183 - Talent On Loan From God

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there anything here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink.

Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages. Welcome to More Than Ink. Talent shows, we've both been in talent shows, right? Oh yeah, you show off what's good about me. That's your talent. My stuff. Yeah, but today we're going to look at a different kind of talent, aren't we? A talent that belongs to somebody else.

To be used for their purpose. Ooh, let's read about that today on More Than Ink. Well, welcome this morning. I'm across the table from lovely Dorothy.

And I'm across the table from my incredible husband, Jim. Oh wow, that's too much. Just saying. Wow, where do we go from here?

Just say nice guy. That's good enough for me. Well, yeah, well, you just joined More Than Ink and we're glad you have. Many people have continued with us as we've been reading through Matthew and we're in Matthew 25 right now. And our approach is just to sit down and read the Word.

You can do this yourself. You can read the Word and sit there and scratch your chin and say, well, what does that really mean? Slow yourself down. And we've been walking our way through a fabulous section at the end of Matthew's Gospel where Jesus, in response to a question about his second coming, says, well, let me tell you. What's it going to be like when you come back?

That's right. So I chop this up, these two chapters, chapters 24 and 25, into six episodes with us here on More Than Ink. We're on number five now. So if you haven't started into the end of the age stuff, you can go back to where we talk about it in part one.

But we're in part five. And we've talked about a lot of things so far about the coming of Jesus. But in the last little bit, we've been centered in these parables where Jesus is developing this season of waiting for the end of the age. We started in the early parts talking about the actual event of the coming back. But now he's talking about what it's like as we wait and what should we be doing. So there's three or four parables in a row here.

And we've looked at a couple of them so far. But the common thing that stitches them all together is the end is coming. A readiness is required.

What should we be doing in the meantime? And so he tells all these parables and comes at it from a whole bunch of different relationships. He talks about a master and slaves. He talks about a bride and a bridegroom. In this one, he's talking about servants and a master and the servant is going away, or the master is going away, leaving the servants with something to invest. So they're all different aspects of this same topic.

Yeah. And in fact, not to jump the gun too much, but next time when we get together, he'll talk about what'll happen when he comes. So this is sort of the last mention about what we do between now and then.

And it's very famous to many people. This is called the parable of the talents. And so let's keep an ear out as we read this for what this means about what we should be doing between now and his return that we anticipate. Okay. So, and before we actually read it, let me just remind you that in general, when you're hearing a parable, remember it's just a simple comparison story. There's a main point and Jesus usually will set it up and end it in a way that demonstrates what is the main point. So don't go wandering far afield.

Yeah. He'll often explain it for us. And listen for the repeated elements.

What kind of details does he give? What's the contrast? What's the tension in the story and how is it resolved?

Right. And it should be a story we can relate to as human beings. So we can say the end of the age is like this.

So why don't I jump in this time? So if you're joining with us, we're reading out of the ESV version of the English Bible, chapter 25, verse 14. And so here's a parable.

It has to do with the return of Jesus. It'll 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 and to each according to his ability. And then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with him and he made five talents more.

And 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. Oh, let's stop there. So that's the whole story. And even when you get to that point, you think, boy, what's going to happen when the master comes back? Well, let's hold on to that just for a second. So what just happened here? Well, if you summarize it.

Okay. So there's a man who turns out to be a master, right? And he has servants. So as he's going away, he entrusts to his servants, his own property. His property. His property for them to steward while he is gone. And it's interesting that he gives, he doesn't give exactly the same to everybody. He knows these servants.

He knows what they are capable of or what their tendencies are. But I think it's probably important at this point that we define a talent. Because we, to think of a talent as something we're good at, that we're born with.

Like a talent show. Right. But that's really not it here, right? A talent, that word was used as a measure for gold and silver, a measure of weight, right? So it's something precious, something to be guarded and tended. It's technically a weight and so a weight of silver and gold. Right. So he has entrusted each of his servants something of precious value. And it's not a small amount.

No. I mean, if I recall correctly, it's around 75 pounds of what? Well, of silver.

Silver or gold. So it's like, you know, it's almost a half a lifetime of earning potential for one of them, for one talent. So there's just an enormous amount of resource, enormous amount of resource that's been entrusted to these three guys to do with. And it doesn't belong to them. It does not belong to them. That's a repeated emphasis through this story, that it's the master's property and they themselves are the master's property. Right, right.

So it presumes the fact that he's given it to them so that it can be used for his purposes, what he would normally have used if he was here to use for his purposes, and that there would come a day where they would have to explain what they did to use his resources for his purposes. There we go. That's it right there. That's the setup.

So you have. And again, that's something everybody can probably identify with, right? You know, even today, when you go away on a vacation, you get a house sitter, water your plants and feed your pets, right? And you come back and say, so how'd it go? Right. And you expect to find things in good array when you get back.

