The Parable of the Talents.

Premise:

Christ has gone away for a time, entrusting us to further the Kingdom through the gifts He has given us; we must be faithful in this task.

Opening:

Introduction of the Text:

This morning we are moving along in our study of Matthew. We focused last week on Christ’s prophetic warning about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. This morning we are moving ahead into some more of the parables of Christ. We will be in Matthew 25:14-30. This is a fairly familiar parable. Jesus finished speaking His prophetic woe and then began to speak parables again about the Kingdom of God. That is what this parable is regarding. We should be fairly familiar to us. In Matthew, Jesus often speaks in parables about the Kingdom of God. Now here again, after a hard passage, Jesus is again teaching what the Kingdom is like. With this in mind, I would ask the congregation to stand with me for the reading of God’s Word.

Reading of the Text:

Matthew 25:14-30

“For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and handed over his possessions to them.15 And to one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey.16 Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents.17 In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more.18 But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.19 “Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.20 And the one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed five talents over to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’22 “Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you handed two talents over to me. See, I have gained two more talents.’23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’24 “And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed.25 And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’26 “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed.27 Therefore, you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest.28 Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’29 “For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.30 And throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Behold, the Word of God.

Prayer:

What Happened? (Explanation)

The Kingdom of God is Like A Master Going on a Long Journey. He entrusted His possessions to His Slaves.

Jesus opens this parable by comparing the Kingdom of God to a master going on a long journey. When he leaves, the master entrusts his possessions to his slaves. He makes his slaves stewards over what is his. Literally, what the master is doing is making the slaves his stewards. Stewards are those who are set in charge over the possessions of another. The property did not belong to the slaves, but was entrusted to them. Jesus’ parable lists three slaves.

The Three Slaves.

These three slaves were entrusted to care for the business of the master. Not much information is given about these slaves. There were apparently three of them and the master gives them differing amounts to care for. To one the master entrusted five talents.

Five Talents.

This raises the question of “what is a talent?” Well, we must remember that Matthew is writing to a first century Jewish audience. A talent was the heaviest measurement of weight to the ancient Jew. A talent was a unit of weight that came to right around 75 pounds. Often, a talent was used for measuring gold, silver, or bronze. Jesus does not specify what precious metal was contained. However lets look at what that would equate to.

Bronze is worth $2.50 per pound. so in today’s money, if the master gave bronze, he would have given the first servant roughly $940. Silver is worth around $22 per ounce, so roughly $352 per pound. So if the master gave talents of silver, the first servant was entrusted with $132,000. Now for the big one. Most often, a talent refers to gold. Gold is valued at roughly $1,854.00 per ounce. So that is $29,664.00 per pound. So if the master gave the first servant five talents of gold, in today’s money, the master entrusted him with $11,124,000.00 worth of gold. That is 375 pounds of gold. That is a lot of trust.

Two Talents.

The second servant was entrusted with two talents. That is roughly 150 pounds. So how much silver and gold would that be? Well, that would be $52,800 in silver or $4,449,600 worth of gold. That is still a lot of trust.

One Talent.

The final servant was given one talent. That is 75 pounds worth of goods. In gold and silver that would equate to $26,400 worth of silver or $2,224,800 worth of gold. Again that is a lot of money. Each was given a significant amount.

Why do I bring this into our terms? I do this because I want to emphasize the fact that the master trusted each of these men with a significant amount of money. We can hear the term one talent or five talents and get lost. So for the sake of illustration, I want you to picture this. These men were entrusted with millions of dollars in our money. This is a significant amount. They were to steward it well.

Each Was Given According to their ability.

But do not miss why the master gave each servant a different amount. The Master gave each according to his ability. The master trusted these men with an amount that was within their own ability. If we aren’t careful, we can often misrepresent the final man as being purely derelict. But the master knew these men. He knew his own slaves and he knew what they were capable of. He did not give them something where the master could be blamed if they messed up. He knew these men, and he knew their ability. And it is not a mark against the lesser servants that they recieved less. We all know people we would trust with large amounts of money and people would trust with less. And that is not necessarily a knock against them. But how did these men handle this great responsibility? The first two went to work and multiplied what they were given.

