SPEAKER_00: Continue our time of worship.
SPEAKER_00: I encourage you to turn to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 19.
SPEAKER_00: I'll read verses 11 through 27, the passage that we are studying this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And I encourage you to turn there.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible with you, there should be one located there right in front of you on that little shelf there in the pew.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're here this morning and you don't have a copy of the Bible of God's Word that you own or that you have easy access to, I want to encourage you to take that Bible that you have right now and take it home as our gift to you.
SPEAKER_00: It's our joy and privilege to be able to give Bibles away, and we'd like you for you to have one if you don't have one.
SPEAKER_00: And so please at the end of the service, feel free to take that home with you.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 19, beginning in verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: And they heard these things.
SPEAKER_00: As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.
SPEAKER_00: He said, therefore, A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.
SPEAKER_00: Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, Engage in business until I come.
SPEAKER_00: But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, We do not want this man to reign over us.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: The first came before him, saying, Lord, your minor has made ten minas more.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to him, Well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.
SPEAKER_00: And the second came, saying, Lord, your minor has made five minas.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to him, And you are to be over five cities.
SPEAKER_00: Then another came, saying, Lord, here is your minor, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man.
SPEAKER_00: You take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.
SPEAKER_00: He said to him, You wicked he said to him, I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant.
SPEAKER_00: You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit, and reaping what I did not sow.
SPEAKER_00: Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest?
SPEAKER_00: And he said to those who stood by, Take the minor from him and give it to the one who has the ten minas.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to him, Lord, he has ten minas.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you that to everyone everyone who has more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
SPEAKER_00: But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's word.
SPEAKER_00: We had seen last week, if you were here, uh verses one through ten, the story of Zacchaeus.
SPEAKER_00: Zacchaeus had dramatically come to faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We saw Jesus entering Jericho, and as he entered Jericho, he encountered two men.
SPEAKER_00: He was leaving the old city of Jericho, coming into the new city that was populated now.
SPEAKER_00: And as he was entering, he first encountered a blind beggar who cried out for healing.
SPEAKER_00: We saw that at the end of chapter 18, and encountering Jesus, he not only found healing for his body, he received salvation for his soul.
SPEAKER_00: And then in chapter 19, there's another man that Jesus encountered, Zacchaeus.
SPEAKER_00: He was a selfish, evil little man who made his wealth off the backs of others.
SPEAKER_00: Something had stirred in him that he wanted to see Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He climbed up a tree just to watch as the procession passed by so that he might get a glimpse of Jesus, but Jesus stopped unasked.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus called out, and Jesus invited himself to Zacchaeus' house.
SPEAKER_00: What Zacchaeus couldn't do in getting to Jesus, Jesus did in coming to Zacchaeus.
SPEAKER_00: And not only did he come to Zacchaeus' home, he made a home in Zacchaeus's heart.
SPEAKER_00: We saw the reactions of the crowd to the blind man rejoicing and celebrating, praising God for what God had done.
SPEAKER_00: But now with Zacchaeus, we saw that they were disgruntled and viewed the miracle with disdain that this man, this chief of sinners, this chief tax collector, had come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said in summary of this in verses 9 and 10, today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus calls Zacchaeus a son of Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: He was Jewish by birth, but now he follows in the line of Abraham's faith, Abraham who believed God, and it was reckoned unto him as righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And this man now is a true Jew, both in his bloodline, but also through faith in the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus here it says, and they as they heard these things, what did they hear?
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus now is coming in, he tells them this parable, it says, it gives three reasons why Jesus tells them this parable.
SPEAKER_00: As they heard these things, what Jesus had just said, uh, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had declared that he was the Son of Man who came to seek and to save the lost.
SPEAKER_00: Now we hear the term son of man, and it doesn't always carry the same weight that it would have for the people who heard Jesus say this.
SPEAKER_00: Son of man was more than just a designation to say Jesus was a guy, that he was a son of Adam, he was a son of man, that he was a human being.
