Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: You know, we don't know how many years the Lord will give each of us here, but we've got the time that's before us. We've we've got the gifts that he's given, and here's the thing, we need to take hold of the opportunity to serve him and to honor him and to make disciples and to get the good news out while we can. That's why we're here.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Encara the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths. I'm Steve Hiller. Glad you're with us today. And Jonathan, you know, I I've heard the question posed before. I'm sure you have as well. Why doesn't God take us to heaven once we're saved? You know, we've been redeemed. We now are in a relationship with him. But based on what you just said right there, it sounds like, well, he's left us here because he has work for us to do. He has given us assignment to go and make disciples and to share the gospel while we still can.

Jonathan Griffiths: In his great wisdom, he has done precisely that. He's left us here on earth. He's given us opportunities and resources, and he's given us a work to do. And he expects us to get on with it, to be fruitful, to be joyfully engaged in that work and in the power of his Holy Spirit. And I think we just need regular reminders of that as Christian people that God has work for us to do, and he has given us the resources to enable us to do that work. I think sometimes we can lose sight of that.

We can become discouraged and we can become distracted. But the reminder is such a help to us, and I trust it will be to each one listening today as we think about waiting well for the Lord's return, serving him faithfully in the time before his coming.

Steve Hiller: Well, let's look at that together. Grab your Bible. Join us in the book of Luke. We're in chapter 19 and looking at verses 11 to 27 as we continue how to wait well for the Lord's return. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: Let me invite you just to take a little audit even now, just a little audit of your life for a moment and and ask the question, ask it of yourself, what is the Lord entrusted to me? What is the Lord entrusted to me for this time while he is away and I am here about his business? What are the resources he has given me to use for his kingdom and his work? I wonder how you begin to answer that question as you ponder it even now. You know, maybe the Lord has given you special gifts, special abilities.

Maybe you are particularly gifted in administration or in hospitality or or in in coming alongside others and being a practical help to them in times of need. Maybe you've been gifted as a Bible teacher, as an encourager. Maybe you have a gift in music or in other kinds of useful areas that are helpful for kingdom work. Well, the Lord has gifted you. He's left that gift with you as a stewardship and as a trust. What are you doing with it? What are you doing with it? How are you putting it to use? Maybe the Lord has gifted you in this season of life with the gift of time.

You have time. You know, maybe you've retired, tired a little early and you've still got health. You've got energy. Or you're at home, but you know, the kids have gone off to college or have moved away and you you've suddenly got some new spare capacity that you didn't use to have. Or you're a student and you have a long summer break before you. Okay, well, the time that you have is a gift from the Lord. It is a stewardship. How are you going to use it? How are you going to invest it? And then of course, our material assets, our finances, our resources.

That's the category, isn't it? That's most natural to the parable. I mean, the 10 minus the money left by the nobleman. This is the most obvious thing to think about. Well, maybe the Lord has entrusted you with a special stewardship of this kind. To some extent, he's entrusted all of us with a stewardship of this. We all have possessions we hold in trust. Maybe it's money. You've been blessed in that way. Perhaps perhaps you've got a good home that can be used for hospitality and to help others. Or perhaps you have a second home that could be useful for the kingdom and for the people of God.

Maybe you have other resources of other kinds, equipment, tools, vehicles, and goods. None of these things. I mean, remember, none of them belongs to us personally, of course, not in the final sense. The Lord has left them in our hands for a short time. They are a stewardship from him. They are a trust. What are you doing with them? How are you investing those things and how am I for the master's work, for the king's agenda, for his great domain? It's helpful, isn't it? It's helpful for us to be reminded that we will have to give an account at the final day for our stewardship when the Lord Jesus Christ returns.

On on that day when we stand before him, will he be pleased with our industry? Will he command our faithfulness? See, the Lord, he gives us opportunity to make the most of what he's entrusted to us. And it's clear it's clear from the parable, he really wants us to go for it. I mean, he wants us to be industrial with the help and the leading of his Holy Spirit. The language is entrepreneurial, isn't it? Unavoidably so. Engage in business. I mean, start something, do something, be enterprising. You know, we don't know how how many years the Lord will give each of us here, but but we know we we've got the time that's before us.

