In 'The Path to Glory', Peter Allison explores the misunderstanding held by Jesus' disciples regarding the nature and immediacy of the Kingdom of God. The sermon uses the parable of the minas from Luke 19 to illustrate key lessons on stewardship, faithfulness, and the nature of salvation. The disciples expected an earthly kingdom marked by military might and splendor, but Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God was different, requiring faithful stewardship of resources provided by God. Salvation, exemplified by Zacchaeus' transformation, occurs instantaneously upon belief in Jesus, signifying an entry into the Kingdom. The sermon highlights that while salvation is free, rewards in God's Kingdom are based on faithfulness in service, with greater responsibilities given to those faithful in small matters. It also distinguishes between true believers and those who outwardly appear part of the Kingdom but do not truly serve God.

Please turn to Luke chapter 19. I'd like to read beginning of verse 9. Hear God's word. Now as they heard these things, sorry I started the wrong verse there, verse 9. And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house because he also is a son of Abraham for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." Now as they heard these things he spoke another parable because he was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately.

Therefore he said a certain noble man went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, Do business till I come. But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, He then commanded these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him that he might know how Much every man had gained by trading Then came the first saying master your mina has earned ten minas And he said to him well done good servant because you are faithful in very little, have authority over ten cities. And the second came saying, Master, your mina has earned five minas.

And likewise he said to him, You also be over five cities. Then another came saying, Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief. For I feared you because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit and you reap what you did not sow. And he said to him, Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant.

You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit, and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest. And he said to those who stood by, Take the mina from him and give it to him who has ten minas. But they said to him, Master, he has ten minas. For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given, and from him who does not have even what he has will be taken away from him.

But bring here these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them and slay them before me. May the Lord direct our steps by His word and let no iniquity have dominion over us. Heavenly Father, we have heard your word. We ask that your Holy Spirit would give us understanding of it. We ask that you would sanctify my lips and keep me from error and that as we continue to worship, Lord, your word might be received in faith.

In Jesus' name, amen. In Jesus name, Amen. Anyone who has taken a long trip with a little child or little children probably is very familiar, I am sure, with the are we there yet question. Are we there yet? A few miles later.

Are we there yet? A few miles further, are we there yet? Before our children are old enough to understand time and distance very well, They have no comprehension of a far away place and how long it takes to get there. Except you just never seem to get there in their view. Well, Jesus had a similar analogous problem, we might say, with His disciples.

They had this erroneous misunderstanding. I guess if it's a misunderstanding, it is erroneous, but they had this erroneous understanding of the Kingdom of God. They rightly understood that the Scriptures spoke of Christ's Kingdom being inaugurated at the coming of the Messiah. And Jesus repeatedly taught that He was the Son of God, the Messiah. And they rightly understood the Kingdom was coming.

Jesus said as much. He said, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. But they completely misunderstood the nature of that Kingdom and the length of this road to glory. They just misunderstood it again and again. They envisioned a mighty warrior riding on a white horse, leading a massive victorious army in triumph over the Roman soldiers that occupied Palestine.

They envisioned glorious palaces, royal court filled with high ranking officials dressed in splendor over whom nobody could successfully resist. Overseeing a kingdom that exceeded Solomon's kingdom in glory and in wealth. After all, Jesus said that a greater than Solomon was in their midst and had come. And of course, these disciples, especially the twelve, envisioned having some sort of prominent role in that kingdom. Mark 10 and verse 35 in following details, an account of James and John coming privately to Jesus and asking Jesus to do what they wished.

When Jesus asked, what is it that you want me to do? They said, grant that we may sit, one on your right hand and the other on your left, in glory. They wanted to get their request in first. Because this is what they envisioned. A palace, a throne, such as Solomon had.

Splendor. Glory. And they wanted to have a part of that. And Jesus said to them, you don't know what you're asking. You don't understand.

John's Gospel records an account where John in John 6.15, where Jesus perceived that His disciples were about to come and take Him away by force and make Him king, and so He departed to go off to a mountain to be alone and to pray. Time and time again, Jesus told them that they had it all wrong, but they were so slow to learn. And they asked the same things over and over again. They still had this same erroneous perception of this path to glory. Even after his crucifixion, his disciples still did not understand.

