Occupy Till I Come

There are certain cities in this country which are more evil than others. Have you ever noticed that? Have you ever visited a city and felt evil there? I've been in some cities, friends, where there is a film of filth in the air. And when I do research into that city, I find it's because there is a great amount of evil which exists in that city.

It's as if evil and weakness have taken over a town or a community, and there is hardly a solid gospel witness there to come against it. Entire countries can be like this as well, where darkness prevails and there is little light to shine into it or expose it. My message today, friends, is entitled, Occupy Till I Come, and our passage today is found in Luke's gospel in chapter 19.

You can turn in your Bibles there now. We will be in verses 12 through 27, and here is a picture of a sovereign who leaves the charge of his country to some servants, and they are given certain commands and duties to perform. There is resulting victory and disappointing failure.

We will examine this passage now before us as seen from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here now is the word of God. May the Holy Spirit attend the reading of His word.

He said, Therefore a certain nobleman went to a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. And he called his ten servants and delivered them ten pounds and said unto them, Occupy till I come. But his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.

And it came to pass that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant, because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.

And the second came saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities. And another came saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin, for I fear thee, because thou art an austere man.

Thou takest up that thou layest not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow.

Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury? And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds. For I say unto you that unto every one which hath shall be given, and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him.

But those mine enemies which would not, I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. Now friends, I want us to see several aspects pertaining to this striking passage today in regard to the nobleman's orders to his servants. Number one, we see a work set before them.

Number two, we see the work hindered. Number three, we see the work weighed. I want each of us to pay close attention to this passage as I expound it because it has everything to do with us here today and how you accept these truths given today will impact your eternity.

George Whitfield would often tell his hearers, I got this message while a good many of you were asleep and I can say the same thing about what I am to share with you today, friends. This is serious business. We must attend to it for it's the king's business and there's nothing more serious in this world than that.

I want us to focus on the word occupy found in our passage today. What does this mean? What was the Lord's intention by relating it? The word occupy here does not mean a defensive posture but rather to proactively lay siege to something as the Romans would use great force and apply specific strategies to lay siege to a city. They would march to a walled city and take their huge battering rams and with great force ram the city gates until they gave in.

They would strategically shoot flaming arrows over the walls of the city to burn up what was within. They would place many ladders upon the walls and with their large numerical forces they would overcome those who were watchmen on the walls and by brute force take control of that city and lay siege to it until it was occupied by a foreign invader which was Rome. Rome's military might and iron fist would conquer and occupy whatever was in its path.

Now, how does the church operate today? This is how. The church in the west today builds a large attractive campus to draw people to it and it provides many amenities that are appealing to crowds. Then they give a come and hear gospel which is a defensive posture.

Only those who enter the church will hear the message. But is this how Jesus instructed his followers? No. His gospel was always a go and tell gospel to go out into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in.

Go into a town and saturate it with the preached gospel and conquer it for Christ and His kingdom. That's what they did in the book of Acts, friends. That's what old Apostle Paul did by establishing churches all over Asia Minor.

So first we see this command to occupy till I come. So we see a work set before them to occupy till it returns to proactively storm the gates of hell with all our resources and all our forces with all authority from heaven by the strong name of the Lord Jesus Christ to tear down strongholds through prevailing prayer to distribute tracts throughout our communities till the sidewalks are literally lined with them to continually preach the good news of the gospel to sinners who need to hear about a sinner's gospel. The gospel is for sinners, friends.

How will they hear without a preacher? We must be on the move for God and our generation, friends, not staying in a defensive posture. That's why the nation's in the shape it's in now. It's because the church has refused to take the gospel to the streets and proactively storm the gates of hell to take the gospel to the prostitutes on the corners to take it to the jails to take it to the taverns to take it to where sinners are because I can guarantee you, friends, they will not be in your church on Sunday morning.

We must occupy, and that means to lay siege to our community by saturating it with prayer and permeating it with the gospel of the Son of God. It's high time in this country we get back to knocking on doors and ringing doorbells for Jesus in this dark age in which we live. So we see the work set before the servants and that work is to occupy till the sovereign ruler returns.

Now let us see the second aspect of the work hindered. Notice in our text, in verse 14, it states, But his citizens hated him and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. Here is a picture of the unconverted church member, the false professor, who says with his lips he loves Jesus, but in reality he hates all things holy, and that includes God.

