Easter 2007: Doing Business Till He Comes

April 08, 7007

Read Luke 19:11-27

Luke 18

V31-34

• In Luke 18:31-34, Jesus told the disciples about what is commonly called His passion - His betrayal, rejection, death and His resurrection. Why didn’t they understand any of this (v34)?
  1. Because their minds were filled with other ideas about the Messiah
  2. Thoughts of kingdom rule
  3. Deliverance from Rome
• To the world Easter is but another holiday on the calendar, a time to get together, place an obligatory call to a loved one, maybe even play dress up and go to church. That is how the world vies Easter today. But for a believer Easter is unlike any other Sunday, as it’s the day in which the focus of service is the resurrection of Christ. Personally, I believe it’s much more difficult to focus for one day on something you’ve ignored the whole year. That’s why Easter should be a culmination resulting in a celebration of how Christians have lived all year.
• Why is it that the world sees Easter as a time of make believe and fairy tale? Simple: because we have bought into and facilitated the lie that Easter is about fairy tales and bunny rabbits, as many professing Christians buy these things yearly. Instead of reading the resurrection story to their children, they allow Disney to feed their kids a bunch of lullabies aimed at making them dull to truth. Easter, Christians, is not about make believe, it’s about truth!

Luke 19

V11-13

• In Luke 19:11-27, Jesus gives a parable - a story that contains spiritual truths explained in practical ways, on stewardship. This is different from the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, where men were given 1-5-10 talents. These speak of a variety of gifts and ministries. Here, everyone is given the same amount of minas. This speaks of equality of opportunity.
• Nobleman is Jesus who goes to heaven to await His time to set up His kingdom on earth. The ten servants are His disciples. The minas represent opportunities - it was about 3 months of salary.
• The mina is worth far less than the talent, about 1/60th. The three servants in the parable of the talent were given far more than these ten servants. This means there are 5 times more people with gifts of service than there are opportunities available, meaning we better take advantage of what God allows us to do. If not, there is always someone to take our place, as all of us are expendable. The servants were expected to make the most of their opportunity.
• In verse 13, the phrase “Do business” translates “occupy” in the King James Version. It means to busy oneself with trade. They were to invest their money to achieve a return, and when He comes back they’ll settle up.

V14-19

• His citizens represent the Jewish nations, who even today hate the very mention of the name of Jesus. Upon returning, He calls these servants to give an account. The first had earned another 10 minas; the second - 5 minas. Each were commended by the king and given a reward in accordance to the amount earned.
• In verse 17, the Lord says you have been faithful in a very little have authority over 10 cities. This tells us 2 things:
  1. There will be positions in glory that are based upon faithfulness on earth
  2. No matter how great or small an opportunity you will be held accountable

v20-27

• The third servant did absolutely nothing with his opportunity. In fact, he did what many do today, and will try to do in glory, when confronted with faithlessness. He said, “I was afraid (fear)” and “You are too hard (misunderstanding).”
• He says he was too afraid of losing what the king gave him to invest it. His fear did not come from love or a desire to not disappoint. It came from a lack of desire to please, which resulted in a complete misunderstanding of who the king was. He describes the king as a cruel and ruthless opportunist.
• In verse 23, the king said if you really believed that then why didn’t you do the bare minimum and bank it for interest? The answer is he never expected the king to return, and since he wasn’t concerned about the king’s return, why bother with the king’s business.
• Two things to take note of concerning this faithless servant:
  1. That which he had was taken away from him (v24)
  2. Although he started out with the faithful he belonged with the faithless (v14)
  3. Those who are faithful will be given greater rewards than they deserve (v26)
• Here’s the Easter story right here, how our Lord was rejected by man (v14), and goes away in order to return (v12). But in the meantime He has given us, His servants, opportunities and gifts, and ministries to take advantage of (v13) so when He returns there will be the fruit of faithfulness waiting for Him (v16-18). Those who are faithful will be greatly rewarded, and those who are semi faithful will be minimally rewarded, and those who are faithless will be sadly rewarded.