Do you remember how dejected they were? Do you remember those two disciples on the way to Emmaus? They were just downcast because this one that they thought was going to bring this great victory over the Roman army had died and not just died, but he'd been crucified in a in a Nominious defeat they thought He died the worst of all deaths, an inhumane and dishonorable death of crucifixion. And so this one that they thought was going to bring this glorious kingdom and usher them all into glory was crucified and their hopes were dashed to pieces. And that's how Jesus found them as He's walking along, overtook them.

Yes, of course Christ's kingdom is glorious. It will be glorious. His glory will fill the earth. His knowledge will cover the earth. His kingdom will be triumphant over Everything there will be no enemy That is left standing undefeated Isaiah said that of the increase of his government there would be no end.

And these Jews were just trying to understand what Isaiah had said. He would reign until he put all enemies under his feet. This is all true. But this path to glory is not at all what most people imagined. It's very different from what they were thinking.

For Zacchaeus, this path to glory began with Jesus' irresistible summons that we considered last week. Zacchaeus, come down quickly for today I must go to your house. Today Jesus told him, salvation has come to your house. Today. Today.

Did you notice Jesus said today salvation has come to him? Justification comes immediately. Today There is no long period of probation. There is no long period, or even short period, of doing good works to prove that one is indeed saved. There is certainty, absolute certainty in Jesus' declaration of salvation that today, that moment, salvation came to Zacchaeus.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. And as of that moment, Zacchaeus was in Christ. You see, we are secure in Christ at the moment of our justification. We are as secure in Christ at the moment of our justification as those who have been for years in heaven. You see, this is where the gospel of the grace of God is different from every other religion.

And yes Christianity is a religion, It's also a relationship, but it is a religion. Every other religion presents a set of beliefs and practices or rules which must be followed to gain approval and to gain salvation. The true gospel is that Jesus saves sinners in the day that they call upon Him. And then, and then, and only then, does He sanctify them, set them apart to be able to walk in his ways. Now note also that this salvation didn't just come to Zacchaeus.

This salvation came to his household. Today, Jesus said, salvation has come to this house. And he was saying that not just to Zacchaeus, but to everybody who was listening to Him. He's speaking of Zacchaeus here in this second statement of His. The first was directly to Zacchaeus personally, but this statement was about Zacchaeus.

It was said in his hearing, but it was said to Zacchaeus and all those around him, today salvation has come to this house. See, Scripture always counts or reckons the children of believers as believers. And this is just one more example of what we read about in Genesis 17 that Abraham was to circumcise not just himself but his children that were born to him and everybody born to him in his house or bought with money from a foreigner. Those that were members of his household, whether they were his children or his servants. All of those were circumcised because the children of believers are always reckoned as believers in the Scriptures.

We see that in many other situations as well, that salvation comes to the house and the household is baptized. And Jesus said that now Zacchaeus is a son of Abraham. He was not a son of Abraham because he was born a Jew, which he was a Jew. His name is a form of meaning, a word meaning righteousness. Jesus is not saying that because he was born a Jew, he is now a son of Abraham.

Jesus repeatedly told the Pharisees that Abraham was not their father, that they were of their father the devil. So in saying that Zacchaeus is a son of Abraham, he's not saying anything about who Zacchaeus is physically descended from. He's saying that Zacchaeus has believed in Christ, that he's a son of Abraham because he has believed in Jesus. In Galatians 3.29, Paul says that if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed. If you are Christ, then you are a son of Abraham and heirs according to the promise.

Paul told the Romans, Romans 2, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision Is that of the heart in the spirit? Not in the letter whose praise is not from men but from God You see his salvation marked his entrance into the household of faith into the kingdom of heaven. He was now an adopted child of God. He was now a child of God and a member of the household of faith.

He's an adopted child not because of what he has done. He's now an heir of Abraham, an heir of those promises, a member of the household of Abraham, not because of what he has done, but because of the Son of Man, who came to seek and to save those that were lost, they thought that the kingdom would appear immediately. Because here the Messiah is here. And when the Messiah comes, the kingdom would come. And the kingdom, they thought was this outward empire with with armies and generals and military might and wealth and glory And so Jesus tells them a parable to try to correct their understanding of this path to glory.

He told a similar parable that's recorded in Matthew 25, the parable of the talents. That parable he told the following week from when this parable was told. That parable of the talents was told on Tuesday of the following week. This is, he's still in Jericho at this point. He's on his way to Jerusalem.

