Equipped Contenders

INTRO

We are approaching the end of our sermon series, which we have titled “Stories from the King” as we look at the parables of Jesus. Let me encourage you to reflect on this sermon series. All of the parables we have looked at have to do with the Kingdom of God and our role in participating in the expansion of the Kingdom. I hope we have gained a sense of urgency to share the good news as we think of Christ’s imminent return. I pray that we be challenged to live every day informed by the knowledge that Christ is coming again.

I also hope you have enjoyed thinking about Jesus’s teaching style, as I have. He spoke so much in parables. In fact in (Matthew 13:34) it says that there was a time in Jesus ministry in which HE ONLY spoke in parables to the crowds. Each story contributing something more to how we ought to live in light of the kingdom. We have essentially sat at the feet of the King as we looked at each of these stories and my prayer is that we do not walk away from this series the same way.

Let me encourage you to look through your sermon notes this week and reflect on what our Lord has been teaching you before we conclude this series.

As we begin with today’s parable, let us commit our time to the Lord once more.

Why are we still here?

When I was in middle school, I remember a math teacher I had who was catholic and was not ashamed to share about the catholic faith. I remember talking to him during lunch one day about His faith and I would usually prepare a question to try to stump Him, but this time, he had a question for me. He asked me, “if you are so sure you are saved and going to heaven, why doesn’t God just take you up to heaven, why wait?

My seventh grade self did not know how to answer that question. Why would God not just bring us home? Why allow us to live through suffering, when we know the end? Why not like Enoch in Genesis 5, couldn’t our story be, Ray walked with God and he was not, for God took him.

Doesn’t that sound nice? To join those who have gone before us. To be in heaven, in perfect communion with our creator and king, to bring our saved family members with us.

We could rephrase my teacher’s question, “why are we still here?”

Today’s parable is the third parable in a series of back to back parables where Jesus is answering a related question from the disciples in Matthew 24:3

Matthew 24:3 ESV

3 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

The rest of the chapter is Jesus describing what must occur, and then he gives them a series of parables. Each parable although contribute something different to the “coming of the age” they have themes in common. They describe that we must wait for the coming of Christ, and that judgement is coming with Christ’s return.

Our parable builds upon those themes one of which we heard from Gary last week in the parable of the 10 virgins, but today’s parable helps us answer the question, “why are we still here, why wait?” It answers it by giving us instructions from Jesus as to how we ought to wait as faithful servants.

I have title this sermon “Why are we still here? Instructions for the Faithful Servant”

In our parable, we will see three sets instructions from our king:

Instructions to Wait

Instructions to Steward

Instructions for the Kingdom

Instructions to Wait (v. 14, 19)

Beginning with the instruction to wait. As mentioned, this is a theme in these parables. We saw it last week in Gary’s sermon when the bridegroom is described as “delayed” (Matthew 25:5). We see the same theme here. Look at verses 14 and 19.

Matthew 25:14 “14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.”

Matthew 25:19 “19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.”

In our parable of the Talents, the Master goes on a journey, leaves the servants and entrusts them with his property. Then in verse 19, we see these words, “after a long time” and we might not think much of these words in light of the whole parable, but the idea of waiting for a long time, that the Master will delay, is one that Jesus is emphasizing and we must take notice.

We understand from this parable, that we must wait. Those are the instructions for the disciples (and us!), WAIT. But what are we waiting for?

Let’s briefly talk about what we are not waiting for.

We are not waiting for this world to get better. In Matthew 24:3-14, we see the signs foretelling the coming of Christ. We see that there will be wars and rumors of wars, lawlessness will increase, peoples love will grow cold.

A pretty ugly situation, and although many of us would look at these signs and say, “Christ will come in 2024 or 2025.” Our instructions aren’t to know when Christ will return, but rather, the instructions are to wait.

We are not also not waiting simply to die as to say, “well I’m saved, just waiting any day for my God to take me home.” I don’t think many people actually think this way, but I see Christians live this way. Going through the normal rhythms of life with no sense of duty or urgency, with no direction, just doing the day to day, waiting for God to bring them home.

Church, we are not waiting for things to get better, nor should we live only waiting to die and go to Heaven. We are waiting for the consummation of what began at the Cross. Christ died and paid our debt to enter His Kingdom, and although we are now justified and have assurance that we belong to the family of God, the work of Christ is not complete until Christ comes to restore what was lost at he fall of man.

That’s what we are waiting for! We wait with expectation of what we know is to come because the Master, has asked us to wait and He has told us that He is coming back!

The author of Hebrews describes what the Christian’s disposition should be in waiting.

Hebrews 9:28 (ESV)

28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Our instructions are to wait, we know what we are waiting for, and our disposition is to eagerly wait.

In addition to waiting, we have instructions to steward.

Instructions to Steward (v. 15-28, 30)

Steward what was entrusted (the master’s property) - v. 14

When the master left, he entrusted them with His property. If this is a parable about the Kingdom, Christ being the King or Master, we must ask, what have we (His servants) been entrusted with?

