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Reading Luke 19:11-27 where Jesus tells the parable of the Ten Minas as He comes to the end of His journey to Jerusalem and in response to the disciples about the coming of the kingdom. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Jesus tells the story of a nobleman who gives an investment to some servants and they're supposed to go out and do business. Those who did well and offered a good return were celebrated, but those who did nothing would be destroyed.
When we understand the text.
This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ. For he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wutt .com.
Once again, it's Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we continue in chapter 19. We're up to where Jesus tells the parable of the 10 minas. I'll explain what a mina is here in a moment. This also marks the end of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem.
So let me begin reading in Luke 19, verses 11 to 27. Hear the word of the Lord. As they heard these things, Jesus proceeded to tell a parable because he was near to Jerusalem and because they suppose that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.
He said, therefore, a noble man went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return calling 10 of his servants. He gave them 10 minas and 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. Then another came saying, Lord, here is your mina, which I have kept laid away in a handkerchief for I was afraid of you because you are a severe man.
You take what you did not 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 reaping what I 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. And he said to those who stood by, take the mina from him and give it to the one who has the 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.
And then what comes next right after this parable is the triumphal entry, Jesus coming into Jerusalem. So this marks the end. This parable right here marks the end of Jesus journey to Jerusalem. This goes back to Luke 9, 51, where Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem.
And then from then on, from Luke nine, all the way to here in Luke chapter 19, it has been Jesus journey to Jerusalem where he is going to be arrested, crucified, and he would rise again. It begins, of course, with his triumphal entry into the city, which we'll get to next week when we come back to our study in the gospel of Luke.
So remember once again that this is right after Jesus had just got done visiting the house of Zacchaeus. It could very well be that Zacchaeus was Jesus' most famous convert. He was a chief tax collector, well known throughout Jerusalem, well, not Jerusalem, but Jericho, and then that surrounding region.
Everybody knew who Zacchaeus was, and a lot of the people hated him because of course he was in league with Rome, collecting taxes from the people, and he would charge them more than what they actually owed so that he could take off the top and collect for himself.
Zacchaeus said that he's going to give half of his goods away to the poor, and whoever he has defrauded, he would restore to them fourfold. And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house since he also is a son of Abraham.
It was back in Luke chapter three that there were people contending with John the Baptist and saying, we have Abraham as our father. And John said that God can raise up from these stones children of Abraham.
So here Jesus is saying of Zacchaeus that he is a true child of Abraham because he had faith in Jesus. That's Galatians 3 .7. It is those who are of faith who are the children of Abraham. Those who truly believe, and Zacchaeus demonstrated the certainty of his belief by being obedient to the Lord, giving all that he had and following Jesus.
And so now as Jesus goes from Jericho, making that difficult journey up, literally up from Jericho to Jerusalem, he tells this parable to his disciples on the way. And in verse 11, it says why he's telling this parable.
So this is what we're supposed to recognize about the parable and the lesson that we would draw from it. He's near to Jerusalem and the disciples. They were presuming that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.
It was back in chapter 17 where Jesus said that the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed. But the kingdom of God is in the midst of you telling that to the Pharisees. So you're going to be looking for these signs or some emancipator to rise up who would sit on the throne is going to make Israel great again.
That's what it is you're going to be looking for. But the kingdom of God is already here. It's in the midst of you. Now, the kingdom of God had not reached its fullness yet, of course, but already with those who are believing the gospel and following Jesus, citizens were being added to this kingdom.
It's a spiritual thing. It wasn't a physical location on earth. So the disciples are still under the assumption that Jesus is going to go there to Jerusalem and he's going to he's going to assume the throne of David and fulfillment of the way they were understanding the prophecies.
And then Israel was going to be an empire like it was in the days of David or of Solomon. And it was even going to be that they would be liberated from the Romans and all the nations would come after Israel.
They would be greater than every nation on earth. They suppose that the kingdom of God in this way was going to appear immediately. So Jesus preparing them for this tells them this parable and he says, a noble man went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.
Now, Christ is already over this kingdom. But the kingdom, as I said, has not come to fruition yet. It's not come to its fullness yet until every single person that is elect by God would come into the kingdom.
Everyone who becomes a citizen of the kingdom of God becomes a citizen the same way by faith in Jesus Christ. Well, even those in the Old Testament would be members of this kingdom. They are they are drawn into the kingdom by grace through faith.
And on that day when when the kingdom receives its fullness and Christ returns, then he reigns over a kingdom that is made up of Jews and Gentiles. Every tribe, tongue and nation on earth, those who lived before the cross and those who lived.
After.
That's all demonstrated in the book of Revelation. So yet the kingdom has not come to the fullness of every citizen that God is going to put.
