WWUTT 2101 Well Done Good and Faithful Slave (Matthew 25:14-30)

It is from a parable in Matthew 25 where Jesus spoke those famous words,

Well done good and faithful servant, now great is your reward. May we aspire to hear those words on the day of glory when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it.

Visit our website at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you Becky. We're back to our study of the Olivet Discourse. This is where Jesus was talking with his disciples on the

Mount of Olives about what they can expect concerning the destruction of the temple and then his eventual return and even the end of the age.

We're gonna pick up where we left off last week. This is Matthew chapter 25. I'll read from verses 14 to 30 out of the

Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them and the one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents saying,

Master you handed five talents over to me see I have gained five more talents. His master said to him well done good and faithful slave you were faithful with a few things

I will put you in charge of many things enter into the joy of your master.

Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said Master you handed two talents over to me see

I have gained two more talents. His master said to him well done good and faithful slave you were faithful with a few things

I will put you in charge of many things enter into the joy of your master.

And the one who had received the one talent came up and said Master I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed and I was afraid and I went away and hid your talent in the ground see you have what is yours.

But his master answered and said to him you wicked lazy slave you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed therefore you ought to have put my money in the bank and on my arrival

I would have received my money back with interest therefore take away the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents for to everyone who has more shall be given and he will have an abundance but from the one who does not have even what he does have shall be taken away and throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth this is the third of three parables that we have been reading going back to the parable that was at the end of chapter 24 between the faithful faithful and prudent slave and the wicked slave the faithful slave did what his master expected him to do while he was gone he cared for the members of his household giving them their food at the proper time and the master rewarded him when he came back truly

I say to you he will put him in charge of all his possessions Jesus said but the wicked slave said my master's not coming

I don't see him he isn't returning for a long time so he beats his fellow slaves and he goes and eats and drinks with drunkards the master will will return at a time that wicked slave does not expect and he will cut him into pieces and throw him out with the hypocrites then the second parable was the one that we looked at on Wednesday was the parable of the ten virgins you had these ten virgins that went out to meet the bridegroom late at night because that was when weddings were typically done back then they were in the evening and not during the day so they go and meet the bridegroom and when he finally comes five of the virgins were wise and they brought extra oil for their lamps but five of the virgins were foolish and had to go back to the market to buy some extra oil when they came to the place where the feast was going to be held they found the door closed and locked they pounded and said let us in but the master of the feast said depart from me

I never knew you and they were left there in the outer darkness therefore stay awake

Jesus said for you do not know the day nor the hour and now we come to the third of those three parables and it is the parable of the talents now it is from this parable that we gain the very famous phrase that we expect to hear

