Doing the King's Business

“Doing the King’s Business”

Turn your Bible to , and look up here.

Jesus was near Jerusalem, 18 miles away in Jericho, the crowd of people following him numbered into the thousands. It was Passover time, so the people wore emotionally charged, because Passover was a time they remembered their deliverance from Egypt’s bondage. This celebration would also remind them they were under Roman bondage, and they wanted deliverance. Jesus disciples, and the people believed that Jesus as Messiah would overthrow the Roman government, and set up an earthly kingdom.

Jesus knew the people in the crowd were hoping to see him establish the kingdom; that would soon be crying out; 19:38-“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord”.

In order to help his disciples understand that he was not going to set up an earthly kingdom, he told them this parable. The parable has three characters in it:

The nobleman/King-represents Jesus.

The servants-represent the Kings workers.

The enemies-represent those who reject the king.

Every one of us are in this story; you are either a servant of King Jesus, or you’re an enemy of King Jesus.

The people who heard this story would connect it to an event that had happened a few years before, and event that Josephus recorded in Jewish history.

When Herod the Great, King Herod died in 4 B.C., it was obvious to almost everyone that his son Archelaus would take his throne in Judea.

But only one person could crown him king, and that was Caesar Augustus in Rome. So Archelaus made the long journey to Rome, where he expected to be crowned as king in the temple of Apollo. Unfortunately for Archelaus, there was opposition to his Kingship, and when he arrived in Rome, he discovered that some of his own family members were rivals to the throne. Even worse, a delegation of 50 Jewish leaders came from Jerusalem seeking an audience with Caesar and claiming that Archelaus was unfit to rule. The delegation from Jerusalem, backed by thousands of Jews who were then living in Rome, petitioned Caesar to not let he reign. It took much longer than anyone expected, but eventually Caesar decided to give Archelaus the opportunity to prove that he was worthy to be the king. Not surprisingly, when Archelaus returned to Judea he executed swift punishment against the men who had rebelled against his rule. He went away as a contender, but he returned as king, ready to exercise his royal authority.

This story seems to be the backdrop for the parable that Jesus gives to his disciples. Also, Jesus was in Jericho where the winter home of Archelaus was, perhaps Jesus was looking at his home off in the distance as he told the story. -Read.

That sounds exactly like what happened to Archelaus; the nobleman traveled to a far country hoping to receive a kingdom and then return, but his citizens hated him so much that they sent a delegation to prevent his coronation.

Jesus was really talking about himself. Jesus was the nobleman—the Son of God—who was about to receive a kingdom all his own. He would travel to a far country to get it, passing through death and the empty grave before being crowned in the courts of heaven and eventually returning to his people. Sadly, many citizens would reject his royal authority. Some of them would put him to death; others would refuse to believe in his resurrection, or acknowledge his ascension to the royal throne.

They would say of Jesus, “We do not want this man to reign over us.” The main point of this parable is that Jesus was not going to set up an earthly kingdom, but was going to go away, back to heaven. There would be a delay, between his going away, and is coming again, to set up his kingdom.

V:11-Read.

It is easy to understand why the people thought the kingdom was on the horizon. They saw Jesus, healing the blind, saving sinners, including the rich Zacchaeus. They were expecting the kingdom to come, deliverance to come at Passover.

So it was important that Jesus correct their false expectations; the kingdom in its full and final glory was not going to come at that time. Jesus stilled needed to suffer and die on the cross, he still needed to rise from the dead and ascended to heaven. The church would still need to go with the gospel to the nations. The kingdom will not come to earth until Jesus comes the second time.

Jesus clearly told us that there would be a delay between his ascension to heaven, and his return to earth.

This is where we are living this morning! Jesus is seated at the right hand of God; and one day Jesus is going to come again! Now the big question is, how should we live in the meantime?

This is the great question of our lives, and the question that Jesus answers in this parable. What are the servants of the King supposed to be doing while he is away?

While were waiting we are to be working;

V:13-“Do business until I come”.

