Now we continue in our study of God's Word. And for those of you who are new, I should explain to you again that week by week, what we do in this church is systematically to study the teaching of our Lord Jesus. We don't hop around left and right all over the place. And it is often a temptation for a preacher to preach just whatever happens to come to his mind, or to pick any text that he happens to like. And some preachers like very few texts in the Bible if one judges by their preaching, because they seem always to be preaching on the same texts. But what we want to do is to avoid this temptation of simply preaching whatever we fancy, and simply systematically to preach whatever the Lord Jesus taught. And this we have been doing for the last three years. And now at this time we have come to the last of the parables of Luke in Luke chapter 19.
Luke chapter 19. This parable is generally known as the parable of the pounds. And you know that the Lord Jesus used parables for His preaching because they served as a kind of illustration of some vital spiritual truth. And the important task for us is to understand what is that truth that the Lord Jesus wants to convey to us. Not to preach around the text, but to get into the text and let Jesus speak to us His life-giving word. And so we come to the last of the parables in Luke, Luke chapter 19, verse 11. Which actually lines up with the last of the parables in Matthew. It's very close in content to the parable of the talents in Matthew chapter 25.
Luke chapter 19 and verse 11. And we need to read to verse 27, to the end of this parable. And this is what the Lord Jesus says. "And they" — that is, the disciples — "heard these things. He" — that is, Jesus — "proceeded to tell them a parable, because He was near to Jerusalem." At this time He was probably in or near Jericho. And Jericho was about 17 miles away from Jerusalem. So that was quite near to Jerusalem. "And because they supposed" — the Jews commonly supposed, that included also the disciples, because they were deeply influenced by the general Jewish thinking — "because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately." It was about to come. You remember that even after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and as He was about to ascend on high, the disciples asked the Lord Jesus, "Are You now going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" They were still thinking in these earthly terms at that stage.
And the Lord Jesus said, by way of answer, He gave them a parable. He said, "Therefore" — verse 12 — "a nobleman went into a far country to receive a kingdom, and then returned. Calling ten of his servants" — which indicates that He had quite a lot of servants, but He calls ten of them — "He gave them ten pounds" — that is, one pound each — "and said to them, 'Trade with these till I come.' But his citizens hated him, and sent an embassy after him, saying" — that is, when he went to get his kingdom, they sent an embassy after him, saying this — "'We do not want this man to reign over us.' Verse 15: 'When he returned, having received the kingdom' — in spite of the objections of those citizens who didn't want him to reign — 'having received his kingdom, he commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by trading,' that is, by doing business."
"The first came before him, saying, 'Lord, your pound has made ten pounds more.' 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.' And the second came, saying, 'Lord, your pound has made five pounds.' And he said to him, 'You are to be over five cities.' Then another came, saying, 'Lord, here is your pound, which I kept laid away in a napkin.'" The word "napkin" actually means a scarf, a cloth. It is not the napkin in the sense that some people use at a table to wipe their mouth with after dinner. This napkin is actually a cloth which they put over the back of their neck, or a scarf which they tied around their head. The idea was to protect the back of the neck from the sunshine. In hot countries, you don't want the back of your neck to be exposed to strong sun, otherwise you might get sunstroke. And so this was the meaning of this word translated here as "napkin."
"For I was afraid of you" — verse 21 — "because you are a severe man. You take up what you did not lay down, and reap what you did not sow." He, that is the master, said to him, "I will condemn you out of your own mouth, you wicked servant! You knew that I was a severe man, taking up what I did not lay down, and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money into the bank, and at my coming I should have collected it with interest?" And he said to those who stood by, "Take the pound from him, and give it to him who has the ten pounds." And they said to him, "Lord, he has already got ten pounds!" "I tell you, that to everyone who has, will more be given. But from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine" — that is, his citizens, who didn't want him to reign, who did not want me to reign over them — "bring them here and slay them before me."
Now this is a parable taken from the life of that time. The Lord Jesus used parables from situations which were well known. He didn't concoct the parable in some artificial way, but He took an incident that people knew about, or some happening in life that you could see with your own eyes round about you, and drew out from this the spiritual lessons which He would have His disciples to learn. And so, in answer to this question whether the kingdom was about to come, His answer of course is quite explicit. The kingdom was not going to come until He Himself went away to receive the kingdom and then come back again. He would have to go away first and come back again. That coming back again is what the Christians call the second coming. The first coming is when He came at what is commemorated at Easter, and the second coming is when He will come again. And the Lord Jesus is saying: the kingdom of God then — the answer, to put it very plainly, is this. The answer is: the kingdom will not come immediately, because first I have to go away, and after a period of time, I shall come back again. That is when the kingdom of God will come.
But immediately He turns from this speculation of when the kingdom comes to the practical concern of service. This whole parable is about service. He is saying to His disciples, "You don't have to sit there and take out your electronic calculator and work on the approximate time of My coming. What you've got to do is — there is so much work to do. You attend to what needs to be done in the meantime. Occupy yourselves. Get on with the work. My coming will be soon enough." And so, get on with the work. The Lord is always concerned with a practical reply.
Now there was, at this time, there were certain incidents which would very much be a parallel to this parable. You see, the situation was that Palestine at the time, the land of Israel, was occupied by the Romans. So whoever ruled in Israel had to get their authority from Rome. That is the background to understanding this parable. You could not just appoint yourself king in Israel, because the Romans were in authority. Under the Roman general Pompey, the Romans had conquered the land of Israel in 63 BC. From 63 BC onwards, Israel was under the Roman power, under the Roman might — that might which no nation in the world could withstand at the time. The Roman legions were legendary for their military prowess, their power of conquest. No army could face them in the field. They defeated army after army. They conquered the world. And that included, of course, Palestine, which could never raise a force that could match the Romans, since no other nation, even more powerful nations, could face the Romans on the field.
