Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it.—Luke 19:15
LABORING WITH THE GOSPEL (Part I)
Most people overlook this parable of Jesus as recorded by Luke because of its similarity to His parable of the talents, recorded in Matthew 25. But while the parables are simi-lar, there are significant differences. The purpose of this parable is found in verse 11 of the text: “While they were listening to this, He [Jesus] went on to tell them a parable, because He was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.”
The “this” referred to was Jesus’ announcement of the salvation of Zacchaeus, a tax collector who had been deemed too sinful to merit salvation by orthodox Judaism. As Jesus was passing through Jericho, Zacchaeus went out to see Him. Being a man of small physical stature, he climbed into a tree so that he could get a glimpse of the Master as He passed. But instead of simply passing by, Jesus stopped at the tree, looked up and called out to Zacchaeus. He invited Himself to Zacchaeus’ house and dined there. While the people criticized Jesus’ actions, Zacchaeus made it clear that, because Jesus had come by, a change had taken place in his life. He announced that he was going to give half of all he possessed to the poor and then, with the other half, pay back 4 times what was owed of any man he had cheated in the past. And in response to Zacchaeus, Jesus declared that, “Salvation had come to this house…for the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
Literally, Jesus was saying that the salvation of God was much greater in scope and power than had been described by the Pharisees and Sadducees. Things that they had deemed to be outside the realm of God’s willingness or ability to forgive, Jesus said God had forgiven. And that’s a good thing for us to remember today. There are things that man will not forgive, but I’m glad that my future doesn’t dependent on man’s for-giveness; there are mistakes that we can make that men will never let us live down, but I’m glad that Jesus is willing to look beyond my many faults and meet my every need. His love and forgiveness are on such a higher plane than our human plane of existence. But even though they are of infinitely higher quality than anything man can offer, they extend themselves from the highest place down to lowest depths where your sins and my sins reside, and they cleanse us of our unrighteousness. Is this not what Paul said of Jesus in Philippians 2, that, “being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Him-self and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name.”
Church, it’s good to know that there is a name available to us that will free us of our sin—even those sins that man would have condemn us. It’s good to know that there is a salvation available to us—a deliverance from sin—that man can neither initiate nor prohibit, but it rests firmly and completely in the hands of the Lord. I’m glad that, “the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost”, because what was lost in-cludes me.
But to move on, Luke says that, as Jesus was speaking of Zacchaeus’ salvation, He proceeded to tell them a parable, and the reason for the parable was to correct an erroneous conclusion that the people had drawn. They thought that the salvation of Zacchaeus was a part of Jesus’ announcement that His kingdom was at hand. They thought that, upon His arrival in Jerusalem, He would overthrow the Roman regime that had oppressed them for so many years. And Jesus wanted them to know that they were wrong on at least 2 fronts—they were wrong to believe that His kingdom was of this world, and they wrong to believe that it was coming in its final stage any time soon. And so, to clarify His purpose and to give them insight as to what God truly expected of them, Jesus tells them this parable of a nobleman who travels to a far country.
Now, as we said, there are similarities between this parable and the one recorded in Matthew 25, but there are also some distinct differences. The emphasis of the parable in Matthew is stewardship, but the emphasis of this parable in Luke is to properly identify who Jesus is, clarify His role as the Messiah and ready the people for His coming kingdom.
In the parable of the talents, the main character is merely a householder, but in this parable, the main character is a nobleman seeking a kingdom. There is a direct relationship between this character and his objective and that of Jesus as being the Son of God, seeking to establish His divine kingdom in the world. In the Matthean parable, the talents were given in various proportions—to one 5, to another 2 and to the third 1—but in the Lukan parable, the minas are given out equally—10 servants each receive 10 minas. Moreover, the 10 minas were worth much less than even the one talent that one servant received in the Matthean parable. The point Jesus was making was that all of us receive equally the truth of the Gospel and, though it is worth very little in the eyes of the world, it possesses tremendous value potential for those who know how to use their gift wisely. In verse 13, the instruction that the Nobleman gives to his servants is clear: “Put this money to work until I come back.” The literal translation of the verse is that they were to “trade” with the gift they had been given. Their responsibility was to diligently use what had been given to them to lay the foundation for the Nobleman’s return. In the same way, Jesus was telling His listeners that it was their responsibility to diligently use what had been given to them to prepare the world for the return of the King of Kings. Only when the King returns will what they had been looking for take place.
Church, our duty today is the same as Jesus gave to the people then, use the gift we have been given to the best of our ability until He returns. Now, when I say “use the gift”, I’m not talking about particular spiritual gifts, though all of us have received particular gifts of the Holy Spirit. But what I’m talking about is use the gift of the Gospel; occupy your time with the gift of the Gospel; stand on the gift of the Gospel; trade with the world from the standpoint of the power of the Gospel; make the most of the gift of the Gospel that we have received so that we can lay the right foundation for the Lord’s return. All of us who have been born again should have a desire to make a business out of employing the Gospel—we should want to use it for the benefit of the kingdom.
More than this, Jesus wants us to know that this work will have to be done in an atmos-phere of hatred and unbelief. He tells them in verse 14 that, “[The nobleman’s] sub-jects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’” The Jews would not accept Jesus as their Messiah because He didn’t meet their expectations. Their resistance of Jesus grew so strong that it moved them to hatred, and hatred moved them to murder.
