People sometimes ask, “What does it mean to ‘believe’?” And that is a very good question. So often we think it is just this internal thing, a heart thing, a mind thing. And it certainly includes that. True belief comes in through the ears or eyes, is processed in the mind, then settles in the heart. From there it flows outward, changing the true believer from the inside out. False belief stays in the head and never really reaches the heart, so nothing changes. There are many illustrations of true belief, and Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem—what we remember on Palm Sunday—provides a powerful one. But like every illustration, the real meaning can be missed or abused. From Luke 19:37-44 and 11-27.
The King Revealed
37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: 38 "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"
As we’ve seen before, everything Jesus did this day was to declare Himself the Messiah, the promised son of David who would sit on David’s throne forever and ever. And the disciples, whether or not they understood the significance of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, they were ready to proclaim Jesus king! “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
Of course, we know that none of them understood what really needed to happen before Jesus could take the throne. A week later, they would all be despondent over the death of Jesus and the death of their dream of a free Israel under the miracle-working hand of Jesus.
In all the years that Jesus had visited Jerusalem, whether for a festival or not, He had never come this publicly. He had never encouraged or invited a celebration of Himself like this. But now was the time. And whether He triggered the celebration by riding the donkey or not, here was the crowd proclaiming Him king!
Right to Rejoice
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!" 40 "I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."
The Pharisees, no doubt shocked and afraid for their own positions, instructed Jesus to silence His disciples. They had a great working relationship with the Romans, even if they publicly spoke against them. They and the Sadducees held much power over Jewish society. And they didn’t like Jesus! If Jesus started a revolt (because they didn’t believe He was God’s Son who could overthrow the Romans in an instant), it would plunge the nation into the terrible tragedy of war. Who wanted that? And if by some miracle Jesus succeeded and became king, they’d be in trouble from Him for all their antagonism and opposition to Him.
Jesus, of course, knew exactly who He was and what His Father asked of Him. And He was completely submitted to do the will of His Father. He was the one instigating this display! He wasn’t about to shut it down. Indeed, “If they keep quiet,” Jesus said, “the stones will cry out.” The whole creation recognized this moment; if Jesus’ disciples didn’t, the rocks and trees and hills and sky would cry out!
Tragedy on the Horizon
41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."
And then Luke records this: Jesus looks on Jerusalem and weeps! Because none of them understood what was happening. They should have received Him as king. They should have risen up and driven out the Romans and the Herods and given the throne of Israel to Jesus. If they had done so, right then and there, how would things have been different? Could we have been saved without the shedding of Jesus’ blood?
We’ll never know the answer to that question, nor need to know. Because of course, Jesus was destined to be rejected by His own people. He Himself would shortly prophesy His being killed and cast out of His own city by those who should know better.
And because of that, the city itself would be razed and its people killed or driven out for ages.
And notice, He says it is because they “did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” Jesus is God, and here He says so in no uncertain terms. And because God’s people rejected God Himself, they would likewise be rejected by God.
Jesus explained all this just a short time before, on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem, as everyone wondered whether Jesus would at this time inaugurate the Kingdom of God on earth. Look back two dozen verses to Luke 19:11.
Nobleman Seeks Kingdom
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.'
“A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king then return.” Right there, Jesus lays out the plan of God as recorded in the Old Testament prophesies. Jesus is not going into Jerusalem to be anointed king; He’s going through Jerusalem on His way to a “distant country,” to Heaven itself where He will petition His Father to make Him king. He must fulfill the requirements of His Father, before His Father will grant Him kingship of Israel. And the Father has promised the Son that if He fulfills the requirements, the kingship of Israel will be too small a thing, so He will grant Him rule over all the nations! (Psalm 2; Isaiah 49)
While He is away, however, He will test all those who claim to know and love Him, all those who claim to serve Him. He will test them to see which are true and which are false. Who believe and who do not. And the test will be to entrust resources to them. Things like money, which we talked about last week. Possessions. Abilities. The Word of God! Other believers to spur them on. Trials and tribulations. Hard circumstances and easy. And He commands, “Put these things to work until I return.”
He commissions His servants to work. And He promises He will return. And when He returns, we understand that He will judge us for the work we did with the resources He gave us.
If we know we will be judged, if we know He will demand an accounting for everything He entrusted to us, we had better know how He wants us to use these endowments. And that, my friends, is where real belief comes in. It is this testing that reveals who believes and who does not. This is what it means to believe in Jesus. You believe who He is and respond accordingly.
If you believe that Jesus is your true Master, then you must seek to know what He wants done with His resources entrusted to us. What is His goal? What does He seek?
Would the master in this parable be happy if his servants took the money and bought all kinds of cotton candy, stockpiling it for a fun celebration when He returned?
Would the master in this parable be happy if they took the money and made themselves more comfortable while they waited for him to return, so they could greet him with joy over how well he provided for them while he was away?
Jesus is the Master. What does He seek? Proverbs 14:28 (NIV) says: “A large population is a king's glory, but without subjects a prince is ruined.” That’s what the Great Commission is all about, right?
