What This Is NOT Saying: “Jesus is a reverse Robin Hood” – because this is not about our money, but our responsibilities.
- Luke 19:13, 16, 18, 24.
- v. 24 makes the master (i.e. Jesus) sound like a reverse Robin Hood, taking from the poor and giving to the rich.
- vv. 13, 16, 18 all make it clear, though, that the money is not the servant’s. It’s the master’s money. The various servants had the responsibility and trust of administering those funds for the master.
- This means when the master says, “Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten” he is not taking the third servant’s own money away from him. He is relieving him of his responsibility because he failed at his job.
- It’s not like Jesus going up to a homeless guy, saying, “Give me your last five bucks,” then turning it and giving to a guy sitting in a BMW.
- It’s more like a boss taking a valuable account from an employee who totally botched the effort and giving it to an employee who has proven he is able to handle accounts with skill and results.
- This also answers the question why the third servant’s mina is given to the first servant and not the master.
- After all, it’s the master’s money, so if he has to surrender it, he should give it back to the owner, right?
- He gives it to the servant with ten, though, because the servant is going to manage it, not own it. It’s not a prize – it’s his to manage for his master.
- So, knowing this has to do with our responsibilities, let’s see the point that Jesus is getting at.
A Non-Existent Middle Road: Many people claiming faith live as though a “good enough” walk of faith is sufficient.
- Luke 19:26.
- There are two choices here (and we’ll get into the specifics of them in a moment), but there is not a middle “good enough” path.
- And yet many people claiming faith try to chart this kind of course.
- What does this path look like?
- “Good enough” often means:
a. Doing the outwardly expected signs of faithfulness (going to church, having a Bible (though not reading it), being respectable) without a matching private passion.
b. Being satisfied with what you already know and where you already are.
c. Having no expectation for fruitfulness or impact.
d. Seeing my salvation as a grace-alone, in-the-past done-deal that has no practical impact on my life today.
- This is the attitude of wanting to call yourself a Christian, wanting to say you’re a believer, but not necessarily being interested in working, sacrificing, serving, growing, or hurting for your faith.
- I claim it as a “belief,” but there’s no real change in my daily living.
- And I’m ok with that because I want to go to heaven, but I’m not interested in experiencing incredible victory. I just want “enough” to get me by.
- Many want enough not be embarrassed, but not so much as would require a lot of work.
- This is because, among other reasons, we know that salvation and eternity sound like important ideas and should receive high importance in our lives, but we’ve got other things we want to attend to (success, sin, self-centeredness).
- This, though, is really just people fooling themselves because there is no option that involves just kind of “staying even.”
The Two Real Options:
1. A Promise: Faithful service leads to overflowing opportunity.
- Luke 19:26.
- Matthew 13:12; Matthew 21:43; Matthew 25:28-29; Mark 4:24-25; Luke 8:18; Luke 6:38.
- I think perhaps you could phrase the gist of what the master is saying as something like: “You think giving him one more is something? I’m going to give him far more than that!”
- This is not the end of the master’s willingness, but just the beginning.
- If you’re receptive, open, and obedient, there is no limit to how God will overflow you.
- It’s important here to sense the master’s pleasure in the servant’s actions as well as the master’s willingness to pour out blessings upon him.
- To those faithful, God will continue to increase their authority and opportunity.
- The increase of another mina indicates to me that the master did not intend on taking back the eleven minas that the first servant now was in charge of. In fact, even though the master had returned from his journey, there is every indication that he intended on allowing that first servant to continue to manage that small financial trust, plus the much larger responsibility of the ten cities.
- This should be very encouraging for those who start this whole process with relatively little.
- God is eager to give you more, to pour out into your life, to move you up.
- You may not have much in the way of money, talent, or abilities. Or, at least, you may not feel as though you have much in that direction.
- That’s ok – the master sees your faithfulness in little and will increase your realm of influence.
- You don’t have to talk God into blessing you. You don’t have to talk God into using you.
- Sometimes we act like He’s reluctant or hesitant. He’s not.
- Consider the amazing promises in the Old Testament that He made to Israel, conditional upon their faithfulness. See Deuteronomy 7:12-16.
- God delights in seeing those who want to serve Him wholeheartedly. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says, “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those who hearts are fully committed to him.”
- This isn’t about “getting promotions.”
- It’s about how worthy He is of our very best effort. It’s about how important this work is. It’s about how grateful we should be for all He’s done for us.
