To Be Found Faithful

To be Found Faithful

Matthew 25:13-30

Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour”

When we dwell on the promise that Jesus will one day return does that unshakeable truth instill hope or fear within our hearts as Christians? While part of us wants to jump up in pure joy and say “YES LORD JESUS COME,” is there not another part of us that is a little fearful that upon judgment the Master will be less than impressed with how little we did to serve Him while here on this earth? Upon our conversion we were not only adopted and sealed by the Holy Spirit as God’s children but were also given spiritual gifts or talents that are necessary to do His divine will. To our shame, often when Christ came knocking on the doors of our hearts to serve in His kingdom, we refused His request on the grounds that the service was either too easy and without public glory, too difficult, we were unworthy or that it was just not the right fit for our self-absorbed living! While we could try to ease our guilty consciousnesses by standing on the theology of “once saved always saved,” would we not sink the moment we “licensed loiterers” of His kingdom realize that living a complacent, lazy life that lacks fruits and good deeds is damming proof that we have never truly been born again? After all, surely those who were bought at the price and have received every perfect gift and spiritual blessing would see serving God not as drudgery but as an honor, for He alone is our portion … right? The following sermon is going to review the Parable of the Bags of Gold with the goal of spurring us on to use our talents for Jesus so that one day we might hear the words “good and faithful servant!”

Everyone is Given an Incredible Talent (14-18)

Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

The first thing that I want to point out from these verses is that each of the servants were given talents according to their abilities. 1 Corinthians 12 states that upon conversion the Holy Spirit gives the born-again child of God at least one spiritual gift that is to be used to accomplish divine tasks within His kingdom. Since nothing we have is our own except our sins and it is in His sovereignty that the Holy Spirit distributes gifts, one is not to covet the gifts or service of another for Christ as the head of the body places value on faithful obedience, not on outcomes that are controlled and meant to point to the glory of the Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). One is not to see the service one is called to do as being too great for it is by the power of the Spirit that one does miracles in His kingdom. Likewise, one is not to see the service one is called to do as being too small for it is in the “little spheres of service” and in our weakness that God’s glory shines the brightest and it is amidst diversity of gifting in the church that one finds glorious unity! God’s expectation for those who were purchased by the atoning sacrifice of Christ (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) is that they might glorify His name not just with words but also with deeds in keeping with His will (James 2:14-26).

The second point that I want to make from the above verses is that the talents given are of enormous value! In the parable one man was given five talents, another 2 and one a single talent. While the NIV translates “talents” as “bags of gold” the Greek word used here is “tananton” which means a unit of weight. The bags given could have been filled with copper, silver or gold. If it was silver in the bags then they would have contained 6,000 coins weighing a half a million pounds. This would have been the equivalent of twenty years of wage in today’s dollars or about ¾ a million dollars! The servants took this enormous amount of money, took a risk by starting up new businesses and worked incredibly hard to earn more money for their master. Likewise, upon our conversion we have been given talents in the form of spiritual gifting that our master expects us to use by serving in His kingdom. Do you realize that whoever believes and asks in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will do miracles greater than what Jesus did while on this earth (John 14:12-14)? And do you realize that the rewards for serving in His kingdom is not just storing treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21) but also the opportunity to serve in a greater capacity in His kingdom? What an honor it is to be entrusted with so much when we are but sinners saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9)!