Over fifty years ago A. W. Tozer wrote his classic book, The Knowledge of the Holy. In his preface, he described why he wrote the book:
The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshipping men. The she has done not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.
Unfortunately, I think it is pretty obvious that not only has the situation not improved at all over the last 50 plus years – it has actually deteriorated even further.
The parable that we’ll examine this morning certainly illustrates the main thesis of Tozer’s book, which is found in the first sentence of chapter 1:
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
Will you read that sentence out loud with me?
We don’t need to take much time to put this parable into context since it comes immediately after the Parable of the Ten Virgins that we focused on last week.
The disciples have just asked Jesus to tell them more about His future return and Jesus answers their question in what we usually refer to as the Olivet Discourse, which we find in chapters 24 and 25 of Matthew’s gospel account. In addition to His explanation of future events, Jesus uses several object lessons and illustrations and then tells a series of four parables. The Parable of the Talents, which is the subject of the message today, is the third of the four parables.
Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Matthew 25 and follow along as I read beginning in verse 14:
“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 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. 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. 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.’ 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.’
(Matthew 25:14-30, ESV)
This is certainly one of the best known of all Jesus’ parables. So it stands to follow that it is also one that has prolific amounts of commentary sermons that deal with it. Let’s see if we can’t confirm that.
How many of you are familiar with this parable? [Wait for show of hands]
And how many of you have ever heard a sermon on this parable? [Wait for show of hands]
Finally based on your knowledge of this parable and the sermons you’ve heard, what would you say is the main point of the parable?
[Wait for answers]
In your responses, I think you’ve pretty much covered the wide variety of ways that various commentators and pastors have used this passage. And at least most of those are perfectly legitimate takes on the parable, although at least in my view, some of them seem to miss the main point Jesus is trying to make here.
Let’s remember that this is a kingdom parable, one that is dealing primarily with the future kingdom of God, one that will be both spiritual and physical – one in which the King, Jesus, will physically reign, first here on earth and then in the New Jerusalem. And like all the kingdom parables that we have looked at so far, this one is primarily focused on how to enter the kingdom and then how to live once a person has done that. Like the other kingdom parables it deals with the topic of salvation.
Since the parable itself is pretty simple and straightforward and most of us are pretty familiar with it, I’m not going to take the time to summarize it again this morning. Instead, we’ll use the limited time we have to focus on the main point of the parable and how it should impact our lives.
I certainly wouldn’t argue with those who use this parable to teach that all Christ followers are to use the talents and abilities that God gives to us or to urge us to make the most of our opportunities, or to be good stewards, but I’m not sure that they don’t miss the main point Jesus is trying to make here. And that becomes apparent pretty quickly if we focus on the third servant in this parable.
I’m going to enlist your help again here. Look at verses 26-30 again.
[Wait for answers to each question]
• What terms does the master use to refer to this servant? [wicked, slothful, worthless]
• And what happens to that servant? [His talent is taken from him and given to one of the other servants and then he is thrown into a place of outer darkness where is weeping and gnashing of teeth]
• Based on what we see elsewhere in Scripture, what is that place that Jesus is describing here? [Hell or maybe the lake of fire]
• Based on your answers to these questions would you say this servant is a genuine follower of Jesus or not? [He is not]
So while it is true that in this parable the first two servants, who obviously are believers, are commended for their faithful stewardship and will receive a future reward for that faithfulness in the coming kingdom, we can’t legitimately use the example of the third servant to determine what happens to a believer who does not use his or her talents and abilities faithfully can we?
So, if that is the case, then what is the main message of the parable? To me, it is this:
What I do
with what I have been given
reveals
what I really think about God
This is certainly not the first parable that we’ve looked at that reveals that here on earth it is virtually impossible for us to distinguish the genuine followers of Jesus from those who merely claim to be Christians:
• In the Parable of the Sower we learned that God does not call us to try and determine the condition of the soil. We are merely to sow the seed, knowing that much of the seed will never produce fruit.
• In the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds, the servants were told not to uproot the weeds because they would also damage the wheat. And when we looked at that parable one of the things we discussed is that it is not our job to try to distinguish between the wheat and weeds because we’re not capable of making that determination.
• In the Parable of the Wedding Feast we discovered that not everyone accepts God’s invitation to enter His kingdom. But again, our job is not to try and determine who will accept the invitation, it is just to extend that invitation to all on behalf of God.
• And last week, in the Parable of the Ten Virgins we saw that there will be some who are unable to enter the kingdom of God because when Jesus appears, their lack of their own oil will become evident.
We see a similar situation in this parable. All three servants in this parable claim to be the servants of the master. If you asked them, they would have all claimed to be faithful to their master. But it is what they do with what they have been given that reveals what they really think about the master.
