In the parable of the ten minas, Jesus tells a story of a nobleman who was going on a long journey. and in his absence he entrusted ten servants with an equal sum of money. to be put to good use until he returned. Today, on Truth for Life, Alastair Begg explains how this parable applies to believers as we wait for Christ's return. What has Jesus intrusted to us, and how are we to invest it?
We'll find out. We continue from where we left off this morning. We began to consider verses 11 through 27. Of Luke chapter 19 under the heading Living with Significance. I recognize that only a handful at most of the congregation will recognize the name Tony Hancock.
I'm not going to embarrass you or me by asking how many do. Suffice it to say that he was a very fine comedian in the 50s and 60s in Great Britain. I happened to be just old enough. to have been able to laugh At his humor. His last television monologue took place when I was 12, that is 1964.
It proved to be profoundly ironic. It was very sadly humorous. No one realizing just quite how much it expressed this man's existence. I'm going to quote it for you. You can imagine him standing and Simply doing a soliloquy, as it were.
It's a monologue, there's no one else around. And he's talking to himself and he says What have you achieved? What have you achieved? You lost your chance, my old son. You contributed absolutely nothing to this life.
A waste of time you being here at all. No place for you. In Westminster Abbey? The best you can expect is a few daffodils and a jam jar. A rough hewn stone bearing the legend He came.
And he went. And in between Nothing. Nobody will even notice. You're not here. After about a year afterwards, somebody might say down the pub, where's old Hancock?
I haven't seen him around lately. Oh, he's dead, you know. Who is he? A right raison d'être that is. Nobody will ever know I existed.
Nothing to leave behind me. Nothing to pass on. Nobody to mourn me. That's the bitterest blow. Avoir.
That was 1964. In 1968, The British newspapers carried the headline Tony Hancock. in suicide overdose. Clearly, despite all of his success, and all of his fame He found life. to be absolutely meaningless.
With nothing big enough to live for. With nothing apparently to look forward to, he lived his life and he died his death in utter despair.
Now, this parable told by Jesus leaves us in no doubt. that the individuals who are to be numbered among the faithful servants Need never live their lives with any sense of despair. Rather, they are able to look forward always. They are to be those who are filled with hope. Indeed, their actions are to emerge from lives that are stirred by the hope that is held out to them.
The parable, as we considered it this morning, leaves the reader in no doubt that history as we know it today will not continue indefinitely. That history is not cyclical, but rather it is linear. that it is moving towards a destination. that is going to be a conclusion to world history as we know it. And that that day will dawn when Christ the Messiah returns.
And while he's gone, even though his enemies, as the parable makes clear, may plot against him, he expects those who are his servants. to be working faithfully for him. And in verse 13 in the parable, the nobleman having called his ten servants and of giving them the money, he says, I want you to put the money to work until I come back. Until I come back. And the whole of the New Testament is filled with this emphasis.
That as surely as the Lord Jesus Christ came as a baby in Bethlehem, As surely as he died a death for sin, as surely as he was resurrected and ascended into heaven, so he will return, as he said, as the angel said to the disciples on the occasion of his ascension, Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? Do you not know that he will return in like manner as you have seen him go? And in the interim, the Lord Jesus calls all of his followers to make the most of every opportunity. To put to work all that He has given us. in his servants.
Now in this parable, of course, each of these men is given a mina, which is simply a sum of money. There are ten servants, and each of them is given the same. The commentators wax eloquent about what this may be or may not be. And I could go all around on it, but with little profit to anyone, not least of all yourselves. If we ask the essential and simple question, What is it that Jesus in leaving Has given equally to all his followers.
There is only one answer. And that is, he has given the gospel message, he has given the good news. We have different talents. We have different responsibilities. We differ in our gifts.
The Spirit of God has dispersed them sovereignly as He chose, and we may be distinguished from one another on the strength of those multivarious gifts. But the one thing that each of us has in common with the other in terms of our service of Jesus is that we have been given the gospel and it is this good news, this message that Jesus has died and has risen for the sins of men and women that we are then to employ in his service. That's why we ended this morning by singing the hymn, which reminded us: We bear the torch that flaming fell from the hands of those. who gave their lives proclaiming that Jesus died and rose. Ours is the same commission.
And the same glad message ours. and fired with the same ambition. to Christ We yield Our powers.
Now in this story you will notice that there are a number of characterizations and I want to identify just three for you and make three statements in doing so. First of all, We dare not find ourselves numbered With the rebels. We dare not find ourselves numbered with the rebels. Look at verse 14. The nobleman's subjects hated him, and they sent a delegation after him to say, we don't want this man to be our king.
This is a flat-out rebellion against the nobleman's authority, which of course is a picture of the rebellion that exists in the world against the Lord Jesus. This is representative of those who do not want Jesus to interfere in their lives at all. Or they may be religious people, they may be content to participate in a variety of what are regarded as churchy activities. But when it comes to the matter of their life and their private affairs, their bank balance and their relationships, their career and their designs and their desires, frankly their response is the same as the group in the parable, we do not want to have this man as our king. Many individuals like to couch this in all kinds of statements.