The First Two went to work and multiplied what they were given.

They put the money to work. That word traded implies work. It doesn’t mean that they were all stock brokers and went and traded on the stock market. Though that could be what they did. It implies that these people went and put what they were given to work. Anyone who has ever worked a trade can understand this. There is the old adage, “you have to spend money to make money.” And this is what they did. We don’t know what industry the master was in, so we don’t know exactly what the slaves did, but they put the money to work. They labored and made more money. The end result was that the first two slaves ended up doubling what their master gave them. They worked hard and made a profit. The last slave however was lazy and buried what was given to him.

The last slave was lazy and buried what was given to him.

The last slave took that money, buried it and then waited. And think of the insult this is. Clearly to be a servant or slave of a master means that you have a task. This slave neglected his task. He buried what was given to him and then did nothing. When the master was away, this servant did not do what was his job. The other two kept working even while the master was away. This man did nothing. The master then returned and judged the work of the slaves.

The Master returned and judged the work of the slaves.

The master returned from his trip and judged how the slaves had done in their task. He entrusted them with significant responsibility, and the time had come for them to show their work. The first two were faithful and good stewards. They had taken the responsibility given to them and multiplied it. They had taken those vast sums of money and gotten to work and made a great profit for their master. Because of this, they were rewarded. The master says, “Because you have been faithful with little, I will make you faithful with much!” In short, they got a promotion and a raise. They got to enjoy the joy of their master.

The last slave was wicked and lazy. He had been fearful and lazy. Rather than using what had been given to him and making more, he had hoarded it and hidden it away. Beyond this, the slave actually blames the master. Listen to his excuse. ““And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed.25 And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’” This is a poor excuse. Basically, this servant said, “Master, I knew you were a good businessman who expects his employees to do their jobs so I just sat on what you gave me rather than do something.” What a lame excuse.

If you have ever worked on a construction site, this man is the equivalent of the man who is told by the boss to finish building a wall, then goes and sits on his phone for the day because he is “afraid of building it wrong.” The man was capable of doing the task set before him, but he did not do it. He didn’t ask for help, he just sat down on the boards and boxes of nails and did nothing. When asked why, he just says, “I know the boss expects a lot, so I decided to just sit on the boards and make sure the wind doesn’t blow them away.”

This slave is promptly fired, and his task is given to the faithful slave. This is a good thing. And it is how Jesus closes the parable. Jesus says the wicked slave was cast out where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Transition:

And I think we can all catch the meaning of this parable. But let’s walk through it anyway.

The Meaning of the Parable. (Argumentation)

First and foremost, the Master is Christ.

The Master is Christ.

Jesus is hinting at His disciples that He would be going away for a long time. He would die on the cross, rise from the dead, and then ascend to the Father, entrusting the work to His slaves. Jesus is clearly the Master. He is the one with All authority. Literally, Jesus is THE Master. He is Lord over all. He is THE boss. So who are the slaves? Well, since Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth, then clearly, everyone is the servant and slave of Christ. Though, specifically, the church is the slave of Christ.

The church are His slaves.

Scripture describes us as such whenever it uses the image of us being bought by the blood of Christ. The church are all those who are bought by the blood of Christ. However, there is an element that all people everywhere are under Christ’s authority and are to obey Him. Yes, even the lost are to obey Christ. The lost are commanded to obey God. The first command is to repent and be saved. However, we must recognize that they are rebellious and refuse to obey God. But this does not excuse them. And when the master returns, they will be judged by their failure to obey Him. So, the law of God applies to the lost, just as it does the saved. However, we are the ones who claim allegiance to Christ. We are the ones who willingly bow to Christ as King. They will be forced to bow, but we do it willingly. And this is why this parable deals with us primarily. And we all have been given talents.

