Luke chapter 12 and verse 35 and just a few verses. Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning. And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he shall girt himself, and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. Amen.

May the Lord bless this reading to us also.

This little passage today is a passage encouraging attentiveness and readiness among the Lord's people for visits from their Saviour. That's what we're talking about here. Visits from our Saviour. The Lord Jesus is speaking to his disciples and he instructs them to continue in a state of eager anticipation for his coming and for his presence.

Sometimes when we think about the coming of the Lord, our minds immediately go to the last day and the last times and the final judgment and we have this idea of what's going to happen in the end times. But that is far, far too narrow when we are thinking about the coming of the Lord. And I want us to be much broader today and think about those special, individual, occasional visits that the Lord makes to his church and to his people.

Just before we come to that, let me mention in the context of these verses immediately, there are several very suitable pictures supplied by the Lord in these few verses that we've read together. Likening his people to servants waiting at home for the return of their Lord. maintaining readiness, even if it appears for a time that his coming has been delayed. Again, I'm not talking about the end times here. Think of servants staying awake and alert into the night, not knowing when their master might return home from a journey. This must have been a regular occurrence in days gone by when travelling was uncertain, distances were great, communication was very much restricted. It must have been a regular occurrence that people, that servants would not know when their master was going to return home. And what the Lord is admiring here, what he is admonishing, what he is seeking from his servants is that they are expected to keep themselves and their master's residence in readiness for his coming and fit for his arrival.

And the image of waiting, loins girded and lights burning, That's symbolic of servants. in those eastern lands at that time perhaps, being free and able to move readily. The idea of tucking their long garments into their belt, that's what it means to have your loins girded. Tucking your long garments into your belt in order to be able to run unhindered, night or day, at the command of their master to do his bidding. And the Lord's words recollect several Old Testament references to the prophets and preachers being active in ministering the gospel. I'm sure you'll remember we've been thinking with the young people recently in the portions of 1 Kings how that in chapter 18 verse 46 we read, Now the implication there is that there was something miraculous about that, that Ahab was in his chariot and yet Elijah, having girded up his loins, having freed the mobility of his legs for running, was able to outrun the chariot of Ahab. And Isaiah, sorry, he speaks of the beauty of preachers' feet, again, witnessing their feet or seeing their legs, as it were, meaning the delight that he, Isaiah, took in foreseeing prophetically the dedicated and conscientious ministers of the gospel loins girt, as it were, actively running to and fro in the world to publish the gospel of grace and preach peace upon the mountains of Zion, that is, to the church and in all the earth.

And Isaiah 52 verse 7 says, And those whose feet could be seen were those who had girt up their loins. But of course, it's a spiritual lesson that is intended here.

And as believers, we ought to have an eagerness for spiritual encounters and meetings with the Lord. That's what the Lord is talking about here. he with his disciples, he with his church, he with his people, should have spiritual encounters and meetings in our life's experience.

And these encounters, they may be public in the sense of gatherings like this, where the Lord's people meet to worship and share fellowship and hear the gospel preached, or they can be private, when the Lord visits his people in their personal meditations and ministers to them through their own studies in the scriptures.

They can also be discovered in the experiences and circumstances of life, what we call the Lord's providential dealings with his people. And these we notice most strikingly because they often occur in times of hardship, in the hardships of life, at times of temptation or illness or loss, periods of pain or indeed persecution.

And in those times we find the Lord draws closer to us. Or perhaps, really the reality is, that it's at those times that we are most active and diligent in looking out for him and we just find it easier to see him in those times.

Whatever, I think the Lord is giving us all some general principles here in these verses that are worth noting and reflecting upon. We are to be like men that wait for their Lord, loins girded and lights shining.

In the epistles, Paul speaks of the Lord's people being girded with truth. And I think what this is telling us is that it is by keeping close to the scriptures, keeping close to the doctrines of the gospel and the revelations of Jesus Christ, the revelations he gives us of himself and his word, that we shall be most sensitive to his comings, to his visits, and to his presence with us.

Familiar Bible verses and passages and examples will often be the means, the vehicle if you like, by which the presence of the Lord will be felt with us. When we have questions, when we find ourselves complaining or struggling or wrestling, it is often a verse of scripture brought suddenly to mind that brings the Lord near to us.

The Holy Spirit prompts by a verse or a thought and provokes us and initiates a period, a time of comfort and an unexpected blessing. And these are visits from the Lord. The Lord's visits are often unannounced, but they come and they are a blessing to us.

And perhaps it is a verse of scripture, perhaps it's reflecting on a precious doctrine of truth. simply brought to mind. But that's the point, that it's that familiarity with Scripture. It is having our loins girded with the truth. It is having a flexibility, an easiness, a familiarity with Scripture and Scripture truth that increases the ease with which Christ is recognised and discerned in his visits. And when we come together on occasions like this, when we come to our services, let us do so with expectation of meeting with the Lord Jesus. Let us do so, loins girt and lights burning. The Lord Jesus Christ has explicitly told us He will be present where two or three are gathered together in my name. He says, there am I in the midst of them. The Lord tells us that in Matthew 18 verse 20, and we can and we ought to look for the Lord in many places, but here for certain he promises to be.