And this meant that any ruler in Palestine, if he wanted to have kingly power — we speak of King Herod, for example, Herod the Great — well, Herod the Great became king only on the permission of the Romans, of course. And Herod the Great, in 40 BC, that is some 23 years after the Romans had conquered the place, in order to become king, had to go to Rome and request authority to rule in Palestine. And the Romans granted him permission, and he became king, King Herod, or Herod the Great. And his sons also became ethnarchs, a sort of regional king.
And Archelaus, for example, his son, the son of Herod the Great, who ruled from 4 BC to 6 AD, relatively short time — he also got his permission to be ruler in a certain part of Palestine through the Romans. And in fact, this is the point that this account must have been quite fresh in the minds of the Jews at the time, because Archelaus did this very thing. He had to leave Palestine to go to Rome to plead with the emperor, Augustus Caesar of the Romans, that Augustus would confirm his father's will — that is, the will of Herod the Great, who had died shortly before. In the will, Herod had appointed Archelaus to be king as his successor. But of course, Archelaus could not be king just because his father Herod the Great had given him the kingdom. He had to go to Rome, to the supreme emperor, to receive confirmation of the will and permission.
And when Archelaus went to Rome to get his kingdom, his kingship — that is, he didn't go there to get a piece of land; he went there to get the authority to be king. The kingdom here means his kingship, his kingly rule. A whole embassy of Jews who hated Herod the Great — because he was a very cruel, rather nasty kind of person (you need only to read accounts concerning Herod) — he was a man who murdered his wife, murdered his children, murdered anybody he could lay his hands on, virtually. And in the end, when he died, he was afraid that nobody would ever mourn for him, because they were so glad to see the end of Herod the Great, that he rounded up all the Jewish leaders with the order that when he died, they should kill all the Jewish leaders, so that if they didn't cry because he died, they would cry because they died. So there would be universal mourning, for fear that when he died there were going to be celebrations in the streets. And so he had thought about this one, too: "We'll kill all the elders, the leaders of Israel, so that there will be mourning in the land at the time that he dies, even if they don't mourn for him." As it turned out, when he died, there was celebration all the same, because the order to kill the elders was not carried out, and they were released. But this is the character of Herod.
And the son was not much better. In fact, he did not have the ability of his father, though he had his cruelty. And later he was exiled — about 18 AD, he was sent to Gaul, which is modern-day France, in exile. Now, when Archelaus, the son of Herod, went to Rome to get his kingdom, the Jews sent an embassy after him, saying, "We don't want this man to be king. I mean, we had enough of his father already, and he himself is not much better from what we have seen. So we don't want this fellow to be king." Their plea was not accepted by Augustus, who appointed him king nevertheless, but with reduced powers. Augustus sort of made a compromise. On the one hand, he accepted Herod Archelaus; on the other hand, he also accepted some of the suggestions of the Jewish embassy. And so, on the one hand, he appointed Archelaus, but reduced the area of his authority.
So this is the background to this. And the Lord Jesus, using this story and turning it around, as it were, draws a spiritual lesson out of this. Now, what is the picture? The picture is very easy to understand. The Lord Jesus is saying, "I'm going away to the Father to receive the kingdom." And that very immediately, the spiritual lesson comes forth. You see, the supreme authority for affairs on this earth is not here, but in heaven. God is the supreme emperor. The parallel is drawn out. If man thinks that he is his own boss, that he is the master of his own fate, that he is running this world — well, he is mistaken. The world here is simply a colony of heaven, as it were. The supreme authority lies in heaven. Just as the authority in Palestine was not derived locally — the authority was with Emperor Augustus Caesar, with the enormous might of the Roman power. In the same way, the Lord Jesus is saying, all the affairs on earth are not controlled by the kings of the earth, by even the Herods of the time. But the final authority is with the King of kings, with the emperor above, the supreme authority.
So that is the first lesson that immediately comes out of this parable. The Lord Jesus locates very clearly and firmly that the center of the authority, the fundamental place of authority of all the things that go on in this world, is in heaven. That is where the events are decided. That is where the fundamental authority is. That is the first thing. So that this means: whatever is done on earth is going to be accountable in heaven. Herod could be called to account at any time by the Roman emperor, and as I mentioned to you, Archelaus was in fact dismissed and sent into exile because of the complaints brought against him. He had not ruled properly. And the Romans finally were fed up with this, and they threw him out. So you see, the kings of the earth can rule for a time, but only for a time. How quickly the authority vanishes. One leader is replaced by another leader. One king is quickly replaced by another king. And the whole power structure changes. Some new person, some new face takes over.
And we have recently seen something of this kind in Canada, too, after the recent election. Things — the political scenes can change quickly. And things happen in this way. So, when I was watching the election, it struck me in a way: on the one hand, a leader of a country seems very powerful. On the other hand, he seems so powerless, that he just sits there, and then suddenly, the next moment, he is nobody. One moment he is Prime Minister So-and-So. The next minute, he is just plain Mister So-and-So. Suddenly he is out of the picture. And somebody who was just before that only Mister So-and-So suddenly becomes Prime Minister So-and-So, you see. And then, after a little while, maybe a few years, the picture changes again, and he is back to Mister So-and-So, and so forth. It seems that there is power, and yet not much power. Herod was a very powerful king, and yet, on the other hand, he was not very powerful. So, let us remember this lesson. God is in control, fundamentally. He reigns.
