Investing the Gospel

We're going to look at a reading this morning, picking up on one of the parables that Jesus told. The reading this morning is from Luke 19. Luke 19, verse 11. As they heard these things, he, who is Jesus, Jesus proceeded to tell a parable because he was near to Jerusalem and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. He said, therefore, a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.

Calling 10 of his servants, he gave them ten minas and said to them, engage in business until I come. But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, we do not want this man to reign over us. When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business. The first came before him, saying, Lord, your mina has made 10 minas more. And he said to him, well done, good servant.

Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over 10 cities. And the second came saying, Lord, your mina has made five minas. And he said to him, and you are to be over five cities. Then another came saying, Lord, here is your mina which I kept laid away in a handkerchief. For I was afraid of you because you are a severe man.

You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow. He said to him, I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant. You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank? And at my coming, I might have collected it with interest.

And he said to those who stood by, take the mina from him and give it to the one who has the 10 minas. And they said to him, Lord, he has 10 minas. I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.

This morning, we're looking at this parable of Jesus and we can identify two guys in the story that are highly motivated and have done well, and of course, another guy who, well, let's just say he's in there with only a chance. Two servants who are faithful in small things because of that, they're rewarded and their reward means they're entrusted with even greater things. One other guy who's left shamed in front of his peers, nevertheless, still identified as a servant. And Jesus says, by way of conclusion, I'll tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given. However, there's this one guy who has the same opportunity as the others, and he's not faithful and therefore not rewarded, and about him, Jesus says, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away.

He's disgraced, ashamed in front of his peers. By looking at their story this morning, we discover something of the motivation we need to be faithful for the gospel, so the gospel might shine within our own hearts even in a dark world. Three things to look at this morning: the servants' responsibilities, the enemy's resistance, and the kind of accounting that the king makes about their business dealings. The responsibilities of the servants, the resistance encountered because of God's enemies, and lastly, the kind of accounting the king makes. First of all, just a little bit on the context.

If you had the benefit of an open Bible in front of you this morning, you would have noticed that this is not the first story in this particular chapter in Luke's gospel. And it's just good to reflect ever so briefly on what's happened beforehand. Jesus enters Jericho. He's on his way to Jerusalem. And the crowds were so big.

There's this little guy who comes up with an amazing plan in order to see Jesus. Zacchaeus runs ahead of the crowd, climbs a tree, literally to get a bird's eye view of Jesus. And Jesus meets him. He greets him up there in the tree. There's a wonderful exchange between the two of them and Zacchaeus walks away a changed man.

And Jesus declares, today salvation has come to this house for the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. Now in a curious way, this parable of Jesus about the minas is linked to the story that precedes it, the story of Zacchaeus. Why did Jesus tell this parable? And we don't have to guess an answer this morning because the text tells us. The people who'd seen the radical transformation in Zacchaeus, the same crowd who had witnessed Jesus' miracles, his healings, and heard his teachings, swarms of people that were following Him, this could only mean one thing for them, and that is the Messiah has come.

The king is here. And about this, Luke says, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. And then Jesus tells a story and the story comes across as a warning actually, a caution not to go there, but the events to follow in Jerusalem will show they don't really get the warning. They don't heed Jesus' words. So in this next section of Luke 19, you can see with just 25 kilometres to go up the hill into Jerusalem, Jesus is hailed as their king and here they are expecting Jesus to set up an earthly kingdom right there and then.

And Jerusalem, the city of David, that's the city of the great king. That's where Jesus would establish His reign on earth. The expectations were such that they'd reached fever pitch. And so Jesus tells a story, a story to counter their expectation. And he tells them how they should expect to receive Him and His kingdom in all its glory and in all its splendour.

He does so by telling them an allegory, talking about Himself. This is a parable about Jesus before it's a parable about you or me. And before we see ourselves in the story, we must see Jesus in the story. You see, Jesus is the man of noble birth. He has to leave for a time so that he can be installed as a king.

And without them realising it, He's telling the crowd that He's going to leave them. We know that He's on His way to Jerusalem, and when He comes to Jerusalem, He will be rejected, crucified, dead, and buried, and after three days, rise from the dead. And then He will leave this world, bodily at least, to be with His Father only to return one day. And when He does come, only He won't be coming to seek and save what was lost. Instead, the lost will be confirmed as lost in eternity in everlasting condemnation.

Jesus will come back as king, only to judge the living and the dead. And at that time, His followers won't have to do battle with sin and Satan and their own flesh anymore. But in the meantime, before He comes again, while the king is absent, the servants have responsibilities for which they're accountable. The servants that you and I can identify with this morning. So during the king's absence, while He's reigning from afar, He has servants.

