LUKE 19:11-27 - Getting Down To Business

Bethel Baptist Church

Occasional Sermons 2023 • Sermon • Submitted 6 months ago • Presented 6 months ago • 53:24

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Christ has equipped His servants to carry out the business of building His Kingdom

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Introduction

One of the hardest things about Thanksgiving dinner (at least the way we celebrate it, anyway) is making sure that, by the time we’re ready to eat the dinner that we’re still hungry enough to eat it! Because we’ve spent the whole time waiting for dinner by snacking on all the appetizers, relish trays, cheese and cracker plates and everything else—it’s too hard waiting for the meal!

Anticipation is built into this season, isn’t it? Waiting to carve the turkey on Thanksgiving, waiting for Christmas morning—November and December are an extended exercise in patience—especially for kids, right? It seems like Christmas will never get here!

But for the grownups in the room, it’s almost the opposite, isn’t it? Christmas Day seems to be hurtling down on us, and it will be here before we know it! And this is because we have so much to do by December 25th! Busyness certainly does make time go faster, doesn’t it? (In fact, kids, be careful about complaining that Christmas will never get here, because a wise mom or dad will help you make the time go faster by giving you work to do!)

Now, don’t get me wrong, this is not about scolding us for being busy while we wait for Christmas—yes, there is a sense in which our busyness at this time of year is spiritually treacherous. We sin by falling out of fellowship with family members, we sin in our grumbling and complaining, we sin by taking our eyes of the miracle of the Incarnation of Christ for our salvation and put them on nothing more than the shopping and baking and gift wrapping and parties. Yes, and yes—all of that stipulated, busyness during Christmas can be hazardous for your spiritual health.

But—and this is significant, we must also recognize that being busy in and of itself is not a bad thing! In the parable Jesus is telling in our text this morning, the nobleman instructs his slaves to be busy:

Luke 19:13 (LSB)

“And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come back.’

The Greek word underneath the English translation “engage in business” is one that might sound slightly familiar to us—it is the word prag ma TEU o mai. (where we get our word pragmatic). The word only appears here in all of the New Testament—and it means to be “fit for business, active, systematic”. it was particularly used in the ancient world to describe the work done by a banker or trader. It’s really not too far off to connect this word with our modern idiom, “get down to business”.

It’s interesting to note that Jesus—like a parent dealing with a child who can’t wait for something—was telling this parable to His disciples in response to their impatience:

Luke 19:11 (LSB)

Now while they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and they thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.

Throughout the previous chapter, in Luke 18, Jesus has been bringing unexpected people into His Kingdom—Zacchaeus (19:1-10), blind Bartimaeus (18:35-43), and has been teaching parables about the unexpected people who will be welcomed into His Kingdom (the tax collector and the Pharisee - 18:9-17). All of this culminates in one of the key verses of Luke’s Gospel in Luke 19:10:

Luke 19:10 (LSB)

“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

So here in our text, we see that the disciples have been discussing all these things, listening to Jesus’ teaching about His Kingdom as they marveled at Zacchaeus’ repentance and faith. “If a tax-collector can repent, then nothing will stop this Kingdom!” “If Jesus can give the blind their sight back, then nothing can stop Him from establishing His reign in Jerusalem!” And the excitement over the power of God they have seen in Bartimaeus’ healing and Zacchaeus’ repentance and faith has got them convinced that when they got to Jerusalem, it was all going down—the Kingdom was going to burst onto the scene in all its glory:

Luke 19:11 (LSB)

Now while they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and they thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.

Jesus is adjusting His disciples’ expectations about His Kingdom—they thought it would just burst on the scene (and the parallel passage that we read earlier in our worship in Matthew 20 reveals their thinking at this time, when James and John’s mother asked Jesus if her boys could sit on His right and left hands when He got to Jerusalem and kicked out the Romans and Sadducees - Matthew 20:21). So Jesus tells a parable to show them that His Kingdom is coming, but they would have a lot of work to do in the meantime!

