And to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
Christian watchfulness
I. A certain event referred to. That He should go away was necessary.
1. It was impossible that His state of humiliation should be continued.
2. The work He had to do in heaven required His presence there.
3. His removal was necessary in order that the Holy Spirit might be bestowed.
II. A responsible trust committed.
1. What He left in charge of His servants was His house. The church is frequently set forth under this designation.
2. Those whom He left behind were invested with the powers necessary for the transaction of affairs during His absence.
3. While peculiar authority was granted to some, none of the servants were permitted to remain idle.
III. An important duty enjoined.
1. To no subject is our attention more frequently directed than that of watchfulness.
2. The consideration by which it is enforced. It is the uncertainty as to when the master of the house might return; whether at even, or at midnight, or at the cock crowing, or in the morning.
3. Whatever limits may belong to other obligations, this is universal in its claims. “And what I say unto you, I say unto all, watch.” (Expository Outlines.)
Christ’s second coming
I. The Church’s authority. “He gave authority to His servants.” The more we serve the more authority is given. For, what is authority? Not position, not office; but a certain moral power: the power of truth, the power of affections, the power of virtue over vice, the power of faith over sight. There are degrees of authority in the Church. There is authority which belongs to the Church collectively, essential for her wholesome discipline. But we have to do only with what is personal to ourselves, it is your authority to go to every single man under heaven and tell the glorious things of the gospel. It is your authority to go to the throne of God Himself.
II. The work. Authority is never given in the Church of Christ for any other end but work. The work is specific, “to every man his work.” Each Christian should pray till he finds out the work God has assigned him in this present life. There is work active and passive in the Master’s house; the childlike reception of the grace of God, to evangelise mankind.
III. Watching. There are two ways of watching. There is a watching against a thing we fear; and or a thing we love. Watch for the second advent, and you will be vigilant against sloth and sin. Will you not keep every trespasser out of the Master’s house, when you feel that that Master Himself stands almost at the door? He is worth watching for. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Watching for the Master
In all, therefore, you do, brethren, and in all you suffer, you are to be in the spirit of a man who, expecting a dear friend, has taken his stand at the gate, to meet him when he arrives,-a porter. Oh, it is such a pleasant thing to watch,-pleasant to go up on the high door of prophecy, and turn the telescope of inspiration down the road where He will come: pleasant, in every trouble to feel,-in a moment He may come, and cut this trouble very short: pleasant, in every fear, however deep, to think Christ’s coming may be nearer than we might fear: pleasant, to feel,-when the world knocks at your door, to say, “I am keeping place for Jesus, and I cannot let you in:” pleasant, in some work to have conscience say, “I think my dear Master would like to find me here:” pleasant when all is happy, to double the happiness with the thought, “And He, too, will soon be here:” and pleasant to wake up every morning and think, “What can I do today to prepare the way for my Saviour.” (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The Master cometh
I. The house.
II. The householder.
III. The journey.
IV. The servants.
V. The charge.
VI. The individual work.
VII. The command to the porter.
1. Watch against thieves and robbers.
2. Watch for the Master. (H. Bonar, D. D.)
Our absent Lord
The parable in Mark 13:34-36 cannot be discharged of its meaning by a reference to the ordinary risks of human mortality. Its theme is not man’s dying, but Christ’s coming.
I. The Son of Man is represented as a householder away on a journey (Mark 13:34).
1. It is not fair to look upon Jesus as a mere absentee lord of the soil. For. He made this world; He has suffered wonderfully to save souls; and He owns what He has purchased.
2. It must be remembered that He went away for a most gracious purpose. He would send the Comforter (John 16:7). He has gone to prepare a “place” for those whom He died to redeem (John 14:2-3).
3. It is better to urge His coming back with eagerness of prayer. There is fitness in the passionate words of Richard Baxter: “Haste, O my Saviour, the time of Thy return: send forth Thy angels, let the last trumpet sound! Delay not, lest the living give up hope. Oh, hasten that great resurrection day when the seed Thou sowedst corruptible shall come forth incorruptible, and the graves that retain but dust shall return their glorious ones, Thy destined bride!”