And as a preacher, I as a preacher, I must come with my loins girt and my light burning. It is my responsibility as we gather here to come, keeping close to the truth, keeping close to the gospel in what I say, because again, it is in the gospel the Lord reveals himself to his people. So proper preparation, serious study, appropriate humility becomes the church and its pastors. And yet we have been assured that where the name of the Lord is honoured, Christ promises to be present.

It's an amazing thought that Christ is here with us. He is meeting with his saints. around his word. And here's something else too. We should expect private visitations from the Lord. I am sure if we pause and reflect, we all will be able to recall dark times when the Lord's coming has brightened and eased our passage through a trying experience. And again, the examples of the Lord's people in the Bible often shed light on our pathway at times like this.

Abraham, Job, Moses, Ruth, David, Jonah, and whosoever, because you can put your name there as well. What experience of life has not been the portion of one of the Lord's saints in times past? What experience have we had that we cannot find a suitable analogy or a parallel to in Scripture? The Lord does not change and we should expect him to come and speak with us as he spoke to the men and women of old. And if we wait on him, loins girt and lights trimmed, surely he will come.

Sometimes the Lord will speak to us in moments of loneliness and will bring us comfort. Sometimes during sickness, he will remind us that these bodies must all go the way of flesh But that's not the end and glory is waiting for us. Sometimes it is when we have been convicted of sin that the sweetest experiences of forgiveness and restoration are discovered. And then the efficacy of cleansing blood is best realised and enjoyed. Sometimes we get inspired by a kindness or beauty or childlike faith to worship and rejoice and the Lord, as it were, pulls out joy and worship and praise from our hearts because of something that has happened. And sometimes in the wee small hours when we can't sleep, is when the time that the Lord will draw near and whisper sweet things to us as he did with Paul and Silas.

And the song of Solomon in the Old Testament, it encourages us, does it not? Like the Shulamite, to go and search for her lover, to go searching for the Lord in such times as these. And then we find the true sense of what it means to ask and to seek and to knock. And the Lord tells the church in Revelation 3, verse 20,

This brings me to my final thought. The Lord has kept the best picture for us here and he sets it before the church in this little passage when he says concerning those servants who are found watching and waiting for the arrival of their master. He says in verse 37, blessed are those servants. Those servants who are found waiting and watching. Those servants who are found their loins girt. That means an awareness of the scriptures, an awareness of gospel doctrine. That means dwelling in the truth.

Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Listen, Verley, I say unto you that he shall girt himself and make them to sit down to meet and will come forth and serve them.

Isn't that extraordinary? I don't think that any of us could have seen that coming had the Lord not said that and Luke written it down. He shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meet and will come forth and serve them. This is an extraordinary turnaround. They have waited long and patiently to serve their Lord But when he comes, he turns the tables and he serves them.

And perhaps we can recall how the Saviour washed his disciples' feet shortly before his suffering and crucifixion. In the moment of his greatest glory, and anticipating his great anguish of body and soul, What did he do? He took a towel, he took a bowl of water, and he humbly ministered to his disciples.

And can we not say that still today, for you and for me, he puts himself at the beck and call of his church in their need? I don't want to try and enumerate ways in which the Lord serves us, In some respects, these might be considered very personal and intimate and peculiar to each one.

Let me just say, there is in this picture something of the wonder of divine love towards us. When you love someone, you're happy, you're eager to do them good. Husbands and wives, parents and children, intimate friends, care and attention and thoughtfulness arises out of mutual love. And I think these are all pointers to the great love that exists between the Lord Jesus and his people.

We love him who first loved us. We love to serve him and we are happy and willing to be called upon to serve and to worship him and serve and care for his body, the church. But it's not a one-way love. He loves us. And wonder of wonders, our Lord is happy and willing to be called upon to serve and care for us.

The more we are girt with truth, the more we are knowledgeable of all the Lord has done for us, the more we shall love and cherish his presence with us. And the more sensitive we will be to his visits, and yet also, the more we discover and enjoy His presence in His visits to us, His coming amongst us, the more evidence we shall have of His love for us.

Everything the Lord Jesus Christ has ever done and ever shall do in time and eternity, is done for the love of his people, and we shall be experiencing that love forevermore. And the more familiar, and with this I'm done, the more familiar we are with the Lord's visitations, the easier will be our transition from this world into the eternal realms when he calls for us.

It is a lovely thought that someday, as we wait for the Lord's coming, with our loins girt and our light shining brightly, instead of serving him as we expected We shall find him making us to sit down to meet, and then we shall suddenly realise that we're no longer in the world at all, but we're seated together with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, and our times apart from the Lord have ended forever.

May the Lord bless these thoughts to us. Amen. Amen. Amen.