Let’s begin today, just looking at some definitions so certain information can be established in your mind, to consider as we progress.
Talent: 1. An ancient weight and money unit. The talent contained 60 minas of 60 0r 50 shekels each, but its estimated money value varied greatly according to time and place.
The Hebrew gold talent would be equivalent to $32,640.00. A silver talent would be equivalent to $2,176.00
2. The abilities, powers and gifts bestowed upon a man; natural endowments; thought of as a divine trust.
Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary – fifth edition, 1947
I found this definition in an earlier edition of Webster’s Dictionary:
4. Intellectual ability, natural or acquired; mental endowment or capacity; skill in accomplishing; a special gift, particularly in business, art, or the like; faculty; a use of the word probably originating in the Scripture parable of the talents (Matt. xxv. 14-30).
Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
In the 1913 dictionary and the 1947 edition, there is reference to scripture and the divine endowment of talent upon men. I researched no less than 5 modern dictionaries, one of them in my home and the others on the web, and none older than 1980, and all references to the divine endowment of talent or the use of the word in Scripture were conspicuously absent. All of them simply said that a talent is a special ability that one is born with. In the United Kingdom, one use of the word ‘talent’ is slang for a person who is sexually attractive. Eg., “There was a lot of talent at the party last night.”
As we approach this parable in Matthew 25, we should not let it escape our notice that Jesus is facing imminent arrest and crucifixion. After He is done with this lengthy and solemn discourse, He speaks to His disciples and tells them that the Passover is coming in two days, and He is to be delivered up.
So it is certainly not that these parables of the ten virgins, and the talents, and then His declarations concerning the final judgment don’t carry enough weight of their own to cause a wise person to do some serious soul-searching. But when we consider that they are the words of someone who knows He will not be with them much longer and is saying the things He deems most important to say, that should only bolster our determination to sit up and take careful notice.
I want our focus to be primarily on the parable of the talents today, but for the full picture, let’s glance briefly at what precedes it.
Jesus has been talking about His second coming. Jesus had a lot to say about His second coming. He spoke of it more than any other single topic during His earthly ministry. He is coming back.
This is a subject we should be sharing, unashamed, wherever we go. Jesus Christ rose bodily from the dead. The grave couldn’t keep Him. He ascended into Heaven bodily as witnesses watched, and He will come back to claim His own and rule on this world. People need to hear that.
What the church needs to hear, especially, I think, in our present day, is that He left after issuing some very solemn warnings to those who claim to be His. In fact, in this entire discourse which includes these parables of the virgins and the talents and a final warning about judgment, the single theme running through them all is that in the end there will be people who thought they were ready and had all their ducks in a row, nevertheless they will hear Him say to them, “I do not know you” (vs 12).
Church, He will be saying that to church folks. If that doesn’t make your stomach wriggle just a little bit, you haven’t thought it through.
Jesus gave this same warning during the Sermon on the Mount in chapter seven of this same gospel, then He reiterates it in three different ways here, and as I said, this is very near the end of His earthly ministry and He knows it. So it must have been an extremely important issue in His thinking, that among those who are His there would always be those who are self-deceived, and not really belonging to Him at all.
It therefore becomes a vitally important issue for the preachers of His Word to address, and to make every attempt imaginable to wake people to the danger they are in.
Now if what is going through your mind is that you don’t know if you are one of those to whom He will say, “I do not know you”, or if you’re thinking, “well, how can I know for sure that I’m not one of those”, that alone is indicative of a problem. It either means you are not truly a Christian, or it means that your discipleship has been neglected, and someone who should have been your mentor failed to teach you the most fundamental truths about your faith.
If there was some point in your life that you heard about sin and that because of sin you were destined to spend eternity in Hell and separated from God, and if you then heard about the good news that Jesus died to pay for your sins and then rose bodily from the dead on the third day and ascended into Heaven with a promise to come back, then you heard what you needed to hear to become a child of God.
If you then felt sorry for your sin and from your heart asked God’s forgiveness and believed this good news you heard, then you became a Christian, and one of the first signs that you were born spiritually from above was probably that you wanted to tell someone. Ask yourself some questions; “Do I enjoy telling people what Jesus has done for me? When I have an opportunity, do I speak up for Jesus and tell people that He is coming back? Do I even think about Jesus outside of the church service and does He have a significant place in my life? Do I obey Him, or do I do what I want when it comes down to making a choice to obey or not?”