- And as we live passionately for Him, He is eager to assist us in our work.
- Why is God so willing, even eager, to pour into our lives?
a. It brings Him glory since He opened the door (through our salvation).
b. He has no pride.
- He’s humble – after all, He’s already God.
c. He loves us and delights in seeing us excel.
- One way to put it: Christ is an eager delegator.
- He loves seeing us doing meaningful work in the Kingdom. He loves seeing the joy on our faces at our success.
- He has nothing left to prove. He doesn’t need to do more.
- He has no jealousy that causes Him to be bothered by the great work of someone else. After all, He created the very universe we inhabit.
- The reward for a job well done is not removal from service, but appointment to greater service.
- And as we said a few weeks ago, the jobs that Christ has for us are not drudgery, but things that joyfully tap the skills, abilities, and gifts that we have within us.
- This will happen on the new earth and in the New Jerusalem as we literally work for the King.
- This parable clearly points to Final Judgment, but I think this can happen in this life also.
- Here are a couple other passages that point in that direction. The first on knowledge, the second on money.
a. Luke 8:18.
- As I was preparing this sermon, the Lord opened up this passage to me in a way I’d never understood before. Its truth is directly relevant to the point we’re looking at this morning.
- v. 18 shares the idea that more will be given to the one who has, while the one who doesn’t have will lose even what he has.
- Starting back in vv. 11-15, we have Jesus sharing the interpretation of the parable of the sower. Some reject the Word, some are open to it but let other things get in the way, but those with “good soil” see magnificent results.
- What follows in vv. 16-17 is Jesus telling us that a lamp is meant to be on a lamp stand, not hidden, then a warning that everything that is hidden will be revealed. I have always taken these to be about us, that He’s basically saying, “If you’re someone who produces much fruit, a big part of it is letting your light shine. And get rid of hidden sin, because there’s nothing that’s hidden that will not be revealed.”
- But the verses are not about us. What I realized is that they are about Jesus and His truth.
- The key verse is v. 10.
- In between the giving of this parable and its explanation, there’s a little interlude discussing why Jesus uses parables. It would be easy to read v. 10 as basically saying, “I don’t want them to know, so I speak in these parable riddles so that I can keep it away from them.” This makes little sense, though, knowing that Jesus desired to rescue as many as possible.
- Coming to vv. 16-18, this coda helps us to understand why Jesus speaks His truth in parables.
- In v. 16, Jesus saying that no one lights a lamp and then hides it, He’s speaking of His truth. “I didn’t come to say that I’m the light of the world and then hide the truth under a riddle.” The parables are meant to help people to understand by putting them in simple, easily-understandable terms.
- Further, in v. 17, when He says that there is “nothing hidden that will not be disclosed and nothing concealed that will not be known,” He is speaking of His willingness to reveal His truth to us. “There is no truth that I’m not willing to reveal to the one who wants to know. If you want more and more of the depths of My truth, I will just keep right on taking you deeper and deeper.”
- This is why in v. 18 Jesus tells us to “consider carefully how you listen.” The one who wants to know will find the parable to be revealing and insightful. The one who doesn’t want to know will find the parable to be confusing and obtuse.
- This is why He closes v. 18 with the idea that the one who has will be given more and the one who doesn’t will lose what little he has. If you have a little of God’s truth and want more, God will keep overflowing you. If you don’t really want much, then even the pathetic amount that you grasped will be taken away from you.
b. Luke 6:38.
- This verse speaks of the idea that “with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” Its subject is money.
- This is not a “get-rich-quick” verse. This is not a prosperity gospel verse.
- This is a verse that points to the truth that our generosity will lead to greater blessings both from those around us and from God.
- Should it lead to greater financial blessings from God, those blessings are not so that I can spend selfishly and needlessly on myself, but so that I can be an even greater blessing to those around me.
2. A Warning: Rejecting the master’s commands leads to losing everything.
- Luke 19:26.
- The second half of the equation is where the surprise comes.
- Once we understand the true nature of eternity, it’s not terribly surprising (although it is terribly exciting) that Christ would give great responsibilities to those who have passionately followed Him.
- What is more surprising is the fate of those who have done little.
- “The one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away” comes as a surprise.
- If you have nothing, how can anything be taken away? I think the idea here is that the one who has gained nothing and has only what he was originally entrusted with, even what he was originally entrusted with will be taken away.
