Let's turn this one off and just use Okay.
Should be sufficient. Can you guys hear me okay? Awesome. Well.
It's a privilege to be with you all this evening and swanna said 2 times in a day such a treat.
To get to spend with our saints and brothers and sisters here. So. I'm gonna be sharing tonight on the parable of the talents.
And, shall I move this down? So you can, There we go. From the parable to talents in Matthew chapter 25.
Now this was Something that Press and I had read recently. And, it's one of those.
Stories that I remember reading as I was a kid or hearing and Sunday school. And it was always very troubling for me.
So reading it again with him and having to kind of walk through that again and read through it and understand it.
It was something that was put in my heart to spend time studying and and sharing with you this evening.
So. We'll read through the passage together. And then, and then I'll share some thoughts on it.
So. All right, we'll start. This is Matthew 25 and we'll start in verse 14.
It says, for it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted them.
His property to one he gave 5 talents to another. To do another one. Then he then he went away.
Each according to the He who had received the 5 talents when at once and traded with them and he made 5 talents more.
So also he who had 2 talents made 2 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 subtle accounts with them and he who had received the 5 talents came forward bringing 5 talents more saying master you delivered me 5 talents and here I have made 5 talents more.
His master said to him, Well done at good and faithful serpent. You have been faithful over or little.
I will send you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. And he also who had the 2 talents came forward saying master you delivered me 2 talents here I have made 2 talents more.
His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servants. You have been good over Oh wait.
I will send you over much enter into the joy of your master. He also, who had received the one town, came forward.
Saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man. Reaping where you did not so and gathering where you did not where you scattered no seed.
So I was afraid and I went and hid your talents in the ground here. You 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 gathered.
Where I scatter 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 10 talents. For anyone who has more.
More will be given and he will have an abundance from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away.
And cast a wicked serpent into. Outer darkness in the place there will be weeping and national teeth.
Let me just pray for us quickly. I haven't the father just. We pray a blessing on the reading of your word.
These truths that you've laid out in the scriptures for us Lord you've given to us with great purpose and meaning.
Lord in our weaknesses help us to discern your truth out of these things or that you could use our time now to imprint these things on our hearts and shape us in new ways, that you could use me in this time to, speak to our hearts, praise and thank you in Jesus
name. Amen. Alright, so, here we have this story. For me, again, this has always been.
A bit of a troubling story that I've been challenged with. So the.
Question I want to start with is why did Jesus teach using parables? What was his point of using parables?
Jesus was the master teacher, right? And so, what, what was it that he used this, special tool of parables for and it's it's it that he used this this this special tool of parables for and it's it seems counter intuitive But he never used these things as a way to provide
a clear, concise moral teaching. We think of like the parables we know or these fables we know of like the 3 little pigs.
Or the boy who cried wolf or tortoise and the hair these things that give us a very simple moral, teaching.
And, and this wasn't Jesus's goal. And we see this in one of his very first parables in the parables of the soils.
And if you guys know this story, it's a it's a parable he tells about different kinds of soil and how they receive the seed.
And, and ultimately he's talking about, those that would hear the word, the seed being the word, the seed being his word, his instruction, his truth.
And these different kinds of soil and how they would receive them. So, and the at the end of this parable, We have the very convenient thing.
In, chapter 13, verse 10. It says the disciples came to him and asked him, why do you speak to people in parables?
And so I don't know if. You guys like this as much as I do, but when the Disciples ask our stupid questions for us is like it's so helpful for me because I'm asking the same question and then when they ask it then I get to listen to the answer and I get to pretend that I already understood
it and I'm just listening to the answer for their sake. But then we have this very clear outline of Jesus telling us, Why he, why he taught in parable.
So I wanna read through this and this is Matthew chapter 13. I'll continue in verse 11 and Jesus replied, because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given to you but not them.
Whoever has will be given more and they will have an abundance whomever does not have even what they have will be taken away.
This is why I speak in parables, though seeing they do not see So hearing they do not hear or understand in them is fulfilled.
