Question: What it means to be a watchful servant of God? Are we wisely living or foolishly wasting the time, treasure and talent that Jesus has given us to work for Him in these times of the last of the last times before the end of the world takes place? Are we ready for the secret Rapture that Jesus has told us to be watchful about? (Luke 12:35-40, 41-48).
Answer: Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful name!
There are two important things that we see in context in these two sections,
1) PHYSICAL REWARD OF RESURRECTION OR RESULT ON EARTH FOR OBEDIENCE AND DISOBEDIENCE: The first one is in Luke 12:35-40, where Jesus instructs all the servants of God to remain watchful towards His secret coming to resurrect the saints and take them back to heaven in their glorious body which we call as blessedness of Rapture:
"35 “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; 36 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 may open to him immediately. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. 38 And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. 39 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. 40 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”" (Luke 12:35-40).
As I have always said, Jesus parables are earthly stories that has been used to reveal heavenly realities of the Kingdom of God. To gird is to be ready for war and to keep our lamps burning is to keep ourselves spiritually loaded with the quickened Word of God through continual meditation of His word that brings faith and more faith, and be filled with the oil of the Holy Spirit through prayer always (Psa 119:107, 105).
Those who are waiting for their master will always be ready to respond to say yes whenever he calls. Through the rapture which is appointed for the Church at the end of time, God is going to call all the saints and His servants small and big alike once and for all time to reward them spiritually and settle them eternally in glory in the new heaven and new earth (2 Pet 3:13). In fact, the Holy Spirit and the bride which is the Church of Jesus Christ on earth, gives a clarion call to all people of the earth to come and join in to take the water of life that freely flows from the throne of the Father God in heaven to quench their spiritual thirst on earth (Rev 22:17). Those who obey the call of God and join in will be rewarded spiritually now on earth and eternally then in heaven in our eternal life (Rev 22:12).
There is a Jewish tradition that was there at that time two thousand years ago which Jesus uses to make the hearers understand about the imminence of His coming. In those days, the bridegroom will get betrothed to the bride, and it will be like in today's term they are already married and committed forever but without the first night or the consummation of it through sexual union (Matt 1:18-20). It will be like a long wedding. The bride will wait for the bridegroom in her own house after her betrothal, so that he could come soon anytime to call her back to his Father's house for consummation, in which he will prepare a place for them to reside together and build their family in to the future with the kids who will come (John 14:1-4). For example, the bridegroom may take even a couple of years or a year or may come any moment once the living place is ready for occupation. As a token of his promise the bridegroom will lavish his best gift to the bridegroom to help her trust his commitment towards her during the long wedding, our Lord Jesus Christ has given his very own Spirit as a guarantee of his promise to reveal his intention and commitment to take us to his Father's house in the future (2 Cor 5:1-5).
This is the exact thing that Jesus used to drive his point about the imminence of his return to take away his bride which is the Church, "when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately", so those who are prepared for the bridegroom Jesus may be ready when he knocks on their clay house to call them to heaven at the time of their death or through the rapture to receive His new life and glorious body forevermore which ever will come first at the time of their lifetime on earth (1 Thess 4:14-18; Rom 14:8).
Another important thing that Jesus revealed is that, the Jews are the friends of the bride which is the Church of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 11:2; John 3:29), so when he comes from the wedding which will immediately take place in heaven after the Rapture of the Church (Rev 19:6-9), the friends who are the Messianic Jews who are living today in the nation of Israel are told to keep themselves ready to go with the bride to the Father's house to leave her there and settle in the Father's house along with the bride in Zion.
Nighttime in Scripture is divided into four three-hour periods called "watches." In Mark 13:35 they are all four mentioned; namely, "even," "midnight," "cockcrowing," and "morning." According to our way of reckoning time, "even," or the evening watch, is from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. is the first watch; the midnight watch, from 9 p.m. to midnight is the second watch; cock-crowing, from 12 midnight to 3 a.m. is the third watch, and morning watch, from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m is the fourth watch. Those believers who are part of the bride which is the Church and the friends associate of the bride party who are the Messianic Jews, are supposed to keep themselves awake at the second watch and the third watch. In the first watch, a resurrection happened for many saints when Jesus rose from the dead (Matt 27:52-53). The second watch will be the rapture of the Church which is the bride and its associate the Messianic Jews who are the bride party for the wedding (Matt 22:1-14). The third watch will be those late comers who will be resurrected back to live as a testimony to the world on earth which will reveal the reality of the heavenly wedding that will be taking place at that time in heaven, where the Tribulation on the whole earth will also begin through the Antichrist and God's wrath within the nation of Israel (Rev 14:1-5). Who are these 1,44,000 Jews in heaven? These are the same ones who were sealed by God on earth, and they were given immortality to live in the supernatural body to be the servants of God and a testimony to the whole world (Rev 7:1-8). They will reveal to the world of what is taking place in heaven, which is the wedding supper of the Lamb (Rev 19:9). The fourth watch resurrection will be that of the martyred saints of the Tribulation who will rise up at the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ at His coming to the earth (1 Cor 15:50-58; Rev 20:4-6). Because the fourth watch resurrection of Tribulation saints and servants will be that of martyrs and the first resurrection of the Millennium, Jesus has told to watch out only for the second watch or the third watch only, and keep themselves awake and ready for rapture spiritually.
The final clarion call of Jesus in this parable to the saints of the Church and the friends of the bride, "39 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. 40 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." There is one thing we have clearly come to know of the second watch and third watch resurrection, both will be the secret coming of the Lord Jesus. One will be to take his bride the Church to heaven and the other will be to strengthen the friend of the bride the nation of Israel by resurrecting the first-fruit within them to announce to the world of His mighty hand over it (Rev 7:1-8; 14:1-5). Hallelujah!
