Wednesday, May 25, 2022 PM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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We pray tonight that you would give us understanding of your word, that we would rejoice in your truth.

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And your word is truth. We pray these things in the name of Jesus. Luke chapter 19, beginning in verse 11.

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Now as they were leaving Jerusalem, he spoke another parable, because he was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately.

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Therefore, he said, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.

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So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them,

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Do business till I come. But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying,

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We will not have this man to reign over us. And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.

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Then came the first, saying, Master, your mina has earned ten minas. And he said to him,

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Well done, good servant, because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.

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And the second came, saying, Master, your mina has earned five minas.

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Likewise he said to him, You also be over five cities.

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Then another came, saying, Master, here is your mina, which

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I have kept put away in a handkerchief. For I feared you, because you are an austere man.

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You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow. And he said to him,

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Master, you wicked servant, you knew that I was an austere man, collecting what

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I did not deposit, and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank?

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And he said to those who stood by,

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Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.

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But they said to him, Master, he has ten minas. For I say to you that to everyone who has will be given, and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.

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But bring here those enemies of mine who do not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.

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We have a similar parable, the parable of the talents, in Matthew chapter 25.

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We're not going to talk about that one because that's for Sunday nights. This is

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Wednesday nights, and we're going to be in Luke. But there are differences to the parables, and the differences are instructive.

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One thing it tells us is that Jesus, when he was telling his parables, would sometimes use similar forms, familiar territory, and he would use these themes and patterns to tell it in more than one way.

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In this case, there are ten servants, each one gets a mina. And the other story, three servants, one gets five, one gets two, one gets one.

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So there's some differences, and there's some additional material here in Luke that is not in Matthew.

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There's some things in Matthew that we don't see here in Luke. So let's give some thought.

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Let's give some thought to this story and what Jesus is getting across. Jesus has been talking about the coming of the kingdom.

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He's explained it to the Pharisees that the kingdom of heaven is already among them in their midst, present and growing.

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We have a parable that gives us understanding of the appearance of the kingdom.

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He tells them a parable, why? What's the occasion for a parable about the kingdom?

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How many do we have? Another one is a particular reason given in verse 11.

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What were they wrong about immediately, straight away?

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He questioned them about this, and Jesus particularly tells them, the kingdom doesn't show up with a boundary here, a border there.

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Look, a city. There's the 45th parallel.

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If you cross this patch of designated ground, you are now in the kingdom. That's not how it works.

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That the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all these little seeds that they would plant in their gardens.

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And yet, he says that over time, as it sprouts and then it grows up, eventually it becomes a tree, big enough for the birds to nest in its branches, a surprising thing because a mustard plant doesn't usually grow into a tree.

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But it was a surprise. It takes a while for that to manifest, doesn't it? You're growing your plants, your herbs, growing things in your garden, it takes a while for that to manifest.

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Also, he has likened the kingdom showing up to yeast in dough.

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And in this case, so much dough that the woman wouldn't be able to keep it in her house.

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The dough will eventually… So he's preaching the good news of the kingdom, has been doing so since chapter 4 of Luke.

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He's been going from place to place, declaring the good news of the kingdom, the good news of the kingdom. And then the people start saying, well, when is this kingdom going to show up?

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And he begins to explain more about what it's like. And so this parable is very helpful in explaining the expectations audience should have, the expectations his disciples should have concerning the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God.

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This is what he's been preaching about for so long. So notice, there is a nobleman.

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Do we see the nobleman? Verse 12. And this nobleman is no longer to simply be a nobleman who has some kind of regional influence and connections and political sway.

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No. This nobleman is to be king. And he must travel to a far country.

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When the nobleman arrives at this far country, what is to happen? He will receive his kingdom when he arrives in this far country.

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The vastness of this kingdom is underscored in our story because as he sets off for the far country to go receive his kingdom, the citizens that had been living in his presence, perhaps in his enthusiasm about this nobleman, they know what this means.

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The kingdom will be his, which means that this nobleman will reign over us and he's going to have authority over us.

