The Shiny Sword Needs Wielding

Luke chapter 19. The reason we have looked at Luke 19 before is we looked at the triumphal entry a few weeks ago before Easter. But just before this triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus tells this parable. And we begin from verse 11 in Luke 19. As they heard these things, he, who is 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 10 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, the king, said to him, "Well done, good servant. Because you have been faithful in 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." The king 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." So far the reading. As a uni student, I remember doing all sorts of different jobs.

At one point, I was a part time casual labourer who was working for a labouring company. You know those ones that will call you up in the morning and say, "Need you to be here and here to do this sort of work." Sometimes I was transporting Coca-Cola to venues like the RNA Showgrounds for the ECA. Other times, I was sorting out livers and kidneys and hearts for dog food. Fun times.

They were still steaming and warm when I got them. But have you noticed, if you've worked in different sorts of work or job situations, have you ever noticed that the level of interest and how much you enjoy the work is somehow tied with how much you love, know and respect your boss? Like when I was working for this labour company, I was serving some faceless people who would call me on a phone, who I'd never ever met in my life, telling me where I needed to be and what I needed to do. That work always, even if though I was earning good money, was always tedious, was always a burden. But then other times where I've worked for people that I knew, for example, I worked at a factory for a while, building a factory over a couple of years, and I knew my boss because he was someone in our church.

And I was receiving less from him, but I enjoyed the work more. Why do we work harder or more diligently and even more happily for people we know, we respect, or we even love? Well, we see something of that question being answered in the parable we just read. When we come to Luke 19, we find ourselves obviously very close to the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus. I've just mentioned that he's about to go into Jerusalem with a triumphal entry.

But up until this point, Luke has been preparing us. He's been warning us. He's been getting us ready for what is going to take place over these next weeks. But we know that this parable that Jesus tells us has got something to do with what is going to take place over those three days at Easter. Because we read in verse 11 at the start that Jesus tells this parable because he was near Jerusalem, it says.

For Luke, that's a very important detail to give. The parable comes to us because Jesus is almost in Jerusalem. It's almost as though Jesus, and I've been privileged enough to go to Israel, is walking up the mountains, the mountain range that is around Jerusalem. It's a very hilly area. And he's just coming over the top of one hill, and there before him, he sees Jerusalem.

And as he sees Jerusalem, he tells this story. Why does Jesus tell this story in view of Jerusalem? Well, there are a few reasons why Jesus tells us what is in this story. The first thing he tells us is of a disappearing king. Verse 11 says that Jesus tells the story because he saw Jerusalem and also because his disciples, it says, supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.

And then in verse 12, Jesus begins by describing a certain nobleman, a king who goes to a far off country to receive a kingdom for himself. There is a king who is about to disappear for a little while. Now, of course, after the events of Easter, we finally understand that Jesus is the king. But the plans of God has no category for establishing the kingdom through a political messiah.

That is what Jesus is hinting at. This kingdom is not going to come through him claiming the throne in Jerusalem. The disciples don't get it because straight away, after he tells this parable, we see the triumphal entry. And they are waving the palm branches, and they're singing "Hosanna in the highest," and they're throwing their cloaks before Jesus as he rides into the city. They still don't get the parable.

They won't get the parable until the Holy Spirit comes upon them. But Jesus is starting to prepare his disciples that there is going to be a long time to serve in the kingdom between when victory comes and when the kingdom is fully and finally established. The king is going to a far off country. The journey is going to be long. The effort is going to be difficult, and the scope is massive.

It is not just Israel, it is the world. And so what do we do with this disappearing king? Well, we have to learn to be patient. We have to learn to wait as disciples of Jesus. That is going to be a part of our Christian living.

It is something that is built into our faith. We must be patient waiters. Because why does Luke include this teaching of Jesus? He's writing, remember, not to the apostles of that time. He's writing to the disciples who came after the apostles, the ones that have been taught by these apostles.

They were expecting Jesus to come at any time. It was sixty years, fifty years after Jesus, and they're thinking, surely it must be time. And they're getting impatient. And Luke says, Christians have to wait. Luke reminds us today that Jesus said he was going to be a while.

