Exhortation, November 9

Exhortation for November 9:

Later this morning, many of you will be taking membership vows to constitute the membership of Trinity Reformed Church. You will acknowledge your sins and confess Your trust in Jesus for salvation, and you will be asked whether you have been baptized. And you will take oaths that you will live like a believer in Jesus, and that you will support the church in its worship and work, striving for its purity and peace. These are oaths taken before the face of God, and God will hold you accountable for keeping them.

At the end of our sermon text, Jesus says several things that are relevant to the oaths you will be taken. He is warning His disciples to be ready for the appearance of the Son of Man. The Son of Man will come unexpectedly, and so the disciples must be constantly on the lookout. He warns the disciples not to be like a steward who thinks the master is not coming, and begins to mistreat the other servants of the house. When his master comes and finds the steward abusing the other servants, he will “cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.”

Jesus’ words, as we’ll see, had a specific focus on the first-century situation: The entire chapter, as we’ll see, assumes that there is a tremendous judgment looming over Israel, and the disciples have to be ready. But the parable also indicates several things about the nature and functioning of the church.

First, Jesus describes the church as a household, and the members of the household are described as servants. These servants have different roles and different levels of authority. One of the servants is a “steward” of the house who is assigned to feed the other servants at the proper time. But in relation to the master, all are servants. By entering into formal membership, you are acknowledging that you are a servant of the Lord’s house and that you will devote your energies to serving the Master of the house.

Second, Jesus specifically warns that the servants of the house should not abuse one another, to begin beating one another, and to spend their entire lives pursuing their own pleasures, eating and drinking and getting drunk. Within the household of God, likewise, there is no room for competition for position, no room for attacks on one another, no room for backbiting, no room for clubbing one another with your tongues or in your thoughts. Nor is there any room for undisciplined and immature lifestyles, characterized by gluttony and drunkenness.

Third, Jesus gives us the key example of the proper behavior in the master’s house: Earlier in the passage, he says that when the master comes home to find his servants acting faithfully, he will gird himself, put his servants at the table, and begin to wait on them. Jesus is that master of the house, and He has come among us not to be served but to serve. And this is the precise meaning of your oaths to live as a Christian: You are promising to follow your Master in girding up your loins to serve one another.