Matt 25:14-30 - USE WHAT GOD HAS GIVEN
Jesus has been telling His disciples, and all of us today, of the signs of the end times and that after He left, He would return.
• As to the day and time of His return, no one knows except God the Father.
• But His second coming is sure and we are to prepare for it. He will come back.
What will happen when He comes back? He said it in Matt 25:31.
• 25:31“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
• 25:32 Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
• He will identify those who believe Him and those who don’t. He will receive “the righteous into eternal life”. 25:46
So between now and then, what are we supposed to do?
• Jesus shared TWO PARABLES to tell us how we ought to prepare for His return.
The first one is the Parable of the Ten Virgins. We are to be ready and prepared to see Him, even if the wait is long. He can come at a time when we do not expect.
• The wise ones will not only prepare their lamps but take extra oil with them, just in case the wait is long and the oil runs out (25:4).
• The question we need to ask is, are we ready to see Jesus? Do you know Jesus today? Are you prepared to face Him?
Jesus then went on to tell the SECOND parable, the Parable of the Talents. That’s what we read today. It tells us what we ought to be doing between NOW and His RETURN.
• We are not to wait passively and do nothing. God expects us to serve Him with what He has given us.
• The focus of the second parable is not on the timing of His return but on the things we do as we wait.
• Because when He returns, we are to give an accounting of what we have done or not done with the things He has given us.
• And that includes the Gospel that He has entrusted into our hands.
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The story is simple. A master leaves on a journey and entrusts his wealth to his servants.
• He divides them among his THREE servants, not equally but according to their abilities.
• The first one got 5 talents, the second 2, and the third one, just 1 talent.
In the Roman world then, a talent was about 6,000 denarii.
• A denarius is a day's wage for a labourer, so a talent is worth 6000 days' of wage; that’s 16 years' wage for a labourer.
• So these are very large amounts, not small. In today’s value, one talent can be worth at least half a million dollars.
You can imagine how much is lost if you bury that in the ground for a long time.
• The expectation was clear. Any good servant would know to use this money and earn something in return for his master.
• Which was what the first two servants did. They went “at once and traded with them”.25:16 This was the most sensible thing to do.
But not the third servant, who buried the money in the ground and did nothing.
• The comment the master gave him revealed his expectations and the missed opportunity.
• 25:27“You ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest.”
The longer the master was away, the more interest he would have earned. And the master did go away for a long time (25:19).
• And now, the “one talent” would not even be worth one talent because of inflation.
• After digging it up, the servant would not be returning exactly “one talent” to his master, because the value has depreciated.
• The parable tells us of a great loss of earnings and opportunity.
The master was disappointed. He called him the “wicked and slothful servant” who did not love his master and did nothing for him.
• The servant gave a lame excuse and “blamed” his master for his own conduct.
• 25:24b-25 24…“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.”
• “You are such a harsh and demanding man and you expect a lot while you do no work, and so I am afraid and decided not to take the risk.”
• He sees the master as a taskmaster making use of him.
This is so sad and uncalled for. The fact that the master gave him one talent showed that he still believed the servant could do something.
• Comparatively speaking, he might not be as good as the first two servants but even with his “limited” ability, he was given one talent!
• The master could have given him nothing but he did not. The servant had something but did nothing.
• If he would just think and try, the master said, he could at least put the money in the bank and earn some interest.25:27
• This was the bare minimum and it would be quite effortless. But he did nothing.
The master rebuked him for being “wicked and slothful”25:26. Wicked for charging his master wrongfully and slothful for not doing anything when he still can.
• This servant did not know his master. He did not love him nor care about his concerns. He was not fit to serve and was cast away.
• The talent was taken back and given to the one who had ten talents. It would be more profitable for the hardworking one to have it.
So what can we learn from this parable as we wait for the return of Christ?
• I suggest these THREE AREAS we can think about and learn:
? Stewardship – who we are and our responsibility
? Diligence – how we ought to behave, the things we need to do
? Rewards – what to expect when we see Christ, our accountability and rewards.
(1) OUR STEWARDSHIP
We are stewards of all God has given us and He expects us to be faithful and diligent in using them for His purpose and glory.
The parable tells us what we are to be preoccupied with from NOW until Jesus RETURNS.
• We are to serve Him with what God has given and not wait passively.
• We are stewards of God’s gifts and we are accountable to Him for how we use them.
The parable uses talents (money) but the application goes beyond that.
