Title: “What the Master Knew”
Text: Matthew 25:14-20
I suspect if you’ve been in church for more than a few years you’ve heard of Jim Elliott. As a young seminarian at Wheaton in 1949, he was considered a bright and rising star, very well-liked and destined to go far. In 1955, he became a missionary to the Auca Indians in Ecuador (South America). On January 8, 1956, after months of trying to initiate contact with these Indians, he and four other missionaries thought they had an opening. The pilot, Nate Saint landed the helicopter in a clearing, and finally made contact. What happened next, nobody exactly knows, but the end result was documented in a 10 page article in Life Magazine the next issue. There in big bold pictures, the entire nation saw first-hand, pictures of the bloody massacre in which all five missionaries were butchered.
His wife of less than three years, Elisabeth Elliott, however, was determined to follow through on the vision that Jim Elliott had shared with her. She went back to the same tribe of Auca Indians and helped to found a successful mission amongst those Indians that still continues to this day. Elisabeth Elliott went on to write several books, first about her husband, and then about her close relationship to God. She was moved by a line from Jim’s journal – on October 28, 1949, he wrote the famous line, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he can never lose.”
You see, both Jim & Elisabeth knew the master. They knew he was a good and giving God who could ask what seemed much, but only because they knew He had first empowered them to do it. It is said of Jim Elliott that people often asked him why, being so clearly talented and gifted by God, he didn’t choose to have what clearly would have been a successful ministry here in the United States. His reply was simple. “Why should some hear it twice, when there are those who haven’t heard it once?”
You might wonder why I read the parable of the Talents right before telling you about Jim Elliott. Well, there are several reasons. First, he had a motivation to be that good and faithful servant praised here in the text. Also, I think the bit about why he chose to go to Ecuador in the first place illustrates the general points of the parable well – don’t be afraid to take risks, use all the talents that God has given you, and as he gave his reason for going to Ecuador – Realize that with great treasure, such as we have with the Gospel here in the United States, comes great responsibility. As Henry Blackaby once said, “God doesn’t give us gifts just to sit on them. He intends for them to be used!”
But, I’ll tell you as I’ve really meditated on this parable this week, I think there is an even more fundamental reason. You see, believe it or not, buried within this parable is a rather profound notion about our sensitivity to the Savior, and how it drives our action. You see, Jim Elliott’s understanding of the Master compelled him to action, but it also drew him closer in relationship to him. Jim Elliott was a bright and rising star – and he was a gifted man – but I believe he was gifted precisely because he knew his Master well. And it’s that relationship that I want to explore in the context of this parable this morning.
Before I get into that, however, I just want to make a few points that I think are pretty clear in the parable itself.
First of all, there is the simple principle that to whom much is given, much will be expected.
In this parable, three servants were each given a lot of money. The word used is “talent,” and it refers to a very large sum of money. Depending on whether this is copper, silver, or gold, a single talent is equivalent to anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 days’ wages. That’s a lot of money. If I was to say, one servant was given five “million,” another two “million,” and a third one “million,” I think it would convey what Jesus was trying to get across.
Now, if you are going to focus on what they did with that money, you’ll see that two of three servants were, percentage-wise, equally savvy with this money. Each of them doubled the money, and returned it to the master when he returned. And, each received the exact same reward from the master. He praises them the same (“Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”); He promotes them in equal proportion (“Rule over X cities”); and He rewards both saying, “Come enter into the joy of your master.”
But, don’t overdo this. I’ve seen people who say, “Oh, so God always deals in percentages.” No, God is not an accountant, and remember – this is just a story that Jesus tells to make a point. God is faithful, and no respecter of persons. He rewards us as he sees fit. That’s really all that’s going on there.
Another principle here, is that sitting on a treasure is a bad idea. It’s obvious who the “bad guy” in the story is – and it’s not the Master. It’s the lazy servant. He did absolutely nothing with a huge gift. The Master rightly scolds this servant – “Hey, couldn’t you at least have put my treasure in the bank and let somebody else have done something with it!” The older I get, the more I have come to understand this simple lesson – God doesn’t bless us just for our benefit. He blesses us so we can be witnesses for him.
A few weeks back, I was talking with Caroline Parkinson – the rector over at Grace Episcopal. She asked me, “So, why did you decide to get into ministry?” I answered very quickly, “Because the parable of the talents scares me.” We both laughed, because we both understood that when God gifts us, then we have a responsibility to do something with those gifts.
And one more thing, everyone is talented in some way. Out in the foyer, there is a silly little piece of paper I keep meaning to take down, because I think it’s trite. It’s a little story that suggests that even if your only talent is sitting in a pew, you can still do that. Well, I don’t think there’s one person here for whom sitting in a pew is their only talent. I’ve seen this church. Willingness and an ability to serve is not the problem. But, sometimes, we think that way. And it’s a bad habit to get into.
