TAKE A SEAT
EVERY SEAT HAS A STORY, PART 2
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 25:13
SEPTEMBER 19, 2010
One of my favorite stories is the story of the generous barber. It is really a joke, and I am sure some of you have heard it. It is about a barber who was generous and there came into his shop a state senator. The barber said, “Let me cut your hair for free. I love my country. I love those who serve my country. Let me give you a free haircut.” So, he did. The next day when the barber came to work, he found a dozen chocolates, a gift from the state senator. Later a federal judge came into the shop and the barber said, “Let me cut your hair for free. I love justice. I love those who serve the cause of justice. I would like to comp your haircut.” So, he did and the next day when the barber came into work, a dozen roses, a gift from the federal judge. Later, a local clergyman came into the shop, a pastor. The barber said, “Hey, let me cut your hair for free. I love the Lord. I love those who serve the Lord. Let me comp your haircut.” So, he did and the next day the barber came to work and there were a dozen clergymen.
I have got to love that joke because there is a little ring of truth to it. I think most of us, when we think about pastors, we have all seen pastors who we thought were looking for a gift here or there. Now, I am a pastor and I know a lot of pastors. I want to say, truly, most pastors would far rather see you give a gift to Christ than a gift to themselves. Most pastors just prayerfully long to see the people of God support the kingdom of God and give gifts to the king and the kingdom, to the cause of the church and the work of Christ in the world. It is not easy because I think in all cultures and in all times, people are reluctant to give.
Here we have the parable of the talents, and we looked at this parable this morning. It is so important that we understand it. From this parable we have three principles. The first principle is the principle of ownership. We can’t live our lives properly, we can’t have the proper worldview, and we can’t live out our days pleasing to God unless we understand ownership. In the Bible, in the book of Ezekiel, the 29th chapter, the third verse there is a statement made by Pharaoh, King of Egypt. Ezekiel 29:3 the Pharaoh was quoted as saying these words: My Nile mine. Now, there is problem with that statement. There is a grammatical problem because of the redundancy. My Nile is mine. But there is also a theological problem, a massive theological problem.
We know who this Pharaoh is. Ezekiel the prophet tells us that this statement was made in the tenth year, the tenth month on the twelfth day, so it would have been, when you translate it into our calendar year, in January 587 BC, 587 years before Christ, January, and to be exact, January 5, 587 BC. My Nile is mine. We know the Pharaoh. That Pharaoh was Hophra, the King of Egypt. The Greeks called him Apries. He was arrogant. According to Herodotus he was the most evil of men. He ruled Egypt for 28 years. The Bible tells us that the Lord was ticked. The Lord just didn’t like this guy, didn’t like his arrogance. So, you have Ezekiel 29: “Thus sayeth the Lord God, I am against you Pharaoh, King of Egypt.” You see, the judgment of God upon Hophra was that he would be conquered by other nations and the Nile would not be his. So, in 582, Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonian empire, brings the armies of Babylon into Egypt. Hophra falls, Egypt is conquered, and the Babylonians rule the Nile.
About 60 years later the Persians, under Cambyses II, who was the son of Cyrus the Great, come with their armies, the Medo-Persian armies, into Egypt. They conquer Egypt and they rule the Nile. As you go through the years, you see Egypt conquered by the Greeks, in the fourth century by Alexander the Great, and you see the Nile under the influence of the Greeks. Then you see the Romans come, the Romans conquer Egypt, and they rule the Nile. Then you see the Seleucids, under Antiochus come and they conquer the Ptolemies and they rule Egypt, they rule the Nile.
Over the course of time, you see the Muslims come, and the Muslims come through the Arabians through Arabia, and later through the Ottoman-Turks. Even the French have a period of time in which they rule the Nile. There is a sense in which it all goes back to Ezekiel 29; there is a sense in which it goes back to, “Thus sayeth the Lord God, I am against thee.” “My Nile is mine.” He had a problem theologically with ownership. I think in the world today that problem is pandemic. Most of us really don’t understand that God is the owner of everything and one day we are going to have to give an account.