The prophecy of Isaiah. You will be ever hearing but never understanding. You will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people's heart has become callous, has become calloused. They hardly hear with their ears and they have, close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes here with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them.
But blessed are you for your eyes. Blessed are your eyes because they see. And your ears because they hear truly I tell you many prophets and righteous people long to see.
What you see. But did not see it and hear what you hear, but you did not hear it.
So Jesus is goal in teaching in parables was to create a conflict. And so you can imagine Jesus teaching in his day.
When crowds of people were following him as he was. teaching and doing these signs and miracles and things.
And his goal in these in these crowds was to to take those who had a heart to understand who we was and to draw them into a deeper understanding, to provide them a challenging teaching about what they thought about life and God and and challenge them with a challenging teaching to think deeper about who he was and what he was teaching.
And for those that were following him that had already, purposed in their hearts that he was, not who he said he was, that he wasn't going to do the convenient thing of letting them think that he was a Nice moral teacher or something like that that you would corner them into having to accept him or reject him
And we see this at work in John chapter 6. We see this large crowd following Jesus. And this is after he performs the miracle of, feeding the 5,000 and as we know it and so you know Jesus just basically gave everybody free lunch and now they're following him around and Jesus is aware of this.
He's aware of what's in people's hearts. And so he tests them and in, in this chapter he uses this figurative language about, if you want to have part of me, you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood and all these like really challenging things for people to understand and
he's putting to people in a position that you say, do you want to follow me? Are you really following me?
Do you have to believe that this is true in order for that to be for you to actually want to follow me.
And in that scene we see how many, turn away. The disciples as he turns to his disciples and say, what about you?
What will you do? And they say, you know, Lord, to whom else? Should we go and so this is what Jesus does with these kinds of teaching that he's using them as challenging a challenging teaching to force us to think deeply.
To check where our hearts are. Challenging teaching to force us to think deeply, to check where our hearts are. Do you really believe me?
Do you and we are people who have a tremendous privilege and advantage in encountering the words, the truths and the promises spoken and demonstrated to the living God through the incarnate Jesus, the current God draw our Lord Jesus Christ.
And the question is, how will we respond? And now, At the end of this section, at the end of this parable that he tells this parable of the soils.
I always love this. Jesus has this command and so i've done this with my kids when i read this so if everybody could do this everybody like.
Take your hands and kind of put them like this on the sides of your head. Everybody go like this kind.
Like touch is like this. What do you guys feel there? Years? Okay.
Does everybody have yours? Okay, everybody's got here. Jesus says He who as ears let him hear.
Right? So we've all confirmed that we all have ears. We can all confirm that Jesus is talking to us.
Right? He who has ears let him hear. And this is our call. Let's let us who have ears let us hear from him.
As he teaches. So to jump back into this parable of the talents. We have this very challenging teaching.
And so let's look at it a little more closely together. So first just some contact.
So, this is one of Jesus later parables this comes at near the end of his ministry.
There's a similar payroll in, in Luke chapter 19. We're gonna focus in this text here.
Jesus is, this is his return to Jerusalem. He's with his disciples.
He's on the Mount of Olives. And this, specific parable comes in near the end of a long section of teaching about the end of the age and the coming of the kingdom of God.
So this is the context. Of where this teaching is coming and specifically that that what we're reading is in the context of the last 2 chapters.
Chapter 24 and 25 about the disciples asking about details about the coming. kingdom of god and the end of the age And so he goes through this long.
Sequence of teaching and several parables here. And, this parable is near the end.
So, okay, so let's recap the story if we can real quick. So, there's a rich man and he's leaving on a journey.
He calls his servants. And he each, he gives them each a sum of money as he's leaving.
So 1 5 1 2 1 one. So talents, I think. While familiar was a measure of weight, way to measure, precious metals.
And things so way to measure gold. So you know in English we have this word talents and maybe we can get confused if that we're talking about sort of gifting and abilities or something like that.
That's what we're talking about here. So in the story, he's using this reference to a sum of money.
So a talent in this time was about 20 years income. So, 20 years income. I looked up the average household income in the US is $31,133.
