Good morning, Trinity. Good morning. It's good to see you. My name's Austin Duncan. If we've never met before, it'd be a privilege to meet you, but I think I've met most of you, and it's good to see you all. Here filling in for Andrew Curry because he's on a camping trip. You know the rugged man that he is. I think he went camping with his daughter for the school trip or something, so definitely pray for Andrew. I'm not sure he's built for that kind of work.
It is a total privilege to be with you, and the elders asked me to continue in the Luke series, so will you open your Bible to Luke 19? And as I was talking to Andrew about this passage, it wasn't an accusation, but it was really just... asking him if he intentionally leaves town whenever there's a very difficult parable. That seems to be my assignment, my lot in life. But it's just been a total privilege for me to study this and to look at this passage and to hear the voice of God in it, and I hope that's your experience today.
It's really an amazing passage for this day, for Palm Sunday, because it's the paragraph right before the Palm Sunday events. So, it helps you understand what was on Jesus' heart right before he would be received by these triumphant crowds. It's also a parable that is often conflated with another more famous parable in Matthew, the parable of the talents. But this one is not just a retelling of that one.
It's a unique parable that is set for us in this context of entering Jerusalem. And so, as I read that, you can keep that in mind. But let's begin by just hearing the Word of God. Luke 19. Verse 11 through 27, the parable of the ten minas.
(Scripture reading) "As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.
He said, “therefore, a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself servants. He gave them ten minas, said to them, engage in business until I come. But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him saying, ‘we do not want this man to reign over us.’ When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him that he might know what they had gained by doing business.
The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made 10 minas more.’ And he said to him, ‘well done, good servant. Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over 10 cities.’ And the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made five minas. ‘And he said to him, ‘and you are to be over five cities.’ And then another came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief. For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man, you take what you deposit and reap what you did not sow.’
He said to him, ‘I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant. You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reap what you did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank?And at my coming, I might have collected it with interest.’ He said to those who stood by, ‘take the mina from him and give it to the one who has 10 minas.’ And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has 10 minas. I tell you that to everyone who has more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me."
This is the very Word of the living God. Let's ask for His Spirit's attendance and blessing.
(Prayer) Father, thank You for your Holy Scripture. When we open our Bibles, we hear Your mouth, the very Word of almighty God. And as we consider this parable that Jesus used to instruct and warn His disciples and the crowds, may we likewise be instructed. Help us, Father, to carefully examine our own faithfulness and stewardship in light of the gospel, in Jesus' name, amen. (End)
There are seasons in life where things feel uncertain. Where our expectations are unmet, our plans change. Things don't go the way we thought they would. Some doors close and doors we expect to open don't open. And in those moments, there is several temptations that we face.
A faithful believer doesn't want to rebel against His Lord, but there are times when believers wanna take their ball and go home. When we say, “well fine, I don't wanna do this anymore. I don't wanna engage in ministry or in kingdom work.” Maybe you had a negative experience, and it caused you to wanna step back, to wait, to hold on to what you have and to do nothing with it. It could be justified as reasonable or even as wise, but what if doing nothing was the most dangerous response of all?
There's something like that happening in Luke 19, verses 11 to 27. The disciples have serious unmet expectations. At the same time, there's a flood of enthusiasm and excitement surrounding the ministry of Jesus. You've seen ebbs and flows throughout Luke's gospel. There's been times of departure, but overall, the ministries at a high watermark. It's at a zenith of enthusiasm as Jesus approaches Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is the place that God chose for heaven to meet earth, Mount Zion. That symbolic meeting point where God promises to be with His people and where He is finding that place of covenant relationship. And so, it's a climactic place and a moment that Jesus has been preparing his disciples for.
And as they see the surging crowds, their expectations of Jesus's kingship are in full effect. They wonder, has the time finally come? He's on His way to Jerusalem. The crowds are swelling. All expectations have risen, and they're convinced this is it. The kingdom of God will immediately appear. The trouble that the nation has faced, the oppression from Rome, will come to a screeching halt, and God's Messiah will reign. And it's happening. It's just around the corner. But they've got their timing completely wrong. They're right, God's kingdom has dawned. Jesus has already told them that the kingdom is in their midst, that He embodies the kingdom of God.
