As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. He said, therefore, a noble man went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and then return. Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten 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 ten 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 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 is your mina, which is kept laid away in a handkerchief, 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 the 10 minas. And they said to him, Lord, he has 10 minas. I tell you that everyone 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." A reading from God's Word this morning. At the time of Jesus' birth, you might know that The land of Israel, the land of Palestine, was ruled by Herod the Great. Herod the Great, king over the land, but still his territory was a part of the larger Roman Empire, so ultimately he was under the authority of the Caesar of Rome, but still had the title of king. Well, shortly after Jesus was born, Herod died. According to his will, the majority of his territory would pass to his son, Archelaus, to rule. Now, Archelaus knew that if he was going to rule effectively, he would need Caesar to officially bestow that authority, officially give him his title to rule. So, Archelaus after his father's death, takes the long journey from the territory of Israel all the way to Rome to see Caesar, to get his authority, to receive his title. Now, Archelaus had made some enemies. And so, some of those enemies wanted no part in Archelaus' rule, so what they did was gather together and they sent a delegation. to go after him, try to even go before him to Rome, to themselves appear before Caesar and say, there is no way Archelaus should be king over us. Well, Caesar eventually decided that yes, Archelaus would rule. And he returns with a title. He returns with authority. And you can imagine how pleased or lack of pleasure he had in those who rose up to oppose him. and they weren't treated very kindly. Does that kind of sound familiar? That's the basic plot line of the parable that Jesus told. Most likely that historical event provides some of the backdrop of Jesus's parable here. He's at a very crucial moment in his ministry, sensing that there's very key clarification that he has to make. And he has to make it now, before he hits Jerusalem. And what he seems to draw on is something that would be very much in the minds of the people. This was recent history. This was some 30 years ago. It was not too long ago. They knew about it. They were very heavily invested. They knew how kingship worked, how rule and authority worked. And Jesus uses that familiar to make a very important point about a greater king and a greater kingdom. Jesus begins here knowing he has to make this point. The timing is critical. We're told in verse 11 is that he's given a sense of the urgency of this message. Verse 11, "...as they heard these things, he proceeded to tell them a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately." Timing is everything. Jesus knows he's got to get this message across. Because of what he's just been saying, we're told. After they heard these things, what has Jesus just been saying? What has he just been talking about to Zacchaeus? We looked at this last week. Salvation has come to your house, Zacchaeus. He's performed a messianic task, bringing salvation. He's used a messianic title. As he says at the end, the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. Use that title, Son of Man. That's a messianic title. Do you remember that from Daniel 7, which we read earlier? Daniel 7, that picture of the Son of Man receiving from the Ancient of Days power, glory, authority. He's used a messianic title, he's done messianic tasks, and now he's on his way into Jerusalem, into the holy city, where we'll see he's going to be greeted in messianic terms. We'll look at it next week. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, the crowds will shout. And there's something right about all that. The crowds will make the connection. This guy's the Messiah. But there's something that Jesus needs to clarify. Jesus knows the expectation at that time was that the Messiah would come and climactically and instantly bring in the age to come. Messiah would arrive. The new age would arrive in all its fullness. The king would come and take his throne in the city of Jerusalem, the throne of David, kick out the enemies. Most of the time people thought of that as the Romans and all the other Gentiles. Set up a kingdom climactically, which would mean judgment for God's enemies and salvation for his people. The expectation was Messiah comes, climactic end of the age is here. And the kingdom arrives in all its fullness. And now here's Jesus, who's just been using a whole lot of messianic titles, and people are getting excited, and he's about to march into Jerusalem, and people are going to start thinking, this is it. So Jesus needs to clarify the kingdom schedule. Clarify the kingdom schedule. That's the first thing he does in this parable. Verse 12. A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. Yes, there will be a kingdom, Jesus says. Yes, there is a king, but there will be a delay, Jesus says. The king, the nobleman, will have to first go away, just like Archelaus did 30 years