It is a far off country and it is a big kingdom to subdue. There are many subjects to conquer. Many lands to be victorious over, and so we should be patient about his return, but filled with hope at the same time because he is a king who does return. That's what the disappearing king implies. But that leads us to the next point.

Jesus says to his disciples, you disciples, you are in this for the long haul. Remember this. Understand that there are two fixed dates on the divine calendar. One of them is about to take place when I die and when I rise in power. But the other is removed from this at a distance.

It's a point in time where I come back in majesty and glory. And between those two fixed points in history, as I will tell you in this parable, I'm calling you to be my humble servants, to use the resources I am giving you in order that you may bear much fruit. Have you ever thought about it this way? That your Christian life is not made up of two important dates which you call birth and then death, and we sort of exist between that. No.

For the Christian, the two dates we mark our life according to are these. The dates that dominate and shape the Christian life are the dates of the Lord Jesus' resurrection from the dead, proving His authority, proving His kingship and His victory. And number two is His return where He brings the kingdom. And so friends, to be Christians, to be believers, and I think many of us here are, the calendar that we should have in our mind, that our life is actually structured around, are those two dates. You see, in the case of these servants, this is what Jesus is getting at. These two dates that mattered to them wasn't when they became a servant or when they were born or whatever. The date that matters to these servants is when the king says, "Here, take this.

I'm going away." And when the king comes back to say, "What have you done in the meantime?" It's like the events of World War Two. In 1944, we remember the incredible event of D-Day on the beaches of Normandy. The allied forces that stormed those beaches under severe opposition and gunfire.

They conquered the beach. They made the invasion and the infiltration into occupied Europe rather. And it was the beginning of the end. But it took a year from D-Day to VE Day in 1945 when the German forces were finally and fully conquered. And in Christ, this is the same for us.

The Christian life is like living between D-Day and VE Day. Because in Christ, the victory has been settled. He died in our place. He took the punishment and the wrath of God on our behalf. He has won for us a victory, but now we wait.

Now we wait as He conquers the world through His infiltration, through His invasion into a place that is in rebellion against the true king. And we know that there will be opposition. And we know there will be resistance. There will be pockets. There will be bunkers that we need to overcome. They will even, for some of us, be death.

But the victory has been established. The beginning of the end has taken place, and it's only a matter of time. But notice that Jesus mentions some participants are taking their role in this victory as well. The king is going far off. He's disappearing for a while.

He's going to come back with his kingdom, but there are some role players also involved in this process. There are three servants with resources given. And these three servants have been given a certain amount of money to help invest for the king. And over the many years that the king has been away on his military campaign to win over the kingdom, the servants are instructed to use the money wisely. It's important, significant for us to know that a mina, which is the weight, it's not a currency or a coin, it's a weight of money that was given.

One mina equated to about three months worth of labour. This is a fairly significant amount of money. I mean, think about what you earn in a month and multiply that by three. That's a lot. That's a fair chunk. This is what is given to these 10 servants.

Then in verses 16 and 17, the first servant comes to the king. Like every servant, they've been given one mina, one amount of money, three months wages. But over the course of this king's absence, he has turned this one amount of coins into 10 amounts. In fact, it's one plus 10. This one made 10.

So it's actually 11 that he brings to the king. Three months worth of wages have turned into about five years worth of wages. One mina into 11. That's a thousand percent return on investment. That's pretty good.

Who's playing the stock market these days? That's pretty good. The king says to the servant, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You used what I gave you and you were given one and you made 10. How will I reward you for this?

I know. I've conquered many lands. I'm going to give you 10 cities." The next one comes in after this one and he's made five extra. That's a 500% return.

That's pretty good as well. The king says, "I'm going to put you in charge of five cities." Man, is overjoyed and he walks out. Now we might not make a big deal of it while we're reading this, but think carefully about what has taken place here. Does the king's reward fit what the servants earned? The king

can't even five years worth of wages buy a city? Not possible. This man has 10 cities to be king or governor over. Five for five. It doesn't actually correlate with what has been earned.

