Responding to the King. Luke 19:11:27.

I wonder what your vision is

for a good life. For a good life. For

every one of us. I think that's a

question that we're we're answering

by the choices we make. We may or may

not be thinking about that question

consciously, but I think we're answering

it every day with the things that we are

choosing to do. So, here we are at the

beginning of 2026.

How are we going to live this year? How

are we going to live? What are our

expectations for 2026?

Our Christmas series looked at um

Christmas past and Christmas present and

Christmas yet to come. And here we are

living in Christmas present. Christmas

present. What should we expect? False

expectations can completely throw us off

course, can't they? Don't know if you

find that. I'm sure some of us had some

expectations regarding Christmas. And

maybe those expectations were a little

bit off the mark. Maybe you expected one

present that you were really hoping for,

but actually you got something else.

Perhaps you expected a turkey roast for

Christmas dinner and you actually got a

stuffed marrow,

which for me would be a pretty big

disappointment. I have to say some of

you that might be wonderful. Um, a long

long time ago, before we even had

children,

Katherine and I flew off for a a week's

holiday to the beautiful chain of

islands, the Moldes.

And we had booked, having no children,

we booked a quiet island with no

children allowed,

sandy beaches, an apartment on stilts

where you could go down the steps into

the clear waters below for for

snorkeling. Those were our expectations

for this holiday. When we arrived at the

airport, they explained there'd been a

mixup with the booking and it was over

booked. And they took us to an island

catering particularly for families.

with nightly karaoke. We had a room

overlooking a building site where they

were building more concrete rooms

between us and the sea. And there was

this massive disconnect between our

expectations and what actually happened,

which meant it wasn't a very happy start

to the holiday. Well, we're starting

back in our Luke series and Jesus is

telling a parable because the people

supposed that wasn't actually true. If

you've got a Bible, have a look in Luke

19 at verse 11. At the start of this

parable, Jesus says um or Luke says, "As

they heard these things, he Jesus

proceeded to tell a parable because he

was near to Jerusalem and because they

supposed the kingdom of God was to

appear immediately." So Jesus is he's on

his way to Jerusalem. This was a this

was a journey that actually started 10

chapters ago um back in Luke um nine I

guess or 10. And since then Jesus has

been he's been preaching the good news

of the kingdom. He's been driving out

demons. He's been cleansing lepers. He's

been giving sight to the blind. He's

been doing all sorts of incredible

things. And he's become famous. People

are getting to know who he is. And some

people are thinking this is it. The

Messiah has has come. The Romans are

going to be driven out. The occupation

by our enemies will end. Glory. Glory is

here. It's happening. It's now.

And Jesus wants to put them straight. So

he tells them this story. And he wants

to he wants to show them that the time

for glory is not yet. The time for glory

is not yet. and he wants to set their

expectations as to what the good life

looks like while they waited for glory.

And we need to have our expectations put

straight as well. Isn't Isn't it great

that we've we've got someone who can

tell us who we really are and how life

is really supposed to work? Isn't that

great that we have someone who can tell

us that? We don't we don't have to try

and work it all out for ourselves. We

don't have to be always wondering, "Have

I got it right? Have I have I

understood?" Because Jesus,

who's the creator of all things, he

holds this whole world together and he's

willing to give us the truth. Isn't that

fantastic? He's willing to give us the

truth. So, we're going to look at

Jesus's parable and what it shows for

the good life in in my first point,

faithful service. Faithful service.

As as Haley read this parable for us

earlier, I I wonder if you were

thinking, well, I don't get this at all.

I mean, what what what's going on?

You've got this nobleman, this kingdom,

some a word that I don't even know how

to pronounce. I was talking about that

with Haley. We we're going for miners.

