What We Are Supposed to Do

What We Are Supposed to Do While We Wait

Let’s all take a deep breath and wait… …. …. …. That was a long 20 seconds! Jesus promised that He would return. That was a promise made roughly 2000 years ago, and we are still waiting. So what is the church, what are we supposed to be doing besides waiting? Well, that’s what we are going to talk about today because Jesus tells us exactly what we should be doing. Let’s turn to our text for today, Matthew 25:14-30 (ESV), the Parable of the Talents.

The Parable of the Talents

14“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15To one he gave five talents,d to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ 21His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.e You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ 23His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24He 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, 25so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ 26But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29For 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. 30And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

So to fully understand where we are heading here, we need to break down a few things in this passage first because there is a lot here. First let’s get oriented to what Jesus is talking about with this parable. Matthew 25 is an extension of Matthew 24. In Matthew 24 Jesus and the disciples travel from Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives. Prior to this, Jesus did the whole table flip thing, had a duel of wits with the Pharisees, pronounced a bunch of woes on them, and then predicts the destruction of the temple.

Once they get to the Mount of Olives the disciples finally accept that Jesus is going to die. So they ask, what will be the sign of His return, how will they/we know when He comes back. Jesus answers by telling them what to look for and makes it very clear that no one knows when He will return, except the Father. But Jesus goes further in His answer to them. He tells them what they should do while they wait. Jesus gives a series of three parables: one that illustrates the attitude of a faithful servant vs an evil servant, one that illustrates the necessity for being alert and prepared for the return of Jesus, and then one that illustrates what the servants of the master are supposed to be doing until He returns.

Now we know where we are and we have been, so now we can start moving down the trail. The parable opens with verse 14: “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.” What is the ‘it’ to which Jesus is referring here? The NKJV has the phrase the kingdom of heaven in place of the word ‘it’, so Jesus is saying here, the kingdom of heaven is like a man going on a journey and who called his servants and put them in charge of his stuff. One servant got 5 talents, another servant got 2 talents, and then the third servant got 1 talent, each according to his ability.

Anyone thinking to themselves, well that sounds great but what is a talent? I’m glad you asked! A talent in the Old Testament was the heaviest unit of measure for weight which was about 75lbs. In the New Testament era, a talent was the largest quantity of money and was worth about 20 years’ wages for the average day laborer.

So in the case of the parable, the master is giving his servants a lot of money to look after and be fruitful with. The point isn’t the money here, it's that the master gave his servants a valuable gift and it says he entrusted them with it, which means the master gave them a valuable gift with confidence. Confidence in what? Confidence that they would look after the gift and use it, to be fruitful with it.

The Greek form of the word talent here is tálanton which is derived from the word tlao which means: to bear, a balance, that which is weighed, a weight or sum of money. We derive our modern word talent from this word as well, which means: a special ability of a person, the natural endowment of a person, an ancient unit of weight, and a unit of value equal to a talent of gold or silver.

In the parable then, the master gave his servants a valuable gift that they had to bear, quite literally and figuratively, and did so with the confidence that they would look after that gift and use it to get some sort of return on the investment according to their natural endowment of ability. Let’s put this another way, God gave us all valuable gifts according to our own natural or special abilities, gifts that we must bear, and He did so with the confidence that we were to use those gifts for the Kingdom until Jesus returns.

There are a lot of gifts that God gives to us. There are our natural abilities, such as singing, dancing, writing, drawing, etc. those are gifts that God gives to us to experience and interact with the gift of life and His creation. Then there are the spiritual gifts; these are gifts God gives to us when we are born again. These are the Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:7-11), the ministry gifts (1 Corinthians 12:27-28, Ephesians 4:7-12), and the motivational gifts (Romans 12:3-8). All of these gifts, God gives to us based on His plan for us and our natural ability. It's important to know that the spiritual gifts are given by grace and not everyone gets the same amount of gifts. Some get one or two, while others might have five. All of these are the valuable gifts that the master (God) gives to his servants (us) and we bear, carry, them throughout our lives.

Now we must do something with those gifts! We must use those gifts and we should use them for the Kingdom just as the servants in the parable. The master expected that the servants would care for the gift and use it in a way that brought about a return. Verse 16-19: “He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.” If the master didn’t expect a return of some sort, he wouldn’t have to settle accounts with his servants. But he did, likewise, God expects that we would use our gifts in such a way that brings a return for the Kingdom.

Verse 20-23: “And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.e You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’”

In these verses we see the two servants who got it. They understood what they were given, they understood the nature and character of the master and understood the assignment they were given. They used their gifts to multiply what they started with, they brought a return to the master. When the master came back, they were rewarded with more than they were given. This will be the same for us. Boy what a wonderful phrase: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” I don’t know about you, but I long to hear those words!

The rest of the parable looks at what happened to the one servant who did not use what he was given. Verses 24-30: “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, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 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. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

So why didn’t this servant do what the other servants did? Because he fundamentally did not understand the character and nature of the master or of the gift that was given to him. He thought he knew who the master was. There are so many people today, who don’t fully know who God is. They think they do, but they don’t. They are just like this servant, they completely miss it and because of that, they bury their gifts in the ground and keep it hidden.

So what are we supposed to do while we wait? Our command from Jesus is to go tell the world about Him. Matthew 28:10 (ESV) “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We are to preach the Gospel, the good news of Jesus, make disciples and we are to observe all of the commands He gave us. Everything we do should point to God. The abilities and gifts we were created with should point people to Jesus. The gifts God gives to us when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, should point people to Jesus. We aren’t supposed to keep them to ourselves, to hide them in the ground. We should take what God has given us, and use it in such a way that we bring more people to Jesus, that is our return on investment. Ambassadors are like mirrors. They reflect the will, culture, and values of their countries. We are God’s ambassadors on earth and God has equipped us for the works that He has planned for us, so that we might be a mirror in this world and gain a return. Works do not save us, let me make this clear. But if we are truly ambassadors of the Kingdom, if we truly believe in Jesus Christ, if we truly have faith, then our actions should reflect that through our works, through the bearing of our gifts so people are pointed to Jesus to the glory of God.