Whom Was God
Pleased With More?
Jesus
had a couple of disciples named James and John.
John, the younger brother, ended up writing an account of Jesus’ life
that we now call the “Gospel of John.” Later on he wrote three other letters that
were inspired by the Holy Spirit and are also found in the Bible. Near the end of his life John was given a
vision and he wrote it down in what is referred to as the book of Revelation. John was the last original disciple to die and
he was a key leader in the early Christian Church. And while he was on this earth with his
Savior, John was referred to as “the one Jesus loved.” His older brothers James, on the other hand,
didn’t write any books of the Bible. He
didn’t receive any visions that we know of.
He barely spoke in the pages of Scripture. In fact, he didn’t even live very long
because King Herod had him murdered. So
whom was Jesus pleased with more: John who wrote numerous books of the Bible
and was a leader of the early Christian Church or James who died at a
relatively young age? Jesus was pleased
with both of them! He hadn’t called on
James to write any books of the Bible and he hadn’t asked John to preach to
people who would murder him. They both
used their own talents according to their abilities, taking advantage of the
opportunities that presented themselves.
And so Jesus didn’t care so much about what they did as he cared about
why they did it. And both of them lived
their lives to thank their Savior for everything he had done for them.
The Lord
has given each of us a different set of skills and a different amount of time
and a different collection of means according to our abilities. And so he isn’t concerned with what or how
much. He is concerned with why you would
use the gifts he has given you. Why
would you want to use your time to the Lord’s glory? Why would you want to put your talents to
work for the Lord’s glory? Why would you
want to share your earthly treasures for the Lord’s glory? It’s not the “What” but the “Why.”
Ungratefulness
Dishonors God
To
demonstrate this truth, Jesus told the parable of the talents.
“The kingdom of heaven will be like a man going on a journey,” Jesus
said. “He called his servants and
entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to
another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability.” A “talent” in this story is not an ability or
a skill, but a sum of money that was worth thousands of dollars. And notice that the man in this parable
didn’t give each of his servants the same amount. He gave them “each according to their
ability” so that they could put whatever they received to use with the skills
they had. And you know what happens in
the rest of the parable because we just read it a couple minutes ago: The
servant who had received the most produced the most, the second servant who
received a little bit less produced a little bit less, but the third servant
didn’t use what he had been given at all.
He was lazy and irresponsible.
And so when his master came back home he was furious at what the servant
had not done. “You wicked, lazy servant!” he said. “Throw
that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.” The Master
did not expect that third servant to produce as much as the first - and he
didn’t ask him to. But he did want that
third servant to at least use what he had been given. The Master, the Lord, does not tolerate
ungrateful attitudes from those who owe him everything. And he is upset when people waste what he has
so graciously given them and he has every right not only to take away what he
has given, but to also throw away those who have acted so ungratefully.
If I
went around the room and asked each one of you which servant you think you are
the most like, which one would you pick?
I have a feeling that if I asked that question and you had to answer it
out loud for everyone to hear, most of us would probably pick servant #2. Because we wouldn’t want to pick servant #1
and give the impression that we have not only been superbly blessed but also
extremely faithful in those blessings!
But we wouldn’t want to admit that we are most like servant #3 either
because we wouldn’t want to give the impression to everyone else that we have
been lazy and ungrateful for what the Lord has given us. But could I be so bold as to say that almost
none of us in here are like servant #2. I
would probably say that most of us here are a combination of servants #1 and
#3. Because first of all, we have been
blessed in thousands of different ways.
And not just in the physical things we have been given either. Each one of us also has an amazing amount of
talents and a skill set that is absolutely unique. Each of us has been given time to do
different things for different people in different ways. Each us of has been given the means to help
out and contribute to a variety of people and groups throughout the world. If we aren’t like the first servant when it
comes to our blessings, who is? That
little Christian child in Malawi who has nothing more than the shirt on his
back isn’t blessed like the first servant.
That Christian 12 year old who is so physically handicapped that his
only talent is to sit in a wheelchair and smile isn’t. That young Christian grandmother in the inner
city who has no time to do anything else but work three jobs seven days a week so
that she can support her grandkids isn’t either. If we haven’t been blessed like that first
servant, who is? The Lord has given us a
tremendous amount of blessings, there is no doubt about that.