It could be miners. We're not quite

sure. But what's going on? But Jesus's

audience, they would have got this quite

clearly because some years earlier,

Herod, who is the king of Judea, he had

to make the journey to Rome to have his

kingdom confirmed by the emperor in

Rome. And then he was going to come back

to he hoped to take up this this

kingdom. But the Jewish leaders had sent

a delegation after him to Rome to say to

the emperor, "We don't want this man to

be king. We do not want Herod to be

king." But in fact, Herod did have the

kingdom confirmed by the emperor in

Rome. And when he got back, he actually

did do a fair bit of killing of the

people who had opposed him. So, so the

audience in Jesus's day would have

thought, "Ah, yeah, we we get this. We

know what this we know where this story

has has come from. But but Jesus as he

tells this parable isn't talking

primarily about King Herod. He's talking

about himself. He's talking about

himself. Jesus is the one who's going to

pass through death to go into heaven,

the far country. And God the Father is

going to confirm that Jesus is the

rightful king over the whole earth. And

Jesus is going to return. He's going to

return. That's the second coming of

Jesus, which hasn't happened yet. That's

when the rule of King Jesus is going to

be seen in all of its glory. But that

time is not yet.

2,000 years ago, it wasn't the time.

And 2,000 years later, now it still

isn't the time. The the people of

Jesus's day expected that the Messiah

was going to establish this earthly

kingdom and overthrow the Romans and and

bring back the glory days of the the

ancient people of Israel. Well, we're

probably not expecting things like that

to happen like the people were back in

Jesus's day. But maybe maybe we are

expecting a sort of heaven on earth.

Maybe that's something we're expecting.

A life where everything works out well

and good deeds are always rewarded and

and those people who are doing evil

deeds are always brought to justice. We

can be expecting that maybe. Or maybe a

life where we can achieve all of our

goals and be and be happy and successful

and comfortable. Maybe that's what you

want for 2026. It's not a bad thing to

want, is it? But Jesus wants to correct

our expectations

because this is not yet the time for

happy ever after when when heaven

appears.

And so this is where these meaners come

into Jesus's parable

because in in Jesus's parable in the

story that he told the nobleman gives

this meina to each of 10 servants and I

think the best way to understand this is

10 is just the number of completeness.

It's just a bit is really just saying

the king has given a meina to all of his

servants. They all getting a meaner.

[snorts] And what is aina? Well, people

think that a meina is about the same as

£10,000.

[snorts] It's that sort of order of

magnitude. It's not a fortune, but it's

a fair sum to test whether the servants

are going to be faithful with what

they've been given. And all the servants

get the same. So, it's not that the

meaners represent different levels of

ability or different levels of

opportunity. You might think of a

similar parable, the parable of the

talents where people get different

amounts, but here everyone gets the same

and everyone gets a meaner and the

nobleman says, "Engage in business until

I come." So the servants are kind of

told, "Put what I've given you to good

use. Put what I've given you to good

use." And they could do that however

they wanted. The nobleman is not

specific about what they are to do. And

on his return, the nobleman's going to

see how they've see how they've done.

So if the nobleman represents Jesus,

what do the meaners represent? What are

these meaners for us? They represent

they represent life. They represent this

age of gospel opportunity that we have.

This is the time for faithful service.

life. Life is a gift. It's a gift. We

all receive a life. And Jesus is issuing

a call to all of us to use that life

faithfully.

So what does that look like? What does

it look like? Well, the great thing is

that there isn't something very specific

that we need to discover. We've we've

been given this amazing gift of a life.

we are to use it, but we've been given

this incredible freedom in how we are to

use it. We we don't have to try and

figure out some some secret plan that

God has for our lives and and always be

wondering if we've figured it out

correctly. And what happens if we

haven't quite figured it out right? We

don't have to do that.

What makes the difference is is our is

our attitude to the one who has given us

this gift. What's our attitude to the

one who's given us the gift? You can see

that in verse 16. So the first servant

is is called back to the nobleman

and he's made this incredible return.

So 10 times. So if he started with 100

thousand with 10,000, he's now made a h

100,000 profit from what the nobleman

has given him. But can you see what he

says? He's not he's not boasting about

it.

