A Ring and a Talent
Peter Sample
1 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 43:14
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· 6 viewsWe are to be faithful stewards of the mystery of God
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One of the classic books of our time is the Lord of the Rings.
Frodo Baggins is entrusted with a ring of power, and he is to carry it across Middle Earth and drop that ring in the Mountain of Doom, to destroy it, so that the evil guy doesn’t get it and gain all of its power.
Quite the story.
Frodo has a friend Samwise Gamgee who has promised to accompany Frodo as a servant and as a friend. Gandalf charges Sam to stick with Frodo and care for him. And, he does. He faithfully walks with Frodo through all sorts of difficulties. Situations that would cause many of us to throw in the towel.
At one point, Frodo can’t keep going. The ring is weighing him down emotionally and physically. Sam says: I can’t carry the ring, Frodo, but I can carry you. And he picks up Frodo and carries him over the rocks and up the mountain cliff. Amazing part of the story.
Samwise Gamgee was a faithful friend and a faithful steward of the responsibility entrusted to him.
Today, in our passage, Paul talks about stewards.
This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.
Pray
Today in our passage, we will see that we are to be faithful stewards of the mystery of God. We will define what that means and then explain it practically.
The Stewardship Defined
The Stewardship Defined
Let’s define this stewardship. Technically, my translation does not use the word steward. Instead it says, “those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed.” That word “entrusted” is the word for steward.
This steward is a servant with responsibility.
This steward is a servant with responsibility.
In America, we really don’t have a box for the Biblical position of steward. We could consider a curator of a museum. The Curator does not own the museum or the relics in the museum, but the curator is charged with taking care of the museum and everything in it. They have to handle the finances wisely and keep up with updates and upkeep. The curator is very close to a steward.
A caretaker of a garden or a cemetery would be another modern close-equivalent.
The steward was a servant or or a slave which handled the affairs of a household.
If you remember the Biblical character Joseph. When he was sold into slavery and brought to Egypt, he was bought by Potiphar and placed in charge of Potiphar’s house.
We read in
Genesis 39:2–6 (NIV)
The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
A steward is a servant with responsibility, a responsibility to make sure someone’s household keeps running, handling the finances, doing the repairs, being in charge of the other household staff, etc.
I suppose the English butler would be a good example of a steward as well.
A steward has the responsibility to be faithful.
Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.
The faithfulness of a steward is to diligently complete the tasks required of him so that his master will look good. His faithfulness is not to his own desires or his own priorities, but to his master’s.
This steward is a servant with responsibility. They are entrusted with something important.
This Steward is judged by his master
This Steward is judged by his master
Since a steward is to be faithful to his master, they look only to their master for approval.
Paul, speaking of himself as a steward, says
I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.
Jesus told a parable about a man who left for another country and gave his servants money to invest. They had a stewardship: they had a responsibility. One man was given five bags of gold and doubled it through investments. One man was given two bags of gold and also doubled it. The third man took his one bag of gold and buried it.
When his master confronted him about not being faithful with the stewardship, he responded:
“Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
The master condemns the steward for not being faithful to his task, and the servant is judged.
My question is: what was the servant afraid of. He seemed to have a fear of failure and what his master might do if he didn’t meet unnamed expectations. He feared life and his responsibilities. This fear paralyzed him with anxiety, so he buried the gold to protect it.
What else could he be fearing? Whatever we fear, we make into our master. We are saying that thing controls us instead of our real master.
Paul says, as a steward, he will not have any other master other than Jesus Christ. He will not allow the expectations or opinions of the Corinthians control him. He will not allow his own insecurities or biases control him. He will only submit himself, as a steward, to the control and judgment of his heavenly master.
This steward has a responsibility. This steward is only judged by his master.
This steward will be shown grace
This steward will be shown grace
Paul concludes his paragraph:
Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.
I appreciate that Paul says: “each will receive their praise from God.” Paul rests on the grace of God. He is not the fearful servant who hides his stewardship.
Paul is able to say:
“Yes, I am broken. Yes, I am a sinner. Yes, I do not meet God’s perfect standard for salvation or life.”
But, as he says in Romans 7:24-25
Romans 7:24–25 (NIV)
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
This steward faithfully serves his master, making his master look good, concerned only what his master thinks, instead of being filled with fear and anxiety for numerous reasons. This steward who serves faithfully in that way can be assured that one day they will stand before Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ will reach his hand out to this sinful, yet faithful steward, and will say: “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into your rest.”
