My Father’s Business
We’ve been called to be ready and prepared when the master comes. How do you know how to be prepared? How do I go about my Father’s business? Doing the Father’s will is not an event. It’s a process. When many enter the door of the church, they stop following him when when they leave each Sunday. Walking with our Lord requires a desperate hunger and a committed love.
Luke 12:40 says the son of man is coming at an hour that you do not expect. We need to live life as if he’s coming any moment. He can come right now….but he didn’t. Living in the hope and anticipation of the coming of our Lord will keep us living in the present.
At Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, the people that share are brutally honest. They are diligent to confess their sins. To overcome the problem, first we must acknowledge the problem. For if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The disciples asked about Jesus’ message of readiness. They asked, “is this message for everyone or just the twelve of us?” The Lord said this message is for, “he who is the faithful, steadfast, wise, sensible and prepared steward.” He’s the one who has his hand on the plow or his hand on the tiller when the Lord and Master arrives. Being prepared means that he’s doing what he’s called to do when the master comes. Jesus said, when you are faithful in your calling, I’ll call you to recline at my table and then I’ll serve you. Jesus’ example of leadership was to serve and not to be served.
Jesus called his pastors to shepherd the sheep, the flock of God, and to sound the alarm when danger approaches. When the flood came in Noah’s day, the mockers were taken away suddenly. They didn’t even know what hit them. Cataclysmic events mark God’s timetable. We set our collective clocks by catastrophic events. Unprecedented natural disasters will precede the coming of our Lord. Jesus said, these warnings would be the signs of his return.
Who is the faithful, steadfast, and wise steward? A faithful steward is true to the standard of truth. He is devout and loyal, dedicated according to his actions to do his Master’s will. The apostle Paul said, “I buffet my body to make it my slave so that I in turn may be a slave to my master’s will.”
When we’re born again into the kingdom of the Lord, we’re born to a super-natural heavenly realm. The kingdom of heaven is diametrically opposed to the world’s natural kingdom. For the natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God because they’re foolishness unto him. To see and perceive from a spiritual perspective, we must see from the eyes of the spirit…Christ’s eyes behind our eyes, his heart behind our heart.
To follow the master’s will, we need to find brothers who are in pursuit of their lord Jesus Christ. We desire to chase after men of God and “choke in the dust” of those chasing after Christ. As we pursue the Lord, we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds. As we seek after him, the fruit of the spirit will grow to maturity. As Jesus said, I am the vine… if you abide in me you shall bear much fruit.
Jesus confronted the hypocrites in Matthew 23. They were actors and poseurs who put on an outward show of righteousness. Jesus said, “In vain do they worship me. They draw nigh unto me with their lips but their heart is far from me.”
A politician approached Mother Teresa looking for a photo-op after she had received the Nobel peace prize. When the cameras were rolling, he said to her, “I’d like to present this gift of one million dollars to your cause, Missionaries of Charity.” Mother Teresa said to him, “please give your money to someone who needs it more than we do. God has always provided and he will continue to provide. God works best with nothing.”
Being ready is not an event…it is a process. Faithfulness is known and understood over time. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not thy compassions they fail not. Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me… according to thy word. God is always faithful to his word. Even though we were unworthy in the flesh, he made us worthy in the spirit and now by his grace his mercy has made us his own.
When Jesus was twelve years old Mary and Joseph went to Jerusalem with their extended family to celebrate the Passover. In the caravan, the women went before the men to set up camp. They did all that the law required of them for the Passover. As Mary and Joseph were returning in their caravan, Jesus stayed behind. Mary and Joseph were unaware that Jesus had been left behind. After a day’s journey they realized that Jesus wasn’t with them. In a panic, they returned to Jerusalem to look for their son. According to Luke 2:37, they found him in the temple and everyone there was astonished at the words and answers that Jesus gave the doctors and scholars of the Old Testament law. His parents asked him, “why have you done this to us?” Jesus answered Mary and Joseph, “Know ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” He wasn’t talking about the carpentry business.
In every Christian’s life there is a moment of reckoning. Jesus’ revelation when he was in the temple at the age of twelve was, “I must be about my Father’s business.” What was Jesus’ Father’s business? In verse 50, Mary and Joseph didn’t understand what Jesus had said. They didn’t get it… Maybe God kept them from understanding so that they wouldn’t be lifted up with pride about their son, Jesus Christ the redeemer of mankind. Even though Jesus realized that his Father’s business was “that the world through him might be saved,” Jesus continued to be submissive to his earthly parents. Humility is learned in obedience to those whom God has called as our earthly parents. We’re better men in meekness and humility.
Jesus said, “abide with me.” Abiding means to “live with me.” Abiding is spending time in his presence and waking in his footsteps. A disciple is a disciplined follower who learns his father’s business by walking in his footsteps. Following in the Lord’s footsteps is the solution to “the insidious preoccupation with self.”
According to Philippians 2, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ. This is the attitude of humility and meekness. Jesus Christ took upon himself the form of a servant and humbled himself even to the point of death upon the cross. To live for him we must die to self. In the midst of the trials of life, the age old question is, “What would Jesus do?” Jesus answer to this question was, “Know ye not that I must be about my Father’s business.” This is also our answer. Every moment in life is a divine appointment. For we are his workmanship, his masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus unto good works in which he has foreordained that we should walk. To keep our divine appointment, “Know ye not that we must be about our Father’s business?”
May we ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael