Welcome to our continuing Bible
study in the book of Luke. We've been spending some time
on this parable here in chapter 19. I was gone last week, so
it's been a couple of weeks since we visited this scripture, and
so we'll kind of refresh a little bit. We'll read through it, then
we'll refresh a little bit, then what we covered last time, and
then hopefully we'll make it through the end. There's always
more time later until the Lord comes back. So here we have in
Luke chapter 19, beginning in verse 11, this parable. And as they heard these things,
remember that he'd just been dealing with Zacchaeus, and they're
on their way to Jerusalem. They'd been down to Jericho,
and remember that we had that graphic last week where Jericho
was 800 feet below sea level, and in 14 miles they ascend up
to Jerusalem, to the Mount of Olives. So it's quite a change
in altitude in just a short distance. We think about going from the
Dalles to Dufur as a pretty good climb. It's kind of up and down,
but same as this terrain here. But in 14 miles to walk up a hill like that was quite
a step. And the closing verse that he said
in verse 10 was very telling. He said, after he talked about
salvation coming to Zacchaeus' house because he was the son
of Abraham, he said, for the son of man has come to seek and
to save that which was lost. So here we are in verse 11. And
as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, and
he gives two reasons here, because he was nigh to Jerusalem and
because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately
appear. He said, therefore, a certain
nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom
and to return. And he called his ten servants
and delivered them ten pounds and said unto them, Occupy till
I come. But his citizens hated him and
sent a message after him saying, we will not have this man to
reign over us. And it came to pass that when
he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded
these servants to be called unto him to whom he had given the
money, that he might know how much every man had gained by
trading. Came the first saying, Lord,
thy pound has gained 10 pounds. And he said unto him, Well, thou
good servant, because thou hast been faithful unto very little,
have thou authority over ten cities. And the second came,
saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. And he said
likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities. And another
came, saying, Lord, behold, Here's thy pound, which I've kept laid
up in a napkin. For I feared thee, because thou
art an austere man. Thou takest up, thou layest not
down, and thou reapest that thou did not sow. And he said unto
him, out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere
man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did
not sow. Wherefore then gavest not thou my money to the bank,
that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?
And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound,
and give it to him that hath ten pounds. And they said unto
him, Lord, he hath ten pounds. For I say unto you, that every
one which hath shall be given, and from him that hath not, even
that which he hath shall be taken away from him. But those mine
enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring
hither and slay them before me." Pretty serious words that we
have here. So as we went through this, the
name of our lesson was Occupy Till I Come. And we just reviewed
briefly the reasons for the parable, which were two, because he was
nigh to Jerusalem. He was nigh to come to his final
trip to Jerusalem to accomplish the mission that he'd been at
since before the foundation of the world. And because they thought
the kingdom of God should immediately appear, and we reminded everyone
that The thought of those Jews was that the Messiah would come,
throw off the Romans, restore the kingdom to Israel, and they
would be out from underneath the Roman yoke, and everything
would be swell. And so, he said, that's not why
I came. I came to seek and to save that
which was lost. So he said, because of those
things, he issued a parable. The word added is important here. Because of those things, he added
a parable and told them the true reason that he was come. the true mission was seeking
His lost sheep and to save that sheep which was lost. He was
not come to restore morality or cure injustice or political
ideals. He was come to seek those whom
the Father had given Him in the covenant of grace and to lay
down His life ransom for them, thereby saving them. by the substitution
of His own self in their behalf. And so this truth of this was
entirely opposite of what the people, even the disciples believed.
