Sermon Cloud

Introduction

            As thanksgiving approaches it seems appropriate for us to give some meditation to the idea of thanksgiving.  Come Thursday most of us will gather around decadently laid out tables, in luxurious houses, with friends and family.  Though we must each remember that that will not be true for all of us.  This can be a very difficult time of year for many, and will for some of us.  But as we gather, in many of our houses, just before or during the meal we will go around and answer the age old Thanksgiving question: what are you thankful for? 

Personally I hate this question because I believe it contributes to dishonesty.  I mean, no one ever actually admits that what they are most thankful for is the huge plasma screen TV that they are going fall asleep in front of while watching the football game after lunch.  We all say we are thankful for our family and friends.  But if we took stock of the dedicated time we spend with the both of them family probably couldn’t compete in the same league as the TV.  So before your there on the spot, right now in the privacy of your own mind I would like you to answer the question: what are you really thankful for?  Be honest, no one is going to know.

            Now I want to ask another question: how do you know?  How do you know what you are really thankful for?  What I mean is this: are you sure you are discerning the difference between thankfulness and mere gladness?  I believe that for most of us, myself included, when we say we are thankful for something, what we really mean is that we are glad to have something.  Why do I say this?  For three reasons: first because we rarely actually say “I am thankful to God that he has given me… X.” Second, because I don’t think I have ever heard anyone give thanks, nor have I ever done so myself to the best of my recollection, for some aspect of suffering which has befallen us.  We are only ever thankful it seems, for the pleasant things in our lives.  Third, because true gratitude is evidenced more by how we use what we have, than how we feel or even speak about them.  So let me ask you again, what are you thankful for, and how do you know?

            Our sermon text this morning gives us some insight into the answer to this second question.  1) We will see that thankfulness is revealed primarily, not by the feelings we have or the words we speak, but by faithfulness in investing what we have been given, in obedience to, and for the glory of, the one who gave it to us and conversely, that unfaithfulness is rooted in unthankfulness.  2) We will further see that unthankfulness is rooted in a false view of our master.  3) And we will see some of the false views we tend to hold, and what the reality is about our master.

Body

            Of paramount importance in dealing with any parable is to establish who the characters in the parable are.  Now I’m sure that most of us are clear about this with regard to this parable, but I don’t want to assume we all are.  So let’s make it clear: Jesus is the master in the parable, and those who profess his name are the servants.

Jesus the master - How do we know this?  There are two reasons.  First, because Jesus tells the parable in response to questions or ideas with regard to the coming of the kingdom of God.  In Matt 24:3 his disciples came to him privately saying, “tell us… what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?”  They wanted to know when Jesus was going to establish his kingdom, and this parable is part of Jesus’ answer to that question.  In Lk we are told that he tells a very similar parable because the people thought he was going to establish the kingdom of God immediately when he reached Jerusalem.

The second reason is that the man in the parables is described as going “into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom” (Lk 19:12) and as returning “after a long time” (Mt 24:19) and this precisely describes the future of Jesus’ ministry.  What was Jesus’ purpose in Jerusalem?  To be crucified.  After which he would be raised from the dead, and ascend into heaven where he would remain for what I assume we would all agree is a very long time.

 Paul tells us in 1Cor 15 that when the end comes Christ will hand over the kingdom to God the Father.  This of necessity means that God the Father has given the kingdom to him until then.  So Jesus left for a long time, received a kingdom, and as we will see, he is going to return.

It follows, then, that if Jesus is the master in the parable, we are his servants.  The parable in Luke makes clear that it is we who profess the name of Christ who are the servants, and not the world, by contrasting them with the general citizens of the realm who reject him as king.

Next we need to establish that all we have is a trust from our master and is to be used in his service because this is the root of thanksgiving.  Look again at v14 - "Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 

That whatever we have is a trust from our master is established by the description of these servants.  The translation servant, while good, fails to convey the full significance of the Greek.  When we think of a servant we tend to think of a butler or a maid perhaps.  Essentially we think of hired hands or employees.

There are several words in Greek to describe those who labor.  You could be a day-laborer who was hired on a day to day basis.  You could be a tenant, who worked a piece of ground and received part of the produce.  You could also be a hired-hand like a butler or a regularly employed worker.  But the word applied to the men in this parable means a slave.  There was little difference between these men and the slaves held in south in our own country 400 years ago.  They were bought and sold; they were property and could be disposed of in any way their owner saw fit – including death.  They owned nothing, and if the master paid them anything it was out of the generosity of his heart, not out of any obligation.

That what we have is to be used is most obvious from the masters reaction to the third servant.  He had kept safe what had been given to him, yet the master was furious.  Why?  As we will see, it was not because the servant had failed to make money.  It was because the servant had been disobedient.  Look if you will at Lk 19:13 “put this money to work until I come back.”  In Greek its one word and it is an imperative.  This was not a suggestion to be considered, not an option to be debated, it was a command to be obeyed.   Nowhere in this was anything said about keeping it safe.  The command is simple, put it to work.  The servant’s failure is clear – he disobeyed his master’s explicit command.

That what we have is to be used in service of our master is clear from Mt 25:14 & 19.  We are told in v14 that the master “entrusted” his property to them.  It was a trust, not a gift.  This is most clearly demonstrated by the fact that in v19 the master settled accounts with them.  Had this been a gift there would have been no accounts to have settled.  But there were accounts to be settled, for it was a trust.

So all that these men had was from the gracious hand of their master, and was to be used in obedience to his command, and for his service.  If the third slave had understood that all he had was from the gracious hand of his master and more importantly if he really known his master, he would have wanted nothing more than to serve him with it.  The root of the third slave’s failure was a lack of gratitude to his master for his gracious and abundant provision.  And it was abundant by the way.  I sat down this week and figured out what a talent would have come up to in today’s world and the figure I came to was $1,000,000.

St Augustine wrote these words in his massive work The City of God.  “Two cities have been formed by two loves; the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self.”  The first two servants were found to be citizens of the City of God, the third of the City of Man.  He ultimately disobeyed his master because he loved himself to the contempt of his master.  He desired his own comforts above his master’s glory.  And so he traded fleeting pleasures for lasting enjoyment.

So how can we take care to avoid being found unfaithful, and be commended as faithful?  The answer is that we must cultivate an attitude of thanksgiving, or if you prefer something a bit more catchy and memorable, we must cultivate an attitude of gratitude.  Because as unfaithfulness is rooted in unthankfulness, unthankfulness is rooted in a deficient view of our master.

Look at vs24-25 – “Then the man who had received the one talent came.  ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.  So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’”  We can see here four areas where the servant’s view of his master was distorted, and where our view of our master is often distorted as well.

First, he had a deficient view of his master’s severity (wrath).  Notice his excuse for disobedience, “I was afraid.”  Friends, that is a flat out lie and the master calls him on it.  Look at the master’s response in v27 – “Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.”  What the master is saying is, “If you were actually afraid of me you would have done SOMETHING with the money I entrusted to you.”  What a lousy excuse!

Friends, the truth is, the servant either didn’t expect his master to return, or figured that when he did he wouldn’t really punish him for his disobedience.  That is the only explanation for his actions, or as it were, inactions.  But his master did return, and he did punish him – and oh how severely.  Look at v30 - “…throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”  Beloved, that phrase, weeping and gnashing of teeth is used 6 times in the bible, all in Matthew and every time it refers to eternal damnation.

*There is a temptation for us to think that we have plenty of time, or to question whether Christ will ever return or to doubt that he will judge us when he does.  But beloved, we must not doubt the master’s return or his resolve to punish the wicked and unfaithful.    There will be a day of accounting for our stewardship just as there was for these servants.

Hebrews 10:36-38 says – “…you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.  For, yet a little while and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

And listen to what 2Peter 3 says: “…scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.  They will say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation."  …  But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.  The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.  Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness…”

The second deficiency he had in his view of his master was with regard to his Sovereignty.  I’m not here talking about the doctrine of God’s general sovereignty over all things, but more specifically his ownership of our own persons.  Again, look at v25 – “See, here is what belongs to you.”  The ESV states it a bit more curtly “Here, you have what is yours.”  Now it would be easy to miss something important here, because in the master’s rebuke he seems to agree with the servants assessment of the situation when he says that if the servant had deposited the money in the bank he would have received what was his with interest.  But look carefully, was the servant really giving the master what was his?

Remember earlier I pointed out that this man was a slave, not a hired-hand, or a day laborer, or a tenant.  He had been purchased.  He was not his own to do as he pleased.  This servant failed to realize that he was the master’s and as such he owed him not only the money with which he had been entrusted, not only the interest it could have gained, but his very life, his very self.  And this he had not rendered to his master.