Jesus say to us when we get to heaven on that day whether you die or the lord returns whichever comes first when you enter through heaven's gates what are those words that you hope to hear your savior say well done good and faithful servant that's the way we most often say it you'll notice that in this translation we read well done good and faithful slave that's because the greek word is doulos which means slave and it's from that that greek word directly into english that the translators of the legacy standard have preserved the true meaning which is slave so well done good and faithful slave is the way that we see it here but of course the meaning is still the same if i'm entering into heaven's gates i am i'm great with hearing my savior say well done good and faithful servant or well done good and faithful slave either one i'll receive it but we are all slaves of something and you are either going to be a slave of christ or you're going to be a slave of the world the flesh and the devil everybody's got to serve somebody that is a that is such a truth that it's not just limited to christians to understand that bob dylan years ago he wrote a song called you're gonna have to serve somebody everyone serves someone we are all slaves of something as paul talked about in romans chapter 6 as jesus also said if you are not a slave to righteousness you are a slave to sin and if you're a slave to sin then you will perish in your sins but if you're a slave to righteousness then you have received the salvation that is given to us in christ our lord in whose righteousness we wear so we are a slave to someone and here in this particular parable jesus describes his servants his disciples as slaves now we find particular offense in that word and that's one of the reasons why over the years of english translations especially in the last you know 100 150 years or something like that english translators have tended to stay away from that word slave because of the connotation it has it has such a negative connotation especially in our western world with the uh the north atlantic slave trade and the history of slavery that exists on our continent so therefore because of that dark and even offensive past we tend to stray from that word slave we don't want to we don't want to use it so we use the word servant instead but you know what this word would have been every bit as offensive in the time of christ as it would be today nobody wanted to be a slave they wanted to be freed from their slavery they wanted to be freed men they wanted to be rulers and we've been talking about in previous chapters of matthew how the disciples expected jesus the messiah to come in kick the off the throne drive out the romans and he would assume the throne of his father david and he would make israel a great empire again so the disciples with that expectation they think they're going to get to rule remember just a couple of chapters ago it was uh james and john's mother that came to jesus and said permit that my sons will be able to sit beside you with one on your right hand and one on your left now whenever we see that request we think you know she's just asking that when you get to heaven when you guys are in the heavenly kingdom let it be that one son gets to sit on your right hand and one gets to sit on your left but the expectation there was the earthly kingdom it was an earthly reign as israel would be made an empire once again and when you rule in that empire i want my sons to be right there next to you i'll be taking pictures of it not really but you know as a mother is but that was the expectation that they had that it was going to be an earthly rule so they want rule we get to sit on our thrones we get to reign over the romans and all those other people who have oppressed us the gentiles if the gentiles want blessing well they're going to have to bless israel but we're going to be the ruling superpower in the world just like the scriptures said we would be that's the way they interpreted that so here it would have been quite a shock to the system to hear jesus describe his servants as slaves in this way his disciples as slaves whether it was the parable of the faithful and prudent slave versus the wicked slave or this one here with the parable of the talents it was it was surely something for the disciples to be sitting there listening to jesus call them slaves like slaves what do you mean by slaves i thought we were going to rule this thing so jesus gives this parable of the talent and like i said this parable is where we hear the famous phrase well done good and faithful servant for great is your reward or good and faithful slave there's something else a little bit of trivia here something else that comes out of this particular parable you might think of a talent as some sort of gifting or skill that you have right that's the way we use talent these days what talents do you have i'm a great dancer or i'm a great singer or i'm a tremendous artist or i i know how to to build things well that is my skill and that's my talent that's how we use that word you know that word does come from this parable this is it's this parable is how we got that word talent to describe a skill there was a translation of or a commentary rather of this parable back in the 13th century where the commentary explained a talent as being something like a gift or a skill that god has given to his disciples and it's from that commentary that we have come into this usage of the word talent to mean a gifting or a skill it is exactly from this parable that's how we've come to call gifts talents but talent of course here is a it's a currency it's a certain amount of money a talent would have been a hundred denarii and as i've explained before about the denarius that was equal to one day's wage so one talent was a hundred days wages and shows you the wealth of this particular master as he is handing over his possessions to these slaves and he gives the first slave five talents or what would have amounted to about a year and a half's worth of days wages and he puts it into the care of this slave this was a typical custom this was a common practice because a master didn't want to leave and go on a journey and just leave his property just sitting there so he would have slaves or he would have stewards as they would also be called to oversee all that belonged to the master he might even leave some of his family there so the steward also had the responsibility of overseeing his household the people that were in his household taking care of them that's what we heard in that first parable back in chapter 24 that when the master goes away the faithful and prudent slave has been put in front in charge of the household and he gives them their food at the proper time so he takes care of all the people that are in the household it was the same with property you didn't just want to let property sit there you you can't just let a field sit there and not be used it had to continue to be cared for or a vineyard or something like that a garden or whatever else and same with the money you didn't want to just leave the money sitting there because if it's not being watched by somebody or managed by someone what's liable to happen to it it could be stolen misplaced or something to that degree so this was a common practice with masters of large