Aggressive Investment

Aggressive Investment in the Parable of the Minas

Go ahead and turn to Luke 19. We'll be looking today at another parable. So we've been going through a few passages on giving. Two weeks ago we looked at Galatians 6 .6. We talked about how giving is a form of shared suffering and what that means for our giving.

And then last week we looked at Luke 16 and the parable of the shrewd steward, the shrewd servant who used his temporary position in light of the time he had left. And so we saw that it's important to use our temporary position in light of eternity.

And here we're going to look at the parable of the tenmenos, which is very much like a similar parable in Matthew, the parable of the talents. And we'll see the importance of aggressive investment. So different aspects of giving in all of these.

And note too that, you know, the focus hasn't just been on financial giving. It's really all kinds of giving. God has given us much to steward our time, our resources, our health, our talents. And these different passages give us different things to think about in regards to how we ought to be stewarding what God has given us.

Reading Luke 19:11–27 and the Basic Meaning of the Parable

So I'll begin reading here in verse 11, Luke 19, verse 11. Please stand for the reading of God's word. As they heard these things, he 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 nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then returned calling ten of his servants. He gave them tenmenos and said to them, engage in business till 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 tenmenos more. And he said to him, well done, good servant. Because you have been faithful in very little, you shall have authority over ten 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's 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 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 tenmenos.

And they said to him, Lord, he has tenmenos. 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 bring them here and slaughter them before me, you may be seated.

Dear Holy Father, as we look at this parable, another parable, once again, your son said that he spoke in parables so that not everyone would understand. I pray that we would understand these things, that you would give us ears that we might hear, that you would give us eyes that we would see.

And I pray that these words would transform our hearts, they would draw us closer to you, that they would enliven us, quicken us, to make us more excited for the work you have before us, to do so with great courage, with great zeal, with great joy, and that the tasks you have given us would not be hard burdens, but they would be joyful opportunities and privileges.

In Jesus' name, amen. All right. So, as I've said, this is a passage, once again, about investing the resources that God has given us—our time, our money, our whole lives. How ought we to do that? And it's a passage that focuses on the importance of investing aggressively and not holding back for fear.

So, as we go through this, you know, think about what resources God has given you and how you ought to be using those. As we talked about last week, the context in the Gospels is very important. Context is always important in the Bible, but in the synoptic Gospels, a lot of times the context is what makes, you know, Matthew's telling of something different than Luke's telling of something.

It's the context they give. So, here, I think it's pretty important for us to go ahead and look at the context of Zacchaeus. I think it might be worth just going ahead and reading this. He entered Jericho and was passing through, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.

He was a chief tax collector and was rich, and he was seeking to see who Jesus was. But on account of the crowd, he could not because he was small in stature. So, he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today. So, he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled.

He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, to half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.

And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house, since he is also a son of Abraham. For the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. Now, as you see that, you'll see some of the similar phrases to the parable we looked at last time in the context we looked at.

They grumbled, saying, he has gone in to be a guest of the man who is a sinner. Remember, that was the same complaint that led us to the parable that we looked at last week in Luke 16, parable of the shrewd servant.

And so here, Jesus, in investing his reputation in life the way that he was instructing others to, now he has created a disciple who is then doing the same thing with his resources. He is trying to right any wrong that he has done, and he is doing so, to use that word again, aggressively.

You know, he gives half of all that he has to the poor. Imagine that. Imagine giving half of your resources, half of your estate value. That would be quite something. I don't think that would be easy.

Even if you had it in the bank in liquid already, it would not be easy to do. And who knows if he did have it on hand like that. And then on top of that, he says if he's defrauded anyone, he'll restore it fourfold so people can come to him, and he will give.

This is the kind of discipleship that Jesus was instructing, and now that he has a disciple who he has invested his reputation, you know, he has put his reputation on stake, others saying, why does he hang out with sinners?

And he has made that investment, and now he has one willing to invest in the kingdom as well in order to follow God. And so, thinking about that, and especially as he's going closer to Jerusalem, you have here the triumphal entry.