Remember, we went to Acts chapter 1 after the resurrection. He
appeared to them and they said, well, will you restore the kingdom
now? At this time, will you restore
the kingdom? And not in the plan here. He said that they thought the
kingdom of God should immediately appear. And remember, we looked
at that. That was an interesting word that we found in Vine's
expository dictionary, which was actually a nautical term,
and it had to do with the vision that sailors had from the horizon
that were looking toward their home port. When they got close
enough, they could see over the horizon, and their home port
would appear, or wherever they were going. would come into view,
and that's kind of what that word, anapheino, means in the
Greek. To come into view as sailors
would behold their port on the horizon as they sailed in. And
as they left Jericho at 800 feet below sea level, And they would
come up to the Mount of Olives, and they would look down into
Jerusalem and the Kidron Valley, and they would see that, oh,
the kingdom is here. What we hope for is almost in
view, and yet that wasn't what He was telling them at all. But
they must have felt that way, I think, the disciples must have
felt that way when we get to the top of this. this 4,000 foot
climb, we're going to be able to see a wonderful thing. And
they didn't quite understand fully that the kingdom of God
was among them, as the Scripture tells us, even in them, and with
a far different purpose of grace than they could imagine. And
we find that this trail that come up from Jericho would go
through Bethphagia and Bethany, And they would stop there. And
remember Bethany was where Lazarus was raised from the dead. And
many things that happened on that road from Jericho to Jerusalem
was where the Good Samaritan helped the one that had been
waylaid and robbed and wounded. And the Good Samaritan took care
of him and took care of all of his issues. So as we move along, He says, as he begins a parable,
he talks about the the ruler going to a far country, and the
citizens hated him. And they said, we'll not have
this man to rule over us. And we mentioned Archelaus. And
we mentioned that because it's important, because Archelaus
is mentioned in Matthew in the Bible, and because he played
a part in the divine, determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
everything that was going to occur. Archelaus had his part
to play and his replacement Herod Antipas. had his part to play. And Archelaus was this evil ruler
that when his father Herod the Great died, he got control of
that area of Palestine. And he was pretty, he kind of
took over before he was officially tapped with the wand. And he assumed a lot of authority
that he didn't really have yet. But he got away with it and they
didn't like him because he was a mean guy. He was an evil ruler. He took issue with some Jews
that were protesting at a Passover, and he had 3,000 of them killed. So when it finally came time
for Archelaus to travel down to Rome to officially get authority
from the Caesar to rule, That region that was divided
by his father and his will, the Jews sent a delegation to, and
they said to Caesar, we'll not have this man to rule over us. Caesar said, OK, well, I'm not
going to make you a king. I'll just make you an ethnarch,
which is a lesser title. But you still have authority
over the region, but you're not a king. And we find that those
Herods, that family of Herods were Edomites. They were Idomeneans,
the Greek rendering of Edomites. An interesting thing there about
the lords dealing with the Edoms. So, Archelaus came back. He ruled
about nine years. And then he caused such division
that Caesar said, you're out of here," and gave
his part of the area to Herod Antipas, his part-brother there,
to rule, and then they banished Darchelaus to Vienna, I believe. So now we're kind of up to speed
on what we kind of covered the last time. Remember in Matthew
chapter 2, verse 22, when Joseph heard that Archelaus did reign
in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.
Notwithstanding being warned of God in a dream, he turned
aside into parts of Galilee. And he came and dwelt in a city
called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which is spoken
by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene." So isn't
that interesting how Archelaus plays into this whole thing that's
designed in the determinate counsel of God and for his purpose. He who is and always was king
of kings and Lord of lords sets up the kings of this world. According
to his own purpose and pleasure and the most high ruleth in the
kingdom of men and giveth to whomever he will and Daniel 4
25 and Proverbs says by me kings reign and princes decree justice
and and he sets them up and Takes them down and so all these circumstances
of sovereign will are brought to play Brought to pass to bring
us to this point in time that we find ourselves in here and
in Luke In truth in Acts chapter 4 verse 27 says, 4. For of a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod Antipas, that's the
one that replaced Archelaus when he got deposed, and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles, the people of Israel, were gathered together,
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. And so we have this point that
this ruler that went down to Rome to get authorized, they
said, we'll not have this man to reign over us. It was just
struck me as so interesting that they didn't like this evil guy.
And they said, we'll not have him to reign over us. And when
Christ came, who was ultimately the most representative of good.
He said there's none good but God. They wouldn't have Him to
rule over. They wanted themselves. It was
all me. It was all me, me, me. They didn't
want that guy and they didn't want the Christ. They didn't
want the evil. They didn't want the good. They
wanted their own their own version of things. Isn't that what we
find even today in religion? They don't want the king. They don't want the other thing,
but they want what they have themselves. And so, we're coming
to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is nearly in view.
And he's talking this parable to them in verse 13. We come
to the part about the 10 pounds. And there's such great instruction
for the church here that's very valuable. And it's similar in
scope to what we covered in the parable of the sower earlier
in Luke. Several classes of people that
are described. The point was made to the disciples
again that he would be departing for a season. And remember the
main point, He came to seek and to save that which was lost.