Can you imagine the freedom this brings? Paul doesn’t second guess himself. He confidently seeks to be faithful today, letting God take care of the past and the future.
There you go: the stewardship defined: This steward is a servant with a responsibility. This steward is judged by God alone. This steward will be shown grace.
The Stewardship Explained
The Stewardship Explained
Now that we have defined stewardship briefly. Let’s talk about it practically.
Paul says:
This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed.
Every person who is a follower of Jesus Christ is a steward of the mysteries that God has revealed to us and we are called to be faithful to that stewardship, instead of following any other master we could think of.
Jesus has left us hear on earth to wait for his return, but in our waiting we are to faithfully do what he has asked us to do.
Let’s briefly share 7 steps of stewardship. By brief, I mean that it will take some time to cover all seven, but each point will be kind of brief.
Cherish God’s Grace
Cherish God’s Grace
First, we cherish God’s grace.
Paul writes in Col 1 about the mysteries of God, specifically of the grace which has been given to us who believe.
He says:
I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
God’s grace is that he has chosen to make himself known. It is for us to see his grace in our lives every day. See his grace in our church every time we meet together. We cherish those opportunities, because God is making himself known.
These acts of grace could be a peace that passes all understanding through a really hard time. It could be comfort through grief. It could be financial provision. Or it could be something simple as one’s kids not yelling at each other for a whole hour.
If we reflect on the church, God’s grace is how he is working. It is his financial provision. It’s the people he brings to attend, their gifts and talents. It is the demographics of the community. Is God bringing a bunch of young people with their youth, or is he bringing a bunch of elderly with their wisdom. Neither group is wrong. If we cherish God’s grace, we will accept what he gives and revel in it.
We cherish God’s grace. We are stewards of God’s mysteries. Let us be faithful until he comes.
Live by faith
Live by faith
We live by faith.
Jesus said
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
When we see God’s grace in our lives, we are spurred to respond in faith. As a church, we are to be open to how God is leading the direction of this church, seeing whom God is graciously leading to us. See how God is opening up avenues of ministry.
We embrace God’s grace--We embrace the authority of Christ by acts of faith.
As one person said: Our life is to mix faith with everything--the good, the bad, the ugly.
If Christ is our savior, our sanctification, our service, our shepherd, our life, we will respond with faith at his movements of Grace.
What does this look like? 15 years ago, God blessed this church with a vibrant children’s ministry. Then, he took the kids away. We as a church kept ministering according to the past, instead of asking how God wanted us to minister now.
Instead, we are to look at who we are now, the workings of God’s grace now, and then respond accordingly in faith, even when it doesn’t make sense, even when it seems to go against our perception of our identity.
We do not turn our back on who we are as our core. We do not change our doctrines, the foundation of our faith, but we might change our vision statement and mission as well as how we practically live out that vision and mission with whom God has given us in the context that God has called us to live.
To believe in the one God has sent includes following that one in how he leads.
We are to be stewards of God’s mysteries. Let us be faithful until he comes.
We live by faith, as we cherish God’s grace.
Maintain a relationship with Christ
Maintain a relationship with Christ
We maintain a relationship with Christ.
God sent a strange message to Ephesus through the Apostle John. He said,
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
This love is not a romantic love. The love he is speaking of happens when we find in another what we so desperately need in ourselves.
The Ephesians forgot that they needed Jesus daily. The mysteries of God stopped being mysteries, because they were content in what they knew. They could battle the evils of their town. They could give all the answers to correct doctrine and theology. They could test and prove who were leaders of the church and who were lying.
But, in all their knowledge, they had forgotten that they needed Jesus themselves. They had forgotten what it meant to yearn for him and commune with him.
They couldn’t repeat with Paul:
I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
Or with David,
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
This relationship, this love, is kept afire through worship. A worship that is not a striking up the band, but a broken approach to Jesus with tears in our eyes, wiping his feet next to Mary, realizing that he is everything to us. Without him, we are nothing.
Pursuing this relationship and worship with our brothers and sisters to an audience of only Jesus, but also in our closet, realizing he has what we desperately need for today, for this decision, for everything.
As we pursue this relationship, we actually have the strength and wisdom to live by faith as God flexibly leads us through life.
We maintain a relationship with Christ. We live by faith, as we cherish God’s grace.
Fight the good fight of faith
Fight the good fight of faith
We are stewards of God’s mysteries. Let us be faithful until he comes.
So, We fight the good fight of faith.