We've we've got the gifts that he's given. And here's the thing, we need to take hold of the opportunity to serve him and to honor him and to make disciples and to get the good news out while we can. That's why we're here. It's so easy, isn't it? I think it's so easy for us to lose focus a little bit, to lack drive and energy, to shy away from from risk. But that's what I love about this parable. Jesus is telling us, you know, get out there and get on with it. And church history is just full of wonderful stories of believers who did that that very thing.

I mentioned some weeks ago the story of C. T. Stud, who in the 19th century gave up a life of privilege and wealth in England and a actually a bright future career as a cricketer in order to serve as a missionary in China and later in Africa. He had lots of quotable quotes, Stud, but he once declared that Christ, and I quote, wants not nibblers of the possible, but grabbers of the impossible by faith in the omnipotence, fidelity, and wisdom of the almighty Savior. In other words, the Lord wants people who will be ambitious for the kingdom, who will strive for a great return on the Lord's gifts.

And and Stud's life it exemplified that. But you know, we might think back another couple hundred years to the father of modern missions to William Carey, who through his writing inspired the founding of the early mission agencies in the UK and the USA and who went as a missionary to India at the end of the 18th century. He was a gifted linguist and intellectual. And he gave himself to the translation of the Bible actually to a number of important languages and dialects for India. And and so in the end, he gave the gift of the Bible to that great land.

And he had a profound and lasting impact there for the gospel. Carey is credited with saying that we ought to attempt great things for God and expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God, expect great things from God. Well, Carey, he attempted great things. He he used the gifts entrusted to him, and God did accomplish a very wonderful things. There was a huge return. And actually through his legacy, there continues to be a huge return from that investment of his gifts even today. Well, friends, are we those? Are you one who is attempting great things for God with what he's entrusted to you and expecting that God might do wonderful things with your life and with your gifts offered back up to him for his service.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Encara the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths and a message called How to Wait Well for the Lord's Return. If you ever miss a program in our series, you can always come and listen online. Our website is encarathetruth.org. There we can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. You can also listen if you have the Encara the Truth app. You'll find that for free at your app store. That's a great way to stay connected with Jonathan's teaching when you're on the go. So again, look for the Encara the Truth app at your app store or come and listen online at encarathetruth.org.

Well, if you happen to join us a little bit late, we're in the book of Luke chapter 19 focusing on verses 11 to 27 a day. So grab your Bible and join us there. Back to the message. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: The first profile Jesus gives us is of a life marked by industry, the fruitful and the faithful servant. The next profile he gives us is of a life marked by inactivity. Inactivity, at least when it comes to the matter of stewardship. Returning king, he's calling his servants before him. And the first two reports, they've been fantastic. They've been just wonderful. But now comes the next one. Very different picture. Verse 20. Then another came saying, Lord, here is here's your here's your minor, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you because you are a severe man.

You take what you did not deposit and you reap what you did not sow. It's a very very sorry scene. It's a pathetic portrait. The servant, he's got nothing nothing to show for himself except for the very minor that was left in his care. It's been wrapped up in a handkerchief of all things, stuffed under the bed, and now it reemerges after all this time and you know, simply just handed handed back. The the servant has been nothing more than a rather ineffective safe deposit box. He's achieved nothing beyond the simple fact that he didn't lose the minor.

Now, to try and help himself through this rather awkward moment, he kind of grasps for an excuse and he does his best in the end to blame the king himself for this failure in stewardship. He he said he was afraid of the king, you know, because he's a harsh and an unreasonable man and he didn't want to get in trouble for losing the minor. So he just hid it away and did nothing with it. It seemed like the only thing to do. It's a very lame excuse. Even if it were true, it's pathetic. But we don't glean anywhere else in the account that the king is actually harsh like this.

And actually to his servants who are faithful, he shows immense generosity, doesn't he? And honor. So the whole thing it's it's profoundly unconvincing. And the king himself, well, he's unimpressed. He doesn't bother to fight the unproductive servant on the matter of the character assassination. He just lets that slide. But he has very hard words for him in verse 22. He said to him, I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant. Now, that's a pretty scary way to start before the king. When the king says, I will condemn you, that's a fearful thing to hear.

And then to be called a wicked servant in utter contrast to the faithful servant who just came by, that's unsettling. You knew that I was a severe man, did you, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? Why then did you not put my money in the bank and at my coming I might have at least collected it with interest? Why didn't you do something even modest, something risk-free, but something with what I entrusted to you? You you could have invested some small amount of money in world missions, couldn't you?

