The Signs of Christ's Coming, Pt. 12
The Tragedy of Wasted Opportunity
Matthew 25:19-30
We worship the Lord, also, as we hear Him speak in His Word. And this morning our text is Matthew chapter 25 and we're looking at verses 14 through 30...Matthew 25 verses 14 through 30. Coming back to this wonderful Olivet Discourse, the sermon of our Lord on His Second Coming that takes 24 and 25 of Matthew. A great, great passage of Scripture. This, by the way, is our twelfth message in this section of Matthew 24 and 25.
T.S. Eliot, the famous playwright, wrote a play entitled "Murder in the Cathedral." And at one point in the play, he has the chorus speaking a very, very interesting line. It is a line demonstrated to portray the emptiness of life. And the chorus says in unison, "Throughout the years we have gone on living, living and partly living."
And as I thought about that in reference to this text, I thought that perhaps it was a fitting way to approach this text. For in the text before us there are three servants, two are living and one is partly living. One is expressive of the emptiness of life, the uselessness of life, the worthlessness of life when opportunity and privilege is carelessly wasted. That's the essential message of our text. The tragedy of wasted opportunity.
And in the church of Jesus Christ, among the living there are the partly living. Among those who are the genuine children of God there are those who are ingenuine. Among the true there are the false. We've been learning that all through Matthew's gospel. There is good soil and there is bad soil. There are houses with foundations and without. There are people going on to the broad way and the narrow way, going through a broad gate and a narrow gate. There are those who are virgins with oil and virgins without oil. There are wheat and there are tares. And now there are true servants and there are false servants in the parable to which we look.
And as I've said so often to you, I am deeply concerned about the fact that the church seems to tolerate people within its walls, within its organization, within its structure who do not really live...who do not really know the Lord, who do not really walk with God. Maybe they're like the businessman who had just opened his business and was brand new and just gotten his office organized and he sat behind his desk waiting for his first client. A man walked through the door. And no sooner did the man walk into the office then he began his act, he immediately reached for the telephone, picked it up and had a lengthy conversation with the President. In fact, most of the conversation involved him telling the President how to do things. And supposedly answering questions by the President and giving very astute and wise answers. And after the man stood in front of the desk for a long time listening to this, the man behind the desk hung the phone up and said, "Pardon me, sir, I'm sorry to make you wait, that was the President. What can I do for you?"
"Oh," he said, "oh nothing, I'm just hear to hook up the phone."
And I'm afraid there are some people who would have us believe they're having a conversation with God but the phone isn't hooked up. And the church cannot tolerate that kind of situation. The church must bring that to exposure. There are virgins without oil in their lamps. There are houses without foundation. There are tares that look like wheat. There is soil that seems to flourish for a little while but has no depth. There is a net caught, as it were, in the Kingdom that has to be sorted out the good from the bad. And there are servants true and false.
The picture of the parable before us is the picture of the Kingdom. Within the outward visible Kingdom, within the church, if you will, are contained the true and the false. We see it in this parable as we've seen it so many, many times. And again it is a parable of warning. The Lord is simply saying I'm coming back and when I come I'm going to separate the true from the false, I'm going to separate the wheat from the tares, I'm going to separate the house with foundation from the one without, I'm going to determine the good soil and the bad. We're going to find out whether the road you're on really went to heaven or not. We're going to sort out the sheep and the goats. All distinctions are going to be made when I come in My glory, so you better be ready.
Why? Back to verse 36 of chapter 24. "Because the day and the hour when the Lord comes knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven nor the Son but My Father only." All of us must be ready for the coming of the Lord because no one knows when He's coming. Verse 42 says it, "Watch therefore for you know not what hour your Lord does come." Verse 44, again, "Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour that you think not, the Son of Man comes." Verse 50 says it again, "In an hour that he is not aware of." And then chapter 25 verse 13 says it, "Watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man comes."