II. To everyone “our absent Lord” has given his own work to do (Mark 13:35).
1. There is a work to be wrought on ourselves. Our bodies are to be exercised and skilled for service (Romans 12:1). Our minds are to be developed and embellished for God’s praise. One of our Lord’s parables spoken on this very occasion has actually added to our language the new word “talents,” as signifying intellectual gifts (Matthew 25:15). Our souls are to be sanctified wholly (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
2. There is also a work to be wrought upon others and for others. The poor are to be succoured, the weak to be strengthened, the ignorant to be taught, the sorrowful to be comforted.
3. There is another work to be wrought for God’s glory. “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” Our whole life is to be consecrated to this, even down to the particulars of eating and drinking (1 Corinthians 10:31).
III. “Our absent Lord” is surely coming back again to this world (Mark 13:26).
1. He predicted His second advent (John 14:28). The language Jesus used in this remembered declaration is not at all figurative; it all goes together as a statement of fact. He said, literally, He would send the Comforter, and the Holy Spirit came in person on the Day of Pentecost. And just as literally did He say He would Himself return at the appointed time.
2. He asseverated the certainty and solemnity of His own promise, as if He foresaw some would deny or doubt it (Mark 13:31). This was endorsing the covenant engagement by a new oath; “because He could swear by no greater, He sware by Himself.”
3. He left behind Him vivid descriptions of the momentous day on which He should arrive (Mark 13:24-26). In these, however, He does little more than repeat the vigorous language of the Old Testament prophet (Daniel 7:9-14).
4. He even sent back word from heaven by an angel (Acts 1:11). It should be “this same Jesus” who should come back, and He should come “in like manner” as they had seen Him depart.
IV. The exact hour in which “our absent Lord” will arrive is not announced (Matthew 24:42).
1. Jesus asserted that He did not know it Himself (Mark 13:32). The disciples once asked Him about this (Matthew 24:3). He told them that God the Father had kept this one secret in His own solemn reserve (Acts 1:6-7).
2. But our Saviour declares that His coming might be expected at any moment, morning or midnight, evening or cock crowing (Mark 13:35). It would assuredly be sudden. The figure is employed more than once in the Scriptures of “a thief in the night” (2 Peter 3:10). Peter in his Epistle only quotes our Lord’s own language (Luke 12:39-40).
3. Moreover, Christ told His disciples that there would be tokens of the nearness of this great day, by which it might be recognized when it should be close at hand (Mark 13:28-29). These signs would be as clearly discerned as shoots on fig trees in the opening summer. He mentioned some of them explicitly (Luke 21:25-28). We may admit that “wars and rumours of wars,” earthquakes, famines, falling stars, and pestilences (Matthew 24:6-8), together with “great signs in heaven and earth,” are alarming disclosures; but will any one doubt that such phenomena are conspicuous at least? (Luke 17:24).
4. So Jesus insisted that men were bound to be wise in noting these signs, and be ready (Luke 12:54-56).
V. The greatest peril is that, when “our absent Lord” comes, men will be taken unawares (Mark 13:36).
1. The instinctive tendency of the human heart is to procrastinate in the performance of religious work.
2. Time glides mysteriously on with no reference to daring delay. The grave, like the horseleach’s daughter, cries “Give” (Proverbs 30:15-16), and damnation slumbereth not (2 Peter 2:3), but men sleep clear up to the edge of divine judgment. They did in Noah’s time, and in Lot’s, when a less catastrophe was at hand; and so it will be when the Son of Man is revealed (Luke 18:26-30).
3. Christians ought to hold in memory the repeated admonitions they have received. Walter Scott wrote on his dial plate the two Greek words which mean “the night cometh,” so that he might keep eternity in mind whenever he saw the hours of time flitting by. Evidently the Apostle Paul feels that he has the right to press peculiarly pertinent and solemn appeals upon those who had enjoyed the advantage of such long instruction (1 Thessalonians 5:1-7).
4. There is no second chance offered after the first is lost. When Christ comes, foolish virgins will have no time to run for oil to pour into their lightless lamps. A forfeited life cannot be allowed any opportunity for retrieval. Where the tree falls, north or south, there it must lie, whether the full fruit has been ripened upon its branches or not (Ecclesiastes 11:3).
VI. The final counsel left behind him by “our absent Lord” is for all to watch (Mark 13:37).
1. Christ’s coming would seem to be the highest anticipation for true believers. When He appears, saints will appear with Him in glory (Colossians 3:4). This is the “blessed hope” of the Church along the ages (Titus 2:13).
