In the Gospel of Luke the Lord uses a parable to teach us a lesson concerning what is expected of His servants while He is away in a far country making preparation to receive His kingdom. Although we have studied this passage many times, the Holy Ghost has recently shown a light on one little word in the parable that now looms large in its importance to the theme of this parable. The word that I refer to is found in verse 13 and is Jesus’ choice of "Occupy."
The Greek word translated as occupy here is:
4231 pragmateuomai { prag-mat-yoo’-om-ahee}
1) To be occupied in anything
2) To carry on a business
3) To carry on the business of a banker or a trader
There is no doubt as to what the Lord expects from each of us while He is away preparing to receive His kingdom. We are to be gainfully occupied in His service. Those who are faithful to work wisely and further that which has been entrusted to him will be rewarded in like manner in the future kingdom. Those who do not work for the name of Christ, and the furthering of His Gospel will also be rewarded according to what they do with what the Lord has given them.
Notice we are talking of rewards and not salvation. Each on the servants in this parable were already servants of the master, no matter how they used the gifts of the master they were still his servants in the end. Each of us who are truely servants of the Lord Jesus Christ are indeed His servants and what we do here will not change that. We did not employee ourselves with Him but in Grace he made us His own and we have no bearing on our servitude, only the rewards of our efforts can be affected!
Ephesians 2:8
8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast.
This word occupy gives us the directive to be busy about the Lord’s work, using what He has given us for His gain while He is in the far country. Many times we confuse the definitions of occupy, (to be gainfully employed) with (occupy) simply taking up space. There is a great difference; for occupying space gives the impression of doing nothing but sitting idly by waiting for the return of Jesus and His kingdom. There is a vast difference between what the Lord’s instruction and what we have come to think of as "occupying".
Many people in this day and age use the excuse that the King James English is hard to comprehend and even more difficult to follow, this is not the case however. Missing is the readers inspiration and the understanding that only comes with the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Ghost that gives us our spiritual understanding. 1 Corinthians 2:14
14But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Let us look now at the Modern English definitions of the word Occupy. Webster"s dictionary gives many definitions for this word "occupy." Tonight I would like to look at some of these definitions and then look at Biblical examples for each and then notice the common denominator of how each of them show effort and resolve to further the kingdom of God. Of all four of the modern definitions, only one indicates no movement, and I am afraid that we choose to follow the one over the other three in our Christian lives.
A: to engage the attention or energies of Matt 20:1
The first definition found in the dictionary for occupy indicates a person who is engaged to perform a work for pay, a hired hand if you will. It is a wonderful thing to have an occupation, we grumble and complain many times of having to work for a living but in reality we are blessed to have the ability to work and provide a way of life for our families. We must first realize that we should be grateful to our employers to allow us the opportunity to work for them, after all we did not force them to hire us, but they found something in us that would help them about their business. The same is true in the business of the Lord, we did not force Jesus to hire us into his vineyard but He, in grace and mercy, found us in our time of need and hired us into His service by paying our sin debt. We often forget that little point, we are working for Him and not that Jesus is working for us. We place demands on the Lord as an ungrateful worker places demands on his employer.
We have become accustomed to the life that is made possible by our faith in Jesus and have become ungrateful in His service, forgetting that we once were enslaved to Satan.
At one time in our lives, before we met the Savior, our service to Satan was like that of a slave towards his cruel master. We worked for the devil while all along the sounds of the chains that bound us rattled in our ears, reminding us of the sin in our lives. We are just as those that Jesus talked about in Matt 20Matt 20:1. , We argue about the rewards of other Christians that work in the same fields, forgetting that we once worked in chains for no reward at all, other than the privilege to live a life of torment in Hell for all eternity. Let us not forget our beginnings in Christ, recall the pay we hired on for and let us cease the fighting among other Christians regarding their blessings from the Lord.
We all work in the same harvest field and have the same loving Master, let us be gainfully "OCCUPIED" in His service till He comes.
B: to take or fill (an extent in time) áthe hobby occupies all of my free time
Nehemiah 2:1
General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was asked the secret of his amazing Christian life. Booth answered, "I told the Lord that he could have all that there is of William Booth."
There once lived a man named Nehemiah who knew what it was to be fully occupied, consumed if you will, in the service of the Lord. While Nehemiah was in the service of the King of Persia word came to him of the deplorable condition of the nation of Judah and especially the city of Jerusalem. The distressing news so broke Nehemiah’s heart that he could not perform his duties as cupbearer for the King Artaxerxes. The Lord dealt with the heart of Nehemiah as well as the heart of king Artaxerxes. For Nehemiah his burden was to rebuild the walls of the city of the Lord. For Artaxerxes it was to soften his heart towards his servant Artaxerxes and even unto the Hebrew people in occupied Judah.
Nehemiah was so occupied with the task before him that nothing on earth was going to keep him from rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.