He's going to go into Jerusalem. People understand, his followers understand that he is the rightful king, that he is going to become king when he goes into Jerusalem. And what might they be imagining?

They're imagining, all right, now is when we get to rule alongside of Jesus. You know, he had promised great promises. He told the twelve disciples that they would rule on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

You know, there were some big promises that Jesus had made, and it looks like they're all about to be fulfilled. But he's going to instruct them that no, he's going to go away to get the kingdom, and that they are going to be required to have the same kind of attitude that Zacchaeus had, that same sacrificial, all-in attitude that Zacchaeus had while they wait for Jesus to return.

And so, you know, in the mornings we've been going through this series on what it means to await Christ, looking at 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and this is really a passage about that as well. Jesus states very clearly that he is going to go away to get a kingdom, and that we are to wait for him in this particular manner, investing the resources that he's given.

The Kingdom, the Servants, and the Rewards of Faithfulness

So, I just want to kind of walk through the parable first and talk about what different things mean, and then I'd like to talk after that specifically about this phrase that I think confuses a lot of people, where it says, I was afraid because you were a severe man.

Take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow. That throws a lot of people off, think maybe he's just making stuff up, but I think there's something much more substantial there that we should consider.

So, let's begin once again in 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.

So, there you have their anticipation, and he's going to, you know, pop some of their bubbles, let them know that there is some waiting that needs to be done. He said, therefore, a noble man went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.

So, very clearly in this context, Jesus is the noble man who's going to receive the kingdom. He's going to go away. He's going to go away and wait till the Father puts every last enemy under his feet, as it says in 1 Corinthians 11, excuse me, 1 Corinthians 15.

Calling 10 of his servants, here you have a picture of disciples, right? Of course, there are many more disciples than 10. Jesus' closest disciples were 12, so you know, there are many more. Everyone who follows Jesus Christ is one of his disciples, so that if you follow Jesus Christ, this applies to you.

He gave them 10 minas, and this is, as you can tell in the rest of the context, he's giving them one mina each, okay? It's not each one gets 10 minas, each one gets one minas, which is different than the parable of the talents, right, in Matthew.

There, they do actually get different amounts, and so the emphases in Luke and Matthew are different. Right there in Matthew, the point is, you know, people have different resources, and so they're called to different levels of responsibility.

Here, people have opportunities to excel in their investment and to receive rewards, receive special rewards, okay? So, he gives them each 10 minas, and a mina, by the way, is about four income. So, think about what four months' income is, and let's go with that.

And said to them, engage in business until I come. But citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, we do not want this man to reign over us. All right, who are the citizens, the ones that don't want him to reign?

This is referring to, you know, Jesus is king of the Jews, but the Jews, by and large, do not want him to be king over them, right? They are the ones who end up getting the Roman government to crucify him.

And so, he speaks of them when he talks about these ones who don't want him to reign over him, which is another addition to what you see in this parable, the very similar parable in Matthew, is he adds a picture of the Jews, and I think that illustrates something to us, because we see a very serious similarity between the one who refuses to invest and the ones who are diametrically opposed.

One might be inclined to think, well, one is far worse than the other. The picture you get at the end is near identical. So, to be a worthless servant is to be the same thing as one who is opposed to the rightful king.

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 ten minas more.

And he said to him, well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in very little, you shall have authority over ten 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.

So, here you have the disciples investing. They are serving Jesus Christ in the way that they ought to, and he will return and reward them appropriately for what they have done. Now, what are those rewards?

I hope some of you went to home group last week, because we were…. This is what we ended up talking about. We talked a lot about rewards. And there's a lot of misconceptions, I think, that lead Christians astray to think that, oh, well, in heaven, you know, we each get a crown, and that's the end of it.

No, the Bible speaks much about how God will…. Well, first of all, you know, the Bible talks about how he rewards those who seek him. There's much promise that if you seek him more than you would otherwise, there will be great benefit for that.

It's implicit in these commands and in these promises about who God is, that there will be more reward for those who serve him, better with what they have. And there are many passages that confirm the same.

