Tawa Baptist

The Faithful Servant

Scripture: Luke 17:1-10

Video Link: https://youtu.be/diJiAPbUZfU

Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 22 Mar 2026 – The Faithful Servant by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Watch yourselves
  • Restore others
  • Obey Christ
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

At first glance the words lima, coffee, dwarf and black seem unrelated, but there is a connection. What is the connection? [Wait]

That’s right, they are all different types of beans.

Today we continue our series on the parables of Jesus. Last week he heard about the parable of the shrewd manager. This week’s parable features the faithful servant in Luke 17, verses 7-10. The faithful servant is a very different character to the shrewd manager.

In the six verses leading up to the parable of the faithful servant, Jesus gives some instructions to his disciples. At first glance these words of wisdom seem unrelated from each other and from the parable, sort of like a random selection of proverbs.

And you could preach on each word of instruction separately without doing violence to the text. But, as you dwell on these words of Jesus, it becomes apparent they are not random or separate. Verses 1-10 of Luke 17 are connected. They describe what faithfulness to Jesus looks like.

From Luke 17, verse 1 we read…

Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. 2 It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. 3 So watch yourselves. “If your brother or sistersins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. 4 Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.” 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. 7 “Suppose one of you has a servant ploughing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

These verses give us a picture of what faithfulness to Jesus looks like.

In short, faithful discipleship means watching yourselves, restoring others and obeying Christ. Let us begin with watching yourselves.

Watch yourselves:

Part of my training for church ministry, involved doing CPE. CPE stands for Clinical Pastoral Education. CPE uses an action / reflection model of learning. Rather than sitting and listening to a lecture or writing essays, you reflect on your own real-life experiences of providing pastoral care for people.

For me, this meant visiting people in hospital, then later writing up a verbatim of the conversation and discussing it in a small group with others doing CPE. The purpose was to reflect on our practice with a view to providing better spiritual care.  

Basically, they were teaching us to watch ourselves. That is, to watch how we listened and what we said, so we did not cause anyone to stumble, so we did no harm and maybe even did some good.

Most of the time, when people are facing their own mortality, they don’t want to be tripped up by cheap advice or clever theological arguments. They just want to be understood. When life is uncertain, you need to know you are not alone. Knowing you are not alone nurtures faith and hope.

In verse 2 of Luke 17, Jesus warns against tripping others up spiritually or morally. The consequence for those who do this is dire. The Lord says: It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.

The message here is, do no harm.

These little ones probably includes young children but could also refer to those younger in the faith or in a more vulnerable position. That said, we don’t want to cause anyone to stumble, regardless of their station in life.

Causing others to stumble may indicate a certain malicious intention, like laying a trap on purpose. Some people are predators. They go out of their way to do harm. Hopefully no one here sells crack to school children or tries to catfish minors on the internet. If you do, you’ve been warned.

But we can also cause others to stumble through carelessness or neglect.

If someone cuts their foot on a piece of broken glass, the harm caused is the same whether the glass was left there on purpose or by accident.  

How careful are we with the example we set? Is the way we live our lives providing an even path for others to follow? Or are we leaving a trail of broken glass and trip hazards?   

Jesus was warning his disciples not to be like the Pharisees. The Pharisees did not set the right example. The Pharisees were not faithful. Their hypocrisy was a stumbling block to those who wanted to draw closer to God.

The phrase, better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck, is chilling. It’s one of the many disturbing things Jesus said. The human imagination runs wild with anxiety wondering what could be worse than death by drowning in the depths of the sea.

However, the alternative would be far worse. (The alternative being that there is no consequence for people who cause harm.) If you have suffered abuse at the hands of others, you don’t want them to go on harming you or anyone else. Jesus was always reminding people of God’s justice and mercy. It is a good thing that God cares enough to permanently stop those who are doing harm.     

The punchline comes in verse 3 where Jesus says: So watch yourselves.

Being faithful includes not causing others to stumble morally or spiritually.

And, if we are to avoid causing others to stumble, then we need to watch ourselves.

Make sure your own backyard is in order. Don’t trip others up by your words or example. Be careful how you listen and what you say. Examine your motives. Reflect on your actions. Correct yourself when you stray off course. Make it right when you get it wrong. That’s what it means to watch yourself.

A word of caution on watching yourself. Don’t overdo this. Don’t spend too long in self-reflection. There’s a fine line between healthy self-awareness and unhealthy self-obsession.

Beware of the narcissism or vanity that imagines your influence is greater than it really is. By God’s grace, most people are not thinking about you as much as you are thinking about yourself, and this limits the extent to which you can cause others to stumble.  

Okay, so if we are to be faithful servants of Jesus, then watching ourselves is the first thing we need to do. The next thing is restoring others.

Restoring others:

In the sixth form (year 12) at school, I studied chemistry. My lab partner was a bit of an all-star. Intelligent, good at sports, a lifeguard at the beach, socially popular and a genuinely nice guy. But, like all of us, he had a shadow side.

He drank too much.

After coming back from holidays one time he announced he was taking a break from alcohol. Someone who cared about him noticed his drinking and had a quiet word with him. They knew his potential and didn’t want him going down a path that would ruin his life.

This person (it might have been an older brother) didn’t scold him or yell at him or berate him. They challenged him to go dry for three months, just to see if he could do it. And he did. Giving up alcohol for a while provided the circuit breaker he needed. It restored him and put him on a better path once more.

In verse 3 of Luke 17 Jesus goes on to say: “If your brother or sistersins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them.”

This is essentially about restoring others. It fits hand in glove with what Jesus has just been saying about not causing others to stumble. If someone does stumble, then our first instinct is to look for a way to restore them. Because that’s what Jesus did, he came to seek and save the lost.  

Jesus notes three steps in the restoration process: rebuke, repent and forgive.

Rebuking sounds quite harsh, like you are giving someone a loud and angry telling off. But rebuking doesn’t need to be harsh. The person who challenged my sixth form lab partner to stop drinking for three months was rebuking him for his behaviour in a wise and gentle way. This sort of rebuke led to my friend’s repentance and restoration.    

When the prophet Nathan rebuked king David for committing adultery with Bathsheba, he didn’t go in with both barrels blazing. He wisely told David a parable which cut David to the core, causing him to repent and be forgiven.

The point is, when it comes to giving a rebuke, a careful surgical approach is usually more effective than a butcher’s mallet.

The purpose of rebuking is to restore. Often people are not aware of how their actions affect others. My sixth form lab partner didn’t realise the negative impact his drinking was having on those around him. He was being unfair to others without realising it.

If someone is not aware there is a problem, then they don’t have the opportunity to change. Rebuking is about making someone aware of how their behaviour is affecting others. It’s about being honest and fair with them. The purpose of rebuking is not to punish or humiliate. The purpose is to restore.

Now I don’t think Jesus means us to be rebuking each other over every little offence. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t be petty. Exercise some grace.

If you need to rebuke someone it should be for their wellbeing and the wellbeing of the community.     

Jesus talks about rebuking others in the same breath as telling us to watch ourselves. Before we start reading the riot act, we need to pause and take the plank out of our own eye first. We need to ask ourselves, is the thing that’s aggravating me about this other person something I’m guilty of myself?   

Rebuking is just the first step in the restoration process. Repentance and forgiveness complete the process. Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change in behaviour. And forgiveness simply means letting go of the hurt, not holding a grudge against the person who offended you.

Jesus’ instruction to forgive someone seven times in a day, if they repent, is to be interpreted generously. It’s not that seven times is the upper limit and an eighth offence does not need to be forgiven. As Martin Luther King said, ‘Forgiveness is an attitude, not an occasional act.’       

The restoration process (of rebuking, repenting and forgiving) can be time consuming and emotionally demanding, but it is far less taxing than the alternative, which is resentment.

Obey Christ:

At this point the disciples ask Jesus to increase their faith. Perhaps the disciples are thinking, what Jesus is asking us to do is really hard. We need extra faith if we are going to meet the demands of watching ourselves and restoring others.

Jesus replies with a short parable saying: “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”

Mulberry trees, of the variety Jesus is talking about here, are a deeply rooted tree. Indeed, their roots have been known to remain in the ground for hundreds of years. Getting a mulberry tree (or any tree for that matter) to obey your verbal commands, and uproot itself, is an impossible thing to do.

Our selfish, sinful nature is much like the roots of a mulberry tree; stubborn and intractable. Trying to make ourselves (or anyone else) obey the teachings of Jesus is as difficult as telling a mulberry tree to plant itself in the sea.

We cannot make ourselves obey Jesus simply by telling ourselves to do it.

Even when we want to do the right thing, we still find ourselves doing the wrong thing. Our self-centredness, as human beings, is too deeply embedded.

However, God has the power to do the impossible, and faith is the key to unlocking God’s power. You don’t need much faith to access God’s power.

Faith as small as a mustard seed will do.  

It doesn’t take much to access the national power grid. All you need to do is flick a switch. Likewise, it doesn’t take much to access the power to do God’s will. All you need is a little faith. Faith is like flicking a light switch.

Who provides the power to uproot the mulberry tree of our sinful habits?

We don’t. God does. But we still need to flick the switch by asking in faith.

Who provides the power to uproot systemic corruption and injustice?

We don’t. God does. But we still need to flick the switch by asking in faith.

Please understand, Jesus is not saying faith gives us license to tap God for whatever we want. It doesn’t. Believing God for a Ferrari won’t get you a Ferrari, no matter how much faith you have. If you flick the switch of faith and the light doesn’t come on, it is because God (in his wisdom) has chosen to withhold his power in that situation.

Jesus is not talking here about the power to get what we want. He is talking about the power to do God’s will; to repent and forgive, for example.

The power to obey Jesus comes from the Holy Spirit. Or to say it another way, we are able to remain faithful to Christ by trusting in God’s power and grace, not our own resources. 

In keeping with the theme of faithfulness, Jesus goes on to tell the parable of the obedient servant. From verse 7 we read…

7 “Suppose one of you has a servant ploughing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’?

This parable is largely lost in translation for us. Here, in New Zealand, we don’t have servants. We are a ‘do it yourself’ society. The idea of keeping servants goes against the grain.

Also, we place a high value on individual freedom. We tend to resist authority. Indeed, we are often unfairly critical of those in authority.     

But in first Century Israel, having a servant was a normal part of life. In fact, you didn’t need to be rich to have a servant. The authority of the master over the servant was accepted and honoured in that society.

The servant was given security and dignity by working for their master.

If their master was someone of standing in the community, this enhanced the servant’s sense of self-worth. Faithful service to one’s master and to the betterment of the wider community was more important to people in the first century than individual freedom.

Today’s parable is not only at odds with the cultural values of contemporary New Zealand, it also seems at odds with Jesus’ parable in Luke 12.

If you were here three weeks ago, you would have heard the parable of the master who, upon returning from a wedding banquet, girded up his loins to wait on his servants. Something unthinkable in that culture. The master in that parable reminds us of Jesus who did not come to be served, but to serve. 

In Luke 17 it’s a different scenario. The servant comes home after working in the field and the master expects his servant to make his dinner right away.

So what’s going on in Luke 17? Why is the master not waiting on his servant? Well, the parable in Luke 17 offers a counterbalance to the parable in Luke 12.

While it is true that Jesus came to serve us by dying on the cross and uprooting our sin, we must not forget our place. Jesus is still our master and we are still his servants. We are not equal with Jesus. We are expected to obey him.

We must not make the fatal mistake of presuming upon God’s grace. We must guard against any sense of entitlement.

Jesus’ parable, in Luke 17, is an argument from the lesser to the greater.

If servants are expected to obey ordinary human masters, how much more are we expected to obey Christ, the Son of God.

Like the servant in the parable, we are expected to obey Christ in the field: which might include, for example, the community, your workplace or school.  

And we are expected to obey Christ in the home: which might include your own family and the church.

This begs the question: are we being obedient to Jesus in every area of our life? If not, what needs to change?

Jesus concludes his parable in verses 9 and 10, saying: 9 Will he [the master] thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

These verses are about having the right attitude in obeying Christ.

The term, ‘unworthy servants’ does not mean useless or without value.

It means, ‘servants to whom no favour is due’. Jesus is asking a rhetorical question here: Is the master indebted to his servant when orders are carried out? No, of course not. The master does not owe the servant anything.  

Is God indebted to us when we carry out his commands? No, of course not. God does not owe us anything. Obedience is what we owe God. Our obedience does not entitle us to special treatment. We cannot put God in our debt.

Once again, Jesus is warning his disciples against Pharisaic self-righteousness. The Pharisees got the cart before the horse. They thought, we have been extra scrupulous in obeying God’s law, therefore we are entitled to a reward.

But that is not how God operates. With God, grace comes first. Faithfulness is the right response to the grace God has already shown us. We are in debt to God. We can never repay that debt, much less put God in our debt. The most we can do is trust and obey.       

Conclusion:

Let us pray. Lord Jesus, your grace is manifold. We are not aware of half of what you do for us. Thank you. Help us, by the power of your Spirit, to be faithful; to watch ourselves, to restore others and to obey you. Amen.    

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. What do Jesus’ instructions in Luke 17:1-10 share in common?
  3. What did Jesus mean when he said, ‘watch yourself’? How might we do this? Why is it important to watch ourselves?
  4. How careful are we with the example we set? Is the way we live our lives providing a straight path for others to follow? If not, what needs to change?
  5. Discuss / reflect on the three aspects of the restoration process. What does it mean to rebuke, to repent and to forgive? Why do we seek to restore brothers and sisters in the faith?  
  6. Why does Jesus tell the parable of the mustard seed and mulberry tree in Luke 17, verse 6? What is the meaning of this parable? Where / how do we find the resources to remain faithful to Christ?
  7. Discuss / reflect on Jesus’ parable in Luke 17:7-10. Who did Jesus tell this parable for? Why did Jesus tell this parable? How is this parable at odds with the values of our society?
  8. Are you being obedient to Jesus in every area of your life? If not, what needs to change? 

Bibliography:

  • William Barclay, ‘The Gospel of Matthew’, 1967.
  • R.V.G. Tasker, ‘Tyndale Commentaries: St Matthew’, 1963.
  • Kenneth Bailey, ‘Through Peasant Eyes’, 1983.
  • Michael Green, ‘BST: The Message of Matthew’, 2000.
  • R.T. France, ‘New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel of Matthew’, 2007.
  • Craig S. Keener, ‘The Gospel of Matthew’, 2009.
Tawa Baptist

The Good Samaritan (by Sam Barris)

Scripture: Luke 10:25-37

Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 8 Mar 2026 – The Good Samaritan (by Sam Barris) by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Good morning everyone. Today I’ll be carrying on Will’s current theme of Parables. We’re going to be looking at the Good Samaritan today – a parable that stems from a question asked of Jesus from an expert in religious law.

We’re going to look at the questions he asked, how Jesus responds, what that meant for the people at the time, and what that means for us now. Let’s begin with reading the parable in Luke chapter 10 v 25 – 37.

One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”

The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”

“Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!”

The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”

Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

“Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.

“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbour to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.

The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”

Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

When I was being toilet trained, my parents struck up a deal with me. Every time I went to the toilet and undertook the necessary actions, I would receive one M&M. I agreed, so we wrote up the contract, and the M&M deal was on.