Paul tells us what we have been entrusted with.

2 Corinthians 5:17–19 (ESV)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

What have we been entrusted with? The message of reconciliation. This message, the Gospel, is Christ’s property. It is not ours, it is His. Our culture is on this trend of defining truth as each person sees it. We hear people say, “that’s your truth, but that’s not my truth.” The Gospel, this message is neither yours nor mine, it is God’s Gospel. We don’t make this stuff up, we have been given, we have been entrusted with this message.

Paul also calls it the ministry of reconciliation. Ministry associating it with the action of doing something with this message. The ministry of reconciliation, is telling people the message we have been given. These are our instructions, to preach the message of the Gospel.

If you are still in Matthew, scroll or flip back to Matt 24:14 to find the goal or mission of His Church who has been entrusted with this message.

Matthew 24:14 ESV

14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

This is what the Church does, we proclaim this Gospel, throughout the whole world! Christ tells us that it is only when the whole world has heard that He will come.

The Joshua project is a Christian organization that researches reached and unreached people groups, and they have identified 17,443 people groups in the world, and many of us wouldn’t guess that 7,425 of these groups are UNREACHED. That means about 43% of people groups are considered UNREACHED according to the Joshua Project.

Our church’s missions team has prioritized the supporting of missionaries who go to bring the Gospel to an unreached people group and we can see that there is need for the Gospel to still go forth to all the world.

Although not many of us are called to go to these remote places in the world, we all have a responsibility to steward what we have been given.

Notice also that in our parable, the master is aware of each of His servants capacity and gives accordingly.

Steward according to our capacity - v. 15-18

In verses 15-18 we see the master distributing the talents. One talent was the equivalent of what a worker would earn over 20 years. One commentator said maybe the equivalent of $300,000 per talent. This was of high value what the master entrusted to them.

Each servant was given according to their “ability.”

God also gives us according to our ability, and we all have different ability or capacity, and He gives us what we are able to manage.

Talents

I want to make a note about talents here as we talk about ability. I think this parable is often used to describe the giving of spiritual gifts. It is very possible that the idea of spiritual gifts didn’t even cross their mind being that Jesus was describing a large amount of their currency and it’s a natural conclusion to associate currency with spiritual gifts.

Although it could be associated with the giving of spiritual gifts, I agree with Dr. D.A. Carson when he says that we must not limit this parable to only gifts. Dr. Carson says, “to do so leads to a narrowing of the parable, with which Jesus would have been uncomfortable.”

If we think of the amount of talents as the capacity or ability of each person, then we can include spiritual gifts, but it can also include your context. Which could be the number of children you have, or you ability to foster a child, it could mean your physical ability, although we all have the share the same 24 hours each day, some people are able to get more done in those hours than others. We all have a capacity, and God knows our capacity, or our ability and gives to us accordingly.

I have very fond memories of my grandmother. She was a woman of faith and many would call her a prayer warrior. She was a widow for most of my life knowing her and she also struggled to get around, she couldn’t comfortably get into vehicles nor walk very long distances, but she could cook. Every week she purposed to have her tenants over for a meal and she would pray for them before each meal and read the bible to them.

Even today, those who were her tenants remember her as the woman who prayed for them.

My grandmother in comparison to many of us had a very low ability or capacity, but she was faithful, and I’m certain she heard the words from her savior, “well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master.”

Compare my grandmother’s ability with that of someone like John Piper, who even while he was a full-time pastor, has a ministry of writing, and began the “Desiring God” ministry, and is able to output so many helpful resources for the Church (capital C). He started a seminary. I’m certain the the Church will continue to reap the benefits of His ministry even after he dies.

We each have an ability or capacity and our Lord knows what that is. Our instructions from Him is to steward what we have.

Comparing the Faithful and the Unfaithful Servants

Having an understanding of the talents and how we each have different capacities, helps us understand the lesson of the parable. To understand the parable, let’s look a bit closer and compare the outcome of the faithful servants and the unfaithful or wicked servant.

The servant with the 5 and the 2 talents were able to double the money they were given. These two servants traded or worked the money and double their investment. Trading the money has an element of risk, as we hear from Cal a couple of weeks ago. We don’t usually know if our investment will return with gains or loss, but they took the risk and had a return of investment. The master was pleased with this result and calls them “good and faithful servants.”

Contrast that description with the servant with 1 talent, who did not invest. He is called “wicked and slothful”

so we have “good” or “wicked”, and we have “faithful” or “slothful” - opposites.

Notice also the reasoning of the slothful servant for not investing. He says,

Matthew25:24-25 “24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’”

The slothful servant acted out of fear! He calls the master a hard man, and describes Him as one who demands much from His servants and did not want to disappoint. The master condemns the servant, with the servant’s own words. If you new that I demand much, you should have labored to work more, not less.

The fear of this servant paralyzed him and the master condemns Him for it.

