Take your Bibles with me, if you will, please, and turn to Matthew 24. Today we, I think, will complete our study of the Olivet Discourse. Today we will take a large section of parables, and that begins with verse 44, where I’ll begin our reading today. We’ll go through the end of chapter 25. For our reading, first of all here, I’ll begin with verse 44. We’ll just go to the end of this chapter.
Matthew 24 verse 44: “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and in an hour when he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Let’s pray together. Our Father, this passage of Scripture has been so beneficial to us. It seems particularly timely for us at this point in our history with regard to the national and cultural upheavals that we’re witnessing. And yet for all of God’s people, always, we need this reminder, this instruction as to what this age will be like until the day of our Lord’s return. We ask that you will help us now with this instruction through these parables about readiness and watchfulness. May we receive the caution. May we learn from it so that we will be ready, waiting when our Lord returns. We pray in his name. Amen.
Well, just for a brief review in context, chapter 24, we have seen Jesus is speaking of what the course of this age will be like, and then what it will be like at the very end, and what his return then will be like. Verses 4 to 28 tell us about the course of this age, the character of this age, what it will be like. It will be marked by, on the one hand, gospel advance—that’s verse 14: “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached to all of the world, made known in all the nations”—but that amid, verse 9, tribulation. And he describes that in terms of famines, earthquakes, wars, upheavals of various kinds, natural evil, political evil, rivals, and then for the church, persecution, betrayal, and so on. But amid all of that, gospel advance.
And then verse 22 gives us that sobering statement that this age actually left to itself would become so evil that people would find a way to kill themselves off entirely if God did not intervene. And so verse 23 then begins this section describing the event of our Lord’s return. And he says it will be unmistakable. It will be triumphant, a very loud public event, and he says the angels will come gather the elect, and the lost will wail.
Verses 36 and following, we saw last time that the timing of his return will be, on the one hand, unknown, and therefore sudden, surprising, unexpected, and it will create a great division in humanity. And he ends up telling us that we saw last time in verses 43 and 44, this brief parable that’s designed to make his point in this little parable about the thief coming in, breaking into the house. If you had known when he was coming, you would have been ready. So also he says, verse 44, “You also must be ready. For the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.”
So his point is now, at this point in the passage, his point is because you do not know when he will return, you must remain watchful and be ready at all times. Readiness is the point now that Jesus is pressing from this point to the end of chapter 25. And to press that point, he gives us a series of four more parables. Chapter 24, verses 45 to 51, we have the parable of the faithful and the wicked servants that we just read. And then in chapter 25, verses 1 to 13, we have the parable of the wise and the foolish bridesmaids, the ten virgins. And then in chapter 25, verses 14 to 30, we have the parable of the talents. And then verses 31 to 46, we have the parable of the sheep and the goats and God’s judgment of the nations. I’d like to try to fly through those this morning, see if we can get them all together and then see cumulatively the point that our Lord is stressing.
The Parable Of The Faithful And The Wicked Servants
So again, verses 45 to 51, we have then the parable of the faithful and unfaithful servants that I’ve just read. The servants in view here are high-level kinds of servants. They are managers, foremen of some kind. They’re servants with oversight of other servants, and they’re put in charge over them. Some have suggested then that this parable is about pastors or those in positions of leadership or oversight over others. I think that is a right application, but I think the point is likely broader than that. Whatever areas of responsibility a given Christian should happen to have, he must be faithful in it. And the point then of the parable is serving faithfully the master’s interests.
Now, as often, and we’ll see this in all of these parables, and it’s been implied before up to this point already several times, implicit in this parable is the sense of delay. There’s an interim period. That was verses 4 to 28. The characteristics of this age, the course of this age, what it’s like with the spread of the gospel to the nations amid persecution and tribulation of various kinds. So there’s a sense of delay and there’s this tendency on the part of the servants when the master is delaying—the tendency is to be slothful, to neglect responsibility. And yet there’s another sense here in this parable that we’ve read, that the Lord returns, or the master of the place returns too soon, and they’re not ready for him, and they’re surprised. And so Jesus is stressing this idea of the unexpectedness of his return.
And with that, I think there’s a threefold related point that Jesus is pressing with this.
Number one: Readiness requires faithfulness. This just lies on the surface of the parable. In order to be ready for the Lord’s return, you must be faithful. We’ll see that now through the rest of the parables as well. Perseveringly, faithfully, consistent, serving the interests of the Master—that is what defines readiness. So the first point here, stressing, is that readiness requires faithfulness.
