This talk was originally given in the final main session of our 2020 Maximise Conference – the closing talk in the series called ‘Motives for Ministry from Matthew’.
(Matthew 25:14-30 cf. Lk.19:11-27)
We have been hearing multiple reasons from the scriptures to maximise our gospel ministry – for while God’s mercy calls us in his Word to worship him in every area of our lives, and to love our neighbours, especially widows, orphans, foreigners, the poor and their equivalents today in any way we can, and while we each have been entrusted with many different kinds of gifting and opportunity, there are many Biblical reasons especially to maximise our gospel ministry: out of obedience to Christ’s command, fear of Christ’s judgement, gratitude for Christ’s love, responsibility for Christ’s message and excitement at the opportunities in this day of salvation in which we live, because Jesus was an evangelist, because people need Jesus, because the harvest needs workers, because Jesus has called us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him in his way of suffering for the
salvation of the lost, because heaven is where we will see God and be eternally satisfied by his captivating glory, because hell is the place of eternal torment Jesus likens to living surrounded by flames and infested by worms. If the firefighters of New South Wales, both professional and volunteer, are driven to work themselves to exhaustion to save people and their homes from being engulfed by bushfires, how much more will we be willing to spend ourselves in rescuing everyone we can reach from the eternal agonies of hell. And now finally – because we only have one life in which to serve our loving Saviour and living Lord; all believers have gospel ministry, for we are given his Holy Spirit to prophecy the gospel in obedience to Jesus great commission to do what we can, as the people we are, with the gifts and opportunities entrusted to us, to make disciples of all nations for him i.e. to maximise our gospel ministry until he takes us home.
Jesus told his famous parable of the talents on two different occasions – one is recorded in Matthew 25:14-30 of Jesus in Jerusalem teaching his disciples with a story about a businessman entrusting three servants with property and different amounts of money (talents) to invest, with faithful servants being generously rewarded in the same way; the other is in Luke 19 where Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem teaching the crowds, with a story about a man who leaves to be appointed king, entrusting ten servants with the same large amount of money (a mina) to invest, with faithful servants being generously rewarded in proportion to their productivity; in both versions of this parable, Jesus explains that while his followers await his return, he expects us to be faithfully busy in growing his business and will be held to account when he returns, when he will reward his faithful servants but punish those who are lazy. The parable is clearly both an encouragement to be active and a warning not to be
inactive. Now there are some features of these parables that may initially worry us:
a. Since we read elsewhere that we are saved entirely by God’s grace in Christ and simply through faith in God’s gospel concerning him, this emphasis on performance with one servant in each parable judged for his inactivity sounds alarmingly like salvation by works – and our inequality sensors are provoked by Jesus suggesting different gifts and different rewards? But remember that Paul teaches that we are saved by grace for good works so that the absence of good works may reveal that we were never saved by grace, and so James teaches that faith without works is dead, and Jesus repeatedly describes those who are saved as righteous people because all who are saved by him will demonstrate their salvation in serving him;
b. We may feel that working for a reward from our Lord sound a rather mercenary kind of motivation – but Jesus has already repeatedly spoken in his Sermon on the Mount of being rewarded in heaven by his Father and the rewards he describes in his parables are not just material but also include the personal approval of our Lord and when we realise that Jesus is explaining that our lives matter deeply to him and that in addition to saving us he wants to reward us extravagantly for serving him, we would be piously insane to despise his invitation to earn his rewards and deepen our eternal joy yet more;
c. We may have swallowed a bit of our contemporary culture’s preference for being over doing, aspiring to authentic character rather than active achievement and so find Jesus’ stories about servants busily investing in growing their master’s business and unlikely parallel for being a faithful Christian? But while it must be right to reject a worldly appetite for proud success and greedy activism, we should pause to recognise that the Bible is full of praise for God for his works that express his character, for what Christ has done as much as who he is, for how the Holy Spirit will transform our behaviour as much as our thoughts – for the godly heart will erupt with sacrificial service – activity that is fruitful in growing his church – we are saved for active service!
So let’s now consider and compare what these parables teach us about the faithful service that Christ wants to rewards in us for eternity…let’s work through the Matthew passage and compare with Luke as we go: verse 14: ‘again…’ – Jesus was addressing confusion about his kingdom (cf. 19:11).
