Matthew 25: 14
Lessons from the Parable of the Talents

The Greek word was a talenton -- the plural being talenta.  And it is very important for our understanding that we see it as a unit of money and not as an ability to do something -- what we would call a "talent."  It is much more than a mere ability.

I. NOW WHAT IS THE "TALENT" IN THE LORD'S PARABLE?

1. It may, indeed, represent the unique ability to do some skilled activity in the Kingdom of God.  Do you have any talents, in this sense?  What do you think they are?

2. But even more than a skill, useful in the Kingdom, the Lord's use of the word was not about talent as we define the word in English, but has to do with the life of the individual -- the whole person.  As the servant in the parable "traded" and "invested" with his master's coins, so we servants of the Lord "trade," so to speak, and "invest" with our lives to advance the Kingdom of Christ.  Do you see that meaning?  It is speaking of the potential of your whole life being a talent -- a gold coin.  That certainly includes your gifts, but is far more broad than that.  Investing that gold coin is investing the whole of your life.

But, do not discount the meaning of skills.  Do you have a special talent (to use our English word) -- Do you have a special talent -- for encouraging your fellow believer?  Do you have a talent for telling the Gospel in a way that is appealing and convincing? --for helping the needy, even when they seem incapable of being helped.  That is not a misuse of the parable.  It is only a very partial application and meaning.

3. But more to the point of the parable is the meaning that your life, with all of its activities and opportunities is a gold or silver talenton which has been entrusted to you.   Your life in all of its opportunities to live for the glory of God in all of its aspects: vocational, recreational, familial, ecclesiastical -- in any of these areas -- it might be a 1 talent opportunity or a 2 talent one or a 5 talent one.

Just looking at a group like this, I can see people who have a combined opportunity to effect the Kingdom of God in a way that might be absolutely astounding if we could see the potential that we know about, used to its maximum investment.  And the potential might be a huge success as far as the Kingdom of Christ and the standards of eternity are concerned.

II. NOW, WHAT IS THE BLESSEDNESS SYMBOLIZED BY THE SETTLING OF ACCOUNTS IN V.19 WITH THESE SERVANTS BY THEIR MASTER?

1. It clearly represents the event called by Paul in II Corinthians 5: 10 "The Judgment Seat of Christ."

We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive good or evil according to what he has done in the body.

Many, many people from our congregations of 35 years are currently in the process of investing a 1 talent or a 2 talent life or a 5 talent life for the glory of God.  And when it is all ended and the judgment of the saints occurs at the end of the age, they will be rewarded with an enhanced blessedness, and an eternal satisfaction that they have used well the talenton or talenta which symbolized their life.

2. I am sure that you, as I myself, can think of some things you have done in your past that you are permanently thankful for, that you did by the grace of God.  And you continually revisit them and are refreshed with thankfulness that you did what you did and not the opposite.  I can think of some things like that 3, 4, or 5 decades ago.  And I think that one of the rewards in eternity will be like that and not just a one-time: "Well done thou good and faithful servant."  But it will be an eternal satisfaction with which we are rewarded.  It is as if we are each to be called before the Savior -- not to see if we are saved or not (-- as will be the case of those who are called before the "Great White Throne of Judgment" of Revelation 20: 11).  But this will be a judgment for regenerate Christians "to receive (a reward for) the things done in the body," as Paul says in II Corinthians 5: 10.

Perhaps you have not much to report at the present moment.  You might be just getting ready to invest the talents which represent your life.  But, please, in the name of God, do not waste your talent or talents by ignoring the fact that these talents have been given to you for his glory and service.  That is, your life has been given back to you, to invest in the Savior's stead for as long as he is pleased for you to remain on the earth.  Find some way to use your life for the Kingdom of Christ.  Ask God to guide you.  There might be potential missionaries right here this morning.  There might be those who will shepherd a congregation of the Lord's people.  There might be someone who would eventually be able to support several people who are actually going to be doing the work.  You might give yourself to doing the Lord's work in a less spectacular way, but just as thoroughly and impressively -- perhaps even more impressively -- because your service for the Lord might be unpaid, volunteer service.

That blessedness of serving Christ will no doubt be far, far more satisfying than those who spend their lives in any conceivable worldly pursuit.  For your life, invested in the Kingdom of Christ will be a matter of eternal satisfaction that you have been the servant of the Incarnate Son of God, as his messenger, or his personal representative, his co-worker, his deputy.

The goals and aims of the people of our generation are shallow and worldly and will never really satisfy.  Never in human history has there been such a great percentage of the population primarily concerned with such worldly, transient and ephemeral matters as there is today.  But to have been the ambassador of the Lord, the bond-servant of Christ, the herald of his kingdom is a gracious opportunity of everyone whom he calls.

Will you be one who in eternity will continually think, over and over again: "I am so   very thankful that I gave my life to the service of Christ.  I invested the 1 talent, (2 talents or 3 talents, as the case may be) which represented my life, for the glory of Christ and have seen the reward of them which I have laid at the feet of my dear Master."

III. NOW LET US THINK OF SOME PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM THE TRUTHS WE HAVE BEEN CONSIDERING.

1. If we put the emphasis on the Lord's meaning when he spoke the parable and not on our English meaning of the word "talent," as "an ability," we have the whole picture of the major responsibility of Christian faith: for the believer to be totally committed to the Kingdom of Christ.  That is so different from the common understanding that Christ's salvation has been, primarily, to enable us to enjoy life to the fullest and find personal satisfaction above all else.

2. Do you see some practical ways you might multiply the spiritual effect of your own life right now as you find yourself -- and which would move your life from being a 1 talent life to, perhaps, a 2, 3, 4, or 5, talent life.  Don't base this on your good intentions but on the evidence that you have been given a 1 talent or a 2 talent life with which to "trade," to use the metaphor of coinage out of the parable?  Invest the talenton, which is your life and reap a harvest for the Master whom you serve, that in the day of settling, you may give him a wonderful return.

3. And here is another practical lesson from the parable.  I spoke earlier about the value of the talenton which the Lord used to designate the potential of the person's life.  It is very hard to put a figure on 1, 2, or 5 talent's worth because money is worth only as much as it will buy and fully as much as it will buy.

How dramatically he uses your, or anyone else's, life is his business and is not a matter of their choice.  But the potential resides in each one who by grace has given himself to the Lord to be the Lord's gold or silver talenton.  Does this parable describe your situation as one whose life opportunity is a gold or silver talent -- or many talents?

On this first Sunday of the month we regularly observe the communion in the 10 o'clock hour.  And it is appropriate in connection with this truth.  It is not only a confession of Christ as only Savior with its elements symbolizing his divine person in both the cup and the bread and his incarnation in the bread and his atonement for sins in the cup.  But it is also a renewal of our discipleship, committing ourselves to him who not only is our Savior, but the Lord over every aspect of our lives.  How appropriate to renew our pledge of following him in regard to our obedience as well as our trust in his saviorhood.