If you can be honest with yourself in answering questions like that, then you should be able to figure out if you are a true believer in Christ, or just playing a religious game that will eventually end in you being denied Heaven.
Now after talking about the signs of His return, Jesus told the parable of the ten virgins. Some kept their lamps trimmed and ready because they didn’t know when the bridegroom was coming, but others were not prepared when He came and got left behind.
In short, some were filled with the Holy Spirit and some were not. Sadly, the ones who were unprepared started begging the others to share some oil with them, thinking the others could help them, but they could not.
You won’t get into Heaven on the coattails of other Christians, just because you hang with them and know all the same songs and the same ‘church talk’. Each one will follow the Bridegroom home when He comes, based upon their own individual relationship with Him. If the relationship is not there, you won’t go. If you don’t have His Spirit in you when He comes, your lamp will be dark and He won’t recognize you.
Again, the point is made. Either you is, or you ain’t. There’s no in between.
Then Jesus goes on to tell the parable of the Talents. Now we’re not going to break this parable down line for line and try to analyze every part today. I just want us to think about why Jesus used talents as an illustration and how that translates to our present circumstances.
TALENTS ARE VERY VALUABLE TO GOD
First of all, notice that talents are valuable to God. Now a talent is not a coin, it is a measure of weight. So its value is dependant on whether it is a talent of gold, or silver, or some other metal.
In the same way, God has given people differing measures of talent and abilities. But we can glean from this parable that where men put the emphasis on the value of the talent, God’s emphasis is on how the talent is used; in one case, whether it was used.
Our first tendency, and probably the way this passage is often preached, is to think of the talents as musical abilities, athletic prowess, interpersonal skills, writing and so forth, and exhort Christians to put those talents to use in the church. I’m sure there’s a place for that sort of admonition.
Especially in a day when for so many the church has become a place they go to be served rather than to serve, and to expect entertainment instead of spiritual development.
But I think there is a more important application in the spiritual realm. We are at varying levels of spiritual growth, depending on how long we’ve been Christians, how readily we have surrendered ourselves to Christ for His sanctifying work in us, in some cases the person’s mental capacity for understanding, although that can only affect the process to a small degree, since spiritual growth is from the Spirit of God working in us.
So the application would be that our spiritual condition is very valuable and important to God, and also our exercise of the spiritual gifts He has provided for service to Him and to others.
Every Christian is bestowed with spiritual gifts. We won’t go into a study today of the gifts we see listed for us in the epistles. You can find them in Romans 12 and another list in I Corinthians 12.
It is a simple fact that the Holy Spirit who indwells you, imparts gifts to you also for the work of ministry. Every Christian.
Some will have to do with your personality and what we commonly refer to as your natural talents, or, those things you do that you like to do and you just tend to drift to them naturally. An example of this would be serving. Those are the people who at the end of the worship service, if you were to sneak out during the last song or the benediction, you would find in the kitchen getting the dishes all warmed up for the pot luck.
They’re the ones you might see if you drive by the church on a Saturday, fixing a door or clipping a hedge or painting a curb.
These are what we call ‘motivational gifts’. What you are motivated to do by your basic character. These are listed in Romans 12.
In I Corinthians 12 we find the truly spiritual gifts; that is, those gifts exercised through the believer by the Holy Spirit, gifts not of the person naturally, and impossible for mere man to accomplish without the unction of the Spirit of God.
As I said, these gifts, these talents, are valuable to God. Not that He would be deprived of something if we didn’t possess or use them, but they are valuable to Him because they are from Him, to be exercised in and through us, for His glory and the building of His Kingdom.
FAN THE FLAME
In I Timothy 4:14 and again in II Timothy 1:6, Paul makes reference to some spiritual gift that was bestowed upon Timothy for the work of ministry, during what was apparently his ordination service, where Paul and the elders of the church laid hands on him and prayed. What that specific gift was, we aren’t told.
What I want to point out to you is that Paul exhorts Timothy in both of those letters, to continue to kindle that gift in him. The NIV says to ‘fan the flame’ of the gift in him, and the King James says to ‘stir’ it up.
It’s a picture of someone stirring the ashes of a fire and blowing on the coals in order to keep a flame burning.