estates that he would put those things in the charge of his slaves while he went away and did business elsewhere so he gives one five talents to another two and to another one each according to his own ability and he went away on his journey now it's that particular phrase each according to his own ability that's where that commentary several hundred years ago had come to connect talent with a gift or a skill because it said each to his own ability so that must be what a talent is it is god giving gifts and skills to his disciples to use in his absence and they are supposed to be faithful with those things like spiritual gifts and continue to labor in them for the cause of the kingdom until the master returns that's how that translation went now remember last week i said with regard to parables you have to be careful about doing that kind of thing because a parable has one meaning there is one intended meaning with a parable and sometimes we can like over overly symbolize it we look for all this different kind of nuance and stuff like that in the parable well this represents that and and this and so on and so forth and then we end up going well beyond what jesus had intended when he gave a parable here it is simply meant for us to understand that we are to be faithful with what the lord has given to us to do that might be a spiritual gift or it could just simply be the work that we're supposed to be doing growing in godliness and christlikeness sharing the gospel with others keeping ourselves from sin all of these things could be lumped into what is being represented with the talent it doesn't necessarily just have to be a spiritual gift or a skill but he does nonetheless distribute to these three slaves according to their ability one slave has an ability to care for much more money another slave an ability to do well with a little bit less and then this one slave it makes sense why the master gave him just the one talent because he clearly couldn't even manage that so going on in verse 16 immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with him and gained five more talents he was faithful with that god had given to his care in the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more but he who received the one talent went away and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them now it's interesting how it's talked about how the master went away for a long time this was the same thing that was said back in chapter 24 with regard to the faithful slave versus the wicked slave the wicked slave says my master's been gone for a long time he isn't even going to come back so then he starts misbehaving conducting himself in a manner that was worthy of the judgment that he received when his master did eventually return in these two parables we see it demonstrated that the master was taking a long time so i i say that because when we go back into chapter 24 where jesus talks about the abomination of desolation and the destruction of the temple that's in matthew 24 verses 15 to 28 and then after he gets to that he says in verse 29 but immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be dark and the moon will not give its light in the stall the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heavens will be shaken and then the sign of the son of man will appear in the sky and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn so we interpret that in matthew 24 29 as being immediately after like in the days right after the destruction of the temple then jesus returns i say we but that's really more the like the full preterist that will describe it that way but again like i said last week immediately after just simply means it's the next prophetic event that's going to take place jesus doesn't actually say how much time is going to transpire between these two events in fact rather what we're reading here in these parables is that it's a long period of time the master's gone for a long time the wicked slave does wicked things the master goes on a long journey and he leaves his possessions to his slaves to handle these things wisely and so here we have in verse 19 after a long time the master of those slaves returned and he settled accounts with them and the one who would receive the five talents came up and brought five more talents doubled his money saying master you have handed five talents over to me see i have gained five more talents his master said to him well done good and faithful slave you were faithful with a few things i will put you in charge of many things enter into the joy of your master i think it is right for us to take these words and understand them as the words that christ will say to us when we enter into his eternal kingdom well done good and faithful slave and this is this is these are the words you want to hear and not what jesus said back in matthew 7 depart from me you worker of lawlessness i never knew you in fact i'll i'll tend to use those two phrases in sermons where i give an evangelical presentation and say to those who know christ they will hear from him on that day well done good and faithful servant now great is your reward but those who do not know christ or those who had who had gone away in wickedness they said they knew jesus but they persisted in sin and followed after the ways of the world and chased after the passions of their flesh they will instead hear on that day depart from me you worker of lawlessness i never knew you so well done good and faithful slave those are the words that we want to hear verse 22 the one who had received the two talents came and said master you handed two talents over to me see i have gained two more also doubled his money but notice that the doubling is still not even as much as the master gave to the first slave he gave the first slave five talents he gave the second slave two doubled his money which ends up with four but he still doesn't even have as much as the master gave to that first slave nonetheless what is the master's response his master said to him well done good and faithful slave you were faithful with a few things i will put you in charge of many things enter into the joy of your master the guy with the two talents received the same reward as the guy with the five talents so god will give to some people more and he will give to some people less but the reward is the same you may never have an opportunity to fill up a stadium and preach the gospel to thousands and thousands of people and so you might wonder man those guys who have been faithful to do those kinds of things they're going to receive more in heaven than i will know if you are faithful with even the little that god has given to you are you a parent do you have children there's your stadium full of people right there you could be sharing the gospel with them and then generations down the road they're continuing to share the gospel with your grandchildren your great grandchildren your great great grandchildren and on and on it goes and more people come into the kingdom because you were faithful with a little bit you were faithful with the little that god gave you and you will receive the same great eternal reward as the one who was given much and was faithful with that well done good and faithful slave you'll hear that on the day of glory just as much as john macarthur will hear it or r .c.

