Kingdom of God Part IV: What do you think about God? 1. Hook: A Christian couple felt it important to own an equally Christian pet. So, they went shopping. At a kennel specializing in this particular breed, they found a dog they liked quite a lot. When they asked the dog to fetch the Bible, he did it in a flash. When they instructed him to look up Psalm 23, he complied equally fast, using his paws with dexterity. They were impressed, purchased the animal, and went home (piously, of course). That night they had friends over. They were so proud of their new fundamentalist dog and his major skills, they called the dog and showed off a little. The friends were impressed, and asked whether the dog was able to do any of the usual dog tricks, as well. This stopped the couple cold, as they hadn t thought about normal tricks. Well, they said, let s try this out. Once more they called out to the dog, and then clearly pronounced the command, Heel! Quick as a wink, the dog jumped up, put his paw on the man s forehead, closed his eyes in concentration, and bowed his head. 2. The Kingdom of Heaven What an amazing thing. We are told that it will be the manifestation of God upon earth and in our lives. That sounds good, but what does that look like in real life? That had to be a question for the disciples because their understanding of the Kingdom was that it would be a physical kingdom with a physical king ruling over them and overcoming their political enemies. It is a question we should ask as well, since few of us have actually SEEN the Kingdom of God manifest in our lives on a regular basis. a. Does our experience define our beliefs? Or should our beliefs shape our experience? i. Just because you haven t seen a mountain move, does that mean God doesn t move mountains? ii. Just because you haven t personally witnessed cancer healed, does that mean God doesn t heal cancer? Of course not. iii. The reality of the Kingdom of God is something that God desires us to experience in its fullness on this side of heaven. The early church experienced it. Why don t we? b. Jesus understood that just telling people about something isn t enough, that sometimes word pictures and stories can communicate a truth better. Our bibles call these stories parables which are illustrations which help bring deeper meaning to a subject. 3. Matthew 25:14-29 "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a trip. He called together his servants and gave them money to invest for him while he was gone. He gave five bags of gold to one, two bags of gold to another, and one bag of gold to the last dividing it in proportion to their abilities and then left on his trip. The servant who received the five bags of gold began immediately to invest the money and soon doubled it. The servant with two bags of gold also went right to work and doubled the money. But the servant who received the one bag of gold dug a hole in the ground and hid the master's money for safekeeping. "After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of gold said, 'Sir, you gave me five bags of gold to invest, and I have doubled the amount.' The master was full of praise. 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together!' "Next came the servant who had received the two bags of gold, with the report, 'Sir, you gave me two bags of gold to invest, and I have doubled the amount.' The master said, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together!' "Then the servant with the one bag of gold came and
said, 'Sir, I know you are a hard man, harvesting crops you didn't plant and gathering crops you didn't cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth and here it is.' "But the master replied, 'You wicked and lazy servant! You think I'm a hard man, do you, harvesting crops I didn't plant and gathering crops I didn't cultivate? Well, you should at least have put my money into the bank so I could have some interest. Take the money from this servant and give it to the one with the ten bags of gold. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who are unfaithful, even what little they have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 4. This is a story about God and His graciousness, and about us and our perception and belief about who He is. On its surface, this seems like a very hard story, one of severe consequences for anyone who doesn t produce results for God. I have heard it preached that way. But that isn t the core message of this parable. a. The Master graciously gives to each of these individuals something of great value, each in accordance to their abilities. The New American Standard says, he called his own servants (slaves) and entrusted his possessions or belongings to them. i. The word we have translated entrust is the word paradidomi which means to deliver to another to manage or use. ii. We know that these are talents which would be 1000 day s wages or 3 years wages. Imagine being given that kind of money times the number of the bags, and being told to manage it for your boss? 500k, 200k, 100k: How would YOU respond? iii. Each were given according to their abilities which the master knew. These belongings belong to the master, not the servants, and they are entrusted to their care. In a very real sense, the servants become stewards of these belongings. They are given to be invested and not given for the person s own use. There is no promise that they will share in any profit or brokerage fee. The Master alone would benefit from their labors. b. So let s take an aside before we continue: What abilities has God given you? What had God put into your hands to take care of until the return of our Master? We don t often think about things like that until we are confronted by a difficult passage like this. i. Keep in mind that opportunities to benefit Christ alone with our gifts, talents and abilities come along in our lives and we are given a choice as to how we will respond do I do this to benefit me or my savior? Will I choose what I want or what He wants? ii. These belongings can be simple things like money, possessions, and even something as intangible as time. Each of us is a steward of all we have. It doesn t really belong to us. It is when we see ourselves as owners that we get in trouble 1. Is your life your own? You are not your own, you were bought with a price, therefore honor God in your body. (1 Cor 6:20). 2. As a child of God, each of us has been bought with a price. Our sins atoned for, our lives redeemed. The word redeemed means to purchase back. God bought us back from the one who had enslaved us. We had been sold into slavery and then God went and paid an enormous price for us. 3. Can you imagine being in the 1800 s in chains, dragged from the hold of a ship, and being sold into slavery. And slave masters didn t treat their property well. They were treated exactly as that as property. But then, imagine after being a slave for 20, 30, maybe even 40 years, someone comes along to the plantation and buys you from your owner. But the price they pay is outlandish! Far more than your owner even thinks you are worth! And if you have been in slavery for very