You see, the disciples had asked the question back in chapter 24 verse 3, "When shall these things be?" And Jesus now answering it says five times you don't know and no one knows and no one can know. Only God knows. The time of the coming of Christ is unknown to us. We do not know the moment or the hour. We know the general scene because it's described in detail for us in chapter 24 verses 4 through 35. We know the general setting but we don't know the specific moment. And we don't know what generation He'll come to, so we have to be ready in all generations for the coming of the Lord.
And the Lord in emphasizing that we must be ready gives two parables about readiness. The first one in the first 12 verses is the parable of the virgins. The second in verses 14 to 30 is the parable of the talents. Both emphasize the need for readiness, the need for watchfulness, the need for preparedness for the coming of the Lord. The parable of the virgins, I told you last time, emphasizes watching...watching, being alert. The parable of the talents emphasizes working, serving, fulfilling our duty. We don't watch in indolence and laziness, we watch and work at the same time. We are alert, we are ready, we are prepared if He comes, but until He comes we are diligent and faithful in serving Him. And so these two balance out the perspective that the Christian needs to have.
Now looking again at verses 14 to 30, we find here a call to preparedness. And what is the emphasis here? What do we need to know to be prepared for the Second Coming? To be prepared for the glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ to judge the world and establish His Kingdom, what do men need to know? First of all, and we'll review the first two and then go on to the second two, we need to know the responsibility we receive.
Within the framework of the Kingdom we have received a great responsibility. Notice verse 14. "It's like a man traveling into a far country." What is? The Kingdom. "It's like a man traveling into a far country, called his own servants, delivered unto them his goods and unto one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to every man according to his ability and took his journey."
Now the parable is very simple. It's a story about a man who has a lot of servants and he goes away and he leaves them in charge of what he possesses. And he divides the possessions out, five, two and one, giving them responsibility commensurate with their capability. And the idea is that they are to handle that so that he receives a return when he comes back. Being gone for a long time, he does not want to lose that which could be profited, he wants to make sure he goes along with the economy, makes the most of his opportunities. And so he puts the servants in the charge of those things based upon their capabilities.
It is this way in the Kingdom. In the Kingdom of our Lord, and we're talking about the visible Kingdom, the outward Kingdom, the external Kingdom, that Kingdom which is defined as those who belong to the church, or those who belong to the assembly of Christians, whether they're true or false, whether they're wheat or tares. The idea here is the outward visible earthly Kingdom as opposed to the inward heavenly invisible real Kingdom of the redeemed which is not the point of reference here.
So, in the Kingdom there are going to be true and false servants, just like in the Kingdom 25:1 says there will be virgins who are prepared and virgins who are not. So in the Kingdom there is a man and he gives responsibility to his servants according to their abilities. And we said that this is gospel privilege, last time. In other words, this is the privilege of being exposed to the truth of God, to the saving redemptive truth of Christ. And some people are fives. They've been given tremendous privilege, tremendous privilege. Some of you who are in this church would have to be considered at least a five on this particular kind of scale because you have been given great privilege in hearing the gospel and understanding the gospel and having it articulated to you and demonstrated to you and patterned for you. On the other hand, there are some folks who would be on the level of the one who received one talent. Their exposure to the gospel is very minimal and they have come into an assembly of redeemed people that know very little, that are rather primitive, that are rather simple in their understanding of divine truth.
But it differs. God gives differing privilege. And you take the person's capability and their privilege and opportunity and you put it together and you'll come up with a number that God has given them in terms of talents. That's what He's trying to illustrate. We have differing privileges spiritually in being exposed to the gospel. Some have heard it rather simply, and perhaps rather infrequently. Others have heard it in full complexity and many many times and are the more privileged ones. And that's the responsibility we receive.
Now He's talking, remember here, about people in the Kingdom. That is those who are visibly identified. To illustrate it further, I said to a...I spoke to a man earlier this last week who said to me, "I visited your church on Sunday," it was last Sunday, I guess. "I came to your church on Sunday." And he said, "I learned more in one Sunday at your church then I've learned in my entire lifetime in my own church."