So, 20 years income. At that rate for us would be today would be. It for one town would be about $600,000.
2 towns don't be 1.2 million and 3 talents would be about 3 million dollars.
So what we're talking about is what Jesus is setting up in this story that this is significant, significant gift that is being given.
A significant thing. This isn't a small loan or something like that. This is a significant thing of value.
So the master leaves and then he returns after a long time. on his return, he comes to settle accounts with his servants.
Now the first 2 come and they, report that, they have doubled their money.
So, the master is pleased and the servants are rewarded. So good so far, like all of this for me like tracks.
I'm like, yeah, that makes sense. He leaves, he gives them money, they make them some more money.
That's all great. So then the third comes along. And what does he do? He says.
That he was afraid so he buried the money. And he gives it back to the master. And in response, This master, I did all these kind things in the in the story above.
To give out this money so generously to treat these other servants So, favorably with their return.
He strongly rebukes the servant. He takes what he had and he gave it to the one with the most.
And then he severely and permanently punishes him. And this is the part that provides a great challenge for me.
Because, we look at this servant and we look how strongly that he was. That he was, the response was towards him.
But for what? He did nothing, I guess, right? Like, he didn't waste the money's met the masters money right he didn't he didn't do something that we saw as, you know, overtly evil or, or punishable.
He actually does something to protect the money, right? He's not careless with it.
He doesn't leave it out on the counter. Like he buries it in the ground. He like gives it some security.
And when the master comes back, he gives it back to him. He doesn't make some excuse about how he can't find it or he doesn't remember which field it got buried in or something like that.
Like he willingly returns it to the master. So why this judgment? Why this harsh, harsh judgment?
Because with me on this is this is challenging for you guys as it is for me. So.
What do we make of this of this teaching? How are we to understand this, right? Like this wasn't just a story for the sake of telling a story for passing time or something.
What is Jesus doing? What is he doing? So let's try to kind of translate what we're reading here.
So. We, see here that, that Jesus is trying to describe things that will be.
Right, something that we don't know that will be. And if we look through this this section and Matthew, we see this like over and over again that this will be will be will come.
And so he's describing this future thing that we don't see that we don't understand yet and he's providing instruction.
And he's providing instruction that's intended to challenge us and challenge us to think about our place in this story and how we respond.
So let's go through this and just and just look at piece by piece and try to like translate each piece of it into into into practical language right so first of all the verse 14 says starts off for it will be like a man going on a journey.
So what is it? Right, it starts off with it. Well, we see this connected with this this parable directly above.
And so it's easy as for us to capture this, but, and we've read in 25 chapter 25 verse one it says then the kingdom of heaven will be like so it here is the kingdom of heaven.
Now the kingdom of heaven, sometimes referred to as the kingdom of God. Those views interchangeably throughout.
The Gospels was a central theme of Jesus ministry. This is what was on his mind.
If we're to call ourselves aligned with Jesus's teaching aligned with Jesus ministry that we're going to be aligned with his thinking about the kingdom of God.
What is this? What does this mean? So, okay, so the master in this story. I think is, not a stretch for us to understand that this is Jesus.
Jesus is talking about him as the master. Who are the servants? The servants are people, right?
There is disciples in this case that are listening to it. His, the servants are us, right?
People that would hear and be impacted by this story. Specifically, people who had received something from from Jesus.
And what is the thing he gives? I think it's fair for us to consider knowledge of who he is.
Our salvation. our relationship with him this is the thing that he gives and so, It says that, the master would leave and his and would return.
Now when Jesus is teaching this, he was still there with his disciples. So he was foretelling this that he would leave go on this journey that he would return to his place next to the Father in heaven and that that he would.
That there was a promise that he would, return. There's a reference to the settling of the accounts, right?
And this is the time when Jesus will come back and there will be a judgment. And.
And then we see in this story, 2. People, that, do something good.
And in this case, are are welcomed by the master. And in this case, we'll read this as being welcomed into the kingdom of God and and rewarded.
And the third doesn't do the right thing. And he's cast out into the other darkness it says and a place where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And there's only one way for us to read this and this is that he's cast into help.