And as I just said, you have that statement. Jesus made to his twelve disciples that they would sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. The idea that we will be a perfectly egalitarian society where no one has any kind of special authority, the Bible doesn't seem to affirm that.

The Bible seems to suggest that there will be some who have positions over other people. Now, it will not be in the oppressive way that you see in the world where, you know, kings rule over their citizens, but you have this picture of one who gives judgment, one who leads and guides others and is looked up to and respected especially.

The Bible shows pictures like this. I think a lot of Christians are afraid of speculating what heaven will be like, but if the Bible speaks of these things, then it's telling us that we should consider what it will be like.

And consider, what is four months' income to five cities? You know, if you were to invest it moderately, right? He's the middle guy. If you invest it moderately, being over five cities with four months' income, that's incredible.

God rewards greatly for very little obedience. You know, there's the statement that just a mustard seed of faith, you know? God does amazing things with very small things, and with a small amount of faithfulness, he rewards much.

This is the best ROI you can get. You know, ROI means return on investment. Then another came, saying, Lord, here's 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 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. So he's upset, because he has not invested well. He said to those who stood by, take the mina from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.

And they said to him, Lord, he has ten 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. And so here you have the picture of this worthless servant, the one who did not invest as he ought.

His mina is taken away and given to the one who has ten. And why to the one who has ten? That doesn't seem to be fair. Why not to the one who has less? Well, the one who has more was the one who did a better job of investing.

And so he has, he is being given this greater responsibility because the Lord can trust him with it. This picture of the wealth of the wicked being taken away and being given to the righteous, the Bible speaks of this much.

You know, it speaks many times in the Psalms about not being jealous of the wicked. But then you also have statements like in Proverbs 13 .22, it says, a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the righteous.

Now, I don't know what exactly that means. I believe that the world will be destroyed before there's new heavens and a new earth. But the Bible gives a promise, and it's not just one time, it's repeatedly, that the wealth of the wicked will be laid up for the righteous.

There's some way that their labors will be inherited by us. Now, maybe it's just that we get to look back and see all the ways God worked through their wickedness or through their secular labors, even their good labors, and how he rewarded us through those things.

I don't know. Ecclesiastes 2 .26 says, to the one who pleases him, God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner, he has given the business of gathering and collecting only to give to one who pleases God.

This also is vanity and a striving after wind. The one who is wicked, all his gathering up and collecting, it all goes to one who pleases God. And so, this amplifies what I was saying earlier, that God rewards very little faithfulness with much.

Well, on top of the proportional rewarding, then there's this additional promise that there are these additional things being stored up that are given to the righteous. Much reason to invest in God's kingdom, to be very faithful, knowing that he will do more than what is kind and good to his servants.

He says, but as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me. So, this refers to his enemies. The Bible is clear. God's enemies are destroyed.

The Fear of Failure, Uzzah, and the Parable of the Talents

Now, just from this parable, like I said, you might get the impression, well, the one who has his men have taken away, that's not as bad as having been an enemy of Christ and being destroyed by him. But consider, when you pair this together with the parable of the talents, what Jesus says.

You know, in the parable of the talents, he says in Matthew 25, 24, excuse me, yes, 25, 24, he also, who had received the one talent, came forward saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed.

So, I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, have what is yours. But his master answered him, you wicked and slothful servant. See, he's calling him wicked. You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed.

Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming, I should have received what was mine with interest. So, take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance.

But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And now, here's where you get the real difference with the parable in Luke. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

You know, the metaphor, the parable breaks down at this point, and he gives a straightforward description of hell. And so, the wicked servant, excuse me, the slothful servant is treated identically to the direct enemies of Jesus Christ.

Why did he not give it to a banker? If you aren't going to invest it, at least give it to someone else who will. And that's what he does by giving it to the one who is able to invest the best. We should not, we should not think that if we are to think that reward is great and recognize how well God rewards a little faithfulness.

Think how severe the penalty is for slothfulness and what might be considered a little slothfulness. So, he didn't come back and he didn't waste the money. You know, he didn't spend it all. He wasn't embezzling it or anything like that.