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Even though he goes to a far country to receive the kingdom, his reign and his power and his authority directly affects the place that he left.

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And they want him to know, you are not going to reign over us.

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We don't care that you're going to reign over us. Just so you know, us back here, you are not our king.

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We will not have this man to reign over us. Now, before he left, before he left, he spoke with his servants.

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We know the relationship between the nobleman and his citizens. They can't abide the thought of him reigning over them.

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They're in rebellion to his authority, to his kingdom. But he has a talk with his servants and he gives to each one of them, these ten servants, a mina.

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Each one of them gets a mina. That's three months' salary. Okay? That's about three months' salary. He says, see what you can do with this.

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Now, he goes off to take up the authority that has been accorded to him to reign.

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But meanwhile, the servants must stay busy. Resources that belong to their nobleman, who is now going to become the king when he arrives in the far country.

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So they had better be busy. They must be productive. They must labor to turn what he has bestowed to them into something even greater.

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When he comes back, the first servant he talks to, what does the servant tell him?

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Here, I have earned your one mina, he says. This was yours in the first place.

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And look what else is yours. The other ten minas, it's all yours. This was given to me by you and I'm giving it back to you.

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This is how the servant sees his nobleman, his master, his king. I've been about the king's business while he's been away.

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Just because he's away doesn't mean that his authority isn't. His authority is felt very strongly.

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I've got to be about the business of the king. And he was. And he was happy to give this to his king.

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This king, upon his return from the far country, is ready to reward and to give blessing.

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And he says, okay, you get to be a ruler over ten cities. Little, faithful will be given much to be faithful over.

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And so, you have proven your loyalty to me as your king. You're very careful with what

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I have given to you. And not only careful, but you are very bold and you are laboring hard.

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So, you have proven your character. Way to go. Here are ten cities to rule over.

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Who came? All done.

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You will be a ruler over. The third servant has some complaints.

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Some complaints against this nobleman. Complaints against his master. Complaints against his king.

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We note, in the way that the nobleman or the king deals with this servant, that just because the servant objected to what he perceived to be character flaws in the master, simply because he rejected the task that was given to him to earn something with this mina, just because he was complaining against the king, that didn't change the fact that the king was still the king.

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Do you notice that? Do you notice that the citizens who sent a word after the nobleman to inform him, hey, you're not going to reign over us, did that somehow stop the king from reigning over them?

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Did that somehow remove all accountability to him, simply because they stated they would not like to have it so?

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It's not hard to grasp the significance of what

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Jesus is talking about here. He of course is the nobleman who travels to a far country to receive his kingdom, an everlasting dominion which will never be destroyed,

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Daniel chapter 7. He ascends to his father, after declaring to his disciples that all authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth, and he ascends to the right hand of God, and he sits down on the right hand and he reigns.

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He's in a far country. The servants and the citizens can't see him with their eyes.

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It's too far away. Does that mean that Christ is not reigning?

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The Bible says indeed he is reigning. He is in charge. He does have this authority. What are his servants to be about?

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To take up that which he has entrusted to us and to do something with it. What has he given to us?

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We don't have to allegorize this. We just have to apply it. What has he given to us?

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Paul says, I am what I am by the grace of God, and that's all that I am. All his talents, all his learning, all his education, all his skills, his capacity for traveling and his courage and everything else about Paul.

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He says, I am what I am by the grace of God, and that's all that I am, and what is he going to do with it? He's going to take it and work it and do his best to produce more.

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For who? For his king. What has been entrusted to you?

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What has been given to you? To make whatever it is, it's from our king, our sovereign king who provides, and the kingdom of heaven is like this.

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He's ruling from heaven. His kingdom is not of this world.

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It's of heaven, but it is in this world because we're under his authority, and we are to take up all that God has given to us and do something with it for his name and for his glory.

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Whatever you do, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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What are the complaints from the wicked servant? What does he not like about this nobleman? What does he not like about this king?