We all have been given “talents.”

We all have been given talents. And this does not mean talent how we typically use it in English, meaning ability or gifting. Nor does it mean God has given us 75 pounds of gold. (how nice would that be?) So if it doesn’t mean a gifting or gold, what is a talent for us? What is the meaning of the “talents” in the parable?

What is a talent?

We can think of the talents in the parable this way. A “talent” is anything and everything physical and spiritual that God has entrusted us with. I use those words very specifically. It is anything and everything. We cannot exclude anything in our lives from the talents spoken of in this parable. It is all encompassing. And it is not just physical, nor is it just spiritual. It encompasses both. So let’s think about the physical.

The Physical.

This is not a gnostic parable. That means that it is not just spiritual. The talents in this parable do not just apply to abilities or spiritual gifting, though it does apply there. God has entrusted us with many physical blessings. We have homes, cars, possessions, families, bank accounts, and more. And this gets down to a something very important we must recognize. Christianity has a dual perspective on physical possessions. What do I mean? The Bible clearly teaches that private property is an inherent right. In fact, that is even contained within the ten commandments. Thou shalt not steal. That presupposes that people can actually own things. The Bible teaches us to work hard and earn money. It teaches us to buy and build things. The Bible teaches that we can own things.

However, the Bible also teaches us that we can never truly own anything. What do I mean? The Bible clearly teaches that everything we have is a gift from God. God is the ultimate owner of all. His claim to ownership outweighs our claim. So, the Bible teaches a dual perspective on physical property. We own it, but God owns it more. In this way, I can own a business and make lots of money through hard work and sweat. I have earned it. But I must recognize that even though I earned it, it is truly a gift from God. I owe all my success to God.

The same is true of everything in our lives. Look at our children. They are ours. The Bible speaks of them as ours. We bring them into the world, raise them, educate them, and send them out. But in an even more real sense, they are not ours but God’s. They primarily belong to God while in a lesser sense belonging to us. This is how we must think of the talents in this parable. Everything we have in our lives belongs to God, yet it has been entrusted to us and we are to be faithful with it. And this extends over all the physical. It also extends over the non-physical, or spiritual.

The Spiritual.

I said that this is not a gnostic parable, meaning it touches earth. It affects the physical. In the same way, it is not a hedonistic parable. It affects the non-physical as well. Our “talents” include our talents. What are you gifted in? God gave you that ability and you are to steward it well. Are you a musician? You are to steward that well, for that musical talent was a gift.

I used to listen to a very famous radio personality before he passed away. This commentator had a very famous catch phrase that, if you listened to him, you will immediately recognize. He used to say, “coming to you with talent on loan from God.” There is a lot of truth to that. Not only is everything physical you have on loan from God, but everything you are and have that is not physical is on loan from God. If you think of it that way, it is obvious you must use it all as a faithful steward. We are to use our “talents” well.

We are to use our “talents” well.

We are clearly supposed to be like the first to slaves, not like the last one. We are to take our talents and multiply them. We are to take everything God has given us, physical and spiritual, and multiply them. This puts a lot of life into perspective. All of sudden, through this parable we begin to see the importance of this life. We are the slaves of God and He has given us much to be faithful with. All of sudden, we begin to look at the money in our bank accounts differently. We look at our kids differently. We look at our jobs and our time differently. We begin to look at our gifts and ability differently. Now we start to look at it and go, “what does it look like to use our talents well?”

What does it look like to use our “talents” well?

Well, since all we are and have are gifts from God, we should multiply them. We should not be idle like the last slave. We should multiply the gifts God has given us. If God has given us a business to run, a faithful steward would work hard to multiply that business. In this sense, opening new branches can be a holy act. If God has given us 75 pounds of gold, we should work hard to give 150 pounds of gold back to Him. Really, think of all your talents, then think of how you could multiply them for the glory of God.

