THE/OUR HEAVENLY KING WILL RETURN
Luke 19:11-27 - November 9, 2003
LUKE 19:11-27
11While they were listening to this, he 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. 12He said: "A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. 13So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. `Put this money to work,’ he said, `until I come back.’
14"But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, `We don’t want this man to be our king.’
15"He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it.
16"The first one came and said, `Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’
17" `Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. `Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’
18"The second came and said, `Sir, your mina has earned five more.’
19"His master answered, `You take charge of five cities.’
20"Then another servant came and said, `Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. 21I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’
22"His master replied, `I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? 23Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’
24"Then he said to those standing by, `Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’
25" `Sir,’ they said, `he already has ten!’
26"He replied, `I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. 27But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them--bring them here and kill them in front of me.’ "
Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
How excited we get when we look forward to a special day, whether it is Thanksgiving when our families return home, whether it is Christmas, whether it is our birthday or an anniversary, or whatever special day it might be! As we wind down the church year and as you heard in our readings already, the special day that is coming that has every Christian is excited about is the last day--God’s Judgment Day. That day is coming, and it is coming quickly. On that day we are told that the heavenly King will return. That is His promise to every believer and us. That is really His promise to everyone in the world, whether they want to believe it or not. It was a promise Jesus made to His disciples. As Jesus spoke to His disciples, Jesus told them He was the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus was going to return to His Father and prepare a place for them. As He told His disciples face to face when He was on earth, so Jesus reminds us today, His modern-day disciples: "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am"(JOHN 14:3). Yes, it is exactly as our text tells us,
THE HEAVENLY KING WILL RETURN.
I. He will return with blessings for believers. II. He will return with punishment of His enemies.
It is important for us to remember the setting of our text this morning. Jesus is about to enter Jerusalem for the last time, just before He was going to be put to death. In verse 11 of chapter 19, He says: 11While they were listening to this, he 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. Jesus was getting ready to go into Jerusalem, and they looked at Jesus as their king. They were hoping and expecting that maybe if Jesus would go into Jerusalem, He would kick out those Roman soldiers and that Roman government and set Himself up as king. The text says they expected the Kingdom of God to appear at once. But Jesus was not going to do that. Jesus is going to Jerusalem to be put to death. Jesus is going there to come back to life. Jesus is going there that He might return to His Heavenly Father and assume His rightful title as king. Jesus tells a parable to help the people understand.
12He said: "A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. As we look at parables, sometimes it is hard to see what represents what. Here it is quite easy to see that this nobleman refers to Jesus Himself. As we look back, we see that it refers to the fact that Jesus ascends into heaven and will return as the Righteous King. He continues: 13So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. `Put this money to work,’ he said, `until I come back.’ The nobleman was quite generous with them. He did not have to do that at all. The servants were there to do their duty. They did not deserve to receive anything at all from their master. The fact is the master deserved to receive everything from the servants. The servants owed their master their lives. But in an act of generosity and in an act of kindness and grace and love, he gives to the servants ten minas.
Jesus continues. The nobleman is made king and he returns. 15"He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it. He was going to see what they did with their minas. 16"The first one came and said, `Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’ It increased ten times. 17" `Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. `Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’ He is going to be given charge of something that was important. Remember, this man came back now as king. He wasn’t just a nobleman over a small area, but now he was king over an entire country.
18"The second came and said, `Sir, your mina has earned five more.’ 19"His master answered, `You take charge of five cities.’ Remember as we hear this parable, first of all these servants were given this amount of money by grace. These servants understood that they were not the ones who had increased the minas. What do we hear them say? They say, "Your mina has earned five more." Or, "Your mina has earned ten more." It was the gift that increased. True, they used it faithfully and it grew. Because of that, they were entrusted with more. Jesus explains to this fact in the conclusion. The nobleman, who is called the king now, replied, `I tell you who has, more will be given.
The king, our heavenly King will return with blessings for believers. The believers that have will be given even more, won’t they? As we think about that, how can we have even more? As we look at the Last Day, it becomes quite clear what the Lord is speaking about. On the Last Day when every eye shall see Him and there will be no escape for the unbelievers, there will be great joy and rejoicing for the believers, for you and I, and for believers throughout the world. We have held unto our faith, and now the Lord says we are going to have even more. We are going to have eternity. We are going to have a place where there is no more mourning or weeping or pain or sorrow or sun and moon and the list goes on. So our Lord says to us to be faithful. From the book of Revelation that we looked at a couple of weeks ago in our Bible study says: "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death" (Judgment Day)(REVELATION 2:10b,11). We look forward to that Judgment Day. When yes, for the world, it will seem as if the heavenly King returns, but for you and I and all believers it will be our Heavenly King. He will provide even greater blessings for each of His believers.