The more deeply you understand Jesus to be your Master, the more dedicated you will be to being the kind of servant that represents Him accurately—in character and conversation and conduct—and speaks highly and regularly of Him in order to attract more citizens for His kingdom, even pleading with more people to save themselves from the consequences of rejecting Him as king.
Some will be more diligent or more gifted at their efforts to bring others into Christ’s kingdom. Some will bear more fruit; others less, but all devoted servants will bear fruit. That’s what He appointed His servants to do (John 15:16).
If, on the other hand, you believe that Jesus is kinda your master, but mostly He’s your good friend, so yeah, you mention Him from time to time, but you and Jesus are good. You’re tight! And Jesus is loyal to all those who claim Him. And He wants you to be happy here and now, to show the world how awesome life is for those who consider themselves—not servants! That’s demeaning; that’s not how Jesus sees things. We’re friends; Jesus loves me like a brother! And so He wants me to live life to the fullest—get everything I can out of these days! Yeah! Jesus is great!
If that’s how we see Jesus, then that’s how we’ll treat Him. Jesus is all about us, so we’ll use all He’s given us for our own enjoyment, for our own wants and wishes—and we’ll probably end up with none of the fruit Jesus is actually looking for. No matter how much we enjoyed this world and how compelling all the things we enjoyed might be.
You would never say that kind of person hated Jesus. But there are those who do hate Him.
Citizens Hate Him
14 "But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, 'We don't want this man to be our king.'
There are subjects—and everyone who ever lived in this world is one of His subjects—there are subjects who do outright hate Him. They don’t want Him to rule over them, and some send a delegation to the One who has authority to grant kingship, opposing Jesus as king.
Of course, atheists don’t believe in God, so they don’t seek God out to oppose Jesus. They just ignore both God and His Son. Some actively campaign among their fellow subjects to reject Him, as if they might be able to invalidate Jesus’ claim on the Lordship over them.
Followers of other religions don’t seek God out to oppose Jesus. If anything, they reject Jesus and continue to serve their own gods, hoping their own gods will protect them from Jesus. They might even attack their fellow citizens who do turn to accept the Lordship of Jesus. They might even attack the true God, who gives authority to reign.
But there are also those who believe in God who hate Jesus. Through Jesus’ parable, He was directly referencing the Pharisees and Sadducees who would instigate His murder. They all professed to worship God, to seek Him and know Him and do His will. Yet as a group, they refused Jesus, killed Him and cast Him out of His own city.
Today there are those who claim to believe in God, but they hate what God and Jesus actually stand for. So they ignore whole teachings of the Bible. They pick and choose their favorite verses or concepts and teach what they believe to be good and right—even though their teaching contradicts Jesus’ own example and message. They can get away with twisting and distorting the example and message of Jesus and lead countless people astray, because so few believers actually read and believe the Bible. The liberal churches of our day are our modern day Sadducees, who would daily assassinate the real Jesus to protect and project their own authority. And of course, the legalistic churches of today are our modern day Pharisees, who don’t teach God’s Word, but their own rules and regulations in order to establish and protect their own power and authority.
These two kinds of “believers” hate the real Jesus, just as surely as any atheist or follower of any other religion. None of them want Jesus to reign, and some plead with God not to allow the Biblical, true Jesus to rule.
Returns a 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.'
Well, they all lose. God has had His plan from the beginning of time, and He will not change. He will not call evil good and good evil. He will not listen to and lower His standard of righteousness to align with our selfish standards. Jesus will be made King and He will return. And when He does, He will begin by judging His own servants.
In the parable, He hands out authority over cities to those servants who knew His will and did it. Brothers and sisters, Jesus is coming back to rule over all the nations of this world. The world we know today will be ravaged by the wrath of God. By my estimate, at least half the unbelieving population of the world at that time will be wiped out. The remainder will be forced to accept Jesus as Lord and King for a thousand years.
There will still be nations and provinces and cities and villages. But all will be required to worship and serve Jesus Christ. So who will Jesus put in charge of those villages and cities and provinces and nations? Those He could trust in this age to seek to understand His will and do it, of course! Those who gave themselves to study and learn and walk in His ways, training themselves in righteousness now. They’ll be ready to be His captains and ambassadors and governors and mayors and kings! Because they will have already proven themselves to be loyal and dedicated to His vision and command. They may not be perfect in every way at the time of His return, but they’ll be as close as they can be by the effort they made through the Spirit and grace they were given!
But for all those who are trusting that when Jesus comes back, they’ll suddenly be made perfect in every way, after having lived this life as “believers” who didn’t put much effort into conforming their lives to Christ’s likeness—those people will be in for shock:
Demanding Master
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?'
Jesus is going to come back and call all His servants to account. They’re going to show up with all His resources safely tucked away. They held on to them; they protected them. They didn’t squander it on themselves. They didn’t deny Jesus. But they didn’t produce any good fruit with what He gave them.
They lived in enough fear of Him to know they needed to stow away what Jesus had given them, but then they went on their way, lived their own life, perhaps with a nagging fear that Jesus might not be satisfied. But they didn’t fear Him enough to follow through on what they knew of Him. He was a hard man. He takes out what He didn’t put in. He always wants more. So they did nothing! What?