ago, will first have to go away to a far country there receive the title, the authority, receive the kingdom, and then return. There will be a delay." Of course, you can see what Jesus is talking about here. Yes, of course, they're right to hail Him as the King. He is. He is the Messiah. But the kingdom coming in its fullness, immediately, no, Jesus says there's going to be a delay. I'm that noble man. I will have to go away. I will have to go away, ascend into heaven, and there receive the fullness of the Kingdom. Jesus will go away and return, receive the Kingdom from His Father. Jesus presented in the Gospels as the King as He arrives. Absolutely. There's a sense in which the fullness of His Kingdom authority takes place only after He lays down His life. He's raised up, ascended into Heaven, and seated at the right hand. In fact, that is exactly what the picture in Daniel 7 is. There's the Ancient of Days, the picture of the Father, and one like a Son of Man. Coming in the clouds not coming down in the clouds He's coming up up to the father ascending up to the father into the heavenly throne room And what does he receive from from the father? Dominion glory and a kingdom Jesus is the king is the Messiah, but he will must go and receive the fullness and then Return so the first lesson then of the parable for the people is the kingdom is coming, but there will be a delay the king will first go away to a far country and then Return and he knows the temptation of of the crowds and of his disciples as they're getting very excited And then perhaps be tempted to have their hopes dashed as things start to look hard as Jesus leaves Suffering comes and persecution comes in it. It seems like he's been gone a long time. He sets them up There's going to be a delay don't think the kingdom has been forgotten about It's a good thing for us to get a to wrestle with isn't it? As we live in the period of delay as we watch the news and so often are Wondering what's going on in this world? And the news, the tragedy of the news, too often will come very, very close to home, and we walk through it ourselves and our families, and we start to wonder, Lord, what are you doing? Jesus, what's going on? Why is this here? I thought you came to fix things. And Jesus speaks right into that. He knows His disciples' temptations. He knows our weakness, and He says, yes, The kingdom is real. Yes, it's not been forgotten about, but there will be a delay. The king will go away, receive the kingdom and then return. So we wait, knowing that he's coming back and who will bring the fullness when he arrives. So kingdom schedule needs to be clarified. And he also talks about the kingdom sedition. We read of this in verse 14. But his citizens hated him. and sent a delegation after him, saying, we do not want this man to reign over us. Just like in the story of Archelaus. There's a rebellion against the authority of this newly appointed king. A rebellion from his own citizens. Notice, first of all, this is a different group of people from the servants. There's servants and there's citizens. This is the citizens he's talking about here. His own citizens rise up. saying we don't want this king to reign over us. We see this in Jesus' day. We're going to see a lot of it in the next couple of chapters as Jesus gets to Jerusalem. And more and more of Jesus' own countrymen, his own people, those who were raised in the people of God, who will rise up against the king and want no part of his reign. We'll see the crowds. We'll see the religious leaders, Pharisees and Sadducees and Scribes. We'll see them try to ensnare Jesus with their trick questions. We'll see them conspire together to arrest Him. We'll see them pay a betrayer. We'll see them commit false witness to have Him convicted. We'll see them shout for His crucifixion. We don't want this king to rule over us. Do you remember what John records as Pilate is there with Jesus before the crowds? And the crowds are shouting, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Remember what Pilate says? Shall I crucify your king? Remember what the crowds say? We have no king but Caesar. Exact same thing that Jesus talks about here. We don't want this man to reign over us. This is not our king. We want no part of him. But it doesn't work. It doesn't work historically with Archelaus. It didn't work in the parable, and it doesn't work with King Jesus. Despite the passionate opposition, despite the fact that it looks like it bears some fruit, they have him crucified. He's still crowned king. This great language of Peter on the day of Pentecost. This becomes a theme in apostolic preaching of the gospel. Luke, continuing his story in the book of Acts, has Peter there. He records what Peter does on the day of Pentecost as he preaches to Jerusalem. The very people have rejected him. The very people who have shouted, crucify him. We have no king but Caesar. Peter says to them on the day of Pentecost. Listen to the power of these words in context. Let all the house of Israel therefore know, know for certain, that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. You get that picture, that power, that picture? The ones who shouted, we do not want this man to reign over us. No king but Caesar, crucify him. And now Peter stands up and says, let all the house of Israel know. for certain. This