I invite you to turn this morning to Matthew chapter 25: We continue our study in The Gospel of Matthew in the Olivet Discourse. We come to the parable of the talents today found on page 987. We have the privilege to come to the table this morning. If you're a visitor here, We are grateful that you're here. You're welcome to join us at the table if you can confess that you have been baptized. and you are baptized and professing member of a Protestant church where the elders oversee the preaching of the gospel, the administration of the sacraments, and the application of church discipline. If you're not a member of a church or have not professed faith or been baptized, I'd love to talk with you after the church. We ask you to abstain. But If you can affirm those things, you are welcome to join us this morning at the table of the Lord. Matthew chapter 25, beginning at verse 14, this is our text this morning. and we'll read to verse 30 this is the word of the lord for it will be like it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property to one he gave five talents to another two to another one to each according to his ability then he went away he who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them and he made five talents more so also he who had the two talents made two talents more but he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them and he who had received the five talents came forward bringing five talents more saying master you delivered to me five talents here i have made five talents more his master said to him 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 and he also who had the two talents came forward saying master you delivered to me two talents here i have made two talents more his master said to him 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 he also who had received the one talent came forward saying master i knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed so i was afraid and i went and hid your talent in the ground here have what is yours but his master answered him you wicked and slothful servant you knew that i reap where i have not sown and gather where i have not scattered no seed then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers and at my coming i should have received what was my own with interest so take the talent from him and give it to him who has the 10 talents for to everyone who has will more be given and he will have an abundance from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth beloved in the lord there are unique statements in the parables of christ that really bring out the heart of issues in life. Parables are wonderful to study, and there's so much to learn from them. you remember that Jesus is giving in the Olivet Discourse, at least at this point in where we are in this study of
Matthew he is giving to help us and shepherd his people through what to expect in This present age. And the heart of his concern has been so far that people would be awake, that they would be alert, that they would be able to discern the sign of the times, all of the very troubling things that are happening in this world. Jesus described and told us in a sense how to read the providence of these things as birth pains that are preparing us for the end. The concern of Jesus is that many are not thinking about this, many are not prepared for this, and he gave an interpretive clue he gave an interpretive challenge for us when he said before he comes it will be business just like usual in the world it will be like the days of noah where they people are eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage and then one day the rains came and took them all away while noah was a preacher of righteousness and called people to enter the ark it's a whole gospel message he was giving to enter christ at the heart of jesus's teaching in matthew chapter 24 is a concern and that really comes out in matthew 24 with this line where he says watch therefore for you do not know the day nor the hour when the son of man will come there always needs to be a readiness because it comes when no one, expects it and last time he gave a whole parable about that he's given a series of three parables here the the second parable was the parable of the the ten virgins and and he used that parable to describe what a prepared life looks like and what a prepared life unprepared life looks like and he helped us with that but now he attaches another parable that if someone were to come along and hear all this, they might ask the question, what do you want from us? What do you want from us? How do we be ready? I have no idea how to be ready. I don't feel ready. I don't think I live life very ready. And Jesus gives surprising insight in this parable on this question to really characterize who are the ready servants. It's a remarkable parable. he already gave us an indication of what he is after. It's Luther's great line I keep saying. If you know the Lord's coming tomorrow, go ahead and plant the tree today. Blessed is that servant who when his master comes he will find him so doing active active in service not many people are active what is he talking about remember uh jesus uh spoke in such a way as to the blessedness of a certain kind of life and we misunderstand blessing in the scriptures he said blessed is that servant when his master comes he finds doing the way that jesus speaks of blessing is like a beatitude here and it is descriptive of the children of god he's not saying you will be blessed if then you do this he's describing blessed people you are blessed and this will be what is true of you well i think