Matthew 25 and Messiah Church 1983

This congregation, by its location and by its makeup, has an advantage over what many congregations of believers have to face. It doesn't look like an advantage at first glance. It really looks like a disadvantage, but it's an advantage.

And the advantage is that the only thing we have in common with each other here is Jesus. We come from so many different backgrounds and so many places and have so many different views of things, so that only if we're rooted and grounded in Jesus and only if we're held together by Jesus will we stay together. If we don't have him, we're going to fall apart.

The advantage is that you can say that this congregation is always about six months away from extinction as a flock of believers, and that's really an advantage. Many congregations of professing Christians, because they have other things in common with each other, find it possible to function numerically or financially stable lives together long after they cease to function as an authentic church. Because other things hold them together, they have the same view of things, they come from the same background, whatever it is.

Whereas in this case, with us, it's as if this congregation is continuously under the judgment of God. And if the lamp of the presence of Jesus is withdrawn, we're good for maybe six months. And this is an advantage because it forces us to keep remembering who we are, why the Lord has called us together, to keep getting clear in our minds and remembering and reminding ourselves what it is that he's calling us to be and to do.

Each of us, as an individual, has to ask, am I being responsive to the call of the Lord in this place? Am I fitting in with what God is doing here? So somebody says, okay, what is God doing here? And if we were to all sit down and write down what God is doing here, we'd probably get some various views and perhaps even a few blank pages. But in simplest terms, we can say that the spirit of the Lord in this place is raising up a people who are and are to become more so the flesh and blood embodiment of Matthew chapter twenty-five. Matthew twenty-five, as you remember, consists of three parables, the parable of the virgins, the parable of the talents, the parable of the sheep and the goats.

All three are parables of judgment and of hope, of judgment in the sense that this weird mixture of good and evil does not go on forever. There comes a moment of separation. There's a time when the wise virgins go in and the foolish virgins remain outside the door.

There's a time when the people who have been faithful with their talent or talents are rewarded and the ones who have taken their talent or talents and buried them are cast out. There comes a moment when those who have shown mercy go into the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world and when those who have failed to show mercy are cast out. But they are also parables of hope in the sense that in the midst of this continuous judgment, God is raising up a people, we can call them a threefold people.

A people who are inspired, a people who are faithful and a people who are compassionate. That's Matthew 25 and that's exactly what God is doing here. God is raising up here in the midst of the confusion and under all kinds of judgment that goes on in the spirit all the time, a people who are inspired, who are faithful and who are compassionate.

First of all, God is raising up a people who are inspired, reading from Matthew 25, verse one. Then the kingdom of heaven shall be compared to 10 babies who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise, but 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 slumbered and slept, but at midnight there was a cry, behold the bridegroom, come out to meet him. Then all those maidens rose and turned their lamps and the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil for our lamps are going out, but the wise replied, perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you. Go rather to the dealers and buy for yourself.

While they went to buy, the bridegroom came and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage and the door was shut. Afterward, the other maidens came also saying, open to us, but he replied, truly, I say to you, I do not know you watch therefore, for you do not know the day or the hour. This parable obviously turns on the image of a vessel of oil.

The wise virgins had oil in their vessels with their lamps. What does it represent? We hear that the oil represents the Holy Spirit, the oil represents knowledge and it represents all these things, but basically to have oil in our vessels with our lamps is to be inspired by God directly all the time to draw our life from him and to so be inspired. I have to draw my life directly from him.

I can't get oil from you and you can't get oil from me. Each of us has to get our oil from him. And the place where we get this oil, this in-breathing of God's spirit, this living word that speaks to us and raises us from the dead all the time is twofold.

We find this oil in the scriptures and in prayer. First of all, we find it in scriptures, scriptures. What are scriptures? And many of us have problems with this.

Why these scriptures? But scriptures that we're talking about as scriptures are the inspired witness of inspired men who saw in Jesus the fulfillment of the kingdom of God. Jesus, by his own example, used scriptures in this way. He was steeped in scripture.

