Luke 12:40

0:00 Good evening, church. So good to be with you here tonight. First of all, Mark and Mandy. Mandy's not here right now. Mark just left. You should get to know them. Mark was the very first person that Aaron and I met when we visited Louisville for the first time. We spent three and a half hours with him, which if you know Mark, that's exactly how much time Mark needs to get to ask all of his hundred questions, getting to know you. And he had a great and marvelous plan for our life. I'm just commending you, Mark, as you're walking in. But I don't know if we would be here if it wasn't for that providential time with Mark in 2017 at Southern Seminary.

0:38 And so, brother, it's good to have you back. Appreciate you so much. Our passage today is Luke chapter 12, verse 40. Let me read it for us. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Have you ever heard anyone predict an exact date when Jesus would return? For me, the prediction that I remember the most, actually a series of them, came from a radio personality called Harold Camping.

1:10 Some of you older saints may remember Harold Camping. Around early 1990s, he was predicting that Jesus was going to return around September 1994 using a series of calculations around the Bible's chronological events. Needless to say, Jesus did not return in 1994. Poor Harold faded a little bit into the sunset until 2005 when he wrote a book called Time Has an End.

1:41 And in that book, he announced that the rapture would happen on May 21st, 2011. And he predicted that six months later, on October 21st, 2011, the world would come to an end. There was a massive media campaign, newspaper articles, advertisements, billboards were purchased announcing this date. And these dates in 2011 came and went, and alas, Jesus did not return, and we are still here. The world did not end. Shortly thereafter, Camping finally predicted that he should stop making predictions, And they were erroneous, and it was futile to try and calculate the second coming of Christ.

2:23 Again, our passage today, Luke 12, 40, says that you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Maybe Harold did not have that verse underlined in his Bible. I think the main point of the passage is this. Friends, Jesus is returning, so Christians, be ready. Jesus is returning. Christians, let's be ready. My devotional tonight has seven very short points, very short points on how Christians should live lives that are ready for the coming of Christ.

2:57 The first three points are going to be warnings, and the last four are exhortations. Warning number one, Christian, don't be lazy. Don't be lazy. Laziness is the opposite of readiness. For those of you who enjoy sports like I do, perhaps you can recall some of your favorite athletes showing up to training camp overweight and out of shape, and the disappointment that would reverberate throughout training camp that so-and-so showed up 30 pounds overweight. He was lazy.

3:29 He didn't come ready for action. Why do Christians get lazy? Well, friends, frankly, we are living 2,000 years after Jesus said these very words. And I think it's easy for Christians to recognize that fact and become lazy in how we prepare for Christ's return. Second, I think our flesh actually desires comfort. And that often means putting forth minimal effort. Maybe some of you can recall gym class.

4:00 And it was the mandatory 100-meter race or the mile. And you knew before you even stepped up to the starting line that you weren't even going to try. That's a fleshly desire or lack of desire. I'm not even going to try. Why would I even try? I think our flesh desires comfort. Laziness as Christians manifests in a number of different ways. But here are three quick ones worth considering. I think there's apathy. We read certain things in the Bible. Maybe we even sense conviction over particular sins.

4:33 We think about it for a few moments. And then we move on. And we think about it little going from there. I think that's apathy. think that's laziness. There's nominalism. Nominal Christians want the benefits of being a Christian without putting in the work of following Jesus by picking up their cross daily and following him. They sit in services, they listen to God's word preached, and they avoid community given its inherent accountability and the work they're going to have to do putting feet to faith so friends nominalism is laziness i think there's also procrastination procrastinating christians commit to fight a specific sin or pursue a particular spiritual discipline they put that off they put off having an important evangelistic conversation because they'll get to it soon just not today i think of these various forms of laziness this is the one that's most prevalent in my life.

5:33 I don't think I'm at risk of being a nominal Christian. I think I have some apathy, but man, procrastination, that is the one that I struggle with most. Perhaps most of us in this room on a Sunday night service at Third Avenue Baptist Church, we're not procrastinating this gathering, but there's other things in our lives that perhaps we're procrastinating. Maybe there's a specific spiritual discipline that you want to pursue and you just keep putting it off. It's December 7. Something's come to mind. Maybe I'll put it on the list for 2026's resolutions.