In this parable before us today, Jesus commends His disciples to be occupied with Kingdom business while they wait for His return. And so here is what I want us to hear from God’s Word this morning—what the Scriptures are teaching us here in this text is that

Christ EQUIPS us to get DOWN to the BUSINESS of BUILDING His Kingdom

We see from the preceding verses that Jesus and His disciples are walking from Jericho up to Jerusalem—about a fifteen mile walk, a large part of which would have been uphill. As they walked, they most likely would have passed the palace of Archelaus, the son of Herod the Great. (You’ll remember Joseph took Mary and Jesus to Egypt to escape Herod’s attempts to murder Him when He was a baby.) When Herod died Joseph brought his family back to Judea, and Herod’s son Archelaus traveled to Rome to be granted the charter for the governorship of the province of Judea (just as his father had to do when he became governor.)

But Archelaus was extremely unpopular—so much so that a delegation of Jews left from Judea and followed him to Rome to formally protest his appointment as governor! Their appeal was ignored by Caesar, however, and Archelaus returned and ruled in such a tyrannical and incompetent manner that he was soon replaced by a series of five additional governors, the fifth of whom was Pontius Pilate, who was governing the region at the time Jesus told this parable.

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Luke 19:12–14 (LSB)

So He said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and then return. “And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come back.’ “But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’

A hated nobleman is leaving his servants behind to “engage in business” while he goes far away to receive a commission for a kingdom. And in order to enable them to engage in business, he gives them each a sum of money—a “mina”, which was equivalent to about 100 days’ wages (about $3,600 in today’s money.) And he tells them, “Engage in business with these people that hate me!” What Jesus is teaching His disciples here—and what we see as well—is that we are called to get down to the business of building His Kingdom

I. Despite any OPPOSITION from our COUNTRYMEN (Luke 19:14)

That nobleman commanded his slaves to get down to the business of his kingdom among people who hated him. In the same way, Jesus would equip His disciples to serve His Kingdom in the midst of this world’s hatred:

John 15:20 (LSB)

“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

And just as the nobleman in the parable equipped his slaves to do business, so Jesus equips His servants:

Luke 12:11–12 (LSB)

“Now when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

We can get down to the business of building Christ’s kingdom because

We are equipped to DISMANTLE their PRETENSIONS (2 Cor. 10:4-5)

Our Lord has given us everything we need to answer not only the slanderous charges laid against us, but to go on the offensive, calling out the rebellion and disobedience of a society that claims that there is some kind of “neutral space” where Christ and His authority have no say. The hundred-year-old experiment of “secularism” that says that men can get together and run a culture or society or government free from God’s authority— “The will of God has no bearing on the decisions of this Congress”—is in its final stages of collapse. When there is no God above the State, the State becomes god—and it is becoming increasingly clear that this god is a twisted and bloodthirsty demon that has begun openly destroying what is left of this nation.

And Christ has given us the weapons to fight that false god--

2 Corinthians 10:4–5 (LSB)

for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the tearing down of strongholds, as we tear down speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,

The only hope for this country is found in the proclamation of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, and the call to repentance and faith in His Name. It is Christ or chaos, and this Gospel that He has equipped us with is the wrecking ball by which we will tear down every lofty conceit and see every though taken captive to Christ.

Christ has left us to get down to business of building His Kingdom despite any opposition from our countrymen—we are equipped to dismantle their pretensions, and

We are equipped to OPEN their EYES (Acts 26:18)

This Gospel with which we have been entrusted is the means by which the blindness and hatred and rebellion of our countrymen will be defeated—this Gospel of the forgiveness of all of our rebellion against Christ by His blood is the message that will accomplish what the Apostle Paul testified to before King Herod Agrippa in Acts 26—that Christ had given Paul a commission to go to the nations

Acts 26:18 (LSB)

to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’

Christian—you have been equipped by Christ for this very task! He has given you everything you need for life and godliness, everything you need to declare this Gospel to a nation on the brink of collapse. The disciples were excited to see the power of God that opened Bartimaeus’ eyes in the gates of Jericho—this Gospel is the power to open the eyes of every sinner blinded by hatred of God!