We have not all received some specific spiritual gift during a ceremony where hands were laid on us and prayers made to usher us into active and full-time ministry. But we all have gifts, and we should all be seeking for the Lord to bestow us with ever-greater power for ministry and boldness in using the gifts we have, and as Paul admonished Timothy, we should always be striving to ‘stir up’, ‘fan the flames’, rekindle the gifts we have, by frequent use in service.
Is your gift prayer? All Christians should pray and work to develop their prayer ‘muscles’, but some have a special gift of prayer. They are the prayer warriors. They are the ones who really talk to God and hear God’s voice.
They are the ones whose first reaction to news is to praise the Lord or pray about it.
Is your gift a deep caring for others? Is it a gift of mercy? Or perhaps teaching, or organizing? Stir it up. Fan the flame.
Just like anything that goes unused, it will atrophy; it will diminish; it will fade if not used.
I heard someone give an illustration once about a wooden well bucket he came upon. He thought it was useless at first, because it had been sitting next to a barn in the sun, unused for a long time. He could see daylight between the wooden slats of the bucket. Certainly, this thing would never hold water again.
But an older man with him tied the bucket to the well rope and let it drop into the water below. In a couple of days they came back and turned the crank to draw the bucket back up. It was full of clear, cool well water and was not leaking a drop.
The water had re-hydrated the wooden slats until they fit together as originally designed, and the bucket was useful again.
Christian, stay filled with the Spirit of Christ. Ask Him to fill you daily, and stir up your gift. Be useful for the service of God, and find the fulfillment of being what He has made you to be.
WORK BEGETS WORK
Have you ever read this parable and wondered why the master, when he took the talent away from the lazy servant, gave it to the servant who had the most instead of the one who had less?
From a human standpoint, it’s just good business. If you’re going to entrust an employee with funds to be invested, give them to the one who has proven in the past that he can get the greater returns.
From a spiritual standpoint, the one who exercises his spiritual muscles, putting into action the gifts that the Lord has given him for service, will be better equipped for further ministry and greater responsibility.
Is the Spirit going to lay it on your heart to pray for someone’s dire need, if He knows you consistently ignore His promptings to pray? Or if you promise people you will pray for them and then neglect to do so?
Will He give you divine appointments in your workplace or your place of recreation or as you go about your day, to tell people the gospel, if He knows that when He does you quench that prompting and keep your mouth shut because you just don’t have time, or are afraid of rejection?
Work begets work. If you respond to His leading to use the gifts He has given you, your talents will be strengthened. They will increase. They will develop a greater capacity for service and the Lord will use you more.
“For to everyone who has shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away” (vs 29)
SLOTHFULNESS AND UNBELIEF
What we see in the lazy servant in this parable is unbelief. It is a repeated theme in the New Testament, that God equates disobedience with unbelief.
One example is in the letter to the Hebrews, where the writer uses the Children of Israel in the wilderness as an example; those who refused to enter and take the land God had promised and ultimately fell in the wilderness. He writes;
“And to whom did He swear that they should not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? And so we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.” Hebrews 3:18,19
Disobedience = unbelief.
I can understand this as a father. If I told my child to do something that would be good for them, safe for them, and they refused because they didn’t trust my ability to keep them safe through the process, their lack of faith in me would hurt more than the fact of their disobedience.
In our parable, the servant failed to carry out his responsibilities with what was entrusted to him, because he thought of his master as an enemy. He expected harsh treatment from his master, and that unfounded expectation caused him to hold back from being a good steward with what had been entrusted to him.
Do you see the application in this? How many church-goers (I won’t call them Christians, because I think many of them are not, but God truly knows the heart, I don’t) attend church, skip around from church to church, always looking for comfort and acceptance and emotional support, wanting to find a preacher who will tell them from the pulpit that they are wonderful and everything’s going to be ok; and in years of being nothing but a leech on people’s time and energies and resources never give a moment’s thought to exercising the gifts God has given them for service to God or men?
This is why we hear over and over again, the same old complaint, that in any given assembly 20% of the people do 100% of the work.
It is also why so little personal ministry goes on in the world outside of the church walls. Because that same percentage of people in the church who do all the work there, are the ones who will respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit in their everyday lives.