sproul will hear it or has heard it because he's already gone to be with the lord you know just like some of these great preachers that you might listen to boy they're going to receive great reward in heaven how do you know you won't receive more because you were faithful with the little bit that god had given to you enter into the joy of your master be faithful with that little bit don't think that just because you've you've been a parent raising up kids in the training and discipline of the lord and that's as much as you've been able to accomplish i've shared the gospel with a few other people but i've never had the privilege of baptizing anybody or something like that and you think what great reward is there going to be for me and that you were faithful with the little that god gave you continue to be faithful in those things and great will be your reward but then you have verse 24 the one who had received the one talent he came up and said master i knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed and i was afraid and i went away and hid your talent in the ground here it is see you have what is yours listen to what matthew henry says about this christ keeps no servants to be idle they have received their all from him and have nothing they can call their own but sin our receiving from christ is in order to our working for him the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit the day of account comes at last we must all be reckoned with as to what good we have got to our own souls and have done to others by the advantages we have enjoyed it is not meant that the improving of natural powers can entitle a man to divine grace it is the real christian's liberty and privilege to be employed as his redeemer's servant in promoting his glory and the good of his people the love of christ constrains him to live no longer to himself but to him that died for him and rose again those who think it impossible to please god and in vain to serve him will do nothing to purpose in their religion they complain that he requires of them more than they are capable of and punishes them for what they cannot help whatever they may pretend the fact is they dislike the character and work of the lord and that's that's really what's being demonstrated by the slaves words here i knew that you were a hard man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed this is the man confessing i don't really like who you are i'm scared of you so i didn't do anything with what you gave me i went and buried it in the ground and so henry continues on the the slothful servant is sentenced to be deprived of his talent this may be applied to the blessings of this life but rather to the means of grace those who know not the day of their visitation shall have the things that belong to their peace hid from their eyes his doom is to be cast into the outer darkness it is a usual way of expressing the miseries of the damned in hell here as in what was said to the faithful servants our savior goes out of the parable to the thing intended by it and this serves as a key to the whole let us not envy sinners nor covet any of their perishing possessions and so as we finish up the parable here the master answered and said to him you wicked and lazy slave you knew that i reap where i did not sow and gather where i scattered no seed therefore you ought to have put my money in the bank and on my arrival i would have received my money back with interest you could not even do the bare minimum therefore take away the talent from him and give it to the one who has the 10 talents for to everyone who has more shall be given and he will have an abundance but from the one who does not have even what he does have will be taken away and throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth and i hope if anything my friends that that encourages you not to be idle don't just think that if you've been listening to the sermon series that i've done on sunday where i've been talking about pursuing godliness don't just think that you can sit there and not do anything and that makes you godly as long as i'm not going out and sinning laziness is sin slothfulness is sin not growing in godliness and christlikeness demonstrates that your faith is a dead faith as james talks about in james too if a man does not have works if he doesn't have works as the evidence of the faith that he says he has how can he really have faith how can that faith save him it's good for nothing he has a dead faith but if we have a faith that is living and active because of the holy spirit living within us then let us work diligently in growing in godliness pursuing holiness helping to encourage and admonish people around us according to the word of christ even sharing the gospel with a lost and dying world for it is only by faith in the gospel that someone can be saved it's the simple things that god gives us to do that we must simply do we must turn from sin to the lord jesus christ every one of us has the responsibility to do that and continue to grow in godliness until that day when you can stand before the lord and present to him you gave me little here's what i have to show for it and you will hear from your master well done good and faithful slave now great is your reward heavenly father i pray that that is our motivation that's what drives us looking to the kingdom of god as the apostle paul said in colossians 3 set your minds on things that are above not on things that are on earth and jesus saying in matthew 6 seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all the things you need will be added to you as well so that would be our focus we look to christ and to his kingdom and to his righteousness and we pursue those things until as horatio spafford said our faith shall be sight keep us faithful in little that we may be rewarded with much namely christ and his kingdom it is in his name that we pray amen for more about our ministry visit us online at wwtt .com