Do Business Till I Come, Part 1 Series

Show 2 minute Video clip (available on SermonCentral): "If Jesus Returned Today" [1]

Did you note the comment at the end of the film? The question is not “When will Jesus Return?”, but rather, “What will we do before He gets here?” How will He find the members of the body of Christ? So when Jesus comes, we would proudly say, “I’m a member of Rosemont Baptist Church!” As a member, how will He find us? As a …

Spectator or participant?

Recipient or provider?

Consumer or contributor?

Taker or giver?

Worshipping with fellow believers or Attending a ball game?

When pastors get together and we talk about the work in our churches, we talk about the 80/20 mix: 80 percent of the work done by 20 percent of the people. Where are the workers? We have to beg to get Sunday School teachers. How much more we could do if people would just step up to the plate?

Today message: “Do Business Till I Come,” is all about doing those things we are called to do, not just as a church, but as individual believers. Today and next Sunday we will be exploring Luke 19:11-27, bu this morning we are only going to look at verses 11-15.

Luke 19:11–15 (NKJV)

Hugh Hewitt (conservative radio talk show host) in his book “The Embarrassed Believer” contends that most Christian are embarrassed believers. They do not talk about their faith or church. They don’t have Bibles on the corner of their desks. They never engage others in spiritual conversations. And the result has been the dramatic increase of pornography and violence over the last five decades. The values of the world today pale in comparison to the values of mid last century. He writes, “From Paul’s imprisonment and martyrdom to this year’s murders of Christians around the globe, there is an ennobling and inspiring thread of courage uniting saint after saint. It is an inheritance of every believer. And it is to this that we are called.” Paul writes, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes...” (Romans 1:16). And Jesus said, “ If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:38). Too many of us are embarrassed, silent, secret agents for God. Yet we are called to be bold witnesses of Jesus Christ. He closes with these words, “Christians in America trying to save the lost, comfort the suffering, cure the ill, clothe the naked and bring joy to the despairing will not make a significant and lasting impact unless they do so openly and without apology as Christians. The witness must accompany the work or the work will not endure and the world is hungry for our witness.’ Bold witness! [2]

Jesus does not have any secret agents. We are all called to be His witnesses.

Today’s passage is about Jesus’ return. Do you know there are more passages in the Bible dealing with Jesus’ second coming than prophecy concerning His first coming. As certain as His first coming is Jesus’ second coming. The key verse we will consider today is quite simple. It is Jesus’ command concerning His second coming and what we are to do until that time:

Luke 19:13b (NKJV) ‘Do business till I come.’

If you are reading from the Authorized version or commonly called the KJV, it will say “Occupy” but most all other modern English versions have “Do business.” The Greek here is quite clear: Do business, conduct trading, exert ones self, to stay busy. I’m afraid too many people look at the word “occupy” and not understanding the 400 year old meaning of the KJV word "occupy", and they sit and do nothing but “occupy” time and space.

Jesus has very specific things for us to do till He returns. Sitting and doing nothing is not an option. There is no such thing as standing still in Christianity. We are either moving forward with the Gospel or we loose what we have and move backwards. (more on this next week).

Often times this parable of Jesus gets mixed up with the parable of the Talents told by Jesus in Matthew 25:14-30. These are two different stories but they do have some similarities, yet also important differences. For example: In this parable, each servant gets the same amount, whereas in the parable of talents, each servant gets different amounts. This parable was told in Jericho, after the conversion of Zacchaeus, just prior to Jesus entering Jerusalem. The Parable of Talents was part of Jesus’ Olivet Discourse, his teachings about the time of the end and His return, given two days before His crucifixion. I will be looking at both as we examine this parable.