And in the story, each of them is given the same amount of money in order to work with. Notice the same amount, one mina each. Now sometimes this parable is being confused with the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. But I put it to you this morning, the two parables are quite different. The talents represent abilities.

One is given five talents, another two and another one. And the very word for talent means a large amount of money. But here, in Luke's gospel, Jesus uses the word mina. And a mina was equal to about one hundred days wages for a labourer. Let's say, three months salary.

And it signifies a deposit, a trust that every believer has irrespective of talents or gifts. Now ask yourself the question this morning, what is it that every believer has? What is something given to every Christian at the moment of their conversion? Think about it for a moment. It's the gospel, no less than the good news about Jesus Christ.

The treasure we identified earlier in the service that lives in cracked pots. The gospel, good news about forgiveness of sins, new life in Christ, and even life eternal. Every follower of Jesus receives in faith the gospel, the good news, as a trust from God. It's nothing other than the grace of God, a gift to believers to hold true to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ at work as it does its work in our own lives. Only God's love poured out into our hearts melts our hearts, and moves us towards love and good deeds, living the life, the fruit that the gospel produces within us.

Now this is the meaning or the purpose of the mina given to each servant. Each mina is the investment that Jesus makes of Himself, of the gospel, of the good news in the life of a Christian. It's the same thing Paul talks about often of being entrusted with the gospel. It doesn't matter if I'm talking about KJ, our pastor, or one of the elders serving in the offices of the church, or I'm talking about the newest convert seated in the pews here this morning. Each person has this mina, this gospel, this good news.

Doesn't matter if we're talking about Billy Graham or Mother Teresa. It's the same message. It's the same trust given to every believer. And the point is that every Christian has this deposit, the good news of Jesus Christ. And we can all hear the command this morning ringing true in the parable.

Put this money to good work, says Jesus, until I come back. We're all called to make the investment of the investment that Jesus has made in us until He comes back. Now the people in the crowd that day knew what was going on in the story that Jesus is telling. They knew that any would-be ruler in Palestine needed to go to Rome to be appointed by the emperor. They would have understood that much in the story that Jesus was telling them.

We read, but his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, we don't want this man to be our king. So the king in the parable, and remember Jesus is curiously talking about Himself in terms of an allegory. The enemies of the king, they believe they can appeal to Rome and make a case not to have this man serve as their king. And Jesus knows full well that as soon as He gets to Jerusalem, the same crowd that welcomes Him there as the king and He has this kind of triumphal entry on a donkey, which is the next story coming up in the gospel of Luke. The same crowd that welcomes Jesus as king, they're going to appeal to Pilate not to have Him as their king and they won't stop hating Him.

And eventually, they'll cry out, crucify Him, crucify Him, crucify Him. And of course, eventually, Pilate does exactly that, hands Him over to be crucified. And it should come as no surprise then that the king's servants are going to find it difficult to work their minas, that is to make the investment, to do business on behalf of the king and especially while He's gone. How can they put their mina to work in such a hostile environment? In that culture, and at that time, businessmen only succeeded really if they were skilled negotiators, good at bartering, able to haggle over prices.

It was tough work, but there were huge margins to be made. If only you had the will to persist. This was not business for the faint hearted. And clearly, these servants of the king were to go out there into the world, into the marketplace, and then set up business. And even among those, those who hated the king who identified as His enemies, who resist Him on all counts.

So what they were asked to do was at some considerable risk to themselves. Remember, the king's gone. He's off to see the emperor in Rome. But the test of their character and their devotion to the king would surely be this: how it was they were going to invest their mina. Now I want to make the connection with you and me this morning.

We've seen who Jesus is in the parable. He's the king who had to leave for a time. But what about us? How are we going or not going as the case may be. Are we looking to make an investment with the mina, with the gospel?

Let's describe it as an investment in a hostile market. We have the gospel entrusted to each one of us who believes. We have it for a time until our king returns or until He calls us home to be with Him. And Jesus is saying to you and me this morning, put this money to work until I come back. Where are we in the story?

Well, we'll find out quick enough because the time comes and the king returns in the story. And the king conducts these interviews with the three of His servants. And by all accounts, the first and the second servant have gained phenomenal returns on their investment. In the case of the first, a 1000 per cent return. And in the case of the second, a 500 per cent return.

Amazing work. And yet, they were very humble about it, taking no credit for themselves. They both say, Sir, your mina has earned. It's like the mighty little mina did the work in us, through us, and for us. This mina had integrity, purpose, and meaning all of its own, and it never let us down.