He wants heaven and a Savior as long as he can still sit on the throne of his life and rule there. But if he has to bow and surrender to a risen Lord and give up his rights, then he will not want anything to do with Him. He will hate Him.

In Matthew 15, verse 8, we see how Jesus states this very thing, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouths and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. The work is hindered by these false professors. Let me tell you, friend, I can line up about a hundred pastors from every section of this country, and they will tell you that the biggest fight they have in their church is with their deacon body.

The deacons are just tearing them up. Well, why is that? Do you think it's got something to do with the process of how a church picks her deacons, especially how an average Baptist church picks her deacons? They pick their deacons by their pocketbooks and prominence within the business community rather than them knowing the book and their prominence with God. So the work of God is hindered by those who are within the church.

The servant represented in our passage here today who did absolutely nothing with the money given him. He was lazy. He could care less about it.

He was even casual in his response to his actions before the ruler. He refused to obey his master. And what does the sovereign ruler have to say about those who refused to have him reign over them? Look at verse 27, friends.

It states, But those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me. In other words, bind them by their hands and by their feet and cast them into a burning hell for their rebellion and rejection of me. If you are truly safe, friend, you will love what God loves and hate what God hates.

You will submit your neck to the King of Kings and gladly take His yoke upon you and live for Him. You will be proactive in sharing your faith with others. You will be strategically planning on how to invade your community with the gospel of the Son of God for His glory.

You will use several tactics to accomplish this. I know a southern town where the local church got so serious about the evil in their community, they began prayer walks all over that community and did so until that wicked town closed up its abortion clinic and that abortion clinic was turned into a Christian bookstore. Let me ask you a question, friend.

What are you doing in your town this evening to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ? What will you do this weekend to saturate your filthy community with the good news? Or will you be a participant in evil and promote the very wickedness in your community that you say you hate? What are you doing with your life to invade and conquer and be on the offensive to push back the darkness in your town today, friend? Or are you not occupying? Are you just existing? Ask God to show you how to better invade and conquer your community with the gospel, friend. Are you a living witness or a silent denier about doing nothing, friends, that wicked servant did nothing with what was given him? Let me tell you, friends, this world is a sinking ship. It's a ruined vessel that's already broken up upon the rocks, and soon it will disappear.

Soon yourself will die and enter eternity. What will you have to show for it? Now let us look at this last aspect of our passage, and that is this. The servants had their work weighed.

It was reviewed by the king. Rewards are handed out. He who made ten pounds was given ten cities.

He who made five was given five. The rewards differ for effort expanded. What are you using? The gifts which God has given you, are you sitting on them? Or are you using them to your utmost capacity? Let me tell you something, friend.

Those who are faithful in serving Christ in third generation will be a blessing to that generation. Light will permeate darkness. The main reason there are cities in this country which are overtly evil is because a vacuum was created by the failure of the church and that community.

And when there is a vacuum, something has to fill it, either light or darkness, if there's no active witness for Christ and no prevailing prayer in that community, then darkness will permeate the land. But if we are doing what we should be doing, and proactively storming the gates of hell, and tearing down strongholds through desperate prayer, then light will begin to push back the darkness. Do you believe that? Let me share a story with you before I close.

I was having lunch years ago with a pastor from the city of Glasgow, Scotland. And he shared the following story with me. He said that the city of Glasgow used to have a city slogan that was on banners all around town.

And it read, Let Glasgow flourish in the name of the Lord. But some godless civic leaders came along and decided to change the city slogan to just Let Glasgow flourish. They did away with God and omitted the name of the Lord.

And it wasn't long before the city soon fell into such gross immorality that it concerned this pastor and some of the other ministers in the city. So they banded together. They made a pact between them that they would get together each week and pray and have nights of prayer until God made a difference back in their community again.

And it took a while. But after their faithful nights of desperate prayer, this pastor told me that crime began to decrease. Drug use began to decrease.

Crime began to decrease. Teenage pregnancies began to decrease. And this little band of godly pastors through their unfortunate prayer pushed back the darkness in their community.

Well, how about us? Jesus' command to us is to occupy till I come. He has not rescinded that command, friend. We have the Great Commission.

To take the Great Commission and to proactively saturate our generation with it. Are we doing it? Are we doing it? Heaven help us if we aren't.