Today on Summit Life with J.D.
Greer. You know, to follow Jesus almost always involves risk. There's the risk of releasing control, of submitting to God's Word, and yielding every area of your life to Jesus.
And frankly, it feels a little scary at times, doesn't it? Well, in today's message from the Gospel of Luke, Pastor J.D. looks at the parable of the 10 minas, where we see that likewise, sowing for a harvest using our own resources can also involve risk. But when the risk is for the building up of God's kingdom, in the end, it's always worth it. So let's join Pastor J.D. right now in Luke chapter 19.
Luke chapter 19, if you've got your Bibles, this morning, and I certainly hope that you brought them, Luke 19. The year was 1939, and farmers in Oklahoma faced an excruciating choice. And that choice was whether to use their last remaining wheat seed to feed their families, because obviously you can eat it. Or they could do that for a few months while they sold off their farms and they moved back east, or they could plant those seeds and hope for rain.
You see, here was their dilemma. In the 1920s, many of them had left their low-paying factory jobs in the Northeast for a chance of fortune in the great American Midwest. Things had gone amazing for a few years, but in 1931, Oklahoma went through the worst drought in recorded history. To make matters worse, years of sloppy farming techniques had destroyed all the prairie grasses that preserved ground moisture, which resulted in these massive dust storms.
You've heard about it. It's why they call it the Dust Bowl. Whole fortunes disappeared in billowing, dull, gray plumes of dust. By the fall of 1939, many farmers had just enough grain left, just enough to feed themselves and their families for a few months. They could eat it and move back east, or they could plant that and wait for rain. If rain came, they would harvest a hundredfold, but if not, they would be left with nothing. Many planted in hope that rain would come, and thankfully, in the fall of 1939, it did.
Harvesting always involves risk, because when you sow something, you release control over it, and if the harvest doesn't come, then you lose it. Over the past few weeks, we've talked about risking your future on the kingdom of God, and that all comes to a head in this parable. Jesus tells in Luke 19. Luke 19, verse 11, if you've got your Bible, Jesus proceeded to tell them a parable, because he was coming near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. Sometimes you wonder why Jesus is telling a parable.
What's he thinking about? Well, Luke tells you exactly why he tells this particular parable. Some of his disciples supposed that when Jesus got to Jerusalem, he would establish his kingdom and commence his reign, but Jesus knows that there are things that await him there that the disciples are not aware of, namely that he's going to be rejected and crucified, after which he'll be resurrected and ascend into heaven for a number of years, while his servants extend his gospel to the ends of the earth. So Jesus tells them a parable, instructing them in what he wants them to do during that waiting period. Verse 12, and so he said, therefore, a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and then returned. This nobleman, of course, represents Jesus.
He's telling a story about himself. Verse 13, he gave each of them, calling 10 of his servants, this represents us, the church, he gave them 10 minas. Now, a mina is a unit of money. To be honest, I've never quite understood why translators leave words like this untranslated. I mean, none of us know what it means, right? It's like the translators are moving through the text and they get to this word and they figure they're not getting paid enough. So they just transliterate it. They're like, I'll leave it for you pastors to figure out and explain to everybody. A mina was about three months wages.
So in our terms, think what, based off the average annual salary in Raleigh-Durham of about 60,000 a year, that would be what, $15,000? And he said to them, engage in business until I come. But his citizens hated him and they sent a delegation after him saying, we do not want this man to reign over us. Jesus is sort of, as an aside, saying, hey, you're going to live in a hostile world where they're going to hate the rule of your master. Verse 15, when he returned, having received the kingdom, when Jesus comes back one day, 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, your mina has made 10 minas more. And he said to him, well done, well done, good servant, because you've been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over 10 cities.
The first thing to notice here is how gracious this master is. These are servants. In fact, the word he uses here means, technically means slave, which was of course the lowest job you could have in that society. Slaves had no rights.
They had no real possessions of their own. You say, well, Jesus condoning slavery? No, no more than he is condoning thievery in the parable he tells about the dishonest manager right before this one.
He's just using a societal reality as an illustration. These are slaves. And here you've got a master giving slaves rule over cities as a reward for a few months of faithful stewardship. That is not a reward that any master in those days would ever have given to a slave.
It'd be like driving a truck for Amazon and one day you meet Jeff Bezos and he says, hey, I noticed that you've had three months of on-time deliveries. Your end of year bonus is going to be to oversee all of our warehouses in Asia and I'm going to give you possession of my estate in Hawaii. That is your bonus. This master is crazy generous. Second thing to notice about this master is he's also crazy rich. Ten minas in our terms would be about $150,000. And he calls that faithfulness in a little.
