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In Luke 19: 11-27 Jesus tells this Parable of the stewardship mission Christ gives us.
12…“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.’ 14“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.
Christ goes on to tell us that He rewards those who were faithful with the very little thing He gave them by placing them in authority over multiple cities in what will be His Millennial Kingdom here on earth.
Christ gives this parable as He approached Jerusalem. The disciples and the great multitude with Him, regarded Christ as the Messiah, the temporal prince who’d deliver them from being dominated by the Romans. They expected He was entering Jerusalem, to set up His kingdom. Christ addresses what His followers were thinking by explaining “before” He assumes direct oversight of His “Kingdom on Earth”, He will go into “The Kingdom of Heaven, and then return here.”
Christ explains what happens on earth in the meanwhile is that, like a “nobleman” or ruler”, He delegates to his servants “property” — in this case minas, He expects to be improved through their stewardship. True to what happens here on earth, the nobleman, Christ, generally is rejected by rebellious citizens. Yet Christ’s disciples, nonetheless, are expected to increase and multiply that which is stewarded to them.
Christ rewards those who successfully carrying out His wishes, and He takes from the unsuccessful ones and gives more to those who have proven to carry out the Master’s will in this hostile environment the Bible calls “The World.”
In Luke 19: 20 – 27 Christ says “Another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I kept put away in a handkerchief; Jesus replies 23‘Then why did you not put my money in the bank, and … I would have collected it with interest?’ Jesus then orders that his mina is taken away and given to the one who has the ten minas, ’ for 26…to everyone who has, more shall be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.
The challenge for any would be successful servants, such as us, is we must do God’s work, God’s way to prosper that which God stewards to us. Doing God’s work, God’s way means though we are IN the world, we are operating as if we are OF another one.
Faithful stewards who are IN but not OF this world who will be used of God is the only hope of lost sinners who also are in this world. By being attentive to God’s word and answering His call, we can be used to lift them up in liberty.
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