Jesus, whom you crucified, God has made both Lord and Christ. He's made Him King. Your efforts didn't work. We do not want this man to reign over us. We still hear those shouts today, don't we? In fact, even in the news this week, another prominent intellectual came out and declared that there is no God. It can be proven. There is no king. We see more and more, especially as you think about some of those more vocal atheists, those who, not just declaring they don't believe in Jesus, but that they hate him. It's that same message. We don't want this man to reign over us. So what we do in that kind of those who claim to believe what do we do? I think we follow the example of Peter in Acts chapter 2 We proclaim that this one that you hate God has made King But also what Peter will continue to do which is to hold out salvation Repent Forgiveness of sins, it's available We hold it out with compassion Because after all, aren't we rebels at heart? Aren't we those who don't want a king by nature? Isn't that where we were apart from God's grace? We can understand. We'd be just like them. So we hold out in compassion those who've rejected Him. with good reason to hold out the good news, to hold out the need for turning from sin, because Jesus records what happens when He returns to these enemies. Verse 27, But as for these enemies of Mine who did not want Me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before Me. It's kind of graphic. It's powerful. It's striking. I think Jesus means it to be striking. He means us to take attention. This king doesn't mess around. Rebellion against this king is serious business. A holy God demands allegiance and Jesus will return for judgment upon those who reject him. Paul calls it the day of wrath. The day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. There's going to be a little Little taste a little foretaste of this day of wrath coming soon for those religious leaders Jesus is going to talk and a couple times in the next couple chapters about Jerusalem being destroyed It's accomplished in 70 AD as the Romans come in and and you get the strong idea that this is not just what Rome did This is what God does and coming in judgment what King Jesus does in coming in judgment. It's just a little taste It's awful. We'll see Horrible. It's God's judgment upon those who crawled for his crucifixion. Who rejected the promises with just a little taste of what Paul calls the day of wrath. When God's righteous judgment will be revealed. How do any of us escape? We're rebels at heart. God's grace. It should humble us. We'd be there too. Rejecting his authority apart from God's grace. And if you If you're still rebelling against this king, this is a reminder you need to turn, bow before this king and trust him for salvation alone. So we have kingdom schedule, kingdom sedition. I want to talk about servant work and then a servant warning. Jesus turns their attention from issues of scheduling. He needs to clarify the schedule, but he turns their attention from issues of scheduling to issues of work. their attention from the calendar onto the to-do list. Answering the question with, OK, if there's going to be this delay, what do we do in the meantime, Jesus? He's about to tell them. After saying that the nobleman will go to a far country, receive the kingdom and then return, before the nobleman leaves, verse 13, calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas and said to them, engage in business until I come. Engage in business until I come Jesus. What are we to do? During this delay while you're away until you return Jesus tells them engage in business till I come Remember who he's speaking to here. This isn't the citizens who rise up against him. These are the ones called servants different group Not the citizens but the servants Pictures of those who follow Jesus Those are his servants. Not paid laborers who can kind of come and go as they please. Those who are servants, bond servants, slaves even you could think of it. Those who are under the authority of the master. So these words of the master, of the nobleman to his servants aren't just a suggestion. If you're looking for something to do and you have some free time, give this a try. It gives a command. He expects that his servants will follow it. After all, they're his servants. And the command is, engage in business until I come. He gives them each an amount of money. That's what a mina is. It's a sum of money. Your footnote, I think, tells you it's about three months' wages. So translating to today, maybe eight, nine, $10,000, something like that. So not chump change, but not a fortune either. Something in the middle. Which, by the way, this is another one of the clues that reminds us that this parable is a different parable than the Parable of the Talents. It's a lot of similarities, that Parable of the Talents, which Matthew tells us, but a lot of differences. This is one of them, different sums of money. You also see he tells it at different times, and there's some different details. Similarities, but it's a different parable. Each servant gets one mina, one sum of money. Three months' wages. And they're told that they're supposed to do business until the master returns. They're expected to take what they've been given and turn a profit for the master. It's not their money. It's the