I was in Yakima, Washington, in 2001. Barb and I went there. Very few people vacation in Yakima, Washington, eastern Washington. It is actually quite beautiful, but people rarely go there. It is a beautiful agricultural area. Actually, today, the Yakima Valley and the Columbia Valley of eastern Washington are filled with vineyards and with the wine industry. In Yakima, we were there to see our daughter Heather and her husband Chris. Chris had graduated from CU. He got his doctorate at CU and he was serving at a hospital in Yakima as a clinical pharmacist. We were there to see Heather and Chris.
While we were there, I read an article on the front page of the Yakima newspaper. It was 9 years ago, but I remember it to this day. It was an article about a conflict between the Yakima Indian nation and the state of Washington, the federal government, the Bonneville Dam commission, and the governance of the Columbia River. There had been a problem of drought in eastern Washington and all the dams built along the Columbia River were not filling up. In fact, the water supply was shrinking. Apparently, somebody in the government, without authority, without the command or the request of a superior, had just gone unilaterally to the Yakima Indian nation and asked a tribal chief for a rain dance to change the weather in eastern Washington and to fill the dams.
So, the Yakima Indian nation performed several rain dances. Over the course of time the weather changed, rain fell, the dams filled. The Yakima Indian nation sent a bill of $32,000 to the government of Washington. Front page of the Yakima newspaper! The government said, “We are not going to pay.” I remember it, particularly one quote from a government official, and the quote was this: “God owns the rain, and he doesn’t charge us for it.” “God owns the rain, and he doesn’t charge us for it.” It is true that God owns everything. He doesn’t charge us, but he does expect us to be good stewards.
When you leave here today, you will go out into a car, unless you walked here. You will go out and you will get in your car and remember when you get in your car today, it is not yours. You may have paid cash, you may have a loan from a bank, but it is not yours. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. What God is looking about is what you do with your car, how you use your car, what you use it for, how you treat it. You will take that car and you will go home; you may stop for some food along the way, but when you go home, remember it is not yours. That house is not yours because the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. God is looking at what you do with that house, how you use it, what you use it for, how you service it, how you treat it.
That is true of everything. It is true of our very bodies. You will probably at some point today look in the mirror. Just remember when you look in the mirror today, you don’t own that body. God owns that body, and we are stewards. He cares what you do with your body and how you steward your body. At some point today you may go out to lunch and take your wallet out of your purse or out of your pocket. Remember it is not yours; that money is not yours. God is looking at what you do with it. Everything is his. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,” 1 Corinthians 10. Psalm 24. Everything in and everything on, everything of the earth is His. We are stewards. We can’t live our lives properly, can’t have a proper worldview, unless we understand He is the owner.
Now, the second principle in the parable is productivity, the principle of productivity. God demands productivity from his people. The nation of Israel was blessed that they might be a blessing. He brought them out of bondage in Egypt. He led them across the Red Sea as if upon dry land, and when the Egyptians tried to do the same they were drowned. He led them into the wilderness and fed them drink supernaturally at Meribah from the rock as the water gushed forth from the rock. He fed them with food from heaven in the form of manna. God delivered their enemies into their hands. God gave them the Promised Land, the land flowing with milk and honey. He blessed them, but the Bible was clear, God was clear. “I am blessing you to be a blessing that you might bless all the nations, that you might bear fruit amongst all the nations, that you might go forth with my word.”
And they did not. They did not. So, a curse came upon Israel. We see that even in the simple story of Jesus in His journey from Jerusalem to Bethany and back again, how he came upon the fig tree, which was a symbol of Israel, and the fig tree was barren and the disciples watched as Jesus cursed the fig tree and it withered to the ground. It was Israel. “You have not chosen me but I have chosen you, and I have appointed you to go and bear much fruit.” Productivity. There is this warning in Scripture that we who are the church of Jesus Christ are now called to bear fruit since we have been grafted into the tree of God’s people. We have been called now to bear fruit. In this parable, you see this principle of productivity. “Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a little,” you were productive. “You delivered unto me five talents; here I have made five talents more.” Well done, good productivity.