Look what it's accomplished. And despite the odds against these two, they did turn a profit, a phenomenal profit. And both of them acknowledged that the power to do so was in the mina itself. Your mina, they were saying, is the means of our success. And for their part, these two servants, all they were required to do was to believe that their product was a good product and believe in their product, and the result was that they were good at their game.

You know what I'm saying? In the event, these two servants were sharp. They were well motivated. They did well. Well done, good servant, the king replies.

And He praises them, and they're suitably rewarded. And their rewards should amaze us this morning. They receive entire cities. The number of cities each one receives is consistent with the return on their investment. And whilst the size of their reward may impress us, the true value of the reward is something we're in danger of missing.

It's not cities or power or wealth that the servants are most pleased with. There's something of far greater worth here happening than being little kings or vice regents of the great king over so many cities. I wouldn't have picked this up if I hadn't read from a commentary by Simon Kistemaker on Luke's gospel. The splendour of the cities given to them will be far less important than the fact that they are now vice kings of the king, able to reign over these cities at His right hand. Now, these servants are identified as those who are closest to the king.

That means they'll always have access to the king, be able to speak with Him, and be in His presence at all times. Remember Jesus is talking about Himself here and He's saying that those who are faithful, those who invest the gospel, who reproduce what they have in themselves, they'll be welcomed into My kingdom and sit at My right hand in positions of honour, positions that are indeed closest to Me. Their reward is great and in the end, they'll be received with honour and they'll be privileged to reign at the right hand of God and speak and live with Jesus forever. The reward of the faithful servants is the idea they'll have eternal intimacy with Jesus. They'll be identified as His co-regents, and what a joy that is.

We can scarcely imagine it. Now, these interviews, however, are not all joy. There's real tragedy here. What of the servant who made no investment? What becomes of him?

By the time the king returns, effectively, he's done nothing. During the time he did have, he simply stashes the mina away. Remember, mina equals gospel, a trust given to each believer. No light, no salt in the world. All he did was stuff his mina in his handkerchief, says the ESV.

It's the equivalent of the cloth that was referred to. His actual thoughts regarding the personality and the character of the king was slanderous, really, malicious, not based on truth. He called the king a hard man. In the original, it's a Greek word from which we get our English word austere, and you've heard of austerity measures. Cash-strapped countries trying to cope with huge debts, trading their way out of debts, tax and keep taxing the people and give nothing back.

Austerity measures. And according to this servant, the king is strict or exacting. We might say, a man who expects to get blood out of a stone. He's saying these things to justify the keeping of his mina in his own handkerchief, in his own pocket. He's not going to put it to work.

He fears he might get no return. He might even make a loss. And then what will happen then? He's thinking my mina can't do any good among the enemies of the king. This mina that's been entrusted to me doesn't really stand a chance.

So you know what? I'll play it safe. No problem with that, is there? I won't trouble anyone. I'll say nothing to anyone.

Now, where's my hanky? I want to stuff it there, and I'll wrap it there and keep it safe in my pocket. We might refer to this man as a sorry Christian, really. He actually slanders God in his heart. He hoards and keeps for himself what he's received from Jesus in order to give away.

He carefully folds it in a cloth, stores it away. You know what? He might be thinking something like this. I can't be active, but I can be conservative, and I can preserve what's around here, and I'll help the church keep going. In fact, I'll send my children to Sunday school and catechism and I'll do my fair share of rosters in the church.

I'll even say amen at the end of the prayers in church and I can wrap my trust from God, the gospel in my handkerchief and keep it safe. I'll keep it close to my heart. Watch out, says Jesus. Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has 10 minas. As far as this man is concerned, he's left with nothing.

No reward. Though he himself is saved, he's still referred to as a servant. And I think Paul gives the same sort of commentary about the same issue, about a life or a ministry in which a person is not trading with his mina. Instead of doing business in the world with bricks and mortar, he's actually doing it with straw. At the final judgment, his work, says Paul, will be shown for what it is because the day will bring it to light.

It will be revealed with fire and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. But if it's burned up, he'll suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. What we do with the gospel is the point of the parable.

At the very end, Jesus offers this very helpful summary. I'll tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given but for the one who has nothing, who's wrapped the gospel up and kept it out of sight, stuffed in his hanky, even what he's had will be taken away. The question for you and me this morning is this: what are you doing with the gospel? What are you doing that can translate into love and simple acts of obedience that are evidence of you investing the gospel today? Are we investing what our king has done for us in the lives of others?