1. Not the long hard journey from Persia to Judah.
2. Not the size of the job that lay before him.
3. Not the laziness of the people of Jerusalem.
4. Not the Naysayers within the walls.
5. Not the Accusers outside of the walls.
God has placed the desire and the means for Nehemiah to rebuild the walls and Nehemiah would not let anything or anyone take him away from his job, he was completely occupied in the service of the Lord.
C: to take or hold possession or control of. The enemy troops occupied the ridge.
During the Great War of Northern Aggression, the Civil War, Harpers Ferry Virginia was the home of the Federal Arsenal and held great value to both sides. The arsenal was fought for and changed possession four times. Each time the Army of Virginia succeeded in taking the arsenal the Union Army of the Potomac would re-take and eventually keep the arsenal open to the Federal government. The Southern army was able to out fight the defenders but not strong enough to occupy Harpers Ferry. There is a great difference in being able to claim possession of anything and then being able to occupy that possession. In order for General Jackson and his men to occupy Harpers Ferry they would have had to take up residence and devote all their time to defending her with the resolve that they would not be moved no matter what would come against them.
Our salvation is much akin to this definition with the exception that we do not earn, nor take our salvation it is the gift of God. Where the two do have similarities is that we should occupy our salvation with the intensity of a soldier of God taking a stand that nothing can come against us that we will not defeat with the power of God as our shield.
We should stand and face the enemy, Satan, and not back down or give up one inch of ground. We do fight the fight, it is a war, and territory is not the prize to be won, but the souls of man.
Ephesisans 6:12
12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
1 Peter 5:8
8Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
James 4:7
7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
We also fight with our flesh, the natural man; Paul calls it warring against the law of the mind:
Romans 7:23
23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Galatians 5:17
16This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
1 Peter 2:11
11Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
Our fight is also against the world:
1 John 5:4
4For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
D : to reside in as an owner or tenant
Colossians 3:16
16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
Many Christian like to argue the principles and privileges of Salvation. When we speak of salvation we speak of the greatest miracle of God towards man. Some would claim that we must continually work to preserve our salvation and that it can be lost and that we can be returned to a life separated from God and bound for hell. This tends to lead to a body of professors but not posessors.
When those with the truth and assurance of salvation fail to claim possession of the salvation given to us through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we fail to occupy the dwelling place of the Lord in our lives. The comparison can be made to that of a home that has been built with the intention of someone taking possession and occupying the residence. There is a home not far from here that is a prime example of having a dwelling place that is never occupied. Over the course of time I watched as the building took form and came up from the ground until it’s completion some time later. A very strange thing happened to this fine house, the ground was broken, the foundations set, the walls and roof placed carefully, but when all seemed finished and the home ready for occupancy, no one ever claimed possession of the home. As the years have passed no one has ever moved into the home and the fine place has began to rot and decay and be claimed by the storms and circumstance that the years have brought. Now the house is not fit for anyone to live there.
This is a very true application also in the spiritual realm. We are to dwell in the great salvation that the Lord Jesus has given us. We are to move into His house, taking possession with the authority of the owner. Once we have moved in we are to dwell there and take special care of our salvation as the storms of life come and go. We are to take our repairs jobs to the great carpenter of Nazereth, for He is the only one who can fix the disrepair that comes into our lives.
E: to take up (a place or extent in space) Matt 25:23
In this last definition we find the most popular of all Webster’s definitions. This one interpretation seems the more accommodating of them all for those who choose to simply get along on this path of Christianity rather than living the life to it’s fullest. This definition excuses the responsibility of being gainfully employed and replaces it with the example given by the last of the servants in the parable in Matthew. For rather than use what talents the Lord has given to His children we hide it as we await His returning. The response of Jesus, our Savior, to this wicked and slothful servant is very plain and direct.
Matthew 25:28-30
8Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. 29For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. 30And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus’ instructions are very plain; the wicked and slothful servant will loose that which the Lord has entrusted to him. Not only will the talents be lost, but also the servant will be cast out and never trusted again to handle the business of the Master. If were not enough to be cast out, the casting out is compared to being placed into hell, for there will be separation from the Son of Man and darkness and gnashing of teeth.
To use this definition of occupying space in place of the intended one of gainful employment can lead to dangerous straights. To hide the talent that our Master has entrusted to us, knowing that He has taught us to use it to further His kingdom, invites a certain and terrible penalty. To be slothful and wicked in our non-service surely will bring about the separation of you the servant from the loving and kind Master who is Jesus. Are you willing to risk your eternal rewards because of your slothful and wicked application of the word Occupy? Are you willing to be separated and never used again by the Lord because you choose not to obey His command to be gainfully employed in His service? Our life is all about choices; those made here on earth will and do affect our eternal position before God.
There are a lot of Christians who are doing nothing. But there are no Christians who have nothing to do.