2. It might clear an inquirer’s experience to think of this coming of Jesus. Does one love to “watch” for Him? In the autobiography of Frances Ridley Havergal we are told of the years during which she sought sadly for peace at the cross. At last one of her teachers put this question to her: “Why cannot you trust yourself to your Saviour at once? Supposing that now, at this moment, Christ were to come in the clouds of heaven, and take up His redeemed, could you not trust Him? Would not His call, His promise, be enough for you? Could you not commit your soul to Him, to your Saviour, Jesus?” This lifted the cloud; she tells the story herself: “Then came a flash of hope across me, which made me feel literally breathless. I remember how my heart beat. ‘I could surely,’ was my response; and I left her suddenly and ran away upstairs to think it out. I flung myself on my knees in my room, and strove to realize the sudden hope. I was very happy at last. I could commit my soul to Jesus. I did not, and need not, fear His coming. I could trust Him with my all for eternity. It was so utterly new to have any bright thoughts about religion that I could hardly believe it could be so, that I had really gained such a step. Then and there, I committed my soul to the Saviour, I do not mean to say without any trembling or fear, but I did-and earth and heaven seemed bright from that moment-I did trust the Lord Jesus.” (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
Work for God
The sentence which must have seemed to Adam a curse, “In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread,” has been turned by God into a blessing. The elements of Adam’s doom are the materials of human happiness. Heaven is made out of the ruins of the fall. What a world this would be without work! What a weariness! What a hot bed of every bad passion! What a torment!
I. Every living creature has its own proper work. It matches with each man’s natural endowment and his spiritual attainment. It is what suits him: neither too little nor too much. Enough to engage, and occupy, and draw out all his powers; and yet not so much as to injure or distress them. Take pains to ascertain whether the work you are engaged in is really yours-the work God would have you to do. To settle that satisfactorily, the following conditions must be fulfilled:
1. There must be the vocation of the heart-conscience and spiritual conviction telling you, after prayer and thought, that you are called to it.
2. The vocation of circumstances-your position and means being suited, and your education and habit of mind accommodated to it.
3. The vocation of the Church-the advice and judgment of pious friends who are in a position to offer an unprejudiced opinion on the subject. If these three things unite, you may be sure that, though you are directed to it by human agencies, the work is really allotted to you by God.
II. You are responsible only for doing the work, not for the results. The work is yours, but the issue is God’s. Leave that to Him. Do you work with faith-for faith is confidence, and confidence is calmness, and calmness is power, and power is success, and success is God’s glory. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Wakeful work
Unless we work, we shall not keep spiritually awake and lively: unless we are awake, we shall not work. The last thing that would please a master would be the idle curiosity which would make the servants neglect their work to stand outside the door gazing to catch a glimpse of his return. What the Master desires is wakeful work. He desires-
I. Work.
1. Work of mercy.
2. Work of uprightness.
3. Work of struggling against evil within us.
4. Work of witnessing for Christ.
5. Work of helping others in various ways.
6. Work of comforting the sad, of supporting the weak.
7. Work of reclaiming the erring.
8. Work of saving the lost.
II. He wants this to be done wakefully; in that fresh and earnest way which men take
(1) when their faculties are on the alert;
(2) when they are on the watch for opportunities of doing good, and against seductions to neglect it;
(3) when they are wakeful enough to see a living Saviour, and feel His inspiration;
(4) when they watch lest they lose the things they have wrought;
(5) when they are awake to the immense needs and the awful dangers of their fellow men;
(6) when they are awake to the littleness of time and the greatness of eternity the nearness and sufficiency of the Spirit’s help, and the certainty and value of the Saviour’s reward. When there is this working and this watching mutually aiding each other, then the desire of the Master is fulfilled, and whenever He appears we are ready to receive Him with exceeding joy. (R. Glover.)
Work and watching
I. The work of the servants.
1. Work is the common duty of all in Christ’s house. The calm stars are in ceaseless motion, and every leaf is a world, with its busy inhabitants and the sap coursing through its veins as the life blood through our own. It would be strange then if the Christian Church, which was intended to be the beating heart to all this world’s activity, were exempted from a law so universal. Such a thing would be against our highest nature. Work is not only a duty, but a blessing. Every right deed is a step upward. Instead of praying that God would grant us less work, our request should be that he would give us a greater heart and growing strength to meet all its claims.