He's actually saying

he's acting as if the miner did all the

work. Really, the meaner got confused

now myself. We went for meaners. So,

it's almost as if he's saying, "Look,

Lord, I' I've been fruitful, but it's

only because of what you've given me.

It's not really down to me. It's it's

down to to you." He's not saying, "Well,

look, you can have your 10,000 back, but

I I made this. This is mine. I'm I'm

keeping the profit that I made." He He

recognizes that what he had was a gift

for the nobleman. It was a gift. And he

has used that gift wisely and

fruitfully.

So, so what could for us in 2026, what

could fruitfulness look like?

There's just there's just a million

different possibilities.

Growing in patience,

learning to learning to be content, be

being someone who encourages other

people and and builds them up, passing

on passing on the love of God to others,

not joining in in with rude jokes in the

office. not not being unkind and gossipy

about other people at school or in in

college.

Being a loving grandparent,

being an honest car salesman, committing

to meet with God's people, to pray. In

all of these ways and so many other

ways, we can take this gift of life

that's been given to us and we can use

it for the glory of the God who gave it

to us. [snorts]

And it won't always be easy.

It won't always go smoothly. But every

single little thing done for the Lord

for the growth of his kingdom in us or

the growth of his kingdom in other

people will bring about an increase. But

it's not because we're amazing. It's

because he's amazing. It's because he's

amazing.

So we can ask ourselves, well, where has

God placed me? Who who are the people

around me? What do I enjoy? What am I

good at? How can I seek to honor God as

I take advantage of these things? How

how can his kingdom grow in my life and

in the lives of those around me?

[snorts] And whatever we do, if we do it

for the Lord, it won't be in vain. It

won't be wasted.

And and these first servants had had

done incredibly well. And look how

generously

the nobleman rewards them. Look at what

he says. He says, you know, he says,

you've been faithful in a small amount.

I'm going to set you over 10 cities or

five cities. He's so generous in what he

gives.

But not all the servants do well. Not

all of them do well. So let's look in my

second point to unfaithful service.

Unfaithful service. [snorts]

Because the first servants, the first

two servants had done very well. But

what had the third servant done? He'd

taken the £10,000

and he'd hidden it in a handkerchief.

And verse 20, he'd hidden it in a

handkerchief. And he said to the

nobleman, when the nobleman comes back,

"Here you are. Here's your money back.

Here's what you gave me."

And that would have been bad enough in

itself. But he goes even further than

that. Can you see in verse 21 what he

says? He says, "I'm afraid of you.

you're severe. You're harsh.

You take what's not yours. He He

essentially accuses the nobleman of

being a thief. You take what's not

yours. And the thing that's such a

tragedy here is that it is such an

inaccurate view of the nobleman. He's

nothing like that. He's not like that at

all. He gave generously to his servants

in the first place. And the rewards that

he gave to those who were faithful were

amazing.

So the first servant gained this

100,000, the 10 meaners. And the Lord

said to him, I'm going to give you

responsibilities for 10 whole cities.

It's completely disproportionate if you

think about it to what he was given. And

and maybe he even got to keep the

100,000 even though it was a profit on

what he had been given in the first

place. The Lord was so generous.

But for this third servant,

the inaccurate way that he viewed the

nobleman totally changed the outcome for

him.

Do you see his life was ruled by fear,

by fear of what the nobleman was like

and what he would do. And if you look at

verse 23,

it seems that even if that servant had

done the very least thing of all, even

if it all he' done is taken the money to

the bank so that there would be some

interest, then it seems like that would

have been okay. The nobleman wouldn't

even have condemned him for doing so

little he would have received what was

his own with interest. It would have

been better than nothing.

So let me ask you, what's your view of

God? What is your view of God? Do you

see him as someone with with a permanent

scowl who dishes out the bare minimum

begrudgingly? Maybe someone like the

Ebenezer Scrooge, who we looked at at

the start of our Christmas series. Do Do

you think that life lived in the service

of Jesus the King is a wasted life?