Number two: At his return, and again we’ll see this through the parables, at his return there will be a great separation. A great separation. It’ll involve both reward on the one hand, and then punishment on the other. Those who are faithful, in our parable here, verses 45 and following, are given greater areas of service. That’ll be fleshed out a little more in the parable of the talents. But those who are faithful are given greater areas of service and oversight. It says that they will be set over all his possessions. And those who are unfaithful, he says, they’ll be cut in pieces and put with the hypocrites and they will perish.
And then number three: For those who have not been faithful and have been negligent in their responsibilities, it will be too late. It’ll be like the man who was sleeping when the burglar breaks into the house. By the time you realize what’s happened, it’s too late. And again, we’ll see that through the other parables as well.
All of this harks back to what was implicit in verses 29 and following. At the return of Christ, there will be the gathering of the elect, while on the other hand, the world will be wailing because of what is coming, or the relation back to the days of Noah. One will be taken and the other left. But here, it’s those who are not faithful; they are not ready, they are cut into pieces, and they’re put in that place where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth.
So readiness requires faithfulness. We’ll see that through the other parables. At His return, there’ll be a great separation. And for those who are not faithful, it will then be too late. Bottom line of it then: be ready. Readiness means occupying yourself with the service of Christ until he comes. Faithfully serving the interests of the master is how we are ready.
The Parable Of The Wise And The Foolish Bridesmaids
Well, that brings us then to chapter 25, verses 1 to 13, and the parable of the bridesmaids. Let’s see that.
“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them. But the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here’s the bridegroom, come out and meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and you, go rather to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ While they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward, the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
Now this passage introduces us to some of the customs of that day regarding the marriage ceremony itself. The bride and the groom generally would live in the same town ahead of time, at least nearby towns, and there was this wedding ritual. The groom would come to the bride’s house and take his bride. He’d walk from his house to her house and take his bride and there would be certain festivities that would take perhaps most of the day. And then there would be a procession back to the groom’s house with the bride and all of the party with them walking back to the groom’s house and there the real festivities began and they could last even several days.
Well, these virgins here, the ten virgins, are probably the ancient equivalent of what we call bridesmaids. They’re there to help the bride with her preparations for the wedding and so on. And verse five tells us, the bridegroom was delayed. That’s an important detail in the story, and it’s something that Jesus has emphasized throughout the passage that we’ve seen. And the foolish virgins didn’t bring oil. At the very least, they didn’t have enough to do them for the night. And then verse six, the bridegroom finally comes and the wise virgins have their lamps prepared. They’re ready to join the procession just as soon as the bridegroom shows up and the foolish are not prepared. Too late, they’ve missed the festivities.
Now the symbolism and the point of emphasis I think is pretty clear at least in the broad strokes of the parable. Some have looked for details in the parable to make the symbolism come to life. I’m not sure that’s warranted. But the main strokes, I think, are obvious. The bridegroom is clearly Jesus. His coming is clearly His return at the end of the age. And that, with the other familiar biblical imagery of the kingdom of God as a wedding feast in a time of festivities and joy—that’s picked up in Revelation 19, for example, at the return of Christ.
The lamps that they have evidently have some kind of symbolic value. Exactly what they are probably, I think we could take a cue from chapter 5 in Matthew where the lamps represent good works. Let your good works, let your light be shown to all men and all of that. I think that’s the idea here that the lamps are the good works or more generally the idea of serving the interests of Christ. Readiness.
The virgins, they are the bridesmaids. Some have tried to figure, okay, if the bride is the bride of Christ, that’s the church, who are the bridesmaids? They must be… and it makes it very difficult. I think that although the Bible does have this “church as the bride of Christ” imagery, that’s just not what’s going on here. Clearly, these bridesmaids are the church waiting for the return of Christ. The point of emphasis again is this idea of delay and readiness in light of that delay. Verse 13 again gives that concluding remark: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
Now the previous parable, there was an element of surprise because evidently the master returned too soon, but here the bridesmaids, some of the foolish ones, are not prepared for the long wait. So how can they be ready? And the answer, of course, is what we’ve already seen. They are ready by serving the interests of the king. Faithfully, consistently, for the long haul, serving the interests of the king. And they don’t let his delay lull them into indifference and neglect of their responsibility. They’re not distracted. They don’t wait till he returns to see if they can take care of things then, because then it’s too late. But they serve every day so as to be ready when he returns.
I think there is definitely one other point of symbolism in this parable, and that is in verse 10, and that is that the foolish bridesmaids found out that they were too late. The door was shut and they were not let in. Now, I suspect that in that day, if there were bridesmaids that were there waiting and they ran out of oil or something, they ran late, knocked on the door, they’d let them in. But not in this parable. Jesus is making a point that when he returns, those who were not ready then, for them, it is too late. They’re excluded from the kingdom and that judgment is irreversible.