And in fact the very next passage after the one we read recounts his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday. So this is some time before that. So this is several days, maybe three days before the parable of the talents. They're very similar, but there's a couple differences besides it being a different occasion. In the parable of the talents there are only three servants who each receive different but very substantial sums of money.

They receive talents. A talent is 75 pounds. So to get 10 talents is 750 pounds of gold, assuming it was gold. That's a lot. That's very significant.

And in that parable of talents, there's no mention of other people and no mention of other people in in the kingdom. It's just these three servants. In this parable, there's ten servants, and they each receive the same amount, and it's a much less amount. But in this parable that Jesus tells of this, There's a noble man who goes into a faraway country to receive a kingdom. And he calls 10 of his servants and gives to them 10 minus.

I think this is how Jesus is representing his visit to the Father in heaven. The time between his ascension, his bodily ascension, recorded in the first part of Acts, and his second bodily coming at the end of history, end of time. It's this period that is that we are living in where Christ has bodily ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father, is reigning and is coming again. Jesus said there is a nobleman and he went away, He went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. See, he said this because they thought the kingdom of God would appear in its full glory immediately.

So the implication of this as a faraway country means there's some time involved. He calls 10 servants and gives them 10 minas. A mina is about one and a quarter pounds maybe, 15 troy ounces, which if it's gold might represent three to six months of wages. Three months of wages nominally in that day, for many in our day, since we're an impoverished nation, it's maybe a lot more. But it's a relatively small sum of money when you talk about investment.

It's very different from ten talents, which is 750 pounds of gold. This is just a pound. It's not a large amount of money. In fact, Jesus calls it a small amount, but it is a significant. It is nonetheless a significant amount of money.

It's way more than any of us would want to lose. We would think it was a huge loss if we lost this amount of money. But in the big scheme of things, it's not nearly as much as the talents. And so he tells them, he tells them to occupy, do business, do business till I come. But the citizens hated him, And this is one of the differences with this parable.

There's other citizens here. And they hated him. These are people that are in this kingdom over which he is ruling. He's the nobleman, he's the ruler. But there are these citizens who hated him in it.

And they send a delegation after him. So they're going to the same place, and the message they bring is, We don't want this man to be king over us. We're rejecting him. We don't want him to reign. Now what's interesting here is that this is, was told in Jericho.

Remember that wealthy city that we talked about with the beautiful climate and well-watered fertile soil and and Archelaus Who was the son of Herod the Great Herod the Great was the one who killed all the babies after Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He was the son of Archelaus and he was king after Herod the Great died and he built a great, he wasn't a very good king, but he built a great castle, a winter castle in Jericho. He wasn't a good king and the years of his reign were not smooth rain. This is, Archelaus is the man that Joseph was warned about in a dream and Matthew 2 22 tells us that when Joseph heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod he was afraid to go there and and being warned by God in a dream he went to Galilee when they returned from Egypt instead of Judea. That's this Archelaus we're talking about.

So he wasn't a good king, he interfered in the high priesthood, he married against Jewish law, he oppressed the Samaritans and the Jews with brutal treatment. In revolt, the people sent a delegation, a deputation to Caesar to have Archelaus removed. They denounced him and as a result the Roman government banished him to Gaul and annexed his territory to Syria. So this would have happened 24 years earlier from the moment that Jesus was telling this parable and I believe that it would have still been in the collective memory of most of the people listening to him. They would have had this in mind and it would have rung a bell with them.

Who is Jesus talking about here? Is he talking about us? Remember, Jesus was, many of Jesus' parables were about the people that he was ministering to. And his parables were always adapted to the people that he was speaking to. So I think that this is one element of this parable.

These people that he's talking to, he characterizes and he does this by this illusion to something that they have in their history that they were very familiar with. So what do we learn from this parable? What does Jesus teach us? Well first, our resources are from God. The mina that each of these servants received was given to them by the Lord.

He doesn't go off and leave them with nothing and tell them to figure out how to get the money with which to do business. He supplies each of them with this mina. He teaches us, right? Jesus supplies us with all the resources that we need to do what He has called us to do in His kingdom. He teaches us to ask Him for our needs.

Whatever we need for His work, if we ask the Father in Jesus' name, He will supply it. And where we lack, Jesus said, it may be because we haven't asked. It may be because we don't need it. And if God hasn't seen fit to supply it after we have asked it. It may be that we don't need that to do what God has called us to do.