That's a rather shocking thing for a person to say but that illustrates the point that I want you to understand here. There are some people who have had very minimal privilege. Oh, maybe they've gone to church for a long time but they hear the same sermon every week with a little different introduction and conclusion maybe. And maybe the preacher yells in different places, but it's basically the same thing. There are others who have heard the scope of the message of Christ. Some who have been to Bible college or been in a church where the Word of God is taught, or sat in a Bible study, or read great books, or whatever. So it varies. And we have that responsibility that we have received, that's our privilege, that's our gospel opportunity. And some people with all that privilege don't respond. And that's what the parable is all about.
That takes us to the point two and that is the reaction. The reaction we have. From the responsibility, the reaction, verse 16. What is done with spiritual opportunity? "He that received the five talents immediately went, traded with the same, made other five talents." Now here's a person who makes 100 percent return on the investment the Lord has given him. He maximized his spiritual privilege. He returned back to the Lord full service. He is a true believer. He is a genuine Christian. He gave the Lord all that he had. He got a full 100 percent return. And I don't care what kind of business person you are, a hundred percent return on anything is good. That's maximal, an excellent, excellent return.
The point being that he illustrates the kind of person who makes the most of his spiritual opportunity, who believed the gospel that he heard and who gave back to the Lord a full life of service.
And then you have in verse 17, "Likewise he that had received two, he gained two more." The servant who received two did the very same. He had limited privilege in terms of comparing him with five, but he made the use of the privilege that he had. He fulfilled all that he could from the opportunity God gave him and returned also a full service rendered based upon the privilege and opportunity that he had received.
And it's kind of a wonderful thing to know that there will be people who don't have five in terms of opportunity, who only have two. But if all they have is two in terms of opportunity, all God wants is a return on what they have. Do you understand? So that sort of relieves a little bit of the burden of wishing that everyone could have the fullest kind of privilege. And so the first two return to the master a full wholehearted maximum return of commitment and service. And they are marked as the true believer, the one who really served with a full heart. Oh, it's not that all believers will serve with that full of response, but that's the pattern, that's the example, that's the supreme mark of genuine love and service, wholehearted service. So they used their privilege.
Then you come to verse 18. "The one who received one talent went and dug in the earth and hid his lord's money." Now there's the mark of a false servant. He made nothing in terms of effort, absolutely nothing. He did nothing. He thought about nothing. He invested nothing. He is not a true believer. He is a virgin with no oil. There is no fruit in his life. There is no inward grace in his life. There's nothing, no service rendered. He did nothing. He buried it and that's it. He illustrates the one who given privilege does not return the opportunity given to him, does not take advantage of it, does not use it. When he hears the gospel, he doesn't respond to it. And even though he's heard it on a limited basis, he is still responsible.
Now listen, you could hear it on a five level and not respond. You could hear it on a three or two or four or whatever level and not respond. And if you wonder why it is the one‑ talent person that doesn't respond, it is because the Lord wants to illustrate this, that the person who would seem to be the most excusable is not excusable. Do you understand that? If the person with the massive privilege, the five‑level privilege doesn't respond, someone might think that God condemned him, that God condemned him because He was angry that he wasted such privilege, because he was overly guilty, because it was a superabounding guilt and hell is only for people who having had massive privilege waste it. And so to make sure that that isn't implied, the Lord picks the one who had only a very limited privilege and let's us know that hell is for people who waste even a limited privilege. Every person exposed to the gospel, every person brought in to the outward Kingdom, a part of the church no matter how limited the privilege within that, if they at all been exposed to the saving truth of Jesus Christ become inexcusable...inexcusable if they waste that opportunity.