Now, the rest of the picture is also very easy to see. What is the territory in question here? Well, the question here is about the earth. And who are the citizens that don't want him to reign? The picture is also very easy to understand. It is the people in this world — they don't want God to reign. They don't want God to reign, even if it is through Jesus. They don't want Him to reign. You see, the fundamental protest against Herod — and it is admitted that Herod was not all that good a king as far as the person was concerned — yet the hatred was not so much merely about Herod, but that he represented the Roman power. Now, Herod was himself not a Jew. He was an Edomite. But that is all the more reason why they didn't like him that much. He had some Jewish blood, but he was not — they hated him because he represented, in many ways, the Roman power and the Roman interest.
And today, we find much the same thing. We find that the world doesn't want God to reign over their lives. They want to do their own thing. Everywhere, everybody wants independence. That is the cry of today. "We don't want other people to reign over us." But, of course, you can take it further and further to the limit. In Switzerland, there is a little canton up in the mountains, a very, very tiny population, and they also want independence from Switzerland. Now, Switzerland is about the most democratic country in the world. But that's not good enough for them. They have their own representative in parliament — that's also not good enough for them. They want independence. And you sort of try to find this place on the map, and you need to use a magnifying glass to find this place. And you wonder, what will this place accomplish with independence? Well, whatever they will accomplish, they want it, because it's our natural inclination. We want to be our own boss. And we can carry this to quite astonishing lengths.
And when you try to understand the issue — and I've been trying to understand what is this independence issue — I must confess that I have rather failed to understand exactly what they will accomplish. Imagine that this tiny country, with a few thousand people, is going to have its own prime minister, or president, or chairman, or whatever he's going to call himself. He's going to have an army of about thirty-five people. He's going to have this enormous economic power of a few farms out there. I don't understand exactly what they're going to accomplish. But who cares? So long as you can say, "I am independent." In this little canton — that little place in Switzerland — and you know, Switzerland is small enough for a population of about five or six million people. And here this thing is so small, and if you look on a world map, you'll have trouble finding Switzerland, it's so tiny on the world map. And then, of course, you'll not have the slightest chance of finding this place on the map, because if you can't see Switzerland, how can you see this place on the map? So you would have to get a map of Switzerland, well magnified, and you would see that up in the northwest corner of Switzerland, in a tiny area, there is this place that wants independence. And they're even throwing bombs to get independence up there.
Now, it seems that human nature is like this. We always want this kind of thing. And so, in fact, the Romans coming to Palestine brought them a measure of security which Palestine had not enjoyed for a very long time. They were cutting each other's throats for a very long time. And the Romans came in and brought a certain measure of peace, gave them a certain measure of protection from the powerful countries that had surrounded Palestine. Egypt in the south, Syria in the north, had given Israel no end of problems. They had been squashed in between these powers. The Romans came in and brought them a great measure of peace — the Pax Romana, the Roman peace. But, of course, because they were Romans — never mind peace, and economic prosperity, and self-government, and freedom that they had — they had even their own kings. All this is not good enough. What they want is — peace or no peace, economic well-being or no economic well-being — they want independence, and that's it.
And it seems to me that the world has this mentality. And so, this is what they would call patriotism. And of course, there is much of great value in patriotism. And I'm certainly myself very patriotic. But first, we also have to consider: why is it that the world rejects God? Why is it that they reject Jesus? What's the reason for it? Well, because He's going to be king, and we don't want Him to rule over us. Now notice that the question here, in this parable, is not whether or not Jesus could be our Savior. The question is whether Jesus can be our Lord. "We don't want this man to reign." Oh, we are quite happy to have Him as Savior. I mean, when the Jews were in trouble with the Egyptians or with the Syrians, they were very happy to see the Roman armies appearing to save them in the nick of time. They would be very happy. We always — but so long as you save us, and then you just go away again. And when we need you, we'll call you again.
And that is the kind of Christianity that I see in the world today. So it's wonderful to have God. When I'm in trouble, I'll say, "God, come and help me. I got trouble now. I'm going to have my exams. I'm going to fail now. But please, You help me. And You do something to that professor, if necessary — cause his eyes to get blurred — and then I'm going to have good marks. Good marks, you see. I got to get through this exam. I can't face my parents." So God — and suddenly, before the exams, everybody becomes very pious. Everybody rushes to church. Everybody puts the money in the offering. Why? You need a Savior. You've got a mess. You've got trouble. You need a Savior. But when I pass my exams, I say, "Okay, thanks, God. You can go back now. Finished now. Thank You. Next year, when I have exams, maybe I'll look for You again." In the meantime, I'm going to do my own thing.
And next year, they fail the exam. They say, "God, what did You do to me? I mean, last year, one year ago, I put my money in the offering. Last year, I went to church, and I read my Bible, and I even prayed for two minutes in the morning. And now, look what happened. This is impossible. You can't treat me like this." And so, I have people coming to me complaining, "Why does God treat me like this? Why does God do this to me?" Oh, so, we want to make use of God. "God, You come and save me. But don't reign in my life, okay? Why do You always want to reign in my life?" When the Egyptians come and attack us — "Oh, the Romans are my friends! Oh, great, great. Let the Romans come, the Roman armies, they're most beautiful, you know. They're marvelous people." And when the Egyptians are defeated, the Syrians are defeated, there is no more danger — "The Romans? Get out of here. We don't want you to stay here. Just beat it." That is the kind of Christianity we're talking about.
The issue then, therefore, that I used to see for evangelists to preach salvation is very easy. Who doesn't want to be saved? Don't you want to be saved from your sorrow? Don't you want to be saved from your misery? Don't you want to be saved from depression? Well, there are so many things. "In your loneliness, come to God." So, the evangelist has a wonderful time. Who doesn't want to be saved? You just preach salvation, and you say, "Raise your hands." A lot of people raise their hands. I mean, you're offering something for nothing. That's a good deal. I mean, better than that — we were talking yesterday about an offer that can't be refused. I mean, here's an offer that can't be refused. Something for nothing. No sale can compete with that. I mean, at the Bay, they only offer 50% discount at the maximum. When they give you 30% off, that's not too bad. But free of charge? Imagine if the Bay said, "Tomorrow, one day, everything will be free at the Bay." I think the whole building would come down, walls and all, before they even got started to open the doors.