SPEAKER_00: There was much more behind that.
SPEAKER_00: And those who heard, many of them would have picked up on some of these strands.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, in Daniel chapter 7, uh there's talked about the ancient of days and one who was the son of man who was going to rule the nations.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it says in Daniel chapter 7, verses 13 and 14.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him.
SPEAKER_00: And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.
SPEAKER_00: His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: Could he be the Messiah?
SPEAKER_00: Could this one who can give sight to the blind, that can heal lepers and cleanse them, and who can raise the dead, could he be the Messiah?
SPEAKER_00: Are we on the cusp of a revolution?
SPEAKER_00: Are we about to overthrow the shackles of Roman oppression?
SPEAKER_00: Is God about to break into history and establish his eternal kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: And beyond that, here we are about to enter Jerusalem, the epicenter of God's activity.
SPEAKER_00: Could he be?
SPEAKER_00: Could this be the moment?
SPEAKER_00: Could this be the time when the kingdom of God is going to be established?
SPEAKER_00: The people had heard what Jesus said, the people had seen what Jesus had done.
SPEAKER_00: And now they're about to enter Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: We're in the beginning of what is going to be Holy Week.
SPEAKER_00: Even now, as we're just a few weeks away from Easter, from Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry, here at this moment, as Jesus is about to enter into Jerusalem, he gives them this parable.
SPEAKER_00: And it says he did it because they thought, they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wanted his followers to understand that he was going away.
SPEAKER_00: That there was going to be a time when he was physically absent.
SPEAKER_00: What does this mean?
SPEAKER_00: What's going to happen?
SPEAKER_00: You see, the Jews they thought that the Messiah would come and establish his kingdom forever.
SPEAKER_00: What they didn't understand was that the Messiah was to come to be both the suffering servant and the ruling king.
SPEAKER_00: And that Jesus was the Messiah, but first he was coming to suffer and die on the cross to pay the penalty for sins.
SPEAKER_00: And then he was going to go away physically absent and then return in power and glory.
SPEAKER_00: And the Jews didn't understand that Jesus' coming was in two parts: his first coming to die on the cross, and his second coming to establish the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus tells them this parable.
SPEAKER_00: Unlike many of the parables, Jesus doesn't give us an interpretation of it.
SPEAKER_00: He tells the reason why, Luke tells the reason why, but Jesus tells his parable, and we're left to discern what it is that Jesus wants us to understand from this parable.
SPEAKER_00: There's one background here that I want us to be aware of that the people hearing this and the people reading Luke's gospel would have known.
SPEAKER_00: And there was a historic event.
SPEAKER_00: It'd be very much like talking about the assassination of John F.
SPEAKER_00: Kennedy and not using his name, but describing an event that was so similar to that that you would see the parallels.
SPEAKER_00: And the Jews hearing this immediately would have been drawn to something that had happened just a few decades before.
SPEAKER_00: Herod the Great had died in 4 BC.
SPEAKER_00: Herod had three sons.
SPEAKER_00: One of his sons was named Archelius.
SPEAKER_00: Archelius was given a portion of Herod's Herod's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Herod had been under the authority of Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Rome had conferred upon him this title so that he ruled this area as the king, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: And Herod gave a portion to his three sons.
SPEAKER_00: And immediately Arcalius began to reign over this area of Judea.
SPEAKER_00: And he began to rule, he began to reign.
SPEAKER_00: The only problem was Herod the Great didn't have the power, the authority himself to give the kingdom to somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: And so Archalius had to travel to Rome and to meet with Caesar and to have Caesar ratify him as the ruler over this area.
SPEAKER_00: And so Archalius, even though he had already begun to reign, he leaves and he goes to Rome to be ratified as this, as the king.
SPEAKER_00: What he didn't know, when he got to Rome, he found out that even some of his own family opposed him in his monarchy, and they tried to get the kingdom for themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Worse than that, there were a delegate of 50 Jews who had left from Israel and traveled to Rome in order to protest Archalius receiving this land.
