40 Days of Prayer
Week 6: Support Ministries
Matthew 25: 14 - 30.
I. Introduction.
Pictures of the church buildings:
1. Church Exterior
2. Church Exterior
3. Sanctuary Interior
4. Preschool Exterior
5. Preschool Entrance
6. Nursery
7. Monkey Room
8. Walk from Nursery
9. Walk from Nursery
10. Youth Room
11. Youth Room
12. Youth Worship
13. Youth Worship
14. Parlor
15. Parlor
16. Parlor
17. Parlor Kitchen
18. Parlor Kitchen
19.
20.
21.
22 – 32 Childrens Rooms
Read Matthew 25: 14 – 30
Matthew 24 contains one of Jesus’ extended teachings known as the Eschatological Discourse. “Eschatological” is a word they teach us in seminary. Specifically, they teach us never to use words like “eschatological” in our sermons. It basically means, “end times.” Therefore, we ought to read this section of Scripture with the knowledge that Jesus is teaching us about the “end times.”
This does not mean Jesus gave us a timetable or a checklist to follow. No. Jesus never told us exactly what we could expect at the end of time. Rather, Jesus simply taught us two things. On one hand, the world we live in will not last forever. It is temporary and by nature will one day come to an end. On the other hand, Jesus taught us that we would have to wait. In fact, this is the primary thing Jesus taught us about the end of the created order. It will not happen when we think it will happen. We need to be prepared to wait for the end to come.
Throughout all Christian history, we can find evidence of men and women who thought they knew more about the end of the world than Jesus knew. Men and women have made predictions. And each time, those predictions have proven false. Perhaps if we spent more time listening to Jesus’ actual teachings about the end of the world, we might actually follow his advice. Wait. Be patient. Stay busy.
This parable is one of five parables in this section of the Gospel of Matthew. These parables are part of a longer discourse, spoken by Jesus to teach his disciples about the coming day of judgment. In Matthew 24: 3, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them the signs of the time so that they would know when the final judgment would come. But Jesus surprised everyone in Matthew 24: 36, by saying that there were no signs. He said, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
The five parables all focus on several common themes.
1. Judgment Day is really coming…It will come suddenly and unexpectedly.
2. It seems that judgment has been delayed by the master staying in a foreign country longer than anyone expected.
3. The characters in the parables are divided into two groups…Those who are ready…Those who are not ready…
4. Those who are ready will be rewarded in judgment.
5. Those who are not ready will be punished in judgment.
The theme of this parable is “Being Ready” for the Lord’s return. The parable defines readiness as “Responsibility”—especially responsibility with the Lord’s resources while he is not physically present on earth.
The master entrusted his own money to his servants so they could take care of it while he was away. He gave to each one according to his ability. Therefore, the fact that he gave five talents to one, two talents to the second, and one talent to the third indicates that he trusted them differently. He trusted one more than the others and one less than the others.
Many have interpreted this parable in terms of human abilities because of the use of the English word “talent.” However, this parable is actually about money. The talent was the monetary measurement equal to 6,000 denarii. One denarius was the usual daily wage of a working man—it was the minimum wage of the First Century. If a man worked six days a week with no time off, he could earn one talent in about 20 years.
Since we do not trade in either denarii or talents, let’s estimate dollar amounts for this parable. Minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, or approximately $15,000 annually. This means that in 20 years, a minimum wage employee would make a little over $300,000.
Therefore, the servant who was entrusted with one talent actually received $301,000; the servant who was entrusted with two talents received $602,000; and the servant who was entrusted with five talents received $1.5 Million. All three of these servants were trusted to take care of large sums of money—a fortune.
The issue at stake here is not properly understood in the amount of money. The issue is how responsible, or faithful, were the servants with what they had received. At stake here is what the servants will do when no one is looking. (Mothers could also think of this in terms of their children. If children are a gift from God, then mothers and fathers should think of our work as being faithful with what God has given us.)
Since this is a parable about the coming judgment that teaches us how important it is for us to be ready, we might expect the story to tell us about a wealthy master and his TWO servants. But that is not the case at all. This is a story about a wealthy master and his THREE servants. We might expect the parable to illustrate its point by telling about one servant who was ready and one who was not ready. But with three servants, the story gets a little more complicated.