There's going to be a day of returning. Right, right. Or another connection with what doesn't include the returning is if you have an investment guy that you have, say, retirement savings. And so you entrust it to him. And you don't interest him, so he'll just sit on it. He entrusted him so that by the time you're old enough to retire, it will have grown enough to support you in your old age.

When you need to use it. Right. So it's my property I give to him, not so he can, you know, go out and go take cruises with my money, but so he can do something valuable with it so that it'll serve my purpose in the end. So you entrust a stewardship. It's stewardship. Yeah, yeah. They call it a fiduciary duty. So we've already got a contrast, because we've got two servants who took what the master entrusted to them and did something active with it that yielded a profit.

And the third guy who just hid it away in a hole in the ground. Right, right. Well, that tells us something already about how they value their master's property.

Yeah. And if you think it's odd to bury money in the ground, actually, in the first century, it wasn't. There were no banks. So if you had a sizable amount of cash, you would bury it somewhere that no one knew about. Okay, we had a person in our family that we thought had buried some gold in the ground.

It's not really that unusual. But what you need to point out is the fact that the first two guys actually doubled the resource. And this guy just kind of kept it. So let's see what happens when the master comes back. You want to read for us? 19?

19. So 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've made five talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.

You've been faithful over a little I'll set you over much enter into the joy of your master. Yeah, let's stop there. So that's the first guy. He did quite well. He doubled the five. He started with an enormous fortune, and doubled this enormous fortune. Clearly, clearly the master's happy about that. I do find it surprising that he takes this enormous fortune like about 20 years of income.

And he calls it in verse 21, faithful over a little a little, which makes you wonder if he's going to be set over a lot much. What is that? Yeah, that's a fact. That's a fact. It makes you just kind of go what is coming if that's what that's all about. And what really attracts my attention is that invitation at the end of that into the joy of your master. Yeah, right. You get it. You understood what my purpose was.

And let's party together about that. That's right. And you, you were engaging yourself while I was gone, not with your own business, but with my rights, the master's saying, right with the resources that I provided you. And clearly, he he didn't hold back. No, he worked hard.

No, and it doubled. Yeah, yeah. And it's all about it's all about being about God's business, or about the master's business, with an eye toward when he returns. Right. And that's an important part of the story, because back there, where we started reading in verse 19, Jesus says, Now, after a long time, the master of those servants, right, we're emphasizing, again, this master servant relationship, came and settled accounts. Yep. So, you know, the day of the settling of accounts is coming. And that's an element in this story that we cannot overlook. Is that the end of the age of settling of accounts?

Might just be. Well, it kind of shows up in the other parables couched in a different phrase. But this day of accounting, this day of reckoning, this day of what did you do with what I gave you?

The wheat and tares. Right. Who are you really?

What were you looking for? Yep, yep, yep, yep. Okay, so that turned out quite well. Okay. So then there's the guy with two. Okay, starting verse 22. And he also who had two talents came forward saying, Now this is less than half of what the previous guy. Right, right.

Still sizable, but not enormous. Saying, Master, you delivered to me two talents and here I've made two talents more. And his master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a little, I will set you over much.

Enter into the joy of your master. Wait a second. It's exactly the same response. It's the same thing. So he doesn't say, Well, you didn't make as much as the other guy did. And that's important. That's important because it's not the absolute amount necessarily. It's how faithful you are with what the Master's resource is. Well, and the doubling, right? Like for every every bit you invested and worked toward, there is a return of equal value.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, Jesus often used this phrase about the great and the small talking about, you know, high placed people and low placed peasants in a sense. And he gave honor to both of them. And by saying so he was saying, you know, the in a sense, your absolute contribution, let's say to the kingdom of God is not what's at issue. The issue is, is what has God given you right to do with? And were you faithful with that? Were you faithful with that completely? Where did you take all my resources and engage them for the purpose of the master?

Or did you just kind of flip them? Yeah, spend them for your own purposes, which we'll talk about another pair. Yeah. So some people, the great may contribute just gigantic numbers in terms of what happens. You know, I think about, I think about people like Billy Graham, who has these big, these big deals and where he has his, his crusades, and you know, thousands of people come to the Lord and people would say, well, I'm no Billy Graham said, yeah, but you know what, what has God given you? Right. And have you been faithful for God's business of what he's given you? So don't compare the absolute sizes because in this parable, it tells us that's not important.

The importance is what did you do with God gave to you? Right. And the invitation at the end is the same. Enter in to the joy of your master. Like at this prior to this, you've been anticipating the joy of your master, but now all the accounts are, are reckoned, come on in and let's celebrate it together. And this phrase has a strong implication of coming into a banquet celebration, coming into a building, coming into the joy. Cause that's really, and we saw that from the last time we were talking face.