You see, I used to think that Jesus messed up this parable a bit. If you really wanted to build the dramatic tension and highlight the irony, it should have gone like this: The guy with the one talent would double his, the guy with two talents would have doubled his, but it was the third guy – the one with five that would have sat on it. Better irony, don’t you think?
But, as I have learned, Jesus tells a parable than I do. You see, it’s so easy to think, “Well, I’ve only got this one little talent. Clearly, I must not be very gifted.” Hogwash! We know from James that every perfect gift comes from above – from the Father himself. We also know from Genesis that God man in his own image. Who the heck are you to suggest that he makes junk?
The simple truth is, God uses every single person he chooses. It’s a cop out to think anything less.
--- If time is getting away, this is a good place to break it into 2 sermons---
But, this morning, I want to focus on something else that, frankly, I didn’t see until this time around. Can you look back at verse 24 for a second? This seems a bit hollow to me. It fits the story, but it just sounds to me like a guy who’s whining. Doesn’t it? Anyways, I kept meditating on that this week until something finally hit me about this yesterday. The thing that struck me was this – The lazy servant was whining; he was making up an excuse and transferring his own lack of worth into an attack on his Master.
Putting this back in my world, the behavior stays the same. How often does my image of God suffer because I want to blame him for my own inadequacies? A.W. Tozer put it so perfectly: If we view God as a tyrant then we’ll filter everything through this lens. It’s so easy to think God is the one out to get us, when in reality it’s just our own knowledge that God has already given us all things we need for life and godliness.
You’ll notice I called this sermon, “What the Master knew.” I was keying off a single phrase in the Master’s answer. He mocking responds, “Oh, you knew, did you, (dot) (dot) (dot)?” Frankly, I think there was some knowing going on, but it wasn’t that the Master was harsh.
I’ve known God long enough to not always like the things he does, but harsh isn’t the attribute. Paternal – maybe? but not harsh. And be certainly is not a God who tries to steal our “success.” Indeed, I’ve never seen where God tries to take credit for anything I’ve done, but I’ve often seen the reverse.
Indeed, the truth is that the Master really did know. He knew his servants and his faithful servants knew him. Really, the only irony in this parable is what the faithful servant didn’t know and didn’t do. And that’s what I want to look at in the time we have left.
I. What the Master Knew (His people were worthy of His trust)
But here in the parable, I think the Master and the faithful servants have a common understanding. They both realize that the Master saw fit to trust each and everyone of them. I don’t know about you, but if the Master were to give me a million bucks without so much as a few instructions on what to do with it, I’d be seriously consider investing in a hot tub and a chocolate factory!
I suspect any master capable of doling out 8 million has more than three servants. Why would he choose these three? Because he knows these are all good servants. The master understands this and gifts each according to his natural ability.
II. What the Faithful Servants Knew (Their Master had faith in them)
Likewise, the faithful servants knew that if the Master saw them as being worthy of stewarding these things, that they ought to live up to that trust.
There’s a lot of sermons that boil down to the old cliché, “I wept because I had no shoes, til’ I met the man who had no feet.” Well, there’s some truth to that, and there’s truth to what I’ve repeated often about how financially blessed we are here in the United States. But, physical things aside, have you ever thought about how blessed we are to be able to read and understand the Bible?
I’m not even talking about those oppressed Christians in communist countries where they can’t read the Bible – I’m talking about the fact that we live in an age where literacy is taken for granted and information is never more than a few mouse clicks away.
Can you imagine what it will be like, in heaven and to talk to Abraham about Jesus? Here I take for granted looking back at a Savior that he could only dream about, and as Hebrews says, “receive this promise from a far distance.” Or, imagine David’s delight if he could read The Chronicles of Narnia or listen to Handel’s Messiah. Can you imagine discussing Dostoevsky with Solomon? Or Billy Graham with Peter?
Or what about Paul? Do you realize that it cost Paul over $3,000, just for the paper and ink on which to write the Book of Romans? I was over at the Christian bookstore on Saturday and saw entire Bibles for $1.97; 1.47 if you bought twenty or more.
The amount of knowledge and collected wisdom available at our fingertips is obscene in comparison even to generations less than a hundred years ago. But, what do we do with that knowledge?
I remember talking with a pastor of a very big church in this area about his frustration with his church. “Never before has a generation been so well fed in Scripture,” he lamented, “and so lazy in going out and doing something about it.” The line I’ll never forget was this – “I feel like I’m feeding cake to fat people.” Jim Elliot had a similar indictment of the United States when he said, “Why should some people hear twice when others haven’t heard at all?”
Bible Study, Worship, Fellowship – these are all healthy components of a spiritual diet. But what happens if you only feast on the Word and never exercise your faith? Have you ever tried sharing your faith? It’s amazing what you’ll learn.
III. What the Lazy Servant knew (Nothing but himself)
That fatness, that laziness, that inability to use for the Master what is his – that’s the real indictment against the last servant. He’s not being punished because he somehow lost the things of the Master – but rather because he refused to use them at all.