After reviewing the contract however, I noticed a loophole. Fantastic. The deal had specified exactly what I said, “Every time I went to the toilet and undertook the necessary actions, I would receive one M&M.”. It didn’t say anything about undertaking the necessary actions to completion.

I would go to the toilet a little bit, if you understand what I mean, retrieve my agreed upon reward, and then go back to the toilet to do a little bit more, expecting to retrieve the same reward straight away again. From what I’ve been told, it worked at first but my parents were not pleased with me exploiting this loophole so it did not last.

Of course, my main objective here was to obtain as many M&Ms as possible. I was also really asking the question “What’s the least I can get away with here and still obtain my reward?”.

We see the same thinking from the lawyer in this section. The first question he asks of Jesus is, “What should I do to inherit eternal life?”. This gives us a good understanding of how he views Jesus’ teachings to this point. He sees the way to eternal life as a tickbox exercise “If I just do this handy list of things, I’m in – job done.”.

It makes sense, he’s a lawyer – all you’ve gotta do is follow these rules and you’re good to go. This isn’t quite how inheritance works however – an inheritance is received, it’s not earned.

Jesus replies with a question, directing him to the laws he knows this man is already aware of. “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”. How do you read it is an interesting question. He doesn’t just ask him to quote it word for word, Jesus is asking him how he understands and interprets it, maybe as far as how do you choose to live this out?

The lawyer then answers by quoting parts of Deuteronomy and Leviticus.

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind” And “Love your neighbour as yourself”.

He’s nailed it, what a great answer! He describes loving God in all ways – not just a nice feeling but how you live out your life – day to day. As he quotes, loving God goes hand in hand with loving your neighbour as well.

Jesus agrees, a great answer! He says “Right! Do this and you will live!”.

The lawyer then follows up with a question that shows – while he may have fantastic theological knowledge, his desire to live it out fully might not quite be there. There’s a big gap between his knowledge and understanding of the law and how he chooses to act on that.

“Who is my neighbour?” he asks. Luke says that he asks this to justify his actions, not in hoping that he’ll be given the opportunity to show love to more and more people around him, but rather the opposite. He wants to cut down his list of requirements to the bare minimum. He wants to prove he already meets this requirement, job done. He’s asking how can I narrow my obligations and still receive the same reward? Eternal life sounds pretty great, I’m up for that. Let me just check it’s not going to be too much of an inconvenience though.

Some people close to me are so easy to love, I’m completely fine with them being my neighbour. Some others though…. They don’t quite agree with me on everything, maybe they even don’t like me. Surely, I don’t need to show them the same love as those in my inner circle, for example.

Often when I’m reading the Bible and I’m reading passages about religious leaders testing Jesus, trying to cut him and his teachings down, or attacking him for breaking their laws, I read them as the villains of the story. Here’s Jesus who we love, sharing the Good News, and these religious experts come in and just don’t get it – they’re on the bad side, trying to shut down Jesus, the hero of the story.

When I read about this religious lawyer, he’s quite relatable to be honest. I don’t want him to be relatable, but I find myself asking the same question regularly. Whether it’s toilet training or something a bit more recent – reaching out to a friend, giving up my time, energy, and resources to provide for others, putting in my best efforts at work, being a loving friend, brother, flatmate, leader. What’s the minimum I can do to pass? Do I have to put in this level of effort for everyone?

Let’s read again how Jesus responds. Jesus replied with a story:

“A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’ “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbour to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

Hearing this parable in 2026 has quite a different meaning to it than how the Jewish audience were hearing this story when Jesus told it for the first time.

A lot of the depth is lost on us at first – it becomes a nice story of how we should show acts of kindness and not walk past those in need. That in itself is great and important but the cultural impact of this story at the time ran a lot deeper.

Firstly, Jesus introduces us to a Jewish man who is travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was an infamously dangerous road. It was isolated, steep and rocky – descending 4000 feet through narrow, winding canyons that provided great hiding spots for bandits. It had a bad and unsafe reputation but from all we’ve been told, this man is travelling it by himself. Living up to the reputation of the road, the man is attacked, robbed, beaten, and left to die on the side of the road.

We then see a Priest and a temple assistant come across this man in need and walk right past him. There’s an expectation here, that the Jewish audience would have had as well, that these are the exact people who would help out this man in need. It’s even possible that the priest was very wealthy, travelling with a group, plenty of resources available to help here.

I spent some time trying to work out the reasoning or justification these people would have to ignore this man especially given their titles and roles in the temple. Some commentaries said that the priest would have been thinking about becoming ceremonially unclean if they touched this person (if he was dead) or that they only had an obligation to help Jewish people and there was no way of knowing this beaten man’s cultural or ethnic origin so why risk it?

There were all these ideas flying around as to their motivation to just walking past but after looking at it for a bit, I realised it probably doesn’t actually matter. Jesus doesn’t focus at all on their motivation or justification behind this. The sole focus is on their actions and what they chose to do when faced with this opportunity to help – they walked right past.

When we’re faced with situations where we have an opportunity to help those in need, do we focus on the action we need to take or our reasons for not helping? We might be quite tired, we don’t think we’re the best person to support, we might have enough going on to deal with ourselves. Those can all be true but whether our inaction is justified someway or it isn’t – it is still inaction. Our rationalisation of this does nothing more to support the person who is in need.

What Jesus was doing in introducing these two characters in the Priest and the temple assistant was setting the Jewish audience up for the big plot twist. This is where some of the cultural context may not pack the same punch for us as it did for them at the time. Jesus has established a narrative direction here – we’ve started with a priest, next we’ve got a temple assistant, who’s next? The audience here are probably anticipating an Israelite/a regular Jewish person.

That would have been an obvious and clear next person, based on the structure of their society at the time. There would have been genuine shock when a despised Samaritan became the hero of this story.

When you hear the word Samaritan, what do you think? I would be very surprised if you didn’t automatically think of this story we’re talking about today. In fact, the term “Good Samaritan” is a common term today for someone who selflessly helps someone in need. Being called a Good Samaritan today is a great compliment. We even have a charity here called Samaritans Aotearoa. They are a charity that provides a 24/7 crisis help line where volunteers pick up the phone and support people who call through whether they’re lonely, suicidal, depressed, distress or just going through a bad time. The impact of this story over time has moulded the meaning of the word Samaritan into something incredibly positive.

This was really not what the word represented when Jesus told this parable. There was a huge cultural divide between Jewish people and Samaritan people. Jews despised Samaritans largely because of historical, ethnic and religious divisions. When Israel fell to Assyria, foreign people settled in the region and intermarried with the remaining Israelites, creating a group Jews later saw as religiously compromised – or Samaritans which you can read about in 2 Kings 17.

By Jesus’ time, the hostility was so strong that Jews and Samaritans typically avoided each other. We see examples of this in the book of John. Firstly, on a separate occasion to this, Jesus and Jewish religious leaders are debating and, in an attempt to discredit him, they say to him in John 8:48: “You Samaritan devil! Didn’t we say all along that you were possessed by a demon?”. Calling him a Samaritan here is meant as a derogatory term, implying he is religiously corrupt or outside true Jewish faith, and they pair it with accusing him of being demon-possessed to completely undermine his authority.

Secondly, the divide is made clear when Jesus was speaking to a Samaritan woman at a well. When Jesus asks her for a drink, she is shocked because Jewish men normally would not speak with a Samaritan woman at all saying “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”.

This gives an idea of how the Jewish audience would be reacting to this new character introduction – a Samaritan man? This can’t be good. What happens next though? “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’

There are a lot of justifiable reasons for the Samaritan man to walk past, just like the priest and the temple assistant did. In fact, he probably has a lot more reasons to simply carry on his journey. Firstly, this Jewish man was travelling by himself on a dangerous road. He put himself into this situation, right? He clearly wasn’t well prepared or made some bad decisions that got him to this point.

Secondly, this man is Jewish remember. We have a pretty good idea of what he might think of a Samaritan man coming to his aid.

Thirdly, what if this was a trap? An ambush? The same bandits who attacked and robbed this man could be hiding around the corner waiting for him too.

Fourthly, helping this man is going to be expensive and ruin his plans. There are many reasons to walk by here, but he does not. The Samaritan simply acted out of compassion.

Jesus then asks the religious expert: “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbour to the man who was attacked by the bandits?” The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

Jesus flips the question on its head. It’s no longer about asking “Who is my neighbour?”. We’re called to be a neighbour to those around us. Jesus makes it very clear that any form of social, cultural, religious, political barriers should not be getting in the way of being a neighbour and showing love to those in need.

What does that look like for us then? If there’s anything that is plentiful in the world today, it’s opportunities to help people in need. It’s clear that Jesus is saying that loving your neighbour is not just an emotion, it’s a physical response as well.

James 2 tells us: Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? It’s a very simple message but do we find it as simple to live out every day on an individual level?

Sometimes it’s small: noticing someone struggling, offering a listening ear, lending a hand with a practical task. Sometimes it’s bigger: volunteering your time, giving resources, or supporting someone who feels isolated. And sometimes it means crossing barriers – social, cultural, or personal – to show care where others wouldn’t. In all cases, it’s about seeing the need and responding with action.

It needs to be a part of a church’s identity as well. When people are in crisis, do they feel they can rely on their local church for support? Can we say that now about our church? Here’s a great example of a church showing love to their community: How good is it to see God’s love being broadcast in local media?

[Audio clip plays of a church providing refuge for people after a crisis]

May they be an example to all of us. Beyond practical help, we can also provide spiritual help to those in need – again, there is a lot of need for this too. Whether that’s praying for those around us, sharing the hope we’ve found in Jesus, providing encouragement, inviting people to church.

The opportunity to lead people to Jesus and the hope he brings is ever present. This comes with the same limitless boundary as to who our neighbour is that Jesus describes in the parable as well. That can be scarier or harder though, right? This is where the cultural, religious, political, personal and a range of other differences can feel like a bigger blocker. If someone is rude to me for whatever reason, that doesn’t make it easier to pray for them. I certainly don’t want to be responding with an invite to church.

This always makes me think of the story of Jonah which we heard here a month or two ago. Jonah, after delivering a message from God to the Ninevites, anticipates and even hopes for God to destroy Nineveh as his message had warned. When God showed compassion to the Ninevites and chose to not carry out the destruction He had threatened, Jonah was very angry. Jonah doesn’t believe the Ninevites deserved the same love God had shown him. To which the Lord responds: “…Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?

Who are the Ninevites in your life? If there’s someone in your life that you’re praying God deals with instead of saves, you’re missing an opportunity to show them the same love you’ve experienced.

To live like the Samaritan in this story, we have to understand that we’ve also been the Jewish man beaten at the side of the road before as well – or maybe we still are. Jesus is our good Samaritan. He’s compelled by compassion to act and show us love. He gave everything, even His life, because he sees the great need we have and acts on His compassion. Through Jesus, we accept the gift, or the inheritance, of eternal life. When we experience Jesus’ compassion, it should change how we live. The love he has shown us isn’t meant to stop with ourselves. When we respond with love to our neighbour, it is an outpouring of the love we have been shown.

Galatians 5 reminds us what that looks like in action. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

Living like the good Samaritan is a lifestyle shaped by the Holy Spirit, showing God’s love in practical ways. To be clear, this message isn’t coming from someone who has this perfected either. Living this out fully is a journey that we go on when we accept Jesus into our lives and seek to follow Him and grow more like Him every day.

My prayer today is that for myself and for everyone here, may this message lead us to take action when we feel compassion. To show love to those who need it – not because of where they come from or what they believe, but because of the love we have been shown.

1st John 4:9-12 tells us: God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

If this isn’t a love that you have experienced yourself, you’re in the right place. Chat to those around you, we also have a regular prayer ministry team. May you come to know and understand what it means to be loved by God as well.

Let’s pray: Dear Lord, thank you for this parable and what it teaches us. May we come to love those around us as you have loved us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Tawa Baptist

The Master and Servants

Scripture: Luke 12:35-38

Video Link: https://youtu.be/buo39MSYm6M

Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 1 Mar 2026 – The Master and Servants by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The servants prepare
  • The master serves
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Complete this phrase: Ready… Set… What comes next? [Wait]  Yes, that’s right Go. Ready, set, go. Or at least that’s what we would normally expect. 

Today we continue our series on the parables of Jesus. Last week we heard about the gracious employer, a parable of how God’s kingdom operates by grace. This week our focus is the parable of the master and servants, in Luke 12. This parable is short, but it takes us by surprise. We are expecting “ready, set, go”. But our expectations are reversed. From Luke 12, verse 35 we read…

35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 Blessed are those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 Blessed are those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

What we expect with this parable is: ready, set, go to work. But what we get is: ready, set, recline and receive.

There are two main characters in today’s reading: the servants and the master. The servants are those who follow Jesus, his disciples throughout history. That includes us if we call Jesus, ‘Lord’. The master is Jesus himself.

Let’s start with the servants. We, the servants, need to be prepared for when Jesus, our master, comes.

The servants prepare:

Apparently, Wellington has between 50 to 80 earthquakes each day. Thankfully, only 100 to 150 are strong enough to be felt each year.    

The last significant earthquake in Wellington, of 6 or more on the ricker scale, was back in October 2023.

Wellington has dodged a few earthquake bullets in recent times. No one thought Christchurch would be hit as badly as it was. That’s the thing about earthquakes; we can’t predict when they will happen. We know they will happen, that is certain. We just can’t say when, so we need to be ready all the time.

Being ready all the time does not mean living in a constant state of anxiety, always on edge. That would not be helpful. Being prepared means having stores of canned food and water. Keeping a grab bag and first aid kit handy. We don’t know when a really damaging earthquake might hit, but we prepare by having emergency supplies ready to go.

In the parable we just read, from Luke 12, Jesus tells his disciples to…

35 “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet…

Jesus sometimes used the image of a wedding banquet to paint a picture of our future hope, when God’s kingdom is realised in its fullness. Centuries before Christ, the prophet Isaiah also used the image of a banquet to illustrate our future hope. From Isaiah 25, verse 6, we read…

6 On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines.
7 On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; 8 he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.

This prophecy came to be known as the Messianic banquet, for it pictures the salvation created by the Messiah. Christians believe Jesus fulfils this prophecy. After his death and resurrection, Jesus (the Messiah) ascended to heaven.

One day he will return in glory and when he returns the picture of Isaiah 25 will be realised. That’s our future hope.

Like an earthquake, we don’t know when Jesus will return but his second coming is certain, and so we (his disciples) need to be prepared. Unlike an earthquake though, which causes death and destruction, the Lord will swallow up death forever and wipe away the tears from all faces.

Although most Bible commentators agree Jesus’ parable in Luke 12:35-38 is referring to the Lord’s second coming, we need not limit the Lord’s activity to some unknown future date. The risen Jesus is active by his Spirit now. Jesus may come to us personally at any time before the conclusion of human history. We, the servants of Jesus, need to be ready to obey Jesus at every moment.     

So how do we prepare for Jesus’ return? Well, being ready for Jesus does not mean having supplies of water and baked beans handy. We make ourselves ready by being faithful. Being faithful means living our lives now (today) in a way that anticipates Jesus’ return in the future.