Of course, when you look at the wicked servant, you see an absence of productivity. In fact, the word for wicked is the word “poneros” in the passage. The normal word for wicked is “kakos,” which refers to intrinsic evil, which is not the word used here. “Poneros” refers not to intrinsic evil but to that which is evil in its effects, or not beneficial in its effects. So, what the Bible is telling us here is this wicked servant was not beneficial in his actions. The word “poneros” is the opposite of “agathos,” which is the Greek word for good, which means that which is beneficial in its effects. He was wicked in the sense that when you don’t serve the king and kingdom, when you don’t produce for the king and the kingdom, the result is evil. Wickedness prospers on the earth. When you don’t serve the cause of Christ, the result is evil. This man is called slothful, and the word that is used for slothful is the word “okneros”—again it shows an absence of productivity. This man is said to be worthless, “achreios,” worthless, and it means without use. So again, it is the absence of productivity. All through this parable, the issue is productivity. “Trade with these until I come. Make a profit.” Productivity.
I think sometimes this parable is tragically misunderstood. I hope that is not true of you. I remember in 1964, I was 18 years old. In 1964 I took a date to the Egyptian theatre in Hollywood, California to see a movie. This movie was a musical and it would win, ultimately, eight Academy Awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture. The movie was My Fair Lady.
You know the story there; the whole movie is about transformation. My Fair Lady is about transformation. It is based on George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, which in turn was based loosely on Ovid’s Metamorphosis. It is about metamorphosis. It is about transformation. She was a Cockney bag lady in London and she spoke with a Cockney accent. She was amongst the impoverished beggars of the city. But she went through a transformation. A professor of phonetics changed her dialect and her intonation and her accent, her English. He was passing her off as British aristocracy. She had been transformed.
I have gone to churches where I have heard pastors speak on the parable of the talents; I have sat out there where you are. I have heard pastors say that is what the parable of the talents is about. It is about transformation; it is about becoming all you can be. It is about taking what God has entrusted to you, what God has offered you, and developing it, developing your talents, your abilities to become everything you can be. That is what is going to please the master if you can become all you can be. That is simply not true. That is not what the parable of the talents is about.
It may be true that there is a sense in which God wants us to become more than we are. It certainly may be true that God wants us to develop talents and abilities, but that is not what this parable is about. This parable isn’t really about you. It is not primarily about you. It is about the master. It is not about your stuff; it is about his stuff. It is not you becoming all you can be; it is you making sure that he is becoming all he can be. It is about you making sure that his kingdom, his cause, his purpose prospers, is productive, has become all that it can be. The issue when the master returns is not did you become all you can be, but did you serve the master? Did you grow the master’s stuff? Did you increase his kingdom? Did you serve his cause? It is absolutely clear exegetically, as you study the text, there is no doubt that is what God is expecting. This is so important for you to know and for me to know because when Christ comes back, he is going to be looking for this. Have you used everything in your care to prosper the cause of Christ and to serve the King and kingdom? This is the message of the parable: productivity for the church and the kingdom of Christ.
I was reading recently about Cyrus McCormick. I think most of you have heard of Cyrus McCormick. McCormick, at one time, was one of the wealthiest men of the world and he became so by developing a machine that revolutionized the grain harvesting industry, a reaping machine. McCormick’s reaper was promoted all over the world, and marketed all over the world and eventually brought in millions and millions and millions of dollars to Cyrus Hall McCormick. Ultimately his company grew into International Harvester, but this man was oh-so wealthy.
Now, he was 50 years old when he married. The year was 1859, he was 50 years old, and he married a woman who was twenty 24, 26 years younger than him. She was tall and she was stately and she was regal and she was beautiful and she was devout. She loved Jesus Christ. Cyrus McCormick loved her. They were married for 26 years. She was 26 years younger than him, but still they were married for 26 years so that when he died at the age of 76 she was now 50. So, when he died at the age of 76, she was 50 and it all came to her, millions and millions and millions. And suddenly she was one of the wealthiest people in the world and in love with Jesus Christ. She had a vision wherein she concluded that she was to live out her days for King and kingdom, all for Christ.
She mobilized all those resources for Christ. She founded McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. She founded McCormick Theological Seminary and named it after her husband. She founded it so that young men and women might be trained in the Gospel of Jesus Christ to take the Gospel to the nations and pastors of churches might be trained. Then she founded the Christian Student Volunteer movement with John Mott. She funded it. Then the World Student Christian Federation was funded by her dollars. She was the primary supporter of D.L. Moody as he shook two continents for Christ—Nettie Fowler (or Nettie McCormick), Cyrus McCormick’s wife.