jesus surprises us with this parable to show us the relationship with God that makes for the ready servant, meaning that the truly ready servant knows his master. It's not as if he's waiting to find out what his master will be like to him when he comes. He already knows it. That was the same kind of emphasis in the parable of the ten virgins. Their whole life had been preparing for this. And this is beautiful. It's an encouragement as we come to the table in a moment because it's not so much about our service that makes us ready. It's what's driving the service that makes us ready. It's what's driving the service that makes us ready because we see something about our master. And I'm going to explain that as we go. after the parable of the ten virgins jesus now tells another parable to have each hearer consider their service in the kingdom of god and how they relate to the master who's coming you'll notice in verse 14 he begins for it will be like a man going on a journey what will it be like the coming who called his servants and entrusted to them his property so all involvement in the kingdom of god is like this jesus is saying this is really a great man who owns a kingdom he owns everything in the kingdom it's all his and he decided to go away for a time but this good man this really good man did something remarkable he actually gave a stewardship his own property and his own riches to servants and they were to work for him and they were to make results for him notice i said that work for him christ says to one he gave five talents to another two to another one each according to his ability and then he went away it's a remarkable thing he gives his own wealth to them to be stewards and they were supposed to capitalize and invest on this seems to me jesus is not so against capitalism from this text is he remarkable thing he gives his wealth to them in the ancient world a talent was a kind of measure of weight and even a unit of coin value and in general it was known that a talent was no less than 600,000 or 6,000 excuse me denarii which would have been in our time hundreds of thousands of dollars it's a lot of money what is represented in the parable is that each talent was extremely valuable each talent that he dished out and gave to them since it was given from this master to be in his service i think ryle is very helpful when and defines this so spot on when he says a talent is anything whereby we may glorify god our gifts our influence our money our knowledge our health our strength our time our senses our reason our intellect our memory our affections our privileges as members of christ's church our advantages as possessors of the bible all our talents it's really describing all our whole lives and all the opportunities that the Lord gives. And that's right on in verse 14. He says, he gave talents, each one according to his ability. So it's really the opportunities that flow out of those abilities that are the talents. Now he who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more, but he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid His master's money. This is remarkable imagery that Jesus is giving to us. We all have hands, we all have feet, we all have minds, we all have abilities. and God assigns all kinds of things, opportunities for being active in his kingdom. Well, the picture here is that Jesus Christ is that man who has traveled to a far country, if you will. Right now, he is not with us. He is seated in heaven, and at some point, he's coming. At some point, he's coming. And you see, in this interim time, he has poured out gifts from heaven. And he assigns in his house gifts and opportunities. And you think the real emphasis so far here is that Jesus never envisioned, And think of our society today, he never envisioned his servants being idle. You have a whole chapter on this in 2 Thessalonians 3 on the dangers of idleness. And here's the bigger kingdom picture. We're left to be his witnesses. He left us here for a purpose. His kingdom is advancing. There is service in His name for His glory, for the furtherance of His gospel priorities. That's 1 Peter 4. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Now take again Jesus' statement. Blessed is that servant. When his master comes, he will find him so doing. In this period between the first and second coming, he's entrusted a great stewardship. Everything's his. I think that's the shocking thing about the one servant. Everything is this master's. The cattle on a thousand hills is his. Life is hard. Whether you're a mother at home dealing with all the challenges of raising children, whether you're a father who goes out to the same job every day, all the hardship, all the challenges of this in life, same routine, feel like maybe you're going nowhere, I stop and say, consider the peculiar blessing of what this parable describes. you are His kingdom servants. You serve Him. whether you eat or drink you do all to the glory of god now big picture verse 19 after a long time the lord of these servants the master the owner he came and settled accounts with them that's the second coming that's what he's capturing Now the heart of this comes in verses 20 through 23. So he who had received five talents. came and brought five other talents saying, very literal rendering here in verse 20, Lord, five talents to You I delivered. Look, five talents to me you delivered. Five talents, I'd mess it up, let me do that again. Lord, five talents to me you delivered. Look, five other talents I've gained. He's ecstatic. He's overjoyed. He's overwhelmed. Look what I was able to bring back. And the master