And he's cast into eternal separation from God. So what did the third? S and do that deserve this harsh judgment.
I think this is like the central point for us to look at. Again, he didn't do something that was overtly evil or immoral.
He didn't deny the authority of the of the master. And he retained the gift in some way.
So how do we make sense of this? So I think Jesus tells us this story. And I think in particular he gives us this third character to create this point of conflict for us.
Where we need to seek deeply on. who these characters are, how they apply to us and how we'll apply them to our lives.
As people who have known him and been impacted by him. So, there's 3.
Kinds of people that I would like to encourage. 3 different people that might find them in a different, relationship with Jesus that I think can, can gain different kinds.
Of encouragement. Through this parable. So the first person is the one that doesn't know Jesus.
And maybe that's you. And maybe you know Jesus, but you know Jesus like you know George Washington right like you know things about him like First president, cut down a cherry tree like that's the extent of the knowledge of of Jesus.
And I would say that this is the way that the, the third servant No the master. He knew him.
He was even considered a part of his Network. But he didn't have a relationship with him.
He didn't have a deep abiding relationship with him. And this is an important thing. This is clearly kind of relationship that the master wanted with his servants.
When we look back at
His interaction with the other, servants. We look at how How the master talks them. He says, well done, good and faithful.
S. Well done. Compliant servant well done productive servant well done. Industrious servant, right?
He says faithful. Faithful servant and this is what he wants He wants faithfulness. Is a devotion.
That follows our affections right? A devotion that follows our affections. This is the relationship that Jesus wants.
With his servants. So. Can we read that?
Can we read that the the the servant didn't? Have this relationship with the master and I think we can.
And I wanna read this again. I'll read inverse. 20. 4 halfway through 24 I'll start 24.
Says he who would also receive the one talent came forward saying master. I knew you to be a hard man.
Reaping where you did not so and gathering where you. Gathering where you scattered no seat.
So I was afraid. And I went and hid your talent in the ground. So based on what we know of the relationship of the master with his other servants, is he a hard man?
Should he be afraid? Should he be feared? No. Now what I see here is not that This was true about how the servant actually felt.
What actually compelled the servant. And Jesus knew it too because he calls him out on it, right?
I'll continue services here. Have what is yours, but the master answered him.
He says, you wicked and slothful servant. And this is where it's so clear that Jesus sees right through what he's saying.
He says, Oh, so you knew that I reaped where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no see, then you ought to have at least invested my money with the bankers and at my coming.
You should have received what was my own. And what we see is that what drove the first S was not what he was afraid of, but what he loved.
Where his affections were. And so. You can imagine what Jesus was asking for as he gave these as the master gave these large sums of money.
The expectation that if you were given 3 million dollars to end, if I ever give you 3 million dollars.
You can imagine how that investment I was making in you would change your life. This would be all encompassing in your life, right?
This would be I have a I have a responsibility. I somebody's put this this thing of great value into my life.
And I need my whole life needs to revolve around ensuring that this investment is used wisely. Right?
But this isn't what the third servant does. And And his fear is not of the master and the hardness of the master.
Is what I read is that his fear is of having to surrender his life to this thing. Right, to be faithful to this thing.
That. That is put over us. Does Jesus want to does Jesus want to I'm sorry, I wanna find the words.
No, the hard master. Reap where he did not sew and gathered. Where he scattered no seed.
Yeah, he does. He wants to make this investment in our life and he wants to see fruit coming out of it, right?
And he wants our lives and the investment that he's made, his sacrifice. To bring us to new life.
To produce new fruit in our lives and for our lives produce new fruit and others. So is he is he a master that that wants to reap where he has in his own and and and gather where he has and sew and seed?
Yes, he is. But he wants it to done done done through the faithfulness of our hearts.
Sorry, I just lost my point in my notes.
So my My challenge for you. For this first person would be. Was in your life and even today.
That you're that you're having the opportunity. To hear about Jesus.
To be impacted by his teachings to to be to be motivated to be changed by these truths that he's saying.
About who he was. And I've been, I've heard somebody say that the most important question that we'll answer.