In fact, almost every word that Jesus speaks in the New Testament comes right out of the Old Testament scriptures. Jesus saw himself as the fulfillment of scripture. He opened their hearts to understand the scripture.

Scriptures like going up on Mount Sinai to hear from God. Somebody says, well, I don't mind praying. I love to pray, especially when I'm in trouble, but I find that Bible boring.

I can't get anything out of it. I'd rather read Christian books or whatever. Much prayer with little scripture leads to a kind of light, but it's an unstable, flaky light that gets blown around by every new wind that comes along.

Somehow this witness of these people extending over several thousand years really contains in it what we need. And when we go to this, God begins to speak to us. We go to the scriptures to find oil, to be inspired, to be spoken to by God.

And even if our eyes are bad or we're slow readers or we can't comprehend what we read, one way or another, in the early church, they didn't even have Bibles. There was no printing. We had a couple of Old Testament scrolls, maybe a snatch of a letter from Paul.

I mean, you didn't, they didn't have to have what we have and they got along very well, but they were steeped in scripture. So were the apostles. The witness of the apostles and the prophets to Jesus is what we need.

We go there to get oil. And when we go there to get oil, we get it. But we also are inspired through prayer.

Much scripture with little prayer leads to knowledge, but no life. It becomes head knowledge. It becomes death.

We know all, we become scribes and Pharisees. We know all about our Bibles, but we have no relationship with God at all. Jesus himself is our example.

Not only did he dwell in scriptures, he lived in prayer. And he taught that men ought always to pray and not to faint. And to learn how to pray, you don't have to read books on prayer, go to seminars on prayer.

The only way to learn how to pray is pray. We don't know how to pray as we ought, says Paul. We've been doing it for years.

But the Spirit helps us in our weakness, intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And so we go into our room and we shut our door and we start to talk. We open our hearts and say what's there.

And as we do, God begins to give us oil. We are inspired. And God's work among us is to raise up here a people who individually on their own and corporately together draw light, are inspired, are spoken to in a living word from God.

Whether or not we're numbered among those people who are inspired is entirely up to us. God will do everything from his side, but there has to be a response. Secondly, God is raising up here a people who are faithful.

Reading on in Matthew 25, starting at verse 14. For it will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, each according to his ability.

Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them and made five talents more. So too he who had the two talents made two talents more.

But he who received the one talent went and dug in the ground and paid his master's money. Meaning remembering that talent doesn't mean that I can play the piano well or I can sing well. Talent means money here.

It's a thousand dollar bar of gold, or it could be today with inflation worth maybe four or five thousand dollars, but it's money. Now after a long time, the master of those servants came and set of accounts with them. 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. The master said, 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 who also had the two talents came forward and said, 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 knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not winnow.

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 sowed and gather where I have not winnowed. 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 and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given. And he will have abundance.

But from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Cast that worthless servant into the outer darkness. There men will weep and gnash their teeth.

Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a little. I will place you over much.

As we draw near to the Lord, he pours out upon us his life, his care, mercy. As we receive this life, the way we keep it and the way we extend it is by giving it away. The measure you give will be the measure you receive.

And still more will be given to you. And so God shows me forgiveness, I immediately turn around and show forgiveness to somebody else. God gives me healing, I impart healing to somebody else.

God manifests love, I turn around and show love to somebody else. God provides for me, I turn around and help to provide for somebody else. As I do this, the blessing and gifts that God pours out upon me increase, multiply, double, triple, quadruple.

And as I continue to pour out what God pours in, the blessings that God gives me begin to take a particular form. And it turns out that I have then unique gifts. And each one of us here who receives these things from God and gives them away begins to have a particular combination.

Each one of us has a different combination, just like we have different fingerprints, different faces. And so Paul says in Romans 12, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. If prophecy in proportion to our faith, if service in our service, he who teaches in his teaching, he who exhorts in his exhortation, he who contributes in liberality, he who gives aid with zeal, he who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.