SPEAKER_00: And so these 50 leaders sought an audience with Caesar, claiming that Archelius was unfit to govern.
SPEAKER_00: During a Passover, there had been a disturbance in the temple, and soldiers of Archalius had rashly slaughtered some 3,000 worshipers.
SPEAKER_00: Eventually, Caesar did give Archelius authority, although he never gave him the title as king.
SPEAKER_00: And upon returning, Archelius swiftly executed punishment on his political enemies.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's the backdrop that Jesus hearers would have immediately picked up on some of the themes when Jesus goes through this parable.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus wants to know, wants his hearers to know, he wants us to know that he is going away.
SPEAKER_00: And the question is, what should we do during his delay?
SPEAKER_00: And what's going to happen upon his return?
SPEAKER_00: Well, what should we do during his delay?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus here in this parable gives three realities here in this parable.
SPEAKER_00: The first one that we see in the beginning of this parable is that we have been entrusted with a stewardship as servants of the coming king.
SPEAKER_00: We have been entrusted with a stewardship as servants of the coming king.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells this parable, he says, the nobleman is going to a far country to receive a kingdom for himself.
SPEAKER_00: He calls ten servants and he gives them each a minor.
SPEAKER_00: A mina was uh the equivalent of about three months' wages.
SPEAKER_00: Um uh in some ways a large sum of money, but in other ways not that large sum of money, maybe uh 90 or 100 days' worth of pay would have been uh the equivalent of what a mina was.
SPEAKER_00: And he calls these ten servants, he gives each one of them a mina, and he tells them to engage in business until he comes.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is reminding us that uh that the king is coming, but there's a necessary delay.
SPEAKER_00: Uh here Jesus says that the nobleman goes into a far country.
SPEAKER_00: There's implicit within this the reality that there is going to be a period of time when the king is absent.
SPEAKER_00: And he's pointing out the reality after the resurrection and the ascension of Christ in his session, seated at the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: That there is, we are now in that period of time between his first coming and his second coming.
SPEAKER_00: And the servants are to be busy until he comes.
SPEAKER_00: He had given us a task.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has called us to be active and productive as we wait for his return.
SPEAKER_00: We have all equally been given the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We have all received eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who has bowed his head and heart to Jesus and asked for forgiveness is a part of his family, is a servant of the king.
SPEAKER_00: And each one of us has been entrusted with the gospel and the reality of our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: We may have different gifts, we may have different abilities, but he has given each one a task to be productive until he returns.
SPEAKER_00: And to whatever degree we are able, we are to see the message multiplied in the lives of others.
SPEAKER_00: And so here we see that we've been entrusted with the stewardship as servants of the coming king.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a second reality here that is the central portion of this parable.
SPEAKER_00: And that is we will all give an account of our faithfulness at the return of the king.
SPEAKER_00: First, we saw that we've been entrusted with a stewardship.
SPEAKER_00: A stewardship, by the way, is we are given something that is not ours, but that we are entrusted to use it for the purpose of the one who gave it to us.
SPEAKER_00: And what God has given us, he will call us to give an account.
SPEAKER_00: And so, secondly, what we see here in this parable is that we are all given an account, we will all give an account of our faithfulness at the return of the king.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what happens here in verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: When the king returns, 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.
SPEAKER_00: So the ten servants are called to give an account of their activity while the king is gone.
SPEAKER_00: The first servant comes to the king, and look at what he says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.
SPEAKER_00: That was a thousand percent in return.
SPEAKER_00: From what the one minor had given, there was a thousand percent return from this first servant.
SPEAKER_00: The second servant comes and he's and he says, Lord, your mina has made five minas.
SPEAKER_00: And the first servant, he hears the words, Well done, good servant, because you have been faithful in very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.
SPEAKER_00: And the second man hears, and you are to be over five cities.
SPEAKER_00: They're both commended and rewarded for their faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: And notice what they're rewarded with.