Where Jesus is, there is the kingdom, but their understanding of the earthly nature of this kingdom and their misunderstanding about the timing of the kingdom is about to be exposed because in Jerusalem, Jesus will not, as you know, be crowned, He'll be crucified. He'll be lauded but then almost immediately afterwards He'll be rejected and the kingdom won't look the way they think it's going to look.
And so, Jesus tells them a parable that is so multi-layered that it's not just a message for His disciples but it's also a message for the pretenders. In this story, a simple kind of economic story about entrusting money to servants, a nobleman or a king's right to do something like that would be obvious, but it's a story that's not just there on that level of entrustment. That's the heart of it, but there's more going on because Jesus interrupts His own story with a narrative about the rejection of the king and the reception of a kingdom in a faraway land. This story could be told in half the amount of words, but instead it's drawn out by our Lord to expand the layers of what's going on here. And I think it's so appropriate for us to hear this message on a Palm Sunday, and it's appropriate for us to hear this message in whatever stage and age of life you're in, if your expectations have ever been unmet, because there's something here that helps us align those with God's reality, that tells us to pursue faithfulness in spite of outward appearances or internal expectations.
This parable exposes something that we don't talk about very much. This parable exposes the danger of spiritual passivity as Christ's kingdom seems to be delayed. And we're experiencing something of that delay. How many times have you read the headlines and said, “Maranatha, King Jesus, come back.” “Wrap this thing up.” “It's too much.” “The world's too bad.” “Life's too hard.” “When is His coming?”
Well, we're in very similar boots, as it were, because the disciples had that same unmet expectation. They had that same way of thinking. The ruling and reigning is just around the corner, but this parable exposes how we are to respond in those times. And this age that we're in, as we await the return of Christ, as we preach the gospel and watch Christ build His church, it really asks you, “what are you doing with what the King has entrusted to you?” And though we've seen Jesus rejected, and though He continues to be rejected by the citizens around us, He has gone to receive His kingdom and will return for its full consummation.
In the meantime, every servant has been entrusted with what he has been given. And that word, given, is so important in this passage. Gained and given and given. It's clear that what we have came from God. And whatever is in our way this morning, whether it's fear or bad theology or a low tolerance for risk or greed or undervaluing of what God has given us, whatever it is, it's keeping us from faithful, visible, aggressive investment and allegiance to the King. Because this parable shows us that the day is coming when He will return and He will evaluate what we have done with what He has given us. And the consequences are as serious as reward and loss and judgment. So, let's enter into this multi-layered parable and hear it on its own terms and learn from the Lord how we are to be in this in-between time.
I like to write sermon titles because I'm bad at it. And so, you know, the one in the paragraph is pretty good, the parable of the 10 minas. And I should probably help because this is a church that has deep struggles with pronunciation for differing reasons. Minas, not the people who dig rocks under the ground. Minas, not people who are younger. And it's not minas, which Kent fishes with, minas. So that's different, minas. It's minas.
It's the only passage that uses that word in the New Testament. A talent was the investment that the king gave the servants in Matthew. Talent is a massive amount of money. Somebody's asking Siri how much it is right now, because I didn't get to it fast enough. Talent, one commentator, really technical commentary, then he has this line, he says, “those given a talent won the lottery, those given a Mina won a Chevy.”
So, it's a lesser amount, it's three months wages kind of a thing. But it's a good amount of money and it's one that exposes the great danger of spiritual passivity. So, we could call it the parable of the 10 Minas, or we could call it living faithfully while the king is gone. I think that kind of captures it. Or what you do with what you have this may be a really simple way to say it, or if you want more complicated, it's a parable of discipleship in the delay between Christ's departure and Christ's return. But I'm gonna call it this, grabbing onto that language of the end of this passage, I wanna call it slaughtering spiritual passivity. Because I don't think that's something that I've been warned about enough. And I wanna ask you if you've thought very carefully about the danger of spiritual passivity, because we need to kill it. For Christ's sake, for the kingdom's sake.
What does this look like? Look at this passage in the layers as it unfolds.
Verse 11, the first point is the kingdom is delayed. The kingdom is delayed.
Verse 11, “as they heard these things,” he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near to Jerusalem and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.
Here we are confronted with the wrong expectations. Jesus tells parables not to make truth more clear. That's the misnomer, right? Parables are Jesus as a master teacher. No, he tells parables to intentionally obscure truth from His enemies and to explain and enlighten truth to His disciples. And so here, Jesus, once again, master teacher, engages in a parable.