Matthew’s gospel proclaims Jesus as God’s king – the Son of David who fulfils the OT in granting access to his kingdom of heaven to see God – and Jesus has again been clarifying that while he is the King, contrary to Jewish hopes of the Messiah coming to establish God’s glorious kingdom now, there must be a delay while he departs to be enthroned, to receive all authority to empower his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations before he returns when there will be a serious reckoning – so like virgins awaiting the return of a bridegroom in the previous parable – and like the nations gathered to be separated like sheep and goats in the following parable, here Jesus encourages and warns his servants that we must prepare for his judgement – for as Paul says to the Corinthian believers in 2 Cor. 5:10, “for we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due to them for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” i.e. while we need never fear judgement of our sin (for we have already been judged and punished in our king Jesus on the cross) we are accountable to our Lord who wants to reward our service of him – and that is a seriously scary prospect! Degree finals and work appraisals and driving tests have consequences – but none as serious or as lasting as the
final judgement that determines our eternity!
Notice five simple truths illustrated by this parable…
One: The master entrusts resources to his servants until he returns!
(verse 15 cf.12) “…it will be like a man going on a journey, [to have himself appointed king] who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money [he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas], to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability [But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘we don’t want this man to be our king’. He was made king however and returned home]. Then he went on his journey.”
As the master in the parable went away on a journey, so our master Jesus rose from the dead and ascended on high to be appointed king and has not yet returned. We his servants live by faith in his gospel promise that he will return, and must patiently serve his interest until he returns; for judgement is part of the gospel we believe “This will take place on the day when God will judge people’s secrets as my gospel declares” (Rom. 2:16). The master did not leave his servants to laze in bed or play trivial Call of Duty X-box games but has entrusted serious responsibility to them – in Matthew it’s described as his property and ‘talents’ – each worth sixty mina or twenty years labour i.e. half a million pounds (in Luke’s version each servant is entrusted with one mina worth several thousand pounds); in Matthew the amounts entrusted are all different – which reflects how we have each been entrusted with different spiritual and practical resources: different family, church and cultural backgrounds, different educations, gifts and experiences, different opportunities and circumstances – but these are huge amounts of money reflecting that God has blessed us all very generously with resources for his service – all chosen carefully for us by our master so that we have no grounds for competing or complaining – no justification to feel proud and boast or feel bitter and envious. We’re all entrusted with different resources, but all entrusted with precious resources for serving Jesus. But in Luke, each servant receives the same amount of resources because Jesus was making a different point: that essentially we are all given the same thing: one life in the service of our master; so whether we teach the Bible in church or to our children, lead a church plant or finance a church plant, write a book or read it to someone in hospital, we all have one life to serve our master – and once this life is over we shall live with the consequences forever i.e. our lives REALLY MATTER to Jesus – and to us!
The warning for us here is: don’t be fooled by the master’s absence – he will most definitely return e.g. the teacher has left the classroom to give us time to prepare for an exam and he will shortly return and we will sit the exam! So stop mucking around – we need to make the most of our one life; why not use a holiday break to reflect on who you are and what God has given you; read Hebrews 11 describing the decisions made by God’s people throughout the Bible; read Christian biographies to be inspired by their courage e.g. Andrew and Rachel Chard – Tanzania, AIM, Wycliffe Bible Translators and Friends International (Reaching the least reached) i.e. to use our life to serve the Lord!
Let’s see what happened next…
Two: Some servants used their master’s resources to grow his business!
(16-20 cf.16) “16 The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17 So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18 But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’ [Sir, your mina has earned ten more]”
Notice Jesus’ parable describes servants expected and trusted to invest, not in their own business projects but in their master’s business – as followers of Christ are expected and trusted to invest in Jesus’ business – which is his mission to his world to make disciples of all nations for him – this is the serious business our master cares deeply about; so faithful servants of Jesus are not those who invest in their own family or business or reputation – but who, with serious determination, invest their personal resources (and encourage others to do the same) in his family of God’s people, in his business of holy evangelism for his reputation among worshippers from all nations i.e. those who maximise their gospel ministry!
