Dean Sieberhagen, Interim Dean of the Roy J. Fish School of Evangelism and Missions, Director of the World Missions Center, Professor of Missions, and Charles F. Stanley Chair for the Advancement of Global Christianity at Southwestern Seminary, preached from Matthew 25, verses 14-30, in SWBTS Chapel on March 4, 2025.
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Well, good morning. When we were on the mission field in Central Asia, my wife Sandra and a friend of hers on our team called Rosie, had a special ministry. You see, my wife Sandra loves to do quilting. Some of you don’t know what that is. You may have to look it up on Google, but it’s actually an amazing thing. My wife is an expert quilter. She’s done over 50 quilts in her life, and she’s a quilting teacher. And the ladies of Central Asia, where we lived in their history, had learned to work and sew with their hands, but it was kind of a lost art, so when they found out that my wife did quilting, they got excited. So my wife developed this quilting ministry. We bought six sewing machines and tables, and every Saturday, our house turned into a quilting factory.
Now I’ve got four boys. The boys and I disappeared. We went and found other things to do while they carried on. And it was so amazing to see what would happen. They would spend hours quilting. But also during that time, they would break, because it’s Central Asia, you have to have food and hospitality. They would break for a time of food and tea, and they would lead a Bible study. And over that time, some of these Muslim women had come, came to Christ. Some of them were discipled women who couldn’t even have a Bible in their homes because of persecution. But they could come to quilting. They could tell their family, we’re going quilting, but they would get Bible study while they did it.
So, one day after one of the meetings, Sandra says to me, Oh, I wish I was like Rosie. Rosie is so good at getting to the gospel. She just when we ground that meal, she just knows how to just challenge those women with the gospel. And since she said, I want to be more direct, like Rosie. And Rosie was in our house church, and on a Sunday, Rosie came to me and said, Oh, I just want to be like Sandra. Sandra is so hospitable. She opens her home every week. She loves to just bless those women with the food. Those women just connect to her so well. So I called the two of them together. I said, Sandra Rosie, let’s talk about this. See, both of you want to be more like the other one, but both of you are being so faithful in what God has given you.
You are using your talents. You’re using your abilities for God’s kingdom. Both of you have been faithful to come and learn this language, to learn this culture, to make friends with these women, and both of you, beautifully together, are being used for God’s kingdom. So don’t compare with each other. Rosie, you’re faithful, you help get to the gospel. Sandra, you’re faithful. You’re using your home and what God has given you to bring the gospel. Don’t compare with each other. Rejoice with each other. You are faithful with what God has given you. Well, that’s what we’re looking at in our passage today, faithfulness. What is it for us as believers to be faithful with what God has given us, and how are we to know how we’re using it for His kingdom?
This is a very interesting parable that is found in something called the Olivet Discourse. Jesus is meeting with his disciples on the Mount of Olives. In fact, to get the context, turn to Matthew 24 if you have your Bibles, look in Matthew chapter 24 and verse one, Matthew 24 verse one, as Jesus left and was going out of the temple complex, his disciples came up and called his attention to the temple buildings. Then he replied, Don’t you see these things? I assure you not one stone will be left on another while he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples approached him privately and said, Tell us, when will these things happen, and what is the sign of Your coming and the end of the age? So he’s on the Mount of Olives just across the Kidron Valley outside of Jerusalem. His disciples come and ask him, tell us these things.
And if you look some of your Bibles, Matthew chapter 24 will have headings. You’ll see he goes on to talk about the signs of the ends of the age, trials and tribulations and persecutions. Nobody knows the day or the hour. The parable of the fig tree, faithful service. So he explains to them. And then, like. A really good teacher. Jesus, for those of us who teach, gives really good example. Yeah. He then says, All right, I’ve told you these things. Let me paint them now in in parables. Let me tell you a story of what this looks like. And so we get to chapter 25 he tells them three parables. Parables are really if you’re a teacher, you really should study how Jesus used parables in a fascinating way that he he helped his disciples and those who were interested in him. He helped them at them understand truth as he told parables even those who argued and opposed him. He used parables to speak to them. He gave practical ways parables.
There are some people who say, Well, just, just show me it. You’re telling me the theory, but I want to picture it. He used a parable to show them. In practice, what he was teaching them. And in many times he didn’t just give a direct answer. He made them use some higher level thinking skills. They had to do some really analyzing thinking it through some of the things we want you to do in our classes. Jesus did that with parables, and he often used parables to build on teaching of the kingdom of God. What is the Kingdom of God like? He used parables.