Like so many stories, we've heard Him tell already, and there's several parables still to come, and in Luke's gospel, the intensity of this story causes people to lean in as Jesus tells them another one of those certain men tales. 11 times in Luke's gospel, He introduces a parable talking about a certain man, and this is another one of those times. But Luke is helping us understand the context for this parable, last week you heard about Zacchaeus, the wee little man up in the sycamore tree, and how salvation came to his house gloriously. And though Jesus had said it's near impossible for a rich person to be saved, he reminds us that with God, all things are possible, and God saves Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus turns from his greedy, money-laundering ways and gives half his goods to the poor and follows Jesus faithfully. It's after these things that verse 11 speaks of all of Jesus' teaching, His miraculous works, and specifically His interaction with this with this wee tax collector, that He proceeds to tell this parable.
And He tells the parable because of His proximity to Jerusalem. It is approaching Jerusalem, they're near Jericho, and the events that surround this portion of the gospel narrative all take place in this same spot. As they ascend towards Jerusalem, they come up and then go down and then up again to get to Jerusalem, a city on a hill. The disciples, as well as the swelling crowds, have an increased expectation of the immediacy of the kingdom. They think the kingdom is coming now. And remember, what is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is present where Jesus is.
It's the work and ways of God lived out in this world. And the expectation for the nation of Israel was freedom, it was deliverance, it was salvation, it was the overthrow of those who were in opposition to them, and they thought it would all happen in an instant, in a moment. And they thought, since the popularity of Jesus is at an all-time high, this must be the moment that the prophets had spoken of. This must be the time of full harvest.
And they weren't ready for a kingdom that was already in their midst because the kingdom is embodied in the Lord Jesus Christ. Where Jesus is, is the work of God. Where Jesus is, is the central point of the worship of the one true God. To look to Jesus is to look to the kingdom, to serve Jesus is to serve the kingdom, to spread the message of Jesus is to spread the kingdom. The kingdom is not separate from the Son of God. The Son of God is the embodiment of the kingdom because He is the King, the promised King.
And so, they get this, but they don't get this because they have expectations of this king and kingdom that ought to be seen in a long stretched out telescoping. But instead, they've condensed it all to this moment thinking that all their problems will disappear.
And I don't think we can cast much blame on these disciples because we think the same way so often. I mean, how many eager disciples have been won to Christ and either by a bad evangelist or their own unmet misunderstandings, they think now that I'm a Christian, I'm free of problems. It just doesn't work like that, does it? All we can say is that the Christian life is exciting, right? It is. Highs and lows, exciting.
But they don't get it. They don't realize how good they have it because they're with the bridegroom, the kingdom is already present, and they don't understand God's plan and God's patience as he's gonna unfold this thing, not over the next weeks, but over the next centuries and millennia. And their greatest expectation that is misguided is the nature of what Jerusalem has for them and for the Lord. They want kingdom. They don't want crucifixion. They want success and fulfillment. They don't want rejection.
And they don't understand the way of the cross which isn't just the timeline of Jesus's life, birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection. The way of the cross is fundamentally how Christians live. We take up our cross and we follow him. And so, the way of glory, according to the apostle Peter, is the way of suffering. And Jesus is going to embody that for the salvation of mankind, but he's going to remind his disciples that there is a delay in the kingdom that is only a delay from man's perspective.
This is happening according to the plan of God. Every part of our lives will someday be seen to be perfectly in sync with God's timeline. And that's hard for us in those valleys. And it's hard for us in those seasons of difficulty. But the way of suffering is the path to the kingdom. And because it had not yet come in its fullness, and because it would not yet come in its fullness until the glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ, their expectations are off and the kingdom is delayed.
Second, the king is rejected, the king is rejected.
Verse 12 through 14. Verse 12 through 14, and here's where we get another layer of this story, and I find this one fascinating. He said, “therefore, a nobleman went into a far country to see for himself a kingdom and then return.
Calling 10 of his servants, he gave them 10 minas, said to them, engage in business until I come. But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him saying, we do not want this man to reign over us.” The only thing relevant to the heart of this story here is the dispersion of the money, right? It's the giving of the 10 minas to these 10 servants. And three of them will be highlighted in the parable that follows. What in the divine rabbit trail is happening with this talk about the servants? It seems unnecessary. It seems like maybe the editor didn't quite clean up this story enough.
