Good Servant | Wicked Servant
I got to listen to Matt Chandler today again as I drove around seeing my customers. This guy is quickly becoming my favourite bible teacher.
Love his passion and, more importantly, his angle in tackling the text and the insight he has in understanding the big issues. This is especially true in the area of being a disciple of Jesus and making Him Lord of your life instead of simply being a Christian.
Today I listened to his take on the parable of the Ten Mina’s found in Luke.
“A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.’
But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’ When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business.
The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.’ And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’ And the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made five minas.’ And he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’
Then another came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your mina, 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 reap what you did not sow.’ He said to him, ‘I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant! You knew that I was a severe man, 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 collected it with interest?’
And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has the ten minas.’ And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten minas!’ ‘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. But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.’ Luke 19:12-27
There is so much packed into the that parable that to “unpack it” – as Chandler likes to say – would take a very long time. For a great take on this from Chandler’s mindset, be sure to listen to his sermon below.
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In the middle of listening to the sermon, something struck me. Here we have 3 servants singled out from among the 10. One used what Jesus gave him and his efforts brought a huge return. Jesus was pleased and gave him 10 cities.
The other had a smaller return. Jesus wasn’t as pleased as the first guy, but still rewarded him proportionately.
But the third guy didn’t do anything and actually accused Jesus and pointed his finger at him. Jesus then took what He had given to him in the first place. He then equated this wicked servant to the ones who are “enemies of His” and had them slaughtered.
Chandler does an excellent job in describing these enemies as those who don’t want Jesus to be Lord of their lives – again, something resonating with me greatly these days.
But you know what strikes me? This wicked servant was still a “servant”. He still served Jesus. But he didn’t have Jesus as his Lord and he had a wrong understanding of Jesus. But at the end of the day, he was still a servant.
Made me think about what I do. Sure I serve in my church. Stuff done behind the scenes no-one has any awareness of. I also put my hand up for many ministries ranging from multimedia to running the men’s group to looking after the kids. So in effect, I am a servant.
But I need to ask myself the questions, “Do I know Jesus in the proper way?” and “Is He Lord of my life?” If I have a “no” in my answer, then I really need to revaluate my walk with Him. Because if I have a “no”, I’m the same as those who are enemies of Jesus and my serving is pointless and futile in nature.
And what about everyone else in Church? In reality, our churches are made up of a bunch of people who sacrificially serve day in, day out but will end up in hell. Because they serve while not knowing Jesus, nor are known by Him. And they serve because of religion – not relationship.
Our churches are full of good servants and wicked servants – but servants nonetheless.
“Easy believism” is a term coined by Chandler in this sermon and it refers to modern Christianity’s watering down of how we are saved. This is in total contradiction to what scripture teaches in the following versus..
“work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” Phil 2:12b
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Mat 7:21-23
This morning as I drove off to work, I asked Jesus to teach me to live with Him as Lord of my life. He answered me through this sermon.
Thank you Jesus. This sermon was a great start.
i am basically at the point of giving up on much of the whole church thing man. No one seems to know the truth… they say things like "all you need is love", but they don't show any or there isn't any in the church. I think people confuse "love" with "i will not do bad" (is that what he means by the servant that did nothing – didn't do bad or hate people, just didn't love people ?). Noone seems to know the truth, or there just isn't any evidence of it so where is it ? How can the truth be so hard to find, if everyone says they have it ? We hear this stuff preached, but how do we work out what it means ? noone discusses it a church ? who at church do you discuss these questions with ? people on the internet because the church has noone interested ?
Hi Alan, thanks for stopping by and posting. Trust me I hear you where you are coming from. A wise old man once said to me that God wanted to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. But man made it become the church instead.
Jesus said, "And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold." He was referring to the last days. I reckon people are so absorbed into their own lives and agenda's that to love, is simply not a priority any more.
As for not doing anything, I believe the passage is referring to not doing anything about the gifts God has given us – including our salvation and our spiritual gifts. Being discouraged about how others act is a quick way to not doing anything about our faith ourselves. Therefore getting discouraged and walking away, you can become like the servant who didn't do anything.
And the saddest thing is that this is a tactic that the enemy of our souls probably uses all the time to bum and burn people out.