2) SPIRITUAL REWARD OF GLORY OR RESULT IN HEAVEN FOR OBEDIENCE AND DISOBEDIENCE: The second one is in Luke 12:42-48, also where Jesus instructs to specifically to those who will come to call themselves as the people of God, that is, the Church of the living God (1 Tim 3:15). Here we see the eternal result or reward for the wise, prepared and watchful and faithful servant, and the eternal result for the foolish, unprepared and un-watchful and unfaithful servant within the Church. Clearly it is indeed a parable that is mainly spoken for the end time generation of ours specifically and it can be taken for the preparedness of all previous generations of people too.
"41 Then Peter said to Him, “Lord, do You speak this parable only to us, or to all people?” 42 And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? 43 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 44 Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. 45 But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. 47 And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48 But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more." (Luke 12:41-48).
When apostle Peter got convicted of the words of Jesus regarding how ready he should be at all times to receive the Lord at His coming, immediately the top priority question to him was, “Lord, do You speak this parable only to us, or to all people?” In other words, if the above parable is told specifically to the apostles, it is OK with Peter, but if it is told to all people, then none of them can ever be prepared for it because in his mindset nobody outside of his Jewish apostles and disciples can ever be prepared for His coming.
Jesus reassures Peter saying that his disciples and apostles are the main audience to whom he has spoken, "“Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? 43 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 44 Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. 45 But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers." Peter could not fathom at that time the Church that is going to come among the Gentiles and get established in the future apart from the Jewish root, that is the reason Peter was tempted to ask the above question.
The "faithful and wise steward" are being prepared for eternal rulership over his household which are the people of faith. No matter whether they were Jews, or now the Christians, God provides now for his own work of faith, which when spread through his servants, will bear much fruit when He comes to reward them on due seasons of harvest on earth and in heaven eternally. The blessedness of a obedient servant of God does not just end now, but continues to the day of Rapture in which they will rise up in their Glorious new metaphysical body and will be rewarded eternally. Hallelujah! Jesus ties the future job and status of their eternal life to that of the faithful and wise work they have done for Christ now on earth. Each one's glory in their glorious body will differ according to their earthly work done for him which will be rewarded eternally by Jesus (1 Cor 15:35-49; Rev 22:12).
When Christ comes, He will reward each servants of His individually, even as they spread the Gospel which is the good news of the forgiveness of sins through the virgin birth, life, death and resurrection of our Lord Christ Jesus. He will make each faithful and wise servants of His to become rulers in the New Heaven and New Earth. Christ promises no less reward than rulership in the New Heaven and New Earth from the New Jerusalem which will be God's residence circling as the sun around the earth.
What about those who do not continue to work for Christ, instead they come to a state of mind that Christ is delaying his coming, and so they can do whatever they want and can escape the consequence of it? The unsaved will always want to abuse the grace and mercy of the Lord always (Gen 4:23-24; Jude 1:4). First of all those who are saved cannot continue to keep sinning in their lives (1 John 3:6, 9), because the seed of God who is the Holy Spirit remains in them to convict them of sin, of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and make them remember the defeat of Satan who cannot overpower them against their will because of the redemption through the blood of Jesus (Eph 1:7; John 16:7-11).
When Christ speaks about a group of people who call him Master but does not do what he has instructed them, he is speaking about the nominal unsaved namesake servants (Matt 7:21-23), in his own words Christ expresses about them saying, "45 But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers." A saved man cannot continue indefinitely in a wrong sinful attitude, without turning back towards God through repentance. When a unbeliever who might even call himself a servant of God, but does whatever he likes through the fleshly indulgence, he cannot remain within the Church forever (1 John 2:19), at a certain point of time the Lord will intervene and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers (2 Peter 2:10, 12-17, 18-22; Jude 1:16-19).
Those of his saved servants who play with sin and are lethargic about serving the Lord faithfully and wisely, like "47 ...that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48 But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more." Beaten with many stripes is a aphorism, which means God chastises his sons on earth so that they can be sanctified and useful for him to collect treasures in heaven (Heb 12:3-11; 1 Cor 5:1-5). God's stripes for his born again servants may increase and increase unless and until they repent (Rev 2:5, 10, 16, 21, 22; 3:3, 10-11, 19), if they choose to harden their hearts continually it may even lead to physical death (1 Cor 11:29-30), or else God will ask the true servants of His to pay back more to Him on earth if he has given more to work in His Kingdom, and moreover God the Spirit will yearn jealously until that person who has been given more comes to humble himself of his inability to pay back to God (James 3:1; 4:5-6, 8, 10; Matt 18:21-35).
Watch and pray so that you may not enter in to temptation is the master's will for preparing ourselves and receive the strength to do according to His will (Matt 26:41). Even though God chastises his true born again servants, but He always justifies them at the end in the spirit and honors them with great to at least a little reward according to their works always when they are judged in heaven to be rewarded (1 Peter 4:6; Matt 5:12, 19; 10:42; 1 Cor 3:14-15; Heb 9:27-28). To whom God has committed leadership in his Church, he demands much holiness and implicit obedience because the mercy and grace will abound and super abound in and through their lives (1 Tim 3:1-7). God chastises ignorant servants of God a little less, but always his chastisement will be more for those who disobey him through fleshly life of indulgence, knowingly and intentionally. Beware to take heed to yourself and avoid the snare of self-indulgence which lead to destruction, watch and pray that you might overcome all things and be raptured to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ to receive your eternal reward (Luke 21:36; Rom 14:10)!
Much Love and Blessings....
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