The Tragedy of Wasted Opportunity
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2015 · 15 March 2015
This evening our text is Matthew 25:14-30 and there are three servants, two are living and one is partly living. One is expressive of the emptiness of life, the uselessness of life, the worthlessness of life when opportunity and privilege is carelessly wasted. That's the essential message of our text, the tragedy of wasted opportunity.
Among those who are the true children of God there are those who are false. The church tolerates people who do not really know the Lord, who do not really walk with God. And there are some people who would have us believe they are having a private relationship with God but the phone isn't hooked up. We see it in this parable and again it is a parable of warning. The Lord is simply saying we are going to sort out the sheep and the goats when I come in My glory, so you better be ready.
And the Lord explains this in two parables about readiness. The first one in the first 12 verses of Matthew 25 is the parable of the virgins. The second in verses 14 to 30 is the parable of the talents. Both emphasize the need for preparedness for the coming of the Lord. The parable of the virgins emphasizes being alert with a prepared heart. The parable of the talents emphasizes working and being faithful in serving Him while waiting. And so these two balance out the view that all Christians need to have.
What do Christians need to know? First of all, and let us review our responsibility and our reaction and then go on to our reckoning and our reward. Within the framework of the Kingdom we have received a great responsibility. The second parable is about a man who has a lot of servants and he goes far away and he leaves them in charge of what he possesses. And he divides the possessions out, giving out five, two and one talent. He is giving them responsibility commensurate with their capability.
And they are to handle that so that he receives a return when he comes back. Being gone for a long time, he wants to make sure that his servants know how to make the most of their opportunities. And so he puts them in the charge of His things based upon their capabilities. It is this way in the visible Kingdom of our Lord, that Kingdom of those who belong to the Christian church, whether they are true or false.
Each believer has this bag full of gospel privileges. In other words, it is a privilege to have learned the truth of God, to know the saving truth of Christ. And some people have five bags. On the other hand, there are some people who only received one bag of talent. Their exposure to the gospel is minimal and they are rather simple in their understanding of divine truth.
That takes us to the point two and that is our reaction. What have we done with our spiritual opportunities? Remember what it says in verse 16, "He that received the five talents immediately went, traded with the same, made other five talents." Now here's a person who makes 100 percent return on the investment the Lord has given him. He maximized his spiritual privilege. He is a genuine Christian. He gave the Lord all that he had.
And then in verse 17, "Likewise he that had received two, he gained two more." He had limited privilege in terms of comparing him with five, but he made use of all the privilege he had. He fulfilled all that he could from the opportunity God gave him and returned also a full service rendered based on the opportunity he had received.
So use your spiritual opportunities, all God wants is a return on what you have. And so the first two return to the master a wholehearted return of commitment and service. They are true believers, those who really served with a full heart. Then you come to verse 18, "The one who received one talent went and dug in the earth and hid his lord's money." Now there's the mark of a false servant.
He made no effort at all, he just thought about himself. He is not a true believer. He is a virgin with no oil. There is no fruit in his life. He is a privileged person who does not does not take advantage of the opportunity given to him. When he hears the gospel, he doesn't respond to it. And even though his spirituality is limited, he is still responsible. Hell is full of people who wasted even their limited privilege.
Now that brings us to the reckoning. Verse 19 says, "After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.” The implication there again is that the Lord is telling them His coming will be delayed, just like Matthew 25:5 where He said the bridegroom tarries. But the day is coming when the Lord comes back to take a look at what you have done with the privilege.
It will be judgment time. It is a time for evaluating the service rendered, finding out who the true servants are. As described in verses 31 to 46, it is a time for separating the sheep from the goats. The goats will never enter the Kingdom, but the sheep will go into it. And so, when He comes the tares and the wheat will be separated. The net pulled in and that which is in it will be separated.
Verse 20 tells us what happened, "The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.” And he is excited with anticipation because he knows he has done his best with his opportunity. So he will have boldness in the Day of Judgment. Or as John says it, he will be not ashamed at the coming of the Lord.
There is no ego here, there is no boasting here, there is no pride here. He is saying five talents you gave me, I recognized the source of every privilege, I recognized the source of every opportunity, I have what I have because of You, not because of me. Yes, I recognize that You are the source, but I also rejoice that I was faithful in responding.
And the master recognizes integrity in his heart. Look at verse 21, “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ The master says you are good and you are trustworthy. It is a characterization. He is not just commenting on his service, he is commenting on his character.
It is quite remarkable that the God of the universe, could ever look at us and say "Excellent, you good and faithful servant," isn't it? That is the provision of the grace of the gospel. It is the provision not of our own strength but of the power of the Holy Spirit. And that commendation will outstrip any medal ceremony in the world, to receive that incorruptible crown of righteousness which the Lord waits to give to all those who wait His appearing.
What you do in eternity and what I do in the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of service rendered to Him is determined by my service right here. Because eternity will be a time of service. Those who are alive on the earth when the Lord Jesus comes, who are the good and faithful believing servants will go into the Kingdom in their physical form and they who have proven faithful will be given more responsibility there then they had even here.
