This week, we are addressing another distorted view
of God that flows from a distorted perception and assumption about God and that
can result in us shaping and molding God into our image. This distorted view of
God is the view of God as a sweet old man. This view of God is that of a God
that is out of touch, over the hill, out dated, overrated, and unconnected to
the world we live.
Because God is old, we do not worry about the
constant, daily, annoying presence of God; we can see Him like our
grandparents, whenever we want to. We can go visit with sweet old God at Christmas
or Easter. We can remember Him at our meals. And because God is old, He may
have created this world, but He certainly doesn’t understand it anymore.
However, to view God as a sweet old man who cannot
relate to and who has little or nothing to do with the world we live in today
is a distorted view of God. We see this reality revealed in a section of an account
of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of Luke.
And it is in this section of this account of Jesus
life that we discover a timeless truth that can help us rid ourselves of the
distorted view of God as a sweet old man and replace it with an accurate view
of God that will enable us to experience a growing relationship with God. So
let’s jump into this section of the gospel of Luke together, beginning in Luke
19:11:
While they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately. 12 So He said, "A nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and then return. 13 "And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas and said to them, 'Do business with this until I come back.'
Now, to understand what is happening in this event from
history, we first need to understand the context in which this event from
history took place. At this point is the gospel of Luke, Jesus was headed to
Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, which commemorated God’s deliverance of
the Jewish people from slavery at the hands of the nation of Egypt. Most
scholars and historians believe that this event from history occurred within two
weeks of Jesus arrest.
On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus passed through the city of
Jericho, where He encountered a man named Zaccheus. Jesus invited Zaccheus, who was an outsider
who was small in stature physically and in the eyes of the community, to
experience life with Jesus. Zaccheus heart was changed as a
result of Jesus offer to hang out and enter into relationship with him. And
Zaccheus change of heart resulted in a change of the trajectory of his life
that was moving away from God back to God.
Jesus responded to Zaccheus change of heart by revealing
the reality that as the Son of Man, He came to seek and save the lost. In other
words Jesus came to seek and bring back to relationship with God those who were
outsiders that were far from God and had been lost as a result of their
selfishness and rebellion. As the Son of Man, Jesus came on a mission to rescue
from eternal separation from God and bring back to God those who were outsiders
that were far from God as a result of their selfishness and rebellion through
His life, death, and resurrection.
Luke then explained that, as a result of Jesus
identifying Himself as the Son of Man, which was a reference to the Messiah
that the prophet Daniel had predicted and proclaimed over 500 years earlier who
would come to usher in the kingdom of God here on earth, His disciples wondered
if Jesus was going to Jerusalem in order to fulfill the promise that the
Prophet Daniel proclaimed to usher in the kingdom of God here on earth. In
other words, the disciples were wondering if the kingdom of God would arrive on
earth upon Jesus and their arrival in Jerusalem.
Luke tells us that Jesus responded to what the disciples
were wondering by telling a parable. Now a parable is an
earthly story that reveals a deeper spiritual truth. In this parable, Jesus
explained that a nobleman went to a
distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and then return. In other words, a nobleman who was to be
king was going to travel to great distance in order that he could be crowned
king. After being crowned king, the king would then return from his trip to
rule as king.
However, the distant trip to be crowned king would result
in the nobleman being absent for a significant period of time. And because of
that reality, Jesus explained that the nobleman called ten of his slaves, and
gave them one mina each and said to them, 'Do business with this until I come back'.
Now in the Jewish culture of the first century, a mina was the equivalent of
four months wages. So each slave was given four months wages by the nobleman
who was to become king and was given the responsibility to take care of the
business of the future king's kingdom until the he returned as king.
What is interesting is that
the phrase "Do business" conveys the sense of making a profit. You
see, the nobleman's expectation was that his slaves would take the resources
and responsibilities that they had been given and leverage them in a way that
would advance the kingdom of the future king in his absence, so that when the
nobleman returned as king, his kingdom would have expanded to a greater degree
than when he had left.
Upon giving each servant the
same amount of resources and responsibilities to advance his future kingdom in
his absence, the nobleman left on his long journey to be crowned king. Jesus
the reveals what happened during the nobleman and future king's absence in
verse 14-15:
"But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We do not want this man to reign over us.' 15 "When he returned, after receiving the kingdom, he ordered that these slaves, to whom he had given the money, be called to him so that he might know what business they had done.
Jesus explained that while the nobleman was away from his
future kingdom to be crowned as king, the citizens of his future kingdom sent a
delegation after him to deliver a message to the future king. And that message,
if it was communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have
sounded like this "We don't want you to be king over us so don't bother
coming back. We always have hated you and we always will hate you and never
wanted you around. So just stay where you are and don't come back because we
will not accept your rule and authority over us".
However, despite the response of his citizens to his
becoming king, the nobleman, after becoming king, returned to his new kingdom.
And upon his return, the new king called for the ten slaves to appear before
him to explain how they had done when it came to leveraging the resources and responsibilities they had been given in
his absence.
The new king wanted to know
how faithful each of the slaves had been when it came to the responsibility
they had been given to invest the resources they had been given in a way that
expanded and advanced his kingdom. Jesus then revealed how the first slave had
done with the resources and responsibility that he had been given in verse
16-17:
16 "The first appeared,
saying, 'Master, your mina has made ten minas more.' 17 "And he said to him, 'Well done, good slave,
because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten cities.'
Jesus explained that the first servant had taken the one
mina that he had been given and turned it into ten minas. In other words, the
servants faithfulness in fulfilling the responsibilities that he had been given
resulted in a 1,000 percent profit for the king and his kingdom. But this
morning, did you notice the king's response? " Because you have been
faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten
cities."
The slave's faithfulness
in his responsibilities prior to the new king's return resulted in the
king giving him corresponding responsibilities in the new kingdom. You see, the
slave had demonstrated his faithfulness while the king was absent. And because
of his faithfulness while the king was absent, the slave would be entrusted
with greater responsibility in the new king's kingdom. Jesus then revealed how the second slave had done with the resources
and responsibility that he had been given in verse 18-19:
"The second came, saying, 'Your mina,
master, has made five minas.' 19 "And he said to him also, 'And you are to be over five
cities.'
Jesus explained that the second slave had taken the one
mina that he had been given and turned it into five minas. In other words, the servant’s
faithfulness in fulfilling the responsibilities that he had been given resulted
in a 500 percent profit for the king and his kingdom. The new king responded to
the slave’s faithfulness by giving the slave authority over five cities. The
slave's faithfulness in his responsibilities prior to the new king's return
resulted in the king giving him corresponding responsibilities in the new
kingdom.
The slave had demonstrated a level of faithfulness and
responsibility while the king was absent. And because of that level of
faithfulness while the king was absent, the slave would be entrusted with a
corresponding level of responsibility in the new king's kingdom. Jesus then revealed how another slave had
done with the resources and responsibility that he had been given.
Friday, we will discover hoe
the slave had done and discover a timeless truth about God…
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