PENTECOST 12
August 15/16, 2010
Pastor Timothy J. Spaude
Text: Luke 12:32-40

“DO NOT BE AFRAID!”
With your eyes on the kingdom…
1. You’ll keep your heart in focus.
2. You’ll always stand ready.

Luke 12:32-40 (NIV) "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 35"Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. 39But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."

I don’t mean to be an alarmist but there are some pretty scary things going on right about now. We could start on the national scene. Some economists are predicting, almost promising, that the second dip of a double dip recession is coming for sure. Some recent economic data seems to support that. What will this mean for jobs and retirement income? While we all understand what it means to have freedom of religion in our country and we know that the laws that protect our right to worship as we want also protect the rights of false religions, it sure seems like the Muslim population is growing exponentially and they are getting more aggressive, willing to do the kind of in your face activities like putting a mosque at ground zero. Where is this headed? Is it a sign of things to come? Politically some see our government on the move to a more socialist approach which effects things like health care, education and business. What will this mean? It’s all a little scary. Individually some of you are still dealing with or facing job loss, some health issues and some family turmoil, some all of that and more. Your potential future may look a little, well, scary.
And to every group of believers gathered at any point in time, yes to you, the Lord Jesus says, "Do not be afraid, little flock.” It’s true. We are not the only group of believers to face scary situations. Jesus spoke to people who were hoping to earn a day’s wage each day so they could have food for their family the next. He spoke to people who were under the authority of the brutal Roman government and whose spiritual leaders were spiritually bankrupt. To them and to us and to every group of believers in between the loving Lord Jesus calmly says, "Do not be afraid, little flock. Why? Why does He say this? How can it be? “For your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” Brothers and sisters, it’s very important when we are reading our Bibles to look at the tense of the verbs that the Lord chooses to use. The tense is the when, past, present or future. Look at the tense of the verb. Your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. It’s a done deal. We have the kingdom of heaven waiting for us with all its joys, all its happiness, all its eternity. It does not matter what happens to us as a nation, a congregation, a person. It has pleased the Father to give us the kingdom and no one can take that away from us. Never forget who you are and what you have waiting for you. Keep your eyes on the kingdom.
And now look at how that simple fact allows us to live our lives. Jesus says, 33Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Keeping our eyes on the fact we have the kingdom enables us to keep our hearts focused on our heavenly goal. Let’s face it. That’s not always easy. We have needs. We have wants. Jesus used the example of possessions. His command is not a command to sell all that we have and give to the poor but rather to cut our heart strings that are attached to our possessions. His command is an invitation to live the “Do not be afraid” life. I don’t need to hoard for myself. I have the kingdom. I don’t need to try to become rich. I am rich for my Father has been pleased to give me the kingdom. Things in my possessions simply become tools to use to gain treasures in heaven. Now I see that people are God’s true treasure and taking care of them, helping them, wanting them in the kingdom, that’s what it’s all about. With my eyes on the kingdom my possessions won’t be the focus of my heart. Neither will my favorite football team, or my favorite pastime, nor my problems, nor my fears. Jesus will be. The one who comes to believers of every time and circumstance and says, “Do not be afraid.”
With our eyes on the kingdom we will also always stand ready. Jesus told us of the importance of that when He went on to say, "Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. 39But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."
Jesus uses the picture of servants whose master went to a wedding banquet. His return time unknown. The faithful servants wait for His return. They stand ready to serve. This makes sense. That’s what servants ought to do. What doesn’t make sense is the master in the picture. “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.” What? Are you kidding me? When the master gets back he dresses to serve, has his servants recline at the table and he waits on them? What kind of a master is this? It’s our loving master Jesus who makes us want to stand ready for Him to return at any moment by promising the kingdom to us. How great it will be if our Lord can compare it to a master serving his servants.
How great it will be to be found ready when He comes. Now you can’t read this word of God or hear this word of God without wanting to stand ready. It makes you do a little self examination. Am I ready? Are you standing ready? Some other questions can help us answer that. What is your heart focused on? Is it partying or possessions or your Savior? Who is your master? Who gets to call the shots in your life? You? Your fears? Another person? Or Jesus who gave Himself for you to win you for the kingdom? An honest examination will reveal times when our hearts have been focused on other things with Jesus as a lower priority. It will reveal times when we have rejected Jesus as master and willingly served others, even sin. How thankful we get to be to have a master who takes us back. Who comforts us with His love and forgiveness and lets us recommit to faithful service. Who comes at every time and in every circumstance and says, "Do not be afraid, little flock.”
How can we do that? As we started today I listed off a number of pretty scary situations. Maybe they were on your radar screen, maybe not. Maybe they are scary to you. Maybe not. But in all of the situations I named let’s face it, we are a little flock. Surveys show the number of Christians in our country shrinking, especially the kind that stands up for Jesus. As a congregation we may be large as churches go but really we are a little flock. All of us in our stations in life may like to think we are big stuff but in the eyes of the world, we’re little people. What about all those scary things we face? Little flock. Big Shepherd. Jesus. He is all powerful, all wise, all knowing and always faithful. And He will do exactly as He promised and work all things for our good. That’s why we need not be afraid. Amen.