And the Scripture records that He was nigh to Jerusalem where
He is about to depart this earthly life, this world, as a sacrifice
for His people and finish the work of grace. So in this parable
we have the certain nobleman which kind of pictures the Lord
God Almighty in the fullness of time God sent forth his son
made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law from Galatians 4. We have the ten servants and
the ten servants are broken down into really two subsets. We have
the the faithful servants and the wicked servant, and then
we have the citizens who hated the nobleman, the ruler. We'll not have this man to reign
over us. And you know, that's the only classes of people there
are, and each is judged according to their actions. The object
of the parable here was the 10 pounds, and the meaning of the
10 pounds is, it's kind of used as a monetary symbol here, allegory,
and it's really an arbitrary term to represent a spiritual
truth, and the amount isn't really material. the pounds spiritually
to the church is simply a term representing the gospel, the
good news that Jesus came to seek and save His people from
their sins. He just came to seek and save
that which was lost. And He would be departing soon
after finishing the work of redemption placed in His keeping from the
foundation of the world. And the mission of the disciples,
the church, was to go forth, and Matthew tells us in chapter
28, go forth, preach the gospel to all nations, every people.
And so that's the method that God has determined that His good
news would go out. He was sovereign. He could do
it however He wanted, but He chose by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. 1 Corinthians 1.21 tells us that,
For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. How opposite. How we would do
things in our earthly sense. How we would set things up. He
says, I'm just going to have people go out and tell the good
news that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture.
This is the method that God chose, the method of delivering the
good news by those who actually have experienced it. You know,
people that haven't experienced a new birth can't really tell
anybody about it. It's a plain. It's plain. They
don't know anything about it. The good news that Christ died
for our sins in our place, the good news that the Holy Spirit
brings to life in everyone who is ordained to eternal life and
caused to believe. Isn't that what it tells us in
Acts 13, 48? As many as were ordained to eternal
life And there are certain key words and thoughts contained
in the words delivered by Jesus to the disciples. In verse 13
he said, he called his ten servants and delivered them ten pounds
and said unto them, Occupy till I come and so the
servants were given or delivered ten pounds each each one a pound
Each had the same each given the same instructions and deliver
here in this verse indicates something that was given and
It was it's also used in first Corinthians, and it involves
entrusting someone with something it's a variation of the same
word it's a I'm not all that up on Greek stuff, but it's the
same base root word there. In what Paul said in 1 Corinthians
15-3, he says, I delivered unto you first of all that which I
also received, how Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures. Jesus said in John 17-8, for I have given It's the same word here. It's
called given. I have given unto them the words which thou gavest
me. Thou gavest is the same exact
word. So this same word we're here
looking at, delivered, is just translated in various different
ways. It means the same thing. They're given something that
they didn't have before. They're given something that
they didn't come up with on their own. They're given something,
and it's valuable, and they're entrusted with it. I have given unto them the words
which thou gavest me, is what Jesus said. And they have received
them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they
have believed that thou didst send me." John 17, verse 8. So
the instruction is, occupy till I come. And this occupy from
the Greek is pragmataomai, is where we get the word pragmatism
or pragmatic from in our English language. It means to busy oneself
with, and it's rooted in the word which indicates a deed or
a practice that's performed repeatedly or habitually. So, occupy till
I come means, busy yourself with, the gospel. Busy yourself with
this and perform it repeatedly and habitually. This English
word that we get, pragmatic, now has a meaning of practical
or realistic as opposed to merely theoretical. one who is practical
and focused on reaching a goal. So it kind of has some connection
to the old meaning, but it's really instruction from God.
It says, be busy about what I've given you. Be busy about the
gospel. make it habitually what you do.
Make it perform repeatedly or habitually. So the gospel then is to be the
object of our focus, the thing with which we busy ourselves,
the thing with which we've been entrusted with, the very thing
that was given to us that was used by the Spirit of God to
breathe in us the breath of life. And we can only do that. That's
what we can only do. We can only sow the seed, as
we refer back to our lesson in Luke on the parable of the sower.
We can only sow the seed, the whole seed. I was very interested
here when I was kind of looking into that a little bit, because
when we went to Hepner last week, hunting and stuff, we go up through
Arlington and then I cut across to Heppner and and you just go
across thousands and thousands and thousands of acres of wheat
and Man, they sew that right up to the pavement And they just
go around the pole. I wanted to look that up and
see how they because those seed drills are like humongous things
and that and the tractors in the middle how they how they
steer that around those poles and obstacles and things and
and it was like right up to the pavement. They took advantage
of every inch to sow that seed. And you know, it's interesting
that if you take a wheat seed and you cut it in half, it won't
germinate. It won't. You cut the embryo in half and
it's dead. It has no value. So, we sow the
whole seed wherever we can, whenever we can. We leave the preparation
of the ground to the Holy Spirit. We're commanded to sow that seed,
to busy ourselves with that same gospel, to occupy till He comes. It's so important that we just
stick with the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth
of the gospel. And the next thing that we find
of importance here is the results from this and where they are
derived. The servants, again, are broken
down into two categories. It came to pass when He was returned
in Luke 19.15 that when He was returned having received the
kingdom, then He commanded these servants to be called unto Him
whom He had given the money that He might know how much every
man had gained by trading. So the key words to the servants
there in verse 16, the first came saying, thy pound hath gained
ten pounds." It was not, hey, here's what I did with your pound.