Because why are we talking about him going to a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return? Why are we talking about the citizens and their animosity towards him? Because they're not the investors that are at the heart of this story. What's this about a delegation sent after him saying we do not want this man to reign over us?
What Jesus is doing is not only is He instructing His disciples about a requisite faithfulness that they will be held accountable for, He's explaining to them how this is also a story for everyone else who is around, the crowds that swell around these disciples that will first chant Hosanna and then chant crucify him, these crowds are going to be analyzed as well in this final judgment. So, the disciple's responsibility is layered right in here with a story about a king going to receive authority from a far country. But that's not the only thing that's happening here.
If the first listeners heard this, they would immediately recognize this as a story from their own headlines. They knew exactly what Jesus was referring to. They knew the kind of story this was, because they had experienced in their own history, just in recent days.
Herod's son, you remember Herod the Great, the slaughterer of the infants? After he had died, his son Archelaus, had sought the throne and the throne was only to be given and approved of by Rome and so Archelaus as well as some of his brothers went to Rome to petition Caesar for authority. A delegation of Jews followed this procession and begged Caesar to not make this one king because he had been an enemy of the Jewish people. He had been unfair and violent and everything else. Caesar would eventually give him the throne. He would only last for less than a decade. He would slaughter thousands of Jews because of their resistance to him.
This is a very telling story. And so, for Jesus to say, a nobleman went to a far country to receive a kingdom, the crowd would have grumbled at the very thought. At the very thought because it'd be like me saying, a celebrity businessman, a mogul, a builder and television personality, long outside politics, stepped forward one day to help the people make their country great again. You'd know who I was talking about, right? That's what He's doing. Jesus is saying something familiar to them, something from their own political sphere because He's helping them understand that their attitude towards this king and their attitude towards Him may have something in common.
Though it sounds like Jesus is being lauded and received, the agenda that the people have for Jesus is not Jesus's own agenda. It's why many will say, “Lord, Lord,”to Him on that day, but not actually be His disciples. And so, not only is the kingdom not meeting expectations, the nature of the kingship is being openly rejected. The nobleman being described as Jesus, He is the one who will go off to a far country. He'll return to His Father's land in heaven. He has already received the kingdom, but He will receive it in great fullness as he sits down at God's right hand, and He will gloriously return as He promised, and His disciples need to understand that the world that belongs to King Jesus will reject Jesus. That will be their fundamental disposition against Him.
And just think about this from another layer. Luke's first readers were the earliest Christians. What was their experience? Think of those who had received that volume of Luke, Acts. I mean, they were undergoing constant hounding persecution, imprisonment, torture for their faith. They would hear this parable, and they would be reminded that this is exactly what their Lord had to endure to receive glory.
And so, the way of the cross is the Christian way. There is no kingdom apart from the cross. And this kingdom has not yet come in its fullness. And so, this rejection of the King is part and parcel of this kingdom. Citizens will reject His rule. They will say, “I do not want this man to reign over us,” and that is the disposition that unbelievers have towards the Savior then and now. His kingship is rejected, and His servants will operate in a world of hostility.
Jesus went to the Father, and in that going, He confirms all that He is. God receives His Son as His beloved and accepts His sacrifice. And Jesus goes to prepare a place for us that will receive us to Himself. And in the meantime, we will be serving in this kind of an environment. An environment that says we do not want this man to reign over us.
We will call people to follow King Jesus, and people will hate the idea of King Jesus. They will reject and they will fight and they will look down on you and reject your message and some of them will move from citizens to disciples. But it will only be through the amazing intervention of God's grace that such a thing can happen, right? It's only by God's sovereign, intervening grace that someone can go from, “we do not want this man to reign over us,” to “Lord, your mina has made 10 minas more.”
And that's what's the beautiful, miraculous reality of this thing. And so, the kingdom is delayed and the king is rejected. But in the midst of it all, this remarkable truth, point three, the servants are entrusted. The servants are entrusted. We first saw it in verse 13, 10 servants are given 10 minas. And he explicitly tells them what to do.
Don't miss this. Engage in business until I come. This isn't a hold my umbrella kind of command, right? You weren't to do whatever you want. That's not how this works. This wasn't cash from grandma at Christmas. Get what you like. This was an authoritative command from the king to his servants for them to explicitly engage in business until I come. And please note, He is not asking them to use their own resources for this. Verse 13.