Imagine someone lets you stay in their house rent free while they are away. It’s a really nice house with a pool and a garden and plenty of rooms. You are thankful for the accommodation because you don’t have a place of your own. They are doing you a favour.

You don’t know how long the owner will be gone for. Maybe a few days, maybe a few years. In the meantime, you take care of the house. You don’t throw wild parties or trash the place. You mow the lawns regularly. You feed the pets, take the rubbish out and respect the neighbours.

Looking after the place is how you look after your relationship with the owner. That’s what it means to be faithful. In verse 35 Jesus uses two images to help us see what it looks like to be prepared for the master’s return.

First, he says, be dressed and ready for service. This is a bit of a paraphrase. The original text literally says, ‘gird up your loins’. The phrase, ‘gird up your loins’ comes from the Old Testament. Men and women at that time and in that culture usually wore long robes. It was cooler in a hot climate.

However, when you needed to get somewhere in a hurry or do any sort of physical labour, the robe got in the way. ‘To gird up your loins’ meant tying a belt around your waist and tucking the robe up into the belt, allowing you to move more freely and get the job done. Basically, to gird up your loins is to be work ready. It’s like saying, ‘roll up your sleeves’. 

Most famously, the Lord God told the people of Israel to gird up their loins on the night of the first Passover. The people needed to be ready to leave Egypt quickly. When Jesus comes knocking on the door of your life, it is like an exodus from the slavery of sin and death. You need to be ready to move.

Okay, so that’s what gird up your lions meant 2000 years ago. What does it mean for us today? Well, if you work on a building site, then girding up your loins means having your work boots on and wearing your hi-viz gear.

Or if you are a teacher, then the equivalent of girding up your loins is having your lesson plan ready for when the bell rings and the students turn up.

Or if you are a cricketer waiting to bat, then girding up your loins means having your pads and box on.

Or if you are a surgeon, then girding up your loins is like scrubbing your hands and putting on gloves and a surgical gown.

But what if you are Christian? What does it mean to ‘gird up your loins’ then?

Robyn and I have lived in the same house for over 20 years. During that time, we have accumulated a lot of stuff. After Christmas last year, we had a clear out. We decluttered the garage and our cupboards. Quite a bit of stuff went to the tip or was given away. It didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would. In fact, it felt quite good and now our house is that much easier to keep tidy.

Girding up your loins is not about adding anything. Girding up your loins is about decluttering your life. To gird up your lions is to free yourself from those things which hinder your obedience to Christ.

The things that hinder our obedience to Christ may include unhelpful excesses, like spending too much time on the internet or drinking too much or taking on too much debt or whatever.

But the things that hinder our obedience to Christ can also include good things. Things that may benefit others but don’t really fulfil God’s call on our life.

Jesus called his disciples to bear witness to his death and resurrection and then to proclaim the gospel. That’s what Jesus wanted them to do.

But what if Peter, James and John went back to fishing fulltime, after Jesus ascended to heaven? What if they decided not to be apostles? I mean fishing is a good occupation. It feeds people, right?

Yes, fishing can be a good thing, but to spend your life fishing when Jesus wants you to preach the gospel, is to disobey the Lord. For Peter, James and John, girding up their loins meant leaving the family fishing business behind so they could make sharing the gospel their fulltime gig.  

What is getting in the way of you obeying Jesus? What is it (good or bad) that makes you too busy to pay attention to Christ? Girding up your loins is about decluttering your life, freeing yourself to be more responsive to Jesus.   

As well as being dressed and ready for service, Jesus also says (in verse 35) to keep your lamps burning. They didn’t have electricity in the first century. Lamps, at that time, were fuelled by oil. To keep your lamp burning meant keeping the oil topped up and the wick trimmed.  

Lamps of course provide light. Without a lamp the servants would not be able to see. They would be walking around in the dark, blind. To keep your lamp burning is to ensure you can see clearly, to keep your perspective. But lamps also enable you to be seen by others. Lamps help to identify you.  

When I was younger and fitter and lived in Hamilton, where the roads are wider, I used to ride a bike everywhere. When riding at night I always had my lights on, back and front. My bike lights helped me see where I was going but more importantly, they helped me to be seen by other traffic. My lights identified me as a cyclist so cars could avoid hitting me. I always kept a spare set of batteries handy, for my bike lights.         

As I understand it, the lamp in Jesus’ parable symbolises our faith as servants of Jesus. It is the light of our faith that enables us to see in the darkness of this world, so we can do the work Jesus has for us to do. More than this, it is the light of our faith that identifies us as followers of Jesus.    

To ‘keep your lamp burning’ is to keep the light of your faith going. We do this by maintaining regular rhythms of prayer, Bible reading, rest, gathered worship and fellowship with other believers. As we keep these sacred rhythms, we make room for the oil of God’s Spirit to fill us.   

We must not miss the fact that Jesus compares his followers to servants.

The Greek word, doulos, can mean servant or slave. The servants in view here are men and women of low status.

Humility is required to be a follower of Jesus. The work of a Christian disciple is not glamorous. It is often menial and tiring. Our time is not our own. Nevertheless, there is a certain dignity in being a servant (or slave) of Jesus, for we are serving the King of heaven and earth. We are serving God’s good purpose. We belong to Jesus.

The master serves:

Okay, so we have heard how the servants prepare. What about the master?

In verse 36 we read that, when the master returns, he comes and knocks on the door.  What a curious thing. Why does the master knock on the door of his own house? I mean, when I come home, I don’t knock on the front door of my own house. No. I just let myself in.

But as I thought about this, I remembered that when the kids still lived at home, I would knock on their bedroom doors before entering. It’s respectful, it’s good manners. You knock on internal doors because you don’t want to scare people or barge in on them.  

The master of the house in Jesus’ parable is probably not knocking on his front door. He is more likely knocking on an internal door, to the servants’ quarters perhaps.

The point is: Jesus, our master, is respectful. He does not force his way into our lives. In his grace Jesus allows us to invite him in. The question is, will we open the door and let Jesus in immediately? Or will we make him wait?

In verse 37, Jesus says: Blessed are those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. He says it again in verse 38: Blessed are those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. 

The servants here do not put their pyjamas on, turn out the light and go to bed. No, they keep their work clothes on and leave their lamp burning, ready to receive their master at a moment’s notice. They are not passively waiting. They are eagerly expecting their boss. The slaves don’t have their own agenda. The only agenda they serve is their master’s agenda.

The Greek word for blessed here is Makarios. It’s the same word Jesus uses for the beatitudes in Matthew 5. You know, ‘blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the pure in heart’, and so on.

Makarios is a state of spiritual wellbeing. To be Makarios is to be fortunate, happy, well off, in a relationship of favour with God. It’s not just that the servants will be blessed in the future. They are blessed now. They are in a fortunate position now.           

Jesus reverses our understanding of what it means to be blessed or well off. We think we are fortunate or blessed if we win Lotto or if we enjoy good health and live in a nice neighbourhood. But that is not how Jesus sees it.  

By the values of this world, a lowly slave who is always walking around with their loins girded ready to work, is not considered well off. Indeed, staying up all night losing sleep is not considered a blessed or fortunate state of being.

Just like being poor in spirit or grieving is not considered a fortunate state.

But, according to Jesus, those who strip off all that hinders them from obeying him, are blessed, they are fortunate. Those who set aside their own agenda and eagerly await Jesus’ return are blessed now. They are not doing this to earn a blessing or to curry favour. They love their master and long for his presence. Their reward is intrinsic; the joy of seeing their master again.  

The real surprise (both for us the listener and for the servants in the parable) comes in the second part of verse 37 where Jesus says: Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 

We were expecting; ready, set, go to work. But what we get is; ready, set, recline and receive. The idea of the master of the house girding up his loins to serve his servants was unthinkable for a first century middle eastern audience. That would never happen.

These servants were near the bottom of the heap and the master was at the top. What master would humiliate himself by serving his slaves like this?

It is a complete role reversal.

By the master’s actions the slaves cease being slaves and become beloved friends and guests. Because that’s what you do for your friends, you serve them. They are changed by the self-emptying love (the undeserved grace) of their boss.

The master in this parable reminds us of Jesus. Because that’s what Jesus did in going to the cross. He humiliated himself. He served us. He fed us with his very body.

In his letter to the Philippians the apostle Paul gives this picture of Christ, saying…

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mind-set as Christ Jesus: 6 who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!

Even though Jesus is the supreme master (the master of all masters) he comes to those who faithfully wait in expectation for him and he serves them.

He serves us, turning us from slaves into beloved friends.

Conclusion:

On the night before his crucifixion and death, Jesus acted out this parable as a foretaste of the Messianic banquet to come. During the last supper, Jesus girded up his loins and served his disciples by washing their feet.

Peter didn’t want a bar of it at first. But Jesus told Peter he must let him do this or Peter would have no part in him. As much as it goes against the grain, we must allow Jesus (our master) to serve us – we must receive his grace – for only then will we be transformed from slaves to beloved friends.  

The right response to the Lord’s grace is faithfulness. Being faithful means serving Jesus’ agenda, not cluttering our lives with of our own agenda.

What then is Jesus’ agenda? The night before he died Jesus impressed upon his disciples three things:

The importance of loving one another. The importance of service over position. And the importance of unity in the body. Love, service and unity, they go together and they are what we do in preparation for the return of Jesus, our master. 

Let us pray…

Lord Jesus, you are our master, we belong to you. Thank you for serving us by going to the cross in obedience to God the Father. May you go on filling us with the oil of your Spirit that the lamp of our faith would not go out. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. Discuss / reflect on Jesus’ parable in Luke 12:35-38. Why did Jesus tell this parable? How might Jesus’ original audience have been surprised by this parable? In what ways is Jesus like the master? 
  3. How can we prepare for Jesus’ return? What does it mean to gird up your loins? What is getting in the way of you obeying Jesus? What takes your attention away from Christ?
  4. What does it mean to ‘keep your lamp burning’? How do you (personally) do this? What (or who) fills your lamp with oil?
  5. Why does the master knock on a door in his own house? What might this suggest about the master? What does it look like to open the door of our lives to let Jesus in?
  6. What does it mean to be blessed (Makarios)? Why are the servants in the parable blessed?
  7. What change occurs for the servants as a consequence of the master serving them? Have you received Jesus’ grace / service for yourself? 

Bibliography:

  • William Barclay, ‘The Gospel of Matthew’, 1967.
  • R.V.G. Tasker, ‘Tyndale Commentaries: St Matthew’, 1963.
  • Michael Green, ‘BST: The Message of Matthew’, 2000.
  • Craig S. Keener, ‘The Gospel of Matthew’, 2009.
  • R.T. France, ‘New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel of Matthew’, 2007.
  • Kenneth Bailey, ‘Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes’, 2008. 
Tawa Baptist

The Gracious Employer

Scripture: Matthew 20:1-16

Video Link: https://youtu.be/ArWz2FkYrds

Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 22 Feb 2026 – The Gracious Employer by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • God’s kingdom is personal
  • God’s kingdom is gracious
  • God’s kingdom is fair
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death.

The debate went on for some time until C.S. Lewis wandered into the room. “What’s the commotion about?” he asked. “We were discussing Christianity’s unique contribution among world religions. Lewis responded, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace”. [1]

Today we continue our series on the parables of Jesus. Last week we heard about the parable of the lost sheep. This week we focus on the parable of the gracious employer, in Matthew 20. The main point of this parable is that God’s kingdom operates by grace. From verse 1 of Matthew 20 we read…

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denariusfor the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went. “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ 7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ 8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ 9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’ 13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

This parable is about the kingdom of heaven, also known as the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are interchangeable terms. They are different ways of saying the same thing.

Some people, when they hear this parable, think Jesus is promoting socialism. No. This parable is not about socialism. God’s kingdom is not like any earthly political system we may be familiar with. Nor can it be equated to a geographic location.

On a basic level the kingdom of heaven is God’s government or God’s reign.

Said another way, the kingdom of heaven is life with God in charge. Life when God’s will is done. The kingdom of heaven is God’s way of operating.

Three things this parable tells us about God’s kingdom: It is personal, it is gracious and it is fair. What then do we mean when we say God’s kingdom is personal? Brian McLaren tells a story which helps to illustrate this idea that’s God’s kingdom is personal.

God’s kingdom is personal:

Once upon a time, there was a good and kind king who had a great kingdom with many cities. In one distant city, some people took advantage of the freedom the king gave them and started doing evil.

They profited by their injustice and began to hate the king. They convinced everyone the city would be better off without the king and declared their independence from the kingdom. Soon, with everyone doing whatever they wanted, violence, corruption and fear reigned.

The king thought about what he should do. ‘If I take my army and conquer the city by force, the people will fight against me. I will have to kill so many of them and the rest will only submit through fear, which will make them hate me even more. But if I leave them alone, they will destroy each other. It breaks my heart to think of the pain they are causing one another.’

So the king considered a third way. He took off his robes and dressed in regular clothes. Incognito, he entered the city and began living in an abandoned building. He took up a trade fixing broken furniture.

Whenever people came to him, his kindness and respect were so striking they would linger a little longer, just to be in his presence. They told him their problems and asked his advice. He told them the rebels had fooled them and the true king had a better way to live, which he exemplified and taught.     

One by one people began to put their confidence in him and live his way. Eventually, the city regretted its rebellion and wanted to submit to the king’s reign again. But they were afraid to approach the king. What if he took revenge for their rebellion?

It was then the king-in-disguise revealed his true identity: he, the furniture fixer, was their king and he forgave them. The city was restored to the kingdom once more. All those who loved the king remained in the city, while those who still refused to accept the king’s authority were sent away.

By his gracious presence and personal touch, the king saved the city and most of its citizens, something that could never have been accomplished through brute force. [2]   

God’s kingdom is personal. It operates at the level of the human heart and inter-personal relationships.

In Matthew 20, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a human person, more specifically a vineyard owner.  Verse 1 reads: “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard…”

Employing casual day labourers was a common practice in the Palestine of Jesus’ day. Workers would go out early in the morning (around 6am) to the marketplace and wait for someone to come and offer them work.

Day labourers tended to be quite poor. If they didn’t get work, they (and their families) didn’t eat. These workers were near the bottom of the heap.

Somewhat surprisingly the wealthy landowner goes out of his way to do the hiring himself, personally. The landowner has a foreman. It is normally the foreman’s job to hire and manage the workers. Why doesn’t the landowner send his foreman to do this job? Because he prefers a personal approach.

The kingdom of heaven is like the landowner. God’s kingdom, his way of operating, is personal. God’s kingdom is not a hard to navigate bureaucratic system. God’s kingdom does not function by AI or recorded message. In God’s kingdom we don’t deal with a machine or even a manager. We deal personally with the Spirit of Jesus.

God’s kingdom is personal and God’s kingdom is gracious. What then is grace?

God’s kingdom is gracious:

The classic definition of grace is unmerited favour. Being treated better than you deserve. Receiving something good without doing anything to earn it and without being entitled to it. God’s grace is what sets Christianity apart from every other religion.

Under New Zealand law, employees are entitled to ten days sick leave per year, payable after six months employment. This can accumulate up to a maximum of 20 days. That’s the letter of the law.