I did this with it and I did that with it. It's a thy pound. I was just a messenger of it. I was just a bearer of it. Thy
pound hath gained ten pounds. The Lord's gospel gained the
ten pounds, not I gained you ten pounds with my work and my
performance, my efforts. You know, a kernel of wheat sown
produces as much as 50 kernels in the head. Isn't that interesting? There's as many as 17,000 kernels
in a pound. And one of our previous lessons,
we briefly kind of went over how the average, back when we
did that lesson, I think the average yield for an acre was
65 bushels in Oregon. And I can't remember how many
hundred thousand million bushels that Oregon produces and how
many loaves of bread can be made out of one bushel. It's in the
millions. It's just a staggering amount.
So thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And you know the same
with the second servant. Thy pound hath gained five pounds.
And we note it's not the quantity gained, but the servant had been
faithful, been busy with what had been entrusted to him. It's
not up to him how much he gains. It's not up to him the quantity
of the fruit that he produces. It's up to the Lord God Almighty.
Just our duty is, we've got like half a million sermons on Sermon
Audio, and if not one person comes to believe God, we've done
what we could do. We've sown the seed. We've delivered
the Word intact without taking anything, without cutting the
seed in half. without doing anything unworthy or untrustworthy with
it, we leave the results up to God. And that's the way it is
here. And we find that same application
in Luke and Mark in the, so are they which, these are they which
are sown on good ground, such as hear the word and receive
it and bring forth some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.
It's not a pempty if you're the one that only brings in 30, or
you're the one that brings in 60, or extra reward if you're
the one that brings in 100. It's all according to God's purpose.
And all we're responsible for is being faithful in delivering
that gospel, delivering that seed, sowing that seed. We sow
the seed and then leave it up to God. And importantly though,
again, the Gospel must be delivered intact, undiluted, undivided,
the whole seed. Remember we mentioned that you
whack that wheat seed in half? It's of no value. You take part of the Gospel out? You've ruined it. There's of
no value there. Acts 20 27 says I've not shunned
to declare unto you all the counsel of God Take heed therefore unto
yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has
made you overseers to feed the church of God which he hath purchased
with his own blood not as That doesn't mean, well, we sit in
a meeting somewhere and say, well, we don't think we should
be telling them this, or we don't think we should be telling them
that. These doctrines are too high for the people. We can't
tell them about election. We can't tell them about sovereign
grace. So, we don't do that. We throw all the Word of God
out there And we let God take care of the results of it. To
these servants who faithfully received the gospel and then
shared it as liberally as they were able, the ruler said, well,
thou good servant, because thou has been faithful in very little.