master's money. They're investing it for him. They're working to make a profit so the master returns. He has a return on his wages. Engage in business until I come. So what does that look like for followers of Jesus? more than just playing the stock market or something like that. What does it mean for us to engage in business until Jesus comes back? Well, we could ask this question to start. What did it look like for the apostles? They're the ones who are standing right in front of Jesus. What did it look like for them to receive their mina and engage in business until he comes? Actually, the passage we read earlier from Acts chapter one I think is very helpful. A lot of the same kinds of language, remember? Before Jesus ascends, before He goes away to the far country to receive the Kingdom, they even start off, the disciples do, asking some of the same questions about scheduling. Jesus, is this when you're going to return the Kingdom to Israel? Is this it? And He turns their attention away from the scheduling issues to the to-do list. Here's what you're supposed to do. He says, you're going to receive power. Power to do what? To be my witnesses. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth. Engage in business. You've received the gospel. You've witnessed my death and resurrection. You're going to receive the Holy Spirit. You're going to take that and you're going to go do business. For them, it's going to be building the kingdom, building the church as they go out. Now, their task is somewhat unique, but a lot of connection. We're still the same church. still called to the same business, glorify the master by extending his kingdom, by building his church, by taking the gospel strengthened by the Holy Spirit and building up that kingdom, bringing it to those who have never heard, growing in holiness ourselves, helping those who are already believed to grow stronger in their faith building, the kingdom, the gospel itself. I think even more broadly we can think about the mina, the trust that he gives, all those things, all those resources that God gives to us. After all, they're all gifts from him. Everything you have in your life is from Christ, isn't it? It doesn't belong to you, does it? So the question then becomes, what are we doing with it? Master says, do business until I come. Think about your time, your job. We're doing a lot of thinking about that these days as we transition from summer back to the regular routine. Vocations are over and school starts and back to the regular schedule. A lot of us are thinking about our schedule again, about our time again in a different way. How are you going to use that time? Is it going to be time invested for the master? That job at home or at a workplace, is it going to be time invested for the kingdom? I'm going to do business for the king. Your money. Tough economic days, everybody's pinching pennies. How do you think about your money and use it? You think, how can I use this that God has given me for His kingdom? to care for those God entrusted to me, to build up the church by giving for the spread of the Gospel. You keep going. Your family, your home, your possessions, your relationships, all things the Master has entrusted to us, the King has entrusted to us and said, do business until I come. Do business until I come. Here's your assignment this afternoon. Take one area of your life. Just one. Maybe one that's been particularly on your mind. Maybe it is your time, your schedule. Take one area, get a piece of paper, write that area on the top of the piece of paper, and then write some specifics down. How do I use this as a trust, as a gift from the king to use for his kingdom? What does it look like, specifically? Will you use your time differently? Will you have a different mindset? Will you pray differently about that time or relationship or whatever? Then write it down. Pray for God's help. Again, the king commands it. Engage in business until I come. He commands it and he's going to come back and see what we did. That's what the king does here. Comes back and what's the return? And there's this great report. First servant, your mine is made 10 minus. Second one, your mine is made 5 minus. These are incredible returns. Incredible profit. 1,000%, 500%. You never get this kind of return on your money. This is mind-boggling. It's shocking. It's helpful also to notice the difference between these two servants and the third guy. That it's not just the third guy, well, he's just not as good as a businessman, right? He's just not as talented or not as smart, right? He doesn't even try, right? That's an important point for us to make. The point of these first two individuals is not that these are superstar investors. They're just smarter and wiser and more wonderful. No, they were just faithful. They were just faithful. In fact, even the language puts emphasis on not as much their intelligence and wisdom, but on what God did. Notice how they say, your mina has made ten minas. Made five. They're not saying, I made you this money. It's almost as if the money kind of multiplied itself. The highlight there is, as we think about followers of Christ, some God's grace doing this. Some people just have this great superstar wisdom and talent. Don't get yourself all tied up in knots, trying to think, oh, I need to be this superstar. Just