When you're in a place where you can call $150,000 insignificant, you're pretty wealthy. Matthew's gospel makes this even more stark, by the way, in Matthew's telling of this parable. Jesus uses talents instead of minas and a talent was two years' salary. Making the doubling of ten talents amounts to more than $2 million. And again, the master calls that faithfulness in the little.
When you can call a couple million dollars chump change, you're crazy rich. By the way, you say, well, why did Matthew and Luke record this story differently? Did one of them get the details wrong?
No. Jesus was a traveling preacher. And as a traveling preacher, I can tell you, he told this story multiple times and he probably changed the money details from time to time to better fit the context.
And Luke and Matthew just recorded different versions of it. If I could just stop here before I keep moving and just say, y'all, God makes such incredible promises to those who follow him. And Paul says, eye is not seen nor ear heard nor is even entered in the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love him.
Eternity with him is going to be incredible. Contrary to what many of us grew up thinking, heaven is not a place of laziness and leisure where we all sit around on clouds wearing diapers, strumming harps and shooting each other with nerf bows and arrows. In heaven, we work. We work. And that work, some of that work is going to be reigning and ruling. And our work is going to be fulfilling and satisfying and enjoyable.
It's like C.S. Lewis says, entering eternity is not the end of our adventure. It's actually the beginning of it. But here's the thing, y'all, those promises are only for those who are faithful with what God has given to them here.
That's who it's to. You've got to be bold enough to take the risk and put it out there to plant that seed. As some of you know, my mom went home to be with the Lord earlier this year. And as I studied this week, it was almost like I could hear her saying, because she talked to me about this so often when I was a kid, I could hear her saying, come on, son, you got this.
Don't leave anything on the table. I can see it from my side over here now, and it's totally worth it. What a great cloud of witnesses we have telling us, invest, sow that seed. It's worth it.
I hope you can hear their voices this morning. Verse 18, and the second servant came saying, Lord, your mina has made five times. Your one mina has made five minas. And he said to him, you are now to be ruler over five cities. I want you to notice that this guy only nets half the return as the previous guy. But the commendation, the well done good servant, that is the same, even though he only gets half the return. Verse 20, then another came to him 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. Now, let's be honest. This is kind of an odd response, isn't it? This guy has done nothing with his master's money. He put it into a hankie and stuffed it into the bottom of his underwear drawer. And when called to account about it, he said, well, well, see, you're kind of a jerk.
And that's why I didn't do anything with your money. I mean, imagine if you did that with your boss. He gives you an assignment. Then he goes away on a three month business trip. And when he comes back, you say, I did nothing while you were gone because you're a jerk. I mean, if he's a jerk, that's all the more reason to be diligent, right? Plus, we've already seen that this master is crazy generous. He was understanding with the guy who only made half the return. And he gave out governorships as a bonus.
He seems like a great guy to work for. And so the nobleman said to him, verse 22, 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 at least? And if my coming might have collected it with interest, you could have at least put it in the bank. I mean, the harder work is to go out and find an investment, use the money to start a business. But you didn't even do that.
If you're not going to do that, you could at least have put it into a mutual fund to draw some interest or something. You did nothing. I think what might be the most arresting thing to me in this story is that Jesus uses the word poneri, wicked is how we translate that, poneri to describe this last servant. I see that word wicked and I say, what wicked thing had he done? You look in that parable and you tell me what wicked thing he had done. He did not embezzle the money. He did not blow it on prostitutes or gambling or drugs. In fact, he returned 100% of what he'd been given, not one penny less. And yet, and yet, Jesus calls him wicked. Not for something that he did, but because of something that he failed to do.
In fact, write this down if you're taking notes. In the kingdom of God, there is more than one way to be wicked. In the kingdom of God, there's more than one way to be wicked. There is the, let's just say, standard way of being wicked.
Breaking the Ten Commandments, lying, cheating, being an adulterer. You can be wicked that way. But there is a second way to be wicked, and that is by failing to invest your life for the kingdom of God. You might keep all the commandments. You might live a life of virtue and exemplary Christian conduct. You might know all the verses, vote in all the right ways, know every word, every worship song ever written, and still be considered by Jesus on Judgment Day to be wicked. Not because of sins you committed, but because of a life purpose you omitted. Look around, let's just kind of make this real.
Look around at your campus. Is it possible that some of the most well put together people in church, those who knew the most about the Bible, and are in every way good, moral people, are going to hear Jesus say on that last day, you wicked servant. Friend, that is not only possible, that is prophesied. You're listening to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.