So my advice is try not be discouraged by the actions or inactions of others – as hard as that may be. Instead, ask God to help you love people the way He does and maybe, just maybe, others will look to you as the example.
Let your light shine!
one more thing, hes okay but i think some of his logic is maybe a bit incomplete ie. Did the 3rd servant do it because we was lazy, or was he just confused. ie. How often do we NOT do things out of FEAR. Fear or rejection, failure etc. So here is a question – if the 3rd servant had of done something, but lost his pound of silver /mina , whould the king have been angry ? I dont' think so. But was he just lazy or was it fear ? or both ? What I also find interesting are the good servents. Not what they did, but what did they do in life to know HOW to double what they were given. What did they see differently about life that the 3rd servant just didn't see or understand ? Thats what I am asking God about now.
Oh and do yourself a favour and listen to Matt Chandlers sermon.
listening now. Trust me I think about what I can do better a lot, but what i find funny is that so many churchy people (ie. i live for the church) never see the people in the church only their world in the church. I didn't grow up in a church , I have no other family members who are in church. I have no friends around me that are christian. In fact I had to walk away from so many of my non christian friends because their lives I could not walk in agreement with (ie. close ones where very active druids, others believed in getting drunk ohters living together another picking up a new girl for night once a week). I can say i try. Our house is always open. We have lead only one person to the lord while we where here. We have tried to invited about 1 person a month to our house for food etc when the opportunity arises (and getting the opportunity is hard). Strangers. I have yet to receive anything similar (and the church is really what only about 30 families at its core ?) Are the people bad , no. Luke warm yes (yeah, my own heart with respect to church is very hard now). Look at us. How good can church be when the only place where people can share ideas is online ? How many times do you see the walking wounded leaving a church, and the "leadership" team never look at themselves. Its like trying blaming the customer for not buying the product. You have one guy that wants to call himself an elder working the "back of the room", at dinner he describes the other "silent" invisible elder as "oh, hes been married 4 times and had a really bad problem with whores so thats why he never talks to anyone." What !!!! Of say if you try to bring up issues, this guy (and I will tell you, hes not the brightest spark in the fire) replies " you have to understand, this town is just full on people walking in out of church (the walking wounded), its just the way this place is, why should we care about that", Yeah, when you have BIG plans… Just as an example and these are the 2 dudes that want to run the church by running the pastor, but they don't want to walk with ordinary people. One guy i get the feeling only wants to help people that will later help him. Look, you don't do that. Where is a leadership that you feel you can trust ? What did jesus say about the Shepard that leaves the flock to find the one lost sheep ?
Here is the real message I hear in church (not saying its correct) – "do it yourself".. sure a lot of the stuff is do it yourself, but everything. The only things I hear in church that are not do it yourself are "face painting", or "bbq". Ask anything about the bible, or anything deeper – its , we don't do that, or go and work it out yourself. Or my favorite (you hear this from the ones that only want to gossip the most, or just want you to conform and not make them think too deepl) – "all you need is love". Yeah, check got that bit. Thats on page one. hadn't worked that out, thanks for that. Okay, but what if I want to understand things ? why does the bible say we perish for a lack of knowledge ? why does it say we need to know, so we can know the truth, and the truth will set us free ? why, when there are so many other "great" christians on TV. Do we believe them (note believing them or not is different to believing in God), what is the truth ? There is so much noise ? Who cares if the pastor has fancy videos to put on the internet or the band are being recorded in digital format ? Is that all its about. We stand there and tell people – this is worship. Jump sing clap. clap. But when life is hard, we don't want to know ?
Dude, am i saying i am different. No, I am just a guy trying to work out what being a christian is, because there are just no role models I can see. So man I think we all could be the 3 rd servant, in fact i have been talking about just this with my wife all week. I think its just not gifts. So often we want "the gifts" – why – it makes us "special" ? Man, how about just doing the basics. Isn't that what jesus is saying = "you didn't even put it in the bank". I heard this the other day – "passion without compassion". Its more like the click at school – group think – we don't explain, we don't discuss, we preach. There is not back and forth.
I'll stop now, had enough.
Alan. Do I know you? As what you are describing is very similar to what I experience in my church. Thing is, I know a bunch of Alan's and one of which Ihave had a similar discussions with.
I want to talk about this more…it's just getting late.