But do
we always put our blessings to use like the first servant did? Or are we more like the third servant in that
regard? Every once in a while I will dig
into the fridge to find something for lunch and I’ll be moving jars out of the
way and shifting things around and I’ll find something and say, “Oh, I forgot
we had that!” But by the time I finally
find what I didn’t remember we even had, it’s usually too late. The contents now have mold on it or the
container is out of date or it’s simply a little too old to eat safely and I
have to throw it away. It was good at
one time, it could have been used in the past the way it was meant to be used,
but not any longer. Unfortunately, that
has happened to more than just left overs in my fridge. That has happened to many of the blessings
and the talents the Lord has given me as well.
I let them sit. I let them gather
dust. I let them lie unused and
undisturbed, either forgetting about them completely or simply not wanting to
put them into practice.
God has
every right to throw me outside in the darkness where there is weeping and
gnashing of teeth. I have been
ungrateful, I have been lazy, I have been irresponsible with the amount of time
he has given me, with the variety of talents he has given me, and with the
volume of treasures he has given me in my life.
I have been a “wicked, lazy servant” like the third servant in the
parable even though I have been blessed like servant #1.
Jesus Used Everything to Save Us
The Lord
had once given King David a lot of time to use as he pleased. But David didn’t make use of that blessing of
time very well. He used his free time by
looking at a woman bathing on a roof; he then slept with her, and then devised
a way to cover it up. But the Lord didn’t
throw David out for misusing his time; instead, he brought him to repentance.
Judas
Iscariot was given the blessing of being responsible for the money that Jesus’
disciples received. But Judas didn’t use
that blessing of money very well. He
stole it, he used it for his own benefit, and he even sold Jesus to his enemies
to earn some more. But Jesus didn’t
throw Judas out for misusing that money; instead Jesus did everything he could
to reach out to this disciple, begging him to come back.
A man
named Saul, who would eventually become the apostle Paul, was given an immense
amount of talent. But Saul did not use
that talent very well. With the skill
and abilities he had been given, he hunted down Christians and threw them in
jail. But God didn’t throw Saul out for
misusing his talents; instead he miraculously brought him to faith in his
Savior.
The Lord
does not throw us out when we misuse his gifts or when we don’t even use them
at all. Instead he comes to us in his
Word to convict us of our sins; he comes to us in his Word to show us his
mercy; and he comes to us in his Word to prove to us his love. And in his Word we find that Jesus used every
one of his talents, every one of his abilities, every one of skills, all of his
time, and the riches of his perfection to win salvation to us. He used himself up for us. He spent himself completely for you. There was nothing he held back. There was nothing he left undone. He expended an eternity of energy to fulfill
the plans and the promises that he had given you and that he had been giving
his people for thousands of years. Jesus
emptied himself so that you could have it all.
A beautiful Bible passage in 2 Corinthians says, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich
[in heaven], yet for your sakes he became poor [as a human being on this
earth], so that you through his poverty [death on the cross] might become rich
[heaven]” (2 Cor. 8:9). Jesus does
not throw you out when you have failed to use the gifts he has given you
because your salvation does not depend on your faithfulness. Your salvation depends on how faithful your
Lord was to you when he hung on that cross.
He spent some time on that cross, he used all of his abilities to make
his death on that cross work, and he won the riches of heaven for us on that
cross when he died. That’s why you are
saved. That’s why you are forgiven. Not because you are a good Christian but
because Christ is a good Savior.
Use What You’ve
Been Given Out of Thanksgiving
Which is why the first two servants in the parable did what they did. Their Master had given them some incredible gifts. And they wanted to thank their Master for his love and kindness. And so the first two servants produced five more talents and two more talents not for themselves but for their Master. Remember that they presented all of their talents to their Master because what the servants did wasn’t for themselves, it was out of thanks and praise to the one who had done so much for them.
That is
the attitude we now can have as we look at the blessings we have been given in
this life. We have time, we have
talents, and we have earthly treasures of various kinds. And the Lord has given these things to us
according to each of our abilities. And
so he understands what you can do with the gifts he has given. But he isn’t so concerned about what you do,
he cares about why you do it: out of thanks to him, out of praise to him, out
of appreciation for him and for the eternal life in heaven that he has already
guaranteed. Not “How much do I have to
do” but “How much has God done for me?”
Not “When must I do it” but “When can I?” Not “Why should I bother” but “Why wouldn’t I
want to?” He has given me time to praise
him with. He has given me talents to
thank him with. He has given me treasure
to show my appreciation. What a joy it
is to be able to give everything to my Lord who has given me more than I’ll
ever need.
Amen.
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