Jesus is saying, the moment he comes and gets ready to knock.
Have you ever done this? You get ready to knock and the knuckle gets right on the door and the person opens the door kind of startles you.
Jesus is saying that’s how it’s gonna be when the Lord returns as though he’s going to knock the door of welcome opens up.
How can that be? How is that even possible? Because we are waiting expectantly.
The believer, the Christian is to live their life believing that Christ could return today.
Paul the Apostle lived his life like that every day he looked for Christ return expectantly.
Now I know this is a tough message before Christmas because you, you placed your order.
I want this, I want that little kids struggle with this.
I remember years ago our daughters saying because that night we would pray, Lord uh please come back tonight and find us ready.
And I remember Rebecca saying, but dad, tomorrow’s Christmas and a lot of adults are like that.
Oh God, come back. Yes, Jesus come back.
But Lord, I’m just a month away from getting my degree or Lord, yes, I I know you can come back.
But oh Lord, I’d love to have a wife, just a wife and just for a night, I’d like to have a wife, Lord, but we can be like that as, as adults and as humans.
Oh Lord come back. But no, no, no, we need to have our waste girted about with truth and our garments pulled up and ready to run.
Why? Because what he has in store for us is better than any Christmas package.
Anything that marriage could ever bring anything, everything. If the Lord came back today, you would be happy.
believe me, I, I hope all of you would be happy.
I’d hate to have any of you left behind here. But um it’s, it’s so amazing, expectantly waiting.
Uh when and immediately and that sense of expectancy is a very powerful thing because it anticipates something’s about to happen.
And that’s a good thing. Romans chapter eight verse 25 Romans 8 25 says regarding his appearing and it makes this announcement.
We eagerly wait for it with perseverance. The word perseverance is to not give up church.
Are you with me? Are you here this morning?
We are to be so believing that Jesus could return at any time that we have our eyes fixed upon his return expectantly expectantly.
Today, we would say pregnant with hope, pregnant with anticipation that Christ is coming.
If we live like that, the grip that this world has on us is really going to loosen up a lot.
You and I will not be so tempted to get involved in the things that the world says, come on, let’s do this.
Are your hands in places your hands ought not to be. Christ could return today.
Are your feet heading in directions that they ought not to be going? Jesus could come tonight.
Are you looking at things? Maybe it’s internet pornography or internet relationship or somebody at work?
And the Holy Spirit has been saying to you, knock this off, stop doing this. Christ could return today.
Think about that. How urgent and he said, well, that shouldn’t be my motive. My motive should be loving Jesus.
That’s why he should be ready. Hey, listen, I agree with you.
If you love Jesus, you will be watching waiting earnestly expecting his return.
If you believe in the word of God that teaches he could come at any time, it would keep you out a lot of grief.
You see. Well, pastor, what if I live my whole life waiting for him? And he doesn’t come.
You will have lived a Holy Godly dedicated life, the life that you and I are supposed to be living anyway.
Well, I wish I knew when he was coming.
What would you do if you had that information? I know what you would do.
You would either get so serious about the Lord’s return that you only have so much time left and you would go and tell all your neighbors and, and get the word of God out every which way everywhere.
And that would be a great thing.
Or you would say, you know what I’m going to goof off and, and horse around and get right up to the line and then I’ll repent.
And that by the way is a trap that you wouldn’t be able to redeem from, recover from expectantly watching, waiting at all times.
Pastor and bible teacher, Jack Hibbs here on real life radio with his message called when Jesus Christ comes again.
Part one. You know, this message is part of our series called The Gospel of Luke.
It’s a series on the book of Luke and the unveiling of Jesus Christ to this world.
And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
So good to see my friend, Pastor Jack sitting in the studio with me. Good to see you, my friend.
It’s great to see you again. Always.
So we had our buddy Charlie Kirk in to do a uh a happening now segment and um there’s a book coming out of that.
Tell me about it. Yeah, by the way, we’ve done it a few times that sit down with Charlie Kirk literally changed um the way that Charlie is identified publicly.
And what I mean by that is this Charlie said that wherever he goes now, uh they say, hey, you’re the, you’re the great reset guy.
Uh because listen, we have to date, I think, well, over 1.5 million views on that get together.
And um so yeah, is a great thing. What Charlie did.
He took 90 minutes and he, he uh brought it down to a pocket sized reference book and it is very, very powerful and everybody’s gonna want to get a copy.
And I would think of this to get a copy. You should probably get three or four copies.
They’re small enough and share them with coworkers because let me tell you the great reset, it’s happening now it’s actually underway.
And for those of you who don’t know about it, you need to get a copy of this book and uh learn about it because it’s here.
So this great reset, it’s gonna affect every single American, right? I mean, is that what we’re, we’re saying?
Well, David, you know what, you, the great reset, you’re not allowed to think like that anymore.
You, you can’t talk like that anymore. You’re, you’re not an American anymore more.
Uh We are one community in the world. It doesn’t matter if you’re Danish or American.
It doesn’t matter if you’re Peruvian or an American. We are now in the minds of the globalists.
Uh we are now one people, we are going to have soon one currency, digital currency and uh we’re gonna have one government and uh this is all people might think Jack, come on, you’re making it up, actually, not at all.
I’m not even telling you the half of it.
Uh It is well under way, Klaus Schwab the world Economic Forum, the World Health Organization, the European Union and the United Nations um have all coalesced to bring this about and up until recently, America’s been in the way, but now under this current administration, uh we are now going to acquiesce and that will be happening, happening shortly in Washington DC.
So here we come, the Christian response to the great reset by Charlie Kirk.
It’s our current featured resource and you can get it at Jack Hibbs dot com. That’s Jack Hibbs dot com.
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Our listeners visit us at Jack Hibbs dot com. That’s Jack Hibbs dot com.
Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio.
Wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word, we’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.