When we sit before God is when he asks us the question, what did you do about my son? And we all here have.
Learn about Jesus. I've heard about Jesus today. We get to to to hear about Jesus and the question is what will we do with that?
How will we respond? And if you're still struggling about Jesus. Who he was. It's pretty simple.
It's like either Jesus was who he said he was or he wasn't. Right. It's, I've heard somebody say Jesus was a liar, a lunatic or a Lord, right?
And, and that's your decision to make. We can't write him off as a, as a clever, moral teacher or something, but We have a responsibility to answer to.
What was Jesus who he said he was? And if there's that feeling in your heart that that aching of emptiness of something that's missing in your life.
I can tell you that this is the the gap in your life between you and your relationship with the living God.
And the Bible says that all have sin and all fall short of the glory of God. And it says the wages of sin are death.
This is the reality of what the third The third, servant experienced. That there is a consequence in the decision we make about who Jesus is.
With Bible says the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So my encouragement for you is that if you haven't made that decision, if you haven't taken that opportunity.
To look at what Jesus has offered you that he died on the cross for your sins that he offers you this this tremendous gift that will shape and transform the rest of your life.
That today is the day of salvation that today is a day that you can turn to him. And that when you meet him that he could look at you and say, well, got well done, good and faithful servant enter into the joy of your master.
That's my prayer for you. I'll repeat what we read in Matthew 13. He who has years let him hear.
Let us let him hear what Jesus is teaching. So the second person I'd like to encourage is those that grew up your whole life.
Around Jesus. Grew up in the church. Grew up hearing about Jesus. Grew up singing songs about Jesus.
Grew up in Sunday school maybe have been in church for years and years and decades maybe. And my challenge for you is that we read in this story.
That are proximity to Jesus. Does not equal a faithful abiding relationship with Jesus. And if we look how the faithful servant responds in verse 16.
It said he who had received the 5 towns went at once. And this should be our response. Of when we encounter Jesus when we when we place our faith in who he is That it immediately transforms our life and our affections are drawn to him.
And Jesus, Jesus had some really difficult teachings. And this is one of them. Jesus said small as the gate and narrows the way that leads to life.
You will find it. Jesus said not all that call me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of God Jesus said, if you abide in my word.
You will truly be my disciple. And I just wanna read a couple of verses in And first John chapter 2.
And I'm gonna start in verse 3. It says, and by this we know that we have come to know him.
This important thing about like the difference between knowing him, being aware of him. Even knowing a lot about him and knowing him and the scriptures and specifically in the New Testament we read.
How much we, can challenge our knowledge of who he is. It says in this we can, by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.
Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not him in him.
Whoever keeps his word in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we know we are in him.
Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk. In the same way that he walked. He who has ears.
Let him here challenge your affections challenge your knowledge challenge your relationship with Jesus This is good for us. Where are my affections?
What do I love? And if you, if you haven't come to that point, your life where you, again, as long as you've been in the proximity of the sound of the teachings of Jesus and of knowledge of Jesus.
If you haven't come to the point where you've said, Lord, I'm ready to put your Lordship over my life.
I'm ready to take this investment and let it rule my life. Again, my encouragement to do to you would be today is the day of salvation.
And I pray today is a day that you can make. That decision. Now, The third person I'd like to.
To encourage, through this. And I would.
This would be encouragement for myself. I put myself in this category as, those of us who've been maybe walking with the Lord for a long time, you know, have, an in depth.
Knowledge, of the scriptures and, are in involved in, spiritual work. My challenge to you is continue to grow in your in your knowledge.
Of the Lord Jesus. Grow in your knowledge of his teaching, grow in your obedience to these things that he taught.
Growth in your knowledge of who he is will grow your affections for him and in your faithfulness will continue to follow.
And I think that we have this. This third character here. To read. That we, know that for those who have placed their faith in Jesus that there is therefore no condemnation to those in Jesus that we know that we are not subject to the judgment that we read about.
For the third. Servant. But he's still there and there's still this ambiguity about what he did and what he didn't do.