So, he was just a master teacher on using parables. Usually a parable had one main truth. There were other things you can get out of them, but there was usually one main truth that he told in these parables. Now cross across the Bible. There are many scriptures to do with faithfulness today. We want to focus on this one and what Jesus taught about faithfulness in this one. So as we’ve already seen, this is part of a series of parables that he told as part of this Olivet Discourse. Well, the first parable in chapter 25 is the parable of the 10 virgins, and there, his emphasis is that living life in the kingdom of God. What is it like those who are in God’s kingdom are prepared for His coming. Those who are not in God’s kingdom are not prepared for His coming.
He then gets to the third parable, the sheep and the goats and those who are in God’s kingdom, they show that their faith is true through active love and compassion those who are not in God’s kingdom, separating the sheep and goats. They might say they have faith, but that faith is not shown in active love and compassion. So he’s drawing this contrast in these parables. When he says the kingdom of heaven is like he’s showing, are you in God’s kingdom? Then you have this, not this is what gets you into God’s kingdom. He’s not saying that only the grace of Christ gets you into God’s kingdom, but once you’re in God’s kingdom, what will it look like a person who’s truly in God’s kingdom? What will it look like? So we have these three parables in the middle of these.
We have ours for today. The parable to do with faithfulness, the parable of the talents, and we’ve already read it. Look together with me. At verse four, he says he’s like a man going away, and he calls his servants and he entrusts to them his property or his possessions. We understand what that is. By verse 15 to one, he gave five talents. So what was a talent? Well, the best estimates people have of a talent was that one talent was worth about 20 years wages, 20 years wages highly valuable. So he gives something of extremely high value to these people, even if you only got the one, you got something of very high value. So to one, he gives five talents to another two to another one man. That made me think, if he’s teaching us about faithfulness in his kingdom, what has he given to me? Something of extremely high value?
We understand this to be the gospel, and all the living out and implications of the Gospel, the living of God’s Kingdom in our lives, seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness, the Gospel, in its reality is of is of a high value. Jesus is saying, when you become part of His kingdom, you are entrusted with something incredibly precious. You.
A high, high value. That is what he’s giving these servants. And then he says he gives them according to his ability, each one according to his ability. We’re all unique. Sandra, you don’t have to be like Rosie. Rosie, you don’t have to be like Sandra. God knows you. He knows how he made you with your natural talents and with your spiritual gifts. And he has said, I’m giving to you according to your ability. That’s reassuring to me. It means I don’t have to preach exactly like Dr Osborne, Amen and praise the Lord, I don’t have to play golf like Dr Osborne. Am I faithful to what God has given? God knows me.
He made me with all the parts of me, and how am I going to be faithful with this incredibly precious thing he’s given me? Because if you’re a follower of Jesus, He’s given you the gospel. He’s given you life in His kingdom. And he’s saying, Will You Be faithful? You don’t have to compare to other people without what I’ve done in your life. Will you be faithful? Well, those who are faithful show it. Verse 16, straight away, the one who received five talents went and made five more, and the one who had two talents went and made two more. They showed they echoed the words of Jesus in John 15, verse eight, Jesus says, this is to My Father’s glory that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. John 15 eight, Jesus says you can actually prove that you are faithful.
You’re part of God’s kingdom. When you bear much fruit, you take this incredible, precious gospel that he’s given you, and with the ability he’s given you, you bear fruit. And that’s what these two do straight away. The one with five and the one with two, they straight away, bear much fruit. I love Ephesians. Two verse 10 says we are Christ’s workmanship, created in Christ, Jesus for good works, which God prepared for us to do so once I’m saved and the Holy Spirit fills me, God takes turns me into this workmanship to which he gives this incredibly precious gospel, and he has prepared things for me to do. He’s prepared GOOD WORKS ahead for me to do, for me to do, not for you, for me. Now there’s a corporate nature to what he’s saying to Ephesians, and there’s a corporate nature to this as well, just like Sandra and Rosie, the idea was Sandra and Rosie do it together.
You’re better when you do it together, when you both take what God has given you and the ability he’s given you, and you do it together. Look what God can do. And so we understand that there’s a corporate nature to this as well. And in Ephesians, in that passage, we are His workmanship, individually, but also together. We do it together. So if you have an ability, I rejoice and join you with my ability, and I’m not jealous or compare it, comparing and saying, I wish I was like that. I wish God liked me as much as he likes that guy or as much as he likes her. I wish he did for me what he’s doing for them. We don’t do that. We say, I have my ability. God’s given me. You have yours. Let’s join together. Let’s go. You know, I think I love seeing this on our campus. I love seeing how we live this out on our campus. I loved seeing it on the mission field. That was part of the joy I got to lead a team on the mission field was see missionaries joined together using their abilities and making things happen. We had a guy who worked mainly in logistics. He was the guy who just led us, who were doing more the church planning and evangelism.