Christian, Christ has equipped you to get down to the business of building His Kingdom, despite any opposition from your countrymen. The slaves in this parable were given the resources to conduct business until their master returned to take up the rule of the kingdom he had received. And as Jesus continues this parable in verses 15-19, we see that the nobleman’s slaves carried out their business

II. Disregarding any COMPARISONS with other WORKERS (Luke 19:15-19)

Luke 19:15–19 (LSB)

“And it happened that when he returned, after receiving the kingdom, he ordered that these slaves, to whom he had given the money, be called to him so that he might know how much they had made in business. “So the first appeared, saying, ‘Master, your mina has made ten minas more.’ “And he said to him, ‘Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten cities.’ “Then the second came, saying, ‘Your mina, master, has made five minas.’ “And he said to him also, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’

Now, we mentioned earlier that a mina was about 100 days’ wages. In today’s dollars, it would have been about $3,500 (about the amount of an average IRS tax refund for 2022). In a similar parable Jesus told in Matthew 25, a master gave his slaves monetary units known as talents—about six thousand days’ wages (about $210,000) in today’s money. And in that parable, one slave got five talents (over one million dollars), one got two ($420,000), another got one ($210,000).

But in this parable, Jesus said that each of the ten slaves got one mina apiece (a total of ten slaves, ten minas). So the amount of money was a lot more modest, and the distribution of the money was the same for every slave. And when the nobleman (now a king) returned, he called them to account for what they had done with the money he gave them. Jesus only specifies three different slaves who gave account—one came back with ten times what he had been given, and one came back with five times what he had been given.

Once again, hear Jesus’ parable here in the context of the argument the disciples were having when they arrived in Jericho in the previous chapter. When the other ten heard that James and John were lobbying to be seated at Christ’s right and left, they got jealous:

Matthew 20:24 (LSB)

And hearing this, the ten became indignant with the two brothers.

His parable here in Luke 19 makes it clear that He expects His slaves to mind their own business, and not worry over who else has been given what. Each slave comes back to report on their own work they have done—no matter how much another slave made on his mina, I made five more. Jesus is showing His disciples (and us) that we are to get down to the business of building His kingdom without comparing ourselves with others--

We have ENOUGH on our own PLATES (cp. John 21:20-23)

At the end of John’s Gospel, Jesus tells Peter that he would be martyred for Christ’s sake (John 21:18). When Peter saw John, he asked, “Well, then what about him? What will happen to John, then?” And Jesus answered,

John 21:22 (LSB)

Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!”

In other words, Jesus tells His disciples, you do what you are called to do and don’t compare yourselves with your fellow slaves! In this parable, Jesus is addressing the universal and timeless temptation that His followers have to compare their work for His Kingdom with everyone else’s work for His Kingdom. We do this all the time, and we really need to stop it. “Oh, how many people go to your church?” “Well, we sing psalms in our church...” “Oh we have a homeless outreach in our town...” “Well, we have a million-dollar missions budget at our church...” “Well, they’re building a new sanctuary, they must be attracting people for the wrong reasons...” And on and on it goes.

But guess what, beloved—we have enough on our own plate without being worried about what some other congregation is doing or not doing! You’ve heard me say it over and over again when someone wants to come and tell me about so-and-so church that is doing something or teaching something or conducting some kind of ministry that doesn’t match up with our church: “Not my circus, not my monkeys!” Bethel Baptist Church will have our own reckoning with our Master for what He has given us to do; we will have enough to answer for without worrying about how some other slave made his profit off of his mina!

Jesus makes it plain that His slaves will account for their own work for His kingdom; we have enough on our own plates, and

We will receive our FULL CAPACITY for joy

When these slaves came back to give account of their faithful service, their Master rewarded them—one received authority over five cities, one received authority over ten cities. Having received his kingdom, he could appoint them wherever he chose. But again, there is no indication anywhere in this parable that his servants were unhappy with their reward—even if one got more than another, they all received their reward based on their faithfulness.