You could have given a few hours to serve the people of God. You could have made some effort, couldn't you have to share the gospel? But nothing? I mean, nothing? You did nothing. And he said to those who stood by, take the minor from him and give it to the one who has 10 minors. And they said to him, Lord, he 's got 10 minors. I tell you that to everyone who has more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. The servant is left with nothing.

It's not that he doesn't get a city to rule. No, not even that. He loses his minor. He has nothing for the future, no responsibility, no opportunity, nothing. Now, we might have thought that the king would view the inactive and unproductive servant as disappointing. But notice the strength of his reply. It's far more than that. This servant is wicked and is condemned by his words, and he even loses what he has. It is a strong response. It's stronger than we might have anticipated, I think. But here's the thing, the king is profoundly displeased by inactivity among his servants.

He hates to see a gift wasted. Well, what are we to make of this sad scene, this rather pathetic profile? Well, here is someone who identifies as a servant of the king. He's given a stewardship and he refuses to do anything useful with it. He he tucks it away under the mattress and he gets on with his own concerns. It's worth saying he may well have been busy in life in other ways. He may well have been busy with his family concerns, with his social life, with his other hobbies and interests. He he may lead a very busy and active life on one level when it comes to his personal pursuits.

But when it comes to the Lord's business, here's the thing, he is completely inactive. I mean, there's no sign of involvement in the Lord's work. There's no sign of employing his God-given gifts. There's no sign of investing the Lord's funds in the work of the kingdom. Oh yes, he's in church on on Sunday or at least a couple of Sundays a month, you know. And if he misses one, he might even watch online at some point during the week. He's he's not completely disappeared. He hasn't stopped calling himself. She hasn't stopped calling herself a servant of the king.

But there's no sign of industry, of service, of investment, of fruitfulness. I wonder if you know anyone like that. I wonder if the profile perhaps sounds just a little too familiar. I guess it describes more church-going people than we might like to admit. I guess the description matches more lives than we might care to acknowledge. But Jesus, he he paints the picture and he tells the story for a reason. He tells it because it's a wake-up call and and it's a warning and it is a spur to action. Now, I I should say that there is some debate among the commentators as to whether this servant actually represents a genuine Christian believer.

I wonder if you thought about that as we've been looking at it. It 's an interesting question. I mean, on the one hand, he is called a a servant, and that's different from the rebellious citizens we meet in this story, and we 're going to come to them in a moment. This servant, he he he loses his responsibilities in the end, but he isn't slaughtered along with the king's enemies. That's significant. But at the same time, the the the king, he does call this servant wicked. And in the way that this servant speaks of the king, he barely seems to know him for who he is.

In the end, maybe this is a picture of a believer who is just saved, but saved as through fire to use Paul's language that he employs elsewhere. Maybe maybe that's it. Maybe we don't need to pin it down too closely from the parable. But but but I think we can all see that Jesus wants us to take this servant as a warning. And he wants us to ask the very hard question. He wants us to ask, is there any danger that the Lord Jesus Christ, when he comes again, will look at my use of his gifts and say there's been no productivity, no fruitfulness, no return?

Is there any danger of that? If there is any danger of that, what needs to change in my life even now? What needs to change with some intention and with real urgency? For some, waiting is marked by industry, by faithful investment. For others, it is marked by inactivity. But worse than that, for some, the time of waiting is marked by sheer insurrection. As soon as the nobleman leaves home, his enemies start to rise up and express their disdain for him. And they make plans to undermine his rule before ever he returns. They don't want him as king.

In fact, they they don't want him back at all. But his citizens hated him, we read, and sent a delegation after him saying, we do not want this man to reign over us. While the nobleman is away receiving his kingdom, the citizens of the territory club together to overturn his rule before it ever begins. They despise him. They do not want to be subject to him, and they don't mind saying so very openly. I wonder if it's ever struck you how very strange it is that so many citizens of this world hate and despise the Lord Jesus Christ.

Wherever you go, all around the world, his name is misused. His word is disdained. His reputation is derided. His rule is actively rejected. It's a full-on global insurrection against the coming king. We see it all around us every day, don't we? It is the way in which so many in this world around us are passing the time between Jesus's ascension on high and his return in glory. Now, Jesus knew all about that. He predicted it. None of it is a surprise to him. But we need to take note of the fact that he not only predicted the insurrection, but he articulated what would be his response upon his return.