But if this parable is going to be profitable for us, it’s not enough to just know that he failed to earn a return for his master. We need to understand why that was the case.
Why the third servant failed to produce:
I think we find the answer to that question in verse 25. As you look at that verse can you identify the reason? [Wait for answers].
• He was afraid of the master(v. 25)
We don’t have to guess at all about the reason this third servant did not bear fruit because he reveals that reason with his own words – he is afraid of the master.
Before we go any further we need to acknowledge that in the Scriptures we are consistently commanded to “fear God.” But that reverent fear and awe of God is clearly not the same as being afraid of God.
Probably the best example I can think of that illustrates the difference between a healthy, Biblical fear of God and being afraid of God would be Adam and Eve. Although there isn’t a specific verse that indicates that Adam and Eve feared God, I think what we know of their relationship with God prior to their sin from all of Scripture would support that idea. But once they sinned, that fear of God turned into being afraid of God:
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
(Genesis 3:8-10, ESV)
Another event that illustrates the difference between fearing God and being afraid of Him is recorded in Exodus 20 when Moses goes up on Mt. Sinai to receive the law from God:
Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.”
(Exodus 20:18-20, ESV)
Notice that in the same sentence, Moses tells the people not to fear – in other words they did not need to be afraid of God – but to at the same time they were to have the fear of God.
In this parable, the first two servants have a healthy fear of their master. They respect him and are in awe of him. But the third servant is clearly afraid of God. And that fear paralyzes him from serving his master. So if we’re going to profit from this parable, we need to understand why he was afraid of the master. Fortunately, that is pretty easy to determine.
• He was afraid of the master because he had a distorted view of the master
It is impossible for us to know exactly the value of the assets entrusted to each servant because a talent was a measure of weight, not monetary value. A talent weighed around 70 pounds. But the value of that talent would depend on the material of which it consisted. Obviously a talent of gold would be more valuable than a talent of silver, which would be more valuable than a talent of bronze. But even one talent of bronze would have been a substantial sum, alone two talents or five talents.
The first two servants faithfully served their master because they understood him to be a generous man who had entrusted great riches to them. So because they had an accurate understanding of the master, they served him faithfully and proved themselves to be genuine servants of the master.
But in verse 24, we see that the third servant also based his actions on what he knew about the master. The problem is that his perception of the master was wrong. He viewed the master as a hard man, insinuating that the master had gotten rich by exploiting others. And because of that distorted view of the master, he failed to serve him faithfully.
To me, this is the most important thing we can learn from this parable. I am convinced, based on what I read in the Bible, as well as my own personal experience, that the biggest barrier that keeps people from entering into the kingdom of God is that they have a distorted view of God. I have no doubt that A.W. Tozer is right: when he wrote that…
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
How we view God will either lead to fear or to faith. A wrong view of God always leads to fear. But a right view of God always leads to faith.
So exactly how do we make sure that we have a proper view of God that leads to faith? Our parable answers that question as well.
• He had a distorted view of the master because his focus was on self and on other people
It’s very instructive to look at the first words that come out of the mouth of each of the servants when they address the master after he returns from his journey. Look at verse 20. What are the first two words out of the mouth of the first servant? [Wait for answers] That’s right – “Master, you…”
Now look in verse 22. What are the first two words that are spoken by the second servant? [Wait for answers] That’s right, they are the same two words spoken by the first servant – “Master, you…”
Now look in verse 24. What are the first two words of the third servant? [Wait for answers] That’s right – “Master, I…” Notice the contrast with the first two servants. They were both focused on what the master had given to them and their primary concern was being faithful with his substantial assets that the master had entrusted to them.
But this third servant’s attention was on himself rather than on the master. The first words out of his mouth were about himself. And because his focus was on himself rather than on the master, he developed some completely erroneous ideas about what the master was like – ideas that led him to be afraid of the master.
Although it is not explicitly mentioned in the parable, I think it’s fair to assume that another reason the third servant developed some wrong ideas about the master is that he looked around and saw that the other servants had been entrusted with more than had been entrusted to him and drew some wrong conclusions about his master based on that.
Based on his observations, he concluded that the master was showing favoritism to the other servants. But in reality, the master was actually trying to make sure that each servant had an equal opportunity for success. You’ll notice that he entrusted his assets to each servant “according to his ability”. The wise master understood that each of his servants had different mental capacities, talents, abilities and capabilities, so because he loved all of his servants and desired for all of them to be able to succeed, he only gave each one what he could handle.
This is a really important lesson for us to learn. God will only give each of us what we can handle. But if we take our eyes off of Him and begin to look around and focus on what others have, one of two things is going to happen.