Greer. We'll return to our teaching in just a moment, but I wanted to quickly invite you to consider a few ways you can strategically partner with us in the coming year. First, you can join in multiplying the gospel in your neighborhood and across the world by sharing our daily email devotionals with your friends and family who either don't know God or want to go deeper with Him. Or maybe it's by starting a Bible study in your home using some of the monthly resources created by Summit Life. You know, we also have our entire teaching library available free online as well, so maybe it's a timely word sent to a loved one in this way. Or maybe it's by giving a one-time donation or becoming a monthly gospel partner. However you choose to spread the story of the gospel this Christmas, we want you to visit jdgreer.com to be equipped to give or to let us know what you're up to. This month you'll receive the 2025 Summit Life day planner with your generous gift to the ministry.
Give us a call at 866-335-5220 or check it all out at jdgreer.com. Now let's get back to the conclusion of today's teaching. Once again, here's Pastor JD. Verse 24, he said to those who stood by, take this mina from him and give it to those, to the one who has the ten minas. And they said to him, but Lord, he's already got ten minas. I tell you, Jesus said though, that everyone who has more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Those who steward grace well get even more of it. Those who waste grace lose it all. But for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me, which is of course a reference to the final judgment. By the way, I do want to say, you see here that there is indeed a severity to this, Master. Jesus is crazy generous and kind to those who trust themselves to him, but those who refuse him will find Jesus on that last day to be a terrible enemy.
It's like C.S. Lewis always said, God threatens terrible things for those who refuse to be insanely happy in him. You choose now how you're going to meet Jesus. All right, as we've said, Jesus is telling a story, prophesying to the church what the future is going to be like and what he expects of us. I had three questions I want us to consider this morning. Number one, what is it exactly that we have been given? Number two, what does God expect of each of us personally? And number three, what keeps so many of us from investing for the Master? Number one, what is it exactly that we've been given? What do these minas represent exactly?
Write this down. In short, minas or talents are whatever enablements the Master has given us to know him or make him known. Unfortunately, most people who know this story know it by Matthew's version where Jesus uses the word talents. If you grew up in Sunday school, you probably grew up knowing the story about the talents. And I say that's unfortunate because a lot of people grow up thinking that it means only actual talents. Growing up, we often thought of this like little party tricks or hobbies we should use for Jesus. I'm a juggler for Jesus.
I do happy hands and crafts for Jesus. Talent here does not mean talent like we use the word talent. Talent is the translator's lazy transliteration of talentone, which, as we've seen, means a unit of gold about two years' salary. So in context, again, minas or talents are whatever enablements the Master has given us to know him or make him known. Interestingly, in Matthew's account, this parable is an indictment on the Jewish nation for squandering their favored status as God's chosen people. God had given the Jews the incredible blessing of knowing him and the responsibility to make him known to the nations. And the Jewish people had just wasted that, Jesus said. So they lost their status as the people of God.
The grace that was there, God just took it from them. Here in Luke's account, the focus is a little more on what we do with the actual money that we have. Bottom line, you can think of the minas as whatever blessings God has given you to know him and make him known. It's the kind of home, for example, you grew up in if you grew up in a home like me.
The kind of church you had exposure to. The prosperous country that we live in and all the freedoms that we enjoy. These are all blessings that we bear responsibility to multiply regarding our individual resources. We typically talk about that in terms of the three T's, okay?
In honor of my son, who will always ask for more props every single week, I have little symbols, okay? Three T's. Time, okay? Watch represents time. That's the time God has given us.
86,400 seconds every day. Treasure, that's the money, okay? This little wad of money, that's all one, so don't think a lot, but just, you know, it's the money that we have.
And then this awesome little trophy here, that's gonna be our talents. Time is the focus of your time. What are you doing with your days, your career? What are you doing with your retirement? If I asked you what the most important thing to you is, what's your highest priority?
Most of you in here would say, Jesus. But what is your calendar? What does your time say you prioritize? Treasures, what do you spend your money on? Again, what does your checkbook say your priority is? I know your mouth would say that Jesus is the most important. What does your checkbook say?
Your calendar and your checkbook are much better indicators of what's important to you than your mouth is. Your talents, how are you using whatever skills you have? How are you using them? How are you using your career for the kingdom of God? Do you know your spiritual gift and are you using it?
You got one, by the way. If you're a believer, do you know what that is and are you using it? See, one day you and I are gonna give an account to the master for how we used all these things, how we used our knowledge of the gospel and our time, our treasure and our talents to help others know him, right?
So that's question number one is what do these represent? It's whatever resources God has given us to know him and help make him known. Number two, what does God expect of each of us personally?
