11/19 Sermon - Our Gracious Master Entrusts Us With Bags of Gold

Our Gracious Master Entrusts Us With “Bags of Gold.”

 Matthew 25:14-28

- A father loved his children. He wanted to raise them in wisdom and entrust them with a little bit of his money. He decided to help them start a business. He thought, “What better way than a lawn mowing business?” So he bought his children a truck, a trailer, and a lawnmower so they could start using those to earn money.

- His sons varied in ages, so of course he entrusted them with varying degrees of responsibility. 

- The father entrusted his college-age son to work 5 days a week. He was in charge. He drove, mowed most of the lawns, made sure the mower was full of gas, and handled the clients. Of course, he got the biggest share of profit.

- The father entrusted his high school son to work 3 days a week. He would help his brother trim weeds, mow lawn, and be an extra hand. The father gave him time to just enjoy being a teenager in high school. He would of course make less than his older brother.

- The father entrusted his youngest, in grade school, to work 1-2 days a week, for a couple of hours. Mainly the older brothers would help him, show him how to mow, teach him some good life skills. He’d made a few dollars so he could save it, buy candy, and just be a kid. 

- Do you see where I’m going with this? This is similar to our parable of the bags of gold. Any of those three sons could be lazy in their own way. The father might get angry at even his youngest if the youngest decided to be lazy and not work or insult the generosity of his father.

- Is this a good comparison to our parable? To an extent. The parable is not about a father and three sons, but a master and three servants. And the father didn’t just get angry at the youngest child, the master in our parable practically destroyed and killed the third servant, the one who buried his one bag of gold.

- Who was right? Was the third servant really wicked, lazy, and rebellious? Or was the master actually cruel, hard, and unloving?

- Let’s first look at the third servant. What did he do? What kind of servant was he? There are 3 things that stand against him.

- 1st, the master entrusted him with one bag of gold, or one talent of gold. That’s about 75 lbs. of gold. Right now, that’s worth $1.5 million. That’s a lot of money! He was ungrateful.

- 2nd, What did the servant do? He took the money and buried it in the ground, like a pirate burying treasure.  He didn’t use it or invest it. He just buried it in the ground. Even a savings account in a bank has a 1% interest rate on it. Lazy.

- 3rd, He was afraid of the master. This master entrusted him with $1.5 million dollars, but he saw the master as cruel, hard, and unloving. If someone entrusted you with 1.5 million, wouldn’t you have maybe a high opinion of that person? Rebellious.

- The evidence points to this: this servant was ungrateful for what he had been given. He was lazy with the money. He was even rebellious against the gracious master. 

- Let’s take a look at ourselves. There can be similarities with that servant in how we act.

- We can be ungrateful. God gives us so many blessings: job, family, house. But our attitude towards these blessings slowly changes, right? They are something we get to do… they become something we have to do…. they become something we don’t want to do. Ungrateful.  

- We can be lazy. Instead of being good stewards of what God gives, we can slack at our jobs, ignore our family and friends to focus on ourselves, push off chores around the house to watch more TV. Lazy.

- We forget who Jesus is. We forget that he is a gracious master his forgives our sins, promises eternal life, and gives all sorts of other blessings as well. Instead, we look at Jesus as a burden, someone we have to obey, maybe even a waste of time. We forget.

- We can sometimes act kind of like that servant.  

- Let’s look at the master. What did he do? What kind of master was he? There are 6 things that stand in his favor.

- 1st, he entrusted his servants with millions of dollars.

- 2nd, Millions of $ would have given all of them a good life.

- 3rd, He is wise. Each was given according to their ability.

- 4th, He rewards the first two servants for their faithfulness.

- 5th, He’s not concerned with how much they made, but their attitude.

- 6th, He brings them in to share his happiness.

- The evidence is clear. The master is gracious. It’s also pretty clear that the master in this parable is Jesus.

- Let’s look at Jesus. What did Jesus do? What kind of master is he? Since this story is told in the Gospel of Matthew, let’s limit ourselves to just what Matthew tells us about Jesus.

- Matthew 1:21, 23, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).” Jesus is God on a rescue mission. Jesus stepped into time, became a human, suffered and died with one purpose: to save us from our sins and give us eternal life.

- Matthew 10:29-31, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” Jesus died for our sins, and he loves us so much and cares for us that he even knows how many individual pieces of hair are on our head.

- Our master, Jesus, is gracious, kind, forgiving, and generous.

What exactly are these “bags of gold” he entrusts us with? Not usually millions of $! Let’s look at Matthew again and see.

- 13:11: “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” God gives us faith, he gives us knowledge of Jesus our Savior, he gives us salvation and life.

- 28:20: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” God gives us the great commission, to go and invite people to hear about his son, Jesus.

- 20:28: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus gave his life for ours. He bought us back with his own blood. Through faith in Jesus, we belong to him. Really, he’s given us our whole life, from salvation down to the seconds that we have every day.

- Let’s summarize:

- Jesus is our gracious master. He became a man to die for our sins and shed his blood to buy us back from death and Satan.  

- Our gracious master entrusts us with “bags of gold.” Salvation and the forgiveness of sins; new life; a mission to spread this news; and every single thing we have in our life.

- We are just like those first two servants in our parable: We have a gracious master who entrusts us with ‘bags of gold,’ so we serve him.

There are four unique angles this parable gives us.

- 1st: God gave “each according to their ability.” One servant got five bags of gold, another two, another one.

- God gives us different “bags of gold.” My family, friends, money, possessions; opportunities, life are different that yours! We’re unique!

- It’s easy to forget this. We live in a culture of TV, news, social media, so we compare ourselves to others, whether stars or friends.

- You can be content, you can find joy, right now with what God has already given to you in your life. Of course your life will look different! Of course others will have more and less than you! Of course others will have different or similar blessings! What God gives you is unique. We can rejoice and be content with what we already have.

- 2nd: This parable is not concerned with being “faithful enough,”, comparing our lives to others, or figuring out how many “bags of gold” we should have by the time we die or Jesus returns. It does not matter if we’ve been perfectly faithful.

- What matters is who our master is. What matters is our heart’s attitude towards our master. Do we see Jesus as gracious, loving, kind? Or as hard, cruel, and unjust?

- When we stand before Jesus, he will say to us, “Yes, I am aware there was more you could have done. Yes, I can recall the times you were a coward. I know how lazy you’ve been. I shed my blood to cover those sins. Come, you who trust in me, share your master’s happiness.”

- 3rd: Rom. 12:1 tells us “in view of God’s mercy, let’s offer our lives as sacrifices to God.” The first two servants loved their master, and that showed by their faithfulness with the bags of gold. We’re sinners.

We fail. We are far from perfect. We are only saved through what Jesus has done. Yet our actions are evidence of our faith. How are we using our ‘bags of gold’? We need to ask that every day.

- 4th: Jesus said, “Whoever has, more will be given to him.” What Jesus teaches here is obvious: it’s faith in him.  

- Those who trust in Jesus for their salvation, who hope and rely only on him for eternal life, they will receive eternal life, because our master is gracious. In view of such mercy, let’s use all the different ‘bags of gold’ Jesus entrusts to us for his glory.