But we start seeing something of the nature of this king. He's actually very generous to his servants. Now we come to the man with the one coin remaining. The servant says, "Oh majesty, I believe that you are a hard man and I am fearful of you. So what I did, I grabbed the mina and I put it in a handkerchief and I kept it safe for you."

Now, I've always read this parable and this story because it's a well known one and I thought that the king is known to be a hard man. I always read this as that this is an established fact that he is hard, expecting something when he hasn't given anything and so forth. But the Greek actually, and you can see that in the NIV translation, supposes that this is just a perception of the servant. Because the king says to him, "Oh, you thought, did you, that I am a hard man?" It's not necessarily true.

"I thought you were a hard man," the servant says. "So I only kept this coin or these coins safe for you because I was afraid of losing it." And the king responds and said, "You thought I was a hard man? Did you just see these other fellows walking out of the room? Their pockets are stuffed with coins.

They have five cities and 10 cities respectively. Does a hard man do that? And here you are pulling your dirty hanky out of your pocket while I have emptied my pockets in grace and love to these men." Verse 22 says, "And so I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant. If you thought I was a hard man, why did you at least not put the money in the bank to earn a little bit of interest on it?

But you thought I was a hard man, so I will be a hard man. Take this man's mina and give it to the one who has 10." And here we find the tragedy in the story. The tragedy is that this third servant thought he knew the king when in fact he had no idea. "You thought I was a hard man, so you never had any motivation to love me.

You'd never had any motivation to serve me. Servant, you have altogether missed the point and now even what you have will be taken from you." Friends, I'm afraid that this third man wanders around in every Christian church today. He is found in every church on a Sunday because he is the man or the woman who finds it hard to serve God because they believe that He is a hard God to serve. They say to themselves, "I've got so much hard work to do.

I've received a call at 06:00 in the morning and I have to go clean livers and kidneys. I've got so much hard work to do. His expectations are so high of me. He must hate me." But you see the problem with this third man was that he didn't know his master.

Not at all. And not only does he not know his master, but he suffers from a delusion about his master's character. And this, you see, is what keeps you or me from serving our God with joy. This is what keeps us from being patient in waiting for His return, of serving diligently and consistently and faithfully and truly in the kingdom because we think He is a hard God. The king gives these servants equal gifts.

Everyone gets a mina. Each one received this one gift and they are meant to invest these gifts to help further the kingdom's wealth. And for some, these resources are enthusiastically used. Some of them are invested carefully. But for one, it is burdensome.

Tragically, he keeps it in a dirty hanky. For some, serving the kingdom is a delight. For this one, it is hard. Why? It's because they don't understand the king.

They don't understand who they're working for. This is the challenge of us hearing these words this morning. The reason that we don't live up to the potential of us investing into the kingdom of God through our lives, through our energies, through our finances, through our time, through our kids, through evangelistic efforts. The reason we don't invest what God has given us. Remember, this is what God has already given us.

We've never even earned it in the first place. It's not because we can't manage our time better. It's not because we don't fully know or understand Scripture or that we don't believe that God is really powerful enough to help us. The reason we don't do these things is because we don't believe God is gracious enough. We don't believe God is gracious.

We forget. At times, we can marvel at His grace and every now and then it breaks through and we are so overwhelmed by that grace. And then there are other times where we forget it or we ignore it. It is the story of the prodigal son all over again, isn't it? Not so much the naughty son who leaves the father, goes also to a far off country then returns again.

It is the story of the second son who stays with the father and who says to the father, "All these years I've been with you and never once did I receive a party. Yet your naughty son comes back and he receives a fattened calf." The father says to the son, "My son, everything I have has been yours. You could have had everything and anything if you asked, but you thought I was a hard man." This view of God's hardness can be so rampant in certain corners of our faith.

When it comes to the mission of our churches even, even the Reformed churches, the church that loves the doctrines of grace, they're so specialised in the knowledge and the teaching of God's salvation by His grace. Jesus is saying to His disciples, "I am going away and I'm leaving you with a gospel message to declare. That is what He's leaving. That is the mina that He's leaving. Take this to the world in order to expand the kingdom."