Now that brings us to the reckoning. The responsibility, the reaction and the third thing we need to know if we're going to be ready is the reckoning. There is coming a time of reckoning, verse 19 says it, "After a long time, the lord of those servants comes and reckons with them." He was gone a long time. The implication there again as I told you earlier is that the Lord is telling them His coming will be delayed, just like 25:5 where He said the bridegroom tarries. Those are veiled ways of Him telling the disciples He's not going to set up His Kingdom as soon as they think He is. And after a long time, the Lord is going to come. And during the time before He comes, men and women are going to be having these privileges, some on a level of five, some on a level of two, some on a level of one. But the day is coming when the Lord comes back to reckon. The word is a commercial term, it means to compare accounts. He's going to come back, take a look at the books, take a look at what you've done with the privilege. It will be judgment time. It is a time for revealing the heart. It is a time for evaluating the service rendered, finding out who the true servants are. As described in verses 31 to 46, it is a time for separating the sheep from the goats. The goats go out of the Kingdom forever, the sheep go into it.
And so, when He comes the tares and the wheat will be separated. The good soil and the bad soil separated. The houses with and without foundation separated. The net pulled in and that which is in it separated. It's the idea then of judgment, the time of the Lord's discerning. And so, verse 19 says the man comes back to check on his servants.
Verse 20 tells us what happened. "He that had received five talents came and brought five more talents saying," and I want you to hear it in the Greek word order, "Lord, five talents you delivered to me, behold, five talents more I have gained." The emphasis here is on the five talents. And he's very excited because he can face judgment with excitement and enthusiasm and anticipation because he knows what he's done with his privileges. He knows what he's done with his opportunity. He knows that he has rendered service to the Lord and so in terms of the New Testament phrase that Paul uses, he will have boldness in the day of judgment. He will have boldness in the day of judgment. Or as John says it, he will be not ashamed at the coming of the Lord. Because he knows he has something to show for the opportunity that he was given. He's filled with excitement.
And that's the way it ought to be with every believer. There ought to be in our hearts no fear of the coming of the Lord but only great anticipation because it will be our privilege to demonstrate to Him at that moment the service that we have rendered. It will be our joy to be able to say, "Yes, the privilege You gave to me I received and responded to and rendered back to You the service that You were due."
And that's the emphasis here. "Master, five talents you delivered me" tells us that he knew the source of everything was the lord. There's no ego here. There's no boasting here. There's no pride here. There's no self‑styled sort of spirituality here. He's saying five talents you gave me, I recognized the source of every privilege, I recognized the source of every opportunity, of every responsibility, I have what I have because of you, not because of me. Five talents you gave me, but behold...and it's an exclamation, it's a statement of surprise, of wonder, of joy...five more talents have I gained. Yes, I recognize that you are the source, but I also rejoice that I was faithful in responding.
It's no different than the Apostle Paul in writing to Timothy when he expresses these words, "For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day," 2 Timothy 4:7 and 8. He says to Timothy, he says, "Look, I'm ready to go, I know I'm going to receive a reward when I get there." And that's not ego, that's a sense of fulfillment. That's a sense of rejoicing. That's a desire to go to be with the Lord you've loved and served, to receive that good thing from His hand which He promises to His servants.
And the master recognizes integrity in his heart. Look at verse 21. He knows he's not boastful. His lord said to him, and the Greek word is just two letters, epsilon and...well, it's just an "e" and a "u." "U"...that's it. And it means excellent...excellent...excellent, he says. Good, inherently good, good inwardly, genuinely good and reliable, trustworthy, faithful servant. And he's not saying you did well and you could be trusted in this, he says you are good and you are trustworthy. It is a characterization. He's not just commenting on his service, he's commenting on his character, excellent, good, trustworthy servant.
It's quite remarkable, isn't it, that the holy God, the God of the universe, the Lord God whom we love and serve could ever look at us and say "Excellent, you good and faithful servant," isn't it? That certainly isn't the provision of the law but it is the provision of the grace of the gospel, is it not? It is the provision not of our own strength but of the power of the Holy Spirit. But oh what a wonderful day that will be when those who have truly served the Lord Jesus go to be with Him and show Him at that moment their faithful service and hear from Him, "Excellent...excellent, you good and trustworthy servant, you made the most of privilege, you made the most of opportunity. And that's as it ought to be. And that commendation will outstrip any medal ceremony the world will ever know anything about, to receive that incorruptible crown of righteousness which the Lord waits to give to all those who love His appearing.