He just did not use these resources that God has given. But a true servant of the master would have invested it. A true servant of Jesus Christ is going to make a good investment. And so, one who claims to be a disciple but is not investing in God's kingdom, is he truly a disciple?

God would call him a worthless servant. Into the outer darkness, where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is very serious. We don't want to say, well, rewards sound great, but maybe I don't want those.

No, the alternative is weeping and gnashing of teeth. So, now let's consider that statement. I knew you were a severe man. I was afraid of you because you were a severe man. You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.

Like I said, I think a lot of people just think, well, that's just an odd kind of statement because it doesn't seem to fit. Well, if he thought that, why didn't he invest? And of course, that's what the master says also.

So, it just sounds very fictitious, very made up, like he's just coming up with any kind of excuse. Maybe like the thing Gia said where we sang a song for you and didn't dance. We played a dirge and you didn't mourn.

You know, he's coming up with, just like they were coming up with any excuse, you know, maybe this man is coming up with any excuse. But I think there is a real fear that he's talking about. It's a fear of failure that drives to inaction.

David, Uzzah, and Fear That Paralyzes Faithful Action

And I was reading, I've been studying 1 Chronicles lately, and I came across a passage that is very, reminded me of this a lot, and I think it would be helpful for us. So, if you'll turn to 1 Chronicles 13, I'll go ahead and read the first part of this.

David consulted with the commanders of thousands and of hundreds with every leader. And David said to all the assembly of Israel, if it seems good to you and from the Lord our God, let us send abroad to our brothers who remain in all the lands of Israel, as well to the priests and Levites and the cities that have pasture lands, that they may be gathered to us.

Then let us bring again the ark of our God to us, for we did not seek it in the days of Saul. Okay, so here's the problem. In the days of Saul, the ark of the Lord was not sought, right? The ark of the Lord represents the presence of God.

He dwells over, between the cherubim. This is important to the well-being of Israel, and the reason why Saul's kingdom was poor and languished and, you know, eventually Saul was removed, in part, it's because he did not seek after the ark of the Lord.

All the assembly agreed to do so, for the thing was right in the eyes of the people. Now, skipping down to verse 9. And when they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzzah put out his hand to take hold of the ark, for the oxen stumbled, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah.

And he struck him down, because he put out his hand to the ark, and he died before God. David was angry, because the Lord had broken out against Uzzah, and that place is called Perez Uzzah. Perez meaning to break out, and broke out against Uzzah, to this day.

And David was afraid of God that day, and he said, how can I bring the ark of God home to me? So David is afraid of God, because he's a severe master. So David did not take the ark home into the city of David, but took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom, the Gittite.

And the ark of God remained with the household of Obed-Edom in his house three months. And the Lord blessed the household of Obed-Edom, and all that he had. So here David is, trying to secure blessings for all the people of Israel by bringing the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem.

He makes one mistake that goes wrong, one person makes one mistake that goes wrong, and he is paralyzed by fear to continue to seek the ark of the Lord. You know, Chronicles brings out the differences between David and Saul in a really stark way, right?

It has kind of this privilege of giving you a bigger overview, and so it takes that opportunity to set Saul and David really at odds together. But here you have David failing to be just like Saul. He is not seeking the ark of the Lord, because he's paralyzed by fear.

What if we mess up again? You know, eventually he does bring the ark of the Lord into Jerusalem, but paralyzed by fear temporarily, he does not. And someone else receives all these blessings as opposed to the people of Israel in general.

I think that's a very good picture of what we see in Luke, where this man says, you know, I knew you were a severe master. You want much, and so what if I invested and the investment didn't go well? Isn't it better just to hold on to this coin to make sure it's still there?

What if I lost on my investment? Why would I do that? And Jesus is saying, if you couldn't do it, why didn't you give it to someone else who could have? We are called to invest, and that fear he's describing is a very real fear.

But if we recognize that our master is not hard and severe, while he does require much, he is not hard and severe in the sense of not rewarding faithfulness, because he does reward faithfulness. He is not looking for the kind of results the world might.