Wilfred Grenfell, the missionary to Labrador… she was the one who sponsored his work and ministry. George Livingston Robinson, the archeologist, who led the archeological dig at Petra and the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan, biblical Selah, was funded by her and those dollars. She was the primary supporter of Asian mission in the United States. In the United States, all the money going to Asian missions, most of it was coming from her. She turned her Chicago home into a halfway house for ministers and missionaries. Her beautiful home in Chicago, missionaries from all over the world came and lived there, trained there, recouped there. From Appalachia to Asia, she used her money to help the poor as her heart broke by the poverty of the world. She established colleges, hospitals, orphanages. I know that when she died, she saw Jesus and he said, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little. I am going to set you over much.”
You might be thinking, well, what are the odds I am going to be like Nettie McCormick? What are the odds that I am going to have millions and millions of dollars? Well, not much. The same is true of me. That is not the point; the point is the principle involved. What am I doing with whatever has been entrusted to me? What are you doing with whatever has been entrusted to you? Is it just about your stuff, your fun, your toys, your kids and your grandkids, or is there any thought there about, “Man, I want to do my utmost for King and kingdom”? I want to serve the Church of Jesus Christ and the cause of Christ on the earth and in the world. When the master comes back, I want to have prospered his kingdom and his works. This is what the parable is saying.
There is a final point in the parable and that final point has to do with accountability and reward. The whole concept of accountability is built into the parable. “Trade with these until I come, until I return.” When he does return, he returns to settle accounts. That is what Christ is going to do; he is going to return and settle accounts. I hope you understand that.
A week ago, I mentioned Chuck Swindoll. Chuck Swindoll has always been a favorite pastor for me. He is 12 years older than me. Chuck Swindoll is 76 years old today and he is still pastoring. He is pastor of the Stonebriar Community Church in Texas. He is the chancellor, right now, at Dallas Theological Seminary; he was the president and now he is the chancellor at Dallas Theological Seminary. At one time, he was the pastor at the Evangelical Free Church in Fullerton, in southern California. I went to hear him speak there, but I also heard him speak in many different venues. I always loved his sense of humor; to this day he has a great sense of humor. How do you live life without a sense of humor in this crazy world? He has a love for Jesus and is an amazing communicator.
Chuck Swindoll has often told the story about when he had a ’79 VW and he was ministering in southern California. He had this VW Volkswagen and it was a Super Beetle convertible and Chuck Swindoll loved it. In southern California when the sun is shining and it is a beautiful day, he would put the top down and he would just drive around. One day he was driving around in his Super Beetle convertible, just loving it, the wind in his face. He must have been distracted because he went right through a red light without even slowing down. It could have been deadly. He was just shocked and wiping his brow when he realized what had happened. He had just zoned out, ran a red light, and by the grace of God hadn’t hit anybody as he just raced through an intersection.
He went home and a couple of days later he got a letter (this was back in the days when people wrote letters) he got a letter from four guys who were members of his congregation and they were meeting nearby when he ran the red light. The four guys said, “We saw you run your VW right through the red light at full speed. It seemed really reckless to us and we are thinking about reporting you as a reckless driver to the authorities. But first we thought, he is our pastor, we should talk to him about it. So will you meet us for lunch at such-and-such a restaurant?” He thought, Oh, give me a break, just give me a break. He didn’t want to be reported to the authorities so he thought, okay, I will meet them for lunch.
So, he goes into the restaurant early and as he gets in there early, he sees the waitress and says, “Listen, I need a table for me and four other guys. I am meeting four Pharisees here in a little bit. I need to have this table.” So, she prepares the table, and he is there and the four guys come to the restaurant. When they come, they immediately start laughing because Chuck Swindoll has this sign he’s made. It is tied to his chest. In fact, he wore it into the restaurant and the waitress must have thought, who is this? The sign said, “Guilty as charged.” So, he has this sign on his chest: “Guilty as charged.” The four guys come in to have lunch with him and they immediately start laughing, the mood lightens up a bit. After a while he turns the sign over and it says, “Let he who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.” They wind up buying his lunch.