*Brothers and sisters, in a little bit we will collect an offering.  Giving is an important part of our obedience to our master.  But ultimately God is not interested in our material things.  Mind you, he is not interested in less than that, but he is interested in more – God wants us.  Consider what he says to his people in Ps 50 – “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.  Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?  Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High,  and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."

Illus. - Not long ago one of my students was upset about having been ripped off by his bank.  We talked about whether he had a right to be angry.  I asked him who he was really angry with and he replied “the bank, of course….”  There was a momentary silence and he said, “I can’t be angry with God as God hadn’t taken his money.”  At that I interjected, “really?  If God wanted to take your money, how would he do it?”  I could almost see he light bulb above his head as he just said “oohhh.” 

Friends, if all God wanted was your money, he would just take it.  But God wants so much more than that.  He wants you.  He wants your work, your leisure, your time and talents.  But above all he wants your affections.  He wants a relationship with you.  He wants to know you and to be known by you as intimately as a husband and wife know each other.  He wants to walk with you and talk with you in the cool of the day.  He wants to enjoy you and be enjoyed by you.  It’s why he created you.

This lead directly to the third area of insufficiency in the servants view of his master: his intimacy.  Look how he describes his master in v24 – “I knew you to be a hard man…”  What does he mean by hard?  Well, it basically means hard-hearted, unmovable – unaffectable if I may invent a word.  Probably the best example of what this means is Pharaoh in the OT.  He was utterly without compassion toward the Israelites.  What’s more, no matter what God did to him, his heart was hard – unaffected – and he would not let God’s people go.

So does our text support the servant’s assessment of his master as hard-hearted?  V15 tells us that the master dispensed his property to the servants “each according to his ability.”  And how about his responses to the first two servants when they told him of their successes?  The words “Well done” are actually one word in Greek and it could just as well be translated “Excellent!”  Maybe it would be easier to picture in terms of a father and son.  The son builds something with his Legos and shows his father saying… “Daddy, Daddy, look at what I made!  To which the father responds “That’s awesome, I’m so proud of you.”  That is essentially what happens in this story with the first two servants.  Now I ask you, does that sound like a man who is indifferent, unaffected by his slaves?

*Now let’s be crystal clear about this.  Your heavenly father has the same kind of reaction every time you invest your gifts for his kingdom.  While we are always to say, in the words of Lk17:10 “We are unworthy servants.  We have only done what was our duty.”  God never says that.  He rejoices with every success you encounter, and he weeps with you in every set back, in every hardship, in every moment of doubt.  He is not a hard, impassible God who feels nothing and is not moved by your condition.  He is a loving father and pities us as a father pities his children.

Finally the servant’s words to his master reveal a deficient view of his master’s generosity.  He says in v24 – “…‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.’”  But again, this is an outright distortion of reality.  He had indeed sown where he was reaping and scattered where he was gathering.  It was his property that had been entrusted to them, no one else’s.  The servant was basically accusing his master of being self-centered, selfish, and materialistic.  In essence what he said was “all you really care about is you and your money.”  Remember the quote by Augustine earlier?  About the two cities based on love of self or God to the contempt of the other.  What was actually true of the third servant was what he was accusing his master of.

The third servant couldn’t see the lavish generosity of his master.  He had made many assumptions about his master, but he had never truly grown to know and love him and I think this comes out clearly in the master’s response.  R.C. Sproul, in his book Knowing Scripture, encourages people to read the Bible existentially, and I would commend that practice to you.  I don’t know how you read the master’s response in v26, but here’s how I read it:  “You wicked, lazy servant! So… you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed?  [Is that right?]”  But it was not so! 

Look at v28 - the first servant still had his 10 talents.  It appears that each man got to keep what he had invested, as well as what he had made.  What’s more they were given even more.  In the parable in Luke the first two servants are given cities to rules over.  They went from slaves to kings.  But if this is as far as we see, than we have really missed the greatest generosity of all.  In fact it’s the main reason I chose the Matthew passage as the main text instead of the Luke passage.

