God’s gifts to men
Introduction - Jesus has gifted the church
Ps 68:18 You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men, Even from the rebellious, That the LORD God might dwell there.
Paul changes this verse in light of his understanding of Jesus and what Jesus did.
Eph 4:8 Therefore He says: "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men."
What were these gifts?
Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well…
John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ’Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."
Salvation, people, Holy Spirit and gifts of.
This lead me to the passage that I want to focus on
Matt 25:14-30
When the Master went away on the long journey not only did he entrust to His servants His estate but he was fully intending to return to receive back that which was entrusted and more besides.
This is a picture of Jesus as we have already seen. When he ascended into heaven he left us with the Holy Spirit and all the gifts that come from the Holy Spirit as well as those who Jesus gifts to the church.
Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
Let’s look at what God gifts to His own
Verse 15
Firstly they are given according to God’s wisdom and grace
Secondly they are given according to ones’ ability.
We know from reading the Bible that gifts differ and we should not naturally expect to be given the same gift as another for a very simple reason.
The one given five talents was fit and able to handle five, two talents would have been too few. The one given two talents was fit and able to employ two talents whereas five talents would have been too much. The master knew his servants and what they were able to handle.
Thirdly with what God gives to us there is an expectancy that we would employ it, use it and improve it.
Undeserved. The servants up until this point had nothing, deserved nothing and had no claim on their masters’ estate and yet he gives them a share of his possessions. This was not given for the Masters benefit but for the servants blessing, comfort and salvation.
Just as we have been blessed with salvation not for God’s benefit but for our comfort and benefit. And those things that have been gifted to us by God are for our blessing and for the blessing of those who come under our influence.
Could you imagine coming to church week after week, month after month, year after year and doing nothing? There is a great blessing, satisfaction and joy knowing that God has given us gifts so that we may in some way bless God through faith action and obedience. After all, we were created by God to fulfil His purposes here until he either calls us home or He returns.
An empty purposeless life is one that has not employed the gifts that God has given.
No one forgotten. Just as we are diverse in character and experience so are the gifts that God has given.
Envy and despising
Don’t fall into the trap of envying those who, in your opinion, have been given much; from these much will be expected. And for those who feel that they have been given much, the trap is to despise those who in your opinion have been given little.
1Co 12:12 - 26
This comparison between the members of the natural body and the spiritual body shows that there are some members of the natural body that are less honourable, and some that are more honourable. We put more honour, take more care over, the less honourable members by a decent covering and modesty, but upon our more honourable or attractive parts we put no covering.
Spiritually there may be a temptation to look down on what we consider to be least or envy those who hold what we consider to be high offices. We must neither envy nor despise any member of the church as each one is appointed according to God’s wisdom and love for the church as a whole. Each has a value and should therefore be respected by the rest.
If we despise and belittle there will be dissension and disharmony within and amongst the churches. In today’s climate it seems to be OK to look upon another denomination or local church and either despise it or envy it.
Therefore all members of Christ’s body, the church, ought to have the same common interest, the same common concern, the same common care, and the same mutual sympathy, with each other, both in joy and sorrow.
So we conclude form this part that God gives according to His sovereign knowledge, wisdom and grace gifts to the church as a whole and to individuals for the edification of both.
We have no right to be envious or belittling of anybody. Both the honourable and dishonourable are for the Glory of God.
Lets look at the personal implications.
God will not give us what we are incapable of managing. God will give to us according to our potential and power to improve the gift given us.
God knows our capabilities and His wisdom would see them employed in their most effective way for our souls and for His kingdom.
And for this we must use perseverance Verse 19 says "after a long time."
As soon as the master was gone two of the servants got to work and I should imagine that most of their time was taken up with either planning, thinking and working with regard to these talents. You know yourselves that when your boss has entrusted you with something you make sure that you spend time doing it.
The longer you spend at it the better you become, the greater your ability / skill becomes.
The longer you invest the greater the return should be.
This country/town is littered with those who started well, continued for a while and then failed to persevere. But not one of these has outlived their usefulness to the Kingdom of God. Not one of them has lost their potential to glorify God’s name.
The servants expected their master to return so they stuck to the task in hand and they persevered in their labour. And on his return there was no fear because they knew what their master was like. It was their knowledge of His return and their knowledge of Him that kept them working.
Verse 21-23 well done
They received praise, promise and paradise.
Unfaithful servant.
Lets turn our attention to the other servant the one who hid his talent.
Received the same favour and blessing
He was given according to God’s wisdom, according to his ability and with the same expectancy of improvement and return.
We could speculate all day why he hid it and there are one or two clues in the text itself. The Greek reveals that in verse 24 the servant said “I knew you to be”
God responds with verse 26 “you considered/perceived me to be”
The servants’ knowledge of his master effected his service.
Just suppose that this man was the next Billy Graham or destined to be an effective Pastor or evangelist or prophet and he buried what God had entrusted to him. The church would be worse for it.
What did he do all the time his master was away?
The hole would have taken at the most a day to select dig and fill again.
Rather than begging for forgiveness he used his wrong perception of his master as an excuse for doing nothing. His wrong understanding lead to fear rather than the security that he should have known.
And he got his reward, rebuke, removal of the talent that he did have and separation from the blessing of being in his masters house.
What can we conclude from this parable?
1. Not all are given equally but the expectation is the same.
2. Employing the talents improves and strengthens them.
3. Rewarded according to the improvements.
4. Sinners look on God as unreasonable and hard.
5. If we have buried a talent then we need to remember what we did with it and start using it for our blessing, kingdom extension and God’s glory.
6. Remember God is not a hard unreasonable person he has given us His gifts so that we might be blessed and our brothers and sisters encouraged.
