Faithfulness Preached at 8.15 and on 19 th April 2015

Transcription

1 Faithfulness Preached at 8.15 and on 19 th April 2015 Matthew 25:14-30 Intro My Collie, Luka, is a faithful old boy! When I m at home working in my study he s there under the desk at my feet all day. He follows me everywhere I go and does mostly everything I say. He trusts me. He ll stick by me no matter what. He s faithful. A couple of years ago the side gate was accidentally left open one night. The next morning I walked up the hallway to see Luka s face staring at me through the glass panel next to the door. He could have gone anywhere he liked. But he stayed right there all night waiting for me to come and open the door and let him back in. He s faithful to the master he knows and trusts. Faithfulness is a virtue that s good to see not only in pets, but in people too the faithfulness of a friend who will never leave you when the going gets tough the faithfulness of a husband or wife who stick by each other in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, as long as they live. Faithfulness is also a characteristic that God expects to see in people faithfulness to him. And that s what this story that Jesus told is about. Faithfulness and the talents At this point in Matthew s Gospel, Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure as he goes to the cross. After his victory over sin and death he ll be raised as King of God s eternal kingdom. 1

2 But his kingdom is not of this world. He ascended to heaven to God s right hand and now rules from there until it s time for him to return. When he returns, there ll be a great separation and that s what the three stories of this chapter are about the women who weren t ready for the arrival of the bridegroom are separated from those who were the sheep who listened to the shepherd s voice when he spoke through his servants are separated from the goats who didn t. And in the middle story, the good and faithful servants are separated from the wicked, lazy servant. Jesus is telling this story to help people who say they re his followers to understand what their lives should be like between the time he goes away and the time he returns. And it can be summed up in one word faithfulness. In the story, a man with property is going away, and while he s away he trusts his wealth to his three servants. The talents aren t gifts or abilities. A talent was a sum of money. All he s doing is telling his servants to keep going about his business while he s away investing and managing his wealth for his benefit. As long as they all do what he s asked them, his wealth will grow. That s why, when the master returns, the first servant doesn t get a bigger commendation than the second one even though the amounts they made were different. They get the identical response from the master: 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 your master s happiness! (Matthew 25:21 and 23 NIV) But the third servant just gives the money back. He s had it buried in a hole in the ground all this time. Does the master say well, thanks at least I didn t lose any! 2

3 No. He gets: You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 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. (Matthew 25:26 27 NIV) And instead of come and share your master s happiness this servant hears: throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness, where there ll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (v30) Hasn t this servant been faithful? After all, he didn t steal the money. What s the issue? The issue is that the servant did nothing for the master who had the right to his service. The master wasn t asking for anything unreasonable. The man was his servant. It s like the owner of a shop saying to one of his employees: here are the keys to the shop. I won t be in tomorrow. I want you to open up tomorrow morning, serve the customers, clean up at the end of the day and tell me how much I made. That s reasonable isn t it? What if the employee took the keys, but got up next day and decided to have a garage sale at home and make a few dollars then go and enjoy the afternoon at the beach. Next day when he handed the keys back, would the shop owner have the right to be annoyed? Yes. You d be asking the question whether the employee understood how the whole employer/employee thing worked. I think that s the clue to understanding what s going on in this story. In v24-25 the servant says: 3

4 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. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' His excuse for his laziness is that he thinks his master is a hard task- master who expects to be given what he s not entitled to. So he gives back nothing but what he decides the master is entitled to. But what s the master entitled to? His faithful service! That s what the first two are commended for well done good and faithful servant! These two understood the relationship between their master and themselves as his servants. They knew that he was the one entitled to their faithful service not questioning his right to command their labour and take the results of their efforts. That s what good and faithful servants do. And their good and generous master brings them into to share in the joy of his rich happiness. Not quite the impression the third man had of him as a hard man who takes what isn t his and doesn t give. Application As I said, Jesus is telling this story to teach his followers about life in the time between his going away and his return. The question is will you and I be faithful servants of our Master, Jesus, until he comes back? The answer to that isn t a question of how much you will do. Remember the first and second servants got exactly the same commendation and reward. It s a question of faithfulness. Do you know who you belong to? 4

5 Do you know the God who has the right to your faithful obedience? God has raised Jesus as Lord of all people. He has the right to our obedience. But what do you think of him? The third servant thought his master was harsh and demanding. Is that what you think about God? It s the way most people think about God. He just wants to spoil the party for us. If we want to enjoy life, we ll have to serve ourselves. If that s the way we think about God, then we won t want to give up our time for church for serving for sharing life for sharing the good news about Jesus we won t give over our lives to the one who has the right to our obedient service! At best we ll give him the left- overs or nothing at all. If that s how you think about God, then you need to look or look again at Jesus. Jesus is all the fullness of God who came to us as a servant to give his life to save us from that eternity of darkness, weeping and gnashing teeth, and to give us the fullness of his eternal joy as the Son of God. Does he sound like a hard task- master? Not to me! He is the faithful servant of God who has served us graciously, lovingly and generously. Serving Jesus isn t about trying to please a harsh boss who ll never be satisfied. It s living your life by going about his business living to do the things that please him all the days of your life. things he commands us to do: just trusting your life, past present and future to him through what he s done on the cross 5

6 working at growing to know him and love him more all the time loving and serving each other the way that he s sacrificially loved and served us loving other people by making the most of our relationships and opportunities to introduce them to Jesus Faithful obedient service that s what Jesus expects of us while we live here waiting for his return. It s not that we earn his pleasure by working hard. The reward the first two servants received was above and beyond what they deserved, and so is ours to share in the happiness of our master is his gift to us who know and love him. But if we do the bare minimum to serve him while serving ourselves, it just shows that we don t really know him, love him or understand what it means to serve him. And the lazy servant s excuses didn t wash with his master and neither will ours. But every servant who perseveres in serving our Master faithfully to the end will hear those 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 your master s happiness! 6