And I think there may be one other point in the parable that Jesus intends as well, and that is that readiness cannot be borrowed. The master, the groom returns. They said, “Give us some of your oil.” Nope, that won’t be enough for us. You have to get your own. It cannot be borrowed. So the preparation of the wise virgins is of no value at all to the five foolish bridesmaids. And so whatever readiness is, and in this passage it’s pretty clear that it’s in serving the interests of Christ, whatever readiness is, it’s not something you can borrow from others. It’s not something you can lean on your Christian friends for, your Christian family, or other members of the church. Jesus calls each of us to be ready and prepared always. Well, that’s the thrust of the parable: faithful in serving Christ for the long haul, ready always and serving all the way to the end and not being caught off guard when he comes.
The Parable Of The Talents
All right, then we come to the parable of the talents, verses 14 to 30. Now notice the connection. Verse 13, we have, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” Verse 14 picks up with “for,” that is, he’s explaining things further, he’s picking up on that idea.
“For it will be like a man going on a journey who’s called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of these servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents. Here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘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.’ And he also, who had the two talents, came forward saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents. Here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘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.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward saying, ‘Master, I know you to be a hard man, reaping where you do not sow and gathering where you have scattered no seed. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into outer darkness in that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'”
Now again, the idea of delay of Jesus’ return gives us the backdrop to this parable. And again, there’s some kind of high-level servants involved. They are managers over the estate. They’re entrusted with great responsibility with the master’s possessions. And it’s considerable responsibility while the master is away there to conduct his business affairs and see it grow. And again, the focus is serving the interests of the master during the time of his delay. Put that in the big context throughout this passage. During the course of this age, with all that’s going on, the responsibility of those who are his are to serve his interests in his absence.
Now, what’s interesting here in this parable is that it is defined for us what it means to serve the master’s interests. It’s serving as to improve his assets. Take the five, make five more. Take the two, make two more. The responsibility is to improve the master’s assets, which in the context has to mean serving to promote and further the interests of the kingdom. So the master says, “Manage my affairs. Purchase, sell, invest, and when I come, we’ll see how this delegated responsibility has been carried out.”
Now, the talent here is, of course, a measure of weight, a measure of gold or silver, which is, of course, their measure for money. The smaller units are denarii that are counted up. A talent in that day is something equivalent to twenty years’ wage, something like that. This is a lot of money. Five talents would then be one hundred years’ wage. So you do the math—a common laborer today makes whatever, or you take a high responsibility like this, makes much more, 50,000, 100,000 more—do the math five times, you’ve got many millions of dollars involved here, and they are responsible to oversee it.
Now the servant then with the five million dollars, or the five talents, immediately put it all to work for his master. He invested from the start, he builds the business, he trades, he invests, and now he has five more. So also the person with the two talents, he now has two more. The last servant comes, all he did was save it, dug a hole in the ground, buried it, saved it, kept it safe, but he did nothing to improve the master’s assets.
So the master comes, he calls them into account, the first two are commended, they’re rewarded accordingly, they’re given further areas of responsibility, and he tells them, “Enter thou into the joy of your master.” There I go quoting King James again. “Enter into the joy of your master.” The unfaithful servant comes and he should have at least gained something out of this one talent that he was given. But in effect, he has said, “It’s not my money, it’s not my concern.” And so he buries it and makes nothing for his employer. It’s his money, it’s not my concern. And he refuses his responsibility.
And what we have in verses 24 and 25 here is some really confused reasoning. “I knew you to be a hard man. Demanding, exacting. And so I just went and buried it in the hole.” The master calls him into account. It seems that the servant is spiteful, he’s resentful of his master, but what he didn’t consider is that he owes—he owes his master his service. And his confused thinking is if he knew that his master was this demanding and exacting, why wasn’t he all the more diligent? And so the master says, “You knew that I,” verse 26, “you knew that I reap where I have not sown, gather where I have scattered no seed, then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. In my coming, I would have received what is mine with interest.”
And again, the symbolism I think is just transparent. And that is that we are to use the resources that we have to further the interests of Christ. Use the resources we have to further the interests of the kingdom. The whole thrust of the parable is that this is the only way to be ready and that is to further the interest of Christ. Use what you have to serve his interests and improve his assets.