Now, if we saw this play out today, we might say, that master is so harsh! The servant didn’t want to risk losing the property, and he saved it to give it back to him and perfect condition. Why such a harsh response?!

I think the harsh response is due to the lack of belief or faith the servant displayed. The other two servants demonstrated their belief and faith in laboring for their master. This servant demonstrated paralyzing fear and no faith, and that’s why he is condemned.

The wicked servant did not respond out of ignorance, right, He knows the master, but he is condemned because of His response. God is seeking people to respond appropriately to Him.

I think of Exodus 32, when Israel is saved from slavery in Egypt. Moses goes up to mount Sinai and because he is delayed, the Israelites make a Golden Calf and then look what Aaron declares. Exodus 32:5

Exodus 32:5 ESV

5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.”

Later in the chapter, we know that God is displeased with their worship. Their intention might have been good, but their response was wrong.

We have the same situation in this parable, the response of the servant with 1 tenant, was the wrong response, and we must learn from this story, what our instructions are and follow them.

It is important at this point to point out that this story is given to the disciples, not to the crowds. This isn’t a Gospel message, these are instructions for His followers. We understand that we are not saved by works (Eph 2:8-9). We are saved by God’s grace through Faith in Jesus. As believers, we are called to “work out our salvation” Philippians 2:12

Philippians 2:12 ESV

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,

It is so important to understand the distinction, that these instructions we see in this Parable are for believers. A very important distinction, and I want to make sure that it is clear.

Now, coming back to our parable, let us build the bridge into our context. Our instructions from our King, are to wait and to steward or labor with what we have been given. We understand from our parable that laboring can feel risky to us. Laboring for the Gospel could result in you being called a hater, or result in losing your job, or result in offending people as the Gospel calls people to repentance of their sin.

But it could also result in people coming to saving faith. It could result in someone wanting to study the bible with you. It could result in someone coming to church with you.

Our task is to labor, but we labor for the Gospel knowing that the one who is in control of the gains is our Lord. That’s how our faith is demonstrated in that when we labor for our King, we know that our King is sovereign over the results of our labor, and we trust Him for the results.

Instructions for the Kingdom (v. 29)

We see that the reason we are still here is because God has work for us to do! He wants us to wait with eagerness for His return, and he has entrusted us with the message and ministry of reconciliation.

There is one more instruction from our King in this passage, and it’s not so much an instruction as it is a “rule.” One of the commentators called this the “Kingdom Rule.” This rule is found in verse 29.

Matthew 25:29 “29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

We see this rule earlier in Matthew, in Matthew 13:12, but there it is referring to understanding of the Kingdom of God. Those who have been given the understanding of Christ, more will be given to them.

The same principle applies to our parable. Those who are faithful in the ministry that we have been entrusted with, God says, He will bless it with more. That blessing could be in more people coming to saving faith, or it could be in growth in your ability to minister, or it could be the reach of your ministry, or it could be guiding one person to saving faith and reaping the rewards of the experience of discipling someone who comes to faith.

So the rule is this, “Faithfulness results in blessing and reward.”

I have been meditating on this verse as I have been praying about reaching the hispanic community here with the Gospel. I have a plan of action, and a desire to see this come to fruition but it is so dependent on Him. As I studied this passage I have been holding on to verse 29 as a promise, praying to our Lord, I can’t but you can and you promised that if I follow your instructions of stewarding what you’ve given me, you take care of the results. The results will be what you want them to be.

The same applies with raising children, we labor to care for them, to teach them about Christ. We labor to give them a good education, but the results are not ours, they belong to God. Our job is to steward well.

The same applies with the responsibilities you have in the community, whether that be through work or volunteer opportunities, or sitting on various boards. Steward those well by being ministers of the Gospel in those contexts. It is risky, but God takes care of the results, we like the faithful servants must trust and have faith that our Lord.

The inverse of this rule would be, “unfaithfulness or lack of belief in God results in loss and punishment”

The Gospel (blank)

As we see in this passage, the wicked, slothful servant was sent to the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, which is a description of the eternal punishment of Hell. No one likes preaching about Hell or thinking about Hell, but this is the message, we have been entrusted. That there are two eternal places, Heaven and Hell. Hell is the location where God’s wrath is on full display against sin and those who do not repent are sent there. The fact is that we all deserve to go to that place for our sin. But we praise God that through Jesus Christ, we have hope of being saved from Hell, that through Faith in Jesus, trusting that the payment he made on the cross for my behalf was fully accepted by God and now I am declared righteous through faith in Jesus and that is the only way we can enter heaven.

Jesus was the perfect servant, so that we don’t have to be perfect servants, because we can’t be. What we can do is follow the instructions of our King. To wait with eagerness, to steward what He has entrusted to us (the Gospel) and to persevere knowing that He will bless our laboring for Him.

So why are we still here? Because there is work to do. We are here to fulfill the task given to the church of being ministers of the Gospel in our world, waiting for the day we will hear the words of our savior, “Well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master.”

Mark Benedict, one of our Elders comes now for the closing prayer and benediction