And that really is the key. Using our talents well means to use them for the glory of God and the building of the Kingdom. If we could get two things down, I believe we would see this begin to change. If we could come to understand that everything we have is has been given to us by God, and that we are to multiply it, we would really see change take place. Because we all know that we are guilty of not using what God has given us. The collective response to reading the parable of the talents is to go “oof.” We all know where we fail in this, but we seldom actively work to change that. So if we can get these two things down, we will begin to use our talents well.

We must see that everything we have has been given to us and we are to steward it well by multiplying it. What has God given us? What attributes do we have? What possessions do we have? All of that has been given to us by God and we are to use it well for the glory of God and the growing of the Kingdom. To me, this is fun to think about. Here is where we can have fun with this. It is a change in perspective. It is a change in how we think about things.

So often our sight has been limited to extremes. We can view our possessions as our own, to be used for our benefit alone in a selfish ways, or we can fall into the legalistic trap of believing that we must all sell everything we own and give it to the poor. Those tend to be the two extremes. But faithfulness is deeper than this. And it changes your perspective if you view everything in your life as a gift given from God to be well managed by you.

Illustration: Radical by David Platt.

Many of you have likely heard of the book “radical” by David Platt. It is a very thought provoking book and study. I’ve gone through it several times and have even taken small groups through it. It is a very thought provoking study that examines the nature of Christianity. The premise is that there is only one kind of Christianity, and it is often the type of Christianity that is labeled as “radical.” It has lead to great conversations and deep thought. It is one of those studies that forces you to examine if you are actively worshipping idols in your life rather than truly surrendering all you have to Christ.

That is a good question and one we all should examine. But where this idea falls flat on it’s face is that most people who go through this study tend to leave feeling extremely guilty that they aren’t doing or giving enough. There tends to be a general consensus that the main idea of the book is for all Christians to sell all they own and give it away so that they can be “radical” or “real” Christians.

But this is not what we see in this parable. The first slave did not come up to the master and say, “Lord, you gave me these five talents, and I equally distributed them among the poor.” No, the man was faithful and made double the money. Now, is selling what you have and giving to the poor a good thing? It can be. But it is not the universal solution. Nor is it the meaning of this parable.

True faithfulness to God is not a simple as “give all you have away, live in a box under the bridge, and pray a lot.” True faithfulness to God is much harder than that. That is the easy solution. Faithfulness is the hard road. True faithfulness is looking at the house God has given you and asking, “How can I leverage this house to multiply the Kingdom of God?” It is looking at your bank account and asking, “What is the most faithful way I can use this money to the glory of God?” Using our talents well is seeing that everything we have has been given to us by God, and we are to steward it well by multiplying it. And we must remember that Christ is returning to judge.

Christ is Returning to judge.

This is a rather ominous passage regarding Christ’s return. Often times it is a very happy thing to think of Christ’s return. But here, Jesus is speaking of His return in the language of the final judgement. This is one of those thoughts that can make us uncomfortable. According to this parable, Jesus is returning to judge the faithfulness of His slaves. This is not language we often enjoy, but it is true. Jesus is coming back and He will judge us according to what we have done for Him. And this passage seems to be even darker than this.

This passage indicates that true Christians will be the faithful slaves. If we aren’t careful, we may either miss this, or turn this into a works based salvation. We may just pass this by entirely. We may have the attitude of, “I’m saved, my ticked is punched, now I can sit back and just enjoy the ride.” Clearly this is wrong. But we can also take this and twist it the other way and turn it into a legalistic beating stick. We can twist this and begin to say, “Unless you are doing x, y, and z, you aren’t saved.” This is also wrong. Imagine someone saying, “unless you double your stock investments, you aren’t a real Christian.” Clearly that is wrong.

