Summary of the parable of the talents

The tragic reality in much of Western society and agnostic and atheistic societies is the belief that after we die, there will be no life after death and no reckoning, no accountability to a higher being, whom we call God. Countless millions have been brainwashed that we come from goo, to the zoo, to you. That from a cosmic accident life came to be, and from microscopic cells came irreducibly complex animals and humans. The evolution theory is being taught as fact across the nations and universities of the world. This false religion, called evolution, has devastating consequences. If you believe in this fairy tale, life becomes meaningless, and moral absolutes become relative, and the consequence is that if you believe there is no Creator God and we are not made in his image, you will believe when we die, we will go back to dust and cease to exist. Countless millions believe there is no eternality of the soul, there is no life after death, and if there is no life after death and no God, there is no accountability. But human existence screams against this belief. No human being is not accountable to other human beings, even in the most barbaric society or liberal form of government. Life itself teaches us, and culture and society and the family unit, that we are accountable to other human beings for how we speak and behave. And this is the one great reality that we all have to face, not only in the church but as all human beings. We are accountable to God for how we live and what we do with the things God has given us. We do not belong to ourselves. We all belong ultimately to God. He gave us all life and breath and abilities and opportunities and time and money and resources, and we will give an account to God when Christ comes again at his second coming of how we have managed these things, the things he gave us. No one will be exempt. Some have been given more resources and abilities and “talents”, and some less, but all will stand before God one day and give an account to God, those in the visible church and those outside the visible church. This is what this parable is about. To call us all to diligence and not to waste or misuse or neglect our time and money and talents and opportunities but to use them for the glory of God.

The last two parables (of the talents and sheep and goats) also have in view, as the previous two, the coming of the Lord. The parable of the talents deals mainly with those in the visible church, although a wider application can be made. At Christ’s second coming there will be a reckoning, and then all his servants, the good and the bad ones, will stand before him. In the previous parable the focus was on being vigilant, to make sure we are indeed of those who have saving faith, who are justified, who are born again. We need to watch our lives and examine our lives to see whether we are in the faith. This parable deals with how we steward God’s resources, God’s gifts to us, and whether we are faithful with the responsibilities and tasks given to us. And as we will see, it is not only sins of commission that will count against the unbeliever, but also the sins of omission. To do nothing is to waste God’s talents. What God is looking for in his servants are faithfulness, diligence and industriousness. In other words, those who have saving faith produce gospel fruit, and vice versa.

The ten virgins (Summary) Matthew 25:1-13

We instinctively know what it means to prepare for a big occasion. For example, before you move to another country or city, many things need to be in order for you to move. This year we moved to another house in Chiang Rai. Before we could do that, we needed to find a suitable house that would fit our budget. Furthermore, we needed to pack all our belongings and make arrangements for the move. The situation was similar when we moved to Thailand. Before we moved, we needed to raise enough support; we needed to make plans to sell our house and sell our furniture and pack our bags for the final day when we would fly to Thailand. I needed to find replacements for someone to take my job as conference manager at APC.  We needed to buy plane tickets, apply for and receive our visas, etc. You cannot come to another country or move to a new house unprepared, and not make necessary preparations for the move. You need to be organised. I was a teacher for five years in private and public schools. And if you want to teach high and middle school children, you need to be well prepared for your lessons, or the children will walk all over you. I also used to be a conference manager of a ministry in Africa, where we would send books all over Africa and make arrangements for speakers to speak at conferences. My job was to verify whether there was enough money for each trip, ensure plane tickets were bought or the vehicle we used was in satisfactory condition, visas were applied for, food arrangements for delegates were made, and many other logistical arrangements were taken care of. On rare occasions some conferences didn’t work out because of various reasons: a lazy local organiser, invitations not being made in advance, etc.

There is one appointment in life you will not miss out on; there is one event that nobody will miss out on, and for which thorough preparations must be made, and that is the second coming of Christ. Even those who are in their graves will not miss out on it. As we read in 1 Corinthians 5:50-56 and 1 Thessalonians 4:1-10, at the last trumpet, when Christ will appear again, the dead will be raised incorruptible. The second coming of Christ is an event surer than the air you breathe from day to day and the sunrise and sunset you see every day. In chapter 24 we learnt of the things that will precede the second coming of Christ, a great tribulation, a man of sin that will appear (2 Thess 2:1-6) and also the fact that the gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in every nation and that there will be a witness for Christ in every ethnic group (Matt 24:14). But what Christ also mentioned was His unexpected and sudden return. As we read in Matthew 24, it will be like in the days of Noah. People were buying and selling, marrying, and then suddenly, the flood came, and the peoples of the earth were caught off guard. So, it will be with the second coming; Christ will come suddenly and unexpectedly. No one knows the day nor the hour when Christ will come again.  