SPEAKER_00: They're rewarded with greater responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: They had been entrusted with a little, they've shown themselves faithful in what they've been entrusted, and at the return of the king, they're rewarded, and their reward is greater responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: Well, then the third servant comes, and he says, Lord, here is your minor, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief.
SPEAKER_00: This parable, by the way, is very different from the one we find in Matthew's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: There's there's some uh uh similarities, but really they're talking about two different things.
SPEAKER_00: Uh here uh he's talking about uh these minas, and this man doesn't even take the responsibility to care for it properly, he just puts it in a handkerchief.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't even bury it in the ground, he just keeps it uh very carelessly and callously.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he just puts it in a handkerchief.
SPEAKER_00: And he comes when he's called, he says to the to the king, for I was afraid of you because you are a severe man.
SPEAKER_00: He gives an excuse and blames the king for his lack of activity.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says about the king here.
SPEAKER_00: He tells him, he says, uh, that I was afraid of you because you are a severe man.
SPEAKER_00: You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.
SPEAKER_00: What he accuses the king of, he questions the king's uh character and his honesty, his integrity.
SPEAKER_00: He says to the king, you are a severe man.
SPEAKER_00: You are a hard and harsh man.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, You are a dishonest man, that you expect to reap where you did not sow, to take what you did not deposit.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this man didn't understand the heart of the king.
SPEAKER_00: Uh notice what uh the what he says in response in verse 22, I will condemn you with your own words.
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying that what is being said is true of him, but he says, even what you say doesn't make sense.
SPEAKER_00: Even if that were true, it's not true.
SPEAKER_00: But even if it were, wouldn't you have done something?
SPEAKER_00: If if you say that you didn't do anything because you feared me, because you thought I was a harsh and severe man, wouldn't you have at least taken care of what I'd given you, put it in a bank, and gotten interest from it?
SPEAKER_00: And so what this man has is taken from him.
SPEAKER_00: He's called a wicked man.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You wicked servant, you knew that I was a severe man.
SPEAKER_00: And even this own man's words, even if it was true and it wasn't, because Jesus is reminding us here that he is that king.
SPEAKER_00: Unlike Arcalius, Jesus is a good king.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is not a harsh king.
SPEAKER_00: Now notice the Minas, the first one who came before him, look at what he says.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, Lord, look at what I did.
SPEAKER_00: Look at how productive I was.
SPEAKER_00: Look at how hard I worked and all of the good I did.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: There is a humility that he has.
SPEAKER_00: The second one as well.
SPEAKER_00: The second one doesn't say, no, Lord, I was very industrious and I was a shrewd businessman, and look at all that I've done.
SPEAKER_00: How they present this to the king, he says, look, your minah has made ten minas more.
SPEAKER_00: They're humble about it.
SPEAKER_00: They say, it's almost as if the mina made its own profit.
SPEAKER_00: There's almost as if, as you look here in verse 16 and again in verse 18, that the minah itself was what generated more mina.
SPEAKER_00: He says, your mina has made 10 more.
SPEAKER_00: And the other, your mina has made five more.
SPEAKER_00: And so these men come in humility.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a spiritual truth there that we need to recognize.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, God is the one who is at work in each of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I plant and Apollos waters, but God adds the increase.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a recognition that whatever we do, that it isn't us that is adding the increase.
SPEAKER_00: God is the one who is at work in us.
SPEAKER_00: God is the one who is at work through us.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that is accomplished is by God, is by his strength, is for his glory.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one at work.
SPEAKER_00: And so we can go forward with a confidence that God is going to be at work in and through us as we're faithful to him.
SPEAKER_00: And that's communicated even in the heart attitude of these first two servants.
SPEAKER_00: But there is a reminder here that we have a responsibility to God and we have an accountability to God.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible tells us that we will give an account of our lives before God.
SPEAKER_00: That each one of us will give an account, that judgment is not only for unbelievers.
SPEAKER_00: And let me show you where that's the Bible talks about this.