Something for nothing. I mean, so I'm not at all surprised when the evangelist says, "Well, there were a hundred decisions, or two thousand decisions." I mean, what's the problem? I can preach that kind of thing, too. There's no problem at all. I mean, offer something for nothing — who wouldn't make decisions? You've got nothing to lose. You get something for nothing. But when it says, "God is to reign in your life, to be king in your life" — oh, wait, wait, wait a minute. There's a catch there. There's a catch. This I don't like too much. I like to run the way of my life as it is. I mean, I don't want somebody to tell me whether I can go to the disco or not. I happen to like the flashy lights in the disco. I like loud music, you see, so that I don't hear all these people nagging me and talking to me, and drown out the sound. That's what I like. And I don't want somebody coming along telling me, "You can't go to the disco." Well, who are you to tell me this? I run my life here. And "You can't do this and that." Well, nobody says you can't go to the disco. "Oh, that's okay then. So long as you don't run my life, that's okay for me."
And this is the kind of problem here. The issue is that the people in this world — they are quite happy to have religion. In moderation. Moderation. Like alcohol. I mean, you drink a little bit, it's not too bad. I mean, it's good for the stomach from time to time. But not too much. I mean, too much alcohol is bad for anybody. So religion is the kind of thing — you have a little. Everything in moderation. And what do you mean by moderation? By moderation, by definition, means you have Jesus to be your Savior. That's okay. Who's objecting to that? But "Jesus is going to reign in your life" — oh, that's letting the alcohol get to your head. Now the alcohol is controlling you. You're getting drunk. No, no, no. Nothing of this sort. We've got to be moderate, you see. Moderation.
And this is the whole key of this problem. The whole key of this parable lies exactly here. It begins about this nobleman, and it ends with the citizens who don't want Jesus to reign. You can have Christianity. Look at the number of churches. You come into this country, just look at the church spires. I go to some towns in Canada, and it seems to me that half the town lives in the church, because I see churches everywhere. One spire here, another spire there, spires everywhere, church spires everywhere to be seen.
If people didn't know the Western countries — if you go to Europe or England or wherever — you know, I think the most religious people, the whole place is full of churches. And after all, what do you see when you go touring as a tourist to France? You know, I have seen so many churches in my life. In France, it came to the time when I said, "I'm not going to see another church. I've seen too many churches." Every village, every town — the only historic place to look at is what? The church, of course. So you go there, and you see — this person died here, and the other one's buried there. And if you go to Westminster Chapel in London, what you see there — I mean, it seems like some kind of graveyard. And maybe it speaks something. You seem to be walking over everybody's tombs. And so you try reverently to walk around this tomb, only to find you step on another one. "I'm sorry here, I shouldn't have stepped on you there." Maybe we Chinese have some reverence for people who have been buried. And apparently they are all buried there in the nave. You've got to walk over these stones in order to get anywhere in the church. And then there's another one there — somebody lived from this year to that year, and died there, and another one died there. You say, "What is this? Is this the house of the living, or is it the house of the dead?"
God is the last resort. In most Western countries, you have God — it's very good, because when you get born, you get baptized. God — you get a few drops of water on your head. And then when you go on further in life, you go to church for the second time in your life, that's when you get married. And after all, God has His uses. I mean, the church has its place in life — three times at least in life. And then when you get buried, even if you don't know it, you get buried in the church, too. This is religion. And that is as far as they are willing to go with religion. Religion has its uses. It's a unifying force. It serves to bring people together, especially when you're faced with communism, you haven't got an ideology to face them with. So you go to church. Let's talk about God. Especially when the Communists come, you keep talking about God. When the Communists go, let's forget about God. We've done our job. We've got rid of the Communists. So there are uses for religion. And as long as man can make use of religion, he's going to have some religion. That's okay. But to have Him reign in my life — oh, no, no, no. That's another story. We don't want this man to reign.
They might not say it so loudly as that. They might not put it in those words. But the Lord Jesus is looking into their heart. That is why in John chapter 1 it says, "He came to His own, and His own received Him not." They don't want Him. They don't want this man. And they don't want Jesus not because He is a hard man like Archelaus. But no matter who, no matter how good is the authority, no matter how good is the system, no matter how good is the ruler — as long as he's going to rule, we don't want him. That's why I was trying to understand this place in northwest Switzerland. Switzerland is so democratic a country. It is the first democracy. Everybody is a soldier. Everybody has a vote. Everybody can decide something or say something. And to opt out of this system — I don't understand it. What do they hope to gain? Do they have a better way? No. It's just that they don't want any authority, no matter how good that authority is. No wonder we have anarchists. Anarchists are people who don't want any sort of authority. Basically, I suppose, deep down, the only authority that we accept is our own. And I have seen that in every Christian, at some stage or other. We want to be our own boss. That is the fundamental problem.
But there are those — and the numbers are not so great — who are the true Christians. What are true Christians? These are the servants of God, as they are called here. Servants of God. In 1 Peter 2, verse 16, we see that every true Christian is a servant of God. This doesn't refer to pastors; it doesn't refer to preachers. "Servant of God" means every true Christian. Because he lives under God's authority. That's why he is His servant. We are the people — these servants are those who say, "God is king in my life. He is Lord of my life." If you say that, you don't have to be a preacher. You are a servant of God. You are a servant.