Let’s say you have accumulated 20 days sick leave but, for reasons outside of your control, you need to take 30 days. Your employer then has a choice. They can either abide by the letter of the law and pay you only the 20 days owing, or they can go beyond the letter of the law and pay you the 30 days you need.

Paying you the first 20 days is just and fair. The employer is meeting their obligation to you. But paying the extra 10 days, well that is grace. It is unmerited favour. The employer is under no obligation to pay the extra.

Returning to Matthew 20. The kingdom of heaven is like the landowner in Jesus’ parable. The landowner is gracious and the kingdom of God is gracious. We see this grace operating in a number of ways.

In verses 3-6 we read how the owner comes back to the marketplace in three-hour intervals throughout the day to hire more workers. Normally an employer would get all the workers they needed at the beginning of the day.

But the owner of this vineyard returns personally at 9am, 12 noon, 3pm and then again at the 11th hour, which is 5pm. And each time he goes back he offers the job seekers work.

Interestingly, the landowner does not stipulate the rate of pay with these later workers, like he did with those he hired at the beginning of the day. To those hired at 9, 12 and 3 he simply says, ‘I will pay you whatever is right’.

And the day labourers trust the gracious employer. They don’t attempt to haggle with him or make him sign a contract. They are keen to work and have faith the landowner will do right by them.  

The workers who are employed towards the end of the day are (presumably) less desirable, having been passed over by other employers. By 5pm (one hour before knock off time) this gracious landowner is employing people that no one else will hire.

Those who are last to be offered a job may appear less employable, but you have to admire their tenacity. Most people would have given up and gone home by lunchtime if they hadn’t been offered work. Those who are last are still holding out hope, even when it seems hope-less.

What’s more they agree to work for the landowner, without any promise of payment. The landowner does not say he will pay them anything. He simply tells them to work in his vineyard. The last have shown the greatest faith.    

But the real star here is the landowner, who shows us what the kingdom of God is like. The landowner takes a personal interest in making sure everyone gets the opportunity to earn money to feed their family.

This employer wants to give the poor work in a gracious way, so their mana is preserved. The employer doesn’t rob the last of their dignity by offering them a handout. He could have simply given them one denarius and told them to go home. But he doesn’t do that. The employer upholds their self-respect by giving them the opportunity to do meaningful work for pay.  

The biggest surprise and the most obvious display of grace, comes in the middle of this parable, when the owner instructs his foreman to pay the workers. Each person gets one denarius, regardless of how long they worked. One denarius is the equivalent of a full day’s living wage.

The owner of the vineyard knows this world is not an even playing field.

He understands that half a day’s pay is not enough to feed a hungry family.

So he pays people based on what they need, not what they have achieved. That is grace.

To show grace we must have the capacity to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes. Grace understands. The landowner is like the kingdom of God.

The landowner shows the grace of understanding. Likewise, in God’s kingdom our need is understood and provided for.

God’s kingdom is fair:

Not everyone understands God’s grace though. When those who were hired first saw the late comers receiving a full day’s wage, they presumed they would be paid more.

The first have a sense of entitlement and a sense of entitlement gets in the way of grace. Those who were hired last know their need for God’s grace and they accept it without question. But those who were hired first are blind to their need. They forget it was by the landowner’s grace they were given the opportunity to work all day in the first place.

When the first receive the same as the last, they don’t think it’s fair and complain saying: ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

Now, the vineyard owner could have avoided this confrontation with the grumbling workers. If he had paid them first, they would have gone home happy, none the wiser about what the others were paid. So why does the owner reverse the order? Well, there is no grace without truth.

Perhaps the owner intentionally makes the first wait till last because he wants to show the first what grace really looks like. He wants them to understand the truth, that being on the highest level is not the most important thing. What really matters is not leaving others behind, even if it means you come last.

The vineyard owner is gracious, but he is no fool. He won’t be manipulated or controlled by others. The owner speaks to one of the grumblers saying…

13 ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go…

The main thing to note here is the landowner is being fair and generous.

Yes, he has overpaid some of the workers, but he has not shortchanged anyone. One denarius for a day’s work represents a living wage. It is fair pay and those who were hired first agreed to it.

The landowner is honouring his contract. Now those who worked all day are wanting to break the contract, to change it after the fact. Those who were hired first are the ones who are being unfair, not the landowner.

Another thing to note, in verse 13, is the way the landowner addresses one of the complainers as ‘friend’. New Testament Greek has more than one word for friend. There is the positive word, philos, which refers to someone dearly loved and trusted. However, the landowner does not use philos here.

No, the landowner addresses the complainer as hetairos, which was a general form of address to someone whose name one does not know. It is a polite title for a stranger. [3] In Matthew’s gospel, the word hetairos is applied to those who presume upon grace. [4] You don’t want Jesus to address you as hetairos.

That’s like hearing Jesus say, ‘I don’t know you’.

The landowner (who is like the kingdom of God) has the last word. He says to those who had complained: I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

The owner of the vineyard is being fair with the grumblers. He is being honest with them. Indeed, he is showing them the truth about themselves. They don’t care about justice. They are simply greedy and envious.  

Kenneth Bailey paraphrases the landowner’s meaning like this: “You want to take more for yourselves. I have chosen to give more of myself. You want to be richer at the end of the day. I have chosen to be poorer at the end of the day. Don’t try to control me. Take your just wage and get out.” [5]   

The landowner’s response is personal, gracious and fair. Just as God’s kingdom is personal, gracious and fair.   

Conclusion:

The parable concludes with the saying: “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” In other words, the kingdom of God reverses human expectations. God’s kingdom operates by divine grace, not human achievement. [6] It is not for us to try and control God’s grace. It is not for us to say who can and can’t be saved. We need to let God be God.

Let us pray…

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your grace and compassion in reaching out to us personally. Thank you too for your fairness and generosity in meeting our need for salvation. Forgive us for the times we have tried to control you. Grant us humility to embrace the work and reward you offer. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.     

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. What is grace? Can you think of a time when you experienced grace? What happened? How did you feel? What was your response?
  3. What is the kingdom of heaven / kingdom of God? How is God’s kingdom different from the kingdoms / governments of this world?
  4. Discuss / reflect on the parable of the gracious employer. Why did Jesus tell this parable? What is the main point? How does this parable make you feel?
  5. What does the landowner teach us about the kingdom of God?
  6. Why does the landowner go looking for workers to employ himself? Why does he not send his foreman?
  7. Why does the landowner pay all the workers the same? Why does the landowner have the foreman pay the last first and the first last? Why do those who worked all day complain against the landowner?
  8. Who do you identify with most in this parable? Why?

Bibliography:

  • William Barclay, ‘The Gospel of Matthew’, 1967.
  • R.V.G. Tasker, ‘Tyndale Commentaries: St Matthew’, 1963.
  • Michael Green, ‘BST: The Message of Matthew’, 2000.
  • Craig S. Keener, ‘The Gospel of Matthew’, 2009.
  • R.T. France, ‘New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel of Matthew’, 2007.
  • Kenneth Bailey, ‘Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes’, 2008. 

[1] From Mark Stibbe’s book, ‘A Basket of Gems’, page 67.

[2] Adapted from a story by Brian McLaren found in Mark Stibbe’s book, ‘A Basket of Gems’, page 80.

[3] Refer Bailey, page 361.

[4] Refer Keener, page 482.

[5] Refer Kenneth Bailey, page 361.

[6] Refer R. France, page 746.

Tawa Baptist

Lost & Found

Scripture: Luke 15:1-10

Video Link: https://youtu.be/jqYP-goOQk8

Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 15 Feb 2026 – Lost & Found by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The lost leaders
  • The lost sheep
  • The lost coin
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Over the years the metal flashing above our ranch slider has deteriorated.

The purpose of the flashing is to keep the rain out, which makes the flashing fairly important. Rust was showing through the paint. Not only did it look rude, but if I let it go too long, the rust might make holes in the metal.  

So, I decided to restore it. This involved grinding away the rust with a wire brush, then applying a special rust converter to the metal, followed by a rust kill primer and two topcoats of rust kill paint.

Although I’m not ready to quit my day job, just yet, I did enjoy the work. There is a certain pleasure in restoring things. Hopefully my restoration efforts last.

Today we continue our series on the parables of Jesus. Last week we heard about the ten minas and this week our focus is Jesus’ twin parables of the lost sheep and lost coin in Luke 15. These parables are primarily about heaven’s joy in seeing the restoration of people. From verse 1 of Luke 15 we read…

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. 8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coinsand loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

The lost leaders:

Having purpose in life is like carrying a compass. Purpose helps us to remember the direction we are headed so we don’t lose our way. Jesus’ parables, in Luke 15, are like a compass, they remind us of our true north. They point to our true purpose and direction.

The 13th Century Sufi poet, Rumi, once wrote: “Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.”

This quote speaks to a person’s purpose in life. It helps us to remember the direction we are headed so we don’t lose our way. Rumi was not a Christian, he was a Muslim, and yet his words in this instance are in line with the true north of Jesus’ teachings.

To be a lamp is to help someone find their way in the darkness.

To be a lifeboat is to save someone from drowning.

To be a ladder is to lift someone out of a hole.

And to walk out of your house like a shepherd is go into the world with the purpose of caring for others.    

Luke introduces the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin by pointing to Israel’s lost leadership. From verse 1 we read…

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Tax collectors were part of the machinery which oppressed the Jewish people. They were often suspected of theft, taking more than they should to line their own pockets. Not surprisingly, tax collectors were hated and ostracised.  

The term ‘sinners’ included two groups of people. Those who broke the moral law and those who broke the ceremonial law. The ten commandments are an example of the moral law. Rules about what you can and cannot eat or touch are an example of the ceremonial law.

Those who broke the ceremonial law were not necessarily immoral or unethical. They might be honest hard-working individuals who kept the ten commandments. It was simply their misfortune to work in a trade that made them ceremonially unclean, therefore prohibiting them from gathered worship.     

The Pharisees and teachers of the law were among Israel’s leadership.

They were a religious sect, known for their strict observance of the Jewish law. Not just the written law of Moses, but also the oral tradition that had evolved around the law of Moses. The Pharisees had added a lot of their own rules to God’s law and anyone who did not keep their rules they labelled a sinner.

The Pharisees believed God’s purpose was to destroy those they considered to be sinners. They thought nothing gave God greater joy than annihilating people who sinned. And so, they separated themselves from large sections of society. Sadly, the Pharisees had lost their way.  

Jesus was very different from the Pharisees. There was something attractive about Jesus and his teaching. Tax collectors and sinners were drawn to Jesus and Jesus welcomed them. More than simply welcoming them, Jesus ate with them. And to eat with someone in that culture was to basically make friends with them, to accept them.

In the minds of the Pharisees, Jesus tarred himself with the same brush when he ate with these people who broke their rules. That’s why they muttered against Jesus.     

Jesus spoke these parables (in Luke 15) to show the Pharisees were wrong about God’s purpose. God does not derive joy from destroying people. Quite the opposite in fact. God does not want anyone to perish. God’s purpose is to restore creation, especially his human creatures. Heaven rejoices when the lost are found and people are restored to right relationship with God.

If the Pharisees really wanted to please God, they would not separate themselves from the world. They would join God in his redemptive purpose in the world. They would be a lamp or a lifeboat or a ladder to help others heal. They would walk out of the house (of their manmade rules) like a shepherd.

The lost sheep:

Jesus addresses the lost Pharisees by saying in verse 4, “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them…”

Now, when we read this, we think nothing of it. But to the ears of a Pharisee this would grate. It might even sound offensive.

Abraham was a shepherd. Moses was a shepherd. David was a shepherd.

The Old Testament prophets sometimes referred to Israel’s leaders as shepherds. But despite this, the Pharisees despised shepherds. A shepherd’s work often prevented them from participating in ceremonial worship and, when a sheep went missing, the shepherd was suspected of theft.

Jesus asks the Pharisees to imagine being a shepherd who loses one of their sheep. A shepherd who loses sheep is failing in their job. Jesus seems be implying here that the Pharisees (who are among Israel’s leadership) are like shepherds who lose sheep. In which case the Pharisees have forgotten God’s restorative purpose and are failing in their responsibility to the people.  

Jesus continues his parable saying: Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

Now when I first read this, I thought, that doesn’t make sense, leaving the 99 to fend for themselves in the wilderness, while you go searching for the one lost sheep. The shepherd would probably return to find more sheep missing.

Reading the experts on this passage though, I learned that with a flock of 100 sheep in the middle east there would likely be at least two or three shepherds, so the 99 would not be left on their own. They would still be protected.

Even so you might wonder why the shepherd would go to the trouble of searching for one sheep. I mean, is it worth it? The wilderness is not a safe place. Not only was the shepherd risking his own life, but he could spend many hours searching only to find the sheep dead, killed by a wild animal or something.

Well, shepherds in the first century needed to find the lost sheep, whether dead or alive, in order to exonerate themselves. If you could bring the sheep back alive, all well and good. But even if you brought the sheep back dead, at least then you could prove you had not stolen it and so preserve your honour.      

Before I took to the metal flashing on our house with a grinder, I didn’t know what I might find. Was it just surface rust or was the flashing rusted right through? If it was rusted through, then I had a bigger problem. Still, I needed to find out, so I proceeded in hope and my hope was rewarded with joy.     

The shepherd in Jesus’ parable has an attitude of hope. He is prepared for the worst but hopes for the best. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Jesus’ attitude toward people is one of hope. He doesn’t write a person off as irredeemable. Jesus holds out hope for people.

Everyone, I believe, has at least a little bit of Pharisee in them. Jesus is inviting the Pharisee in each of us to live in hope. Hope for ourselves and hope for others. Do you know someone who is lost? A friend or family member or perhaps someone you don’t like that much. Hold out hope for them.

Pray for them. Who knows what God might do.      

The shepherd’s hope is rewarded when he finds the lost sheep alive. Of course, finding the sheep is one thing, restoring it is another. After finding the sheep, the shepherd then puts it on his shoulders and carries it home.

Carrying a sheep is heavy, dirty work but the shepherd does this joyfully.

He is happy to find the sheep alive, yes, but he also enjoys the work of restoring the sheep, as messy and difficult as that work is.

Restoring the metal flashing on our house was dirty work. I got proper grubby. But there was a certain satisfaction in the process as well. Restoring people is not as straight forward as removing rust or carrying sheep. People are more complicated. We have set backs but, by God’s grace, we also make headway sometimes. We need to be kind to ourselves and celebrate the little wins along the way.    

The shepherd’s joy does not end there. When he gets home, the shepherd calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’

Jesus is saying to the Pharisees here, you should be happy that I am welcoming sinners and eating with them. I know it appears dirty to you, but this is what the work of restoration looks like. You shouldn’t be muttering behind my back. You should be celebrating with me.

I’m fulfilling God’s purpose. I’m being a lamp to those in darkness. I’m being a lifeboat to those who are drowning. I’m being a ladder for others to climb out of a hole and heal. I’m walking into the world with the mindset of a shepherd.

In verse 7 Jesus explains the main point of the parable, saying: I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Jesus is letting the Pharisees know that their values and priorities are very different from heaven’s values and priorities. The Pharisees have lost the compass of God’s purpose and in so doing have become lost themselves.   