He is looking for us to be faithful. You know, how many people have decided that, well, you know, maybe I'm called to ministry, but I'm not going to because that sounds really hard, and maybe I'll do a poor job.

Or how many people have said, well, I'd like to give to that thing, but that's going to really hurt my bank account, and maybe it will end up worse for me in the end, and then I can't serve God the other ways that I like to serve God.

Or they say, well, you know, the Bible talks highly of marriage, but, oh, I'm just not sure if now's the right time or this is the right person, and they're paralyzed into inaction. You know, this very common thing, even among Christians today, to delay marriage forever despite things the Bible says, or not to have kids because maybe I'll do a bad job at having kids and not recognizing the things the Word says about the blessing that children are.

So you have all these people paralyzed into fear instead of aggressively making investments. Now, I'm not saying that we should be reckless, right? We should get counsel from others, we should count the cost, each one of those things I described.

You know, we should consider whether or not we are up for the task, certainly, but we should not be paralyzed by fear so as to always take the safest route. We should not restrict our investments and consider the missionaries that have been sent out to dangerous lands and have been killed.

And a lot of people mock those missionaries. Christians do. I remember the last time something like that happened that was pretty high profile about five years ago, and people mock this man for having gone out there and tried to bring the gospel to this tribe.

And I think a lot of them thought he had done it on a whim. They didn't realize he had gone to seminary. He had planned for this. He was working with other people. He was really trying to bring the gospel to them, but they speared him and killed him.

Well, guess what? The Lord is not going to look at that and say, you failed. Where's my coin? You were supposed to save some souls there. No, he is going to reward faithfulness in every circumstance. You know, if you consider how a lot of 401ks are managed, right?

They invest aggressively in the beginning, and then they dwindle off. As you're closer to the end of your life, you don't want to lose it all right at the end, right? I think a lot of Christians invest the lives that God has given them as though they're at the end, right?

Not realizing, like Jesus said, there is a lot of time left. And in fact, there is all of eternity before us, and we are just managing the account for another. We are just managing a very small account for God.

We ought to invest as though we are at the beginning of that. We ought to invest knowing that he is sovereign over all things and will reward greatly any effort we make. This calls for boldness. This calls for wisdom but risk-taking.

This calls for aggressive investment. And we should be looking to the one who invested everything himself, Jesus Christ, laid down his own life. Though he was informed of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Jesus Christ gave up everything, and he did so. He was not paralyzed by fear. He suffered the same things we do, the external stimuli that cause us to fear, right? Jesus was in the garden trembling. He suffered those things as well, and yet he went through, and he died.

He died on behalf of all of those of us who are poor investors. You know, we have all—the first half of our lives, at least, prior to knowing Christ, those were not good investments. And even now, we continue to invest poorly, not as well as we ought.

But he is a perfect investor who has died for those who are not excellent stewards. But he has died not only to forgive us for where we have failed for being good investors, but he has also died to give us the Holy Spirit to change us, to transform us, so that we might not be paralyzed by fear, but might be able to aggressively invest, take some risks, to be bold, to be courageous, knowing that God rewards.

He won't do much. And then, on that day, as you stand before him, and you were faithful and not one who put it away in something thin like a napkin, but you invested, we'll say here, you were not perfect, but you were in Jesus Christ who was, and he changed you to do excellent deeds.

Here are five cities. Here are ten cities, or as it says in Matthew, enter into the joy of your master. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, you call us to high things. You call us to difficult things. And yet, you are not hard and severe, as some say.

I pray that you would give us a right view of these things, that you give us courage and boldness, and that we would be eager to do what you have called us to do, knowing that you are a good and kind God.

God, I ask that you would give each one of us here courage, as we have a life to steward, and you have called us to steward it well. I pray that we would not be worthless ones, just like those who are outright stated enemies, but that we would be faithful, responsible stewards.

And God, I pray that you, by your Son, by your Spirit, would transform us to make us more like him. In Jesus' name, amen.