When I begin to feel like I haven’t been given as much as others by God, then I’ll begin to think that God doesn’t love me as much as He loves them and I’ll develop feelings of inferiority like the third servant in the parable and become afraid.
Conversely, if I look around and see that God has blessed me more than others, it would certainly be easy to think that somehow I earned that right and develop feelings of superiority. Fortunately, the first two servants in the parable didn’t do that. They just trusted in the wisdom of the master and figured he had given each of them exactly what they were capable of handling.
Both of those servants had an equal rate of return on the assets that had been entrusted to them. They both doubled the amount assigned to them. But the amount of their profit was not the same – one earned five talents more and the other earned two talents more. To me that indicates that God is looking for equal faithfulness, not equal results.
Having a distorted view of God is a serious matter. In this parable, the third servant illustrates that wrong ideas about God keep many from ever entering the kingdom in the first place.
Perhaps you can relate to that third servant this morning, because you have developed some wrong ideas about God by focusing on self and on others rather than focusing on God Himself. The good news is that it’s not too late change that.
Although it’s not the main point of the parable, we can also see that wrong ideas about God can rob us of our joy even after we’ve entered the kingdom. Even after becoming a follower of Jesus, we can easily revert back to focusing on self and on others which leads us to develop a distorted view of God that will keep us from serving Him faithfully and experiencing the blessing of that service.
It is important to faithfully use the talents, gifts, abilities and resources that God has given to me? Sure. Is it important to make the most of the opportunities that God puts before me? Of course. Is it important for me to be a good steward of the resources that God has entrusted to me? Without a doubt. We see all of those things to some degree in this parable. But the most important thing that we have learned this morning is that what we think about God is crucial both in terms of entering into God’s kingdom in the first place and then living in that kingdom.
So the application of this parable for our lives is obvious – we need to make sure that we think rightly about God. And doing that is actually quite simple.
In order to think rightly about God I must develop my ideas about Him from the Bible
Every wrong idea that we get about God comes from going to the wrong source. Like the third servant in the parable, we often revert to developing our ideas about God from our own experiences and those of others around us.
For many of us, a lot of the ideas that we have formed about God come from our earthly fathers.
If your father is a tyrant who is constantly trying to catch you doing something wrong so that he can punish you, then that’s how you’ll tend to picture God. And if you view God like that, then you’re going to be afraid of Him and that kind of fear is going to keep you from experiencing the joy of living in His kingdom.
On the other hand if your father is very permissive and doesn’t hold you accountable for your actions, then you’ll tend to think of God as being like that. And as a result, you’re likely to go too far in the other direction and lack the reverent fear of God which leads you to a place of repentance and submission that is required to enter His kingdom.
If I want to know God as He truly is, the only place I can find that truth is in His Word. Jesus confirmed that as He prayed for His disciples:
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
(John 17:17, ESV)
That means that if I want to enter the kingdom of God and experience the joy of the master as I live within that kingdom, I have to be spending consistent time in God’s Word – not just reading it for information or even application, but looking for what the Bible reveals about God. And if I want to really know God as fully as possible, that means taking in all of His Word – Old Testament and New Testament.
Certainly listening to a 30 minute sermon once a week will never accomplish that. Even if I preach another 10 or 15 years, which I pray God will allow me the privilege of doing, and you’re here every single week during that time, you’re only going to be exposed to at most a quarter of the Bible.
Or let’s suppose the way you choose to get your daily dose of the Bible is through a “verse of the day” that you get sent to your email or hear on your favorite Christian radio station. Assuming that you actually received a different verse every day, which is highly unlikely, it would take you over 85 years to cover the entire Bible. And even worse, most of the time you would have never read or heard those verses in their proper context.
I know that a lot of you personally benefit from them, but I’m not a real big fan of daily devotionals like the “Daily Bread” either. Those kinds of resources also tend to “cherry pick” certain passages and don’t allow a person to read Scripture in context. For instance, if you used the Daily Bread this month, you would have gone from 1 Samuel to James to Romans to Mark to 1 John to Psalms to Judges in one week.
The only way I know of to make sure I get a full picture of who God is from His Word is to follow some kind of systematic plan to read through the entire Bible. And I’ll confess that I haven’t always done that consistently myself. So that’s why I’ve personally committed to a plan to read through the Bible over a four year period. And as I do that my main focus is on getting to know God better from His Word.
So I’ll leave you with a final challenge this morning. If you already have a systematic plan to read through the Bible, then stick with it. But if not, I encourage you to join me and some of the others in the body on that four year plan. If you haven’t already started, don’t worry about catching up – just join in this week starting in Genesis 7.
What I do
with what I have been given
reveals
what I really think about God
What are you doing with what God has given to you and what does that reveal about what you really think about God?