6:06 Don't do that. Don't be apathetic. Don't procrastinate. Warning number two, don't be weird. Don't be weird. This is under the category of prognostication. So it's worth noting that a certain segment of Christians get caught up in weird things like billboards with Jesus is returning on this date. I actually think watching sometimes college sports on Saturday mornings and some dude standing there saying, like, Jesus is returning, don't go to hell, return and repent now, I kind of think that's weird.

6:39 I think that person should go and build relationships with people and tell them about Jesus and read the Bible. I don't know many people that come to Christ because they saw a weird billboard on a college sports show. And I'm working in the missions world. There's some weird people. mostly in the donor camp there's actually people that believe that they can usher in the coming of christ they've got groups of people and checklists i met with a donor one time who told me that he was going to do everything he could to see jesus come back by 2033 which he thought 2 000 year anniversary of the ascension we can get all the remaining unreached language groups reached with the gospel once that final person from that last group comes to faith jesus is coming back that's what I'm giving all my money to. He didn't want to give to us because we were like, I don't think that's in the Bible. I think he was weird. So Christians, don't be weird. Warning number three,

7:40 don't be legalistic. Legalists are in the ditch on the other side of the lazy people. So I think lazy people fall into one ditch, legalists fall in another. Let's think of the Pharisees. They were so busy preparing for the return, not the return, but the first coming of the king, that they missed him completely. That's what was happening in our reading this morning in Luke chapter 17. They came up with all of these laws, trying to make themselves even more ready for the coming of the Messiah, and they asked him literally about the coming of the kingdom. And here the king is right in front of them. Do you see the irony? I think it's ironic when Christians are legalists. So don't be a legalistic Christian, getting caught up in your own personal code of conduct so much so that you lose out on the daily joy found in waiting for Jesus. As Christians, we're called to eagerly and joyfully anticipate the return of Christ.

8:45 I don't know if I've ever met a joyful legalist. Have you? It looks miserable. They don't look ready. Now for four exhortations. Number one, repent and follow Jesus. Perhaps you're here today and you've been putting off making a decision to follow Jesus and repent of your sins. I think this is something that people of all various ages think of. I'm looking at this side of the room. our younger people, don't put off following Jesus.

9:18 Don't do it. We have no idea when Jesus is going to return. I remember having a conversation with Avery, and she was acknowledging the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. I believe, I believe, I believe. And I was like, just follow Jesus. And she's like, I don't, I don't, I'm going to put it off. There's stubbornness there. And I said, we could literally be hit by another car on this highway, having this conversation, and you're dead. What are you going to say to Jesus?

9:49 I was going to get to it? Don't procrastinate. She procrastinated another year, and then the Lord broke through, and she's following Jesus. Friends in this room, do not put off following Jesus. He is returning at a time we do not expect. It could be this evening. We don't know what will happen this very night leaving this room. What will you do with Jesus? It is the most urgent question you will ever answer. Follow Jesus. Number two, friends, watch your life and doctrine. Let's do it individually. Fight sin. Don't put it off. Greg gave us a very important word this morning about the temptation to wallow in brokenness over sin.

10:36 My heart resonated with a loud amen. But that warning that Greg gave us this morning should not be taken as license to not take our sins seriously. Part of being ready for the return of Christ is fighting our sin daily and pursuing holiness. We're not broken for weeks, But Jesus took your sin seriously enough. That sin that you're putting off, he took it seriously enough that he died for it.

11:07 So don't be apathetic about it. Take it seriously. Fight your sin. Be disciplined. I'm concerned that for some of us, our only form of Bible intake each week is gathering in this room, listening to the word preached. The only time in prayer is corporately in this room. Now remember the warning not to be legalistic. But also remember the warning not to be lazy.

11:41 Our laziness points out the dangers of legalism as an excuse for our laziness. Am I the only one that does that? Certain things are warned and my laziness is like trying to do like legal courtroom battle in my head. That doesn't apply to you. Scripture, Scripture, Scripture, Scripture. Really at the bottom line, I'm just lazy. That's not being ready. Being ready for Jesus means committing to pursue him through his word.