• God has given us resources like time, talents and treasures in life, opportunities to share the Gospel and do good for others.
• We are expected to use them to fulfil His will and please Him.
Nothing belongs to us. We own nothing. We bring nothing into this world and we take nothing out. We are stewards and not owners because everything belongs to God.
• All the servants understood this, even the third servant. Although he did nothing with the talent, he knows it belongs to the master.
• When he returned, he said, “Here, you have what is yours.”25:25
As stewards, let us use what our Master has given us, to do His work and fulfil His will.
(2) OUR DILIGENCE
The master expects his servants to work with the talents given.
• No one can say he had nothing because everyone was given something.
• And they were not given an EQUAL number of talents because the master knew their abilities.
• They were given an amount that matched their ability, not too much for them to bear.
We usually do not like this. We want to be fair. We want everyone to be the same.
• But God knows our abilities. We are not the same. He knows what we can or cannot do.
• He gives us according to our abilities and hence they are right for us. He did not give what is FAIR but what is RIGHT.
• Therefore the servants have no excuse not to invest the talents given to them.
We saw the master’s expectation of them – the one with 5 earned 5 more, and the one with 2 earned only 2 more but he was equally happy with both.
• He was not comparing the amount. He was looking at their faithfulness and their diligence in using what they were given.
• His expectation was right because he had given each according to their abilities.
Even for the servant with one talent, his expectation was simple. If he had put it in the bank, he would be happy.
• But the servant did nothing. Not that he has nothing but he did nothing.
• That’s the problem. His laziness and inaction had become a great loss.
God does not expect us to give what we do not have. He looks at what we have and how we use them for His work and His glory.
• Our inaction has consequences, so let us serve Him diligently and while we still can.
(3) OUR REWARDS
There is a day of reckoning, for the servants in the parable, and also for us today.
Both the servants who earned 5 and 2 talents respectively were complimented and rewarded the same way. We have their exact words in verse 21 and verse 23.
• “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 today’s terms, we can say they had a promotion and a bonus given to them.
The master was happy to see their faithfulness and diligence, not the amount of money they earned. They both did their best according to their abilities.
• That’s what matters. They were different but they did their best.
• They were happy to see their master and the master was happy to see them, his “good and faithful servants”.
Notice one interesting thing in this parable - the servants did not compare and fight over their different talents. We will likely do that today.
• Jesus revealed that the master gave according to their abilities. It was His way of telling us we need to trust our Master. He knows us best and what is best.
• We do not need to compare or compete. We do not need to envy one another.
• We just need to focus on what God has given us and serve Him faithfully.
So what do we have today? What has God given us? And are we using them?
• In the same light, what have we been doing with the Gospel He has entrusted to us?
1 Cor 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.”
• God remembers. So let us use His gifts for the good of others and His glory.
DOING OUR BEST IN LIFE - Stradivarius Violins
Stradivarius is the name given to exceptional violins built by Antonius Stradivarius, an Italian who lived during the 17th/18th Centuries. By the time he died in 1737, Stradivarius left over 1,100 violins, each one bearing his name.
There are only a few hundred of them left today and they are now mostly in private collections or museums. They are considered some of the finest instruments ever made and extremely valuable collector's items. One was sold in 2011 in an auction in 2011 for US$15.9 million.
When he was young, Stradivarius loved music but his voice was high and squeaky, so he did not make it to the Cremona Boy’s Choir. Then he tried taking violin lessons and the neighbours persuaded his parents to make him stop.
When he was older, Stradivarius managed to work as an apprentice to a violin maker. He developed an excellent skill of carving and decided to do his best to make violins.
He experimented with different dimensions and using different woods. He tried different woods for different parts of the violin. Some found out that the wood used was treated with different minerals, both before and after its construction. He also used different varnishes and oils on his violins.
Stradivarius did his best to make great violins. He could not sing or play well but he made excellent violins and they are still making beautiful music today.
Stradivarius did his best for the love of music. Can we do the same for our love for God?
• Shall we not offer our best to God while we still can, before Jesus returns?
• What we do with this life is our gift to God, and we can only do it before He returns.
PRAYER:
Thank you, Lord, for the gifts and blessings You have bestowed upon us in life. We acknowledge that everything we have comes from You. Help us use them wisely and for Your glory. May we all be good and faithful stewards of Your grace.
In Jesus’ Name, we pray, AMEN.