Christ was telling a parable here in Matthew 25 to illustrate how it will be when he comes. And in the parable, he tells us that among those who expect Christ’s return, some will be ready and some will not be ready. Some are wise, and some are foolish. These two groups are named virgins that await the bridegroom. Christ is the bridegroom. Both groups are expecting his return, but only some are ready to meet him. These two groups refer to professing Christians in the church. Some professing Christians have saving faith, and some don’t have saving faith. To put it in other words, some have the Holy Spirit and are born again, and some are not born again. Jesus is contrasting the true and the false Christians.

Both these groups believe in the second coming of Christ and are anticipating his coming, but not both are ready to meet him. There are many people in the world who don’t expect Christ to return; this parable is not addressed to them, but to those in the visible church.  

This parable, like in Matthew 22, shows what the kingdom of God is like; it is like a wedding, which points to the joy that exists in the kingdom and the hopeful expectation of believers. (See Revelation 19).

But this parable really points to the urgency and seriousness of being prepared for Christ’s second coming. And the way to be prepared is to examine your life and see whether Christ is present in your life (2 Cor 13:5) and whether you have saving faith and Biblical repentance, which point to having the Spirit of God in us and to enjoying communion with God (Romans 8:9-11). Matthew 7:13-27 and Matthew 13 help us to understand this passage.

Summary of message Matthew 24:45-51 Be faithful and persevere to the end and you will be saved.

summary of Matthew 24:45-51

The last four Sundays we have looked at Matthew 24 and Jesus’ answer to the 3 questions that the disciples asked Jesus: “When will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the world?” The context in which these three questions came to Jesus was the destruction of the temple. Jesus said not one of these stones, pointing to the temple, would be left upon the other (verses 1, 2). Therefore, Jesus in his answer was telling them when the Jewish temple would be destroyed and what would happen. He was also telling them what signs would be seen before this event. But the questions the disciples asked were twofold. It referred to the destruction of the temple, and for many Jews, that meant the end of the world, but also, it referred to the end of the age, or the world as we know it. So, Jesus is answering the questions told them what would happen before the destruction of Jerusalem and what would happen before the end of the world as we know it. There is no other way to understand this passage. As I mentioned, there was a partial fulfilment of this passage before and during the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple when the Roman armies invaded in 70 AD and when the abomination of desolation was seen in the temple. But also, there will be an ultimate fulfilment of this passage before the end of the world when Christ comes again visibly in his human nature a second time, as he predicted. Jesus came in judgement upon Jerusalem in some sense, but he will come a second time in judgement, as verses 29-31 state, in power and great glory, and when this happens, there will be great signs in the sky, and the angels will gather his elect from the four corners of the world. The resurrection of the dead will also happen during this time, and death will be abolished forever.

Before the second coming, 8 general signs will occur; in fact, these signs are the signs of the times in every generation. They are 1) false Christs will deceive many, 2) there will be wars and rumours of wars, 3) there will be famine and pestilences  4) there will be earthquakes, 5) there will be persecution of believers, 6) there will be a falling away of false believers, along with betrayals and hatred. 7) false prophets will rise to deceive many, and 8) lawlessness will increase and the love of many Christians will grow cold. We can say these 8 signs occur in every generation; it is part of the age we live in, and it will continue until the end of the world, but just before the second coming, as Scripture teaches, there will be a man of sin revealed (2 Thess 2) and a great tribulation, and between the first and second coming, Matthew 24:14 will take place: the gospel of the kingdom will be preached as a witness to every nation (ethnic group), and then the end will come. The challenge we face in the church is Christ has delayed his coming. It has occurred in every generation. The apostles expected Christ to return during their lifetime. And in every generation, Christians expect Christ to return. Let me test you on this. How many Christians have you spoken to that have voiced their expectation that Christ will come back very soon, like in a few years or even months? Just by thinking on the spot, I can think of many Christians, some in the last month, that believe Christ is coming very soon. This happens in every generation. And in a sense, Christ comes for each individual in every generation at the time of their death. In that sense, Christ is coming for everyone in every generation. But what we find in Matthew 24 is menta specific mention of the second cominggain, the challenge we all face is Christ is delaying his coming. And when the years go by, you feel it more and more. So, how do we react?

The parable before us, and the subsequent ones in Matthew 25, teach us what our posture, our disposition or attitude, should be while Christ delays his coming. There is a contrast in this parable. What our posture should be and what it shouldn’t be. It is addressed primarily to leaders of the church but can be applied to all in the kingdom of God who have been given responsibility. We are either wise and faithful at our station in life, or we are foolish and unfaithful. Which one are you? This is the point of this passage. To prepare for Christ’s coming, and especially when we see he is delaying his coming, is to be watchful and be at our post, being faithful to God and doing what He has commanded us to do. In other words, we all need to persevere in gospel clarity, gospel piety and gospel proclamation. This parable echoes Matthew 23:13, “He who perseveres to the end shall be saved.”