And the parable then goes on. And He calls, in the midst of this hostile situation where His citizens are in a state of rebellion, He calls these ten servants to Him, and He entrusts them each with one pound. Now, what is a pound? Well, a pound is estimated to be equivalent to about three months' wages of an average laborer. Three months' wages. So about 100 drachmai or denarii. So, if we put it in modern terms, if you reduce it to financial figures of five or six pounds or ten or twenty dollars, there's no great meaning. It's rather like the situation today, when if you speak about ten dollars, the question is, well, you're talking about ten dollars in Canada or ten dollars in China. The same ten dollars in China you could live for a month on, but with the same ten dollars in Canada you could hardly get by for a day. And so, when we reduce these figures into modern terms, they don't make much sense. What it does say: one pound would be equivalent to about three months' wages for an average laborer of that time. Which means that if you translate it into Canadian terms, and if you ask how much a laborer earns in these days, maybe supposing he earns a thousand dollars a month, that would be equivalent to a fairly sizable sum of maybe two or three thousand dollars. And so each one of these workers, these servants of this master, each is given a pound.
When the Lord Jesus is then saying, in this world as it is today, every one of you who are a servant of Mine, who acknowledges My kingship, has been entrusted with a pound — that is, with a certain commitment, with a certain responsibility. Now, we as Christians all have been entrusted with certain responsibilities. If not, we wouldn't be Christians. What does a Christian have? What have we been entrusted with? Well, each one of us, to start with, has been entrusted with life. That's a very big responsibility — what you do with your life. We have been given new life in Christ. Becoming a Christian has to do with life. It is a matter of life and death. It's not a question merely of belief. It's not a question of religion. If you just have religion, you're not a Christian. You may have the Christian religion, but that is not a Christian on the biblical definition. A true Christian is somebody who has life. Have you got life? If you have life — the life that comes from God, when you have the Holy Spirit of God living in you — you have eternal life. So all of us who are servants of Christ, who acknowledge His kingship, His lordship in our lives, have life — divine life. Not a physical life, but a spiritual life that comes from God. We have the Holy Spirit. We have been entrusted with the message of truth. We don't just have life, but we can pass this life on to others. This life is not just something we can keep for ourselves, but like the physical life, it can be passed on to others — to your children. You pass on your life. What does your child get from you? Life. We too can spiritually pass life on to others, and not just keep it for ourselves. So we have been entrusted with something that is exceedingly valuable.
# The Parable of the Pounds (Part 2) — Luke 19:11-27
There was a time when I also rejected Christ. There was a time when I ridiculed and despised the church. So we all started from the same level. We all started as sinners, as enemies of God, as people who reject God. But then there comes a time when finally, in God's grace, we received, we accepted His kingship. And so we all started at the same level. Nobody started with any great advantage over the other. But the difference is that as time goes on, you will find that a gap widens out. Although every Christian starts at the same place, he doesn't finish at the same place. Now that is the beauty of this parable. They all start with one pound, but what happens? After a time, one of them has developed his one pound into ten pounds. Another person has developed it into five pounds. And another person has done absolutely nothing with it.
And is that not something we all see in the church? I see so many Christians. And some of you have come to the Lord in this church. And I have seen you right from the beginning. And I have seen how you have grown spiritually. I have seen that your one pound has become two pounds, has become three pounds, has become four pounds. But I have seen also others, unfortunately from time to time, who just got stuck. Nothing happened. Their one pound just remained one pound. And two years later, it's still one pound. Three years later, it's still one pound. And by the time they're old and gray, it's still one pound. In the church, how long you have been a Christian is not a criterion of how mature you are spiritually. It proves absolutely nothing. You can be a Christian all your life and be spiritually absolutely nothing. Or you may be, on the other hand, a Christian only for two or three years and become spiritually so advanced.
Now the question here is: what makes the difference? Why is it that one person becomes a ten-pounder? That is, his one pound becomes ten pounds. He has a one thousand percent increase. By business standards, that really is something. One thousand percent increase. The other person had made a five hundred percent increase. And the other person was zero percent increase. Now here then, out of these ten servants, we find three fundamentally different types. Three fundamental types, and that is true of all Christian life. You find these three fundamentally different types. The one that goes all out, turning his one pound into a thousand percent interest. But the other person who goes quite far, quite strong, but always with a certain amount of hesitation, and he produces only a five hundred percent — but it's still very good. And of course, there are all the varying ones between. Some produce eight hundred percent, some seven hundred percent, some two hundred percent, and some maybe only fifty percent. The Lord Jesus, of course, is just giving three fundamental types. He's not going into all the intermediate types in between.
Now what we need to do, before we close today, is to consider what makes this difference between Christians. All three are servants. On that point, there is no difference between them. They are all servants of the Master. We are all servants of God. In that respect, there is no difference between any of us — between you, and between me, and between anyone else who is a Christian. A true Christian in the biblical sense. And so today, we need to consider the principle of service. What are the principles of service? Why is there somebody who becomes a John Sung, a mighty servant of God? Why is it one becomes a D.L. Moody? Another person becomes nothing?
Now, to get at this point, we need to notice certain things in here. One thing is: notice the difference in initiative. Now nobody makes any great return on any business who hasn't got initiative. You don't get one thousand percent interest by sitting back in your armchair and reading the comics. Nobody produces any results like this. The person who is going to produce that kind of results has to have spiritual drive. Spiritual dynamic. Spiritual initiative. He is not going to sit back and hope for the best. Nobody does business like this.
And after all, Chinese people are some of the best business people in the world. They can compete with the Jews anytime. Jews are great business people. In Shanghai, where I come from, there were lots of Jews at the time. But we discovered that there is one place in the world that the Jews have a lot of trouble getting rich, and that is in China. Because they are up against their own kind. The Chinese can go anywhere, like the Jew, anywhere in the world. And he starts a laundry and he gets rich. And he starts a restaurant and he gets rich. And he goes anywhere. He goes to South America. He goes to North America. He goes anywhere. He can't even speak the language. It doesn't matter. He doesn't know a word of the language and he still gets rich. We have seen this kind of people in England. They used to come to England in the early days. And they look and survey the situation and they say, "Yeah, business initiative — what I can do is open a laundry." Open the laundry. They start a business.