comes back and says, Bravo! Well done! You were faithful over a little. I'm going to set you over much. Enter into, notice this language here, this is very purposeful. Enter into the joy of your master. Notice the master doesn't pick apart the work here. If your child comes to you, and I've had this over the years, and says, Dad, look what I drew. It's a picture of you It's like two hairs. and I'm a little heavy. I don't pick apart the picture. I don't get mad. I rejoice that she drew me, no matter what it looked like. This is a good master. and he says, you're a good and faithful servant. It's beautiful. This is beautiful. There's joy on both ends Here, And what you can't miss on the part of the servant is the absolute sense of the privilege and joy of working for this man i am so overjoyed to be able to bring back more i i am so thankful to return your money like this i am so thankful to have a place in your vineyard to work the same thing happens with the second servant who was given two talents he comes back and says the very same thing jesus didn't have to include that it's done for emphasis But it always amazed me that he did include it you would look at this person and say he didn't really do much in the kingdom no but he doubled the work that he according to the opportunities that he had and he's bringing it back with happiness even the cup of cold water mentioned in the final judgment seems like nothing but he brought it in christ's name to somebody now what is the picture that you're getting here the picture that you're getting here is on on judgment day when christ comes the lord has already told us in chapter 20 he's rewarding works all according to grace the works that were prepared beforehand that we should walk in them phesians 2 10 here's what I want you to think about verse 2 it's the relationship with the master that you can't miss this is why I said jesus gives us a clear exposure as to who's ready and it's not really what you think you can't miss it there's something about that relationship there's something about the servants in relation to their master who love his will my first job maybe it was second first job was washing cars but the first job after that was working at a men's clothing store in hamford van andles and um he was a very good businessman john van andle i respected john everyone respected john i sold suits left and right i ran the tuxedo department i can size you all up no problem it is not, an issue i made that man a lot of money i'm pretty sure he retired early because of me he put me in charge of a lot there were times i could have stopped And thought all this energy all this sweat at times he got in my face. It should be mine. You see? I'm doing all this work. It should be mine. I never really thought like that. You know why I didn't think like that? Because this was a great man. He was a remarkable businessman. And it was an honor to work at Van Andel's. I could have taken a different attitude. Our lives are not our own. Nothing we have here is ours. And what we see initially is servants who love the Master. And serve him with gladness. Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know the Lord. Know that the Lord is God, right? It is he who made us and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. These are the ready servants. But I still haven't answered how you get to a place like that Before that, let's just briefly look at this other servant. He also, who had received the other talent, came forward. Now listen to this. Master, I knew you to be a hard man. Reaping where you did not sow. Gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, have what is yours. See that attitude? What is yours? Listen to what he says of the master. I knew you to be hard, cruel, strict, merciless, demanding, unrelenting. You're a cruel man. Reaping where you've not sown and gathering crops where you've not scattered seed. You understand that You just take from the harvest where all these other workers work. You take from their work for yourself. You're a vicious, demanding capitalist. We have to work so hard. They don't care about us. The whole implying here is that this master is greedy. And notice the reasoning. I was terrified of you. So I just buried it. Had I worked for you and lost the money, you would have crushed me. Had I didn't make a gain on it, you'd have crushed me. What do you see? What do you hear? Jesus' whole teaching on being ready, I think this parable is very exposing to the whole book of Matthew. It's how you relate to God. Do you know him? Do you know him? Do you understand him? Have you been brought by grace into his covenant of grace? Have you seen how wonderful He has been? Do you know what He's done for you? Do you know what it means to be justified? Do you know what forgiveness costs? It's an unestimable privilege to serve a man like this Or whether truth be told, are you not living your life for yourself? And all your service has this spirit because you don't know him. And that shows by the way you view him. You're scared of him. You're scared of him. And you hate that this is not about you. You hate the idea of bringing any return on his mission. That's an intrusion at the end of the day because it's not yours. And so who's the one harsh and bitter thinking I could never please a man like this? Grinnell once said, it can be written on the tomb of an unrepentant sinner. Here lies a man who in all his life never worked one hour for God. Why? because he was only working for himself. And you see, I think right here, Jesus just exposed the whole religion, false religion of the Pharisees in Israel