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You've been faithful over a few things, and I'm going to make you ruler. over many things. Enter. into the joy of your Lord. I mean, can you imagine what it'd be like to hear that from Jesus?
Have Jesus look you in the eye at the end and So I know you. The door's not shut to you.
So happy you're here.
Well done. Those are the words we long to hear from our Lord. But in the parable of the talents, a servant hears the opposite message. You wicked and lazy servant. Hello, this is the Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind.
I'm Lee Webb. This week, RC Sproll has helped us understand some of the hard sayings of Jesus. along with some of his I am sayings, and today he considers one of Jesus' parables. This message is one of 12 in his complete series titled The Parables of Jesus, and you can request all 12 on DVD. When you give a donation in support of Renewing Your Mind at renewingyourmind.org before midnight tonight.
So how can we avoid being unprofitable servants? There is only one way. Let's join Doctor Sproll Now. In this session, we come to the longest parable that is found in the Gospel according to St. Matthew.
It's one of the three. That Jesus gave to warn people of the suddenness of his coming. and his coming can be seen eschatologically at the end of the age, Or In our personal eschatology, Where we may Meet him in the next hour. And we don't know. the day or the hour of our own death.
But we are to be prepared. as Christian people. For his coming either at the end of our lives or And his Return at the end. of the age.
So let's look now at the parable of the talents. Again, in chapter 25 of Matthew. beginning at verse fourteen. For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country. Who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them.
And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one. to each according to his own ability. And immediately he went on a journey. And then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them. and made another five talents.
And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground and. hid his lord's money. After a long time the Lord of those servants came. and settled accounts with them.
So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying. Lord, you delivered to me five talents. Look, I have gained five more talents beside them. His lord said to him, Well done. Good and faithful servant.
You were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. He also who had received two talents came and said, Lord. You delivered to me two talents.
Look, I have gained two more talents besides them. His Lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy.
of your Lord Then he who had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown. gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid. And went and hid your talent in the ground Look, there you have. What is yours?
But his Lord answered and said to him, You wicked, and lazy servant You knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed, so you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers. And at my Coming. I would have received back my own with interest.
So take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has, more will be given. And he will have abundance. But from him who does not have. Even what he has will be taken away.
And cast the unprofitable servant into the Outer darkness. There will be weeping. And gnashing. Of teeth.
Now the first thing we have to say about this Parable is What I hope would be obvious to most of you that it's not a parable. about various talents and gifts of abilities that God gives to us in this world. Here the use of talent. does not refer to a particular skill that you or I might have. It refers to a unit of currency.
that was the highest unit of currency among the Jews at this time.
So a talent was uh considerable amount of money. One talent would be usually something equivalent to a whole year's wages for many people. And so, this man who goes on this journey to a far country who is. wealthy enough to have servants. He's also leaving a substantive amount of money.
in their care. during his absence. And so he gives to one of these servants five talents of money, which again a considerable sum. And then he gives to the second servant. two talents of money.
And to the third, a single talent. And we're told that he distributes these monetary substances according to his perception of their ability. to be productive and fruitful. With the money that he entrusts to their care.
Now, some people see in this parable a. A strong case for capitalism. Oh, it certainly doesn't oppose capitalism. I don't think that the primary point. of the parable is to and join a particular economic system upon us such as we call capitalism, but what capitalism has in common With the wisdom of this parable is the whole principle.
Deferred Gratification. And the principle of investing your capital in such a way that your capital works for you. And increases. your prosperity. And it frowns upon wasteful consumption.
or frivolous spending of things. or the idea of immediate gratification. Where if you get your paycheck, you can't wait to go out and spend it on your latest toy. But rather the idea is to grow your resources. by wise and frugal, Investment.
Now again, what this has in common with capitalism historically. is that the idea, as I said, is to have your capital working for you. But That you B. prudent. with the use of whatever capital you possess.
that you use it in a way that will increase its value. Rather than Diminish. It's value. And so Here the master is asking his servants To be prudent and wise Investors.
so that they will be productive that they will be fruitful. with whatever they have received. which is on loan. from their master because they themselves are not the owners of this money. that has been entrusted to them.