II. The Successful Servant.
We believe that the three servants were each highly respected and trusted members of their master’s workforce. However, we also believe that the master did not trust them equally. If the master had trusted all three servants equally, then he would have divided his wealth into three equal parts to distribute among the three. This servant was trusted more than any of the others and received the most money.
Then the servant went to work with his share of the money and invested it wisely. We don’t know what he did with the money. All we know is that he was willing to take a pretty big risk in order to double the money from $1.5 Million to $3 Million.
When the master returned, he was pleased that the servant had earned an additional $1.5 Million. He rewarded this servant by commending him in front of all the other servants and inviting him into the master’s happiness—perhaps this is a special celebration, or at least it is a special, joyful relationship between the master and the servant.
From the world’s point of view, this servant received the most money…he made the most money…Therefore he was the most successful of the three…Is this God’s same view of what it means to be successful?
III. The Excellent Servant.
This servant was trusted a little less than the first. He received a little less than half of what the first servant received.
Just like the first servant, this servant also went to work investing his master’s money. And the same thing happened. We don’t know how he invested it, but it doubled his money…$600,000 became $1.2 Million…
It is always good when you can double your money. But even after his investment has doubled, it is still less than half of what the first servant has…$600,000 became $1.2 Million…But that is a far cry from $3 Million dollars… This servant was not the most successful of the three, but he did do his best with what he had been given.
In the world’s eyes, this servant was not the most successful. But he definitely did an EXCELLENT job. If we call the first servant the Successful Servant, then perhaps we can call this servant the Excellent Servant.
What was the master looking for? Was he looking for Success? Superiority? If so, then only the first servant would have pleased him. Verse 23 clearly states the master’s pleasure with this servant.
Read Verse 23… Does that verse sound familiar? This is exactly the same reward the first servant received… Read Verse 21
Since these two verses are exactly alike, I believe this is the key to interpreting the parable. God has not called us to be the most successful. God has not called us to be better than everybody else. NO! God has called us to do the very best we can possibly do with the resources and gifts he has blessed us with.
IV. The Servant Who Failed.
We often look at this servant and think that he wasn’t trusted. In fact he was trusted and was blessed with 20 years worth of salary—$300,000 in today’s money.
He had the same amount of time and the same amount of opportunity to act responsibly with the master’s money. Yet he failed.
Why did this servant fail? Because he acted out of fear of his master… Read verses 24 – 25. The other 2 acted out of love for master, they wanted to please him. This servant was afraid and wanted nothing more than to save his own life.
He didn’t think about his master. He didn’t think about the other servants. He only thought about himself and how he could continue to live the life he had always wanted to live.
There are times when we act like this servant. Anytime we respond to God out of fear of punishment, we fail just like this servant failed. Anytime we live in fear of what the world thinks about us, we have failed to do our best.
But anytime we give 100% of our time, money, abilities, etc—out of a desire to please God, we succeed like the first two servants.
V. Conclusion: Faithfulness and Stewardship.
The words the master spoke to the first two servants were identical: “Well done good and faithful servant.” The words spoken to the other servant were different: “You wicked, lazy servant!” In fact, I would argue that we should interpret these words as opposites.
For example, it is obvious to us that wicked is the opposite of good. But how often do we think of lazy as the opposite of faithful?
When we read this parable literally, we learn about how Christians ought to be faithful with the financial resources God has given us. And that is an important lesson for us to hear and remember in our current economic situation.
However, we can also read this parable spiritually. Jesus is coming back. He hasn’t come back yet, but he is coming back. How will we live and work in the meantime? How will Jesus find us upon his return?
Will Jesus find us good and faithful? Or will Jesus find us wicked and lazy?
Again, notice that in verse 21 and verse 23, the master’s joy was the same in each case. God does not require us to be the most successful. God is pleased with us when we are faithful, or excellent, with what we have been given.
What has God entrusted to your care? I didn’t ask how much or what you thought you deserved. What are you doing with God’s gifts to you? Are you faithful, responsible, excellent enough to be trusted with more?
What has God entrusted to our stewardship as a church?
· Over 400 average attendance in worship…
· $1.5 Million in annual receipts…
· $1.7 Million in endowed funds…
· 100,000 square feet of usable space…
· 2.5 city blocks…
· 6 ministerial staff positions…
· 7 support staff positions…
· Host of part-time custodial, kitchen and nursery staff…
No comments:
Post a Comment