And although Jesus is using a familiar secular situation to tell his story (indeed with provocative echoes of Herod’s own visit to Rome to be crowned king and a recent trip by the hugely unpopular Archelaus to be appointed Tetrarch over his troublesome subjects in Judea), it is striking that Jesus doesn’t use a passive image like weaving cloth, nor a protective image like guarding sheep, but the active image of growing a business: in every age and culture growing a business involves hard work – honest audit, careful research, the stress of investing wisely and marketing the property or product; many of us raised in a British Evangelical context may think of gospel ministry as a rather passive intellectual role exploring the Bible or at most a protective guardianship of the church from false teaching – which may have been more appropriate when a high proportion attended church, but is wholly inappropriate on the mission-field of Jesus’ day or in secular Britain today! Jesus uses an active, missional image – pointing to vigorous missional activity to evangelise our communities, plant and revitalise churches across our city or region, to invest in cross-cultural mission to our own nation and to all corners of the globe – for this was is business – the Word took flesh to be an evangelist calling us to be evangelists, a church-planter calling us to be church-planters and a cross-cultural missionary calling us to be cross-cultural missionaries (in our own multicultural cities as well as abroad); indeed, we often defend
ourselves from any accountability for fruitfulness by claiming we must just be faithful and leave growth and fruitfulness to God; but in this parable, like his image of the vine, Jesus condemns the man who merely protects what is entrusted to him but fails to invest in growing his master’s business! So while it must be right to repent from pride in personal success and achievement, a faithful servant will invest in the growth of the King’s business
while the lazy servant just preserves what has been entrusted to him; faithful servants invest themselves wholeheartedly and urgently in the growth of the kingdom of Christ through maximising and multiplying gospel ministries e.g. that’s why we started 9:38 and Christian Conventions and Passion for Life and Co-Mission and AMIE – you can go further.
Do you need inspiration to push and create and pioneer for the Lord? Aspire to the service shown to their king by David’s mighty men in 2 Samuel 23. Aspire to the courage of the famous Three (8-12): Josheb-Basshebeth – chief of “the Three” who raised his spear against 300 i.e. fighting against overwhelming odds e.g. fighting against abortion; Eleazar – one of “the Three” who stood his ground until his hand was frozen to his sword i.e. resistance despite desertion of others e.g. contending with a Bishop who is abandoning the Bible; and Shamah – one of “the Three” who took his stand in the middle of a field when Israel fled i.e. defended a valuable location alone e.g. defending freedom of speech for Christians on university campuses when everyone else has given up;
through these men we read, v.10 /12, “the LORD brought about a great victory”. Aspire to the devotion of the anonymous Three (13-17): they so loved their King that they broke through the Philistine lines to get him a cup of water i.e. any opportunity to please their commander was worth dying for David e.g. do something crazy for Jesus like a young Belarusian pastor running across Belarus to celebrate the anniversary of the Bible being translated – and David so loved his men that he wouldn’t drink such costly water i.e. our Messiah will not disregard the sacrifices we make. Aspire to the loyalty of the 30 Mighty Men (18-23): Abishai (brother of General Joab) – chief of the 30 raised his spear against 300 i.e. despite privileges he led by example e.g.
Alex Lyall planting in Streatham; Benaiah (the valiant fighter) – struck down two Moabite champions, a lion and a huge Egyptian i.e. fought terrifying enemies such as addiction to envy and to porn; “30 Mighty Men” (mainly Judahites inc. Uriah) – “who helped him in war”(1 Chr. 12) – they sang, “We are yours O David, and with you, O son of Jesse! Peace, peace to you, and peace to your helpers. For your God helps you” Then David received them and made them officers of his troops”. Serve like those mighty men!
Three: The master rewarded his faithful servants abundantly!
(21-23 cf.17-19) “21 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 […take charge of ten cities]. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ 22 The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you have entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more’ [Sir, your mina has earned five more]. 23 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 [You take charge of five cities]. Come and share your master’s happiness!’”