- I believe this servant represents the person who claims to be a believer (after all, he is named as a servant) but whose actions reveal that they do not trust, love, and serve to the master. When this servant loses everything, it doesn’t mean that he (like 1 Corinthian 3 speaks of) that he enters heaven, but does so empty-handed. It means he is condemned by the master. It means he is sent to hell.
- I draw this conclusion from two things:
a. The multitude of passages where Jesus spoke of the necessity of fruitfulness as a natural result of true salvation.
b. The more explicit conclusion of the similar Matthew 25 story. The story, while having some differences with Luke 19, has significant similarities. At its conclusion, the third servant hears the master say, “Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (vv. 28-30).
- That final sentence clearly speaks of hell and it is the fate of the faithless servant.
- The fruitless, faithless life of someone claiming to be a believer and relying on lame excuses to justify his inaction will not end well. This is a horrible but real truth and we need to face it honestly.
- Because I’m focusing on the first half of Luke 19:26 (the abundance half) today, I’m going to leave the further discussion of this to next week, when we’ll examine it in depth.
- You get a fair shot to do the job, but at a certain point the concession has to be made that you’ve done a lousy job and that it’s not going to get better.
- If you’re disinterested, disengaged, or disobedient, you’re heading toward emptiness.
- No “good enough,” excuse-focused faith.
- He does not give us forever to be unfaithful. There comes a time of reckoning.
- His possession of a “talent” is not indicative of salvation. Both here and the parable of the sower we see people who show some interest in the Word or some acquaintance to the master. Upon closer examination or more challenging circumstances, they prove to not be genuine in their faith.
- This should not come as a surprise, as we regularly see people who are quick to “Amen” the name of God yet have no evidence of discipleship to Christ in their lives. We see people show interest for a season in spiritual matters, only to quickly lay that aside and move back toward more worldly pursuits.
- But some might say, “What about 1 Corinthians 3:13-15?”
- That passage does speak of some entering heaven with nothing because their work has been burned away like wood, hay, and stubble, but their soul is saved.
- The essential fact to understand is that in 1 Corinthians 3 both servants mentioned there built something.
- One found that his work was built well of solid materials and stood the test of fire. The other found that his work was built of weak materials and could not stand the test of fire.
- But both had built something. Neither had “buried their talent.”
- What 1 Corinthians speaks of is not the idea shared in Luke 19 of a “Christian” who does nothing with what’s been given to him yet enters heaven by grace alone. There is no such creature. A true believer will serve his master.
- 1 Corinthians speaks of the Christian who works sincerely, but with some bad presumptions or understandings. Because of those, his work does not stand the test of fire, but is burned up while his soul is saved.
- Some examples of this:
a. One might be a Christian who believes it’s important to understand apologetics for the Christian faith, so he spends enormous amounts of time learning various arguments. In truth, though, he has almost no opportunities to have conversations about this with non-believers. Only rarely do people reject the Christian faith for rational, idea-based reasons. It usually has to do with emotional reasons, baggage reasons, or obedience reasons. This apologetics reader did a lot of work, but it wasn’t work that stood the test of fire because it resulted in almost no actual gain for the Kingdom.
b. Another might be the Christian who sees the church building as a sacred, holy space. He spends his time and money working on continual, unnecessary improvements to the building. All money spend seems fully justified to him because it’s for “God’s house.” Now certainly if you have a church building you need to have the lights on and the carpet vacuumed, but there’s no need to spend exorbitant amounts of money on the building when the church is really the people. Going further with this, this fellow might make efforts to limit the use of the building with outside groups because they might tear it up or grumble about the youth group because they are hard on their room. These are signs he’s emphasizing the wrong thing, even though he’s doing it out of a sincere belief that the building is the main thing. This will not stand the test of fire.
An Open Door: Do I believe that God wants to bring abundance into my life?
- Luke 19:26.
- Embrace the abundance that God wants to bring into your life.
- John 10:10
- Two options: You will not believe how God is willing to pour out blessings on you OR you will not believe how little you’ll be left with.
- Don’t stand still.
- Pursue. Believe that great things are ahead.
- Desire more from God.
- “What’s next, Father?”
- “Take me higher, Father.”
- “More, Jesus, I want more. . . of You, of Your truth, of Your power.”
- The goal is not just “staying even” because you’re either heading toward abundance or empty hands.