He gave them ten minas. So, whose minas, are they? Well, they belong to the king. They are entrusted to the people from the one who gave them. And so, this entrustment is the heart of what's going on in this parable. The most fundamental layer of this thing is to understand that God has given His servants gifts.
In this particular parable, it's a modest gift. It's a reasonable amount. It's not a life-changing amount. It's enough to test them and to reveal what kind of servants, what kind of investors they are. This is not a reward. It's a test. This is not a bonus. This is a stewardship and he's given them a clear command, do business until I come. They are supposed to make a profit. They are supposed to invest this money. They are not supposed to sit on it. They're not supposed to hide it. They're supposed to act with it. This entrustment is to demonstrate their faithfulness and their allegiance to the king. That's what's happening in verse 13. Well, what do they do with it? Well, the entrustment unfolds verses 15 to 23, the center of this paragraph.
When he returned. A good reminder for disciples in that age and this age. When he returned. Friend, Jesus is coming back. Jesus is coming back and He will then bring with Him great reward. What He has given you in the meantime is a sacred stewardship. Jesus returns, verse 15, having received the kingdom and he orders these servants, listen to the authoritative language, ordering these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him that he might know what they had gained by doing business.
The exact same language as the command given to them in verse 13. And then out of these 10 stewards, three are featured as examples for our instruction. In verse 16, we meet the faithful steward. Verse 16, the first came before him saying, “Lord, sovereign master, your mina has made 10 minas more.”
An excellent investment. A great return. And the immediate response of the king is, well done, good servant. Because you've been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over 10 cities. This faithfulness on display in the first servant's investment that returned 10 minus. And then on display in the second servant's investment that verse 18 made five minus. And the Lord says you are to be over five cities. These acts of faithfulness are the multiplication and faithful exercising of what God has given to his servants.
What does this look like in our lives? I don't think this is difficult for us to understand because when you turn on the news, how often do they talk about interest rates? I mean, some of you do that for your job, so you think about interest rates all the time if you work in finance or real estate, but for the rest of us, we hear about them all the time, right? How is what's happening in the headlines gonna impact interest rates? Interest rates aren't something new to modern economics. In Rome, there was a fixed interest rate of 8.5%. In ancient Babylon, much higher, around 20%. The Jews regulated their interest according to Torah law, and there was all kinds of details that the rabbis filled out in the meantime.
The idea of making your money make money is not something new. Taking what you have and making it expand and grow. That's what's being pictured here. And so, the obvious correlation for us is what do you do with your money? I mean Jesus continually and more than anyone else in the Bible talks about the believer's relationship to money. And Jesus uses that as an example of what our heart condition is. Really similar to the way Jesus talks about speech from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Similarly, how you spend and save and give your money is reflective of your spiritual condition. And so that's a very obvious correlation that God has given you what you have.
That any amount of money that you have is something that you can see as God's faithful provision in your life. The Apostle Paul says, what do we have that we have not received? But that's inclusive not just of money, but of everything the Lord has entrusted to us. What else do you have, dear friend? What has God given to you?
Well, He's given to you Acts 17:26, your life, your breath, and everything. According to the letter to the Corinthians, He's given a panoply of spiritual gifts to the church. He's given us His Spirit. He's given us one another. He's given you your family, your children, your home.
What else has God given you? I mean, the list could go on and on, right, of how generous God has been with us. Has he not given to us all things? And maybe chief above them all is not that number in your bank account. Chief among them all is the entrustment that God has given us to the gospel.
He's given us this precious message of salvation that has transformed our lives and opened our eyes to how generous He's been and has told us to take this message out into the world, to preach this gospel to lost people and watch God accomplish His harvest. And so, as you list the multitudinous blessings that God has given you, I want you to think of minas, not minas, not young people, and not people getting gold out of the ground. I want you to think of this unusual word that is representative of everything God has multiplied in your life, that you are to faithfully exercise your average gifts, your extraordinary opportunities, your place of life, your thoughts and mind and resources and time and everything else. A day is coming when Jesus will return and He will ask you, what investment did you make?
How did you use the entrustment? How did you faithfully steward your gifts? And the first two are examples of excellent faithfulness, who took risks for God, who did business, who worked hard, who were busy for the kingdom when the King wasn't around. They didn't sit and knit. They didn't squander, they didn't waste, they invested and they found return.