So what does it mean? Well, the meaning is honestly very encouraging. What Jesus is saying in this parable is that the true faithful slaves will be multipliers. A true Christian is a multiplying Christian. And this is not done in a vacuum. It is accomplished through the aid of the Spirit and the Church. A true Christian who is committed to Christ will multiply. And they will do this through the work of Christ in them. And they will do this with the aid and encouragement of the Church. So yes, Christ is coming back to judge. That is a little scary. But a true Christian is one who submits to the Lordship of Christ. So what is there to fear? Is Christ your Lord? Then you will obey Him.

Transition:

So what must we do? What does this mean to us in this congregation?

What Must We Do? (Application) (What does this mean to my congregation?)

Well, first, examine your life.

Examine your life.

All you are and have are gifts given to you by God. So the obvious question is, what has God given you? God has given us many things. God has blessed us with physical things and non-physical things. So what has God given you? This is a very practical step. Do you have vehicles? Those are given to you by God. Do you have a house or apartment? God has given those to you. Do you have a job? God has given that job to you. Do you have children? God has given those eternal souls to you. Do you have money? God has given that to you. Do you have any skills or talents? God has given that to you.

Now comes the next question. How can you faithfully use what God has given you? How can you multiply it?

How can you multiply it?

Dining Room Tables.

Think about it. Your house. How can you use it for the glory of God and the growing of the kingdom? What is the best way you can leverage it to see the Kingdom multiplied? Can you host a Bible study? How about this, can you invite people over for a meal to encourage them or share the gospel with them? How many gospel conversations have been had over dining room tables? How many Christians have gathered over dining room tables and laughed and encouraged one another? We probably could not count that high. How many lost people have been open to hearing about the hope in Jesus over those dining room tables? If we could see the numbers, it would probably stagger us. I imagine we would be shocked by how the Kingdom of God has multiplied because of home cooked meals served on dining room tables. What a ministry!

Old Pianos.

What of those old pianos. How many hymns have been played on those old chipped ivory keys? How many hearts of saints have been lifted by one person sitting at a piano and playing a handful of hymns. How many children have sat with their mothers and learned to play those same songs of praise to God. You want to talk about multiplication? Think of that old piano. Grandma sitting there teaching grandchildren to worship God in song. Generations learning of Christ and love of God through leveraging an old piano and a skill. How much has the Kingdom of God grown because of old pianos?

Reading.

Likely, all of us have been blessed with the skill of reading. How blessed is it to take that skill and the gift of a Bible and teach your children. How many faithful parents have sat and read to their children. I have such vivid memories of my parents reading to us. I vividly remember my dad reading the Bible to us nightly before bed. One father, reading God’s sacred word to his four children. You want to talk about taking one talent and multiplying it times four. That is double the success of the faithful servants in the parable. That is fourfold growth.

Everything.

This is the joy and beauty of this passage. We can look at everything we have and use it for the glory of God and the growing of the Kingdom. What has God given you? Is it the ability to read? Is it a table? Is it money? What do you have? How can you use it for the Kingdom? Think of anything, then ask, “how can I use this for the glory of God and the multiplication of the kingdom?”

Take this sentence and use it. “Christ has ascended to heaven and trusted me with _____. How can I grow it for Him until He returns?” That is the premise of this parable. And everything can fit in that sentence. Run some experiments with it.

“Christ has ascended and trusted me with x number of dollars in the bank. How can I grow it for Him until He returns?”

“Christ has ascended and trusted me with the ability to play guitar. How can I grow it for Him until He returns?”

Christ has ascended and trusted me with children. How can I grow them for Him until He returns?”

Give audience participation: Fit anything into the blank. Any thing we have/own or any ability/gift we have.

Christ has ascended and trusted me with ______. How can I grow it for Him until He returns?

Good. This is what it looks like. We should look at everything God has given us. Jobs, homes, families, friends, money, abilities, and more. And then we ask, how can I grow this for Him until He returns. One of the beautiful things is that this is not just individual and personal either. We can look at this corporately. What has God given this church?

What has God given this church?