And the man that I knew, he lived in England forty-some years. All his children grew up in England. And he cannot speak English that I can understand. I can't understand his Chinese either, because he is from Toisan, you see. So I can't understand. I mean, I don't understand how he gets on with the other Chinese, because not too many in that area speak Toisan either. And so he only speaks Toisan. That's the only language he can speak. Imagine that. And he can run a successful laundry business, put all his children through university successfully. And he doesn't speak the language even. I mean, the Jews can come up against this kind of competition — it's really something.
So I think for us as Chinese people, it's not hard to understand what we understand by drive, by initiative. Now this man did not get his business going by just sitting back in his armchair and moaning and saying, "Well, I can't speak the language. I'm far away from home in a foreign country. I haven't any education. I can't compete with these people here. They all have at least several years of education. I can't even read and write." He's not going to sit there and mope. He studies the situation. He looks at what he can do. He looks at the market there. And he says, "Right, laundry." Now he never did any laundry before in his life, but after all, one can learn to wash clothes in a pretty short time. And so, before long, he puts up a little counter somewhere and says, "Bring in the clothes and I'll wash them for you." And the next thing is, his business is going. His business is really going. And today his children are biochemists, engineers, doctors — they're all doing fine. He put them through. So they are going on too. Business initiative. Drive.
Now if we understand these things in the material world, how is it we have trouble understanding it in the spiritual world? We shouldn't have any trouble understanding that, either. The servant of God must have spiritual drive, spiritual initiative. He must be the kind of person who is not content with the mediocre. He looks at the situation spiritually. He looks at the situation in the world — a world that is a hostile environment. Like this man who came from Toisan and lives in Wales. Even to this day he lives in Wales. Well, he's in a foreign environment. He's in a hostile environment because he was not accepted as one of the local people, of course. But he was able, through resourcefulness, through spiritual drive, through business drive, to make a go of it. In the same way, we live in a hostile environment. The world doesn't look with approval upon us. We, once we become Christians, are like foreigners in this world. Even our parents sometimes think we are strange. We are nutty. Out of our minds. We are impractical. Foolish. "Giving up your good career, and your education, and your prospects." I mean, this is... And probably this guy who went overseas, his family must have thought he was out of his mind. I mean, you don't even speak the language. You're not practical. You're not realistic. You cannot make a go of it in a foreign land. In those days, very few Chinese had come overseas to England, for sure. But he had the drive. He went forth. He went. He accomplished what everyone thought couldn't be done. In the same way, what about us? That is what makes the drive.
But we have to go further back than this. What gives a person the drive? What makes him do this? What is the dynamic, that motivating power? What motivates me? What motivates every true Christian? This comes to the point about Christian service which is distinct from any other kind of service. Look at these three servants, and notice their attitude to their master. Very different, each one. The first one — what makes him work so hard? Just because he happens to have drive? You see, the difference between our story about this man from Toisan and these servants is this. This man from Toisan was making a go of it for himself. It's his own interest he is working for. But a good servant is working for the master, not for himself. So, what would motivate him? What motivates an employee?
Well, here comes the point. When we look at this, we see a very important distinction in attitude between these three servants. And this comes out most clearly from the last. The last of these servants. Now, what do we see about the last of these servants? Notice carefully his attitude. He produced nothing. He produced zero percent increase. Why? He says to the master — notice his attitude. He says to the master, "Because I was afraid of you." Now, in verse 20: "And the other one came, this servant who produced nothing. He says to the Lord, 'Lord, here is your pound, which I kept laid away in a napkin.'" Now, keeping money in a napkin, in a cloth, hidden in a cloth, was quite common in those days. You didn't have safe vaults where you could go down underneath and open the lock and hide it away. So people kept it — either they buried it in the ground, or they hid it in a napkin somewhere amidst other things to keep it safe. "Lord, here is your pound, which I kept laid away in a napkin."
Why did he not produce any results? Verse 21: "I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You are a hard man. You are an austere man. You take up what you did not lay down, and you reap what you did not sow." What does that mean? "Well, I did the sowing, and You want to do the reaping. You are the kind of person who takes advantage of me. You are not only a hard man, a feelingless man, but You take advantage of other people. I sow, and You want to reap." Oh, ah, so why did you become His servant in the first place? That's the question, isn't it? Why did you accept? No one forced him to be a servant. No one forces us to be a Christian.
But notice his concept of the master. His concept of the master is as of an austere, hard, feelingless man. Now clearly, the other two servants didn't share that view. And this brings me to a fundamental point here. Why is it that different people have different concepts about God? Why? God is the same God. Why is it two different people will have two different concepts about God? Two different ways of seeing God.
Now to my mind, I can't understand what this fellow is saying. God is not severe and austere, taking advantage of me. Maybe that's why you don't want Him to reign over your life — because you think that He's a hard person who will take advantage of you, who will tell you to do things that you don't really want to do. "He wants to reap where He didn't sow. He wants to get what He didn't put into it." I don't see God like this. My concept of God is such that I don't understand what he's talking about. My concept of God is that of one who is exceedingly gracious, exceedingly kind, exceedingly good — so good, it is far beyond anything I could ever deserve. His kindness never ceases to astonish me. So many times I say to my wife, "How good God is to us. We don't deserve His mercies, and yet He pours out His kindness upon us. He lavishes His kindness upon us."