Church, don’t you know that, to a large extent, the world still hates Jesus and refuses to be ruled by Him. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords; He is the great “I Am!”; He is the fulfillment of God’s promise. But still, the world rejects Him and hates Him and tries their best to murder Him. Often this hatred from the world is transferred from Christ to His Church. And don’t ever doubt the fact that the world hates the Church. They hate what we stand for; they hate the message that we bear. But regardless of how the world feels about us, regardless of how the world feels about the Jesus, we still have a responsibility to occupy until Christ returns; we still have a charge to keep and a God to glorify. Our duty calls for us to trade with what we’ve been given with the objec-tive of making a profit. And for the Church, making a profit is adding new souls to the body of Christ.
Well, by verse 15, the Nobleman has been elevated to the position of King. And this change in position for the Nobleman translates into a change in position for His servants as well. The Nobleman-turned-King now prepares to reward His servants in proportion to their accomplishments with what had been given to them. More than that, they will be given posts of authority equal in importance to the results of their labor. And this reminds us that there are rewards in Heaven. Now, most of us are only concerned about the reward of Heaven—we just want to know that we’re going to Heaven when we die. But if you’ve read your Bible, then you ought to know that the reward of Heaven is already secured. Paul tells us in the 1st chapter of Ephesians that, “[We] also were included in Christ when [we] heard the word of truth, the Gospel of [our] salvation. Having believed, [we] were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s pos-session—to the praise of His glory.” And what that means is that once we’re in Christ, He won’t lose us and Heaven is a guaranty. But here, Jesus describes more than the reward of Heaven, but He describes rewards in Heaven. And the rewards in Heaven are distributed on the basis of what we accomplish in this life with the Gospel that has been given to us. Great accomplishment, great reward; little accomplishment, little re-ward; no accomplishment, no reward. Let’s see how this plays out in the rest of this parable.
The first servant comes to make his report, and humbly reports a profit of 10 additional minas. At this, the King, rewards him with the charge of 10 cities. Likewise, the second servant humbly reports a profit of 5 additional minas, and the King rewards him pro-portionately with the charge of 5 cities. In each case, the servants come before the king in humility and submission. They come before the King realizing that any success that they enjoyed was not due to them, but due to the gift that was bestowed upon them by their Master. And Church, that should be the same attitude with us today. If we have enjoyed any success laboring in this part of the Lord’s vineyard, if we’ve enjoyed any success in winning lost people of this community to Christ, if we’ve enjoyed any success in helping to minister to the needs of hurting people, the praise should not go to us, but it should go to the Master, because everything that we have came from Him. That’s why Paul said, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” Without the Lord, we would have no story to tell; without the Lord, we would have no Source for our supply; without the Lord, we would have no gift to share; without the Lord, we would have no territory to occupy; without the Lord, we would have no charge to keep. The attitude of the true servant of Christ should be one of humility and thanksgiving just for the opportunity to labor for Him in His kingdom with the gift He has blessed us to enjoy.
More than that, we should also see that the result of our laboring with the Gospel will be proportionate to the amount of work that we put in. Again, we must point out a difference between this parable and the one in Matthew. In the Matthean parable, though each servant produces a different amount of profit, proportionately, their profit is the same percentage. The 5 talent man produced 5 talents more—100%; the 2 talent man produced 2 talents more—100%. But here, though each man received the same amount, they enjoyed different profit margins. Consequently, they received different rewards.
Now the only reason we can draw from scripture why this would be so is because one man out-worked the other. One man put in a little more effort and it showed in that he produced a greater profit. And it reminds us, my friends, that, if we want to receive a greater reward, then it should encourage us to work as hard as we can with what we’ve been given, so that our reward might be as great as possible.
Sometimes when the challenge increases, we slack off on our effort; we take an attitude that says, “I’ve done enough! I don’t need to work any harder than I’m working.” But I’m so glad that Jesus never took that attitude with me. I know that I’ve proven to be problematic for the Lord. I know that there have been several opportunities for the Lord to slack off on me. But it looks like the more challenging I prove to be for the Lord, the more effort he puts into picking me up and turning me around. And just like Jesus never quit on me, I don’t ever want to quit on the Lord. “Harder yet may be the fight. Right often must give way to might. Wickedness awhile may reign, and Satan’s forces may seem to gain. But there is a God who rules above with a hand of mercy and a heart of love. And if I’m right, He’ll fight my battle and I shall be free someday.”
Well, I need to stop here, but I’m not done yet. I haven’t talked about the 3rd servant, and we need to hear about him in order to fully appreciate what it means to labor for the Lord. So I invite you to come back at 10:45 and see how this story ends. But as I close this morning, just let me end on this note. With regard to these 2 servants, though the size of their reward differed for each of them, they did share in a common joy—the joy of being rewarded by the King for jobs well done. And what was true for them is true for you and me today. We may receive different rewards, but there is a common joy for all of us. Jesus rewards faithfulness; Jesus rewards commitment; Jesus rewards dili-gence; Jesus rewards duty; Jesus rewards fidelity; Jesus rewards determination.
“What is that reward?” “I’ve a home prepared where the saints abide, just over in the Gloryland. And I long to be by my Savior’s side, just over in the Gloryland. Just over in the Gloryland, I’ll join the happy angel band, just over in the Gloryland. Just over in the Gloryland, there with the mighty hosts I’ll stand—just over in the Gloryland.”