God gives His people the tools and the resources that his people need, that we need, for the work that he calls us to do in his kingdom while he is while he is reigning, while he has gone to this far kingdom to receive, far country to receive his kingdom this kingdom this path to glory requires labor of us. Verse 13, Jesus said after He had given to them these minas, do business until I come. Do business until I come back. Now notice that Jesus does not present this nobleman as not reigning while he is in this far country. He is the reigning monarch of that land.

And he gives these ten servants a small amount of money and called them to do business while he was away. But he was still their master. He was still their ruler. And when he comes back, we know that because when he comes back he calls them to account for what they have done in his absence. You see the path to glory is itself a time of labor, a veil of tears, a time of travail.

It's likened in some places to a woman giving birth. It's a labor, it's a work. It's not ease. And Paul recounts his work and the great labor, the great deprivations that he endured for the work of the kingdom. That included being imprisoned, being stoned and left for dead, being shipwrecked, going without food for times, being deprived, being beaten.

It was difficult. This time is likened to warfare. The goal of this labor is the growth of the kingdom. You know, these minas that were given to these servants were theirs to grow, to do business with, for the sake of the kingdom. These minas belonged to the master.

The resources that they had, everything that they had that they were working with, it was the masters, it was the noblemen. They were simply stewards of it. And their goal was as stewards to increase his wealth, his kingdom. The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and is approved by men.

Now notice also that this labor that these servants do, This is not a means of earning their position in the kingdom. This is not a means of earning their salvation. They are already in the kingdom. This labor that they do is out of gratitude to the king, out of their desire simply to serve him. The next thing we see is that reward is according to works.

The works are rewarded. That sounds foreign to us, right? We think of salvation, we often hear Salvation is free, yes it is, and it's unearned and yes it is. But rewards are given in accordance with the works. Now these works are, of course, Spirit-initiated works.

They are Spirit-empowered works. They are Christ's work in us. And because of that, they are also His works. His works in us for which He rewards us. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward.

And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. There is a reward for laboring in God's kingdom and and those who participate in that labor, those who participate in the work of a profit by financial contributions to that ministry, Those who participate in the work of missionaries through contributions to their labor. Like the lady that prepared the room for Elijah. For Elisha. She participated in his reward.

Whoever gives one of these little ones a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly he shall by no means lose his reward. It doesn't matter the magnitude of the gift. What we give, what we do is according to our abilities, is according to what we have been given. Even if it is just a cup of cold water, Jesus says, we won't lose our reward. For the Son of Man will come in the glory with His Father, with His angels, and He will reward each one according to His works." We're taught to rejoice in the day that we're persecuted for righteousness sake.

For great is your reward in heaven, for in a like manner the fathers did to the prophets. And also we are taught to love our enemies and do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return, and your reward will be great. And you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the unthankful and the evil." Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1, 17, And if you call upon the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear. So reward is according to our works, works that are the Holy Spirit's work in us. But also those who are faithful in a little are given more.

What's the best way to be promoted? What's the best way to receive more responsibility and greater resources? Well, it's to be faithful with a little bit, even just a little bit. If you have just a little bit, be faithful with it. Do an outstanding job with what you have.

And don't be always longing and looking for more and more. But rather focus on doing well with what you have, what has been entrusted to you. We see that more is given to those who have. More is given to those who have. And those who don't have even what they have is taken away.

The results also are not equal. God gives everyone in this parable, everyone is given the same thing, the same mina. But one man took that mina and got By his trading, by his work, turn that into 10. Another took that same mina and by his work, turn that into five. Our ability to do these things comes from God Himself.

And He blesses some labor a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. It is all blessing though. Jesus doesn't have anything corrective to say to the one who only earned five compared to the one who earned ten. The first came saying, Master, your mina has earned ten. He said, Well done, you good servant, because you have been faithful in very little, have authority over ten cities.

The second came saying, Master, your mine has earned five miners. Likewise he said to him, you also be over five cities. In other words, well done, you good servant. Notice that the reward here is in proportion to the works, but it's not necessarily tied to the works in the sense that they had a very small amount of money, 15 ounces that they were given. And the one person doubled that to 150 ounces of gold.