We, his servants are to be involved, energized, doing business for our Lord until He comes again.

How are we to live until Jesus returns?

We’re to:

1. Live as Faithful Servants.

V:11-14.

As we wait for the second coming we are to live as faithful servants of Jesus. Jesus has gone to heaven and delegated responsibilities to us his servants. While the king was away he expect his servants to be laboring to expand his kingdom.

We’re also told in, V:14, that there were people who hated him, they were enemies to his cause, out-and-out rebels. Like the people who opposed Archelaus, they rejected the kingship of Jesus. Many Israelites had the same attitude about Jesus as he made his way to the cross. They refused to acknowledge him as their rightful king. Very soon they would be calling for his crucifixion and saying to Pilate, “We have no king but Caesar”

We will see what happened to these rebels at the end of the story.

But the parable has much more to say about the king’s servants. There were ten servants in all, and each of them was given a “mina” to manage in the king’s absence.

A mina was worth about three months’ wages.

Not a huge sum of money, but enough to find out if these servants could be trusted to serve their master. As he gave them their minas, the nobleman said, V:13-“Engage in business until I come”.

The servants were called to get busy with their master’s business, putting his money to work in order to turn a good profit.

These ten money managers represent the servants of Christ, the King. As we wait for his return, we are called to carry out the spiritual business of his kingdom. But what, exactly, does the money represent?

It is important to recognize an important difference between this parable in Luke and a similar parable in the Gospel of Matthew. The parable in , which is usually called

“The Parable of the Talents” in that parable each servant received a different amount of money, depending on his ability. Therefore, the parable in Matthew teaches that we all have different amounts of talent to use in serving the Lord.

The parable in Luke is traditionally called

“The Parable of the Pounds.” Here each servant receives the same amount of money: one mina

Per-servant. It is true that we all have different gifts but that is not the point of this parable.

This parable is more about faithfulness than giftedness: every believer has the same responsibility to work hard for the kingdom until Jesus comes again.

We have all received the same gospel, and Jesus wants us to put it to work in the world. The gospel is the good news of God’s grace. It is the message of salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the Kings offer of life and forgiveness through the cross and the empty tomb. God has entrusted this good news to us:

-“But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which tried our hearts.

Each believer receives the same investment capital for his Christian life. We all have the good news of Jesus Christ and its marvelous effect in our lives. And we all have the same command, to put this gospel to work until Jesus comes back! We are to multiply our spiritual capital, invest the gospel, and increase the yield of the good news of salvation through Christ! This opportunity raises some important questions: How am I putting the gospel to work? What return am I making on God’s investment? What profit will I have to show when Jesus comes again?

Here are some of the ways we can put the gospel to work:

We do it by growing in our own Christian lives through repentance, prayer, and daily dependence on the Holy Spirit. We do it by trusting God to meet our needs and guide our decisions.

We also put the gospel to work by serving people in need, showing the love and mercy of Christ to people who are lonely, sick, homeless, grieving, and afraid. Then we put the gospel to work by loving our families with the love of Jesus and sharing our faith with our friends.

And we put the gospel to work by making a personal investment in missionary work: praying, giving, sending, and going to the nations with the good news about Jesus Christ.

Furthermore, we put the gospel to work by carrying out our regular calling in a way that shows that Jesus is our king.

The worker can do this with his labor, the professor with his scholarship, the educator with her teaching, the lawyer with his justice, the doctor with his medicine, and the artist with her craft. The mother with her children.

Whatever we do, if we do it for the glory of God, we’re making an investment in the kingdom of God. Jesus is coming soon.

Get busy for him with the gospel!

· Buildup fellow believers, disciple-people.

· Reach the lost with the gospel.

· Encourage another by being faithful to church.

We are to live as faithful servants of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the king of heaven. Our gifts and abilities are different, but our job is the same: to share the Word of God so that it multiplies and fills the world. -“Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

We’re to:

2. Live as Expectant Servants.

V:15-19.

