Should be able to wrap this up today.
44Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
By now, most people who've interpreted this chapter have already left the original context which as a result, causes all of this to become "personal interpretation" which is what were "not" supposed to do with Scritpure, right? (1 Peter 1 20Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. ) This entire chapter has been prophetic one. But when you leave it "in" the context of the original topic Jesus was speaking about, you'll see this is still pertaining to those who are of the old covenant, and those who transitioned into the new. A "faithful" servant is not one who is consistant in always being around as in "they faithfully showed up for work . . ." But a faithful servant is one who is FULL of FAITH. Which means one who does not rely on what is seen. Faith being the substance of things UNSEEN. Old Covenant dealt with tangible. You literally took the animal and it literally was the sacrifice on behalf of your sin. It was all a visual symbol of redemption. NEW Covenant takes it into the invisible. Instead of depending on man's abilities to repeatedly make sacrifices for our sin, now, in faith we rely on the finished works of Christ that the sacrifice has been done once and for all.
Look at it this way. The Old covenant was all symbolism. each act, each artifact, each ritual was all a sign "pointing" to Christ. Okay? Have you ever seen anyone build their entire house out of signs? I mean literal signs? The kind of billboards that tell you how many miles you need to go to get to Vegas. How fast you can go, which direction you should go, whether you can pass or not, a hill is coming up, a curve, watch out for pedestrians . .on and on. Imagine someone taking all those signs and building a house out of it. In 'this" day and age, you'd probably get a reality show for doing it. But it would be a novelty act at best, nothing more. And, for a person looking for direction, when they come to "this" house, do you think it would help them? The house would have so many different signs saying so many different things that it would be nothing short of a house of confusion. The house of signs is not to be your destination, it's supposed to point toward your destination. But those who ebrace the sign never get to see the destination, which in our case, is Christ.
Those who embraced the Old Covenant were building their religious house with signs instead of substance. And the fact that Jesus "was" the substance, the fact that he showed up was an indication in and of itself that the signs were no longer useful or effective. It'd be like you're driving down the main drag in Vegas and you'd see a sign saying "Vegas, straight ahead . . ." Really? Someone somewhere felt that people wouldn't already know they were "in" Vegas? It was the same with the Old Covenant. The symbolism was all about Christ and so when he arrived, the signs were no longer necessary. Problem was, the relious rejected the fact that they'd arrived at their destination.
Back to my sign analogy . .. it'd be like you were following the signs so long that once you finally got to Vegas, and the sign said you were "in" Vegas, instead of getting out and abiding "in" Vegas, you were so addicted to the signs that you were in denial that you were where they said you were, so you continued driving around as though you hadn't arrived yet. The religious continued on with their religious activity even after Jesus died, was buried and resurrected, the veil was torn from top to bottom . .. they still continued on as though none of it happened.
Matthew 24 is about Jesus informing the disciples that it was time to take the signs down. The signs did what they were supposed to do, they led man to a place where Jesus was, and now that Jesus had arrived, a new message needed to be written on the signs. Instead of directions of where you needed to go and what you needed to do, these new signs were about what's already been done and where we're going has been taken care of . . .we aren't to worry about what tomorrow brings anymore . . .Just embrace the grace of where God has us today.
A FAITH-FULL servant is full of God's wisdom and God has given you authority over your HOUSEhold because you laid your signs down. "In my Father's HOUSE are many rooms . . .God's house does not consist of signs of something yet to come. God's house is build with living stones . . .us.
46Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
Doing what? What the previous verse says we're to be doing . .. giving meat in due season. That would lead into Hebrews 5 and 6 as to what that meat is . . .another sermon for another time.