be faithful. Just be faithful. Yes, you're just going to take hard work and sacrifice and effort. But just try to be faithful in whatever little He's given you. Just try to be faithful there. Upon Christ's return, just like these servants, we can expect to be showered with blessing by His grace. As the master, the king rejoices, well done, good servant. Because you've been faithful in little, you shall have authority over ten cities. the Hardee over five cities. You see, this is not wages earned. This is blessing. You see how the huge jump from a couple thousand dollars to ten cities? This is enormous. This is grace upon grace upon grace. This isn't wages earned. This isn't works rewarded. This is just grace poured out. We can expect that. Jesus does say, in the world to come, we will reign with him. Faithful kingdom service. The blessing is more great service for King Jesus. Even in the world to come. We need to wrestle finally, real quickly, with this warning, this final servant. We'll call it a servant warning. You notice as you look at this final servant that he has it all wrong. Not just that he's not as talented in investing. He doesn't even try, but even that trying, we can't, don't want to just conclude that this is a lesson in don't be lazy. This guy was just, he struggled with sloth. He struggled with laziness. Well, certainly he is lazy, but notice how it's much, much, much deeper than that. Notice how as he begins to speak and you connect his actions with what is revealed in his heart, this is not just while he struggles with laziness. What sneaks out in his actions and in his words is absolute contempt for the Master. Did you get that? He accuses his Master of being harsh, of even being illegal in his business dealings and being unfair and being corrupt in his business dealings and being harsh. Now, the king has just shown that he's anything but harsh. He's just poured out blessing that is disproportionate with any work that's done. He's just shown that he's a king. That's all about grace. And yet here's this guy and he's insisting that you're harsh, even corrupt. And so he hides his money and the king The king takes the money away, calls him wicked. Who is this guy? What's the equivalent of this servant? Someone suggested maybe this servant represents a true believer who really struggles, but then as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, doesn't build with good building materials and is saved by the skin of his teeth. That's the kind of picture there in 1 Corinthians 3. Is that who this believer is? This guy is, this final servant? Maybe. I think more likely. This guy isn't a true believer at all. He represents one who has outward connection to Jesus, in among the servants, even acting out the role of a servant. But when you get revealed in his actions, in his words, his heart, there's no faith there, is there? There's no trust and true submission to this master. It comes out in his actions. It's not a message about working for our salvation. No, no, no. Just the opposite. There's the message here is grace upon grace. We're saved only through our faith. It's all by grace. But then the king, the king expects that faith to flow out into a life lived for him. that if you're trusting in him, that will flow out into living for him. And here, this guy, his lack of living for the king betrays a heart that's not trusting. Instead, has as much rebellion as the citizens who outwardly rebel, though he's a little more socially acceptable in it. It seems to be, either way, there's a warning for us. Either way, there's a warning for us. Our actions speak to where our faith is. Is our faith flowing out into living for the King? Now, the Kingdom of God, Jesus wants us to know, has not arrived in its fullness. He is the Messiah. He's gone away, but He'll return. There's going to be a delay, and there's work to be done in the meantime. Do business for the Master, Jesus says. And in order to do that business, the king gives us resources, kingdom resources. They're not ours. They're his. And the king expects us to take what he's given and do business for his glory, for his kingdom. We need to, because of the life that's ours, strictly by grace, we're excited to use what we have for his kingdom. to think about the strength of the Holy Spirit, the good news of the gospel, all these other resources that we have around us, to go and be excited about using them for His kingdom. How can I do that? How can you do that? And then we ask for His strength to do it better and better by His grace. Let's pray. Lord, we are those who acknowledge Christ to be our King. And Lord, we want to acknowledge that not only in an outward superficial way, but as a result of a changed heart. Lord, truly from within, truly flowing out in our actions, Christ, the King of all that we are and all that we do, Father, we pray that You would enable us, would strengthen us through Your Spirit to be those kingdom servants, Lord, even in the small things, even the little things, that we'd be faithful and little, trusting in You, holding out the good news, Lord, unto a world that's in rebellion against the King. Father, we pray that we would do that. We ask for Your grace. In Jesus' name, Amen. Let's respond with him 585. In dedication of ourselves, our lives in every part, because of what Jesus has done. 585.