long, you probably didn t think you were worth very much either. But there it is, the proof Jesus paid for your life with his. A realization of this truth brings an amazing impact of the Good News on us! c. Our passage tells us that IMMEDIATELY the one who had received the five bags of gold, went out and put the funds to work and doubled his investment. The same for the one who had received two bags of gold. i. The man with two talents had gained two talents more. Is that fifty percent? No, that is one hundred percent, too. That means that to the limits of his ability he, too, had chosen to put his boss s cause first. He was not naturally as capable as the other man but he was equally committed. He had risked loss to himself that his Lord's work might prosper.(understand that a steward in those days was responsible for the principal of any funds he was managing. If his investment lost money, he would have to make it up. And the profits would still belong to the master! There isn t much personal incentive for the steward to take risks. Yet, each of the first two did so. To them, therefore, the Lord says, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master." There is not one syllable of difference between what the Lord says to the man with two talents and what he said to the man with five! ii. These two of took risks with their gifts and increased them! iii. But the one who had received one bag of gold went away, dug a hole in the ground, and buried and hid the money so he wouldn t lose it! But the one who had been given one bag of gold didn t take any chances. He didn t want the master to be mad at him for losing it in a pyramid scheme or on an iffy stock market, so he buried it! He hid it! He was living it safe. d. The day of reckoning comes and the Master returns. The first two servants present their master with the gifts he had given them and the profits they had made and are celebrated for their good work! 5. But the last fellow has a response that is very pointed, there is just something wrong with his reply: "Then the servant with the one bag of gold came and said, 'Sir, I know you are a hard man, harvesting crops you didn't plant and gathering crops you didn't cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth and here it is.' "But the master replied, 'You wicked and lazy servant! You think I'm a hard man, do you, harvesting crops I didn't plant and gathering crops I didn't cultivate? Well, you should at least have put my money into the bank so I could have some interest.. Take the money from this servant and give it to the one with the ten bags of gold. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who are unfaithful, even what little they have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. a. This servant had gained nothing because he had risked nothing. There was no increase because there was no investment. He had one great (and long-continued) opportunity to risk himself on behalf of his master but he deliberately ignored it. i. This is a realistic picture of the KOG: God gives each of us an amazing opportunity to risk and participate in His work in the KOG. How do we respond? How we respond will reveal something very deep and profound about each of us. b. This third servant had deliberately and early on had gone and hid it in the ground! i. It was like he was saying, Well, I did the altar call, I m in, but I m not going to live for my Master because it might cost me!
ii. When it was safely buried he could forget about it and go on about his own affairs. iii. It was not there to make him uncomfortable by constantly reminding him of his master's expectations. iv. But since he took no risk for his master he lived entirely for himself. v. When the master returns, the man has a little speech carefully prepared to justify it all. Evidently he had rehearsed it many times. "You are," he says, "a basically unreasonable man. You expect other people to do the hard work while you get all the benefits, and if they should fail to satisfy your expectations you are quite ready to accuse them as thieves. So I was afraid to risk what you gave me, lest I should lose it and would have to face your wrath when you returned. But I have outwitted you. I have kept your talent safe for your return. Here is exactly what you gave me. You and I are even." vi. The master then says, "So that is your understanding of my character, is it? All right, then, out of your own mouth will I judge you. If that's what you thought of me, you have judged me wrong. vii. Our perception of God will affect our experience. When we see Him through the eyes of legalism, we will respond to Him the same way. And we will treat others the way we expect and believe God will treat us. c. This third servant, the one who had buried his funds (hid behind his safety) has a destiny that indicates that he will not be spending eternity in heaven. Why is that? i. Is it because he didn t do what he was supposed to with the funds and gifts he was given? Or did the actions of each person demonstrate what was in their hearts and to which king and kingdom they actually belonged? ii. If it was the first that he was sent to hell for not doing enough with his gifts, we would have works basis for gaining God s approval, and that is not consistent with the rest of the scriptures. iii. But if it is the latter, then we have a surprising insight into the hearts of those who say they belong to the kingdom and those who actually are members of the kingdom of God. iv. The real problem was that the third man had no intention of really BEING the servant he was pretending to be. His goal was to protect himself, not to live for his master. Had he risked it all by giving himself, he would have found like the other two, great reward. v. Do you see any of yourself in this story? 1. The story is about each of us: Do you do just enough to LOOK like you belong to Jesus? Or do you risk it all for Him? 6. How do you see God? As harsh? As judgmental? As exacting, so that you don t dare take a chance of losing what you have? Then maybe you don t really know Him. God is so good and so much better than you can every know or imagine. He didn t expect these stewards to earn his love. But He knew if their hearts belonged to Him, there would be nothing that they would hold back to bring a return to Him. a. We are often afraid of not measuring up to a Father who demands a standard too high to be reached. We are often afraid our heavenly Father will be like our earthly father, distant, judgmental, harsh, angry, detached, or always raising the bar. When we see our God like this, we will keep Him at distance, and we will be less likely to approach Him. b. This lie create a gap, a separation from our Father. It is because we have too often made Him in our own image. This is why the Master in the story reacted to the third servant s excuse, 'Sir, I know you are a hard man, harvesting crops you didn't plant and gathering crops you didn't cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth and here it is.' c. Is God a hard God to you?
d. Many people believe Jesus primary purpose was to come to earth to save us from the Father s wrath. That is a very shallow view of God. Yet Jesus said, If you have seen me you have seen my Father. Jesus was revealing the Father s heart toward us. i. The Law could only reveal sin and judgment. The Law exposed our flesh, our nature, our brokenness. Jesus came to heal that and restore us. And somewhere along the way we lost out on the true picture of God the loving Father that Jesus came to reveal! ii. The devil knows you won t draw near to someone you fear. So he would have you believe a lie about your Heavenly Father. He would have you believe He is harsh, exacting and judgmental. iii. You are saved by what He (Jesus) has done, not by what you have or haven t done. 7. How do you see God? Are you afraid of failing? His grace is enough. You are free of fear. He took care of every failure Past, present and FUTURE. You can boldly step into tomorrow and live for His glory, risking everything, knowing that it s all worth it. I love the master s words to the faithful servants, Let's celebrate together!'