Converting Automator Action in applescript to bash script
I'm not sure I understand correctly - if in the third line of Your script You're checking whether ftp service is running You can use following script:

#!/bin/bash                                                                                                                   

launchctl list | grep ftpd

if [ $? != 0 ]; then
    IPADDR=$(ifconfig -a | perl -nle'/(\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+)/ &amp;&amp; print $1' | grep -v 127.0.0.1)
    launchctl load "/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist"
    osascript -e "tell application \"Finder\" to display alert \"FTP Launched and ready for file-transfer\" &amp; character id 8233 &amp; character id 8233 &amp; character id 8233 &amp; \"Address: ftp://\" &amp; \"$IPADDR\" &amp; \":21\" &amp; character id 8233 &amp; \"User Name: \" &amp; \"$USER\""
else
    launchctl unload -w "/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist"
    osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to display alert "FTP session closed"'
fi


Run this a sudo.
Explanation:


To check if job is running use launchctl list.
To get ip address quickly use my perl script (You may want to grep it differently in order to get rid of additional IP addresses.
The only problem now is that Finder app is not brought to front but this can be solved if needed.