Given that heaven rejoices when a sinner repents, so too should we. Perhaps for those in heaven, seeing a person repent is like watching someone on your favourite team score a goal or a try or hit a six. The crowd goes wild.

What then does it mean to repent? The word repent literally means to turn around and go in the other direction. Do a U turn basically. Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change in how one lives.

For a gossip, repentance means learning to be discreet. For someone having an affair, repentance means stopping the affair and remaining faithful to your spouse. For someone prone to arrogance, repentance means being honest with yourself. For the Pharisee in each of us, repentance means trusting Jesus and not relying on our own rules or righteousness.

Repentance happens in a moment but it’s also the work of a lifetime. What is the focus of your repentance right now? What needs to change in your life?    

The interesting thing about the lost sheep is that it does absolutely nothing to be found. The sheep does not know which way to turn. It is powerless to save itself. The sheep’s restoration relies on the shepherd.

Does that mean we don’t need to do anything to be saved? Well, no, our salvation is not automatic. We still need to repent. The point is we cannot repent without God’s grace. God’s grace comes first, before we repent. It’s like Paul says in Romans 8…

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Luke 15 is heavily pregnant with God’s love for us personally. God’s grace in reaching out to save us, before we even knew we were lost and needed saving, speaks to his deep love for humanity. God loves people.

I know it’s difficult to comprehend, but God does not restore us because we repent. No. God restores us because he loves us and delights in restoring people. However, we still need to repent. Faith in Christ and repentance from sin is the right and proper response to God’s prevenient grace and love.

In verse 7 of Luke 15, Jesus says a curious thing. He talks about the 99 being righteous persons who do not need to repent. Hmm? Jesus is probably being ironic here. The wider testimony of Scripture teaches that no one is righteous. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Most people do think they are righteous though, or at least not as bad as others. The truth is most of the time we don’t realise when we are lost. The Pharisees thought they had a monopoly on being right. Little did they know they were more lost than the sinners they despised. We call that dramatic irony.

At the end of the parable the one lost sheep is returned home, while the other 99 are still in the wilderness oblivious to their true condition.     

The lost coin:

We’ve heard about the lost leaders of Israel and the lost sheep. Now let’s consider the lost coin. The parable of the lost coin reinforces the message of the parable of the lost sheep. Heaven rejoices when the lost are found and sinners repent.

If the Pharisees did not like shepherds, they despised women even more.

So Jesus makes a woman the hero of his second parable. Jesus means to challenge the prejudices and misconceptions of the religious leaders. He wants to get under their skin. How else will they realise they are lost?

Anyway, this woman has 10 silver coins and loses one. It could be she was poor and could not afford to lose any money. Or it might be the coin was part of a necklace and losing it would ruin the whole piece of jewelry, like losing a diamond out of an engagement ring.

Whatever the case, the coin is precious to the woman and she searches the house carefully until she finds it. We note the woman is hopeful in her search. It’s not a long shot. The chances of finding a lost coin in a small house are far greater than the chances of finding a lost sheep in the open country.

We also note that finding the lost coin is dirty work. It requires time and effort, not to mention patience and lighting a lamp.

As with the lost sheep, the lost coin does nothing to save itself. The coin cannot move by itself. It is completely powerless and reliant on the woman for its restoration. The woman searches for the coin because she values the coin and cannot bear to lose it.

We are like the coin, powerless to save ourselves. God searches for us because he loves us and doesn’t want heaven without us. 

The search is successful and (like the shepherd) the woman celebrates with her community.

Once again Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, you should be happy that I am welcoming sinners and eating with them. I know it appears dirty to you, but this is what the work of restoration looks like. You should not be muttering behind my back. You should be celebrating with me.

I’m fulfilling God’s purpose. I’m being a lamp to those in darkness. I’m being a lifeboat to those who are drowning. I’m being a ladder for others to climb out of a hole. I am cleaning house. I am helping people to heal.

Jesus concludes this second parable in a similar way to the first, saying:

I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.  

God’s grace comes first but we still need to repent. Repentance, turning away from sin, is the right response to God’s love and grace. The angels of God rejoice over our repentance because they know the obedience of faith pleases the Lord.    

Conclusion:

Jesus practiced what he preached. Later in Luke’s gospel, in chapter 19, we read how Jesus searched for Zacchaeus, the tax collector, and invited himself over for dinner.

Zacchaeus was thrilled by the Lord’s prevenient grace for him and responded with repentance saying: ‘Look, I give half my possessions to the poor and if I have cheated anybody, I will pay back four times the amount.’   

Jesus declared: ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost.’

And heaven rejoiced.

Let us pray…  

Loving God, we thank you for sending Jesus to die for us while we were still sinners and powerless to save ourselves. Grant us a growing awareness of your love and grace. Move us to respond with faith and repentance. May our lives bring you joy. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. Have you ever restored something? What did you restore and how did you go about it? How did you feel throughout the process of restoration? 
  3. Discuss / reflect on the twin parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. Why did Jesus tell these parables? Compare and contrast the two parables? In what ways are they similar? In what ways are they different?
  4. Why does the shepherd search for the sheep? Why does the woman search for the coin? Why does God go out of his way to restore us?
  5. Do you know someone who is lost? Who? Pray for them. What does it mean to live in hope for ourselves and others?
  6. What does it mean to repent? Why do we need to repent? What is the focus of your repentance right now? What needs to change in your life?   
  7. What examples can you think of (in the gospels or in your own life) where God’s grace comes before repentance?
  8. Who do you identify with most in these parables? Why

Bibliography:

  • William Barclay, ‘The Gospel of Luke’, 1965.
  • Leon Morris, ‘Tyndale Commentaries: Luke’, 1976.
  • Kenneth Bailey, ‘Poet & Peasant’, 1976. 
  • Fred Craddock, ‘Interpretation Commentaries: Luke’, 1990.
  • Darrell Bock, ‘NIV Application Commentary: Luke’, 1996.
  • Joel Green, ‘New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel of Luke’, 1997.
Tawa Baptist

The Ten Minas

Scripture: Luke 19:11-27

Video Link: https://youtu.be/IzbzrX5dtkY

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

There is usually more than one way to look at something. For example, take the sentence: A woman without her man is nothing.

Many people will read that and immediately take offense because, depending on your attitude to women, it could sound like you are saying, women are nothing without men, which is not true of course.

But there is another way to read this. If you change the emphasis and say:

A woman, without her man is nothing, then it sounds like you mean men are nothing without women, which is equally untrue.

Personally, I don’t like this sentence. Whichever way you punctuate this phrase, it creates a false dichotomy. Our value as human beings does not depend on gender politics. Our value comes from God. 

The point is, there is more than one way to interpret things. In fact, the way we interpret something often reveals our underlying attitudes and prejudice.

Today we continue our series on the parables of Jesus. The parables of Jesus can be interpreted in more than way. And the way we interpret them reveals our underlying attitudes about God and others. Put simply, Jesus’ parables interpret us. They hold a mirror to our soul, showing what we really believe.

Jesus’ parables are not just saying, ‘This is what God and his kingdom are like.’ They are also uncovering and challenging our underlying assumptions and prejudices about God.

The Ten Minas:

This week’s parable, in Luke 19, is sometimes called the parable of the ten minas. Just to be clear, Jesus is not talking about ten men digging for coal underground, nor is he talking about ten children. A ‘mina’ here is a sum of money roughly equivalent to 100 days wages.

Whether you have heard this parable before or not, it will hold a mirror to your soul. How you choose to interpret it reveals something of what you really believe about God and yourself. From Luke 19, verse 11, we read…   

11 While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. 12 He said: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. 13 So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. ‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’ 14 “But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’ 15 “He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it. 16 “The first one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’ 17 “‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’  18 “The second came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned five more.’ 19 “His master answered, ‘You take charge of five cities.’ 20 “Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. 21 I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’ 22 “His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? 23 Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’ 24 “Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’ 25 “‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’ 26 “He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 27 But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.’”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

The first world war began in July 1914. The allied soldiers could often be heard saying, “We’ll be home by Christmas”. Expectations of victory were running high. People imagined a quick war. Why? Because their underlying assumption was, the enemy is weak and we are strong. Perhaps they also thought, God is on our side.

Tragically, they were not home by Christmas. Millions never came home at all. The enemy was stronger than they had assumed and the war lasted over four years. Many became disillusioned and lost their faith in God because of the false expectations they started with.

Expectations live in the human imagination and that makes them dangerous, because the human imagination knows no limits. The greater the expectation, the greater the risk of disillusionment when those expectations are not met.

At the time Jesus told the parable of the ten minas, the expectations of the people were running high, too high. The people thought Jesus was about to quickly overthrow the Romans and restore Israel’s political power. We’ll be home by Hannukah. Israel assumed God was on their side, politically. They thought they knew what God wanted and, like many of us at times, they overestimated their own strength, their own importance.

That’s why Jesus told this parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.

No. Things were not going to unfold as quickly as people thought.

Jesus needed to put the brakes on people’s expectations. He needed to challenge people’s assumptions about themselves and about God. Jesus was not going to Jerusalem to start a revolution or overthrow the Romans. Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world.    

Jesus begins his parable by saying, “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return…” Who is Jesus talking about here? Who is the man of noble birth? Well, Jesus does not say.

However, we do notice some striking parallels between the man of noble birth and Jesus himself. After his death and resurrection, Jesus would ascend to heaven where God would appoint him as King. Then one day, at some unspecified time, Jesus will return in glory. This reading fits with the larger gospel narrative.

The point not to be missed here is that the man of noble birth goes to a distant country, which indicates the nobleman would be gone for some time, thus reinforcing the idea that God’s kingdom was not going to appear at once.    

Before he goes away, though, the nobleman calls ten of his servants together and gives each one a mina. As already mentioned, a mina is a measure of money roughly equivalent to 100 days wages. He tells his servants to put the money to work. Trade with it. See what you can do.

If Jesus is the nobleman, then the servants are those who know Jesus and confess him as Lord. Those who are part of Jesus’ household and are obliged to obey him. Jesus’ disciples in other words.   

Jesus does not define what the minas represent, we are left to interpret that for ourselves. Logically, we could say a mina is whatever resource Jesus has entrusted to us.

Some people think of the minas in literal material terms, like actual money or possessions. Others think one’s mina could be a special ability or God given talent, like being good with children or good with words or music or whatever.

We do well to include a spiritual meaning for the minas. For example, the minas may represent the faith, hope and love we have in Christ, or perhaps the word of God, the gospel we received, or maybe the gift of the Holy Spirit Himself. At its heart, I think of the mina as symbolic of God’s grace for us personally. Grace always comes first. Without God’s grace we can do nothing.  

How do you understand Jesus’ gift to you? And, what are you doing with that gift? How are you using your gift for Jesus’ benefit?

The plot of the parable thickens in verse 14 where we read: “But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’

This twist in the story finds another parallel with Jesus’ own experience. At the time Jesus told this parable, he was popular with the people. But in little over a week the crowds (egged on by the religious leaders) would reject Jesus, calling on Pilate to have him crucified. They did not want Jesus to be their king.

Kenneth Bailey points out what would have been obvious to Jesus’ Middle Eastern audience but is less obvious to us. The parable imagines a time of political transition and instability. It is by no means certain at this point whether the nobleman will be made king. People don’t like him.    

This puts the nobleman’s servants in a difficult position. Given their master has many enemies, who will support their business ventures which are funded by the nobleman? Some of those enemies may even sabotage their efforts. Trading in an uncertain environment like that is risky.

Worse than that, what if their master is not made king? They will probably suffer repercussions from their master’s enemies. The smart thing would be to keep your head down and hide your association with the master.

Now it becomes clear why the nobleman gave his servants money and told them to trade with it. He wants to know if his servants are willing to take the risk and openly declare themselves as loyal to him, during his absence, in a world where many oppose his rule.

In Latvia, the Lutheran church asks those who want to become pastors an important question: When were you baptised? If the candidate for ministry was baptised during the period of Soviet rule, when the church was persecuted, then they had risked their lives. They had openly declared themselves to be loyal to Jesus in a world that opposes Jesus’ rule. They had put the mina of their faith to work in the marketplace.

But if the candidate for ministry says they were baptised after the period of Soviet rule, well the seminary asks a lot more questions.

As Kenneth Bailey notes, “In the parable the master challenges his servants to live boldly and publicly as his servants using his resources, unafraid of his enemies, confident in the future as his future.” [1]

The church is not persecuted in New Zealand, but we are often misrepresented and misunderstood. Do we have the courage to risk publicly owning our faith in Jesus? Ultimately, and perhaps inconveniently, that is what it means to put our mina to work in the world.   

Verse 15 confirms the nobleman was in fact made king. Again, this parallels what happened to Jesus. Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to heaven bears witness to his legitimacy as God’s appointed King.

The first thing the master does on returning home is call for his servants.

He wants to know what they did with the money he had given them, not because he is interested in making money, but because what they did with the money will show where their true loyalty lies.    

The first two servants report to their master how they have turned a profit. One servant earned ten minas (a 1000% return) and the other, five minas (a 500% return). Given the difficulty of trading in that politically unstable environment, those sorts of returns suggest the master was gone for a very long time. You don’t make a 1000% return in just 12 months.

But notice how the servants speak to their master. They say: ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’  ‘Your mina has earned five more.’ The servants are humble, giving credit for their success to the master. They understand that without the master’s gift they would have nothing to offer. It is all by God’s grace.

Notice too the master’s response. He commends these servants for their trustworthiness or their faithfulness. They were not afraid to hide their loyalty to the master. They traded openly in the marketplace in confidence their master would return as King.

A British journalist once asked Mother Teresa how she kept going, knowing that she could never meet the needs of all the dying in the streets of Calcutta.

She replied, “I am not called to be successful; I’m called to be faithful.”      

Although two of the servants in the parable were successful, the master commends them for being trustworthy or faithful. The master is clearly very wealthy. He doesn’t need more money. He needs to know who he can trust.

This offers us some encouragement. We may not be successful in a numbers sense. We may have little control over the outcome of our witness for Christ. Our part is to remain faithful and leave the outcome with God who is able to work all things for good.   

The reward for proving trustworthy is being given even greater trust.

The servant who earned ten minas is put in charge of ten cities and the servant who earned five minas is entrusted with five cities.

Sadly, not all the servants proved faithful. Another servant appears before his master with an excuse. He says: ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. 21 I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’  

Now, if you have failed your boss and are having to give account for your actions, you don’t start by insulting him. You pay him a compliment to try and soften him up. Why then does this servant basically accuse his master of being a hard man and a thief? Because that sounds like an insult.

Well, the servant probably thought he was complimenting his boss by calling him a hard man. Some people like to think of themselves as a bit gangster, a bit tough, not prone to suffering fools. Some people get off on thinking that other people are scared of them. Not this boss though. The third servant has completely misread his master’s character.

The master does not admit to being a hard man and a thief, but nor does he correct the servant’s prejudice. He judges the servant by his own words.

Jesus is just and fair. He judges us by our own standards. The measure we use for others is the measure the Lord will use for us.

The servant’s words provide a mirror to his soul, reflecting his deceit.