This is really a continuation of the parable that Jesus told in chapter 12, isn't it? The rich fool, remember him? It tells him about building bigger barns and larger ones to store all my grain, Luke 12, 19. “And I will say to my soul, ‘soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘fool, this night your soul is required of you.’ And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
He continues in that same chapter telling them to be ready for action. Verse 35, “keep your lamps burning. Be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast so they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will dress himself for service, have them recline at table and he will come and serve them.”
All these parables really are building on one another to remind us as disciples that we will answer for what God has given us. Life and breath and everything. But the climax of this section is the passive servant, isn't it? Two faithful servants, one with 10, given 10 cities, a massive responsibility of oversight. One with five, given five cities, a huge responsibility of oversight.
And then, a third servant called another, verse 20. “Lord, here is your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief.” He didn't spend it. He didn't waste it. He didn't go get drunk and party with the money that was given to him. He's not like the prodigal here that takes the inheritance and burns it on loose living. He simply folds it up. He hides it. He keeps it safe. Why is he a wicked servant? And why did he do this? Well, please understand that he wasn't listening to the Lord's command. He was to engage in business until I come. And I don't think folding a handkerchief counts as business. It’s just not enough effort put forth. Not business. He wasn't busy. He didn't work. He didn't do what was asked of him.
But verse 21 tells us why. For I was afraid of you because you are a severe man and you take what you deposit and reap what you did not sow. What an interesting and telling statement. Is he right? The king is going to use his words against him, and I don't think that necessarily means that this one who failed to invest, this most passive servant is accurate, but it is how he sees the king.
And it's here where we're instructed on our theology. And I'll remind you that theology isn't just for prospective seminary students. Theology is for everyone. Because theology is simply what comes to your mind when you think about God. For this servant, what came to mind was God's severity. God's severity and honestly, how do you take this attitude? You take what you deposit and reap what you did not sow. Well, that's certainly one perspective on what's happening here. Could you not also say, thanks for the job, boss? Could you not also say, what a generous and honest and clear direction you've given me?
And so, his perspective, his theology on God is so skewed towards severity and towards the king is getting this without working for this. It's really bad theology on display. He has a wrong view of the king and that leads to a wrong response to what he does with the king's resources. And theological problems are always this way.
If you fail to believe in God's compassion and mercy and grace, you will lean towards legalism and you've been wondering this whole time, Duncan's here, he's not wearing a tie. Just slide that one in there. And if you lean towards a failure to understand God's justice and holiness, and you just say, well, it's all grace, you may lean towards licentiousness and looseness and have failed to regard holiness. What are those things?
Those are just examples of ways you might think wrongly about God, the way this servant did. And because he thought of God only as severe, and to be feared, which are true things about God, His severity is real. He is to be feared. But it's an unbalanced assessment, and it's a wrong response to the command of God in this particular passage. Yes, he took what he deposits, and yes, he is gonna reap what his servants sow, but this doesn't make him a bad man.
This servant is piling up excuses in his bad view of God, and rather than correcting his theology, he's let his bad theology turn into disobedience and disloyalty and unfaithfulness in his life, and it looks like passivity of all things. Floating, doing nothing. And the most shattering reality of a passage like this is churches are still filled with would-be disciples who do absolutely nothing for God.
Have you ever heard of the 80-20 rule? It's a seeker sensitive thing, you wouldn't know about it, but it is a thing. Those who study church growth and you know, write books about how to get your church to the next level, they love to talk about the 80-20 rule. It's this, it's that 80% of the people of the church are leaning on the 20% of the people of the church who are actually contributing. They say it's true financially that only 20% of people in a church faithfully give, that only 20% of people in a church show up to any service opportunities, only 20% of the people in a church are faithfully involved in small groups or whatever initiatives a church has, ministry opportunities. Now, I don't think that's a rule across the board, but it's something observed by those who fancy themselves experts that remind us of a truth we all understand.
There are lots of people too busy with their own lives to be working for the Lord. There are lots of people who have received the gift of salvation and who have decided to do absolutely nothing with it. There are lots of people who've been richly rewarded by God's kind and generous grace in their finances, and they are going to hang on to every penny of that. Thank you very much.
There are lots of you who have gifts and abilities that would be extraordinary blessings to your brothers and sisters in this church that you have failed to appropriate because of passivity. And this third servant is a warning to all of us against drifting and floating and passivity and laziness when it comes to the kingdom of God. A failure to invest is direct disobedience to the king's command. And a wrong view of the king is the heart of the problem. Are you having a hard time letting go of the money that God has given you? My grandpa used to say, “if somebody was like real slow to pay at the restaurant,” he used to say, “that guy's got fish hooks in his pockets.” It's just, you know, loose fish. Ow, ow, ow. Get it? Yeah. I get it. Are you feeling a little stingy? Are you lacking generosity?