This also speaks to the Christian principle of stewardship. A stored in the ancient world was not the owner of the house. but he managed the finances. of the house. He was principally involved.
in Oikonomia. And the word Economics Economy comes from that Greek word okonomia, which literally means. house law or house rule. And it is the word from which we get the concept of stewardship. that the person who is put over the management of the affairs of the house is expected to handle those goods.
of which he is a steward but not the owner. and by extension The Christian faith sees that everything that we have including our skills and abilities. are gifts From God. and we are called to be stewards of everything that we receive from the hands of God. You know.
Early on in my teaching career teaching at the university at a Christian college. Uh I I remember giving an examination and not not one, but at least five students who were were doing poorly on the test, would say to me, Professor, I'm Sorry, I'm not very well prepared for this examination, but I Hope you won't hold it against me because I want you to know that My heart is filled with love for the Lord Jesus and I try to Do what I can. In fact, last week, instead of studying, I was busily involved in the evangelism outreach and As a result, I didn't do so well on this test. That's the kind of stuff I would get from students. And I would tell him, I said, You know, you seem to have a good grasp of the doctrine of justification by faith.
And I want you to know that as far as the kingdom of God is concerned, The only way you'll ever be justified is by faith alone, but in this classroom. It's justification by works alone. Uh I'm glad that you love Jesus, but I hope you love him enough to be more diligent stewards. of your time here in college and start studying for your tasks. and using the abilities that he's given you.
Yeah There was this idea, and I found it widespread throughout evangelical Christianity. that all you need to have is a loving heart and a warm heart, And since justification is not by works, We don't have to work. as Christians. How can you even have a cursory reading of the Gospels? And not see.
The emphasis that our Lord put on productivity. On fruit. The tree that doesn't bring forth fruit is worthy only to be cut down and cast into the fire. By their fruits you shall know them, not by their words. But by the stewardship, of the faith.
that they profess to have. And so as Christians We should be diligent. And one of the principles that we saw at the time of the Reformation. was Luther's concept of the priesthood of all believers. And in that concept, he was not trying to get rid of the idea of the clergy.
He knew that there was a specific function. That the clergy were called to perform, and the main function they were called to perform was to equip the saints for ministry. That every Christian is in the ministry. Every Christian has to participate in the mission of the church. You may not be an evangelist.
You may not have that particular gift, but it's still your responsibility to make sure that evangelism is taking place. And there's no room. For slackers. In the kingdom of God. I mean, and I get this being the president of a Christian organization for 40 years.
Every time you let somebody go. You get people saying it's You should never ever fire anybody in a Christian organization. It's just not Christian. I say, I'll tell you what's not Christian. Not working.
Not producing. And We would be remiss. to keep people In this task, which has a higher calling than any secular task in the world. I've had people say to me with Maureen as my gatekeeper, you're harder to get a hold of than the President of the United States. And I said, I'm glad to hear that.
There's a reason for it. I have a far more important job. than hate us. My job. It's to care for the people of God.
and for their spiritual needs. And so I will be held accountable. Let him who has the gift of teaching, let him teach. Let him who has the gift of preaching, let him preach. Let him who has the gift of generosity, let him be generous.
We are all gifted by the Holy Spirit, every one of us, for ministry. And at the time of the coming of Jesus. He will have an accounting. with us. Not simply like These fellows, it's what they did with the money.
But what we've done with that which he has bestowed upon us. and given us the responsibility of stewardship for. And I have to ask you, how would you feel if You were called into that. Account Tonight. And Jesus said, I gave you this ability.
I gave you this opportunity. I gave you this mission. What did you do with it?
Well, this is what happens. The owner comes back. And he says to the man whom he gave five talents.
Well, what's the story? The fellow said, Hey, here's your five talents and five more. I doubled your money. I've been trading, wheeling, dealing. Being very careful.