The master knows the servant is lying and points out the inconsistency in what he says. If the servant really was afraid of the master, he could have at least put the mina on term deposit with the bank. In other words, he could have gone with a low-risk investment and still had something to show for it.

The truth is the servant here was too afraid to publicly identify himself with his master when it was risky to do so. But the servant’s problem runs deeper than that. The wicked servant never properly accepted the master’s grace in the first place and so he did not know the master’s true character.  

The wicked servant might represent anyone who is offered the mina of God’s grace but lays it aside, not accepting it personally. Without a deep experience of God’s grace, we won’t develop the loyalty to put our faith out there.

Have you accepted God’s grace for yourself personally?

The master in the parable takes away the wicked servant’s mina and gives it to the servant who has ten minas. The first thing we notice here is the master’s generosity. Even though the capital and the profits are rightfully his, the master let’s his faithful servants keep the money. This shows the wicked servant’s estimate of the master, as a hard man and a thief, was very wrong.

Not everyone can see the master’s generosity though. Some protest saying… ‘Sir he already has ten!’ To which the master replies: ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away.’

I understand this to mean, ‘use it or lose it’. Faith is like a muscle. Just as our muscles become weak and waste away if we don’t use them, so too our faith becomes weak and wastes away if we don’t exercise it. Exercising your faith means more than just reading your Bible and praying, although that is a good place to start. True faith calls for obedience, actually doing what Jesus asks.  

Jesus does not say what happens to the wicked servant after that. I guess three scenarios are possible: Either he kept his job, or he was fired or he resigned.

After he publicly denied Jesus, Peter did not resign, nor did Jesus fire him. In fact, Jesus restored the repentant Peter, trusting him with more responsibility.

It was a different story with Judas though. After betraying Jesus, Judas quit. The Lord did not fire him. We must not lose faith in the grace of God. If you fail, do not condemn yourself and do not quit your faith. Repent. Jesus rewards faith.

After the master has dealt with his own household, he then turns his attention to his enemies, those who do not want him to be king, saying: bring them here and kill them in front of me.

This ending is problematic for some. If the king represents Jesus, then how do we reconcile the killing of enemies with the Jesus we read about in the gospels? Other earthly kings do this, but Jesus is not like other kings.

Jesus taught us to love our enemies. From the cross he said, ‘Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.’ 

Some say the parallels between the nobleman and Jesus should not be pressed too far. So Jesus is like the nobleman in some respects but not in every way and not in this last respect.

Others say Jesus has every right to execute his enemies when he returns. Indeed, justice requires it. You could say a quick death is a relatively merciful outcome for those who oppose God’s rule. They are getting off lightly.

Whatever the case, the point seems to be that in the end (at the judgement) there is a negative consequence for those who continue opposing Jesus and a reward for those who are faithful to Christ.    

Conclusion:

Jesus leaves his parable with some loose ends. He does not quench the thirst of our unanswered questions. He lets the parable interpret us.

What we can say with confidence is that Jesus, the King, will return in glory one day. It may be a long wait, but he will return. In the meantime, we are to receive his grace and put our faith to work, remaining loyal to him in a world that is sometimes hostile.

Let us pray…       

Jesus, we thank you for your grace. Give us wisdom and courage to put our mina to work and remain faithful to you. And when we fail, restore us we pray, to the praise of your glory. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. How did you initially interpret the sentence: ‘A woman without her man is nothing.’ (Be honest) Why do you think you interpreted it this way?
  3. Discuss / reflect on the parable of the ten minas. What was Jesus’ purpose in telling this parable? Why did Jesus give his servants minas to trade with, in his absence? What parallels do you observe between Jesus and the nobleman? Where do the parallels stop (or do they)?  
  4. How do you understand Jesus’ gift (of a mina) to you? What are you doing with that gift? How are you using your gift for Jesus’ benefit?
  5. How do you understand the phrase: ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away.’?
  6. What do you think happened to the wicked servant? Why do you think this?
  7. What does it mean to accept God’s grace for yourself personally? Have you done this?

Bibliography:

  • William Barclay, ‘The Gospel of Luke’, 1965.
  • Leon Morris, ‘Tyndale Commentaries: Luke’, 1976.
  • Fred Craddock, ‘Interpretation Commentaries: Luke’, 1990.
  • Darrell Bock, ‘NIV Application Commentary: Luke’, 1996.
  • Joel Green, ‘New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel of Luke’, 1997.
  • Kenneth Bailey, ‘Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes’, 2008.  

[1] Kenneth Bailey, ‘Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes’, page 401.  

Tawa Baptist

The Portrait

Scripture: Matthew 5:3-10

In his book The Tender Commandments, Ron Mehl tells the story of a father and a son…

Once there was a wealthy man who, along with his son, shared a passion for collecting art. They would travel the world together adding only the finest pieces to their collection. Priceless works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet and many others hung on the walls of their family estate.

The father, who had lost his wife many years earlier, looked on with satisfaction as his only son became an experienced and skillful art collector in his own right. The bond between father and son was strong, their relationship close.

One year war engulfed the nation and the son enlisted to serve his country.

After training he shipped out to the front with his company. He had only been there a few short weeks when his father received a telegram to say his son was missing in action.

The father waited, fearing the worst. Within days his fears were realized.

It was confirmed that his son had died while rescuing a wounded mate.

The father was beside himself with grief. Christmas was coming but what was there left to celebrate. His wife and only son were gone so there did not seem much point.

Early on Christmas morning the old man heard a knock at the door and slowly lifted himself from his chair to see who it might be. As he walked down the long wide corridor of his mansion, the masterpieces hanging on the walls seemed to mock him. Beauty and riches are meaningless if you don’t have someone to share them with.

Opening his front door the old man was surprised to see a young man dressed in uniform with a large package in his hand. The soldier introduced himself saying…

“I was a friend of your son. As a matter of fact, I was the one he was rescuing when he died. May I come in for a few moments. I have something I would like to show you.”

As the two began to talk the soldier told how the man’s son had spoken so much about art and the joy of collecting masterpieces alongside his father.

“I’m something of an artist myself”, the soldier said a bit shyly, “And well, I want you to have this.”

As the old man unwrapped the package, the brown paper gave way to reveal a portrait of the man’s son, who had been killed. No one would consider the painting a masterpiece, but it did capture the young man’s expression.

Tears welled in the old man’s eyes. The soldier painter sat still, not saying a word. He simply made room for the old man’s grief.

After a few moments the father managed to compose himself long enough to say, “Thank you, I will hang the picture above the mantlepiece.”

Later that same day, when the soldier had left, the old man removed a Monet to make room for the portrait of his hero son in pride of place over the mantlepiece. Then he spent the rest of the day just looking at it, remembering his boy as he was.

During the days and weeks that followed, the man realized that even though his son was no longer with him, the boy’s life would live on because of those he had saved. His son had rescued dozens of fellow soldiers before being cut down himself.

The portrait of his son became the old man’s most prized possession. He told his neighbours it was the greatest gift he had ever received.

A few years past before the old man became ill and died. With the famous collector’s passing, the art world eagerly anticipated a great auction. According to the collector’s will, all of the works would be auctioned on Christmas day, the day he had received his greatest gift.

Christmas soon arrived and art dealers from around the world gathered to bid on some of the world’s most spectacular paintings. The excitement was palpable. What would be put up for sale first? A Picasso perhaps or maybe a Van Gogh…

But the auction did not begin how people expected. The auction began with a painting that was not on any museum’s list. It was the simple portrait of a young soldier, the collector’s son.

The auctioneer began, “Who will open with a bid of a hundred dollars?”

The room was uncomfortably silent. Finally, after what seemed like an age, a gruff voice could be heard from the back of the room, “Who cares about that painting? It’s just a portrait of the old codger’s son”. Other voices could be heard grunting their agreement. “Let’s forget about it and move on to the good stuff.”

“No” the auctioneer replied, “we have to sell this one first. Now, who will receive the son?”

Eventually, a neighbour of the old man spoke up. “Will you take fifty dollars for it. I knew the boy, so I’d like to have it.”

“I have fifty dollars”, called the auctioneer, “Will anyone go higher?”

After more silence, the auctioneer said, “Going once, going twice, sold for $50!”

The gavel fell and cheers filled the room. Someone called out, “Finally, now we can get on with it”

But at that moment, the auctioneer looked up at the audience and announced the auction was over. Stunned disbelief blanketed the room.

Someone spoke up, “What do you mean it’s over?” I didn’t fly halfway round the world for a picture of the old guy’s son. What about all these other paintings? There’s millions of dollars’ worth of art here. I demand an explanation!”

In a quiet, clearvoice the auctioneer replied, “It’s very simple… according to the will of the father, whoever receives the son, gets it all.”

In some ways, Jesus is like the son in this story. Jesus is loved by God the Father, so much so that whoever receives Jesus by faith, inherits the kingdom of heaven.

Of course, Jesus does not go to the highest bidder. Jesus freely offers himself to everyone who will make room to receive him.

However, the gift of God’s son is not usually offered in the way we might expect. Jesus was born into poverty and laid in a feeding trough. I don’t think anyone anticipated that. Even more shockingly, Jesus suffered and died on a cross, giving his life to save ours. No one expected a crucified Messiah.

We do not receive Jesus in strength or by our own resources. We receive Jesus in weakness, on our knees, with nothing to offer but an honest confession of our need.

Those who receive Jesus, will (eventually) inherit it all, for Jesus embodies the kingdom of God.

In Matthew 5, Jesus talks about what it looks like to receive him…

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Will we make room to receive Jesus, even when he comes to us in ways we are not expecting?

Let us pray…

Father God, we thank you for your love and generosity. Help us to recognize the opportunities you give for receiving Jesus. May we be open to accept your grace, your truth, your mercy, your Spirit. Amen.   

Tawa Baptist

Leadership & Administration

Scripture: Romans 12:8 and 1 Corinthians 12:28

Video Link: https://youtu.be/8qs2bj1tBlg

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Administration
  • Leadership
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Max Lucado once wrote: A person who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.

The conductor does not follow the crowd; they follow the music. They cannot afford to worry about what others think; they must stay focused on leading the orchestra, helping all the different musicians to play their part in harmony.  

Over the past two or three months we have been considering the spiritual gifts Paul mentions in Corinthians and Romans. Gifts like prophecy, teaching, helps, tongues, marriage, singleness, wisdom, knowledge and so on. Today we conclude our series on spiritual gifts by taking a closer look at the gifts of administration and leadership.

If we think of the church like an orchestra, then those with the gifts of administration and leadership are like the conductor of the orchestra, helping the various members of the church to use their gifts in harmony with each other. Let us begin then with the gift of administration. From First Corinthians 12 we read…

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Most of you would remember the TV show MASH. MASH stands for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. MASH was a dramatic comedy set in the Korean war of the 1950’s. One of the lead characters in MASH was Corporal Radar O’Reilly.

Corporal O’Reilly got the nickname ‘Radar’ because he always sensed when the choppers were coming with wounded before anyone else did. Radar was not an officer or a doctor. He was the hospital’s administrator. He filled out forms and basically kept the organisation running smoothly.

We could say Radar was the ‘under the radar’ leader of the MASH unit. He was like the conductor of the orchestra except he wasn’t seen up front. Without Corporal O’Reilly the MASH unit would not be able to function. It was a running gag that a Corporal (and not a Colonel) was actually running the place.

In Corinthians 12, Paul talks about the church being like a body with many different parts. Each person in the church is a part of the body of Christ and just as each part of a body has a special function, so too each believer has a special gift. We need each other to be different or else the church will not function as it should.

One part of the body Paul mentions is those with the gifts of administration. We might not think of administration as that spectacular but, in any organisation, it is essential to have people who can organise things.

The alternative would be chaos.

A church without administrators would be like an orchestra without a conductor. It would be like a MASH unit without a Corporal O’Reilly, or an aircraft without a pilot.    

In fact, the Greek word translated as administration, in verse 28, literally means the work of a ship’s pilot. The ship’s pilot is the one who steers the ship through rocks and shoals to safe harbour. [1] Modern Greek uses the same word for an aircraft pilot. [2] 

The work of an administrator then is the work of steering the church in the right direction, keeping it on course, avoiding dangers, recognising the changing weather and adjusting accordingly.

Bible commentator, David Prior, observes (and I paraphrase here)…

The pilot / administrator knows the capabilities of their craft and crew.

They know who to call on at which moment. They do not panic nor relax their vigilance. They are focused on the goal of reaching journey’s end safe and sound.  

The gift of administration carries the idea of giving guidance. The guidance may be for an individual or for the church as a whole.

Joseph, the son of Jacob (in Genesis) was a gifted administrator. Joseph rose to the position of chief steward in Potiphar’s house. After being falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife, Joseph was sent to prison where he was put in charge of the other prisoners due to his administrative skills.

Then, after being released from prison, Joseph gave guidance to Pharoah (king of Egypt) and Pharoah put Joseph in charge of the administration of Egypt’s entire economy. Joseph, a man with a God given gift for administration, piloted Egypt through a severe famine, saving millions of lives from starvation.      

It is interesting that Jesus chose at least one tax collector (Matthew – aka Levi) among his disciples. Tax collectors are administrators. They are good at keeping records. Matthew’s gift with admin bore fruit in his recording of Jesus’ teaching, giving us the gospel of Matthew.

The infamous gangster Al Capone was, in the end, caught and put away by an accountant, someone good at administration. Through a meticulous investigation, forensic accountant Frank Wilson uncovered evidence of tax evasion and, in October 1931, Al Capone was convicted of tax fraud (through Frank Wilson’s guidance).

There is a lot of administration in running a church these days, way more than when I started. Much of the administration is driven by keeping up with statutory compliance. There are quite a few people in this church who provide guidance by assisting with administration behind the scenes.

We have the deacons board of course, but also the finance team and the health & safety committee, as well as Brodie, in the church office. Pastoral staff have a significant administrative element to their work too. Administrators provide information that is helpful in guiding our decisions.

Let me say thank you to the administrators among us. We need your skill and attention to help steer the church and keep us off the rocks. It is not glamourous work, but it is necessary for the right functioning of the body.

Let me also say, administration is no less ‘spiritual’ than some of the more dramatic (or supernatural) gifts. The same Spirit who empowers the prophet also empowers the administrator.

We come across an example of good administration in the early church in Acts chapter 6. From verse 1 we read…

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jewsamong them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” 5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. 7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

Three things we note here. Firstly, the apostles did not try to do everything themselves. They recognised their gift was not administering food to widows, so they delegated this responsibility to others who did have the gift.

Secondly, the apostles empowered the congregation to choose their own administrators. And the congregation chose mostly Hellenistic Jews. That is, Greek speaking Jews. Jews who were born and raised outside of the land of Israel. Because these administrators were Hellenistic Jews, they had a better understanding of the needs of the Hellenistic widows who were missing out.

Thirdly, the apostles commissioned the seven administrators by laying hands on them and praying for them. In doing this the apostles were demonstrating that administration is spiritual. It is a function carried out with the help of the Holy Spirit.

As a consequence of this wise administrative move, the apostles were released to preach the gospel and the church continued to grow.   

Leadership:

Closely related to the gift of administration (or giving guidance) is the gift of leadership. In Romans 12, verse 8, Paul writes…

8 If [your gift] is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.  

The Greek word translated as lead (in verse 8) is proistēmi. It literally means ‘to stand before’ and thus to influence others. That is, to cause them to follow a recommended course of action. [3] To lead, in other words.

