The Kingdom Assignment of Kingsley Church of Christ
Matthew 25:14-29
28/08/2011
1) Introduction – Fear of Judgement
Renovators – lady in tears because she’d been eliminated.
Reality TV – heaps of different flavours – dancing, singing, talent shows, find a husband, find a wife, fix up a house, cook up a storm… all end in judgement!
If people are worried about how they’re judged as a renovator, singer or cook – if they are desperate to receive the rewards on offer in those shows – then how much more does that apply to the judgement in this story.
Are you concerned about how you will be judged by Christ when you stand before Him? Would you like to receive wonderful reward from His hand? If so, today’s text tells us some things you really need to know.
2) Getting to know the characters… which one are you?
Matthew 25:14
14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them.[1]
The man going on a journey: Jesus
Later called “the Master”. Jesus in this whole section is talking about the fact that He will be going away, but will return in power to judge the Earth, receive His inheritance and claim His bride.
In verse 31 as Jesus moves on to a different picture of what this will be like, He even refers to Himself more directly by saying “When the Son of Man comes in all His glory, with the holy angels with Him…”
The Servants – that’s where we come in!!!
Jesus is teaching people how to live in the period between when He ascends to Heaven and when He returns to Earth. Whether we go to be with Him or whether we He returns to be with us, these are essential truths to help us to be ready to meet Him.
2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
So how are we to live? We’re to live as servants expecting their master’s return. This is a key understanding of the Christian life, but it’s one that many people struggle to really understand. This passage is going to help us with that. It might actually surprise you a little bit!
But for now, realise that in this story you are one of the servants – but which one are you?
3) What the Servants Did
Matthew 25:15-18
15 To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17 So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18 But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
The first two servants straightaway get to work and double their money. We have no idea how long it took them, but that verse 19 tells us “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them”. In fact in the other parables Jesus tells in this section He’s been hinting that He will be away for long enough for people to grow careless and to doubt that He will ever come back.
How much money did they have?
Well, a talent by the most common measurement of that time was equal to 6,000 average day’s wages.
I looked up the average wages for W.A. last year and worked out that it equates to roughly $1.2 million.
That’s a fair bit of dough, right!
But neither the time frame nor the amount of money really matter in this story. What matters is the attitude of the servants and the behaviours those attitudes produced.
Matthew 25:20-23
20 The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’
21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
22 “The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’
23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
Here’s something I find interesting. The servants reported on what they had achieved – what their efforts had produced for their Master. The Master comments not on their achievements but on their character. He calls them good and faithful servants, and he invites them to share his happiness.
He says that they have been faithful with a few things – I don’t know about you, but 6 million or 2.4 million dollars isn’t just a little bit to me, it’s a lot! But it causes us to realise that the Master didn’t depend on his servants to produce wealth for him. His delight in them was not because they made him rich, he was delighted in the manner of their service – their diligence and hard work for him. What prompted that faithfulness I wonder?
Perhaps the best way to find out is to look at what happened with the third servant.
Matthew 25:24-25
24 “Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28 “‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29 For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”.
What was the problem here? Was it a lack of ability? That didn’t seem to be a problem with the first two – they had different abilities and different levels of responsibility, but each proved himself to be good and faithful.
Let’s look at his excuse – the master is a tyrant, so he was afraid in case he lost the money and hid it in the ground. Unlike the first two servants who were busy earning a return on their money, the third servant was free to live for himself for a long time. He probably looked like the smart guy while the first two were suckers. He got to work for himself, for his own profit and comfort while the other two were working for their long-absent Master who was probably never coming back. All three had the title “servant”, but in reality one guy was not a servant at all – at least not a servant of the rightful Master.
Then the Master came back!
Was the master in the story really a tyrant? Was the third servant paralysed by fear of the master and doubt over his own abilities?
Were the first two servants motivated by fear to work hard in order to escape punishment?
That’s where I want to leave the parable and step out into our world for a moment.
4) Why do we do what we do?
In those reality TV shows I mentioned earlier, people are motivated by the reward of winning/profit/affirmation and the fear of losing/rejection/humiliation.
It’s classic “carrot and stick” motivation.
It’s not what motivates true servants of God.
We don’t serve God because we are afraid of punishment.
We don’t serve God because we want to somehow profit from our service.
In the parables that Jesus tells in this section, people like that eventually run out of motivation because it seems to them like He’s never coming back. So our fears of judgement seem less urgent – “I’ve got plenty of time to get things right with God” we think to ourselves.
Our desire for reward shifts on to more immediate gratifications, not some far-off heavenly reward that we don’t really know that much about. We want something tangible.
Carrot-and-stick motivation just doesn’t work when it comes to serving God.
It didn’t do it for the third servant. From how he described the Master, you think he would have worked his butt off trying to keep the master happy and earn some reward from him. But no, he proved himself to be a wicked, lazy, worthless servant.
The third servant’s biggest problem was that he didn’t love his master. Because he didn’t love his master he had no desire to serve his master.
1 John 4:16b-18
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
5) Saved by Grace but Living under Law?
I believe that it’s very easy for churches to produce wicked, lazy, worthless servants in two key ways:
a) By focussing on us in terms of what we are supposed to be doing for God. Christianity becomes a religion of legalism where you either feel guilty or self-righteous depending on how good you think you are.
b) By focussing on us in terms of what God does for us. Christianity becomes a religion of cheap grace and self-centredness. God’s main job is to make you feel safe, happy and good about yourself.
True Christianity presents the biblical truth of the breath-taking wonder of who God is and what He has done, is doing and will do for us. This limitless grace of God is also powerful in that when we receive it we are inevitably changed by it to become like Jesus.
We are servants because He is a servant. We love because He loves. We purify ourselves because He is pure…
If we are not becoming like Jesus it does not mean we should work harder at it. It means that we need to receive more grace. We need to get to know Him more.
We’ve been focussing this month on our calling to join Jesus in His mission to save the lost. To bring the grace of God in all it’s forms to those who desperately need to receive it.
Here’s a great saying that I heard several years ago:
“A missionary is not someone who crosses the seas.
A missionary is someone who sees the cross.”
A missionary is someone who sees the cross.”
Being a missionary is not about how you serve or where you serve, it’s about who you serve.
Will you be like the third servant who didn’t really know the master, and live just to serve yourself?
Or will you be like the first two servants, who each in their own way were faithful until their master’s return?
Will the love of Christ compel you?
Will you live no longer for yourself but for the One who died for you, was raised again and will one day return?
[1]All Scriptures from The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