Notice it with me verse 27. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me. While the nobleman is away being crowned, his enemies feel that they can just get away with this outright rebellion. They feel emboldened. They feel there will be no consequences to this rebellion. It's all they can do what they like. They can treat the king as they please. And that's true today, of course, isn't it? We see it all around us. And and I I I have no idea, but it may be true even in your life.

You're here. You're listening. You're doing so out of politeness to a friend or out of some degree of curiosity. But in truth, you do not want the Lord Jesus Christ reigning over you. Oh no. You are opposed to him in your heart of hearts. Well, if that's the case with you and I have no idea, please know this, the Lord Jesus Christ will not allow the insurrection to go on indefinitely. It will come to an end. And he will judge the rebel and the law breaker. There will be a dreadful day on which the sword of judgment will fall.

It's often been observed that in the skyline of the great city of London at the across two parts of the skyline not far from one another, there are two very significant symbols related one to another. Over the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court, there is a gold statue of Lady Justice. She holds scales in one hand and the sword of Justice in the other. That's one important symbol. But not far from the Old Bailey, atop St. Paul's Cathedral, there stands another symbol, yes, of Justice, but also of mercy, the cross of Christ. And for those who face the sword of Justice that is perched above the courts of Justice, for those who are currently caught up in the insurrection and who have caused to fear the return of the king, for you, if that's your situation today, here is the hope you may have.

The king who is to return first hung upon the cross for you and for me. And he paid there the price of our rebellion, our sin. He died that we might be forgiven. He was quite literally, to use the language of our passage, slaughtered. He was slaughtered, dying the rebel's death so that you and I might be spared. If you're caught up in the insurrection today, let me urge you, would you look by faith to the cross of Christ, to that other symbol of Justice and of mercy? Would you receive his forgiveness and would you bow the knee to the king who will soon come again?

Three postures for waiting, three ways to wait, three profiles, a waiting marked by industry, a waiting marked by inactivity, and a waiting marked by insurrection. Where are you in these three? Where do you see yourself today? And what is the personal response of heart that you need to make even today as we await the return of the king?

Steve Hiller: Jonathan Griffiths wrapping up our message entitled How to Wait Well for the Lord Return, part of our series, Cash, Christ, and the Kingdom. And if you ever miss a broadcast in the series, come and listen online. You can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. Our website is encarathetruth.org. Well, Encara the Truth is a listener-supported ministry. That's exactly what it sounds like. It is your giving, your generosity that allows us to continue to bring you Jonathan's teaching each day. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a book entitled Gentle and Lowly.

It's written by Dane Ortlund. And Jonathan, why did you pick this book?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, Steve, I picked it because I loved it and because I found it so personally helpful. And it's a book I want every Christian to read, and I've been encouraging our friends and family to read it. Uh it's it's a delightful book that really looks at the heart of God for sinners and sufferers, as the subtitle says. And and and it means what it says. Dane Ortlund in this delightful study really looks at God's disposition toward us and the way in which he has acted toward us in Christ. And it it busts some myths. I think we can feel that God's disposition toward us is harsh, unyielding, distant.

And Dane shows us that through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, God has come to us in grace and mercy and kindness. And he loves us deeply. And and he's not looking to catch us out. He's looking to pour out his grace in our lives, and we need to hear that. We need to hear it again and again. We need to be taught that. We need to be reminded of it. We need to believe it, and we need to live it. And this beautifully written study is such a help in doing that very thing.

And I hope everyone listening will get hold of a copy, will read it, and will be helped by it as I have been personally.

Steve Hiller: Well, we'd love to send you a copy of this book Gentle and Lowly is our way of saying thank you for your support this month. You can give online when you come to encarathetruth.org or call 1 833 99 Truth. That's 1 833 998 7884 or encarathetruth.org. You can also write us at Encara the Truth, P.O. Box 5513, Ottawa, Ontario K2C 3M1. Or in the US, at Encara the Truth, 215 North Arlington Heights Road, Suite 102, Arlington Heights, Illinois 60004. For Jonathan Griffiths and our producer Mark Brada, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time.