Servants are to live with an expectance that their king could return at any moment! One day king Jesus will return. When he returns, one of the first things he will want to know is which servants he can trust to serve him in eternity, based on what they did in his absence.

Jesus said, V:15-“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”.

We need to expect to give an account for what we’ve done with the gospel, and the opportunities we been given. The day of return was a day of reckoning, the king demanded the fruit of faithful service.

Two of the servants made good on the king’s investment, at varying rates of return:

V:16-19-Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. And he said likewise to him, be thou also over five cities.

It hardly takes a business degree to recognize that this was an excellent rate of return.

What all does this means in spiritual terms? Jesus told this parable to help us understand God’s spiritual economy; the business of the kingdom and the second coming of Jesus Christ. To begin with, the parable teaches that the gospel grows by its own inherent power.

When the servants were asked what they had done with what they had, they almost made it sound as if the money had grown all by itself. V:16-“Lord, your mina has made ten minas more,”.

Similarly, the second servant said, V:18-“Lord, your mina has made five minas”. These men did not boast about what they had done, but credited their profit to what the master had given them. The mina that made the increase. So it is with the gospel.

God tells us to put the gospel to work, and because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, it is what makes the kingdom grow. It is amazing what the gospel can do!

It delivers people from their sins, turning God’s enemies into friends.

It brings people from death to life and makes them the sons and the daughters of God.

It builds up the church, so that not even the forces of hell can withstand the onslaught of the kingdom of God.

It sends people out into the world with the love of Jesus Christ, to serve and to sacrifice. When we see what the gospel has done, both in our own lives and in the lives of people who have been touched by our church, we know that none of the credit goes to us. All the credit goes to God, because his gospel is what makes things grow.

The parable teaches us further that our King is coming again, and that when he comes, he will hold us all accountable for what we have done with what we have.

As the Scripture says, -“We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done”.

-“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done”.

The parable teaches that when the King returns, he will reward us for what we have done with what he’s given us. The man who made ten received ten times the reward; the man who made five received five times the reward.

“Our title to heaven is all of grace. Our degree of glory in heaven will be proportioned to our works.”

These kingdom rewards are presented as further opportunities for service. The man who made ten minas gets to manage ten cities. What he receives is not so much a reward as a responsibility. Since he was faithful in doing something small, God will trust him to do something much larger.

This is the way things work in the kingdom of God. We do not begin with big things, but with little things, and if we are faithful with little things, God will give us bigger things to do. Do not complain about a small place of ministry, but be faithful to serve where you are, and God will give you wider ministry when the time comes.

This is the order throughout the Bible: first servants, then rulers. The reason some people are never used by God is because they want to start off as a ruler, they are not interested in being a servant.

· Moses-40 years in the desert, 40 years leading Israel.

· Joseph-13 years a slave in Egypt-the rest of his life as Prime Minister.

Faithfulness to God in little things matters! God is watching how you handle those little things!

Big things are made up of little things.

The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water; your body is made up of small cells.

Tess said to me, Eddie, I didn’t married you for your looks, I married you for your brains, is a small things that count.

God put King David before Goliath, because he had already been faithful with smaller things, a lion and a bear.

God gave King David millions of dollars to build the temple, because he proved he could be faithful with bread and cheese.

The reward for faithful service will be a greater opportunity to serve, which is what a servant wants more than anything else in the world. Our great reward will be a greater opportunity to glorify God by serving Jesus Christ.

There will be work for us to do when his kingdom comes that will last for all eternity.

This parable also teaches that the rewards of the kingdom are completely out of proportion to the work that we do. A man who managed a single mina ended up ruling ten cities! What he received was far more than he could ever imagine. In the same way, whatever rewards God has for us when Jesus returns will be far beyond what we deserve. The Bible promises that when the King returns, everyone who trusts in him will reign with him.

By the grace of God, you will sit with Jesus on the throne of the universe!

What we do with our time and our money, what we do with the gospel, has eternal significance.

Hudson Taylor was right when he said, “A little thing is just a little thing, but faithfulness in a little thing is a great thing.”