In it.
But as Jesus is telling this parable, he is going to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. Talking about the fullness of the kingdom when the last saint comes in and then verse 13, calling 10 of his servants, he gave them 10 minas and said to them, engage in business until I come.
Now, I'll be honest, I don't really know why the number 10 is used here. Why not 12? I think I have a pretty good idea as to why it's not 12 servants. And that's because we might think that 12 servants means that this is just for the 12 disciples.
And that's only who Jesus is talking about in this parable. I think 10 is the number that is used. This is my assumption anyway. I know 12 is not used because we're not meant to see that it's only with regard to those 12 disciples who are following him.
10 instead is used so that we would see that this applies to all disciples of Jesus. Everyone is included here in this parable, not just the 12 that he is talking to. So that could be the reason. I still don't get though why it would be specifically 10.
If anybody has an idea, let me know. I'd be interested to know what your theory might be. So calling 10 of his servants, he gave them 10 minas. And a mina, by the way, is three months wages. So now giving them 10, they have 30 months wages.
So over two years worth of wages that this master has given to them, two and a half years. And he says to them, engage in business until I come. But his citizens hated him. Now, this is a different group.
So he gives 10 minas to this group of servants. We have servants and we have citizens in this parable. The servants do the business that the nobleman tells them to. But the citizens don't like the nobleman.
And they send a delegation after him saying, we do not want this man to reign over us. The picture here is like when the Jews sent a delegation to the Romans. Once the Romans had taken over the region and ruled over Judah and Jerusalem and also Galilee and Samaria, when the Romans came in and the land of Judah became part of their empire, there was a delegation that was sent by the Jews to the Romans saying, we don't want you to rule over us.
Now, did they get their wish? No, they didn't. And rulers were sent to them. And there would even be governors and things like that, respective areas like Pilate, who was right there in Jerusalem at the time.
With that in mind, Jesus talks about a delegation that is being sent saying, we do not want this nobleman to reign over us, to rule over us. Now, this could be a picture of one of two things. It could be the Jews who are rejecting Jesus.
We don't want this. We don't want this guy to reign over us. Remember, as it said in John chapter one, he came to his own, but his own did not receive.
Him.
So it could be a mention of the Jews. And therefore, when you get to the end of the parable and you read in 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.
That could be Jesus talking about the judgment that was to come in AD 70 with the destruction of the temple and when Titus would march the Roman armies into Jerusalem. All the Jews that would remain there would be killed.
So it could be that. And of course, this would have been the judgment that would have come upon the Jews at that.
Time.
The other possibility is that these citizens represent anybody who would reject Jesus. And so therefore, the end of the parable represents the last judgment. And anybody who has rejected Jesus as king would therefore perish under the judgment.
Of God.
So back to the ten servants and we have verse 15 here when he returned, having received the kingdom. So now this is talking about the last citizen of that kingdom has come in. Christ returns. That's the picture here.
Of course, Jesus is telling this parable in in very earthly kind of ways, in ways that the disciples would have understood. So it has a picture of a nobleman going into another country and conquering and then getting a kingdom out of the the war that he waged against another land.
Or maybe he was making peace with that land. They signed some sort of treaty or something like it could have also been that way. But it's still the picture of a nobleman going to another place and receiving that kingdom.
And once he has that kingdom, he comes back. That's kind of the earthly ways in which Jesus is is sharing of these things. As I've said before about parables, we can read into it too deeply. But these are terms and expressions that Jesus uses that the disciples would have understood, been able to relate to.
So I'm explaining it in a way that a Jew would have understood it at the time that Jesus was telling this parable. So he returns and he orders the servants to come to him that he might know what they had done.
What did they do with the money? What kind of business did they engage in? In verse 16, the first came before him saying, Lord, your Mina, remember your two and a half years wages that you gave to me has made 10 minus more.
Now that's amazing. And to take one minor even and turn it into a whole other minor. And yet this man invested the money in such a way, 10 minus that has become 10 minus more. He doubled the amount of money that the nobleman gave to him.
And the nobleman said to him, well done, good servant. Of course, this is like I haven't mentioned this yet, but this is just like the parable of the 10 talents that we read about in the Gospel of Matthew.
So just like there with the with the talents and the servant that says, I've doubled your investment. You gave me five talents. I'm returning to you five talents more. Different sort of currency there in Matthew, but still the same kind of parable that Jesus teaches in Matthew 25 is what we read here in Luke 19.
Different setting in which this parable is being given. The one in Matthew is during the Olivet discourse. So anyway, this still pertains to the end. It pertains to what's going to happen when the Lord returns.