Because nothing could be further from

the truth. Nothing could be further from

the truth. He gives generously. He

rewards extravagantly.

Don't waste your life because you

believe lies about God.

Let God speak for himself as to what

he's really really like. Let God

demonstrate to you what he's really

like.

Because God, he's not just the one

that's given us some some money to

invest as in the parable. He's the one

who's given us his son. He's given us

his son to pay the price for our sins.

This is beyond our wildest imaginations

of generosity.

We wouldn't dare to make this up, but

this is who God shows himself to be.

This is God's testimony as to his his

real character. The giving of Jesus is

the ultimate proof that God is generous

and merciful and kind and loving and

faithful.

And so we don't have to be afraid. We

can we can take the good gifts that God

gives us, the opportunities that we have

to live, to seek his kingdom, to and we

can be secure in our confidence that he

he won't condemn us, but he'll encourage

us for our efforts.

What is condemned in this parable is is

a complete refusal to seek to invest in

the work of the kingdom because of this

this blasphemous false understanding of

what God is like. That's what's

condemned.

Jesus said elsewhere, "Whoever gives

even a cup of cold water in my name will

by no means lose his reward."

But the unfaithful servant did nothing.

He did nothing with what he had been

given. He didn't even do something as

small as giving a cup of cold water. He

didn't even take his money to the bank

to earn some interest.

So I want I want to come back to this

third servant as we conclude. But before

we do that, can we let's look at the

third category of person in this

parable. My third point, the outright

rebellious. The outright rebellious.

Because you can see in verse 14 that

there are some citizens of the country

who are refusing the nobleman's rule as

king. And these people aren't they're

not described as servants at all. But

they are citizens.

The king is their king whether they like

it or not. But the citizens are

described as hating him as hating him.

and and remember that that in this

parable Jesus is the nobleman and it is

a sad reality that many people hate him.

Now we can hate him actively.

So we can deliberately choose to reject

his authority because we simply don't

want him to be Lord. There are some

people and I've met some I'm sure you

have too where even if you mention the

name Jesus they start to go red. There's

just the the very mention of the name

stirs up a rage. There's a very active

hatred of Jesus. But we can also hate

him passively. Have you thought about

that? We can hate Jesus very passively

just by ignoring him. Just by ignoring

him. Taking all his good gifts, life,

breath, family, friends, a home, food,

clothing, and using those gifts just to

serve ourselves. just for our benefit.

Some of you will have probably this

Christmas, some of you will probably

have been looked after by by other

people. So, someone else welcomed you

into their home perhaps and and fed you

and and perhaps gave you a present and

looked after you. Well, imagine if you

just completely ignored your hosts all

the time you were there. You completely

ignored them. You never once said thank

you. you never once acknowledged their

kindness, their hospitality. It would be

incredibly rude, wouldn't it? It would

be so rude. You're not trashing their

house. You're not smashing the place up,

but you're just acting as if they are

not there, as if they'd done nothing for

you at all. And that would still be a

form of hate, wouldn't it? If you acted

like that with someone who had invited

you into their house, it would be a form

of hate. just ignoring them, not being

grateful.

So like the citizens in this parable, we

can say we will not have this man to

reign over us. We can say that actively

with emotion. We can say it passively

just by looking away and doing our own

thing. We want we can want to be

independent. We can want to make our own

rules to be free to say for ourselves

what is right and what is wrong.

And if that's us,

then the words at the end of this

parable, they are a serious warning,

aren't they? Verse 27,

where Jesus says, "As for these enemies

of mine who did not want me to reign

over them, bring them here and slaughter

them before me." I mean, Haley Winster,

she said it, and we we find ourselves

thinking, I'm not I wish Jesus had said

something else. It's really strong,

isn't it? There's something in us that

that kind of shrinks back from from

those words and thinking, well, Jesus is

the nobleman. He's the one saying these

words.

But we we need to understand that

treason against King Jesus is a terrible

thing. It is a terrible thing.