SPEAKER_00: There's a couple different places.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, the Apostle Paul is talking about going to heaven and being absent from the body, being present with the Lord, and this, well, we're here, we're away from the Lord, and that it's our aim to please him, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says this, verse 9, he says, For whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
SPEAKER_00: Now the Apostle Paul is writing to the Corinthian church, he is writing to believers, and notice he includes himself in that.
SPEAKER_00: He says, We must all appear.
SPEAKER_00: We, including the Apostle Paul, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us that there is a judgment for believers.
SPEAKER_00: That believers are going to stand before God, and that what it says here is that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
SPEAKER_00: Now we need to understand that the judgment for believers is not a judgment of condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: This is very important for us to recognize what Paul is saying, what the Bible does teach here and what it doesn't teach.
SPEAKER_00: When we stand before God, we will stand before God.
SPEAKER_00: If you're wondering in the Bible when that is, it is during the marriage supper of the Lamb prior to the millennium, that we will all stand before God to receive what is due.
SPEAKER_00: It is not a judgment of condemnation, it is a judgment of commendation.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in Romans 5, 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So the judgment of believers is not a judgment for us to be condemned in any way.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ took our punishment and bore the wrath of God on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: But it is a judgment of rewards, so that we will receive reward for our faithfulness, or there will be the loss of potential reward for believers who did not do what they could have done for God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: So turn to 1 Corinthians, just previous one book, to chapter 3, and verses 10 through or 11 through 15.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians chapter 3, beginning in verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of verse 10, he says, Let each one take care how he builds upon the foundation.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11 for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
SPEAKER_00: If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone's work is burnt up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but even as through fire.
SPEAKER_00: A couple things to note here, uh Paul here is talking about believers, and he's talking about a testing of our works, and he says that what we build on the foundation of Jesus Christ, what material is being used?
SPEAKER_00: Gold, silver, precious stones on the one hand, or wood, hay, and straw on the other.
SPEAKER_00: Now, until the judgment, until the testing, both structures may look the same.
SPEAKER_00: Paul here isn't talking about people, uh, and in this, he's talking about people who are building upon the foundation, doing ministry, and the question isn't so much what are you building, but what materials are you using?
SPEAKER_00: And Paul here, and Jesus alludes to it, but Paul here is saying that it is possible for us to build the wrong way, or to do it in the wrong motives, or to do it in our own strength.
SPEAKER_00: And if we do that, uh, it is wood-hand straw.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not until the judgment that the materials used will be revealed, but at the judgment they will.
SPEAKER_00: And one man's works will uh that brought glory to God, he did the right things in the right way for the right reasons, uh he used gold, silver, precious stones, it says he will receive a war, a reward.
SPEAKER_00: And if the person, another person, another believer does the wrong things or in the wrong way in his own strength for the wrong motives, uh, those things will not stand the test.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, but though he himself will be saved, but even uh as through fire.
SPEAKER_00: And so there is a judgment of believers, uh, that is a judgment of commendation that the Bible teaches, that we will give an account, that we will stand before God.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Paul talks about that.
SPEAKER_00: But then there also is a judgment of unbelievers.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to tie that into what Paul is saying in Luke, but there is a judgment of unbelievers, and that's found in Revelation chapter 20.
SPEAKER_00: Uh towards the in the last book of the Bible, the third last chapter, uh, Revelation chapter 20, there is a judgment of unbelievers described.
SPEAKER_00: If we look in the in the passage here in chapter 20, we find that it is at the end of the millennium.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, at the it says, when the thousand years are ended, verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: Uh at the end of the millennium, uh, after the rebellion, uh, it says in verse 11, Then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it.
SPEAKER_00: From his presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found in them.
SPEAKER_00: And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were open.
SPEAKER_00: Then another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done.
SPEAKER_00: And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
SPEAKER_00: Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_00: This is the second death, the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_00: And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_00: This is a scary reality of what's said here.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that at this judgment, everyone will be shown, all of the unbelievers who stand before God will be shown the depths of their sinfulness and their disobedience.