It's kind of the picture that Jesus is painting with this parable. So you have the guy with 10 minus turns it into 10 minus more. And the nobleman says to him, you are going to have authority over 10 cities.
Well done, good servant. You've been faithful in a very little. I'm going to give you all of this authority. And the second came saying, Lord, your minor has made five minus. So this guy invested it also one minor being three months wages, and he turns it into five.
Minus.
So a little over a year's worth of wages by the investments that he made. And he said to him, you are to be over five cities. Then another came saying, Lord, here is your minor, which I have kept laid away in a handkerchief.
For I was afraid of you because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow. And so the nobleman 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 reaping what I do not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank? And at my coming, I might have collected it with interest. And he said to those who stood by, take the minor from him and give it to the one who has 10 minus.
And they said to him, Lord, he has 10 minus. He's already got all this money. You want us to take it from this guy and give it to the guy who's got a lot? And so the nobleman says, 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. So what this is supposed to represent is that the person who submits to God's rule, who recognizes Christ as King and serves him and serving him is going to be demonstrated in the works that they do.
So it's not works that save us. Going back to the account with Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus didn't do anything. When Jesus said salvation has come to this house, he just said he was going to do something. But because he believed in the Lord and the Lord knew his heart was able to declare salvation has come to this house today because Zacchaeus believed and he was justified by faith.
The works that he did were a demonstration of the fact that he had been transformed in his heart. And so here Jesus is telling of these servants and the one servant that does nothing actually demonstrates that he's not really in submission to the rule of the nobleman.
Now what happens with that servant who did nothing with the mina that was given to him? What happens to that servant is the same thing that happens to the citizens who rejected the nobleman. So going on from there, again, the nobleman says to everyone who has more will be given.
So to the one who submits to the rule of Christ and his presence and worships him and honors him and serves him, he will receive more. He'll get more. He will grow in the knowledge of God. He will grow in holiness.
There will be a change that happens in that person's life, sanctification. They will continue to be sanctified until the day of glory, until they enter into the presence of God. But the one who does not submit to Christ's rule, even the little that he has, that profession of faith, which really wasn't any sort of faith at all, even that will be taken away from him.
And so then after that, the one who has not even what he has will be taken away, verse 27. But as for these enemies of mine, now we go back to those citizens who did not want Christ to reign over them.
They did not want me to reign, bring them here and slaughter them before me. And so the person who did nothing is going to end up in the same place as the person who just outright rejected and said, I don't want you to rule over me.
So that's the connection there. And again, Jesus is saying this parable in light of the fact that the disciples think they're going to Jerusalem for the kingdom of God to come. They think it's immediately going to happen.
But Jesus tells them this parable so that they will see there's work that you need to do and that you would progress in that work and you would continue in it. So that when the nobleman returns, when the master returns, he's going to find you as faithful and working servants.
We've seen other parables that have this same kind of point. But Jesus saying this to his disciples so that they would know the kingdom of God is not going to come right away. Their minds would be open to these things later once Jesus had risen and even departed from them.
So the kingdom isn't coming right away, but there's work for you to do before the kingdom comes. And may we all be faithful in doing that in these days. My friends, times are going to be hard. The news cycle is going to change all the time.
We jump from one bad news story to another bad news story, or things may even seem good for a while. There may be peace and prosperity in the land, but the kingdom of God has not come yet. And so no matter what the condition might be, whether in a time of peace or a time of unrest, that we need to be faithfully working servants.
We need to be pursuing holiness. We can't just sit there and do nothing and expect that if I just abstain from doing bad things, then I'm going to receive the kingdom. No, doing nothing is actually a bad thing too.
Just because you resist doing bad things, it does not mean that you're going to be rewarded for your works. You must do good. You must pursue righteousness. You must grow in holiness. You must be after Christ.
And we must share the message of the gospel with other people so that they too would come to conviction over their sin, repentance, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. And these are among those things that we must do until the day of the Lord comes.
Abstaining from doing wicked things? Yes, we should do that, but we abstain from wicked things by pursuing that which is right and good in the eyes of God, what is pleasing to him as faithful and working servants until his return.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read in this parable of the minas. And as we bring this to a close and we look toward what's coming up next in Luke, the triumphal entry, I pray that we understand Christ's rule and reign in this world and in our lives.
And we would be in submission to that rule, that we would put to death what is earthly in us, not pursuing the passions of our flesh, not going after sin, but Lord, we would be after Christ. And where we do slip and fall, you would convict our hearts and that we would come back to Christ knowing as said in 1 John 2, 1, little children, I write these things to you that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
And he is the one who forgives us and cleanses us of all unrighteousness. May we be presented holy before you on that day. It's in Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.
On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.