Beloved, vs21 and 23 contain what may be the most glorious words in the bible.  It’s hard to say for sure, you know?  I mean, 2Cor 5:21 may be the most glorious words I’ve ever heard, that “for our sake [God] made him who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  Those really may be the most glorious words I have ever read or heard to this point in my life.  They are so glorious I don’t think I can even begin to wrap my head much less my heart around them.  But Matt 25:21+23 contain the most glorious words you or I will EVER hear – “Well done, good and faithful servant… come and share your masters happiness.” 

I do have to tell you I think the last part of that is a bit weak in the NIV.  The ESV catches the original better here when it says “enter into the joy of your master.”  This isn’t an invitation to enjoy the same happiness that the master enjoys.  And it definitely isn’t an invitation to come in and party with the master as the NLT suggests with its translation, “Let’s celebrate together!”  Nice try friends, but dead wrong.  He is inviting them… nay he is commanding them to enter in to the enjoyment of the master HIMSELF!!!

Friends the truth is the third servant didn’t know anything about his master, if he had he would have joyfully risked everything.  I truly believe, and I hesitate to speculate too much about parables, but I will do so for a moment. I truly believe that if the third servant had honestly tried to invest his talent in obedience to his master and lost it all he still would have heard the words “Well done good and faithful servant.”  God forgive me if I’m wrong, but I really do believe that.  Because the command wasn’t to make money, it was to use it.

But there is a more important lesson for us.  Unlike the parable, in the reality that it points to, the master is responsible for the success of the investment.  What I mean is this, maybe the third servant could have lost it all, and maybe I’m wrong and he wouldn’t have heard those precious words.  But friends, if we will invest what God has given us for his kingdom we CANNOT lose it all.  We will NEVER fail to make a profit, because the master not only gives the principle he gives the gain!  Listen to Paul’s words in 1Cor 3 “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

Illus. – On Jan 8, 1956, five young men were martyred on a sand bar in the jungle of Ecuador.  Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Peter Fleming, Ed McCully.  There were there to bring the gospel to the Waodani Indians.  Time Magazine ran a ten page article about them at that time, the front cover of the magazine asked one simple question - Why Such Waste?  There efforts were a complete failure in the worlds eyes.  But much like Nate Saint’s young son, the world judged to quickly.  For not long after that, the wives of those men went to the Indians who had killed their husbands and brought the gospel to them.  Many souls were saved from eternal destruction, and many more lives were saved from temporal destruction.  What’s more, the deaths of those young men have served as the motivation for countless missionaries on the field today.

Do you need more proof that God will bless all your labors for him?  You will find it in the Scripture.  How about 1 Corinthians 15:58  “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”  Or its corollary in Galatians 6:9   “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”  Ultimately though if you need proof we need go no further than Jesus Christ, the Son of God born in flesh and hung on a tree for you! As Rom 8:32 says – “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” 

Only let us set aside ourselves and our comforts and invest all that we have for the sake of the master.  Then you cannot fail to hear it.  Oh brothers and sisters, isn’t it what each one of us wants more than anything?  Don’t you long to hear those words “well done good and faithful servant?”  Don’t you long to enter into the full enjoyment of your master?  If not, beware, lest you be found never to have been a servant at all.

Conclusion

            So I will end as I begun.  What are you thankful for?  More importantly, who are you thankful to?  Will you commit yourselves to knowing your master?  Because being faithful isn’t a matter of trying harder.  It is about resting in the grace of the master more fully, and growing to know him more deeply.  This Thursday, before you fall asleep in front of that giant TV on your plush couch, will you take time to consider that all you have is a gift from God?  And not just the things you view as blessings, but the sufferings too? 

Again, I want to acknowledge that this is a difficult time for many people.  Only a couple years ago my own wife lost her remaining two grandparents within days of each other right around Christmas.  I’m not saying we have to thank God for such things in the midst of them.  Job didn’t.  But for the sake of your own souls, give at least as much consideration as Job did when he said to his wife, “will we accept good from the hand of God and not also evil?” and again, “Yeah though he slay me, yet will I worship him” and finally and perhaps most importantly “I know that my redeemer lives and at the last he will stand upon the earth and after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see the Lord.” 

            Yes, we will see him.  That is the great promise.  We will see the Lord and if we are found faithful, when we see him we will be like him and we will know him even as we are fully known and we will hear those precious words.  “That’s awesome!  I’m so proud of you!  You have been so useful and faithful to me.  Enter into my presence and enjoy me forever!”