Some will say, well, you know, I'm just I have my doubts and really it's because of my doubts that I don't want him to be king. Another person will say, you know, I believe that the gospel story is intellectually untenable, and that's why I don't want him to be king. But you will notice in the way in which Jesus expresses this That he understands that the root of rebellion in the life of a man or a woman is not intellectual, it is moral. It's not a matter ultimately of the mind, it is a matter of the will. We flat out don't want this man to be our king.
Now, the consequences of this kind of rebellion are conveyed with frightening severity there in the final verse that we read, verse 27. Those enemies of mine who did not want me to be a king over them, says the nobleman in the parable. Bring them here and kill them in front of me. It's a quite staggering statement, isn't it? T.W.
Manson says, We may be horrified by the fierceness of the conclusion, but beneath the grim imagery is an equally grim fact. But the fact that the coming of Jesus to the world puts every man and woman to the test. compels everyone to a decision. And that decision is no light matter. It is in fact a matter of life.
And death. And here's the message. Reject the king. And you will have no place. in his kingdom.
Why would somebody who does not want Christ to be their king be welcomed into his kingdom? Surely it was rebellion which destroyed the affairs in the rebellion of Satan in the very inception of the world. And look at all of the chaos that has ensued. If Christ were to allow such a rebel into his kingdom, it would be a disaster zone within 24 hours. And in our culture today, These are strange and fierce words, but they are The Bible's words, they are Jesus' words.
Therefore I say to you again, We dare not find ourselves numbered. with the rebels. Secondly, we should shudder at the thought. of being in the category. Marked Wicked servant.
We should shudder at the thought of being in the category marked wicked servant. Look at verse 22. I will judge you by your own words. says the nobleman. You wicked.
Servant You remember the inquiry was, what have you done with the money I left you? The response on the part of this man is, I have kept it.
Now, you might say, well, that's commendable, is it not? He was given it, and so he kept it. No, he was given it for a purpose. He was given it to use. He was given it in order that it might yield a return.
And of course the picture is clear. The gospel is put into the hands of those who profess to follow Jesus, not so that we might clutch it to our chests and rejoice in the fact that we're okay, but in order that we might then invest this good news so that others may come to enjoy its message also. This individual, this wicked servant, seeks to defend his inactivity. By a very Unfair characterization of his master in verse 21. I was afraid of you because you're a hard man.
You can get blood out of a turnip, as it were. You take out what you didn't put in and you reap.
Well, you didn't sew.
Well It's so clearly bogus, the master replied, Well, if you want to think of it in those terms, if I'm really that kind of individual, you know, if you think about it, I just took uh ten minas and I gave one to you and I gave one to nine other people. I took all of my resources and I gave them to you. If I'm the kind of individual who simply hoards it all for myself, your characterization is off. You see, the real problem with a wicked servant Is that there is in his life no initiative, no energy, no enterprise? And he seeks to excuse himself on the basis of fear.
Verse 21: I was afraid of you. I was afraid of you. What? Afraid of what would happen if he failed? Afraid of Being unsuccessful.
Afraid of launching out with what you've given me, afraid of putting it to use. Again, we have to constantly stand far enough back from this story to make sure that we don't insert in it what isn't there, that we don't draw from it that which is of our own creating. You're sensible people, do you think it's fair for us to say that Jesus, in drawing attention to this servant? is warning his followers against keeping the gospel to themselves. Isn't that a warning?
This is what I'm giving you.
Now, I don't want you to be like wicked servants who keep it to themselves. I don't want you to live insular lives. I don't want you to be lazy. I don't want you to embrace passivity. I don't want you to become parochial in your concerns.
Which is so easily the case. in each of our lives. Instead of the gospel being an energizing force that wells up within us, something that we long to share with our friends and neighbors, it can so easily become something that absolutely stultifies us. We have now simply a way of life. We come to certain events at regular times in a regular place and we sing certain songs and we do certain things and we keep our external activities in line with the expectation of the crowd and as long as everyone in the group seems to think that we are in place and doing the right thing and expressing ourselves in the right way, then all is well with the world.
But this is not the world. The world's outside, my friend. This was not given to us for ourselves. It was given to us in order that we might pass it on. William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army in his day, seeing so much of the smug parochialism of the churches around him, he said of them, some want to live within the sound of church and chapel bell.
But I want to run a rescue shop. within a yard of hell. And this lazy servant. Decided that he was going to hang on to stuff. And the Bible makes it clear, Jesus makes it clear, that when you try and hang on to stuff, you lose it.
And when you're prepared to lose it, you'll find out that you get more back. Matthew 16, he who wants to save his life will Lose it. And whosoever loses his life for my sake will Find it. It's an amazing paradox, isn't it? I was afraid.
I just hid it in a cloth. And so it's taken from him and it's given to the one who has ten. And the people are all around and saying, hey, wait a minute, this fellow's already got ten. Why are you giving him any more? Or simply because the man whose abundance is so plainly obvious.
is displaying to the world That what he has is as a result of him investing that which he's been given. The man who made no use of the opportunity loses the little that he has.