12:12 He's given us his word on how to be ready. Read it. Like eat it up. Gather with your church. Don't put it off. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but keep coming. Corporately, how do we watch our life and our doctrine? Well, we do it corporately by taking our church covenant seriously. I want to just point out some words from our church covenant. If you have your bulletin from this morning, it's right there. Think about the action words in our covenant.

12:44 We will walk together. Action. We will exercise a Christian care and watchfulness over each other. Exercising. Action. We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves. Action. We will participate in each other's joys and bear each other's burdens and sorrows. Action. Go on and on. Friends, read our church covenant and recognize that being ready corporately means taking our church covenant seriously.

13:18 And it isn't just by reading our church covenant together. It's by living these things out in our life. So perhaps take a fellow member of this church out this week and walk through these things and ask them questions. As Greg reminded us of this morning, we are a God-appointed embassy of the king of the universe. The king of the universe ordained this body. It's amazing. The question that I asked myself in preparation for tonight under that kind of heading was, do I take my commitment to this gathering as serious every week, morning and evening, as I do getting ready for the next sports game?

14:01 Some of you don't know what I'm talking about. Others of you do. We are serious about our Louisville Cardinals. We know where we're going to meet, where we're going to eat, what time we're going to leave for the game. We've got text threads going on. those are fun things to do, but man, my heart was so convicted of like, man, rather than caring about the starting five for the basketball team, like, do I know what passage Greg is preaching of the morning before he preaches? Maybe I'm the only one convicted by that. All right, I'll keep moving.

14:39 Number three, share the gospel. Share the gospel. Don't put it off. Some of us are putting off a hard conversation. Don't put it off. Jesus is coming back. Be ready. Parents, it's Christmas time. Maybe you haven't done family worship for yet another year. Open up a book. Open up the Bible.

15:10 Evangelize your children. Don't put it off. Do it with your family. Do it with your older family. Do it with friends you haven't been in touch with and you're putting off getting in touch with them. Just do it. Be teachable. You don't know how to have an evangelistic conversation? I would encourage you to ask someone from across campus how they lead an evangelistic Bible study. Julianne, wherever you are, friend, thank you so much for offering to give everybody your evangelistic Bible study materials for Christmas. Now, none of us have an excuse. You want to have a Christmas evangelistic Bible study?

15:44 Our friends at across campus, our fellow members, can teach you how to do that. They do it incredibly well. Share the gospel here, and then do it afar. Consider doing it afar. Mark and Mandy were two of the most fruitful Christians I've ever met in my entire life. For the five months we got to member together, it was like every other baptism. How do you come to faith? Well, Mark and Mandy Zabo. It got to be a point where before someone said, I would whisper to Aaron, I bet you it's Mark and Mandy. And what it wasn't Mark and Mandy, most often it was Brian Spears. And what did this church do with some of its most evangelistic members? We sent them out like an arrow to another part of the world and said, go and do likewise. Friends, some of you, for some of you, getting ready for the return of Christ is finally having a conversation with Alex Duke about that gnawing in your heart that you aspire to go and serve somewhere overseas as a missionary. Go have

16:45 that conversation with Alex Duke. Tell him you want to do that. Final exhortation, exhortation number for. Let's pray for Jesus to return. Again, we heard this morning that God has sovereignly ordained that he will use the prayers of his children, us, individually. And then again, as Greg reminded us this morning, corporately, he ordains that he will use our prayers in his sovereign plan. So we should pray for Jesus to return.

17:24 I love that we've added that into our Sunday evening rhythms. Jesus, come quickly, return. But understand that the flip side of the coin of praying for Jesus' return is to be ready for Jesus' return. So again, friends, don't be lazy, don't be legalistic, don't be weird. Let's corporately, individually follow hard after Christ, share the gospel, continue to gather together as a local church, and pray together that Jesus will return.

17:58 Let's pray now toward that end. God, we know that your word is true. Every dot and iota of your word is true. And we know throughout your Old Testament promises were made that were kept in the pages of the New Testament 2,000 years ago. We know that there are promises made that are yet to be completely fulfilled.

18:33 And one of those promises is the return of Christ. So Lord, we pray for the return of Jesus. We pray that we would be found faithful. We do not want to be found like the Pharisees, so busy with our rules that we can't see what's going on right in front of our eyes. Would you find us faithful, Lord, when you return? It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.