THE QUESTION OF OUR STANDARD OF MEASURE Went to the doctor recently. You know the ropes. Call your name, greeted warmly, asked to go through the gamut of preliminary markers; get your weight. I got on, number came up and I looked at the nurse and was like, that can’t be right? She smiled. Was asked to stand and get my height (I stretch like nothing else). She audibly said 5’11”. I was like, hey the weight we can banter about, but my height? I said, really? She smiled again and shared this line. I know this after all these years, measurements don’t lie, but people can!
End of discussion; I sulked down the hallway. Interesting how you can be humbled and at the same time harassed by truth. Interesting how certain declarations are not debatable. Measurements don’t lie. Yesterday, today and tomorrow, our lives are measured up against one standard, the person of Jesus Christ. He determines the measurement for salvation. He determines the measurement for Lordship. We can deny, be incredulous, argue, debate, rebel, resent those measurements. . .but those measurements do not lie.
Jesus told stories to create illustrations for HIS measurements. Stories that up against our lives challenge how we measure what is good and what is not good. What we think we should be doing and what we really should be doing. Jesus was a good story teller. His stories had the ability to light up your mind, prick your heart and challenge your actions and attitudes. He made us, so He knew how to get at us. We have to constantly decide how we respond to His measurements of life.
PARABLE OF THE TALENTS is one of these measurements.
In the ancient world, a talent was a large unit of weight (around 75 lbs) and was used as a measure for precious metals like gold and silverThe concept of a talent was well understood in the Greco-Roman world and among the Jewish people during the time of the New Testament.
Here in Matthew, the talent as a unit of value is used as a reference to money but correlates with the idea of stewardship and accountability. Matthew 23-25 Jesus is ramping up on end times, our real identities, our preparedness, His return and the judgment. He seems to be jumping back to what was asked in chapter 16, BUT WHO DO YOU SAY I AM? We are measured not only by the answer to that question, but how we live out the answer.
READY TO BE MEASURED?
THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS, MATTHEW 25:14-30
During WWII the story is told that when Britain faced a critical shortage of silver during the days of the conflict and that Winston Churchill launched a search of possible sources of silver. They discovered some sterling silver statutes of saints in some of their churches and cathedrals. When Churchill was made aware of this he said, Well, it’s time to put the saints into circulation. Mmm, mmm
There are five major discourses attributed to Jesus in the gospel of Matthew, this parable is part of the last teaching block that begins in 24:1. Jesus and his disciples had just come out of the temple. His disciples were admiring the beautiful buildings when Jesus warned of the temple’s coming destruction. Then they walked over to the Mount of Olives and Matthew says that the disciples came to him privately with their questions about the destruction of the temple and end of the age. This is where we land with this story, this parable.
CHRIST LEFT, HE’S COMING BACK, WHAT DID WE DO?
3 MEASUREMENTS
1. MEASUREMENT ONE: Who’s the Master?
a. Jesus tells the story of a man going on a journey for a long time. This man is obvi-ously quite wealthy, and before he leaves he calls his servants together. To each of three servants the master entrusts his property. The implication is that the mas-ter gives them most of his estate. While the term talent doesn’t mean much to us, those in the first century who heard this story would have known immediately that it was a tremendous sum of money. A talent was the equivalent of 20 years’ wages. So when he gives 5 talents, 2 talents, and 1 talent to each of the three servants, the master is putting them in charge of about 160 years’ worth of wages.
b.Obviously this is a sum that none of them will be able to make good on should their stewardship fail. Matthew tells us that each receives according to his ability, so the master is sensitive to the fact that some can handle more responsibility than others.
CONTEMPLATION: Who’s the master and do we understand the value of what we’ve been given to steward? Jesus is the Master!
2. MEASUREMENT TWO: Stewardship and Accountability
a.Matthew says that after a long time the master returns to settle accounts with his servants. We don’t know how long a long time was, but it was time enough for them to have managed the assets entrusted to them, and to receive a return. Per-haps you might say a long time is a life time.
b.The story goes. The master calls the servants and asks for an accounting. Both the servants with 5 and 2 doubled their investment. In other words they DID something, they were faithful to the Master’s request. The master’s response to both: Well done. You are good and faithful servants. Enter the joy of your Mas-ter. Be a 5, be a 2, but don’t be a 1.
c.But then the third servant has to report. He had received only 1 talent. But in-stead of reporting on his stewardship, he begins to talk about the master himself. The issue, the third servant has created his own measurements. Master, he said, I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gather-ing 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. He has a poor per-ception of the master. Worse yet, I think he’s hedging his bets that’s he’s going to be okay based upon HIS measurements.
CONTEMPLATION: By what measurements are you living your life? (yours/Gods?)
MEASUREMENT THREE, The Great Reckoning
The Grand Interruption: that time which is now and the time which will be. All measurements (all stewardship of life and the accountability) will find themselves up against the REAL MASTER. Want you to think about the moment the Master reappears. Previously dealt with in the parable of the Ten Virgins. Readiness. This great pause will be quite a moment when the Master returns. Think about 3 things: 1). Giving an account to the Master for how you’ve done what He’s asked, 2). Don’t you think there’s great confidence, assurance in living according to His measurements, 3). The apprehension of taking your own measurement of life before Him?