And as a result, he's given 10 cities. I mean, the reward is all out of proportion to the amount of increase that he gave. But Jesus didn't look at the amount, He looked at the faithfulness of the man. What did he do with what he'd been given? So the results are not equal.

Some got more and some got less. But Jesus is equally pleased with all those who labored in his kingdom. To whom much is given, much is expected. Lastly, we see that there are two classes of people in this kingdom. There are two classes of people in the kingdom.

There are those that are in the kingdom and of the kingdom. These are the believing Jews and Gentiles. These are the true servants. And there are those that are in the kingdom but are not of the kingdom. These are the outward Jews.

These outward Jews you notice are reckoned among the believers. Remember there's this third servant And he came saying master here is your mina which I have kept put away in a handkerchief. Notice he's called a servant. I said third, there were ten and he's just another one. He's called a servant.

He addresses Jesus as his master. This is the language of the kingdom. Here is your mine, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief, for I feared you, for you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit and reap what you didn't sow. And the nobleman says, out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant.

You knew I was an austere man. This is a man who had an evil opinion of this nobleman. He saw evil of him. He said he collected what he didn't deposit. He reaped what he didn't sow.

This is his poor and wicked opinion of the good nobleman. Jesus said, out of your own mouth I will condemn you. Why didn't you put the money with the bankers? And at my coming you might have collected it with interest. So he showed this man that out of his own mouth he was evil.

He had an evil opinion of the nobleman. But he's called the servant. And in the parable of the talents, which has a similar, very similar focus, this servant that's unrighteous is cast out into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. It doesn't say that this servant is cast into outer darkness, but what it does say is that take the minor, he is called an evil servant, a wicked servant, and it is said, take the minor from him and give it to him who has 10. It was even what he has is taken away.

And he is cast out. In other words, here is somebody who was in the kingdom. He was considered a servant. He was considered somebody who was serving the master. He calls him a master, but in the end, he's not.

In the end, he's wicked. And whatever he has is taken from him and given to someone else. So I say these are the people that are in the kingdom. These are the tares, if you will, that are in the kingdom that grow together and are separated in the final judgment. So just because you are in this church, just because you are in a household, a believing household, just because you are in church here this morning, doesn't automatically make you a right and good servant.

Those who are right and good servants believe the Lord and they consider Him to be good and just and gracious and kind. Not evil, austere, and collecting what they don't deposit and reaping what they don't sow. Then Jesus said at the end of this parable, bring those enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them and slay them before me." When Jesus returns, all those who rebelled against Him, these are the people who are outside, these are not considered servants, they are in His kingdom but they are not His servants, they don't recognize His reign. In fact, they don't want Him to reign. They are trying to reject His reign.

They are slain before Him. And that's what Paul told the Thessalonians, that when Christ returned, he would come and take judgment, bring judgment in flaming fire with a flaming sword on all those who do not obey the gospel. This is what he says, it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who have troubled you and to give you who are troubled a rest. When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, these shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. When he comes in that day to be glorified in his saints and to be admired among all those who believe, Jesus reigns until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

And all those who do not obey the gospel are slain before him, the righteous judge. We brothers and sisters have a stewardship. We've all been entrusted with something. And the Lord is coming back, and we will have to give an account of what we have done with what he's entrusted to us. He's entrusted some of us with families.

He's entrusted some of us with children. He's entrusted some of us with wealth, with businesses. He's entrusted some of us with authority. He has entrusted us with various offices. And He will come and we will give an account of what we have done with what He has entrusted to us.

What have we done with the families that He has entrusted to us? What have we done with the gifts that He's entrusted to us? We all don't have the same gifts. We have different gifts. We have different callings.

We have different offices. But whatever the Lord has given to us, it's a stewardship. We hold, it's not ours. Even our children are not ours. They're given to us, they're entrusted to us for a time to raise them, to nurture them, to disciple them, to love them.

Yes, and We're sanctified through that. We're entrusted with houses, with wealth. We're entrusted with abilities. What do we do? What are we doing with that?

We are entrusted with the gospel itself. As those who have received this gospel, we've been entrusted with a gospel. Jesus is coming back and He will call us as He called these. When He returned, He then commanded those servants to be to whom He had given the money, to be called to Him, that He might know how much every man had gained by trading. Brothers and sisters, we are those people whom he will call and he will ask to know.

May each of us be