THE PERSON AND TEACHINGS OF JESUS

THE OLIVET DISCOURSE

The Second Coming of Christ
Matt. 24:1-25:46
 The Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25:14-30)

. INTRODUCTION

Starting with Matt. 24:32 and running through 25:13 we see Jesus repeatedly exhorting His hearers to watch and be prepared for His second coming.

MATTHEW VERSE STATEMENT
24:42 "Be on the alert because you do not know on which day your Lord is coming."
24:44 "For this reason you be ready too . . ."
24:46 "Blessed is that slave whose master finds him so doing when he comes."
25:13 "Be on the alert then for you do not know the day nor the hour."

Why this emphasis on being alert and be ready? Because the second coming of Jesus means judgment upon the whole world, not just upon unbelievers but also upon followers of Jesus. We are to be ready at all times because we don't know when He is going to return, and when He does return, as the Son of Man He will come in judgment upon us. At that time it will be too late to repent.

Unfortunately many Christians, even conservative ones, have wrongly believed one of 2 errors: (1) Christians will NOT go through judgment, or (2) if Christians do undergo judgment, judgment will only be positive for Christians. Where do Christians, even conservative Christians, get these 2 beliefs?

  1. Some Christians reject any kind of judgment or at least a negative type of judgment because they can't believe that Jesus would ever do such a thing. Now where do they get such a picture of Jesus? Not from the Bible. The NT emphatically asserts that Jesus claimed that judgment was coming for all people upon His return, even for His followers. Since these Christians don't like what the NT says about Jesus, they have created their own Jesus in hopes that they are right.
  2. The reason that some conservative Christians have rejected the idea of judgment for followers of Jesus is that they have misunderstood John 3:18: "He who believes in Him [Jesus] is not judged." As we talked about earlier in the session on Jesus as the Son of Man, the word "judged" here would be better translated "condemned." Jesus is not going to send His followers to hell; however, He IS going to hold them accountable as the present passage before us and other NT passages indicate (2 Cor. 5:10; 1 Pet. 4:17). If Jesus teaches in John 3:18 that Christians are not going to be judged, then He has contradicted Himself here in Matt. 25; moreover, Paul and Peter then got it wrong on this subject.
  3. The next reason conservative Christians believe that judgment will only be positive for all believers is that they have misunderstood 1 John 4:17, 18: "By this, love is perfected with us that we may have confidence in the day of judgment . . . There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love." All that is true. The problem is that throughout this letter John tells us what perfect love is: "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments" (1 John 5:3). Love does not fear judgment. Why? Because love keeps God's commandments. No wonder this person has nothing to fear in the day of judgment. He has kept God's commands!
Judgment is coming for us all, believers as well as unbelievers. For all unbelievers judgment will be negative. For many believers judgment will be a positive experience. For many believers it will be a negative experience. They will still go to heaven; however, the experience of judgment itself is not going to be pretty (1 Cor. 3:13-15).

The theme of judgment has been running consistently throughout each of the preceding illustrations (24:32-25:13). In each illustration there is a division between followers of Jesus and those who are not followers of Jesus--two in the field with one taken and one left behind; 2 slaves with one being rewarded by his master and the other being cut in 2 and thrown into a place of great torment; 10 maidens in the bridal procession with five entering with the bridegroom and 5 being left outside. There is a dividing line between the Christian and non-Christian.


THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS (25:14-30)

In the previous lessons Jesus has been indicating, albeit subtly, that judgment is coming. In this passage He explicitly states that His second coming brings nothing less than judgment upon ALL mankind, the unrighteous AND the righteous. He uses the illustration of a king entrusting property to his slaves to depict the coming judgment.

Notice several elements in this parable:

  1. The king calls to himself 3 slaves. To the first slave he entrusts 5 talents, the equivalent to 75 years worth of income; to the second slave, 2 talents, 30 years worth of income; and finally, to the third slave, 1 talent, 15 years worth of income.
  2. Each slave received different amounts according to his ability. In other words, the first slave was more capable than the second slave; therefore, he received 3 more talents to work with than the second slave did.
  3. Note that the king was not giving them the talents. He was entrusting the talents to the slaves in order to use them to make a profit. They were to use the talents appropriately.
  4. After entrusting the money to the slaves, he departs for his long journey.
After a long while the king returns. Now note that Jesus says that after "a long interval" the king returns. This phrase "a long interval" is significant because many scholars claim that the early Christians had no idea that Jesus would delay such a long time before He returned. One of the most influential NT scholars of the 20th century (Rudolf Bultmann) claimed:

"The mythical eschatology is untenable for the simple reason that the parousia of Christ never took place as the New Testament expected.
History did not come to an end, and, as every schoolboy knows, it will continue to run its course.
Even if we believe that the world as we know it will come to an end in time,
we expect the end to take the form of a natural catastrophe, not of a mythical event such as the New Testament expects"
(Kerygma and Myth, I, London, 1953, p.5).

Bultmann has failed to take seriously Jesus' words that "a long time" elapses between the king's departure and his return.

We need to take seriously the fact that Jesus gives talents according to people's respective abilities. Not everybody is the same. Now I like the English school system because when you enter the 9th grade, you get to decide whether or not you are going to go the academic route or the vocational route. Some kids just aren't going to enjoy Shakespeare, no matter what form we present it to them. Why do we try to cookie-cutter everybody educationally? Because we are so foolish in thinking that everybody basically is the same and that education is the Savior of mankind. The result is that when we judge people, we act as if everybody is the same. We judge them by the standard we think God will judge us. Because we are so bad at this, we need to leave off judging and put it where it rightly belongs, in the hands of Jesus--who takes into account our different abilities and backgrounds.