Of course, we do not have to wait until the Last Day to realize that we have been given blessings. Each of have been given minas as it were, gifts of faith. Each one of us have different gifts. Each of us have really more than one spiritual gift, probably a good number. Because we are believers, the Lord gives them out of His grace just like this nobleman. We don’t deserve to have any gifts at all, but the Lord gives them to us. We don’t deserve to be sitting in God’s presence with the understanding that we are saved. But by grace the Lord saves us! So what can do now until Judgment Day? The Day when our King will return and ask us what we have done with all those gifts He has given us? Again, in Revelation, our Kings says to be faithful. When we look at our society, we are to look at our gifts and see how we can use them, not for ourselves, but for someone else. One of the great downfalls or flaws in our society today is that everyone looks out for himself and tries to use all his blessings he gets for himself. As believers, you and I have the gift to understand that the blessings we have are indeed God’s gifts. Gifts we are to use for others, for their benefit. We are to look to the interest of our neighbors and not our own interests. Peter tells us: "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms"(1 PETER 4:10)
It is especially important for us to remember that fact in our day and age. The promise we also have that goes along with these blessings is that God’s gifts are effective. One of the gifts--the gift of prayer--is hard to see in regard to the effect that they can have. It might be hard to see the results which prayer works. Maybe we do not use prayer enough. Yet, the Lord promises that as we pray for others, so His blessing is upon them.
Another gift that we have is the ability to hear God’s Word. We may not always see the effect of God’s word, but the Lord promises His blessing. What does He tell us in Isaiah? He says: "So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it"(ISAIAH 55:11). Again we go back to the fact that God has given us gifts and will accomplish what He wants done, not necessarily what we want done. Our sinful nature always says, "I want this. I want that." The Lord says, "You are going to get this. You are going to get that, because that is what I desire. There is a divine purpose I have for you in this life."
We look forward to that day when He comes back; because when the Lord returns as the Righteous Judge, He will be our heavenly King, which we will understand by faith. Our King will then give us the fulfillment of all earthly blessings in eternal life. But our King will also return as the King to bring punishment upon His enemies.
II. Remember towards the beginning of this parable, the nobleman went out to be king and in an act of very magnanimous generosity, he gives very large gifts to his servants. But in the midst of that we are told: 14"But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, `We don’t want this man to be our king.’ Again, we think of Jesus. Jesus stands beside Pilate and with Barabbas when Pilate says to the crowd, "Who should I set free, Jesus who has done nothing wrong or Barabbas who is a criminal?" The crowd says, "We want Barabbas. We do not want this Jesus to be our king. Crucify Him."
In this parable we hear the faithful servants and we hear the servant who probably could fit into this delegation that did not like his master. We are told: 20"Then another servant came and said, `Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. Some translations have that he wrapped it in a napkin or handkerchief. If you look in commentaries, they will tell you that that napkin or handkerchief was the cloth he was to use to wipe his face when he sweat from working for his master. We find that the servant isn’t doing anything for his master. He doesn’t even have to use that sweat cloth, because he is not sweating in labor for the master. We see too that he hides it away trying to point to the master as the one who is at fault rather than he. This servant says: 21I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’ The servant describes him as a hard man meaning he is not generous but stingy. Yet, when we look at these ten minas that he gives, we discover the very opposite. A mina consisted of one hundred drachmas. A drachma was a day’s wages. If we multiply that out, one hundred days wages times ten gives us a thousand, doesn’t it? When the master left, he gave these servants who didn’t deserve a thing almost three years’ wages as a gift. Yet, this servant comes and says, "You are a hard man."
What is going to be the result? 22"His master replied, `I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! The master says, "You call me a hard man. You are going to face hard punishment. You are going to see the hardness not of me but of your own hardness of heart." The master tells him: 23Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’ This servant did not do one thing with that money. If he had done at least just one thing, it would have been better than nothing. So the master commands those standing by to take away his mina and give it to the others. They think that is unfair. What does the master say? 26"He replied, `I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. This servant had hardened his heart. He did not see the generosity of this king. So that little bit he had which wasn’t much, which he didn’t think was much at all, was taken away. On the Last Day those who have no faith have only earthly blessings and those will be taken away. They will seem to have even less, but they didn’t have anything to begin with.