Well, heaven is not going to be boring. If service to the Lord here is the great joy of life, then heaven is the ultimate joy and ultimate service. And heaven and the Kingdom as well prior to the eternal heaven and new earth is going to be a time of great and glorious service. If you are faithful here over the little service opportunity here, He will make you lord over many things there.
In other words, in heaven there are going to be ranks of people, right? Well, in heaven we will all possess eternal life, we will all be like Jesus Christ. We will all be perfect without sin. So, in a sense, everybody will be all equal in glory in eternity. And that is what is meant by the parable of the servants who served in the field, you remember. Some worked an hour, some worked twelve, but they all got the same pay. Because we are all going to end up in glory on the one hand.
But, while that is true, it is also true that there will be differing levels of service for sure. For those who go into the Kingdom and as well for all of us in eternity we all are dependent on our God-created capacities. Now, service in the Kingdom now demands different kinds of people doing different things, true? All of us will have differing assignments in eternity.
The angels also serve God with different ranks, right? There are angels and archangels and seraphim and cherubim and principalities and powers and rulers and we too in our glorified state will all be given a special place of service. And that place of service will be related to the service we rendered here. And the service we are able to render here is in a measure dependent upon sovereignly designed gospel privilege so that ultimately our eternal service is dependent on God's sovereign choice for us and our response to that.
However, when you get to heaven you won't have the sense of relative service. Each one of us will be exactly like Christ, perfect, sinless, fully possessing eternal life. So whatever service we render it will be infinitely and perfectly satisfying. So there will be no sense of disparity, or not sense of lesser privilege or greater privilege than anyone else has. Because the privilege we occupy there will be in exact accord with our eternal God-designed and God-given capacities.
So when people say, "Are we all going to be the same in eternity?" The answer is yes. "And yet are we going to be distinct?" The answer is yes. And we let God resolve those paradoxes that are beyond us. Look, verse 22-23, "The one who received two talents came, said, Lord, you delivered to me two talents. Behold, I've gained two more talents. 23 His master replied, “Excellent, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things, I'll make you ruler over many things."
Now notice there's another part of the commendation at the end of verse 21, and at the end of verse 23, "Come and share your master’s happiness!” This is a marvelous statement. We not only will receive a verbal commendation from the Lord and serve Him eternally, but we will share the very joy of the Lord Himself. We will be as joyful as the Lord is joyful. Imagine the consummate joy of a redemptive plan completely finished.
During the time of our Lord's reign on the earth, there will be people living in the Kingdom. They will live through the Tribulation and are redeemed. The Lord will come, they will still be alive. He will set up His Kingdom and they will go into the Kingdom in physical bodies alive. We, the church, will come down in glorified bodies so the millennial Kingdom will be made up of physical people on the earth and He will have these spiritual glorified people that have already gone to be the Lord and come back in their glorified bodies. And they will live together under Jesus’ rule there.
And then Jesus will give out certain responsibilities. And to those who have greater capacity, as demonstrated in a faithfulness prior to His coming, He will give greater extent of rule. As those with a lesser capacity will receive a lesser level of rule. So God has designed things sovereignly and while the Kingdom provides a certain amount of equality, there will also be a certain amount of inequality in the sense that we will all be distinctly serving and ruling in ways unique to each of us.
Now look at verse 24-25, "Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.”
Here is one who only professes to believe. He says his goal in life is to serve his master. But there are two things that betray him. Number one, he produced nothing. There was no fruit. Secondly, he attacks the character of his master. He is not a loving servant who respects and loves his master. He says, "I knew that you are a hard man.” He is illustrative of a man who just wasted opportunity.
He is functioning out of fear. He says, "Religion is too difficult for me.” And religion is full of people who would make that excuse. And then he says "harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed." You know what that means? You are harvesting somebody else's work. Now does he know the God that we know? He does not have a personal relationship with the Lord at all. He is blind to his master's kindness and grace.
Verse 26, " His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed?” You can read the Scripture. You can hear the message. He is a God of grace and mercy and compassion. He says, "You are wicked in the sense that you pursued your evil pursuits. And you would not toil in My service because you had no heart for that.”
Verse 27, "Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.” He is saying to him, "You're a liar. You ignored your spiritual opportunity because your own desire is different. It wouldn't have been a full return like five on five and two on two, but you could have done something with it.”
And then finally to the reward. What happens to these servants? Verse 28 says, "Take therefore the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents." Why him? Well, he was the one with the greater capacity. It's a great concept. Now in the church today a lot of people are serving the Lord. Some of this service is being done by people who belong to the visible church but are not redeemed. So sometimes tares are very involved.
But in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ throughout eternity, there will be only service offered by true believers. And here He quotes this principle in verse 29, “For 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.” In other words, the ones who have demonstrated fruit, the ones who have used their opportunities will receive in abundance.
God in sovereignty will give the service to whomever He wills. But He will take it away from the phonies. Then what happens to them? Verse 30, "And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Just be sure you're ready when He comes. And it may not be that you wait till the Second Coming for that day may come the moment you die and that may be very near. Well, let's bow in prayer.