03 - Ready In Your Works By Pastor Jeff Wickwire Notes

Matt 25: 14-30 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 22 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’

26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.

29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

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Now, this is the final of 3 parables from Jesus in His spectacular discourse on the signs that would precede His return, and 3 ways we are to be prepared for His return—in our FAITH, in our WALK, and now in this last parable, in our WORKS.

As with the other 2 parables, we have the master of a house, representing Jesus, who leaves to go on a long journey.

Before leaving, He entrusts differing sums of money to 3 different servants.

The money is measured in talents, which was the largest unit of money in Jesus’ day.

To give perspective to this, a denarius was the daily wage of a typical worker.

And a “talent” equaled around 17 years of wages.

So five talents literally made the first man a multi-millionaire, the second man with two talents was set for life, and the last man with one talent was set for almost 2 decades.

The money in this parable represents spiritual gifts and graces.

Jesus’ point is—our spiritual gifts have really high value!

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The Bible teaches that every Christian has been given at least one spiritual gift.

As Peter wrote, “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.”

Here are some of the gifts mentioned in Scripture:

In 1 Cor. 12 we read of the:

Gift of Wisdom

Gift of Knowledge

Gift of Faith

Gifts of Healing

Gift of Miracles

Gift of Prophecy

Discerning of Spirits

Gift of Tongues

Interpretation of Tongues.

Then in Romans 12:7-8 we find even more gifts:

The gift of serving

The gift of teaching

The gift of encouraging

The gift of giving

The gift of leadership

The gift of mercy

All Christians have received at least one of these gifts.

Finally, the 3 servants that receive the talents represent us, the church.

Now, the gist of this parable is all about making use of the spiritual gift God has given you by investing it into His kingdom’s work.

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Jesus also says that each servant receives the gifting his natural abilities can handle—Jesus said, “To each according to his own ability.

So the master dealt with each servant on an individual basis.

The infinite variety in people’s dispositions, intellects, opportunities, position in life, and so on, are all taken into account when spiritual gifts are given.

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Then, as in the other parables, one day the Master—representing Jesus—returns to “settle accounts” with them.

In other words, He wants to see how well they had invested their gifts into His kingdom’s work.

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Now, let’s break this parable down...

First, as already stated:

We’ve all received a spiritual gift to invest in kingdom work

Ro. 12:6 “In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.“

Eph. 4:7-11 “However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. 8 That is why the Scriptures say, ‘When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.”

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Second, we find that:

II. The two wise servants immediately began investing

Jesus tells us that the two productive servants lost no time in investing the talents entrusted to them.

“Then he who had received the five talents went (immediately) and traded...” (25:16)

The one with the two talents did the same.

When he returned, the master discovered that both of the wise servants had doubled their principal...

“Look!” The first one said, “I have gained five more talents.”

In other words, he had doubled the master’s investment.

The one with two talents said the same thing.

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Then the parable takes a cautionary turn when we come to the man who was given one talent.

Rather than invest his gift, he had buried it.

“I went out and hid your gold in the ground” (vs.25).

He did nothing with the gift God had given him, and had nothing to show for it at the master’s return.

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Jesus tells us that this last servant’s problem was found in his opinion of the master.

Listen to his negative assessment of him:

“I knew you to be a hard man” meaning harsh, unfair, unkind, and unreasonable.

He goes on to scour the master’s character: “You reap where you haven’t sown,” meaning “You steal other men’s crops.”

His opinion of the master was negative and false, hence—he didn’t trust him.

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And this is how the lost world out there sees God.

In their view, He is hard, cruel, unfair, and unjust.

When national calamities take place, we typically hear people on the news asking, “Why did God allow this? Where was He?”

The world immediately blames God.

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When we listen to an atheist explain his atheism, the charge is always made that—if there is a God, why all the wars, and trouble, and anguish, and so on.

“The God you claim to believe in is unloving, uncaring, unfair, and cruel!” they say.

And the same with this last servant!

He never invested his gift in the work of the Lord because of his opinion of the Lord of the work.

His attitude was, “God’s not good or fair, so why should I even bother with serving Him?”

He lost out in this life and in eternal rewards due to his negative opinion of God.

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The Bible goes to great pains to tell us what God is really like.

Listen to a few of the Bible’s descriptions of Him:

“God is not a man, that he should lie,” (Numbers 23:19)

“For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you...” (Deuteronomy 4:31)

“For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome...” (Deuteronomy 10:17)

“For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory” (Deut. 20:4)

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble” (Psalms 46:1-2).

“For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end” (Psalms 48:14).

“Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me” (Psalms 54:4).

“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens” (Psalms 68:19-20).

“For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. (Psalms 84:11-12).

“The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion” (Psalms 116:5).

“God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful” (1 Corinthians 1:9).

“God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

“...love comes from God...because God is love. (1 John 4:7-9).

Who couldn’t serve this kind of God!

It sounds to me like this last servant was wrong in his opinion of the Lord.

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I close with a thought to send home with you:

Whether or not you serve God reveals what you THINK of Him deep down.

I encourage you today to receive what the Bible says about Him, and begin investing your gift!