The Scriptures indicate that there will indeed be degrees of reward in Heaven—as Matthew Henry puts it in his commentary on this passage, “every vessel will be alike full, but not alike large.” There is a sense in which the work that you do for Christ’s kingdom here will equip you for greater joy when you awaken in eternity.

An illustration can make this easier for us to grasp—when I was in college, a group of friends invited me to go along with them to the symphony at the Philadelphia Academy of Music (for some reason I think it was Mozart, but I can’t remember.) Now, I love classical music, and I was familiar with many of the works being performed. And I thoroughly enjoyed going to the concert—it was about as great a time as I could have had there.

But my friend Chris, who had invited me, was a music major—he went on to graduate with a sacred organ performance degree, and has been ministering in a church in Florida for decades. He and I sat together at the concert—we heard the same music, watched the same conductor, listened to the same soloists—but he enjoyed that concert far more that I could have. Not because he “deserved” it more, but because the degree he was pursuing in college equipped him for greater capacity for enjoyment of that concert. Both of us experienced our full capacity for joy—he simply had a greater capacity, and his greater enjoyment was no stumbling block for mine, or mine for his!

In the same way, beloved, we will each receive our full capacity for joy in our rewards for our faithfulness to Christ for the sake of His kingdom. Whether we are rewarded with ten cities or five cities or one city (or whatever the reward will be), we will overflow with that joy—Dixie cups and stock tubs alike will overflow to their full capacity of rewards for our faithful work for our Master.

Christ has equipped us to get down to business in building His kingdom—despite any opposition from our countrymen, disregarding any comparisons with other workers, and

III. Denying any TEMPTATIONS to UNBELIEF (Luke 19:20-25)

The parable Jesus is teaching takes a turn for the worse in the next five verses. Look with me at verses 20-21:

Luke 19:20–21 (LSB)

“Then another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I kept put away in a cloth; for I was afraid of you, because you are a strict man; you take up what you did not lay down and reap what you did not sow.’

The master has just generously rewarded the previous two slaves with far more than what they returned to him—power and authority and glory and honor in his new kingdom in exchange for turning $3,500 into $35,000 (or in the second slave’s case, turning $3,500 into $17,500!) Their master is clearly a magnanimous and gracious king who delights in rewarding his servants.

And so when we come to this third slave, his attitude toward this gracious and open-handed master is bewildering, isn’t it? He claims to be afraid of his master’s “strict” demeanor; he implied that it wasn’t safe to risk the mina he had been given because he would be scolded or reprimanded somehow if he didn’t make enough money. As you get down to the business of your Savior’s Kingdom, Christian, do not succumb to the temptation to believe

That your king is CRITICAL of your FAITHFULNESS

The king responds to his slave in verses 22-23:

Luke 19:22–23 (LSB)

“He said to him, ‘From your own mouth I will judge you, you worthless slave. Did you know that I am a strict man, taking up what I did not lay down and reaping what I did not sow? ‘Then why did you not put my money in the bank, and having come, I would have collected it with interest?’

The king says, “Even if I were the kind of man you accuse me of being, that should have only driven you to obey!” Notice that the slave’s self-justification misses the entire point of the problem: He simply refused to obey his Master! Look again back at verse 13:

Luke 19:13 (LSB)

“And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come back.’

He didn’t say, “Engage in business, and you’d better all have at least made my money back before I return!!” He said, Do the work! Be busy on my behalf; show yourselves to be obedient servants.” The fact that the master was not looking for a particular measure of success is found in verse 23:

Luke 19:23 (LSB)

‘Then why did you not put my money in the bank, and having come, I would have collected it with interest?’

If we put this in modern terms, this slave could have put that $3,600 into a savings account (which are averaging .46 percent these days!)—and the sixteen bucks profit he would have made would have satisfied his Master!