I really do like Lewis at this point. Many people claim that Christians are hypocrites because certain women who go to church are so cranky, yet on the other hand certain men who don't go to church are good people. Yet they don't take into account those persons' backgrounds and emotional make-up. PLUS they don't take into account that those women would probably be a lot crankier if they were not in church, while those men would be a whole lot better if they did go to church.

Now look at the positive elements in the judgment the first 2 slaves receive. (Note that they get the same reward even though their abilities had been different and even though the results of their efforts were different. Each though had maxed out his ability in that both doubled their money.)

First, the king says: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." This indicates divine approval and divine favor. It indicates divine affirmation. It is the superior affirming the inferior. We feel good whenever our peers affirm us; however, whenever our superiors affirm us, we really feel affirmed. The dog really wags its tail whenever it beloved owner strokes him and pats him on the head. The child beams delight whenever his father bellows out his name after he has scored a touchdown or hit a homerun. Nothing makes him feel prouder. In the same way waves of warmth will roll over us whenever our heavenly Father affirms us.

The second reward in judgment is greater responsibility: "you have been faithful in little; I will put you in charge of much." If working produces more work, then I don't think I want to work. That's not the meaning of Jesus' praise here. Paul and John understand this statement to refer to reigning and victory in life upon Jesus' return:

  1. "Much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One Jesus Christ" (Paul Rom. 5:17).
  2. "He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne" (John in Rev. 3:21).
  3. "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them" (John in Rev. 20:4).
In fact Paul says that reigning with Christ means that we will judge angels (1 Cor. 6:3). Now go figure that one out! Whatever else greater responsibility means, it means greater victory in life when Jesus returns.

The third element in the reward is joy: "Enter into the joy of your master!" As the years have passed by, I have come to appreciate this element more and more. Life is so full of hurt and sorrow that you sometimes wonder if true joy ever really exists. The truth though is that throughout this life we HAVE tasted joy. Whereas it's only been a taste, it has been a true taste of joy.

One night in particular gave me a taste of the joy that awaits us in heaven. I was riding back with James Price and Don Tekell from a meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Texas (1997). On the way back they began telling stories about growing up and also about raising kids. James said that when his older son Kyle headed off for Baylor, there was no doubt in his mind or Kyle's that James would NOT be helping him move off to college. Neither he nor Kyle could get Kyle out of the house fast enough! One Sunday James opened up his Waco newspaper and to his horror saw a picture of Kyle and his truck on the front page! Kyle and a friend had taken his friend's car mudding out in some pasture outside of Waco and had gotten the vehicle stuck. So Kyle decided to use his truck to tow his friend's truck out of the mud. Kyle got stuck too. It must have been a slow news day in Waco because the Waco Tribune got word of it and decided to make it a front-page story. James never mentioned it to Kyle; however, the next time Kyle came home from college, he saw a copy of the newspaper opened up to that picture.

Don related about returning home from Texas Tech one weekend while he was attending Baylor. Back then transportation was expensive; so he and a friend were somehow able to get to Tech to see Baylor take on Tech in a football game. How to get home? They had to thumb a ride back. They got a ride with a man who had been drinking. He was weaving all over the road. Don and his friend offered to drive for the man; however, he refused to let them drive. Finally, exasperated they got the man to let them out at a service station in Post, Texas.

Now Post, TX is in the big middle of nowhere. Car after car would zoom by, leaving the 2 men stranded at the service station. Finally at 8:00 the next morning they saw a truck with a flatbed trailer attached to it. On the side of the cab was a sign saying "No riders." Don and his friend approached the man who relented and let them ride. The only problem was that the vehicle was basically nothing more than a cab which seated 2 people, the driver and one passenger. The driver told Don and his friend that one of them could ride up front, while the other could sit on the tool box on the flatbed with feet dangling between the flatbed trailer and the cab. Moreover, you would have to hold on for dear life to the back of the cab. The 2 flipped a coin; Don lost. For the next several hours Don straddled the tool box, holding on tightly to the back of the cab. Although he was tired, he was so scared, his eyes got bigger than silver dollars when he looked down and saw the pavement rushing madly by!

The neat thing about this was that as these 2 men were relating their stories, they were laughing as hard as they could. They weren't chuckling. They were giving out great big belly laughs. A distinguished Christian banker and Christian dentist laughing mightily. I won't ever forget that night because it gave me one of the truest tastes of joy I have ever experienced in my life; as good as it was it was still just a taste of the exuberant joy we are going to experience in heaven.

Now the third slave didn't do anything WRONG; he just didn't do anything! That to the master was a serious crime. You have the ability to lead people to Jesus and to eternal life, and you don't do it? By failing to reach out, your laziness sends people to hell. No wonder the master and Jesus are upset here!

On the surface it appears that the slave was justified in his remarks; the master was a harsh and exacting man. The only problem is that the master points out that the slave could have invested his money in a bank and received some interest. The fact that he did not do even this little thing shows you that he was both lazy AND evil. There was NO excuse for what he did.

We are going to discover on judgment day that Jesus is going to be completely right in whatever judgments He hands down to believers and non-believers. This is not going to be a judgment merely of force in which Jesus sends us to our final destiny simply because He has the power to do so. He is going to send us to our final destiny (either heaven or hell) because it is the right place to send us. On that day we are going to be amazed at the rightness of His judgments. In speaking of the rightness of Jesus’ judgment, Paul: "That thou mightest be justified in Thy works and mightest prevail when THOU art judged" (Rom. 3:4). There will be no excuses before God for our sins. Yes, He forgives but He does not excuse. There is no biblical evidence for that.