Jesus has been gone for over 2000 years, but Jesus is coming again; we as His servants need to live with expectancy. Jesus could come even today. We are to be doing business for Jesus, knowing that we will have to give an account for our service, ministry, work, investment when he returns. Every single one of us who are servants ought to want to hear:

V:17-“Well done good servant…

We all love a complement; it makes you feel good when your boss, friend says you did a great job. But just think… To have the Lord Jesus; the one who loves you, died for you, saved you, gave you his gospel; to say to you on that day, well done good servant!

I heard about a man eating in a restaurant who was furious when his steak was brought to the table and it was too rare. So he said to the waiter, didn’t you hear me say; well done! The waiter said, thank you sir, I haven’t had complement all day.

To hear the Lord Jesus say, “Well done” that would be heaven for me!

We’re to:

3. Live as Courageous Servants.

V:20-27.

In these verses we read about a servant who was fearful, ignorant, and wicked.

This servant failed to do business, invest, trade, and engage in the ministry of the gospel.

V:20-21-“master here’s your mina, which I kept put away in a napkin, for I feared you…

He completely ignored the instructions he was given, and wrapped his mina in a handkerchief, hid it and waited for his master to return. Rather than putting his money to good use, this unprofitable servant refused to use the gift that he was given. The other servants were faithful to do business for the king. But this man was so afraid of what he might lose that he failed to work for what he could gain.

Many people do the same thing, rather than putting the gospel to work, they are afraid to talk about their faith, afraid to give God more of their money than they think they can spare, afraid to do anything for Jesus that goes beyond their own abilities and therefore forces them to trust in the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.

Holding back from the clear call of God like this is not humility; it is pride and rebellion and fear.

Rather than owning up to his failure, this servant tried to blame his master.

V:21-“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 saw God as a hard, harsh, demanding taskmaster, who only takes, and never gives.

This is slander and blasphemy! The truth is that God has given us everything we have, including the very air that we breathe. Furthermore, through Jesus, God has offered himself for our sins. How can we ever say that God has done nothing for us? When we go to the cross, we see that he has done everything for us.

Therefore, anything God demands is only a small return on what we have already received.

The master was not stingy; he was generous.

If what he said about his master was true, then at the very least he should have deposited his mina in the bank. Even if he was too afraid to put the money to good use himself, he should have given it to someone who knew what to do with it.

Do you see how wicked the man was? The word “wicked” may sound severe, but that is how Jesus described him.

Really, what else would you call a servant who refused to obey his master’s command, slandered his master’s good name, and was so scared of making a mistake that he failed to do what he was supposed to do?

According to Jesus, it is wickedness not to use what we have to serve our God.

V:24-26-Read.

The man wanted to protect what he had, but because of his disobedience, even that was taken away from him. The rich get richer, while the poor get poorer. “Use it or lose it.”

Which servant would make the best use of the mina in the handkerchief? The servant who had been faithful, to do business for the king!

He has entrusted us with the gospel, if we handle his investment well, he will give us even more good work to do for the kingdom of God. The person who has, and uses it well, will get even more. But if we refuse to do anything for Jesus at all…. We lose.

One day we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and we will have to answer for what we have done, but what he has given us. We need to be investing the gospel, sharing the gospel, giving to make sure the gospel goes outside the walls of this church! Paralyzed by fear, and motivated only by his own self-preservation, he didn’t do anything courageous for the kingdom of God. In the end, he lost his reward. God help us be courageous servants for King Jesus! Remember there are only two kinds of people, the servants of the King, and the enemies of the King. V:27-Read.

On the day of his return, Jesus the King will destroy every traitor to his cause and every rebel against his kingdom. -“And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power”.

Jesus has been gone a long time, but one day He will return and reward his faithful servants, rebuke is unfaithful servants, and to punish his enemies.

Which one of these people are you? Have you bowed your need to King Jesus? Are you working hard for his kingdom? Are you making wise investments with your time and money that will grow God’s kingdom? Let’s get busy doing the king’s business!