We need to understand this about our King—He is delighted with any demonstration of faithfulness on the part of His servants! How many times have you heard someone say (or heard yourself say), “I am so intimidated about sharing the Gospel with someone—I’m afraid I’ll screw it up!” Of course you want to share the Gospel as accurately and Biblically as possible; of course you want to be as clear and plain as you can be; of course you want to have the grace and kindness to share it as lovingly as possible—but after making sure of all of that, would you still rather take this infinite treasure and power and glory of the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ and wrap it up in a napkin so you don’t mess it up!?

Beloved, He delights to see your obedience to His call, no matter if it “measures up” to what you think it should be or whether it “measures up” to what other Christians are doing for His Name! To paraphrase Thomas Watson, there is less evil in the greatest failure than in the smallest disobedience!

Don’t succumb to the fear that your Master is critical of your faithfulness—and there is one more observation to make about this faithless servant that closes out Jesus’ parable here in Luke 19—don’t succumb to the temptation to believe

That your king is STINGY with his PROVISION

I think that this is another way that we succumb to unbelief in our getting down to business for Christ’s kingdom. This slave had been given (along with the other nine) an honestly modest amount of money—it wasn’t nothing, but it also wasn’t a million-dollar grant like the slaves who got the talents in Matthew 25. It seems that part of the reason this slave just wrapped that money up in a cloth and kept it safe was because he feared that if he lost it, his harsh master would begrudge him any more! “I have this money—what if I spend it all on the Master’s business—then what? I’m out of money if I do that, and he probably won’t give me any more! Better to hang on to this so that I can do something with it someday!”

What this reveals is that this slave was trusting the money over the Master who gave it to him! In the same way, we are so liable to fret over how limited our resources are, that we fall into disobedience to our Master’s command to “engage in business” for His Kingdom. We look at the modest provision we have, we look at the magnitude of the need around us, and we fear that pouring our resources into that need will cause them just to be swallowed up without a trace—and then where would we be? We are so concerned with not losing the resources we have that we forget the King who gave them to us—we look on Him as a “strict master” who will meet our plea for more resources with a stern, “Well, what happened to the last $3,600 I gave you??”

But is that really the kind of master we serve? Look at verses 24-26:

Luke 19:24–26 (LSB)

“Then he said to the bystanders, ‘Take the mina away from him and give it to the one who has the ten minas.’ “And they said to him, ‘Master, he has ten minas already.’ ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more shall be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.

The disobedient slave loses what little he has, and the obedient slave receives more! You will never be scolded for using your resources, Christian—the dishonor comes from not using them! Empty yourself in busy-ness for your Master, and He will fill you!

I want to draw a couple of very practical applications from this parable this morning—first, if you look on the back of your bulletin, you will see the current state of our church budget—we are currently running a twenty thousand dollar surplus on our budget for this year! (That’s about five and one-half minas, by the way!)

Now, I believe that this has been a glorious example of God’s gracious ability to equip us in a very specific way to be about His business of building His Kingdom in Sykesville, in Jefferson County, in Pennsylvania and the world. In a time when so many churches are closing their doors because of a lack of attendance and lack of giving, King Jesus has created here a healthy, growing church family that is notoriously generous and open-handed; He has used the generosity and faithful stewardship He created in us to enable us to use those “minas” for the business of His Kingdom.

Ministries like the backpack giveaway continue to grow; opportunities to support more missionaries like the Harris family continue to come our way, opportunities to partner with ministries like We Care Pregnancy Center in Punxsy and Sanctity of Life Rehab in Sheffield—as we have poured out our resources for the Kingdom of Christ, He continues to pour more resources back into us!

And so the one thing we must not do with this twenty thousand dollar surplus is hold on to it because we are afraid to lose it! So the charge to us from God’s Word this morning is this: Where is King Jesus calling us to get down to business in building His Kingdom in 2024? Where is He calling our church family to go, what is He calling us to spend, who is He calling us to reach? In a time when so many churches are struggling, we are overflowing; in a time when so many congregations are cutting back on outreach, we are looking to expand—as surely as this is the gracious gift of our Master, just as surely we hear in it His voice, “Conduct business until I return!” Whatever we do, let us steward this mina well--the last thing we must do is wrap it up in a napkin and not do anything with it!