SPEAKER_00: That each one will see their sin and rebellion and rejection of God and will clearly see that they didn't deserve eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus here finally in Luke, he reminds us that we will be rewarded or punished based on our relationship to the reigning king.
SPEAKER_00: The faithful servants knew the king.
SPEAKER_00: The faithful servants knew that he was a good king.
SPEAKER_00: They knew that he was a loving king.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't motivated out of fear, they were motivated out of love and a desire to please and glorify and honor him.
SPEAKER_00: The unfaithful servant wasn't a true servant of the king.
SPEAKER_00: He had a wrong understanding of the king.
SPEAKER_00: He thought the king was a wicked and harsh or a harsh and dishonest man.
SPEAKER_00: He had a distorted view of the king that led him to apathy and indifference.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't really fear the king.
SPEAKER_00: And so this one lost even what he seemed to have.
SPEAKER_00: And then we see at the end of this parable it says, But as for the enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.
SPEAKER_00: The unfaithful servant, the unfaithful servant here, who is called a wicked servant, had no regard for the king.
SPEAKER_00: But there were also the open enemies of the king, and they received judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how do we apply this to our lives?
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a danger here in hearing all of what I've just said and applying it wrongly.
SPEAKER_00: Because we can hear this and think, okay, I need to go out and do more and work harder and sacrifice more and live in fear of the king.
SPEAKER_00: And that isn't what Jesus is saying here.
SPEAKER_00: That's a wrong application, a wrong understanding of what is said here.
SPEAKER_00: And if we hear that and we think that, we've missed the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We've missed grace.
SPEAKER_00: The reality is that even we as believers shrink back and we all struggle.
SPEAKER_00: We're all apathetic at times, we all fall short, but we are forgiven and loved in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And the danger here is to think that the motivation ought to be out of fear and a sense of duty.
SPEAKER_00: And that isn't what ought to motivate us as believers.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is a good king.
SPEAKER_00: He's a loving king, he's a gracious king.
SPEAKER_00: We're forgiven and loved in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We live to please God, but we don't live to try to earn his pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: His delight is already on us.
SPEAKER_00: And it is the love of Christ that motivates us.
SPEAKER_00: And that motivation out of love is what moves us to serve him.
SPEAKER_00: One historic confession puts it this way we do please God, and he is pleased with our good works, but this old confession puts it this way.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Yet notwithstanding the persons of believers being accepted through Christ, their good works also are accepted in him.
SPEAKER_00: Not as though they were in this life wholly unblamable or unreprovable in God's sight.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, nothing we do is perfect, nothing we do is without blame.
SPEAKER_00: But it goes on to say, looking upon them in his son, looking upon our good works in Jesus, God is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, although accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections.
SPEAKER_00: And we're reminded that God is pleased with our good works that we do in faith, relying on his grace.
SPEAKER_00: They're not perfect, but they're accepted because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And God is gracious to honor our faithfulness and reward us for our good works.
SPEAKER_00: But may we be motivated out of grace and love, not out of fear.
SPEAKER_00: And let me close us in prayer, and as we go, ask God to reveal his goodness and his love to us, and that that love and goodness will be the motivation.
SPEAKER_00: Father, it's so easy to have wrong thoughts of you.
SPEAKER_00: To think that you are a hard taskmaster who's breathing down our necks, and that that is what motivates us a fear of displeasure, a fear of failure, a fear of punishment.
SPEAKER_00: But you are not that king.
SPEAKER_00: You have given us your son.
SPEAKER_00: You have given us grace and mercy.
SPEAKER_00: You love us with an everlasting love.
SPEAKER_00: We are your children.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, may we have a right view of you, of your goodness, of your grace, of your mercy, and may that motivate us to glorify you because we delight in you and know that you delight in us.
SPEAKER_00: And that we long to hear well done.
SPEAKER_00: Move in our hearts, we pray in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.