Somebody says, well, I don't know what my gift is. I've been waiting around for God to show me what my gift is. Don't worry about it.

What we do is simply receive his mercy now, today, his forgiveness. We eat his body, drink his blood, we hear him telling us we're his again. He forgives our sins.

So then we take this mercy and we start washing feet, serving, doing whatever comes to our hands, doing whatever is in front of us. As we do this, our gifts begin to take shape, and they increase. On the other hand, if having received these blessings from God, I just take them and lock them in the safe, bury them in the ground, wrap them in a napkin and stick them in a drawer, and do nothing, and I go on living my own life, really occupying myself with distractions, things that have really nothing to do with the kingdom of God.

And then the Lord calls me to account one day, as he does with all of us. I say, well, Lord, here it is, just the way you gave it, just as shiny and new as the day you gave it to me. And you will say to me, and to the angels around me, take that thing from him and give it to the one who has ten talents.

To everyone who has will more be given, and to him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. God is raising up a people who are faithful with what he gives, and it's up to us as to whether or not we are numbered among them. He's calling us to faithfulness, that we can be reliable, dependable, faithful.

It's an awesome thing. Finally, God is raising up in this place a people who are compassionate. Reading on in Matthew 25, verse 31, 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 them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at his left. Then the King will say to those at his right hand, Come, O blessed of 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 thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.

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, Lord, when did we see thee hungry, and feed thee, or thirsty, and give thee drink? When did we see thee a stranger, and welcome thee, or naked, and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick, or in prison, and visit thee? And the King will answer, Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. Then he will say to those at his left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, not for men at all. 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 also will answer, Lord, when did we see thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to thee? Then he will answer them, Truly I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me. And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

Who of us has that compassion? None of us. We don't have this compassion in ourselves. In the natural, every one of us is self-centered.

All we really care about is our own pleasure, safety, and advancement. But here, as the Lord gathers us together and feeds us with his own life, pours out upon us his forgiveness, we begin to receive something which is not our own. As the Spirit of the Lord moves in us, the love of God, the compassion of God, is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us.

As we sing his praises, as we eat his body and drink his blood, the love of God is shed abroad like a blazing sun in our hearts. And they catch flame. They catch fire and they begin to burn.

That's the first part of it. The second part, of course, is that God then sends us out. And often to each other, but even beyond each other, out into the world.

And as we move out in that world, we very soon come across people who are hungry, thirsty, lonely, naked, sick, and in prison. Now, if we take the mercy, the grace, and the forgiveness, the generosity which God has shown us, and we begin to pour out upon these people the blessings God has given us, then the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit begins to take on substance in us. We begin to take on a second nature, a new nature.

We begin to have a love which is not our own, and it governs our lives and our thoughts. On the other hand, we go out into that world, move among people who are hungry, thirsty, naked, lonely, sick, and in prison, and never even see them. Pass them by, ignore them, walk by on the other side.

Then the love of God, which is shed abroad in our hearts today as we break bread, as we sing His praises, that love begins to change. It hardens and shrivels and becomes brittle and turns from a blessing into a curse. God is raising up in this place a people who are compassionate.

Whether we are numbered among those people is entirely up to us. And the one thing we have in common with each other is Jesus. And that's an advantage.

Because this means that the minute the lamp of the Lord's presence is withdrawn from our midst, we begin to die as a flock, and we're out of business in a short time, forcing us to have to continuously remember who we are. Why has He called us together? What is He calling us to be and to do? Am I responsive to the voice of the Lord in this place? Am I fitting in with what He's doing? In this place, at this hour, the Spirit of the living God, the resurrected Lord Jesus, is raising up a people who are inspired, a people who are faithful, a people who are compassionate. May the Spirit help us to search our own hearts and see if we fit in, if that's what's happening to us.

And if not, may He help us even this day to repent, turn, and submit ourselves afresh to His forgiving grace.