This is on one level a parable about money—the slaves were given financial sums, after all. And while we acknowledge that God has given us a great opportunity through this financial surplus, we mustn’t stop there. Because there are other “minas” that we are given—other opportunities to “do business” for Christ’s kingdom—that aren’t monetary in nature.

Consider again for a moment that the nobleman in this parable was not sending his servants into a particularly friendly atmosphere—in fact, it was just the opposite. These servants were representing a Master who was hated by their countrymen—they would face strong opposition as they conducted their business for their master’s kingdom.

And so I want to suggest that as we are counting the “minas” that our Master has entrusted to us, we must remember that the opposition itself is a “mina”. Being opposed and hated and ridiculed is itself an opportunity to build the Kingdom of Christ! Of all the “minas” that our King has given us, this one is the one we are most likely to keep wrapped up in a napkin, ignored and avoided. But opposition is not a reason to fold up shop, circle the wagons and hunker down—it is a reason to rejoice. Jesus reminds us in the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 5:11–12 (LSB)

“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

And the apostles rejoiced at the opportunity they had to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ as a result of the opposition they received from the Sanhedrin in Acts 5:

Acts 5:41–42 (LSB)

So they went on their way from the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for the Name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.

Did you hear that? The disciples rejoiced that they had been counted worthy to suffer shame for the sake of Jesus’ Name. Another way to say it is that God judged them to be good stewards of shame. And indeed they were, weren’t they? What did they do with that opposition, that shame? They went on to proclaim the Good News that Jesus is the Christ!

Christian, if you are suffering for the sake of Jesus’ Name this morning—in your job, with your neighbors, even within your own family—this is because God considers you worthy of this opportunity! Pray that He will make you a good steward of the opposition against His Name that you find yourself in. Pray that He will find you getting down to the business of proclaiming His Gospel with all of the opportunities He has given you—with your finances, your time, your talents, your oppositions—no opportunity wasted to

[keep] your conduct excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good works, as they observe them, glorify God in the Day of visitation (1 Peter 2:12)

Jesus ends this parable with a chilling reminder that the Day of Visitation will be a day of vindication against all those who have set themselves against Him as His adversaries; all those who have hated His reign and fought against the coming of His Kingdom:

Luke 19:27 (LSB)

‘But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.’”

Christian, never forget that of all the business He has called you to conduct while you wait for Him to appear in all His Kingdom glory, this is the most urgent! Your countrymen may reject Him, they may riot and protest that they do not want Him to reign over them, but the Day is coming when their rebellion will come to a final, eternal end. And He has equipped you, beloved, to do the business of declaring the terms of their surrender. You have this Good News for them: That their treasonous hatred has been atoned for, the way is open for them to come and be reconciled, that He is waiting today with the same arms wide open that were stretched wide on that Cross for their redemption. Christian—get down to the business of declaring this Gospel, that whoever calls upon the Name of the LORD will be saved, through the finished work of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Jude 24–25 (LSB)

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

Read Luke 19:11—why does Jesus decide to tell this parable to His disciples? What is the next event recorded in Luke 19:28-40? Why is it important that He told this parable about the nature of His Kingdom at this point?

Matthew 20:20-28 gives another account of Jesus and His disciples’ trip from Jericho before the Triumphal Entry. How does Matthew's account give us important insight into the disciples’ mindsets while they were listening to this parable? How does Jesus address their desire for advancement over each other in the way the nobleman rewards his faithful servants?

How are we tempted to compare our efforts for the Kingdom of God to others’? How does this passage admonish us against that kind of comparison?

Why is it right to consider opposition and scorn from others as a “mina” that must be stewarded for the sake of Christ’s Kingdom? Read 1 Peter 2:12—how does this verse help you understand the way God calls you to be a good steward of the slander and adversarial treatment you receive for His sake?

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