Get Ready - Be Ready - Stay Ready - Luke chapter 12 - Episode #159

Well, hello there! Welcome to the podcast!

As mentioned in episode #158, we're taking a brief break from the Every Book A Promise series so that we can look at a passage that the Lord put on my heart to share with you. A couple of weeks ago I covered this passage on my other podcast (The Prayer Podcast with Jan L. Burt) and I mentioned on that show that I'd be sharing about Luke chapter 12 and Matthew chapter 24 over here on The Burt (Not Ernie) Show. 

This has been in the works for a bit, and I say that in order to *hopefully* prevent anyone from thinking that this content is to make a point or is in response to or directed at any one person in particular. IT ISN'T. I promise. Now that that's out of the way and there's no reason to wonder if this is a pointy stick being jibbed and jabbed at someone, let's get down to it!

 

This podcast is now playing on the Edifi app. This is episode number 159.

 

Luke 12:35-56

(read aloud in the NLT)

35 “Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 as though you were waiting for your master to return from the wedding feast. Then you will be ready to open the door and let him in the moment he arrives and knocks. 37 The servants who are ready and waiting for his return will be rewarded. I tell you the truth, he himself will seat them, put on an apron, and serve them as they sit and eat! 38 He may come in the middle of the night or just before dawn.[d] But whenever he comes, he will reward the servants who are ready.

39 “Understand this: If a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would not permit his house to be broken into. 40 You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.”

41 Peter asked, “Lord, is that illustration just for us or for everyone?”

42 And the Lord replied, “A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. 43 If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. 44 I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. 45 But what if the servant thinks, ‘My master won’t be back for a while,’ and he begins beating the other servants, partying, and getting drunk? 46 The master will return unannounced and unexpected, and he will cut the servant in pieces and banish him with the unfaithful.

47 “And a servant who knows what the master wants, but isn’t prepared and doesn’t carry out those instructions, will be severely punished. 48 But someone who does not know, and then does something wrong, will be punished only lightly. When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.

Jesus Causes Division

49 “I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning! 50 I have a terrible baptism of suffering ahead of me, and I am under a heavy burden until it is accomplished. 51 Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other! 52 From now on families will be split apart, three in favor of me, and two against—or two in favor and three against.

53 

‘Father will be divided against son     and son against father; mother against daughter     and daughter against mother; and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law     and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.’[e]”

54 Then Jesus turned to the crowd and said, “When you see clouds beginning to form in the west, you say, ‘Here comes a shower.’ And you are right. 55 When the south wind blows, you say, ‘Today will be a scorcher.’ And it is. 56 You fools! You know how to interpret the weather signs of the earth and sky, but you don’t know how to interpret the present times.

 

In the NLT, the header for verses 35-48 reads “Be Ready for the Lord’s Coming” and in the Amplified it reads “Be In Readiness”.

Be in readiness.

Live in a state of perpetual readiness.

Now, this is no easy task, no small order we find here. 

 

Be dressed and ready for service. Keep your lamps burning. The oil often referenced in the Bible refers to the Holy Spirit. Be so filled with the Spirit of the Living God, be much with the Lord to put it very frankly, because that Holy Spirit oil is what will keep your lamp burning. No oil? No fire in the lamp. And if the lamp is not lit and burning, then we are not obeying the Lord Jesus and His command to us here in Luke chapter 12. If you do not spend time, and ample time, in the Word of God and with Him in prayer and thanksgiving