WELL HERE’S WHAT THAT LOOKS LIKE, THIS IS HOW IT PLAYS OUT
The Master commands that the servant who has buried his 1 talent and produced nothing by way of return, be thrown outside. Which obviously means he’s not going to be inside. He’s on the wrong side of eternity.
COUPLE OBSERVATIONS:
1. The one talent servant has it confiscated and it’s given to the one who had 10
We have a tendency to want to know why? We have a tendency to struggle somewhat when we don’t know exactly why. The why? Jesus communicated multiple times that he who has been faithful in a few things will be given more. How that plays out is God’s meas-urement. If we struggle with the measurements here, there would be an obvious struggle with how it plays out there. If we accept the measurements here and are faithful, we’ll ac-cept them however and whenever they’re dispersed.
2. The master calls the servant of one talent a WICKED, LAZY, SLAVE
May seem out of character for Christ but actually it’s pretty consistent with verbiage all throughout scripture. Jesus calls you what you are. That slave got put in the same place as those foolish virgins. He was thrown out with the hypocrites. And that’s where they both ended up. One was busy in service without an internal love for the master. The other claimed to have love, but had no service.
CONTEMPLATION:
To accept the call to discipleship is to accept the reality that everything belongs to God.
We have been given resources of money, ability, and time and entrusted with the
responsibility to use these resources for the good of God’s kingdom, for the good of the Church, our community, our culture, our country, our world.
The real mission of this life is to do what the master expects.
This is the old choice which is still presented to every soul; the old crisis which reappears in every experience. Caesar, or Christ, that’s the question: the vast, attractive, skeptical world, with its pleasures and ambitions and its prodigal promise, or the meek, majestic, and winning figure of Him of Nazareth? What do you want to be measured by?
When Edward VI, the king of England in the 16th century, attended a worship service, he would stand while the Word of God was read. He took notes and later studied them with great care. Through the week he earnestly tried to apply them to his life. That’s the kind of serious-minded response to truth; that’s the measurement the parable seeks. A single revealed fact cherished in the heart and acted upon is more vital to our growth than a head filled with lofty ideas about God. One step forward in obedience is worth years of study about it.
CONCLUSION
SO. . .WHAT DOES THE PARABLE ILLUSTRATE?
a measurement of what discipleship REALLY is
a warning, a teaching, a benchmark of how we are measured
a reality, this is how this is all going to work out, a spiritual insight
LEVELS OF DISCIPLES
1. Not many 5’s. (Noah, Abraham, Daniel, Paul)
2. Probably a host of 2’s, biblical saints, the brethren, the faithful
A mass of 1’s, those startled, surprised and shocked by eternity and the measure-ment seen up close.
SOME OBSERVATIONS THEN:
1. Don’t know when you’re going to die
2. Don’t know when Christ, the Master is going to return
3. Do know, He is coming back
4. Have you chosen the right measure of life to be judged by
READ ISAIAH 6
Disciples and non-disciples of Christ alike, all will meet the God of Isaiah 6
high and lifted up
Holy, holy, holy
The Master
As we end, want you picture a line this morning, all of us going before the cross, up against Isaiah 6. Meeting the Master, you will see the measurement in its fullness. Just you and God.
MEDITATION
Whatever it takes. . .
J.C. Ryle wrote this statement: The child of God has two great marks about him. . . . He may be known by his inward warfare, as well as by his inward peace. Where there is grace, there will be conflict, there is no holiness without a warfare. Saved souls will always be found to have fought a fight.
1. Philippians 1:6, For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
This is the heartbeat of the church for you, for every person. Creating a beginning, nurturing, building upon that beginning and then praying, teaching, shepherding, guiding, protecting, promoting you until the day of Christ.
2. Hebrews 3:14, For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the begin- ning of our assurance firm until the end.
This needs to be your heartbeat for yourself, your spouse, your family, everyone. You have to be partakers, you have to hold fast, firm to the end.
COMMUNION IS THE CONFLICT OF THE INWARD WARFARE AND OUR INWARD PEACE
Went to the doctor recently. You know the ropes. Call your name, greeted warmly, asked to go through the gamut of preliminary markers; get your weight. I got on, number came up and I looked at the nurse and was like, that can’t be right? She smiled. Was asked to stand and get my height (I stretch like nothing else). She audibly said 5’11”. I was like, hey the weight we can banter about, but my height? I said, really? She smiled again and shared this line. I know this after all these years, measurements don’t lie, but people can!
This is the old choice which is still presented to every soul; the old crisis which reappears in every experience. Caesar, or Christ, that’s the question: the vast, attractive, skeptical world, with its pleasures and ambitions and its prodigal promise, or the meek, majestic, and winning figure of Him of Nazareth? What do you want to be measured by?