Leadership is more than administration. A leader doesn’t just provide guidance. A leader embodies the guidance. They stand before others. They go first, modelling by their actions the way people are to follow.

Seth Godin puts it this way…

‘The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow.’

There is quite a bit in this pithy statement. Firstly, a leader does what they believe in. This implies authenticity. The leader is not faking it. Nor are they just talking about an idea. They are deeply committed to what they believe in.

They live their beliefs.

Painting a picture of the future is about giving people hope. Someone once said, ‘leaders are dealers in hope’. If you are asking people to change, then they need to believe the change will be worth it. They need to be convinced the future will be better for having made the change.    

Going there, is about being the change you want to see in the world. Leadership involves influencing people by what you do. Deeds speak louder than words. Leadership means showing as well as telling.

To be convincing then, a leader needs to be authentic, they need to offer hope and they need to lead by example. Ultimately though, what makes a person a leader, is people who will follow. Without followers one cannot really call themselves a leader.      

Being the first one to do something, taking the lead, requires a certain courage.    The courage to turn your back on the crowd, to risk rejection and humiliation, to do things differently, to cut a new path for others to follow.

One of the greatest leaders of all time was king David, king of Israel. Before he took the throne, while he was still a callow youth, David showed Israel the leadership they needed at that time.

David acted on his belief that the God of Israel was stronger than the enemy. David painted a picture of the future by defeating Goliath with a stone and a slingshot. David was a dealer in hope. He had the courage of his convictions.

He led by example, and people followed him.

But one even greater than David has come. His name is Jesus. Jesus cut a new path; he redefined leadership in terms of service to others. Jesus did not come to conquer Israel’s political enemies. Rather, Jesus conquered humanity’s spiritual enemies by going to the cross. Jesus overcame sin and death.  

Jesus is our leader. He suffered rejection and humiliation, betrayal and loneliness. But God vindicated Jesus by raising him to eternal life on the third day. Jesus’ resurrection paints a picture of what the future looks like for those who follow him in faith.

Now the examples of David slaying Goliath and Jesus conquering sin and death may feel a bit out of reach for us. They might also give the false impression that leadership is an occasional, isolated act of heroism.

Leadership does require courage and going where others have not been before, but the day-to-day reality of church leadership is less dramatic than that.  

Returning to Romans 12. Paul says that those who lead should do so diligently.

The definition of diligence is ‘careful and persistent work or effort’.

David learned how to use a sling through diligent practice as a shepherd defending his sheep. Likewise, Jesus went to the cross after 33 years of careful and persistent obedience to God the Father.

Leadership requires the energy to give our best every day and in every situation for the wellbeing of the community. If you are in the habit of serving diligently by giving your best in the routine small things, then when a trial by fire comes you will be better equipped to deal with it.

One of my favourite jobs when I was younger was splitting firewood. It is incredibly satisfying to bring an axe down on a willow ring and feel the wood come apart. Not so satisfying when you get a knotty piece though.

The trick with splitting wood is not holding the axe handle too tight or too loose. If you hold the axe too loose, it will fly out of your hands. But if you hold it too tight, you will get blisters faster and you will feel the shock through your arms more sharply. You have to hold the axe handle with just the right amount of tension.  

Diligence is about holding the handle of leadership just right, not too loose, not too tight. If you are a bit slack in your approach to leadership, you risk losing a handle on what you are doing. Likewise, if you are too up-tight (too white knuckle obsessive in your approach) then you risk burning out and making everybody else’s life a misery.

The Pharisees were hyper diligent in their observance of the law of Moses and it got in the way of people loving God and loving their neighbour. We need to keep the main thing the main thing. Diligence is a fine balance.

One of the things that sets Christian leaders apart is that we are followers first.

The ancient Greek philosopher, Solon, is credited with saying…

‘He who has learned how to obey will know how to command.’

Before we can lead anyone in the Christian faith, we must first learn to obey Jesus. Our authority to lead others comes from our obedience to Christ. Christian leaders are disciples of Jesus first. Indeed, if we take on the mantle of leadership, we don’t stop being disciples. We continue to take our lead from Jesus himself.    

When we look at the leaders of the early church, they were actually following the Spirit of Jesus, not their own inclinations.

In Acts chapter 10, the apostle Peter received a vision from heaven with a sheet containing all sorts of unclean animals. Then he hears a voice telling him to eat the animals.

At first Peter was shocked and appalled, saying ‘I have never eaten anything impure or unclean’. And the voice spoke again saying, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean’.

Long story short, the Lord wanted Peter to take the gospel to the Gentiles and to the Roman Centurion, Cornelius, in particular. More than that, the Lord wanted Peter to lead the way in showing the mainly Jewish Christian church that it was time to welcome Gentiles (non-Jews) into the fold.

This might not seem like a big deal to us, but it was huge for Peter and others at the time. Peter was being asked to turn his back on the crowd and on Jewish tradition. But Peter found the courage to obey Jesus, to follow the Lord’s lead, and now the Christian church is made of people of all nations.   

The other thing we note about Christian leadership is that it is usually plural.

In the New Testament, Christian leaders don’t normally stand alone. They stand together and make decisions together.    

The famous baseball player Babe Ruth once said: ‘The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.’   

In Acts 15 we read how some Jewish Christians were insisting that Gentiles who wanted to become Christians must be circumcised and required to obey the Law of Moses. Then in verse 6 we read how the apostles and elders met to consider the question.

Peter did not try to handle this on his own. He got the other church leaders together to discuss the issue and together they found a way forward.

Conclusion:

This morning we have been talking about the spiritual gifts of administration and leadership. These gifts are no less spiritual for being down to earth and practical. Maybe you have one of these gifts. Maybe God has gifted you in some other way.

Charles Schultz (of Charlie Brown fame) once wrote: ‘Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.’

God doesn’t just give us one gift. He is generous. He normally gives a number of gifts. What gifts has God given you? How are you using these gifts?

Let us pray…

Gracious God, thank you for the gifts you have given your people. Help us to understand how you have equipped us and where you want us to serve. Glorify yourself through our strengths and our weaknesses we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.  

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. What does Paul mean by the gift of administration, in 1 Corinthians 12:28? What does a good administrator do for an organisation? Is this your gift?
  3. Discuss / reflect on Seth Godin’s comment: ‘The secret of leadership is simple: Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow.’ By this definition, who has had a significant leadership role in your life?
  4. What qualities or characteristics does a leader need to possess to be convincing?
  5. What does it look like to lead with diligence? Why is diligence important in leadership?
  6. What are some of the distinctives of Christian leadership?
  7. What gifts has God given you? How are you using these gifts? 

[1] Refer William Barclay’s commentary on 1 Corinthians, page 129.

[2] Refer David Prior’s commentary on 1 Corinthians, page 221.

[3] Refer Marva Dawn’s book, ‘Truly the Community’, page 131.

Tawa Baptist

Teaching & Encouraging

 Scripture: Romans 12:7

Video Link: https://youtu.be/WFz64Wj_FKk



Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Teaching
  • Encouraging
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

We have had no shortage of rain lately but (according to the Wellington City Council) we could be in for a dry summer. Careful watering will be needed.

They reckon the best time to water your plants is in the morning. The soil is coolest then and the water has the best chance of seeping down to the roots.

They also say it is best to water your plants at the level of the soil, rather than pouring water all over the leaves. It’s the roots that take the water in not the leaves. Baptising the tree tends to waste the water.

When watering your plants take it slow, be gentle. You don’t want to knock the plant around or blast the soil away and expose the roots.

Of course, you don’t just water once and walk away. Watering is something we do on repeat. New plants generally need more frequent watering early on.

Watering then needs to be timely, focused, gentle and repeated.

Today we continue our series on spiritual gifts, this week focusing on the gifts of teaching and encouraging, in Romans 12. If we think of our faith as a plant, then teaching and encouraging are like watering the tree of our faith.

As a general rule, teaching and encouraging need to be timely, focused, gentle and repeated. To remind you of the context, let me read a few verses from Romans 12, starting at verse 6…

 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with yourfaith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Teaching:

I invite you to take a moment now to think back to when you were at school. Some of you may need more time than others. Who was your best teacher? Who was the teacher who really got you and helped you more than any other?

I was fortunate to have many good teachers when I was at school. One in particular was Mrs Smith. She was my teacher in standard 1, the equivalent of year 3. I could not read or write. Had no clue with words or with numbers either for that matter. But I enjoyed eating my lunch.

Mrs Smith could see that and knew what I needed. For a whole year she gave me individual coaching and special homework. The extra work required some effort from me and I probably complained to my parents quite a bit at the time, but Mrs Smith taught me how to read and write.

Her teaching was timely. Had Mrs Smith not intervened when she did, I would have fallen further and further behind and my life may have taken a very different path.

Mrs Smith’s teaching was focused on what I needed. She taught me basic sight words and this gave me confidence to learn more. There was a lot of repetition. Pretty much every morning before school, day in, day out Mrs Smith introduced new words and reinforced what we had learned. Mrs Smith was firm but gentle in her approach.

There was no stick but there was a carrot. At the end of year prizegiving I was awarded the most improved student. This was an acknowledgement of my work and a reflection of Mrs Smith’s skill as a teacher.

We are talking about the gift of teaching. What then does the apostle Paul mean by teaching? Is it the same as a modern schoolteacher or is it different?

Well, the Greek word used in the Bible for teaching covers a wide spectrum of roles and functions. It could mean someone who teaches children to read and write but, in the context of Romans 12, it probably refers more specifically to those who teach others about Jesus and the Bible.

At its heart, teaching in a church context, is about communicating truth, the truth of what we believe about God and Jesus. If prophecy is the revelation of new truth from God, then teaching is conveying old truth from God.     

Teachers were vitally important in the early church. The Christians of the first century had the Hebrew Bible, what we know as the Old Testament, but they did not have the New Testament compiled in a book like we do.

People couldn’t just go to their bookshelf, pull out the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John and read for themselves about Jesus. Early Christians were reliant on teachers to recount the historical events of Jesus’ death and resurrection and explain the meaning of this for them.

Teachers in the early church had a huge responsibility. Without people to accurately pass on Jesus’ teachings, the core message of God’s grace in Christ would be diluted or lost altogether.

These days we do have a New Testament and stacks of books we can pick up and read anytime. However, it has been 2000 years since the events described in the New Testament and, without good Bible teachers to explain the meaning, much of the Bible is lost in translation, misunderstood and misapplied.   

Someone who is good at maths once calculated that for every one degree you are off course, you will end up being 1 mile off course after traveling 60 miles.

For example, if you are flying from Wellington to Auckland and the plane is 1 degree off course you might end up in Indonesia or run out of fuel and crash into the Pacific Ocean. 

Teachers are like navigators. Just as a ship or a plane needs the navigator to keep the craft on course, so too the church needs teachers to keep it on course.  

The church’s teachers these days are not limited to people who offer sound Biblical preaching but extend to anyone who faithfully passes on the truths of the Christian faith. This might include, for example, Sunday school teachers, Bible study leaders, youth group leaders and parents.

Parents play an important role in watering the faith of their children. Parents might do this by reading Bible stories to their kids and praying with them so their children can see and hear how prayer is done. Children probably learn most from the model their parents give them.        

In some ways teaching is like an iceberg. The presentation people see or hear from the teacher is just the tip of the iceberg. The bigger part of the work of teaching is the preparation. The preparation lies beneath the surface and is not usually seen.  

Preparation is one of the key differences between prophecy and teaching.

A prophet may stand up in church on a Sunday and spontaneously speak the words given them by the Spirit.

A teacher, on the other hand, does not normally give an extemporaneous talk. Rather, they do their homework ahead of time. They carefully prepare their sermon through prayer, reading, research, reflection, and writing. The teacher is aiming to water the roots gently.

If you have a formal teaching role, whether in the pulpit or Kids’ Church or as a Bible study leader or a parent, then you cannot expect to pass on the truth of the gospel unless you have done the hard yards in learning the truth yourself.

Studying the Scriptures is not merely an intellectual exercise. Yes, it does involve using your brain, but the Bible asks more of you than that. The Scriptures contain the word of God. The Scriptures interpret us. They make claims on us, test us, discipline us, and ultimately put us to work.     

Every believer has a responsibility to learn what they can about the Christian faith. We need to love God with our mind as well as our heart and soul.

We never know when a teaching moment might present itself. Maybe when you are sitting beside someone on the train or tucking the kids in at night or lying in a hospital bed. If someone asked, why are you a Christian, what would you say?   

Some people have a special gift in teaching others. They understand their subject matter, they can see things from the perspective of the learner, and they know how to bridge the gap in understanding.

More than this, a good teacher possesses the patience to gently water the roots in a timely way, over and over again until the truth is firmly established.  

Jesus prioritised teaching in his ministry. After healing people, the Lord often instructed the person he had healed to tell no one. For Jesus, the miracles were not the main thing. In fact, the miracles risked becoming a side show which distracted people from the main thing. The main thing being Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom of God.    

In Matthew 11 Jesus says: 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

A yoke is a piece of equipment worn over the shoulders to make it easier to carry a load. Yokes could be worn by animals for pulling a plough or they could be worn by people for carrying water say.

In this little parable the yoke represents teaching. The Jews of Jesus’ day were weary and burdened by the yoke of the Pharisees’ teaching. The Pharisees insisted upon a whole lot of extra rules.  

By contrast, Jesus’ yoke is easy and his burden is light. The word translated as easy means fitting, as in not rubbing or chaffing. Part of Jesus’ work as a carpenter may have involved making and shaping wooden yokes so they fitted easily over the animal’s shoulders, without causing injury to the animal.

To take Jesus’ yoke upon ourselves is to listen and learn from his teaching. Jesus’ teaching shows us how to love God and our neighbour in a way that fits who God made us to be.    

Encouragement:

Closely related to the gift of teaching is the gift of encouragement. Now, when we hear the word ‘encouragement’, we tend to think of someone who says kind and affirming words to make another person feel better about themselves or their situation. Things like…

“That was really good. You are doing so well. Keep it up. You will get there.” 

And while this is partly what Paul means by encouragement, the Biblical understanding of encouragement is broader than that.

The Greek word translated in verse 8 as encouragement is ‘parakaleo’. Para means beside or near and kaleo means to call. So parakaleo is literally ‘to call beside’. To be an encourager in this Biblical sense then is to come alongside another person and speak good words to them, words that build up and strengthen them.     

Parakaleo has a range of meanings and is variously translated into English with words like encourage, exhort, urge, comfort and entreat. No one word in English does parakaleo justice, but in the context of Romans 12, Paul probably means those with the gift of encouraging Christians to live out the truth of the gospel.

Those with the gift of teaching give people an understanding of the truth of the gospel and those with the gift of encouraging come alongside to give people the courage to obey Jesus’ teaching in the gospel.

For example, the teacher might explain the way of Christ is to love our enemies and bless those who curse us. That is wonderful teaching but very difficult to put into action, especially by yourself. The encourager is the one who comes alongside you and by their presence and gentle words actually helps you to love your enemies.  