Yeah. So this celebration, this joy of your master, that's just great. Well, so now we've got the, the five talent guy, the two count guy, same response from the master.

And then we go, I think the focus is this last guy, verse 24. And he also had received 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.

You have what's yours. But his master said to him, answered him, you wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I 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 the one who has 10 talents for everyone who has more will be given and he will have an abundance. But 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.

Whoa, we've heard that before weeping and gnashing of teeth. Wow. Well, in this idea of being separated from the light and the celebration. Yeah.

So you know, he starts off by almost blaming the master. I know you're a hard guy. You're a hard guy. You know, you reap where you don't sow, gather where you scattered no seed. But that's actually right. Well, you think this is a little projection? It's a lot. That's right.

So in 25, so I was afraid. You know, if you give him the benefit of the doubt, I was afraid I might fail because I know you're demanding. You expect increase. So I went and hid your talent in the ground.

And what I see, it's not really an excuse, but he is rationalizing. He's saying, I didn't want to lose what you had at least, even though I know its purpose is to be multiplied. I didn't want to lose it.

So at least I didn't lose it, but I didn't multiply it either. Okay. Well, what he claims to know about the master is completely wrong. Yeah. Yeah.

Right. Because it all belongs to God. It all belongs to God. There is no seed that God doesn't sow. It doesn't, everything belongs to him. And so what he reaps is appropriately his in the first place. That's exactly right. It starts with God's resources, it ends with God's increase.

So he hid the talent in the ground. You know, he's basically saying, at least I didn't lose it. You know, I didn't do that. So here, what's yours?

I get back to you have what is yours. But that's clearly not a, that was not the purpose of giving the resource was to preserve it. It was meant to multiply it. That's the purpose of giving the resource. And it's interesting then Jesus in the parable, the master looks right through him in 26. You are wicked and slothful servant. See, as a servant, he was supposed to serve the master's purposes.

The master's interests. And he did not do that. He just did not do that. Wicked and slothful. So wicked, twisted, twisted, right.

And bent back on itself and not trustworthy. Yeah. Yeah. He just didn't, he didn't do what the master had given him the resource for. That's just clearly the point. So, and then, and then Jesus says, the master could have said to him in 27, look, you know, you could have at least invested the money with the banker. Right.

And, and then you would have gotten some interest that you could give to me. You didn't even do that. You didn't even do that.

You just kind of preserve it in the ground. Wow. So, so he did not, is this really clear? He did not use the resource that was entrusted to him as a steward for the purpose of the resource. Right.

The purpose of the resource isn't to preserve it. It's to engage it, to multiply. On the master's behalf. On the master's behalf.

As the master would do it. Exactly. Exactly. And I mean, if you extend that to today, the resources that God entrusts to us, he does not give to us to preserve it, but to actually accomplish his purposes. Right.

Yeah. So it's, it's a, it's a very strong takeaway from this. And the idea that the master goes away and comes back very clearly applies to the second coming of Jesus. So in the interim, you know, what resource has God given you? That's his, that he expects you to invest for his kingdom's purposes before he comes back. So this parable takes us one layer deeper than the previous ones did, because the previous ones were one about taking care of the master's household while he's gone. Right.

Just maintaining. And then the one about the, the, the virgin's waiting is, you know, getting ready, be appropriately ready for his coming. Now, this one is like, no, I'm entrusting something to you to be used for my purposes while I'm gone so that the kingdom continues to grow. Yes, yes. That, and that's just super important. And even, you know, Peter reminds us that the delay of Jesus' return is because, you know, if I put it in my vernacular, it's because he's waiting until a completeness happens. That's right. In terms of the work that he's given us to do. Right.

So, so this is, this is a big, big deal in terms of the timing. And, you know, in Peter's view, it's not just the work, it is the coming to salvation of all those who aren't there yet. God knows when that day will be. And he is waiting patiently because it's not his desire that any should perish. It's not desires that any should perish. So could you make the connection that the work, the purpose of the resources God has given us is to spread the gospel so many won't perish? Yes, I would make that connection. What is it that the father treasures?

It's those who believe in him. Yeah. Yeah. And so I can see why, if that's the case, I can see why it would just be a travesty for someone to be given the truth about the gospel and say, I'm not going to do anything productive with this truth that I understand. I'm just going to bundle this up and bury it in the backyard.

Yeah, because I'm saved and that's good enough. Is the gospel meant to be buried and put in the backyard? No, it's meant to be proclaimed.

It's meant to be engaged. It's meant to be put out there. And that's, that's how you engage that resource he's given you to do that. And that attitude that says, I'm saved and that's enough, I don't have to do anything more, indicates that I do not understand the core of the gospel. Exactly.

That what has been done for me is such extravagantly extraordinary good news, I must employ it for the benefit of others. Yeah. And the apostle Paul talks many times about being entrusted with the riches of the gospel. Right. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, he says in Second Corinthians.