That I think is good for us to challenge, to know that our our our, Our likeness was Like his we were people at 1 point like the third servant In this story, the 2 servants that were considered faithful.
What they were what they brought to the master and what they what the master received as as honorable in return.
Was the masters to begin with. Right? Without what the master had done for them on his return, they would have had nothing to bring the master.
And in all 3 cases, he would have said, you wicked and lawful servant without what the master had done this would have been the truth for us that we all would have been cast into the outer darkness.
Where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. So I think it's it's helpful for us to be challenged by us and I don't know.
Maybe you guys have. Dealt with the sin problem completely or. or have have have grown to a complete faithfulness of the master.
I have not. And so for us to consider what parts of our heart still respond to our master the way the third servant did in what what areas of our life are we not giving Lord, Jesus, the Lordship of our life.
And I think we have these stories here to really challenge us that way. In the parable just above the parable, the 10 virgins.
And you have 10 bridesmaids. That are preparing for, the arrival of the groom.
Who is the same as the master in the story and and and they have to make their way to the wedding feast and they need lamps to get there.
Because this comes at night and and 5 of them bring extra oil and 5 of them don't. And.
And ultimately, These 5 bridesmaids show up late. Show up late. What's the big guys?
Have you ever been late for something? A bit late, right? What's it? Is that really that big of a deal?
But listen to what Jesus says. This is afterwards the other virgins came also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
These are, remember, these are people in the wedding party. These are people who knew the bridegroom.
They were they were invited to the wedding. They were part of the bridal party. They were there.
Listen to what Jesus says to him. Lord, Lord, open to us! He answered, I truly I say to you.
I do not know you.
I do not know you. What a terrible thing to hear that time. And in the same way in the story of, the.
The wicked servant and the talents. That that it's not easy for us to write him off like the prodigal son.
Right, he doesn't go and spend the money on gambling or would be easy for us to say like, he's that kind of person.
He's a he's a wicked person. Oh, there's something in in in his affections that created this dramatic difference of his relationship with the master.
So my first thing encouragement for you. Is that deeply consider that? And find areas in your life that you're holding off from from Jesus Lordship in and surrender those to Him.
My second encouragement for you is that do you have a kingdom mindset? Is this where your focus is, right?
Are you fully faithful? To the call to the ministry of Jesus to being a follower of Jesus.
With your life, with your family, with your job, with your marriage. With everything you have.
I think that some of us and I consider my you know myself having this mindset at certain points but There is this sense of that.
Yes, our salvation is complete and and our faith is complete and there's this storyline of like we live our life, we get done, and then we're like catapulted up into the clouds and we're like in heaven and it's like you know, this luxury cruise ship of just like.
Chilling and having a good time right and that it just doesn't align with what Jesus talks about about what our what our eternity is spent.
Doing. Now look at what the master says to his servants.
I'll read in verse 21. Master says 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.
So our reward. More responsibility. Are we living our lives? That this life is our finish line.
The end of this life is our finish line or do we have that same? Perspective. That Jesus had about about eternity's timeline and how we might be focused.
Are we building now thinking about our eternity to come? Are we thinking about what our work is going to be like in the kingdom of God?
And that's my encouragement to you. That, that this would be your mindset.
That you would you would find ways to grow in your knowledge and your affections and your faith, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that that you would you would set your heart and your mind on serving the master in a way that.
It has a perspective of the end of this age and beyond so those are my encouragements to you and that one day that we would hear our Lord say, well done, good and faithful servant enter into the joy of your master.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, just thank you again for this time. Come under the sound of your word and just Thank you for.
The way that you sought us and our weakness slurred and when we were in sin and separated from you.
That you sent your son. That. We could have eternal life secure in him.
So we praise you and thank you Lauren. I pray that our affections would continue to grow.
For you that we would not be deceived by our enemy and in our pursuit of the knowledge of our precious savior.
And so we pray that you continue and are working in our hearts. So, I, you know, I don't know.
People here, that. Yeah, that you would you would touch their hearts in a special way and that they would continue to Love you and know you more.
I'll continue to praise you and thank you in Jesus name. Amen.