And yet, I do know that there are some people whose concept of God is not like this at all. There are some people who come and talk to you: "Why does God do this to me? Why is God like this? Why is He so hard on me?" So clearly, their concept of God is very different from the concept of God as one of kindness. I find this distinction seen also very much in the Bible. The psalmist says, "God is so good." We sing that hymn: "God is so good." And yet, not everybody — not even all Christians — share that view. Why is that so? What is the reason that God is the same God, and yet different people end up with different notions about God? Throughout the Psalms, you will read: "God is good. Let us praise Him. Praise Him with a harp. Praise Him with every musical instrument. God is so kind, so good." But this servant says exactly the opposite. "God is so hard, feelingless. Taking advantage of people. Always wanting to dominate our lives, boss us around." I don't find God bossing my life. I say to the Lord, "Lord, You are King of my life. You run my life." My life is — I don't find Him kicking me around like a football, or throwing me around like a basketball. I don't find that. I'm willing that He should run my life. I gladly let Him. I feel that He can, by all means, use me in any way He pleases. But I have never yet felt that He kicks me around. He treats me with such gentleness and kindness.
So why is this person got a different concept of God? And that's a very important question. I wonder: what is your concept of God right now? Do you share the psalmist's concept, like the psalmist says in Psalm 135 and verse 3: "Praise Yahweh, for He is good. Praise Yahweh, for He is gracious"? You see, the psalmist's concept of God is entirely different from this person's. Now, one of them has to be wrong, and one of them has to be right. So who is right? Who is wrong? God cannot be both kind and gracious, and also at the same time harsh and unfeeling and without compassion and rude and nasty. One cannot be both of these things at the same time. That would be a logical contradiction.
What makes the difference? And as I analyze this matter, and as I look into the Scripture, I see that how God appears to us — how God will appear to you — depends upon your attitude towards God fundamentally. It is the person himself who is going to decide through what kind of vision of God he gets. You see, the Bible says this: "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Now look what happens. If you hide sin in your heart — if you hide sin in your heart, you will find that God doesn't hear you. And when you find that God doesn't hear you, you are going to feel what about Him? "God never answers my prayer." If you find that God never answers your prayer, you are going to feel, "Well, God doesn't care about me." If you feel that God doesn't care about you, you are going to feel, "Well, God has no compassion." If you feel that God has no compassion, you are going to feel — you see — "God is feelingless. He is austere. He is severe. He is hard. He is deaf to my pleas."
Now, have you had — is that your experience of God? If that's your experience of God, remember the principle: if you hide iniquity in your heart, God will not hear you. And then begins the chain reaction. On the other hand, when you don't hide iniquity in your heart, when you don't hide sin in your heart, when you come with openness, confessing your sins, asking His forgiveness, asking Him to cleanse your heart of sin, you find that God responds to you. He answers your prayers. "Oh," you say, "God is so good. He is so kind to me." Of course. But it's the same God. It is you who determines God's response to you.
Some people say, "God is so far away. So far, I cannot touch Him. I can't feel Him at all." Of course not. Why? Because they stay far away from God. The Bible says in James, "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." But you find some people say, "God is so near, so wonderful." "It's funny, I find Him very far away." Well, what's the difference? Is it because God treats people differently? Sure, He treats people differently. Not because He wants to treat people differently. It's because you have determined the way in which He's going to have to treat you. If you keep sin in your heart — your arrogance, your pride, your selfishness, your greed — if you have that in your heart, you make it impossible for God to answer you. Because if He answered you in those circumstances, He would be encouraging you in your greed. You would not see any need to change from sinfulness, and from greed, and from pride. Because after all, if God answers you when you are sinful, why should you be righteous? Why should you be holy? What importance is there in holiness? God has to refuse you, in order to make you change your position. And then He can answer you.
This immediately, on the biblical principle, we can see why this servant is such an utter failure. He had never yet broken away from his self-centered, sinful way of life. As a result, whenever he prayed, he found that God didn't answer him. God didn't respond to him. And when God doesn't respond to him, he says, "Lord, why are You treating me like this?" It's like these people, as I mentioned earlier, who just want to make use of God. "Lord, help me to pass my exams." But what right have you to ask anything of God at all? What gives you a right to ask Him that He should make you pass your exams? You live in selfishness, you live in sin, and you want God to serve you — to help you to pass your exams, to help you to get a good job, to keep you safe upon the roads. When you get sick, that God should make you well. He's going to be your doctor. He's going to be your chauffeur. He's going to be your protector. He's going to be everything for you. But what do you ever do for Him? "Oh, am I supposed to do something for Him? I thought God was there to be my universal servant, my genie out of the bottle. When you open the bottle, He's there to do whatever you command." With that kind of concept of Christianity, if God answered your prayer, He would drive you further and further into the spiritual grave that you're already in. He cannot answer you — to answer you, to encourage your selfishness, your pride, your self-centeredness — it cannot be done.
Now that is the reason why some people find God is so good, and other people find God never answers their prayer. He is hard. He is without feeling. Not touched by their problems and their difficulties. But here is the fundamental. When God is so good for you, inevitably, your heart rises in praise and adoration to God all the time. You feel a sense of worship and praise. "God is so good." You can't help worshipping Him. You don't know how. Charles Wesley says, "Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise." A thousand tongues! "My one tongue is not enough to sing His praise. If only I had one thousand tongues to sing His praise." Well, this third servant wouldn't have understood what Wesley is talking about. "My one tongue — I can't find anything to praise Him with. I can't find anything to say about Him. With one tongue, or a thousand tongues, I would be even more deaf, more dumb than I could imagine." You see — contrasting attitudes. The same God, and different attitudes, different concepts of Him.
