Do Business Till I Come - Part 2 Series

Last week, we looked at our mandate to do business, the business of God till Jesus returns. From parable of Jesus about the 10 minas two things are quite clear:

1. Jesus is coming back;

2. And we are to do His business till He does return.

And what business is that? We are to do business with the what He has entrusted every Christian with, the Gospel, the good news about Jesus, that through Him, His shed blood on the Cross, our sins can be forgiven and we can have life eternal with Him. The Scriptures are full of that mandate. The Gospel was not entrusted to the angels, but to His people, the church.

Acts 1:8 (NKJV) … you shall be witnesses to Me …

Mark 16:15 (NKJV) And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

2 Timothy 4:2 (NKJV) Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

And the list continues.

Last week we talked about this parable of Jesus about the nobleman went away to receive the Kingdom and return as King. There we looked at two groups of people, the nobleman’s servants and those that rejected the nobleman as their king. This morning we will deal with the outcome of these two groups. We will begin with the 10 minas given to the ten servants.

Luke 19:13 (NKJV) So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.’

The command of Jesus is clear. We are to be about His business. And this were we pick up today. The King returns and all must give an account.

Luke 19:15–27

ILL. In 2009 Delta Airlines was in the process of buying Northwest Airlines and was actively working the merger. The merger was causing great concerns among the pilots of NWA in how they will fit into the Delta system. Two NWA pilots on a flight on October 21st of that year , they were busy researching job conditions and scheduling rules brought about by Northwest’s recent purchase by Delta Airlines. They wanted to know how their job situations were changing. While that is understandable, but that was not their assigned task. Their airplane flew for 91 minutes out of contact with the ground and overshot their destination city by 150 miles and subsequently after landing the FAA revoked their pilot licenses. Airline pilots must direct their aircraft safely from Point A to Point B. However, these pilots had their personal laptops on in the cockpit. They took their eye off their primary responsibility and gave their attention to something of lesser importance. Keeping the most important thing a priority is important for everyone, not just airline pilots.[1]

As Christians, we can be very much like those NWA pilots. We busy ourselves with “good” things (good in our eyes and even good in the eyes of the world, but not necessarily good in the eyes of God.) We forget that we live for the Lord. We forget the tasks that He gives us to do. And we forget that the King is coming and we forget that all must give an account of our lives. This is where we left off last week.

Luke 19:15 (NKJV) “And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.

So what has his servants done with the minas they have been entrusted? Did they obey the returning King and done business with the mina as they were commanded to do? We will find there are two groups, those who have obeyed and those who did not.

Luke 19:16 (NKJV) Then came the first, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned ten minas.’

Wow! That was 1,000 percent gain. This servant was busy. But is that possible? Why not? Look closely at the verse. There is an important point we need not miss. The servant did not take credit for the gain. He said, “your mina has earned.” The wording is important. The servant did not earn 10 more, the mina itself did the earning. We have been entrusted with the message of the Gospel. The power is in the message. Paul said:

Romans 1:16a (NKJV) For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes

1 Thessalonians 1:5a (NKJV) For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power

We worry about our ability to share the Gospel. Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 said he did not come with excellent speech, but in fear and trembling. His speech was not with persuasive words. The power was in the message.