And yet as church members and as church leaders, what do we do? We take the gospel, which Paul calls the sword of the spirit in Ephesians 6. The sword that is used to conquer the dominion of Satan, to conquer the dominion of sin. We take that sword and it's like we're taking it off the mantle of the fireplace. And we marvel at it.

We think "What a beautiful sword." And we sit and we polish this sword, and we even sharpen this sword, and it is razor sharp, this gospel, and then we just place it back onto the mantle. Instead of wielding the sword of the spirit, the gospel of Jesus Christ, taking it into battle for the kingdom, we fear that God is hard and that He will punish us if we do something wrong with it. We are afraid it might get dirty.

We're afraid that it might get some scratches and nicks in it. But that sword is never meant to be simply admired. It is meant to be stuck into the enemy's gut. It was never meant to be put inside a hanky to be brought out and say, "Look, Lord, this is what we have. We have looked after this gospel message for you.

We have protected it. We have kept it tidy. Here, have it back, Lord." Friends, why don't we use it? Why don't we invest in making the gospel go out to as many as possible?

I want to suggest that it's not because we don't have enough time. It's not because we don't have enough money or energy or knowledge. It's because we think our king is harsh and that we'll make mistakes and that He'll be angry at us. But our king isn't harsh. He's overwhelmingly generous and gracious, and He wants us to succeed.

Otherwise, He wouldn't have given us this money to invest, this wealth. And He is eagerly watching how we're going to serve Him with the resources He's given us. And so I want to ask you, will you partner with me? Will you partner with me? Will you partner with your family in wielding the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God?

Are you praying to God, "Lord, show me where. Show me how I may use what You have given me. My gifts, my talents, my abilities are Yours and use my understanding of the gospel to make this work, Lord. Make this flourish. Let the gospel go out into every corner of my world, every corner of this country, every corner of the globe.

Lord, show me how I may use my little coin, my piece of Your wealth, for Your glory and Your kingdom."? Did you see how this parable ends, however? The king's enemies are slaughtered. Those who resisted him as he went out, he brings them and he says, "Kill them in front of me." They are annihilated.

The king's reign is supreme and final. And he returns and he is finally confirmed to be the real king. But did you notice this detail? The servant who has made 11, or 10 minas, and he receives the third servant's coins as well. Do you notice that not only does he get 10 cities, but he's still carrying the coins in his pockets?

The king doesn't really care about the money. Like, that one mina is given to this guy who has 10 already. The servants say to him, "But he's got 10. He's got five years worth of wages already. He's carrying the bounty off with himself."

The king doesn't need. He doesn't need our wealth because he's infinitely wealthy. And this is our king. He holds all the wealth and he's willing to share. Do you think he's the king who knows he's going to win?

Absolutely. This is the king who is endlessly wealthy. The king who cannot lose. And so ask yourself, do you think this king gets angry with a misstep? Does this king get angry with a mistake where you've invested in supporting a missionary in Turkey instead of Ethiopia?

Do you think the king cares about that? Do you think he cares when an attempted evangelistic conversation goes really awkward and you're not sure if you can look that guy in the eye again? Does the endlessly powerful wealthy king care about that? What is far more important for the king is the heart and the effort and the confidence of his servants who believe that he is a good and kind and faithful king. That is the king we serve.

That is the king we wait for patiently in the meantime. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we offer our lives this morning now again for the long and steady and committed journey of following You. Lord, we seek forgiveness for when we have taken the wealth You have given us, the power even of the gospel, and we have placed it under a hanky. We pray, Lord Jesus, that You will convict our hearts this morning.

You will convict our lives to pray earnestly and deeply and consistently that You may show us how we are to use what You have given us, where to invest in Your kingdom. And then, Father, even if we don't know, even when we are still feeling left in the dark, Lord, to simply go ahead and invest. Thank you for Your abundant generosity. Thank you for Your grace, Lord, that can never run dry, and we ask Your forgiveness for having thought of You as anything less than fully gracious. Thank you that we may come again this morning to receive the acknowledgment, the truth that You forgive, that You can heal, and that You change us.

And we just ask, Lord Jesus, that You do so this morning in Your name, for Your kingdom. Amen.