Isn't that interesting? You know, God does everything
from start to finish. He says, actually, your part
of it was very little. But it was key. It was what I
chose. God said it's what I chose, how
to deliver the gospel good news to my sheep. Thou has been faithful
in a very little, and it's not a derogatory term. It's another
one of those, as Norm said, terms of endearment. Have thou authority
over ten cities. He was very pleased. And to the
one that gave five pounds, thou has been faithful as well. Have
thou authority over five cities. And now we come to the wicked
servant. The one who was equally entrusted
with the same gospel, the same pound, and yet viewed the Master
in an entirely different way and treated the gospel in an
entirely different way. In verse 20 says, another came
saying, Lord behold, here's thy pound which I've kept laid up
in a napkin. There really wasn't any respect
for the Lord nor the pound. The seed wasn't really sown at
all. I covered it with a napkin, supposedly to keep it safe. Really
it was because I had no faith in your pound gaining. And in
that, what we find in religion, they don't really have any faith
in God's Word, the Gospel, having any effect. So we have to do
all these emotional things and psychological things to try to
make it more effectual to replace the work that the Holy Spirit
does because we don't have faith that He will do what He said
He would do. So, I had no faith in your pound gaining. There
are parts that I don't really agree with. I covered those with
a napkin. I remember asking a pastor one
time, explain Ephesians 1 to me. And he says, oh, that's a
high matter. And he covered it with a napkin,
saying it was not necessary for the gospel, not necessary for
me to see it or understand it. I said, well, why does it do
it in the Bible? It's right here on this page. Just leave it alone. It's not
for you. covered it with that napkin. In Jerusalem, the disciples
would come head on with Jews who had for centuries been entrusted
with a pound of the gospel, and yet relegated it to a mere supposed
ability to keep the law, or works for salvation, who were tasked
with, occupy till I come. but who didn't see the gospel
and therefore couldn't busy themselves with the preaching of it. They
couldn't see Christ. They didn't see the gospel. It's
just the more we go through the Old Testament, Norm's lessons
and sermons and Zechariah and Numbers and all the ones that
he'd been going through the Old Testament for years and years
and years. Christ on every page. He's everywhere. As he said to
those in Luke, he explained to them in all the scriptures the
things concerning himself, not just the ones where you might
have a little star by your verse that says, oh, here's a messianic
prophecy. that it is, but all the things
leading up to it talk about Christ. All the things in every page
tell us something about the Lord. So they're going to be up against
these ones who we're tasked with occupying until He comes, but
we're those wicked servants. You know, the Lord says, you
don't enter in yourselves, and you hinder those that would enter
in. That's what you're doing. You're
like whited sepulchers. And so He says unto them that
stood by in verse 24, Take away from him the pound, and give
it to him that hath ten pounds. And they said, Man, he's already
got ten pounds. What's he need another one? And
the Lord says, I say unto you that to everyone which hath shall
be given. You're faithful in a few things,
I'll give you more. And from him that hath not, He
seemingly had, but He didn't have. He had the words, He had
the writing, but He didn't have the Spirit. He that hath not,
even that that He hath. What he seemingly has shall be
taken away. And that's what we find in religion.
They seem like they have the gospel. They seem like they say
some of the right words. They seem like they have something,
but in reality, they don't. Even that shall be taken away
from them in the end. He that is faithful in that which
is least is faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in
the least is unjust also in much. And so lastly, we come to this
final class of people here in our last few minutes, the citizens,
the polities they're called in the Greek. They hated Him. They
hated Him for no cause. In the case of Archelaus, they
had plenty of cause. 3,000 of them got killed at a
protest. But in Jesus, they hated Him
without a cause. In John chapter 15, if you'd
take time to read that when you have a moment, he says, And His command is, occupy till
I come. Distribute the gospel. And He
says, so henceforth I call you not servants. Remember they're
called servants in this chapter, but later on He says, I'm not
calling you servants anymore, I'm calling you friends. For
the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I called
you friends. For all things that I have heard
of my Father I have made known unto you. I've given you the
10 pounds. You've not chosen me, but I've
chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth
fruit. Some 10, some 20, some 30, some
40, some 5 pounds, some 10 pounds. and that your fruit should remain.
And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he may give
it you. These things have I commanded you, that ye love one another."
And he goes on down to the end and he says, be aware you're
going to Jerusalem. They're supposed to occupy until
I come. If they've not, they've been the wicked servant. They've
hated me without a cause. If they hate me, they're going
to hate you. So heads up, be warned. Don't be surprised by
that. He that hateth me also hateth
my father also, if I had not done among them the works which
none other man did. They had not known sin, but now
they have both seen and hated both me and my father. But this
has come to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written
in their law. They hated me without a cause.
Psalm 69, 4. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of my head. They that would destroy
me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away. will not have this man to reign
over us. You know, that's just the state that we're all in from
the natural birth, and there we will remain unless there is
a new birth from above. You know, there's a class of
people for whom the Lord did not lay down His life for ransom.
There's a class of persons who under no circumstance will have
this man to reign over them, and Jesus calls them mine enemies. Those mine enemies, which would
not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them
before me." That's serious business. The only difference is eternal
electing love. And, you know, that's talked
about as long-suffering. What if God, with much longsuffering,
endured the vessels of wrath, those that He calls mine enemies,
that He might make known the riches of His grace, His glory,
on the vessels of mercy which He had prepared unto glory? There's the difference. There's
the servants. entrusted with the gospel, and
there's the wicked servants that have it in word only. Like it
says in Thessalonians, the gospel came to you not in word only,
but in power and the Holy Spirit. So we'll close there, and next
time we go to Bethphage and Bethany as the Lord enters the outskirts
of Jerusalem, prepares for the triumphal entry, and all the
things that attend that. So until next time, thank you
for your attention. Be free.