Returning to Matthew 25. Matthew 25, we'll be reading verses 14 to 30. Matthew 25, verses 14 to 30. This is the parable of the talents. It's a familiar parable, but we need to recognize that it's in the context of some of the things that Jesus has been talking about. He has talked about being prepared. He has talked about doing one's duty. He's talked about now the importance of improving one's gifts and opportunities that are given to us in the kingdom of God. Improving them because they're received from the master. The way that we approach God is important here. If we approach him as a gracious God who's giving us resources so that we might serve the kingdom of God and grow, that's one way of approaching God. But we can also approach him as those who fear him. Those who think that he's harsh and unforgiving and who can resist him in such a way that we do not grow. And so Jesus talks about both ways. He talks about the way of wisdom. He talks about the way of foolishness. He talks about the way in which his character is revealed. Jesus, heading toward the cross, begins to tell stories. Why is he telling stories? It's because he's expressing spiritual truths. It's because we need to see ourselves in Christ. This is the word of God, listen carefully. For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to every man according to his several ability, and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth and hid his lord's money. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliverest unto me five talents. Behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. The Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliverest unto me two talents. Behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His Lord said unto him, well done, good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee, that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not straw. And I was afraid, and went, and hid not thy talent in the earth, lo, there thou hast that is thine. The Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not straw. Thou oughtest, therefore, to have put my money to the exchangers, and then, at my coming, I should have received mine own with usury. Take, therefore, the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance. But from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The precious word of the living and the true God. Jesus is continuing the kind of lesson that he's been teaching already with the story of the five foolish and the five wise virgins. He uses the word for here, He's giving another illustration of it. He's giving another story. He's going to tell us more about the kingdom of heaven. But this time, Jesus is switching the focus. He's talking about how we are to grow while we're waiting. Not just simply waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ to come back, even though it might take a long time, but how we are to grow in Christ. How we are to grow in improving what we've And Lord Jesus Christ says in verse 14, the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country who called his own servants and delivered on to them his goods. This is a very rich man. He's about to travel into a far country. He is going to give to his servants talents. We think of the word talent, we think of the kind of things that you are skilled at doing. the kind of ability that you have that someone else doesn't have, the kind of talent that you've received from God. That's what we think of. But before the 12th century, it meant a certain amount of money. If you look in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, you'll find that the definition that we use, the definition of talents and abilities actually came from this passage. People began to use the word talent in a different way. But Jesus is talking about more than simply the natural abilities that we have. All of those abilities are supernatural abilities. They're given by God. They're given for a purpose. They make us who we are. But gifts and opportunities in the kingdom of God, that's what Jesus is representing here. But he speaks of it in terms of money. A talent was actually an extremely large sum of money. It was the amount of money that a day laborer would earn over 20 years. That's the amount of money in one talent. So you can see that this person who received one talent received an extremely large amount of money. People differ about how much money it could have represented, perhaps $800,000 in today's money. But the point is that it's a lot. This man was extremely rich. And what we also need to know is that people that were servants, that were slaves in the ancient world, were not just simply called upon to do menial tasks. They were called upon to be accountants. They were called upon to be those who handled the resources of the master's property in significant ways. They were called upon to be doctors. They were called upon to deal with financial situations. And so these servants, are specifically given resources because they have the ability to deal with them. And this master is the one who distributes. Look at how freely he distributes his resources to those that are serving him. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to every man according to his several abilities. You see, it's specifically tailored to the person and the idea be a steward of what you've been given. The idea is to handle what you've been given faithfully in a way that honors the master's intent in what he gave. And that's the spiritual lesson that we need to learn about stewardship, that we need to learn about how to be faithful before the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a great distributor. He's the one who represents wisdom. He's the teller of the story. in our relationship to Jesus Christ. He gave this one person five talents, and in verse 16 we find that the person who received the five talents went and traded with it. He did exactly what the master wanted him to do. He entered into trades. Now some might consider that to be risky, but he knew that the reason that the master entrusted him with these five talents was so that he would invest. That he would take the opportunity to perhaps make an increase in the