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What does he say? So he says he was afraid of him, he said you're an austere man,

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I don't like how you do your business, and yet somehow that doesn't stop the nobleman from being the master.

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He's still the master. Just because people have complaints about the king of kings and lord of lords does not somehow then mean he's no longer king or no longer lord.

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Due to the resurrection, these are the unchangeable facts of the universe. Christ is king.

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This servant does not like the idea of someone having so much authority and so much wealth that he, and so much glory and weightiness that all of this just keeps on sliding right into his possession.

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He doesn't like how glorious, how weighty, how important, how centralizing this king and this nobleman as he knew him.

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He didn't like that. He didn't like that. And the master says, if this really is your complaint, that you knew that I reaped where I did not sow, that I collected where I did not deposit, then why didn't you set things up so that I could do that?

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And collect on the interest you put into the bank. Banking was a fairly new phenomenon in the time of Christ.

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It was kind of, back then they had just begun to get into the position where some people were offering banking services, but it was very newfangled and it was, you know, not to necessarily be trusted, lots of big question marks about, you know, this newfangled thing called banking.

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It's kind of like crypto today. But he says, why don't you put it in the bank that I would have collected it with interest?

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And then he said, take the minor from him and give it to him who has the ten. And that really upset the people.

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What? You shouldn't, you shouldn't give it to the guy who has one and give it to the guy who has ten?

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That's wrong! Right? That's what everyone today would be saying, right? And Jesus says, for I say to you that everyone who has will be given and from him who does not have even what he has will be taken away from him.

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You remember the parable of the soils and the seed sown by the sower and how the good ground produced 30, 60, 100 fold, but the ground that received the seed that, well, the thorns choked out the seed over here and the ground was shallow over here.

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And so when the seed sprouted up, it withered away. And look, there's some seed just lying on the beaten path, but the birds come and eat it.

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It's taken away. And all those cases, what they had did not last. It was taken away.

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They were not of, they were not of faith. These soils were not representing these different types of hearts and reasons why the gospel being sown doesn't always produce fruit.

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Here this servant, this is a wicked servant. He's not a good servant. In fact, he's much like the enemies for in the context of him passing judgment upon the wicked servant.

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He also says, verse 27, but bring here those enemies of mine, not want me to reign over them and slay them before me, meaning in my presence.

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So what's the story? There was a nobleman who was to be given the kingdom.

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So he left for the far country. He receives his kingdom and he reigns from the far country. While the citizens who say, we're not going to let you reign over us, retain the rebellion.

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The wicked simply do wickedly. They just keep on rebelling and raging against the nobleman, against the king.

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Meanwhile, there's this servants who have, who have received what was entrusted to them, but some proved to be false and some proved to be faithful over time.

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Right? These are the ones who really honor the king and love the king. So they take up the things in their lives and they, they turn it into something for his glory.

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But see, while all this is going on, then the king returns and there's a sifting, like in all the other kingdom parables, there's a sifting when he gets back.

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Here's the faithful servants. Here's the wicked servant with all the enemies who said, we will not have this man reign over us.

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So they were saying, hey, isn't the kingdom of God supposed to, boom, here it is.

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He's like, no, that's not how it works. That's not how it works. And he tells it in terms of this story.

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Any questions or thoughts about the parable of the ten minas? This is, that's from Luke 25,

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Matthew 25. To whom much is given, much is required.

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Yes, sir. I couldn't hear you.

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What did you say? Do business.

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Do business? Yes. The Greek word behind there is the verb form of oikonomos.

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The Greek word we get a word economy from is often translated as a household. A household is a place you would occupy.

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A household is a place you would dwell. A household involves everybody who is involved in that household.

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Household things would basically be doing business. In the biblical understanding, the economy is the family.

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Business emerges from the family. It's not the family business.

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Family is the business in the Bible. The head of the household, the nobleman, has left.

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As he leaves, he turns to those members of his household. He says, be about the business.

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Do the oikonomos thing that we've been doing, but produce the fruit of my household while I'm gone.

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Alright, well, let's turn our attention to prayer requests this evening.