So in other words then, a “hang in there” kind of waiting is not enough. We must see ourselves as servants entrusted with responsibility, owing it to our master to serve and further his interests. What’s represented by the talent here, this weight of money, is in fact money, it is in fact talents, it is in fact gifts, it is in fact opportunities, resources, standing, your learning. Whatever you have as a resource should be used in furthering the interests of Christ. In your home, in the church, in the community, at the workplace. This is visiting the sick. This is being encouraging to those who are in need. This is giving. This is spreading the gospel. This is all of the above. Serving the master’s interests, furthering the interests of the kingdom. And if we don’t, we show that we were not his servants after all, and we will be judged accordingly.
In fact here, it’s a rather surprising twist in the parable when Jesus speaks of this man being punished for burying his money. In that day, that was considered a very safe way to save your money. In fact, the rabbis talked about that. They had their own teachings about the wisdom of burying, digging a hole, burying it in a safe place so it can’t be taken. The rabbis even had a parable themselves about burying the money and saving it. But Jesus says, “No, that will not do in this case. You’re responsible to use the resources that God has given you to further his interests.” And only by diligence in serving the interests of the kingdom can you be ready when the Lord returns.
Now that is life-defining. This is not just Sunday-go-to-meeting Christianity. This is life-defining: diligent to use whatever resources we have to serve the interests of the King. In fact, it’s in this parable, the mark of a merely professing believer, a false believer, that he does not serve the interests and promote the assets and improve them. Being ready for Christ in his return means faithfully serving his interests. And apart from that, we’re not ready at all.
The Parable Of The Sheep And The Goats
And then we come to the parable of the sheep and the goats, verses 31 to 46. Here’s another instance of faithfulness and the judgment that will come.
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick and in prison and visit you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of these, my brothers, the least of my brothers, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me. Naked and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they will answer saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?’ And then he will answer them saying, ‘Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Well, Jesus is very explicit here of what the scene is. It is, he says, when the Son of Man comes in his glory, verse 31. That’s a hark back to chapter 24, verse 29, the return of Christ in his glory. And when he comes, he will take the throne that is his, and he will separate people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. That’s a familiar scene. In that world, the sheep and the goats would intermingle during their grazing time. When they’re brought back in, they would be separated, evidently, because the goats tend to huddle together at night for warmth and the sheep don’t, and so they’re separated that way in their sleeping quarters.
But here, the Lord Jesus returns as king, he takes the throne, separates the people into two groups for judgment. And prominent in the parable—and this is very important for understanding this—very prominent in it is this idea that those who are being judged on both sides did not understand the basis on which they were being judged. The judgment here turns on how they treated one of the least of these, my brothers, which I think has to refer then to the people of Christ who are often oppressed in the world. One of the least of my brothers.
Now the lost are surprised, not just that they’re lost, but again, they’re surprised because of the standard of judgment. “When did we mistreat you? When did we see you hungry and not give you food? When did we see you thirsty and not give you a drink? When did we do this?” And Jesus answers, “You had no regard for my people. And insofar as you had no regard for my people, you had no regard for me.” Now that has implications that are just wonderful with regard to our union with Christ. It’s not far from what we see in Acts chapter 9 at the conversion of Saul on the Damascus Road, where the Lord Jesus asks him, “Why do you persecute me?” Persecuting the church? And the Lord Jesus says, “You are persecuting me?”
Well, here are people who had no time for Christ. And they showed it in the way that they had no time for his people. They would see them in need. They would see God’s people oppressed. They would see God’s people hungering and being disadvantaged. And they had no concern. And this then is the basis of judgment. They had no time for Jesus. They had no time for the people of Jesus. And now the Lord Jesus has no time for them.
But what’s interesting also is that the righteous are also surprised. And they’re not surprised so much that they’re saved. They’re surprised concerning the basis of their judgment. “When did we see you hungry and give you food? When did we see you thirsty and give you drink? I don’t remember that.” On one level, this is an example of what we saw in the parable of the talents, and that is using your talent to further the interests of Christ, helping the people of Christ. But what is emphasized here: they did not consider their good works meritorious. They didn’t think their doing good was going to earn them salvation. They wouldn’t be surprised otherwise. Their being surprised shows that they weren’t doing it for that reason.
The Bible is very clear on that point when we come to judgment scenes like this where it’s emphasized that good works are necessary to survive the judgment. We need to remember the Bible is very clear on solus Christus, Christ alone. Only Christ saves and we’re saved by grace alone through faith alone. And yet at judgment, the good works are extremely important, and in fact, determinative. But they are surprised by it. “When did we see that? Why don’t we do that?” And Jesus responds, “Inasmuch as you did it for these, my brothers, you did it for me.”