resources that are given. Five talents is an extremely large amount of money. It's more money than a day laborer could work, make in his lifetime. Unless he was able to work for 100 years. more money than he could amass, even if he had nothing to pay out. That is an extremely large amount of money. And the master entrusted it to this man so that it might be invested, so that he might act upon what he's received. He's a steward now. He's been given resources from the master, and he is to be a steward of them. And Jesus Christ is telling us this story, but it's eventually going to talk about entering in to the kingdom of heaven, the joy of the master. Jesus is going to direct our attention upward. So we need to pay attention, not just say, well, there's a story about someone receiving five counts and invest in them. I don't even know what it was like to invest in the ancient Near East, in Palestine. No, it's a spiritual lesson that Jesus is telling. He's on the way to the cross. And he's talking about the distribution of gifts and resources in the kingdom of heaven. He's already told us about the blessing of being poor, the blessing of being those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. The kingdom works differently, and we need to think about it. That's why Jesus is telling these stories, that we might think about these things. These talents are financial amounts, they're financial resources that are given to the person who received One who received two, verse 17, says he gained another two. He also invested, he also utilized the resources that he was given. He was a steward of those resources, and he acted in the way that he was expected to act, as the servant of the master. Even though the master was gone, he continued to invest this money, utilize the resources, so that the master might receive the benefits of his labor. But then there's the other one. This person has a different approach to the master. This person didn't understand the master in the same way as the others. This person considered the master to be a harsh taskmaster, to be one who was ultimately mean and stingy, to be someone who would demand something that the servant would not be able to repay. He was afraid. And there are people this morning who are afraid of God. You're afraid of God. He has authority over you, but you're afraid of him. You think of him in these terms, the way that the person in verse 18 thought of his master. He that had received one went and digged in the earth and hid his Lord's money. He doesn't want to take any chances, no risk. In fact, the most important thing to do is to do absolutely nothing. Because if I do something, it might be the wrong thing, and then I'm going to be punished for it. If I do nothing, then at least I can give the master back what he gave me. And that's the way they view stewardship. That's the way they view what they've been given by the master. And then a long time passes. And this story is about the fact that it's a long time. It's like that story of the 10 virgins. It's a long time before the bridegroom comes back. It's now the master and he's gone a long time. And when this happens, we begin to see how our hearts really operate. We begin to reckon with the passing of time and there are certain times in our life when we begin to feel ourselves to be afraid of God. To be those who think that God is somehow looking for us to mess up. Looking for us to do something wrong and then will punish us severely. And we begin to cultivate that attitude towards God. Often it happens as a result of building up confidence in ourselves. We desire to count on those things that we think we can count on, and we think it's us. We forget that we've been given a stewardship, that we belong to someone else. We forget that we are called upon to use the gifts and resources we've been given in the kingdom of heaven in a way that is pleasing to the master. Well, verse 19 says, after a long time, the Lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them. He began to settle accounts. He had given five talents to one, he gave two talents to another, he gave one talent to another, He gave them according to their abilities. He desired them to be faithful in their stewardship, according to their abilities. He gave those resources wisely. He gave them according to the particular people that he was dealing with. And we learn from this that there is not a cookie cutter approach to how God deals with people, that he deals with people differently. He deals with people in wisdom. He gives people gifts and opportunities and resources in order that they might serve him as a steward. And he knows what it takes for someone to be a steward. And so the one who received the five talents reports back to the master and he says, Lord, thou deliverest them to be five talents. And then he says, behold, look, He's enthusiastic, he's excited about it. He has taken the opportunity that he's been given to be entrusted with everything that the master has entrusted him with. And he has engaged in trade and he has made five talents more, 100% increase on the investment. He says, look, behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. And the master sees it the same way. The master sees it the same way. In fact, he goes beyond what even this servant might have expected. Look at what he says. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. He doesn't say, give me my stuff. Thank you for the extra five. Put her along this storehouse back here. No, his focus is on the servant. He is commending him. And he uses language that is sweet. The kind of language that the Bible says you and I are going to hear if we are to continue to trust in Jesus Christ. And we are trusting in him when he comes back. That kind of language. This is where the story begins to overlap into the arrival of Jesus Christ, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in judgment. It's also for salvation. It's also so that we might hear these sweet words. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. And the benefits that are given exceed the resources that were given before. Look at what he says. Thou has been faithful over a few things. A few things. Five talents. One talent is worth 20 years of labor for a day laborer. Five talents. A few things. But it's by comparison, you see. By comparison to the benefits that you are about to be given. The giver who can give far beyond our ability to understand, the giver who has resources to give us that we have not begun to even imagine. Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things, he says. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. It's not just atta boy, good job. Way to invest. Thank you for your service to the company. Here's your tiny gold watch that he got out of a jacket of rocks. Display at the amusement park. No, he's offering to him something that's even beyond being ruler over many things, the joy The presence of the master in a place of rejoicing. We know what Jesus is talking about. We know it because we know the rest of the Bible. We know this because we've been already listening to what he says in the Gospel of Matthew. We know this because the rest of the Bible makes it clear. There is a place of joy. It's there in Psalm 16, which we were just saying. The place of joy. the presence of the master who is satisfied and who is rejoicing with his people. He's being offered fellowship and communion. It's fellowship and communion with the living God, if you understand what Jesus is talking about. He's talking about entering into the joy of the presence of the living God. And you might think, well, okay, Maybe in the back of the second guy's mind is the idea that I don't want to receive two. He received five. He made five more. I made two more. But here's where we need to slow down. We need to consider what's being said. He also that received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliverest unto me two talents. Behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His Lord said unto him, exactly the same words. Well done, good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. He commends him. He says that he has done well. He's been faithful. And that's what the master was looking Faithfulness. Not an evaluation of how many talents or resources you've been given in comparison to someone else. Faithfulness to the master. That's what counts here. That's what Jesus is looking at. Faithfulness to the master. Understanding what it means to be a steward. Understanding and caring about the productive use of the gifts that have been given. That's what these men were able to say that they had. And it was backed up in the way that they responded to the talents that they were given, the resources that they were given. But then that helps us to see this other response to God, this other response to the master, this other response to this one who has given these resources so in order that they might be used as a stewardship. There's another way that people often think of God. In fact, left to ourselves, it's a way that we often think of God without the benefit of the scriptures that are given to us, without the benefit of the demonstration of his character in Jesus Christ, without seeing through the eyes of faith what the Holy Spirit shows us, that this is a gracious God. slow to anger, he abounds in mercy, and he gives gifts and resources in order that they might be used in order that he might bring to us the glorious reward that he gives for the use of things that he provides and he sustains in the use of. The stewardship that you have from God is supervised by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's superintended by the work of the Holy Spirit. Every time that you use the resources, gifts, and opportunities that you're given in the kingdom of God, you're using them as one who has the Holy Spirit inside of you. We know this because we know the rest of the Bible. We know the context of why these two, who were given the five talents and the two talents, trust their master. and desire to please him. You see, there's another way to relate to God. Slowly but surely, we begin to associate God the Father with other people in our lives. We begin to think about God in the terms that have been given to us by our relationships with someone else. And we begin to think of God in wrong ways that don't describe his character, this man, says that the Lord is a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed. Why? You're like the Pharaoh of Egypt. You see? Is the living God like that? Like the Pharaoh? Desiring to gather where he has not provided the resources Or is it indeed that this master actually knew the abilities of the people who were receiving the talents and he gave them an opportunity to use them because he knew their abilities. Because he provided for them according to their abilities and he rewarded them according to what he had provided and how it was used. The problem that this man has is his attitude and his understanding of his master. He thinks of him as a hard man. He thinks of him as someone to be afraid of. I don't want to take a risk. I don't want to do something that will potentially mess it up. And so I'm just going to maintain and do nothing. And people live that way in their relationship with God. The important thing is to I was afraid, he says, and went and hid my talent in the earth. He was afraid like Adam and Eve were afraid. He was afraid of the living God. He was afraid of his master. And all he did was try to give back what the master had given him with trembling hands. Here it is. See, I didn't take from you. The master sees it differently. He begins to answer him in the terms in which he has described him. This is not the way the master views himself. It's the way this man views the master. The Lord answered and said unto him, thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not and gather where I had not strawed. I am a hard man. I'm going to require from you something more than what I gave you? Well, then you should have invested what I gave you with the bankers. You should have put it in a place where you could earn interest. At the very least, that is what would have gained me something more. What you think that I'm drooling over, that I just want to take from you something that I didn't give you, Now I must therefore put my money to the exchangers, and then, at my