This is not a question of giftedness or talents, but a question of faithfulness. It's the point of the parable since no one can say that since I did not have the ability or the talent or the gift, but by God's grace, I have everything. I have the gospel. I have the good news of Jesus. And if you believe in the gospel this morning, you have a mina that's worth investing.

And until Jesus returns, you've been entrusted with the greatest treasure this world will ever know. It's on display. It's in your heart and in my heart. We're cracked pots, but against such a background, the gospel can only shine brighter. This power is not from us, but from God.

Your mina has earned for us. Now be aware the king is returning, and when our king does return, we'll all be called to give an account. Are you using your time and money to invest the gospel in others? Will even your most simple acts of obedience show you're devoted to the king even whilst doing business with the enemies of the king? Will you serve them for the gospel?

There's no such thing as a passive investment. The gospel requires action. Can you remember the person who first invested in you? It was no more or no less than the person having the courage to take their mina and then seek to reproduce it in you. In fact, when you think about it, every one of us who calls Jesus Christ Lord and Saviour can only do so because at one point in our lives, there was someone who was courageous.

There was someone who was obedient. There was someone who was willing to make an investment in you and in me. It's the parents who dared to disciple their children in the ways of the Lord Jesus. It's the friend who invited you to the Easter service or the Christmas service. It's the acquaintance you met in the park at the salt and light event even last week.

Maybe it's a relative who shared the hope of the gospel with you at one time or it's the pastor who spoke the word of truth to convict and to guide or the leader in the church who loved you enough to come to your home to visit you and encourage you and help you walk ever closer with Jesus. When you think about it, each one of us this morning is here because we've listened to the call of God to live out the gospel truth because we've heard it from someone else. Ultimately, of course, we recognise our mina is an investment that God makes, something God does in you and me through His Son, the Lord Jesus. Our faith to believe Him as the way, the truth, and the life, it is nothing more than a gift from Him. Your mina has the power to earn.

So the question today could well be asked of all of us, who needs you or me to be like Jesus in their world today? Who is God calling you and me to invest in even in a hostile market? Is there someone in your life's journey that you can share and love for the sake of the gospel so their eternity might be turned around due to your humble act of obedience. The consequences of not doing so is the way the parable finishes, and it should frighten us this morning. Jesus says, but those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and kill them in front of me.

What a terrible thing to say. This can only be a future reference for all who reject Jesus. This is not about the servants. It's not even about the frightened servant who did nothing with his mina. This is the future of the king's enemies.

Do you know them? Have you seen these enemies? They're not likely to be here in church this morning, but who are they? You know them or at least you'd better get to know them because they're the ones we're told to do business with. Without our investment into their hearts and lives, they face a horrible end, too frightening to think about.

We think of the injustice that's happening in the world today. Think of all the war crimes that are being committed in the Ukraine. What some will say is fair and just, others will say is outrageous, grossly unjust, and we hate that. We really do. But what we have to get our heads around this morning is this is the perfect justice of our king.

His righteous holy justice that is beyond reproach. And it's true to say that when Jesus returns to this earth to finally establish His kingdom in all its glory on the earth, there'll be no resistance. You may be horrified this morning at the fierceness of these words, but underlying this terrifying imagery is a solemn fact. Jesus is watching. Jesus is waiting, even delaying His return so we can account for the trust that we have in each of our hearts, the trust of the gospel.

And to those who are investing the gospel in the lives of others, there'll be unthought of rewards. To those who've hidden the gospel, shame. And to those who reject the gospel, death. In the closing words of the Bible, Jesus, in a sense, repeats Himself, behold, I'm coming soon. My reward is with me and I'll give to everyone according to what he has done.

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, You've given us a solemn trust this morning, one that brings joy and real hope to our lives. We pray, Lord, that You'd make us wise and understanding and able to take that which lives in our hearts and translate it into the way we speak, the way we think, and the things that we do and are for others in the world today. We'll confess before You that often we feel somewhat overwhelmed in the presence of Your enemies. These days, it's become popular to be agnostic, to not know You, to have a faith and yet talk about faith of another religion or some fad that's passing through in our society today.

But we thank You that in a humble way, we have the word of truth, the eternal word of truth, the mina that's been given to each one of us. Energise us in the strength of Your word, we pray. Move us and shape us and continue to be busy with us, Lord, as we want to shine ever so brightly for Jesus, our king, who's with us and one day will return in glory and in splendour. Oh Lord, what a day that will be. If You're not calling us to Yourself beforehand, Lord, we eagerly await with great expectation how it is that You might reign over this earth as King of kings and Lord of lords.

Give us that perspective on the work that we do for You now, Your church, community together here in this place. Bless us in that. We pray in Jesus' name as we say together, amen.