What Are You Waiting For? 8 of 10

What Are You Waiting For? 8 of 10

The Wicked Servant (Pulpit Notes)

Matthew 24:45-51 NLT… “A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. [46] If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. [47] I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. [48] But what if the servant is evil and thinks, ‘My master won’t be back for a while,’ [49] and he begins beating the other servants, partying, and getting drunk? [50] The master will return unannounced and unexpected, [51] and he will cut the servant to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

What’s most concerning to me about this parable, is that the use of the word wicked/evil is not associated with an outhouse sinner but with an in-house servant/a trusted steward. Jesus informs us in this end time description, that sometimes our enemy isn’t without but sometimes the threat to decency and order, is an inside job.

The problem presented in this prophetic parable is that a trusted servant of the house can defect to evil/to wickedness/to disobedience, which results in permanent judgment.

Why? Why would a servant of such a kind/trusting master decide to go rogue/defecting to wickedness? Jesus gives us the answer in verse 48 in the words evil and thinks. Evil introduces a cancerous infection of the heart, while thinks implies the cancer has spread to the head. The servant has this false sense that the master will be gone so long that essentially this is my house now, and I can allow all of my perversion/dysfunction/arrogant opposition to the master a loose on everybody and everything in the house.

Brothers and sisters, Galatians 6:7 is clear “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”. You just can’t give God your posterior to kiss and think you’ll get away it! This Christian life is not a childish game, nor is it an opportunity for you to come up at God’s expense. It’s either all or nothing!

What are you waiting for? There is no time for the exertion of our will, only the execution of God’s will! Why? He’s coming back one day just like he said he would, but we don’t know when. So we must be ready for his return.