coming, I should have received mine own with usury. Now the master actually knows this servant, and he knows that this servant is actually afraid, and this servant is actually, in his fear, engaging in laziness, engaging in the wickedness of misrepresenting his master. He has told himself all of the time when the master was far away, I need to at least preserve this talent that belonged to the master. Well, what about that pearl of great price that was found in the field? People actually dig up stuff. Was it really safe there? In the relationship that this person had with the master is a demonstration of the way that we often approach God. It's more important that I just do nothing, that I rely upon the way in which my family members worship God, that I follow them along the path and that I do nothing to displease God. But we forget about the fact that in our fear, our basic tendency towards laziness and misrepresenting God creeps in. And that's what happened to this servant. He was misrepresenting his master. He was considering him to be a hard man. And he thought the important thing to do was to do as little as possible. Laziness took over because of the fear of God. While he has not been a steward of that which he's received, take therefore the talent from him and give it unto him which hath 10 talents. And then Jesus declares this principle. And it's a principle that's there in the book of Proverbs. It's there in chapter nine in verse nine. It's there here in the gospel of Matthew. It's in chapter 13 in verse 12. But Jesus is talking about being given something and having an abundance. But having not and having taken away even that which he hath. It's all about the way that we relate to God with the resources that he's given. Unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance, but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. How can he say that? How can he say that, that you will have an abundance? It's because he has given an abundance to these other two servants. He has provided for them above and beyond. the way that they utilized the resources they were given. He gave them, from dealing with a few things faithfully, he gave them rulership over many things. He says, enter into the joy of the Lord, the joy of his presence. But this other servant who considered his master to be hard, to be demanding that which he didn't provide, that one who followed the pattern of the thinking about God that the serpent, for Eve, in Genesis chapter three, the one who continued to think those thoughts about God, and who continued not to question them, not to consider the character of his master, is ultimately not utilizing the stewardship that he's been given because he's not related properly to the living God. You see, Jesus in this story is the distributor of the gifts. He is the one who is the wisdom teller of the story. He's the one who enables the productive use of those gifts. And he's the one who rewards far beyond our faithful use of the gifts that we've been given. You know the essence of stewardship? To know the first question of the Heidelberg Catechism, I belong. body and soul to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. That means that there's someone who we dearly love who is in a hospital bed right now, who is able to exercise this stewardship, belonging body and soul to Jesus Christ. When you realize that you are truly going to exercise through Jesus Christ, then you begin to have the opportunity to use the gifts and opportunities that God gives you. It's not just about money. It's about far more. It's about the kingdom of heaven and how it operates. Some of you have encounters with people during the week that no one else has. You have been given opportunities and you're a particular set of gifts. Savior Jesus Christ. You need to know that you are belonging to him and that you are looking forward to that great time when he will gather you, he will reward you far beyond your faithful service. Because your faithful service came about because of his presence. Some of us have begun to see that the supper and the hearing of God's word and the singing of the Psalms and praying together with God's people and individually. And receiving the knowledge of what it means to be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost is the exercise of a stewardship. And when we recognize gifts and opportunities, when we recognize resources that we've been given to serve the kingdom of heaven, our approach is based on our relationship to the master. with their other people, or continuing to cultivate a relationship with God that actually forms as a wedge, drives them away from him. And Jesus says, ultimately, that ends up in being cast into outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It's pretty clear that the exercise of stewardship, recognizing that you belong to Jesus Christ, is vital. Recognizing that you belong to Jesus Christ, that you are made to be a servant of him and that he rewards far beyond your service. That he's the one who gave you the opportunities that you have in the first place. That he's the distributor of gifts. How are you cultivating your relationship with Jesus Christ? How are you recognizing that you belong to him in the midst of opportunities that he provides for you? It's all about how you view your master, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have the great privilege throughout the Gospel of Matthew to see what he's like. By the time Jesus speaks this story, you know what Jesus Christ is like. Are you about to see more? But this is how the kingdom of heaven operates. Jesus Christ distributes, Jesus Christ provides wisdom to understand what you've been given as resources from him. He's the one who enables you to use the gifts and opportunities that you've been given productively. And he's the one who rewards far beyond anything that you've been given. Beware of cultivating an image of God is harsh, and cruel when he is indeed gracious and beyond gracious. There will be a day when people in this room will be in the midst of the joy of the living God, because they are related to Jesus Christ right now, because they belong to him, and I hope that is each one of you.