2. This work is varied to different individuals. In one respect there is something common in the work of all, as there is a common salvation-to believe in Christ and to grow in grace; but even here there may be a variety in the form. There is a different colour of beauty in different stones that are all of them precious. One man may be burnishing to the sparkle of the diamond, while another is deepening to the glow of the ruby; and each is equally useful and necessary. The cornerstone and the cope stone have both their due place in the palace house of Christ. To see how this may be, is to perceive that an end can be put to all jealousies and heart burnings, and may help us even now to take our position calmly and unenviously, working in our department, assured that our labour will be found to contribute to the full proportion of the whole.
3. Each individual has means for ascertaining his own work. Not a special revelation, or an irresistible impression. Still Christ does guide men into their sphere of work by the finger of His providence and by the enlightenment of His Word in the hand of His Spirit. If it be thought it would be simpler and more satisfactory to have our place directly pointed out to us, let us remember the trouble and care necessary to ascertain it are part of our training.
There are these rules to guide us.
1. Our aptitudes.
2. Our opportunities.
3. The opinion of our fellow men when fairly expressed.
II. The watch of the porter. The porter is that one of the servants whose station is at the door to look out for those who approach, and open to them if they have right to enter. It would be wrong, however, to suppose that the body of the servants are exempted from watching, while one takes the duty for them (Mark 13:37). In saying the workmen are many and the watchman one, our Lord indicated that, while the mode of labour in the house may vary, the duty of watchfulness is common to all who are in it. The porter must stand at the door of every heart, while that heart pursues its work. What, then, is this watching? It is to do all our work with the thought of Christ’s eye measuring it, as of a friend who is ever present to our soul, gone from us in outward form, sure to return, and meanwhile near in spirit; to subject our plans and acts to His approval, asking ourselves at every step how this would please Him, shrinking from what would cloud His face, rejoicing with great joy in all that would meet His smile. This is a more difficult task than to have our hands busy with the work of the house. But, if attended to, it will bring its proportionate benefit.
1. It will keep us wakeful.
2. It will preserve purity.
3. It will maintain the soul in calmness.
4. It will rise increasingly to the fervour of prayer-that prayer which is the strength of the soul and the life of all work.
III. The bearing of these two duties upon each other.
1. Work cannot be rightly performed without watching; for then it would be
(1) blind and without a purpose;
(2) discouraging and tedious;
(3) formal and dead.
2. Watching will not suffice without work; or it would be
(1) solitary;
(2) subject to many temptations, such as empty speculations, vanity, pride;
(3) unready for Christ.
The solitary watcher can have no works of faith nor labours of love to present, no saved souls to offer for the Redeemer’s crown, and no crown of righteousness to receive from Him. He is saved, but alone, as on a board or a broken piece of the ship; not as they who have many voices of blessing around, and many welcomes before, and to whom an entrance is ministered abundantly into the kingdom of heaven. Happy is the man who can combine these two duties in perfect harmony-who has Stephen’s life of labour and Stephen’s vision in the end. In every soul there should be the sisters of Bethany, active effort and quiet thought, and both agreeing in mutual love and help. (John Ker, D. D.)
The discipline of work
Consider what an amount of drudgery must be performed-how much humdrum and prosaic labour goes to any work of the least value. There are so many layers of mere white lime in every shell to that inner one so beautifully tinted. Let not the shellfish think to build his house of that alone; and pray what are its tints to him? Is it not his smooth close-fitting shirt merely, whose tints are not to him, being in the dark, but only when he is gone or dead, and his shell is heaved up to light, a wreck upon the beach, do they appear. With him, too, it is a song of the shirt-“Work-work-work!” And the work is not merely a policy in the gross sense, but, in the higher sense, a discipline. If it is surely the means to the highest end we know, can any work be humble or disgusting? Will it not rather be elevating, as a ladder, the means by which we are translated? (Thoreau.)
Christ’s service delightful
A beautiful incident in reference to Mr. Townsend is mentioned in the life of John Campbell. “Finding him on Tuesday morning, shortly before his last illness, leaning on the balustrade of the staircase that led to the committee room of the Tract Society, and scarcely able to breathe, I remarked, ‘Mr. Townsend, is this you? Why should you come in this state of body to our meetings? You have now attended them for a long time, and you should leave the work to younger men.’ The reply of Mr. Townsend was worthy of his character. Looking at his friend with a countenance brightened and elevated by the thoughts that were struggling for utterance, his words were: ‘Oh! Johnny, Johnny, man, it is hard to give up working in the service of such a Master!’“ (Biblical Treasury.)