It's a theological problem. It's not because you were raised in the Great Depression. It's wrong thinking about God. It's not because you grew up without anything. It's because you're not thinking about God rightly. Do you think, I don't really have much to give to the church, I can't help with stuff, I don't really have that, that's not the way I'm wired. Friend, that's not just you being closed off or shy, that's wrong thinking about God. God has given you gifts and abilities and resources and time that are to be stewarded for his sake and for the kingdom. And if you refuse to do anything with what God has given you, you're just putting it in a handkerchief because you're thinking wrong about God.
And it's a problem. Listen to the words of the king, verse 22. I'll condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant. You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reap what you did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank? I mean, how hard would that have been? And at my coming, I might have collected it with interest. I mean, to make any effort on behalf of God? You couldn't make any effort on behalf of God. You couldn't give any of your time, talent, and resources to God. Not any?
That's what he's asking him. What could be perceived or excused as being cautionary is revealed as being disobedient. What looks like safety from this unrighteous steward's perspective is not safety, it's disloyalty. And if you don't see it now, in this man's life, or more importantly, in your own life, then a time will come where everyone will see it.
Four, the world is evaluated. The world is evaluated, verse 24. “He said to those who stood by, now he's talking to everybody, ‘take the mina from him and give it to the one who has the 10 minas.’ And they said to him, ‘Lord, he already has 10 minas.’” There's some kind of redistribution that happens in this story. And I don't think you need to take it in a wooden, literal way. God's gonna take away your breath and your life and your money and give it to somebody else. He might. I think it just is exactly what Jesus drills it down to here.
Verse 26, “I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” The faithful will be given more. The unfaithful, the passive, will lose what they have. The principle is what do you do with what you have? Because what you have has been given to you for you to use for God's kingdom's sake. This is true, especially true when it comes to the gospel and the stewardship that we have with it. Those who will give their life for my sake and the gospel's sake, Jesus says, will what? They'll gain it. If you lose for His sake, you'll gain.
But if you only seek to gain for your own sake, you will lose. And that's why the redistribution and the principle pictured in these final verses ends with words of incredible severity. Verse 27, “as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.” In the parable of the talents, the unfaithful one is cast into outer darkness.
In this parable, he's not slaughtered. The guy who wrapped it in a handkerchief is simply has his investment taken away from him, and then he's mentioned no more. You don't need to overwork the dough on this parable but understand that Jesus is not making any statement about this person, their salvation. He is making statements about their eternal reward.
What's happening in this final scene of judgment is not this careful delineation in this particular paragraph of the Bema seat judgment, the reward judgment for believers where some will get this and some will get this, and the sheep and goat judgment which is heaven and hell, the elect and the non-elect, the saved and the unsaved.
He's just bringing it all together in this moment of clarity where He's telling us that there will be no neutrality in the end, all God's enemies will be judged. All faithful servants will be rewarded. All passive, lazy, those who fail to invest in the resources God gave to them will be exposed. And on that day, everything will be made clear. Because God is a perfectly righteous judge.
So where does it leave us? Well, our King is, not here right now. He's gone to receive His kingdom. But He will return, and when He does, what will you hear Him say? Because the question is, what have you been given, and what did you do with it? Because to do nothing is to be exposed and to suffer loss and to live for God and to invest for Him in faithfulness, which is what God is asking of His servants, faithfulness, is to serve King Jesus until He returns and answer that question, what are you doing with what He gave you? Because it all belongs to Him.
(Prayer) Father, thank You for Your Word. Help us to appropriate to use, to invest, to serve, to work for Your kingdom with our meager gifts and abilities. May we not confuse Your severity and Your generosity. May we not be guilty of criminal negligence when it comes to what You have entrusted to us. Help us to be fruitful and faithful servants.
God, we know Your reign is imminent. And a time will come when this world is all wrapped up and Your authority is undeniable. May we think of the equation of what we've been given and what we ought to gain. And may we live and serve and love and give and preach the gospel to our neighbors knowing that we'll answer to you on that final day. In Jesus' name, amen. (End)