What do you expect of each of us personally? In short, for us to take what he's given us and double it. This parable teaches us that we're not responsible for how much we receive. That's the decision of the master. We're responsible to invest what he's given us according to the abilities that he's given us. The master gave the same commendation to the one who earned back five as he did to the one who earned back 10, each did according to his own ability. Matthew's version, by the way, makes this even clearer because in Matthew's version, the master actually gives different amounts to each of the servants.
The one he gives five, one he gives 10, one he gives one. You see, our master knows, he's acknowledging, listen, that we all start at different places. Perhaps you, like me, you were born into the home of a godly mom and dad and you were given the incredible privilege of growing up in a good church like I did where you heard the Bible taught consistently and you were around examples of people who both loved you and lived out the gospel in front of you.
That's a very different starting point than the little boy who never knew his father and whose mother struggled with a cocaine addiction. My mom used to always repeat to me the words of Jesus, J.D., to whom much is given, much is required. You've been given a lot. Much is gonna be required of you. With great power comes great responsibility.
I remember looking back at her and saying, Mom, am I Spider-Man? No, no, but you've been given a lot and a lot's required of you. See, there might be pastors out there who reach thousands who are still poorer stewards of what they've received than the man who's just struggling to stay sober as he shares the gospel with his children. Maybe he came from a terrible background, unlike me. Maybe he suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome. He may never be as successful in the eyes of the world as that big mega pastor, but he started with so much less. And maybe it took a Herculean effort on his part just to stay sober and bring his kids to Jesus.
Y'all, can't you see his master's smile on that last day as he says to the master, oh, master, you gave me life and salvation. I'm not the world's best evangelist, and you know that. I had all these lingering weaknesses that plagued me until my dying day, but because of my efforts, one more person knows you today. I took what you gave me and I doubled it.
I've improved your assets. I know of a lady who was discipled by a member of our church. This lady had a really difficult life. I mean, I'll spare you the details, but her childhood was awful. And then she suffered abuse and criminal mistreatment in her marriage.
Both of her children struggled with addiction issues because of the neighborhood they grew up in. Then one day, shortly after, she received a diagnosis of an advanced form of cancer. She then got the worst news that a parent could hear.
Same day, she got both of these. Her son had died of an overdose. Months before that, her son had come to know Jesus, and he'd been clean and sober for almost half of a year and he'd been the one who actually led her to Christ.
He was doing so well, but then he visited a friend's house after school who coerced him to do drugs again, and in one moment of weakness, he overdosed and died. But this mom, this mom who was discipled by one of our members, instead of hating that dealer who gave her son the drugs, she started to reach out to him. Only a few weeks after the funeral, she invited this kid to her home for a Bible study.
And here's the thing. I know you're expecting me to say that a bunch of people got saved in this Bible study and that man became Billy Graham, but that's not how it went. The study wasn't really successful, at least as we would count success. Only a handful of people came.
It fizzled out after a few weeks. Nobody got saved. But y'all, the amount of faith, love, and grace that it took for this woman to share the gospel with that one man might be 100 times the investment it would have taken Billy Graham to fill up a stadium. Can't you see her master's smile on that last day as he says to her, you took what I gave you and you turned it into blessing. And now a group of people who were very far from me got to see my grace lived out in front of them.
You took what I gave you and doubled it. Well done, good and faithful servant. Yo, we judge our spiritual resume by success. Jesus judges by stewardship. Don't you want to get to heaven and hear God say, well done, my good and faithful servant.
What could be more gratifying than that? God is calling all of us to be good stewards of whatever He's entrusted to us. Thanks so much for joining us today on Summit Life with J.E. Greer, the free teaching archive on our website and these daily radio and podcast broadcasts are made possible by listeners like you. When you give, you're helping people across the country and even around the world dive deeper into the transformative power of the gospel.
I wanted to share a story from a listener named Ann. She writes, thank you for the sermon on Luke 16. I'm a third generation church attender and while I've heard many sermons, I have never heard Luke 16 explained so logically, so simple and so clearly. Thank you for studying so deeply, reading so widely and for wading into the deep and profound. I really enjoy your style of factual blunt exposition covering each verse in a passage. When we say that Summit Life is a listener supported ministry, we mean it.
And we are so excited to see what God's gonna do in this coming year. As our way of saying thanks for your year end gift, we'd like to send you one of our most requested resources every single year. It's the 2025 Summit Life Day Planner. Ask for a copy when you make a generous year-end donation by calling 866-335-5220 or request the planner when you give online at jdgrier.com. While you're on the website, you'll also wanna subscribe to Pastor JD's weekly newsletter.
The articles and resources go in depth with many of the topics we cover here on the broadcast. Sign up online at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch. We'll see you right here next week as we finish up today's brand new teaching called Whatever It Takes to Hear Well Done. We'll see you next time for Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.