Paul urges Timothy:
But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
Through our relationship with Christ we learn the agony of this life. Adversity comes to us in all forms.
We face adversity within ourselves. Because of our stewardship, we fight the good fight of faith, fleeing from all the sinful ways within us, that are against God’s grace. All those things that try to master us, influencing us away from our true master.
We face adversity outside of ourselves, as we face a world that does not understand the kingdom of God. They listen to us talk and they are confused. They see our morality and our standards and they take offense.
We fight the good fight of faith to show righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness, in the face of that opposition, confusing, and offense.
We fight the good fight of faith to not be distracted from seeing God’s grace in front of us. We fight the good fight of faith to live by faith, through the good, the bad, and the ugly.
We fight the good fight of faith to prioritize a relationship with Jesus every single day. We all know how busy life gets. So many things try to demand our attention, and we can catch ourselves saying: I’ll get to it tomorrow. And so we push off our Bible reading and our focused time of prayer, even though it is Jesus we truly need, not the other stuff.
As we pursue Christ’s presence, the spontaneous response is humility, which gives us the ability to fight the good fight of faith. To show the righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.
We are stewards of God’s mystery. Let us be faithful until he comes.
We are to fight the good fight of faith. Maintain a relationship with Christ. Live by faith. Cherish God’s grace.
Disciple
Disciple
Everyone still with me?
As stewards, we disciple the faithful.
We are all familiar with Matthew 28 19-20
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
In the original language, the only command is to make disciples. All the rest are supporting of that command. Basically, we make disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching. The important thing is that we make disciples.
There is an interesting verse in 2 Timothy which builds on this concept.
And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.
The work of the church, as we understand our stewardship, is the work of multiplication. Each one of us is charged with picking those around us who show the work of God in his or her life and investing in that work, so that that person will go out and invest in others.
As one person said, we disciple shepherds, who will disciple other shepherds.
One man I look up to, says that he looks for fat and sassy people in his congregation. Fat as in they are Faithful, Available, and Teachable. Sassy as in they are Seeking and Sharing the Savior Yourself.
He invests in these fat and sassy people so that they will turn around and invest in others.
We are stewards of God’s mystery. Let us be faithful until he comes.
We are to disciple the faithful. Fight the good fight of faith. Maintain a relationship with Christ. Live by faith. Cherish God’s grace.
Invest in the Body
Invest in the Body
We invest in the body.
We dig into the body so that the saints are equipped within the local church to live and serve in harmony and to edify one anther in love.
Paul writes in Eph 4 11-16
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
As we invest in relationships through the local church, God is glorified, we are matured, and ministry happens.
As Warren Wiersbe said, “Ministry happens when divine resources meet human needs through loving channels for the glory of God.”
If we are not investing time in the local church and building loving relationships through the local church, we will not mature and others in the church will not mature, and ministry will not happen in our lives for the glory of God.
Investing in the body means spending time together and building loving relationships.
We are stewards of God’s mystery. Let us be faithful until he comes.
We invest in the body. Disciple the faithful. Fight the good fight of faith. Maintain a relationship with Christ. Live by faith. Cherish God’s grace.
Invest in the World
Invest in the World
Finally, we invest in the world.
We prayerfully design outreach for ourselves and we provide for those called to go where we are not.
The amazing thing is: if we are truly cherishing God’s grace, living by faith, maintaining a relationship with Christ, fighting the good fight of faith, discipling the faithful, investing in the Body, evangelism cannot but help happen.
When we as a church overflows with the witness and gladness of God’s grace, the good news of the resurrected life of Christ shines brightly in the dark world around.
We see this in the early church.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
The Christians of the early church were faithful stewards of the mysteries of God and God blessed that stewardship with multiplication.
As one person said: If revival is the experience of the church, than evangelism is the expression of the church.
We are stewards of God’s mystery. Let us be faithful until he comes.
We invest in the world. Invest in the body. Disciple the faithful. Fight the good fight of faith. Maintain a relationship with Christ. Live by faith. Cherish God’s grace.
One day, our master is going to come home, and he is going to give an accounting of ourselves, how we have chosen to live our lives, what we have chosen to do with our time, how we have lived out our salvation.
Will we have been good stewards? Will we have an increase to show for our time here on this earth?
Or will we have been the lazy servant, because of fear or any other excuse, rejecting our stewardship and having no increase to show.
Let us join Samwise Gamgee, accepting the responsibility, picking up the burden, because of the love of our master, and faithfully walking until the end of the story.