Well Done!

Well Done!

What is the most practical parable Jesus ever told? What parable applies more to how we live our lives today, and how God acts and reacts to us, and how we act and react to Him? I think it would have to be this parable that we find in Matthew 25:14-30. In this parable Jesus begins by saying “the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated….”.

It is a rather long parable, so we won’t read the entire scripture. You already know the parable. You’ve heard it many times. We know it as the Parable of the Talents. Also, we need to know that Jesus often used parables or stories to make an illustration.

SO we will just condense it into a few sentences. Jesus said that a master was getting ready to take a long journey. So he called in his servants and distributed his wealth among them. Then he left. And then he came back. And when he came back he called for an accounting, and those who had invested wisely, he rewarded. And the one who did not invest is condemned. That’s the parable.

As I said, it is practical. It applies to our lives because it shows how God treats us, how He reacts to us, and how we oftentimes treat His blessings.

THE MASTER ENTRUSTS HIS WEALTH TO THE SERVANTS

Scene one opens with the master calling in his servants. He says to them, "I am going to entrust you with my wealth." So he gives 5 talents to one, 2 talents to another, and 1 talent to the third. "Talents, money, dollars," - all are synonyms for the same thing. He distributed his wealth among them and said, "While I am gone I want you to be responsible for my wealth."

He is the master. They are the servants. He owns everything. They own nothing. They depend upon him. If he were not generous with them, they would not be able to live. Now he has called them in and said, "I have been watching you. I have studied you. I have concluded that you are faithful stewards."

Now we don’t know how many he had. Maybe he had dozens of servants. But out of all of them he selected these three. He said, "I am going away, and I entrust you with my wealth. You take care of it." That’s the end of Scene 1.

We can instantly draw some parallels to our life. We realize that this master represents God, who has everything. God, who is the giver of life. God, who gives us air to breathe. God, who gives us bodies so that we can see and think and plan and make decisions.

We are the servants. Every day we depend upon His blessings just in order to breathe or to see or to think. We are the servants, and God distributes His wealth among us.

He is always looking for faithful servants. When they are faithful with those talents, He gives them more talents. He is constantly studying our lives, looking for faithful servants.

One interesting part of the story is that He didn’t give the servants the same amount. He gave 5 to one and 2 to another and 1 to another. We may say that is not fair. But then we realize that this master knows His servants. So He gives to each of them, vs. 15 says, "according to his ability”.

If He had given only 1 talent to the 5 talent man, it would not have been good use of his abilities. If He had given 5 talents to the 1 talent man, the 1 talent man would never have been able to handle them. But because the master knew His servants, He gave each one what He knew that one could handle, and then He left.

That’s the way God works, isn’t it? God gives, and then He leaves us alone. He doesn’t coerce us. He doesn’t look over our shoulders. He gives, and then He leaves it in our hands.

He does open doors of opportunity. He gives us visions and dreams. He allows us to see just a little bit of what might be. But then He waits for us to use what He has given, and to see if we will be faithful with it.

THE MASTER RETURNS, and DEMANDS AN ACCOUNTING

Scene 2. He comes back. When He came back, the 5 talent man came in and said, ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ “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. (Vs. 20-21)

The 2 talent man came in and gave the Master the same report and the Master responded to him in the same way as the first servant.

Then the 1 talent man came in. He said, "Lord, I knew that you were a hard master, and that you reap what you have not sown. So I wrapped up the talent and I buried it in the ground. Here it is. No scratches. No mildew. I’ve cleaned it up. It is just exactly the way you gave it to me."

The master called him a "wicked, lazy servant!” (Vs. 26) and in vs. 30, a "worthless servant." And He threw him out into the darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

It’s a tough parable, isn’t it? It bothers us, because a lot of us would identify with this 1 talent man than with the 5 talent or 2 talent men. The 1 talent man was just an ordinary person, a lot like us.

He did something that wasn’t all that smart. But he didn’t steal it or embezzle it. He just didn’t invest it. Then when the master came back, he presented it to Him just the way that he had received it.

WHY DID THE 1 TALENT MAN DO WHAT HE DID?

Now let’s concentrate on this 1 talent man for a few moments. Why did he do what he did?

No. 1, he probably did what he did because he felt inferior. When we’re rubbing shoulders with 5 talent people and 2 talent people, and we watch them rubbing shoulders with other 5 talent and 2 talent people, and then we look at ourselves, it is easy to begin to feel inferior.

When you see people doing things with grace and ease, and you have to struggle just to function in the world, it’s easy to identify yourself as a 1 talent person. And most of us would probably put ourselves into that category.

There was nothing really special about the 1 talent man. He didn’t stand out in the crowd. He was an average person, just like us. So he felt inferior.

Secondly, Jesus tells us the man was afraid. He was afraid because he had analyzed the master as being a hard master. You see, he didn’t understand the master. God has expectations, no question about that. But God is not hard. He is gentle and understanding and forgiving and merciful. The man didn’t understand the master. Therefore he was afraid, and buried his talent in the yard.

Let’s ask some hypothetical questions. "What if the 5 talent man had buried his 5 talents in the back yard?" You know the answer. They would have all been taken away from him, and he would have been considered "wicked, lazy, worthless," just like the 1 talent man.

Or what if the 1 talent man had invested his 1 talent? You know the answer. When the master came back, he would have been given more talents. He would have been considered a faithful servant, too.

Now let’s ask another hypothetical question. "What if the 1 talent man had invested his talent and lost it?" But that idea isn’t even suggested. Why? Because God’s Word, I don’t think, never commands us to be successful. There is no scripture where God says, "If you try and fail, I will condemn you." God’s Word commands only faithfulness. "Be faithful" and God will provide the increase.

The principle never changes. All the way through Scripture Jesus is constantly challenging us to invest and reinvest again and again in the Kingdom. And He will always honor the investment. He will never honor those who are afraid and who bury their talents in the back yard.

God’s principles are clear. Jesus said, "As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work." (John 9:4)

The message of the parable has not changed. God is still the master. He is still the giver of all good things. Without His generosity we would have nothing. Where do our talents come from? They came from God. They are His. So He says, "Invest what I have given you and see what will happen."

In just a few days, CHBC will begin “Judgment Day’. Through a series of “scene rooms” the Gospel of Jesus Christ is offered to the people in the area of Pleasant Grove. The last scene is always Heaven. The cast members that have made the decision to accept Jesus as their Savior enter Heaven and come into His presence. “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

After this our Jesus character comes to each “visitor” and puts his hands on their shoulders and then, looking each in the eye says: "Well done, good and faithful servant . . . " . Wow what a thought. This should be the goal of each of us – to hear these words at the end of each day. What sweet music to the ears.

But as sweet sounding as they are now, imagine how much more so they will be on the Last Day. When all those countless souls on the left hand will fall before the Lord in dead fear and begin weeping and gnashing their teeth, we who Believe will be among those to whom the Lord Jesus Christ in all His splendor judges you, speaking those sweet, musical words, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful."

Song Well Done by Moriah Peters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu1VwK0fY9g