Now, the question, of course, with which the commentators wrestle is: well, this wicked servant, is he descriptive of a true believer or is he not?
Well, I couldn't say with confidence either way, I don't think. At best, I think we can see in this individual. The kind of individual whose prospect of reaching heaven is described in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. You need turn to and I'll just quote it for you. No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is in Jesus Christ.
If any man builds on this foundation using gold and silver and costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work 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. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. And as unpalatable as it is to many of our minds, the fact of the matter is that the way we are living our lives and the way we are investing our lives and the way we are using that which has been entrusted to us has some eternal ramifications.
As you're about to see one servant receive ten cities, another servant receive five cities, you and I will be rewarded according to our endeavors in Christ. It's not just a matter of happenstance. It's not that everybody's in for the same and we're all getting the same deal. No, we're not. Nobody in eternity will be disappointed with what they get, but everyone in eternity will not get the same.
And some will reach heaven. As through the flames. And at best, this wicked servant is such an individual. At worst, And it may be safest to describe him in these terms. At worst, what you have here is a merely nominal Christian.
Someone who is Christian in name alone. And he is not a believer. At all.
So we dare not find ourselves numbered with the rebels. Secondly, we shudder at the thought of being in the category marked wicked servants. And finally, We want to live in such a way As to hear Christ say to us what the noblemen said to to these first two servants, namely well done, good and faithful servant. In this story, we are reminded that there are two mistakes that people habitually make. about going to heaven.
The first mistake is to think that you can get there by good works. Most of us here, of course, would say, oh, no, no, you can't. We know because we already did the parable, the story of the tax collector and the publican and the Pharisee. And the publican went down to his house justified, not on the basis of anything that he had done, but only on the basis of God's grace alone. Wonderful.
So clearly, mistake number one is not something that we may be wrestling with.
Well then we should pay attention to mistake number two. Mistake number one is to think that you can get to heaven by good works. Mistake number two is to think that you can get to heaven without good works. Can you get to heaven without good works? No.
Ephesians 2. For by grace you have been saved. And that through faith, not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. not of works lest any one should boast.
You have not been saved by good works, but you have been saved. Four good works. The reformers put it like this: it is faith alone that saves, but the faith that saves is not alone. And what this story is reminding us of Is the importance of the evidence being produced in the lives of those who have been entrusted with the good news?
So for example, in Zacchaeus, immediately before, What happens in the life of Zacchaeus when the good news grabs him? It affects his wallet. The one thing that he was known about, his money. He was a wealthy man. He had a wonderful house.
He was fiddling the books. And he stood up and he said to the people: If I've been taking stuff from people, I'm going to pay them back. I'm going to pay them back more than the law demands. I want to do this with my money, and I want to do that with my money. Why?
Because it was a rule or a regulation? No, because it was the evidence, you see. of a new life. What right do any of us have to claim? that the gospel has been entrusted to our custody.
without the evidence in our lives of the good works which God has foreordained for us to do. Mistake number one. You can get to heaven by good works. No, you can't. Mistake number two: you can get to heaven without good works.
No, you can't. Because our works are the evidence. Not of a salvation earned. but of a salvation Evan?
So here in life significance, you see. When the gospel is entrusted to the life of an individual, and it doesn't matter what your job is. It doesn't matter where you work. It doesn't matter whether the corporation regards your position as strategic. or demanding or influential Or whether people look at you and say, you know, that's a fairly trivial exercise that she's involved in, that's a fairly mundane thing.
Because all of those things ultimately serve this purpose. That having been entrusted with the good news. Our goal then is to do all that we do to the glory of God. And in order that, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:19, we might, in identifying with men and women at their particular points of need, win as many. as possible.
So tonight My dear friend, your significance is in this: that once in Christ, all of your days and all of your deeds may be good for someone. And good. for something. Because we are assured that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alastair Begg.
We'll hear more about our labor in the Lord tomorrow. As Alastair mentioned in today's message, we want to live our lives in such a way that we will hear Jesus say, Well done, good and faithful servant. On Thursday we're going to begin a series in which Alastair explores What it means to be a Christian, and how faith in Jesus makes a life-changing difference in a believer's daily experience. This is a study in the book of Romans, chapter 8. It's called Life in the Spirit.
And if you'd like to dive deeper into each of the messages, we have a brand new digital study guide that you can download for free. This is a wonderfully practical and encouraging study that will help assure you that God is at work in all things, even in your suffering and hardship. You'll also learn to face doubts by recalling that your security rests entirely. the blood of Christ. Again, we'll begin the Life in the Spirit series on Thursday.
Be sure to prepare by downloading the Digital Study Guide for free today. You'll find it on our website at truthforlife. org slash spirit. Thanks for joining us today. Tomorrow We'll have the conclusion of today's message, and we'll hear a special warning.
to the overzealous Christian activist, an important reminder for every Follower of Christ. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