The attitude of worship and adoration comes out of love. Now, what motivates our spiritual initiative? What motivates me? What drives me on? It is precisely this concept of God that I have come to experience, to possess, to acquire. What drives me on is God's goodness. It motivates me. "Oh, I want everybody to know how good God is. Oh, if only you could know Him." His lovingkindness — oh, how great! As David said, "Your lovingkindness has enlarged my heart." It has enlarged my heart. It has expanded my whole being. Your lovingkindness — this motivates you. It drives you on.
Now, you would have thought — and here notice the wisdom of the master. The servant said, "I..." This bad servant, this wicked servant, as is described here — did not notice the word "wicked." He hid sin in his heart. But he did not serve God because he feared God. When you sin, you're going to be afraid. You feel you dare not come near to God. When all of us have sinned, we know what it feels like. We know what it feels like to sin. Certainly I have sinned. And whenever I sin, I fear God. I want to draw away from Him. When Adam and Eve sinned, what did they do? They went and hid themselves. You want to stay away from God. "God, don't come near me." That was the first reaction of Peter when he saw the power and the majesty of Christ. He said to the Lord Jesus, "Depart from me. Go away, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." You see, sin has the tendency to drive you away from God. And it brings fear into the heart. Fear. And fear is not a motive that drives you on in spiritual service. Not in spiritual service. Fear may be a motive in the world, maybe. But in spiritual service, it doesn't function. You cannot frighten people into serving God. You cannot do that. It frightens them away. It doesn't frighten them into serving God. It is love. As Paul says, "The love of Christ constrains me." It motivates me.
And that is why, as we analyze the matter — what makes two people different? One person is a ten-pound Christian, the other is a zero-pound Christian. He ends up with nothing. Remember, this last one had even his pound taken away. He ends up with nothing. The difference lies in the spiritual initiative and spiritual drive. But what makes the spiritual initiative? What motivates you? It is the concept of God. If you have an adoring attitude towards God because of His love, that adoration motivates you powerfully into service. But first, you must come to the right concept of God.
And what else can we say on this matter? The other matter, of course, as we have already seen — the first one was his commitment. This wicked servant — his commitment was in question. You see, you cannot serve God without commitment. Commitment means the willingness to accept Him practically, actually, factually, in your daily life as King. That is what commitment is about. To receive Him as Savior is not a commitment. That He does something for you — He requires no commitment on your part. That you do something for Him, that you live under His rule — that is commitment. His commitment is not complete. This is the fundamental problem with so many Christians. They have a commitment, but it's only a partial commitment. And I have time and time again warned you that a partial commitment will end up in disaster.
Now notice, this man had a commitment. He was a servant. Like all the other servants, he was one of the servants. He had a commitment. If he had no commitment, he wouldn't have been a servant. He was not drafted in, grabbed in by the scruff of the neck. You are a Christian today, not because anyone dragged you by the scruff of the neck and forced you at gunpoint to become a Christian. You became a Christian of your own choice. You made that commitment. But the commitment too often is a partial one. And when it comes under pressure and under stress, it breaks. It breaks. This person — his commitment was only partial. And the failure became evident.
But we have to conclude on our last point. The last point is the point of expectation. Expectation. These two servants — the one who brought forth ten pounds and the other who brought forth five pounds — they knew that the master was coming back. He said so. He was coming back. And they knew therefore that there was a certain amount of time that they had to do this work in. And it was in view of the happy expectation that the master they loved was coming back — and in the light of this expectation, they worked. So when He comes back again, He's going to be pleased. Why do I want Him to be pleased? Because I love Him so much. I love Him so much. He's so wonderful. And when He comes back, I want Him to be pleased. But notice, of course, one is pleased to the extent of five pounds, and the other increases the pleasure that he's going to give to his master — the joy — to ten pounds. There again, you see the difference of the motivation.
So notice this matter then. The expectation is a driving force as well. I am expecting to see Jesus. He came the first time. He will come the second time. And all of us are going to see Him at one time or another. But that expectation is not just to know He is coming. That doesn't produce. We are talking about the inner expectation — the joy, the eagerness of seeing Him again. I wonder if you share that eagerness. I wonder. Your child, I'm sure, every day — when you're going to come home, that child is eagerly expecting: "Daddy is coming home! I haven't seen him all day." Looking forward with eager joy. And he is already drawing a little picture so that when Daddy comes home, he can give it to you. My little girl often draws a picture for me and says, "Look, Daddy, I've drawn all these pictures for you." Why did she do that? She was expecting my return, and therefore she was hoping to give me a joyful welcome. And so she drew these nice little pictures for me. And I have quite a collection of these pictures already. Or make some little thing. What for? Because she loves you. She wants you to be happy when you come back. And that's why she looks forward to your coming with expectation.
Now these three points — these three points I should call, as we have to close now, the principles of service, which I call the ACE principle of service. You know what the word "ace" means? If you say he's a flying ace, you mean he's an outstanding pilot. He's a very good flyer. An ace pilot. An ace means he's the best. And we are not just trying to produce servants of God — after all, the third one, the bad one, is also a servant of God. But ace servants. The best of servants.
The ACE principle is what we have just said. And I wonder if you have noticed it. A — Adoration. C — Commitment. E — Expectation. ACE. You can make it a double A, a double C, and a double E simply in this way: Abundant Adoration. Complete Commitment. And Eager Expectation. That makes it ACE. Beautiful. If you can implement this ACE principle of service, then you will be the servant with the ten pounds. And depending on how well you can implement these three principles, you will be either the ten-pound servant or maybe the five-pound servant. But I hope that each one of us will become outstanding servants of God in this generation. That this adoring attitude will motivate us. That we will check our commitment — whether it is a complete, a total commitment to God, or just a partial one in which the other part is that we make use of God. And whether our expectation of God is an eager expectation. That's the way to become a spiritual ace.
Let us be quiet before God in prayer.