And productive. And Jesus being influenced by modern culture. By Marxism. in the labor theory of value. Said You greedy.
Person. Yeah. Making a profit?
Well, yeah, I don't want to see profit. Uh, I have a non-profit organization that I want you to be involved in. No, listen to what he says, and how would you like to hear these words from Jesus?
Well done. Well done. You're a good servant. Your faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things, and I'm going to make you ruler.
Over many things. Enter. And to the joy Of your Lord. I mean, can you imagine what it'd be like to hear that from Jesus? Have Jesus look you in the eye at the end and So I know you.
The door's not shut to you.
So happy you're here.
Well done. Your good and faithful servant. You're trustworthy. I trusted you. With five talents.
And he turned them into ten. And because you were so resourceful, such a good steward. over these little things. I'm going to make you ruler. over many things.
Now come on. Enter. into the joy. of your Lord. Then he turned to the second servant, and the second servant said, Lord, you gave me two, here's four.
And Jesus said the same thing to him, Well done, you good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over little things. I'll make you ruler over many. Enter now. and to the joy of the Lord.
Then we come to the climax of this parable. With respect to the one who had received the single talent, And he comes with excuses. And he comes. with accusations against his master. Lord, I knew you to be a hard man.
Reaping where you have not sown. No, of course not. I don't reap where I've sown. I went and bought the field. I paid the man who did it.
And uh Yeah. I reap where I haven't sown. Gather where I've not scattered seed? And so I was afraid. Um I was scared to death that I was gonna lose this single talent you entrusted me with, so I I went and I dug a hole in the ground and And I hit it in there.
I can go out and dig it up for you now and show you that I haven't lost a thing. I'm going to give back to you just exactly what you gave to me. You're afraid? You couldn't take a risk? Didn't you understand that you couldn't possibly grow what I entrusted to you without taking risks?
They had to be. Wise calculated risks. But you're Fear? Just let my money Be buried in a ground. You could have, at least, if you were afraid, you could have taken him to the bank.
and it would have been safe in the bank and whatever interest the bank earned. You would have been able to give me On this time. of a common So the Lord said to him. You good and faithful, sir? No, no.
I don't know. You wicked? And lazy. Servant. Slothful servant You knew that I reap where I haven't sown and gather what I've not gathered seed, so you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers and.
At my coming I would have received back my own with interest.
So take that talent from him. Give it to the one who has ten talents. For to everyone who has, more will be given. And he will have abundance. Everyone who produces We'll be given more blessing.
And cast the unprofitable servant. into the outer darkness. You know, in and of ourselves, we're all unprofitable servants. Without the grace of God. We couldn't produce anything.
It's the Master who gave the talents of money to these men in the first place. wasn't their own. But the one who was lazy? It was evil. lost what the master had given to him.
And then the awful instructions. Cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. You know what that means. Send him to hell. Send them where they're will not be the joy of the Lord Instead of the joy of the Lord, there will be only weeping.
Yeah. What a horrible scenario. That Jesus describes For the unproductive. Professor of Faith Who shows no fruit. Of that face.
The plight of the unprofitable servant is the same plight. of the foolish virgins. of the previous Terrible. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be. where the only sound I hear is the sound of weeping.
and the gnashing of teeth. I want to be where I hear the sound that says, well done. You good and faithful servant. Enter now. into the joy.
of your Lord. You know, as I heard Dr. Sproll wrap up today's message, I could only imagine the overwhelming joy he experienced. as he heard those words back in twenty seventeen.
Well done, you good and faithful servant. This is Renewing Your Mind, and that was R. C. Sproul from his series, The Parables of Jesus. Today's message was just a taste of the 12-part series, so I do encourage you to request access to all 12.
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Well, we close today with a couple of questions. One, what is the goal of the Christian life? And two, How do we live a life that is pleasing to God after we're saved? RC will address those questions beginning Monday, here. on Renewing Your Mind.