So he's talking about, you know, really this talent, this treasure for him was the gospel itself. Right. And he engages it so that it'll have multiplication for the kingdom. Yeah. So I mean, it's just, this is what you do between now and the return of the king, because when he returns, he's going to settle accounts.

Yeah. So what are we doing with what the, what the master has entrusted to us? But okay, so we need to talk about Jesus's kind of bottom line here. So in verse 29, he comes into his conclusion, he says, for, to everyone who has will more be given. Well, wait, has what? Right?

Because what's in view there is the ones who have the master's interests, the ones who have the master's heart and purposes in mind. Well, what will they receive more of? More of? More joy. Yeah. More participation in the master's purposes.

More understanding of his heart. Yeah. More celebration. Yeah. Of the kingdom.

Yeah. I really like and love the idea of participation in the master's purpose. Because I think about that when we, you know, we're in ministry and we see what God does in transforming people's hearts. And you say, you know what, I should spend every waking hour doing this, talking about the gospel, redirecting people's attention to God, because it is such a powerful and precious thing when we see that happening in people's lives. We see the treasures multiply in people. And so, so many people think, well, no, serving God sounds like kind of a boring sort of thing. And, you know, and I counter and say, well, it's not as boring, say, as, you know, you know, I don't know, selling potato chips or something. I mean, it's, it's, it's extraordinarily exhilarating to be engaged in the master's purpose.

Because it is a living purpose. Exactly. The phrase that I frequently find myself using when you recognize this quality in another servant of the master, you say, that one gets it. They get it. Yeah. They understand that it's not just something for them.

It is given to them in order to live and produce fruit in others. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, there's a metaphor we use a lot of time about stagnant water versus flowing water. You know, a stagnant pool, like you see in those old westerns. Well, no, don't drink that water. You don't want to drink that stuff. But the flowing stuff, flowing water is good.

That's living water. So there is an idea that if you, if you take the, the grace of God and you pool it up in your life, it just starts to get sort of stinky. You know, that grace and that resource of the news of the gospel is supposed to flow into you and then out of you and life happens when it pools up. I like that imagery.

It just gets stinky begins to misrepresent the grace of God. Yep. Yep.

Which is meant to flow through you. That's exactly. Yeah. And for this guy who buried his talent, that's exactly what he did.

He just buried in the backyard. Yeah. And, and it's interesting that he says so clearly that the people who get that more will be given them to do.

I think that's just fascinating. And in a sense, it's its own reward in terms of being able to serve God and he entrusts you with more because it's, it really is just remarkably joyful to do that. Well, okay. So when you say more will be given them to do, we're not talking about a longer list of things to accomplish.

No, no, no, no, no. We're talking about a broader engagement in every level with the kingdom of God. In the life of God. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, that makes me think that there's a difference, I think, and we grew up in kind of the, the born again era of, we used to think about being born again as getting Jesus into us, but it was a huge shift in my life when I recognized that it's not as much about getting Jesus into me as it is about me entering the life of God. Yes. And that's really the picture here.

These servants who have invested their talents well, recognize that they have entered into the master's life. Yeah. Yeah. And at the expense of, of their own life in that sense. Right.

Yeah. Their own direction. And yet because they've been invited into the master's life, they are invited into the celebration.

He shares his riches. They, they receive the joy and it amplifies through them. So they really have not lost anything. Haven't lost anything.

They've actually found life. I wanted to close this since we just got a little time left because Peter writes about this in first Peter four about what you do between now and when Jesus comes. And so listen for the talents in this.

This is interesting. This is first Peter four seven. I'll read a handful of verses. He says the end of all things is at hand. Therefore be self-controlled and sober minded for the sake of your prayers and above all, above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins. Again, since the end of all things is at hand, show hospitality to one another without grumbling. And as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's very grace.

Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies in order that in everything, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Did you, did you hear the gifts? What an excellent connection that I let phrase the very grace of God, the grace of God is so splendorous and so it's for everybody, but it is so individualized.

What will it look like poured out through you? Yeah. Yeah. And that's what the, that's what the gospel does is it goes from person to person, hand to hand, the unique and varied grace of God enlivens the hearer when they believe in and invest their lives in God's life, not their own. But we can't neglect that for those who do not, there is this ultimate separation from the light, separation from the joy, separation from the master.

Weeping and nashing of teeth. Next week as we do this last in this series, we'll see that separation big time when he comes back. So you're not going to want to miss that. I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. And we're glad you're with us and we'll wrap up next week when we look at sheep and goats at the end of the age here on More Than Ink. There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org. And while you're there, take a moment to drop us a note. Remember, the Bible is God's love letter to you. Pick it up and read it for yourself and you will discover that the words printed there are indeed more than ink. See pros.

Just sometimes they got busy. This has been a production of Main Street Church of rhythm city.