Our God isn’t harsh, any more than a doctor is who says, “I prescribed the pills, why didn’t you take them?”
Earlier we read 2 Peter 1:3- Our God has already given us everything we need for life and godliness! By that, we have His Word, a precious revelation of God himself. And in that word we know that he loves us – so much so that he died for us, taking away our sin, and giving us access to God himself.
So, what is it that makes the faithful servants different from the wicked one? The real difference was this – they knew their Master, and it encouraged them. The lazy servant knew his Master and blamed him. Why? Because, ultimately, he refused to see how much his Master truly loved him.
But now that you’ve heard that, what are you going to do with that knowledge? Could I suggest one simple thing? Maybe you should go share that simple truth with your neighbor, even if it is the second time.
[END]
Some other notes people might find helpful...
Random Notes & Thoughts…
Microsoft came out with a program many years ago that was supposed to make software “friendly.” It was called “Bob” and it was a spectacular failure. It lost millions of dollars, and the woman who headed it up thought she was going to be sacked. Popular Microsoft lore has it that Bill Gates said, “No, a failure like that is too much of an investment to let go.” (Turns out it was Melinda French, i.e. Melinda Gates who headed up MS Bob. But, I know that this is a real story of another project manager who was kept!)
The Seeking Life
Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.
The life and death of Jim Elliot was a testimony of a man committed to the will of God. He sought God’s will, pleaded for it, waited for it, and—most importantly—obeyed it.
He martyrdom at age twenty-eight and subsequent books on his life by his former wife, Elisabeth Elliot, have been the catalyst for sending thousands into the mission fields and stoking the fires of a heart for God. He was an intense Christian, bent on pleasing God alone and not man.
"[He makes] His ministers a flame of fire," Elliot wrote while a student at Wheaton College. "Am I ignitable? God deliver me from the dread asbestos of ’other things.’ Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be aflame. But flame is transient, often short-lived. Canst thou bear this my soul—short life? In me there dwells the spirit of the Great Short-Lived, whose zeal for God’s house consumed Him."
Elliot was a gifted writer, speaker, and teacher. He had a commanding presence while a student at Wheaton, even starring on the wrestling mat where he became a champion.
Many of his friends were convinced Elliot’s spiritual giftedness should be concentrated on building up the church in America.
Elliot, however, wanted God’s will, not man’s. After many protracted and solitary prayer sessions, Elliot sensed God’s call to a foreign field, specifically South America. "Why should some hear twice," he said, "when others have not heard [the gospel] once?"
Correspondence with a former missionary to Ecuador and hearing of a tribe—the Aucas—that was never reached with the news of Christ’s redemption set his course.
In the winter of 1952, Elliot and a friend who shared his vision set sail on a freighter, the Santa Juana, for the jungles of South America.
Not really a main point of the text, but still an interesting little tidbit I noticed on this reading. The two good and faithful servants were able to be pretty matter-of-fact about what they had done with what they had. The lazy servant, on the other hand, starts out by condemning the master and trying to make him appear to be the unreasonable one. There’s no need to talk trash when you’re doing what you’re called to do. Maybe that’s one of the reasons people “hate” God.
The story, of course, is “backwards” in that the dramatic tension should have had it go in the other direction – it should have been the guy w/5 talents who was afraid to use them. But, the truth is that we think ourselves as only having the one talent too often.
Btw – I hate that Stuart Barber thing about the “one talent” being sitting in the pew. That is such a cop out.
And, I was really impressed by John Piper this week, talking about the reasons behind “difficult portions” of Scripture – basically he suggests two motivations – (1) a reliance of God and (2) an exercise of own resources. Another interesting thing to think about is the idea of the Garden of Eden as being a “falling up” as Dr. Catlett once presented.
Finally – he’s already given us the Word, “all that we need for life and salvation.”
Long Branch Baptist Church
Halfway, Virginia; est. 1786
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Enter to Worship
Prelude David Witt
Invocation Michael Hollinger
Opening Hymn* “It is well with my soul” #339
Welcome and Announcements
Morning Prayer Mr. Hollinger
Responsive Reading [See Right]
Offertory Hymn* #374
“Take my Life, and Let it Be”
Offertory Mr. Witt
Doxology
Scripture Matthew 25:14-30
Sermon Mr. Hollinger
“What the Master Knew”
Concluding Hymn #405
“We are called to be God’s people”
Benediction*
Congregational Response
Postlude* …………………………………………………………..……… Mr. Witt
* Congregation, please stand.
Depart To Serve
RESPONSIVE READING
To those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises,
so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world and may become participants of the divine nature.
God is not unjust; he will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do.
And we want each one of you to show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises
For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness,
and goodness with knowledge,
and knowledge with self-control,
and self-control with endurance,
and endurance with godliness,
and godliness with mutual affection,
and mutual affection with love.
For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For anyone who lacks these things is short-sighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble.
For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you
- 2 Peter 1:1-4, Heb 6:10-12, 2 Peter 1:5-11