John Stott comments that encouragement can be exercised from the pulpit when the preacher gives an inspiring talk, but more often it is used behind the scenes as the gift of counselling or in offering friendship to the lonely or giving fresh courage to those who have lost heart. [1]         

Jesus sent his disciples out two by two so they would not be alone, so they could encourage one another. 

Part of the role of a spiritual director is to help people hear what God is saying and encourage them to do what God is asking. (Incidentally, Kim is embarking on spiritual director training. She is looking for someone to encourage. So, if you want some help in your spiritual journey, talk to Kim.)

Like watering, encouragement needs to be timely, focused, gentle and repeated. Those with the gift of encouragement don’t carelessly pour a deluge of words over you. No. They listen first. They don’t assume. They seek to understand and they show empathy. Then they focus the water of their words on the roots. They gently speak to your heart the refreshment you need to hear. They believe in you, giving you confidence and hope.

In Luke 5, we read how Jesus encouraged Peter. When Jesus was calling his first disciples, Peter fell at Jesus’ knees and said: “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” And Jesus replied, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

Jesus gave Peter the courage and the comfort to become his disciple.

If teaching is about communicating truth, then encouraging is about giving hope. The teacher says, this is the way of God, and the encourager says but you don’t have walk it alone. I am here to walk it with you.

One of the most winsome souls we come across in the Bible is a man named Barnabas. Actually, his real name was Joseph, but he was given the nickname of Barnabas which means ‘son of encouragement’. In the book of Acts chapter 11 we learn how the church in Jerusalem sent Barnabas to the believers in Antioch. From verse 23 we read…

23 When he [Barnabas] arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. 24 He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

Iron in your blood is essential for carrying oxygen and producing energy. Without sufficient iron your physical strength and immunity is weakened.

The right encouragement at the right time is like an iron infusion, it boosts your energy and strengthens your immunity. Barnabas’ encouragement was like an iron infusion for the church in Antioch.

Barnabas came alongside the believers and watered their roots by speaking good words to them, words that brought refreshment and strength. Barnabas’ presence reassured the believers in Antioch they were not alone and gave them courage to share their faith.

But wait, there’s more. From verse 25 of Acts 11 we continue…  

25 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people.

The apostle Paul was first known as Saul of Tarsus. Before his conversion, Saul persecuted Christians. After his conversion, Saul repented and changed his ways. He became one of the church’s greatest missionaries.

I imagine though it was not easy for Saul in those early days after his conversion. Many Christians had suffered because of Saul and people still viewed him with suspicion. I expect it was quite isolating for Saul at times.

Verse 25 tells us Barnabas went out of his way to look for Saul. Barnabas sensed somehow that Saul needed some comfort and companionship. Barnabas brought Saul to Antioch and encouraged him to teach.  

One wonders what might have happened to Saul / Paul had Barnabas not found him and encouraged him in his calling for the Lord. Barnabas put Saul on a good path in God’s purpose.

Conclusion:

Teaching and encouraging (like watering plants) needs to be timely, focused, gentle and repeated.

Two questions to ponder…

How are you watering your faith?        And..

What opportunities has God given you to water other people’s faith?

(Who can you be a Barnabas to?)

May the Spirit of Jesus continue to fill each one of us and all of us together. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. Who was your best teacher and why?
  3. What does Paul mean by the gift of teaching? Why is good teaching important in the church? In what ways can someone be a teacher?
  4. If someone asked why you are a Christian, what would you say?     
  5. How is the gift of encouragement different from the gift of teaching? How do these two gifts complement each other?
  6. Why do teaching and encouragement need to be timely, focused, gentle and repeated? 
  7. How are you watering your faith? What opportunities has God given you to water other people’s faith? (Who can you be a Barnabas to?)

[1] Refer John Stott’s commentary on Romans, page 328.

Tawa Baptist

Practical Helps

Scripture: Romans 12:3-8

Video Link: https://youtu.be/u8-QxbcMRtI

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Service
  • Giving
  • Mercy
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

It’s almost summer. Our trees and hedges are growing faster now. They will need a trim soon.

For many years I trimmed my hedges by hand, with a pair of manual shears.

It’s a bit of a workout and some of the branches are bit tougher to cut through. About a year ago I was given a petrol hedge trimmer. It is more powerful than my manual shears, and way quicker, like a hot knife through butter.

Both tools get the job done. One just requires a bit more time and effort that’s all. As much as I like my power tools, they are not suitable for every job. I still use my manual tools for certain tasks. Both are needed.  

Today we continue our series on spiritual gifts. Most of the gifts we have looked at so far (in Corinthians 12) have been like my petrol hedge trimmer, they are like power tools, enabling you to accomplish more than you could by hand. Things like prophecy and discernment, healing and miraculous powers, as well as tongues and their interpretation. However, Corinthians 12 is not the only list of spiritual gifts in the New Testament.

In Romans 12 Paul has another list of spiritual gifts, most of which are more like manual tools (like my hand shears), more basic, requiring time and effort from us. Let’s read then from Romans 12, verses 3-8…

3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with yourfaith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Some of you here may enjoy watching superhero movies. Films like Guardians of the Galaxy, Justice League, the Avengers and so on. One of the themes running through many of these movies is that no one person can do everything on their own. We are better together.

The individual superhero (whoever he or she is) inevitably comes to the realisation that, despite their special abilities, they cannot fight evil by themselves. They need to work together with others who have different abilities in order to save the world.

And this is Paul’s point in Romans 12. Each member of the church (the body of Christ) has a different gift. Some have a power gift and others have a manual gift. But all the gifts are needed for the body as a whole to function. No one individual can do everything on their own.

We (as the church) don’t need to save the world. Jesus has already done that. Rather we need to think of ourselves with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has given us. In other words, we should not try to do it all ourselves. We need to understand our gift and exercise it in a Christ like way.     

In Romans 12 Paul lists seven gifts: prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading and mercy. With the exception of prophesying, which is a power gift, the other six gifts are more like manual tools. They are what we might consider regular or everyday abilities. But that does not diminish their value. They are still spiritual gifts given by God.

Today we focus on the gifts of serving, giving and mercy. These three go together. They could be thought of as practical helping gifts. What then do we mean by serving?

Serving:

The gift of ‘serving’, mentioned in verse 7, originally meant ‘waiting at table’. Like someone who cooks your meal and brings it to you. The kind of service in view here is usually of a personal nature. It could mean mowing the lawns, making tea & coffee or looking after someone’s children. Any practical thing that helps other people.

Jesus described his own intention in terms of service and urged his followers to emulate him. For example, in Mark 10 we read: whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

As a demonstration of serving, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet at the last supper, the night before his crucifixion and death. Although serving others may seem quite menial and mundane, we never know how God might use our acts of service.

In John 2, Jesus instructed the servants at a wedding to fill six stone jars with water, each holding 20 to 30 gallons.

This was heavy time-consuming work. The servants had to get the water from the well. They couldn’t just turn on a tap. Backwards and forwards carrying water. Mundane manual labour. And yet these servants participated in Jesus’ first power miracle of turning water into wine.   

Now there is more than one way to understand the gift of serving. We might think of the gift of serving as an enhanced ability possessed by certain individuals. Some people are better wired for doing manual tasks. They think in a practical way. Working with their hands to solve practical problems just comes naturally to them. They enjoy it.   

We might also think of the gift of serving as an opportunity provided by God for a specific situation. Have you ever found yourself in the right place at the right time, with the right resources to help someone in need? Maybe a little thing like carrying their groceries or giving them a ride when they had been walking in the rain or fixing their car.

You might not always give them a ride or carry their groceries or fix their car, but on some specific occasion God gifted you with the opportunity to help someone and in helping them trust was strengthened and God’s love was shown.

As many of you know, Robyn and I recently took time off work to support our parents. For months I could see the day was coming when they would need our help and so I had been praying that God would allow us to honour our parents in their time of need.

God answered my prayer. Our time in Tauranga supporting parents was a gift of service to them. In between managing various crisis’s, we were cooking, cleaning, mowing, shopping and doing whatever practical tasks needed doing. It was a privilege. We got to be there for our parents and help them.

At the same time some of you helped us in practical ways also. Ewan led a couple of services for me. Brodie picked up some of the tasks I would normally do in the office. Angela mowed our lawns and Maddy weeded our vege garden. Others of you helped in different ways too. We received your practical help as a gift of service.

As followers of Christ, we are people of the way. It is not just the act of service that is important but also the way we serve. We are to serve in the way Jesus serves, with grace and humility.

Exercising the gift of serving requires more than simply having the time and skills to help others. It also takes a special understanding. The ability to sense what is helpful without needing to be told. Knowing when to serve and when to step back. Serving in a way that touches a person’s heart with God’s love.

In his paraphrase of Romans 12, verse 7, Eugene Peterson (author of the Message) says: ‘If you help, just help, don’t take over’.

The point is, whenever we exercise our gifts, we need to be careful not to overstep the mark. All the gifts have a potential shadow side. One danger with serving is that we might do too much for the other person. We might create a dependency or rob them of the joy and dignity of doing it themselves.

While it was a privilege to serve our parents, I would not still want to be there now. That would not be good for them or us. There is a time to serve and a time to let people do for themselves.      

Giving:

Giving is closely related to serving. Giving means contributing to the needs of others. Making donations of money or food or clothes or whatever is needed.

Giving may be of a personal nature, from one individual to another, or it could be giving to support an organisation or a worthy cause. Jesus gave his life for us.

Giving (like serving) is a responsibility everyone has. Some people feel freer in themselves to give than others though. Marva Dawn puts it this way…

“One who is gifted with liberality gives generously not because they have much to give, but because they have a freer understanding of possessions and their importance.” [1]

If we truly believe all that we have is a gift from God and is his in any case.

And if we believe this life is not all there is, then we come to value material possessions in right proportion. It’s not that money does not matter. Money and possessions serve a helpful purpose in this life. But you cannot take it with you when you die.   

In Matthew 6 Jesus says: 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Giving out of love for others has eternal value.

We are people of the way and as people of the way we are to exercise the gifts we have been given in a way that reveals something of the character of God. Generosity is a characteristic of God and so we are to give generously.

Again, in Matthew 6, Jesus says this…

2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Generosity is not only about the amount we give, but also about our intent.

To give generously is to give with simple kindness. Giving for the sheer pleasure of giving. Giving with pure motives, not for leverage or optics.

When the kids were young, we used to grow Dwarf beans over summer.

The remarkable thing about Dwarf beans is the more you pick them the more they grow. If we went away on holiday to the beach and stopped picking our beans for a couple of weeks, they would stop producing. 

If we wanted beans when we came back from holiday, then it paid to ask someone to keep harvesting them in our absence, then the plants would still be giving a crop for weeks after our return.

God is generous. He gives us more than we need. When we share our excess with others, he has a way of making our crop fruit for longer.

Every gift has its shadow side. Giving should never become a substitute for justice. Giving large sums away to strangers, at the expense of your family, is not being generous. It is neglect. Being generous includes taking care of those closest to you.

If you are an employer, then pay your workers and your creditors fairly and on time. Justice is better than charity.    

Mercy:

The last gift in Paul’s list in Romans 12 is mercy. Last but not least. Showing mercy is about helping people in distress. Lifting people out of a hole. Doing something for someone they cannot do for themselves. The good Samaritan (in Jesus’ parable) showed mercy to the wounded man on the side of the road.

Jesus showed mercy on the cross when he said “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”. Forgiveness is an act of mercy. Saving someone from shame or embarrassment is an act of mercy. Donating blood (or a kidney) is an act of mercy.  Doctors and nurses and home care workers are all agents of mercy.

Mercy includes acts of service and giving generously to those in need. There is considerable overlap with these three.

One of the reasons we went to Tauranga was to support Robyn’s dad who was having hip surgery. I took Malcolm to the hospital around 11am on a Friday. He was scheduled for his hip replacement at 1pm.

Malcolm went through all the pre-op checks with the nurse, then got changed into his (elegant) hospital gown and we waited… and waited… and waited… (like the Mainland cheese ad.) They say waiting is the hardest part, but that’s not true. Waiting is the second hardest part.

1pm came and went. 2pm came and went. Eventually, they took us through to the pre-op lounge, which is a room with lots of lazy boy chairs in it. The last room you wait in before being taken to the operating theatre.

Just before 3pm a different surgeon (not my father-in-law’s surgeon) came and told us a more urgent case had come in which meant Malcolm’s surgery had to be postponed. It was not the surgeon’s fault. The health system is under a great deal of pressure. You know the story.

My father-in-law was in a lot of pain. Bone grinding on bone. He had been on the waiting list for over a year. To get this close and be told you have to wait even longer, that was the hardest part.

This was out of our hands. We had no power, no agency in this situation.

We were at the mercy of strangers. They took us back to the waiting room we had been in before, the one without the lazy boy chairs. We sat in silence collecting our thoughts, nursing our disappointment, silently praying.  

Fifteen minutes later the surgeon who had given us the bad news came back and told us he had managed to pull together a team and, although Malcolm was not his patient, he would do the operation instead. This was the best part.

The surgeon and his team showed us mercy. They went the extra mile for us.  Who knows how many hours they had worked that week. We thanked the surgeon and Robyn’s dad had his hip replacement done, the last one that day.

I have no idea whether the doctor who operated on Robyn’s dad was a professing Christian or not, but he did show us mercy in a Christlike way.

He was willing to do the surgery. He cared about people and wanted good outcomes for his patients. He was not irritable or grumpy about it. He showed us kindness and compassion.  

Jesus said, blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.

Mercy is about the right use of power. To be able to show mercy you have to be in a position of power, relative to the person in need.

We are not all surgeons. We may not find ourselves in a position to help and heal like doctors and nurses can. As we get older, we may feel more and more like we are at the mercy of others.

Nevertheless, there will inevitably be times in our life when we are entrusted with power and have the opportunity to show mercy. In the same way the gift of service can be circumstantial, so too the gift of mercy can be circumstantial; an opportunity provided by God for a specific situation.

When it is in our power to help someone in distress, we are to recognise that opportunity as a gift from God and exercise mercy cheerfully. We need to keep our eyes open for the opportunities God provides to help others and be quick to respond.

Conclusion:

This morning we have heard about the gifts of practical helps, including serving, giving and mercy. These may be manual gifts, requiring some time, effort and sacrifice from us, but they are no less important and no less spiritual than the more spectacular power gifts.

What opportunities has God given you to serve, to give and to show mercy?

Let us pray…

God of love, we thank you for the different ways you have gifted each of us. Grant us eyes to see our neighbour in need, skilful hands to serve, generous hearts to give and a cheerful spirit to show mercy. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. How are the spiritual gifts in Romans 12 different from the spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12? How are they similar?
  3. Discuss / reflect on the two ways of understanding the gift of serving mentioned in the sermon.
  4. Have you ever found yourself in the right place at the right time, with the right resources to help someone in need? What happened? How did you feel?   
  5. What does generous giving look like? How might you know if someone has the gift of giving?
  6. Can you think of some examples of showing mercy? Perhaps from the Bible or from your own experience.
  7. What gift has God given you? What opportunities to help others and glorify him?

[1] Marva Dawn, ‘Truly the Community’, page 126.