I am always amazed as I hear stories like that, sometimes just incredulous as I hear about what people say and do. This thought occurs to me: It seems like often times we are being watched. I don’t mean that in a paranoid sense, but a lot of times a lot of us have had this experience where you did something kind of stupid and, sure enough, someone you knew saw it. I think for pastors it happens all the time because you have got an entire congregation that might be looking at you. I have had so many times through the years where I have done something stupid and, sure enough, one you were there.
I remember years ago I was out at the old Stapleton Airport very frustrated. I waited in line and I was getting more frustrated. I was having a problem with my ticket. I got up there to the counter and my ticket was no good. It was printed properly but the plane was full, and I wasn’t on it. Somehow the ticket was…something had gone wrong. I was starting to get really frustrated when a hand goes on my shoulder. “Please, please don’t get mad, you’re my pastor.” Isn’t this true? Isn’t it true that God is always watching? Isn’t it true that he is always watching? He sees everything. He is omniscient, he is omnipresent, and he is the one we are going to have to give an account to. He has seen everything. He sees me when I am alone. He sees me when I am in my office alone, my car alone, my house alone, my study alone. He sees my thoughts. He knows everything I am thinking when I am driving in traffic. He knows everything I am thinking at any moment in time. He knows my motives. He sees it all and I am going to have to give an account to him.
What is true of me is true of you. The thing to remember as you look at the parable of the talents is not just that he is the owner and we are called to be productive and we are going to have to give an account to him. The thing to remember is he likes to reward. This is so clear as you look at all of his parables. He loves to reward. He loves to give rewards. Sometimes you will hear teachings where a teacher will say, a pastor might say, “Well, in heaven there are not varying rewards. We are all given the same.” That is not true. There are countless Bible passages and parables where we are told very clearly that rewards will vary in heaven. It is true we are all saved by his grace. We are saved by grace through faith. It is not our own works, it is his unmerited favor that saves us, but when we get to heaven, also by grace, he has chosen to give varying rewards for faithfulness on earth. The Bible just makes that so clear again and again and again.
I was reading recently about Andrew Carnegie. Andrew Carnegie built Carnegie Steel and was one of the richest guys in the world. Carnegie Steel was a huge company and financially lucrative. The head of Carnegie Steel that Andrew Carnegie hired to run the company and be CEO was Charles Schwab. I think most of you who know anything about financial history have heard of Charles Schwab, hired by Andrew Carnegie to run Carnegie Steel. Charles Schwab became the first guy to get an annual salary of over $1,000,000. He was the first guy in the history of America to get a $1,000,000+ annual salary while working in the employ of someone else. Amazing! He was interviewed many times, newspapers, magazines. “What makes you worth all this money? Why does he pay you $4,000 a day? Why should you be paid $4,000 a day? Do you know that much about steel? Do you know that much more about steel than anybody else?” Charles Schwab would say, “Nah, I know hardly anything about steel. I am surrounded by people who know more about steel than I know. I will tell you why I am worth $4,000 a day and $1,000,000 a year.” They say, “Why is that?” He says, “Because I know how to motivate people. That is the key to most everything.” There is some truth to that. If you know how to motivate people you can get a lot done.
I would submit to you this morning, as we close, that God is the master motivator. God knows how to motivate people. He created people. Christ is the master motivator. You go through his teachings, and you go through his parables, like the parable of the talents, and you just see again and again he is motivating. He warns, he promises, but he is motivating. He is always motivating. He is trying to rally the troops. The harvest is plentiful; the laborers are few. Pray the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers into the field. He warns about slothfulness, wickedness, laziness. He calls to productivity and he offers reward. You look at the parable of the talents and you see reward. You look at the parable of the pound, you see reward.
I hope you understand, as we close, as we complete this look at stewardship, that God is the owner of everything. He has called us to productivity for his kingdom—that we use our time, our talent, and our treasure to produce for his kingdom. He is coming back. We are going to have to give an account. He knows everything and sees everything. He knows exactly what we give and whether or not it represents us. He knows every check we write, and what we write it for. He loves to reward. Let’s look the Lord with a word of prayer.