Someone recently quoted a statistic to me, I don’t remember the source, saying that some 40% of people in our churches today could be diagnosed as clinically depressed. I think the point being made was that pastors need to be aware that they are dealing with folks with very serious emotional problems.
Now I am not insensitive to people who are going through difficulties in life and need help.
But I cannot help but think that in many of those cases the reason for their lack of joy and any sense of fulfillment, and the reason for their feeling of depression and absence of control and security, is because they’ve never truly placed themselves in God’s hands and said, “I trust You, Lord, with my life; please use me in service for You as You continue to conform me to the image of Your Son”, and then really surrendered themselves for His purpose.
I truly believe that the chronic unhappiness of many people in the church today is a direct result of their total self-absorption and their desire to be pampered and catered to, ready to get up and abandon this church for another in their relentless pursuit of approval and affirmation.
Refusal to exercise and develop the gifts that God has bestowed upon you for ministry, Christian, is an expression of unbelief. It is tantamount to calling God an enemy, expecting the worst from Him, dishonoring Him in a way that no unbeliever ever could.
SO WHERE DO I USE MY TALENTS?
Ok preacher, so I’m convinced. I don’t want to be an unfaithful servant. I don’t want to be a leech. I want to stir up the spiritual gift that is in me and be useful for the Kingdom of God. So what do I do?
I think Jesus gave us the answer to that as He continued on with this discourse.
Seeing needs and meeting them. Not just physical needs, although there is a place for that, and I do believe the church should continue to stand ready to help those who cannot help themselves.
On the other hand, I do not believe the church is here to help those who can help themselves. The focus can become so strong on helping people get on their feet in a material sense, that all we do is continue to teach them to depend on others for their life and contribute to the welfare mindset.
I was interim pastor for a church that every Wednesday evening gave away bread and canned goods to the folks who came. After the service they would go to the kitchen and help themselves. When the time came that that flow stopped and the food was not there, neither were the people.
They were like the multitudes that Jesus fed the fish and loaves. They chased Him around the Sea of Galilee the next morning looking for breakfast. He tried to tell them that what they really needed was the Bread of Life that came down from Heaven, and when He didn’t feed their bellies again they turned their backs on Him.
But wait! Jesus says here in Matthew 25 that the righteous will feed and clothe and water and visit. Yep, and that’s why we do those things.
But there is an eternal application to what He is saying that far outweighs the supply of temporary needs.
Christians, when we see people deprived of the Bread of Life, we have the spiritual food they need and we have to be ready to share it with them. They are hungry, and they don’t know for what. They are running to and fro absorbing stuff that is only harmful. New Age beliefs, the cults, often just making up their own belief system because they don’t know what to believe, and some of it is pretty outlandish. I don’t know where they get some of their ideas.
But they’re hungry. And as C.S. Lewis pointed out, the spiritual side of man is like the physical in this respect. Deny him food and he’ll gobble poison.
We need to feed them.
When we see people thirsty, we need to give them a fresh cool drink of God’s grace, telling them of God’s acceptance of them in Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit He wants to give them so they’ll never thirst again.
When we see them deprived of right standing with God we need to tell them how to be clothed with Christ’s righteousness so they’ll no longer be naked.
When we see them imprisoned by the enemy of their souls, in the thinking of the world and the addictions of the flesh and the bars of deceit that keep them bound to untruth and Godlessness, we need to visit them where they are and give them the key that will set them free. It is the gospel, and is the power of God to save all who believe.
It is in the exercise of our spiritual gifts, our talents that we minister in the church and to the world.
Please note also that He was telling them that as they served others, they were serving Him. The talents were given to the servants, not for themselves, but for the master. The idea was to be good stewards of their gifts and bring multiplied return for him.
The talents God has blessed you with, Christians, are for His glory and His use and for His Kingdom.
See the example of our Savior, who after telling His disciples these things, went to Jerusalem and accomplished the service He came to render to the Father, and to the world. “Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name…” (Phil 2:9)
“For to everyone who has shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance”
Do you really want abundant life, Christians? Do you want fulfillment and a rich sense of completeness and worth?
Fan the flame. Kindle the gift. Stir it up. Use your talents in the service of God and the building of the Kingdom. Seek not to be served, but to serve. He gave His life for you, give yours back to Him in surrender and service, and He will use your life to bring glory to Himself.
It’s why we’re here.