What has God given us as a church? Who is sitting here. What abilities, possessions, wisdom, resources are contained in this room? How can we use them to multiply for our King? As soon as we bring this us, I believe it becomes clear how important all of us are. We are the church. We are all gifted by God to be used here. This is a wonderful and beautiful picture. Picture every person in a church using their gifting within the church for the glory of God and the multiplication of the kingdom. That is so beautiful to me. Each one of us is to be used by God in this church. And as whole, when each of us are using our God-given gifts, we see Lead, SD being discipled for the glory of God.

This is so beautiful to me. And no one is excluded. Now, not everyone is allowed to do everything. God has given specific commands on who is to do what in His church. But that is no bad thing. If anything, we should be grateful for this. God has even given us a hand in how to organize things. So we take this, and then ask the question, “Christ has ascended and trusted this church with _____; how can we grow it for Him until He returns.” And then we get to work. This excites me. And it is inherently kingdom minded.

A personal plea for Generational Kingdom View.

What does this mean? It means that as we change our thought process to this way of thinking, it is centered around the Kingdom of God. Our minds are drawn to the Kingdom of Christ. We begin to view everything we have personally or as a church in light of the Kingdom impact it has. More than this however, it is also generational. It extends beyond us to our children. And this is my personal plea. I am pleading with you, as Connection Church in Lead, to have a generational kingdom view.

Our greatest gift for true impact is in our children. Likely, we will be like every previous generation in church history. We likely won’t live to witness the physical return of Christ. So, we ought to train our children for the task we are leaving them with. And this is what I love about how the puritans viewed the Kingdom of God. If you read books by old dead guys, you will begin to notice a pattern. If I could summarize the puritan view on evangelizing the world, I would put it this way; “If we have more kids than the world and raise them in the faith, it may take a long time, but we are guaranteed victory.” And they had a point.

We aren’t going to win this fight in our lifetime. This means that we must have a long term plan for this fight. And that plan is to disciple our kids. Caspian, and God willing, his siblings will carry on the fight after I die. Yes, we clearly are to evangelize outside the home, in the world. But what if, just for a thought experiment, focused on the family unit. We started by looking at the math of how much the talents would be worth. Can we close by doing the math of the impact of faithfully raising our children.

Let’s say a mother and father commit to raising their children in the Lord, training them in the faith. And let’s assume God is true to all of His covenant promises in Scripture, because He is. So we are starting with two people. A mother and father. Let’s say they have a fairly average number of kids for Christians, that of 4 kids. And now, each of those four kids are raised in the faith. They all get married and each have 4 kids that they are raising in the faith, just as their parents have taught them. Now those two parents are grandparents to 16 grand-kids. And those 16 grand-kids grow up to get married and raise their 4 kids in the faith as their parents and grandparents have taught them. (The faith is actually exponentially strengthened through the influence of faithful grandparents and parents.) Now there are 64 great grand kids. And lets say it took about 80 years to get to those great grand kids. That a fairly normal time-frame. So carry it out. Add another generation, that’s 256 more. Add another generation and it’s 1,024 more kids raised in the faith. Add one more generation and that is 4,096 kids raised in the faith. That would take us to right around 160 years.

So in 160 years, the impact of two faithful parents can easily be 4,096 more Christians. And this is without doing anything other than raising your kids in the faith. Now let’s say we have a small community church that averages at ten families. What if that church committed to this? What if that church dedicated itself to this task; Train families to raise their children in the faith? If that small church did that, in 160 years, there could be 40,960 more faithful Christians just from the impact of the family. Now add onto that all the people who hear the gospel from these 40,960 Christians who were raised in the faith by their great great great great grandparents down to their parents. How many millions of lives can be impacted by one small town church who has a generational kingdom view? I would take this over five talents of gold any day. Keep all the gold. Give me a group of Christians who have a generational kingdom view. Give me a small covenant group of believers who are committed to passing the faith on to their great great great grandchildren. I would take that over all the gold in the world. That is being a faithful slave of Christ. Let’s pray.

Prayer:

Communion:

Closing Doxology:

Closing Benediction:

1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.