Some feel a bit nervous about being motivated by personal reward – perhaps the reward we will enjoy is not as noble a motivation for ministry as the glory of Christ and the salvation of others, but Jesus repeatedly taught it and commended it as a perfectly wise and good motivation for gospel ministry e.g. in his sermon on the mount and in countless parables; so consider the wonderful rewards described here:
a. The warm approval of our master – ‘well done good and faithful servant’ – can you imagine in a few decades from now, when you fall asleep in Christ and awake to the resurrection and sitting in the vast arena on judgement day when your name is called – and seeing his face and hearing these words, ‘Well done good and faithful servant’ – that will make everything worth-while!
b. Honourable responsibility in the kingdom of God – having proved faithful with a few resources on earth, we will be entrusted with greater resources and exciting opportunities to serve our king – we shall not be sitting around growing fat on foi-gras but serving our King in his exciting adventures;
c. For our different talents (in Matthew’s version) the same reward – to illustrate that our differences in resource gifting are not differently rewarded – but faithfulness as the person God has made us to be – so the refugee
believer who remains faithful to Jesus in desperate poverty will be rewarded as generously as the American mega-church pastor who writes fifty glorious books and plants a hundred wonderful churches – in one sense we shall all be rewarded with the same fundamental blessings of heaven;
d. For greater commitment (Luke’s version) there will be greater rewards – the servant whose one mina earns ten more is given ten cities while the faithful servant whose mina earns five more is given five cities – to illustrate
that it’s worth doing our best, stepping out in courageous faith accepting unavoidable risk for the Lord’s mission for God’s assessment will be just and those who have served at greater cost with greater courage and greater
effort will be more greatly rewarded – and we would surely agree that the persecuted Pakistani family who keep proclaiming Christ despite the economic prejudice and physical beatings they endure should be nearer the
front than you or I; but most wonderfully…
e. Sharing our master’s happiness – the supreme blessing with which our ministry will be rewarded is not material or status but relational – the supreme happiness of sharing in our master’s joy – how wonderful do you think it will be to sit with Jesus and hear him laugh – and share his joyful triumph – like my daughter’s wedding – partying with Jesus; so maximise your gospel ministry for the joy of heaven!
However:
Four: One servant was afraid and did nothing with his master’s resources!
(24 cf.20) “24 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. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground [I have kept it laid up in a piece of cloth]. See, here is what belongs to you.’”
One servant has done nothing but hide his resources away and when called to account gives as his excuse that he knew the reality that his master is cruel and unscrupulous – and so was afraid of offending him and so hid what was entrusted to him; we know from the master entrusting significant amounts of his resources to his servants to his proportionate but extravagant rewards for faithfulness that this is a generous master and that the cautious servant has misjudged him; but this servant has simply preserved and protected what was entrusted to him – and has not used them in the Master’s business; this surely describes so many people who have done little or nothing for the Lord – in fact this servant turns out not to be working for the master at all even if he claims to be i.e. the servant who does not invest themselves in the master’s business is like the church-goer who turns out not have been a Christian at all – because they made no effort to apply their personal resources to gospel work – they made no effort to maximise their gospel ministry – this clean-shirted winger turns out to be a spectator – who has no place in the victorious changing room at all!
So…
Five: The master severely punished the lazy servant!
(26-30 cf. 27) “26 His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 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.’ 28 ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29 For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth [But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be a king over them – bring them here and kill them in front of me].”
The master points out that even if he was as cruel and unscrupulous as this servant suggests, this servant could have done something as simple as put his money in the bank to attract interest – like a Christian who gives some minimal support to gospel work – but a servant who hides their talent in the ground is not a Christian at all – and so is thrown out of the king’s presence – out of heaven into the loneliness reserved for his enemies in hell where there is never-ending misery – unending weeping and permanent regret.
So what kind of life will we lead? What kind of servant judge us to be? The point of this conference is to encourage each other, not to maximise our own choice of ministry – but to maximise our gospel ministry – which is our king’s mission to his world – the reason why he has delayed the end of the world and why we are still here and not in heaven! What can we do to love our neighbour in every way the Bible requires but especially with the gospel in a life of evangelising our friends and family and community for our evangelistic Lord? What can we do to bless our towns and cities in every way the Bible requires and especially the gospel which relives suffering for eternity in heaven – by supporting and planting and revitalising churches for our church-supporting-revitalising-planting master? What could we do to support cross-cultural mission in our cities and across the world for our cross-cultural missionary Lord? We only have one life; mine is nearing its last decade; but most of us here
have decades to serve the Lord? I went to my university reunion a couple of years ago – half
were retired – some had died – but I have so much work to do for my master!
Can I urge each of as the person you are to maximise your gospel ministry that when the master returns, he may lift you up and you will see his smiling face, and hear his words, “Well done good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things; Come and share in your master’s happiness!”