At the end he says in verse 27: 27But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them--bring them here and kill them in front of me.’ " It sounds harsh. It doesn’t even sound like something Jesus would say.
Yet what is going to happen on the Last Day? The righteous go to heaven; the unbelievers or unrighteous, the enemies of Christ, go to eternal destruction. This pictures very accurately the Last Day. Those enemies who harden their hearts, who had no use for Christ on earth, certainly will feel left out on the Last Day. But they had no use for Christ on earth, so why would they have any use for Him in heaven? That sounds harsh, but that is the reality of Jesus coming as the Heavenly King. There are two ways Jesus returns, isn’t it? He is going to return for believers as our heavenly King, and we will find joy and rejoicing. But for the unbelievers, they will see Jesus as the heavenly King. As we sang in that hymn, it will be a day of wrath and a day of mourning for them. But after all in today’s society we find a lot of heaven here on earth. Because of that, many have no time now for what is yet to come. Philippians tells us this: Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things" (PHILIPPIANS 3:18b19). We can easily say that the world is exactly like that. Their mind is on earthly things. We also know in our day-to-day living, maybe, too often our mind is on earthly things. Maybe from time to time, we forget that the Lord is going to return. Jesus will return as the righteous Judge with judgment on His enemies. Jesus is also going to return as our King with blessings for His believers.
We may remember the Last Day account in Matthew 25 where Jesus says He will return. Jesus will divide the sheep and the goats. Jesus will tell the righteous when He was hungry, they fed Him, they visited Him in prison, and the list goes on. They say, "When did we do that?" Of course, the believers will not remember when they did all those things, because they just do them. They just do them as a fruit of their faith and do not keep track of all the good things they have done. Nor do they even remember the good things they did because of their faith. It simply becomes a natural way of love. For the unbelievers, the opposite is true. Jesus is going to say, "You didn’t visit me in prison; or when I was sick. You did not clothe me or feed me." They are going to say, "When did we not do that for you?" Jesus will tell them that they did not do it to anyone, so they didn’t do it to Him. In Matthew: "He will reply, ’I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’"(MATTHEW 25:45). Just like the servant whose words condemned him, so they too by their actions will be condemned. They will have to face the harshness of Jesus’ judgment. There are those today who look at the words of Jesus as being to hard. They look at the words of God and the commandments as being too hard. In the end the judgment will fall on them because of their own hardness of their heart, not the hardness of our Savior’s heart.
When we look at that Last Day, we see that the enemies of Jesus will come to an end quite abruptly. We are also reminded that He puts to an end forever, not just earthly enemies, but finally, once and for all, all our spiritual enemies. Not to say they aren’t overcome now, but on this side we are tempted to fall back into sin. We are tempted to listen to Satan. We are tempted to be worried about fears concerning death. On the Last Day all of that will be behind us. The old order of things will pass away. Our King tells us in 1 Corinthians: "For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death"(1 CORINTHIANS 15:25,26). The last enemy to be destroyed is death. Jesus reminds us on that Last Day, there will be great rejoicing for every believer, because we will understand completely and fully that Satan has been defeated, that the world has been crushed, and that death is destroyed.
That day is coming. We don’t know when, but we know that since these words were written, we are almost 2,000 years closer to that Last Day. It is not meant as a day to scare us, but it is a day to remind us that there is something for us to be watching for - - just as we look forward to a birthday or a celebration or Thanksgiving or Christmas or whatever special day we look forward to in this world.
So that Last Day is always the next day or that Last Day could be even today. Our King does not want us to be unaware. He wants us to be alert and awake and to watch. Mark tells us: "If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ’Watch!’"(MARK 13:36,37). Jesus says to keep alert. The end of the church year helps us to focus on this preparation for the return of our heavenly King. Again, be awake to watch for His return. Because on that Last Day, even though Jesus will come as the heavenly King, which strikes fear and terror in the hearts of unbelievers because it is their eternal end and they will face eternal punishment. For you and I, every believer Jesus returns as our Heavenly King. He is going to bring to us the fulfillment of all of His promises--blessings that you and I cannot even imagine—endless eternity! Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