If they had just followed through on their fear, they would have understood that to return to Jesus what He gave them with nothing else to show for it—that’s what would get them in trouble! There is a wickedness here. As if they were condemning Jesus for His greed by giving back to Him only what He gave them and nothing more.
The master in the parable may not like the servant’s description of himself, but neither does he deny it. He does want an increase! That’s why he gave his servants the mina!
Jesus won’t deny that He too is looking for an increase! He wants us to produce fruit with what He gives us—the fruit of souls saved through our testimony and effort. If we think we can believe in Jesus and be done, we’re like this wicked, lazy servant. We’ll have our “faith” to show Jesus when He returns, but He’ll ask us what we did with it.
Belief in Jesus Christ, real faith in Jesus Christ means we acknowledge that He is our Master and Judge. He is our Lord and our King. We live to serve His agenda and will. Jesus will not be satisfied if we “believe in Him” but live a life that does not point people to Him, that does not warn people that He is King and they had better accept Him as such and live to serve His purposes. What happens to such selfish and self-absorbed “believers?”
Decisive Judge
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 he has will be taken away.
“Even what he has will be taken away.” That fearful and lazy servant will lose what he thought he had secure. He thought he’d be fine—even though he had such a negative view of Jesus. “Jesus is so demanding!” “Jesus is so strict!” But still they hoped to live forever in His kingdom…?
Funny how he didn’t approach the master and say, “I know you are a loving and forgiving master, who accepts people from all walks of life even if they don’t follow your instructions.” Would he have received a different response from the master? That’s exactly what a whole lot of people today are hoping to find when they meet Jesus!
He didn’t say that, because though he didn’t obey his master, he did actually know his master, and knew him well. As do all those who deliberately redefine Jesus. It’s out of their fear, knowing He is a righteous and holy God. And they’re doing everything they can to deceive themselves and others in hope that they might get their wish.
Jesus did issue the Great Commission. He does want us to reap a harvest of souls. He wants every one of His servants to do whatever they can, big and small, to bring others the news of Jesus’ offer of forgiveness if they will repent and receive Him as King—to do His will!
Enemies Killed
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."
There’s one last thing that Jesus says of this master who received his kingdom and returned. Those citizens who hated him and sent a delegation to lobby against his request to be made king? Jesus says that new king has them rounded up and killed in front of him.
That’s what it means to be a king. You can kill your enemies. In fact, it’s wise to do so, because if they hated you, they will continue to work against you in secret. They will rally others to their cause. They will organize a rebellion. If they can’t get their way by delegation, they will work underground until they have enough numbers to mount a full-scale civil war.
Revelation prophesies that after Jesus returns as King to rule the whole earth, those unrepentant who enjoyed His righteous and just and prosperous reign for a thousand years will rise up and rally a huge army against Him and those who received Him as King in this age. And they will be destroyed in a moment. As if there was ever any question.
No remorse. No hesitation. They made their choice.
Then all the dead will be raised to life for judgment, and all those who hated Jesus and refused Him as King from the beginning of time to the end will be cast into eternal torment where “their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched,” and they will be loathsome to all of us who loved and submitted to Jesus as King (Isaiah 66:24, NIV).
Conclusion
41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."
As we remember this celebration of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, we need to remember also that Jesus wept over the city because of the judgment that would befall them—that did befall them—because they didn’t recognize the arrival of their true King. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the unbelievers—even some among His own disciples who cried, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” They did not recognize that Jesus is in fact King, and as King He deserves all obedience, respect and honor.
What does it mean to believe in Jesus? It means to believe that He is indeed the Christ, the Messiah, the promised King of Israel. That He is also the Son of God, fully divine. As God and King, He has every right to judge and condemn each one of us to eternal torment. But He submitted Himself to the will of His Father and suffered death to pay the penalty for our rebellion against God. He rose again and returned to His Father, “to a distant country,” to petition for a kingdom, and because of His righteousness and obedience, He has received it and will soon be installed as king. Believing in Jesus Christ means recognizing that the Kingdom of God is right here, right now, and Jesus is King and God and Sacrifice. All who will receive Him as king, to live for His purposes, they will be washed clean by His own blood, forgiven and made holy and new and righteous, so that they can in fact walk in obedience to their Lord and King.
So where are you, servant? Do you recognize your Master? Do you love Him and delight to do His will? Or have you received something you think cannot be taken away, and you’ve tucked it away in a safe place. You go on your merry way, doing whatever you think is good and right, whatever is best for you. When Jesus comes, you’ll bring out of hiding that golden ticket and try to take your place in His kingdom. Only to be refused.
How you and I treat Jesus today is how He’ll treat us then. Do you honor Him as king by how you live in obedience to His wishes and will? You’ll be honored with authority to rule in His kingdom. Or do you pretty much go your own way, vaguely aware of Him off in the distance, thinking yourself safe, unbothered by how little you know and do His will? He will not know you in that day you appear before Him.
Do you believe in Jesus? Then take care to know and do “all His holy will.”