and the danger of what it was in Israel. they sought to justify themselves before men, but it was God knew their hearts. It was all about them. And they were running around doing a lot of work, all trying to make proselytes of themselves and making them twice the sons of hell as themselves. They didn't know God. And underneath the self-justification of people, always remember this is fear. We can't do anything right to please this man anyway. So they stay away. Here captures the ready servants and those who serve the master in the joy of their master, you see? John Wooden was probably one of the greatest basketball coaches ever. It's my yearly reminder that basketball is the greatest sport ever invented. You know why he won? His players loved playing for him. He wasn't a yeller. He was calm. He knew how to speak to them, knew how to motivate them. I think it was Bill Russell who said The worst he ever said was, goodness gracious sakes, alive. Bobby Knight, in contrast, was a tyrant. My dad, being a basketball coach for 30 years, whatever, go around all these camps, he'd tell me stories about Bobby Knight. Knight was known for saying, I don't tolerate any mistakes. wouldn't have heard that He said, it's never bothered me when my players made mistakes. Because that's how they learned. Bobby Knight communicated with a loud voice and used confrontation as his teaching tool, throwing chairs at players. Bobby Knight's players were scared to death of him. John Wooden's players loved him. How did the ready servants working for their master, how did they view their master? It's the only way you're ever going to become a ready servant. As a screaming judge, the wicked servant viewed God like Bobby Knight. Now, God is indeed just and demands payment. Don't get me wrong. Analogies break down. What did he do for you? If you understand the gospel that's been preached to you, how could you ever draw that conclusion? That he's against you. And the master's point here is, if you knew that I'm like that then, then I would have expected you to make a profit on what I've given you. If you know I'm that harsh, that's what you should have done. You should have done whatever you could then to gain a return on my time. In a sense, you have a covenant of grace and covenant of works right here going on in this, parable. I'm not the tyrant. The issue is you're a wicked and lazy servant. Jesus says all of those who are like the wicked and lazy servant, these are the non-prepared ones who will be cast into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now, today we come to the supper of our Lord. What kind of person should come? I want you to hear what God has announced throughout the scripture. The Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness. in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. What? What did he do? Yeah, He sent his son. And his son went through awful things for you. The ready servant is regenerated when he knows the love of God and the sacrifice and the provision that was given for him. And he begins to serve the king with love, which wasn't in the Pharisees, for a love like this. Beloved, It is the greatest blessing just to live. As I said before, when Paul, Paul was just glad to be a Christian. He didn't think he'd get this great calling and then God put him into this. He was just glad to be a Christian. It is the greatest blessing to live, to have bodies, to have minds, to have abilities. and I can't get away from the very purpose of our whole existence. I mean, how many people go through this life and never come to any conclusion on what the purpose of their life is and why they exist and what this is all about. And you get to say today, Their whole purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That's amazing. And do you know why that's so? Because you've been redeemed by the blood of Christ. and you get to say thank you to Him. And beloved, these are the ready servants. I watch for the Lord more than those. My soul who waits for the Lord more than watchman for the morning, more than watchman for the morning, Psalm 130. The best way to be active with joy is to be about the service of the Lord and His people when you live in light of the very gospel that's been preached to you. What a gift Christ. is to you. I've seen in this church in the last weeks many people hurting. Take your talents. Take your abilities. Serve the Lord with gladness. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. he forgives you so get up and serve Him. Don't wallow in it. Who then is the faithful and wise servant? Ask Jesus. Blessed is that man who when the master comes will find him so doing, fulfilling the desire of his heart. What a day it will be when the master says to you who come by faith, enter into the joy of your master. So how do you relate to God? Do you know him? Do you understand him? Come today then, if you can say yes, believing this gospel, come to the table in faith and receive from him the assurance of the forgiveness of your sins and then go out and serve your neighbor. You are ready, servants. Let's pray. Gracious Lord, thank you for this and thank you for your word to us that helps us. Encourage us and strengthen us, oh Lord, to be more ready as we look to Christ and see the great blessing of working for a Savior like this who is not selfish but denied himself all the way to a cross and then put a mission in place to save people. How wonderful your harvest is. Thank you for your goodness. And thank you for The privilege of coming and being reassured of the gospel of our salvation. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.