We can be tempted to think we can be

good without God. We can be moral

people. We can live independent,

respectable lives. And surely God will

look favorably on us.

But but we need to remember that sin

against God is such a serious thing that

only the death of Jesus on the cross

could pay for it. It's the only way it

could be dealt with.

But right now we live in this this day

of opportunity, this day of grace. And

everyone who comes to Jesus, they will

find forgiveness. They will find mercy.

they will find a fresh, clean start. No

one is too far away. No one is too far

gone.

But for those who persist in the very

end to their rebellion against Jesus,

they will one day hear these terrible

words, "Depart from me. I never knew

you." "Depart from me. I never knew

you."

In order for God's name to be honored

and all evil to be dealt with and for

God's people to be brought safely into

his eternal kingdom, it's right and just

and good that everyone who rejects God's

king to the end will face his judgment.

Because those who reject Jesus are

rejecting the very mercy that God is

offering to those who are rebels.

They're rejecting the very way in which

they could be forgiven and brought back

into his family.

So like the people in Jesus's day, we

need to have our expectations straight.

We need to have our expectations

straight. There is work to be done. And

in a fallen world, that work will bring

frustrations,

disappointments, [snorts]

painful toil.

But work done for the Lord will always

be extravagantly rewarded. The reward

isn't heaven itself. Heaven is heaven is

a free gift provided for all who trust

in Jesus's death. But there will Jesus

clearly teaches there will be different

levels of reward in heaven based on our

faithfulness in our service to the Lord.

Not and not the smallest act will be in

vain. Heaven is the free gift but the

responsibility the rewards in heaven we

have opportunities to gain more or less.

And in in this parable Jesus told he's

he's presenting three different

scenarios, isn't it? which is quite

unusual because normally in Jesus's

parables there's only two, but here

there seem to be three. There are the

faithful servants.

They're grateful for what the Lord has

given them. They're eager to put it to

good use. They are being fruitful. And

if that's you, then be encouraged. Be

encouraged by the words of the Lord.

Keep going, good and faithful servant.

Don't give up. Your labor will not be in

vain.

Then there the there are the rebellious.

They they reject the Lord. They refuse

to repent and in the end they are

brought to face judgment. And if that's

you, let me clearly bring the same

warning that Jesus gives. Do not

continue to resist the rule of God's

appointed king. Don't do it. Come to him

and receive mercy.

But what about the unfaithful servant?

What about this person in in the middle?

How are we to understand this person? I

mean, could could he be [sighs] could he

be someone who who truly does believe in

the Lord? Could he be could this be a

Christian? But could someone who truly

believes in Jesus accuse God of wanting

something for nothing?

And Jesus does describe him as wicked.

So perhaps the unfaithful servant isn't

a believer at all in any sense. Or

perhaps he's just someone who's very

fearful and anxious, who barely does

anything to to demonstrate his faith in

the Lord. He although he's saved through

a weak faith in a in a strong savior, he

wastess opportunities for faithful

service and and loses some of the

rewards that would have been his in

heaven.

So perhaps you're sitting there

thinking,

is this me? Am am I the unfaithful

servant? Have Have I figured out what

God wants me to do?

But God's will for our life is not a

puzzle to be solved. It's not a puzzle

to be solved. What we need to know is

the character of the Lord. We need to

know the character of the Lord. He's

not, as the unfaithful servant believed,

harsh and exacting. He demanding much,

giving little. He's not like that.

He is the one who came not to be served,

but to serve and to give his life as a

ransom for many. He's the one who spoke

these wonderful words, "Come to me all

you who labor and are heavy laden, and I

will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, upon you, and

learn from me, for I am gentle in lowly

in heart, and you will find rest for

your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my

burden is light. This is who he is. And

and the good life in 2026 is following

this gentle savior. He loved you. He

gave his life for you. So let your life

be shaped by what he's really like. Let

your life be shaped by what he's really

like. Welcome his rule.

Do not be afraid because he is near.

Amen.