In other words then, their good works, in this case, their helping their brothers in need, was just something instinctive, natural. It was just reflective of who they are. They saw God’s people in need, and so they helped them because that’s what you do. No pretension, no legalistic motive. It’s just what they do because that’s who they are. This is not far from what we find in 1 John, where love is the test, one of the evidences of salvation. You love the brethren. This is why, on the other hand, the unrighteous are not moved to help the people of God. It’s not who they are. They don’t think like that.
In both cases, their good works are not the ground, but the evidence of their salvation. Yes, good works are necessary for eternal life, but not as the ground, but as the evidence of their salvation. We might even say the necessary evidence of their salvation. And so, the larger truth emphasized here is that there’s these two outcomes. There’s this great separation at the return of Christ. When the Lord Jesus comes, he will call everyone into account and there’ll be two groups. And he’ll determine who are his and who are not. And the evidence for the determination is: did you serve his interests during the time he was away?
He’s given each of us so many resources, so many opportunities. We’re responsible to use it for him and he will call us into account accordingly. And on that basis, we will be judged. Evidence used in judgment is: did we serve the interests of the master while he was away? “I gave you these abilities. I gave you these talents. I gave you this standing in your community. I gave you this influence. I gave you this personality. I gave you this learning. I gave you these resources, the time, all of it. I’ve given you these. How have you learned them? What do you have to show? Have you furthered my interests? Have you used the opportunities that were given you to advance the interests of the kingdom?”
And here’s one who will stand on Jesus’ left and he’ll stand there and he’ll make stupid excuses of one kind or another like, “Oh, I buried it because I knew you were harsh.” And Jesus will say, “Cast that wicked servant into the outer darkness where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Or verse 46, “These will go away into eternal punishment.” Or verse 41, “Into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
And then on the other hand, on his right, there’ll be another. And here’s a man who’s been so transformed by the grace of God that serving the interest of the kingdom, that’s just who he is. That’s just what he does. Because his heart has been so transformed by the grace of God and the Lord Jesus calls him into account, “What have you done? The opportunities I’ve given you, the time, the resources, the money, the opportunity, the standing, all of that, what have you done?” The records are open, as it were, to use some of the metaphors found commonly in the Bible. The books are opened. It says he’s been kind to the people of God. He has served them when they were in need. He’s busied himself in the work of the local church. He’s ministered to others. He served and promoted the interests of Christ. That’s just who he is. And so the Lord Jesus says, verse 21, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.”
Two outcomes. That’s the point. Now there’s an added point with this, particularly the parable of the talents. It’s also in the first parable as well, the wise and the wicked servant. But particularly in the parable of the talents, there’s this other point of emphasis that he will reward those who are faithful in his service. And there’s even the idea of increased reward. Five increase, so he gets five more, and this idea of increased reward because of the degree of faithfulness, each according to his ability.
Now, I don’t know what all to make of that. It’s especially prominent, as I say, in the parable of the talents, but there is built into this the idea of motive in serving Christ, and that motive is reward. Now, some people have objected to that. What kind of a selfish motive is that in serving Christ just for what you can get out of it? And I suppose you can push the criticism that far, but the text says they’ll be rewarded. And in fact, the Apostle Paul picks up on this. We make it our aim to please him because we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. This is not the only motive in serving Christ, but it is one. To look ahead to that day and to be able to say, “I’ve served. I’m ready when he comes.” And to hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.” Now what those degrees of reward look like? I don’t know. I don’t know. But this is built into the matter of motive in serving Christ. And that’s why we serve.
That’s why many of you have busied yourself, some of you in a particular way, in helping those in the congregation who are in need, serving them in various ways. Giving money, serving as a deacon, teaching Sunday school, serving the music team, but also on an individual level, helping and serving in various ways. All of it with an eye when the Lord comes and to hear him say, “Well done.”
Our Lord then delays his return and the point of all of these parables is we are to be faithful. During this time of worldwide gospel advance, we wait for Christ. He will return and when he does, he’ll call each of us into account. And he goes to great lengths here to drive the point that you must be ready. And the only way to be ready is to serve the interests of the King and promote his assets and don’t allow other lesser things to distract you. Stay on focus, serve the interests of the King, and thereby be ready when he returns. Amen.
Let’s pray. Our Father, we need illustrations like this to remind us of the seriousness of life. Forgive us for having purely selfish interests. Help us to see that what you have given us—all of the health, all of the prosperity, all of the opportunity and time that you’ve given to us—you’ve given to us to use for the interests of Christ. Make us faithful. We ask that your spirit would enable us, make us increasingly faithful. Lord, for the members of RBC, may we each be ready when our Lord returns to rejoice with him when he comes. We pray in his name. Amen.
Let’s stand together and sing. “It may be that, Lord, when the day is awaking, when sunlight through darkness and shadow is breaking, that Jesus will come.”