Just go and do it when we brought and we would just dump receipts on his desk and all kinds. And he had to write reports and fill in forms and take care of all of that. His name was David, and one day, he was feeling a little bit down because he was here to write a newsletter, and he said, What am I going to say in my newsletter that I filled out a form? I said, Oh, David, Randy, who is one of our strongest evangelists. Randy is one of those guys. Every time he went out, he came back with stories of. Salvation, I said, David, every time Randy goes out and come back and tells that story. It’s your story. It’s your story as well. Randy can’t do what he’s doing if you don’t do what you’re doing, you are faithful in your part of what God is doing on this team, and Randy is faithful in his and you see how beautifully we work together, and really seeing God’s Kingdom grow, that’s the amazing part of how we do this together. We live out his workmanship, working in us, in our lives. Well, okay, what do we do with verse 18? What do we do with this fellow, with the one talent? He who received the one talent went and dug it, put it in the ground, dug it away and put it where no one could see it. Well. Is this what a true believer would do? Someone who has truly been saved, who’s been given this gift? Would they take and hide it? Would they not want to show anybody this incredible treasure?
We’d have come back to this we come back and talk more. We need to know how to view this person. But let’s go on to verse 19. It says, after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with him after a long time. Now, remember, Jesus is teaching his disciples. He’s answering this question, what’s it going to be like at the end when you come. Jesus says, after a long time. How long has this been in human terms, it feels long, doesn’t it? Those of you who teach church history, how long have we been going at this thing? 2000 years? That seems like a long time when we measure it in our human terms. But also, I think it tells us something about Faithfulness. Faithfulness is not just a one time momentary thing. Oh, I went today. I faithfully shared the gospel so I done my faithful. Faithfulness is over time. This was a long time that these who had been given the talents spent every day taking that talent and building increase for the master. So after a long time, he came back.
It may seem like a long time, but he’s coming back. Jesus is coming back. Will you and I be faithful consistently over time? That’s a very important part of Faithfulness. Faithfulness is not just a one time thing you do, it’s over. It’s evangelism, what Dr Bradford and I try and teach. It’s not about going and saying, Well, I witnessed today, and this person got saved, so I can check my witness block for the year. I got somebody got saved, and I’m one and done. It’s not that. It’s faithfulness every day, praise the Lord. Someone received the Lord today, but will I be a witness tomorrow and the next day and the next day. Faithfulness over time, it seemed like this master was taking a long time, but they were faithful. Now look what happens when he comes back. Look at what he says to these that had seen the increase. Verse 21 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. Sorry, your master. All right, so the one with five makes five, the one with two makes two, and Jesus, do you notice verse 21 and verse 23 the same praise, the same reward for both. The guy who makes five does not get more than the one who makes two both get the same praise, both get the same reward. You don’t have to compare yourself and say, Well, I can’t witness like Dr Bradford, so I’m not going to get the reward. He is God. God’s not asking you to witness like Dr Bradford. He’s asking you to witness like you, where the gift and ability is given you, he’s asking you to make disciples, to be part of His kingdom, according to you, that’s what is clearly seen in this. It’s not a comparative. They both get the same rewards. Now, if. If you, if you notice something I’d never seen before, till I really studied this passage. He says, You’ve been faithful over a little now, the guy who got five talents, remember one talent, about 20 years wages, five talents, that’s about 100 years worth of wages.
And Jesus says, that’s a little, that’s a little you can be faithful over much. Oh, boy, his kingdom. Can you imagine? It kind of makes me wonder what heaven’s going to be like, What? What seems like much here, who? It’s little compared to what we really experience in God’s kingdom. Isn’t that amazing? They both, they both receive the same reward. You know, I was thinking about this. We have one of the challenges in our Southern Baptist Convention said everybody wants to pastor or be a worship leader or being in children’s education or youth in the big church. Everybody wants the big church, the five talent church. I’m hoping I can be part of the five talent church when most of our Southern Baptist churches can be more compared to the one talent church, most of our Southern Baptist churches are 100 to maybe 200 people. Where are the faithful leaders?
Where are the faithful ministers who will go to that church and say, I will, I will build God’s kingdom here, this precious, incredible gospel that God’s given me. I’m going to build it here. I’m going to be faithful here, and I’m not going to compare myself to first Baptists wherever. I’m going to be faithful here, because that’s the reality most churches are not mega churches. And if you think we’re all here trying to prepare you to compete for the few positions in a mega church, that’s not right. There are many churches out there, new churches waiting to be started, but existing churches that are desperate for people to come and be faithful, to be faithful in those churches, whether it’s preaching, leading worship, teaching children, with youth, whatever you’re doing, will you be faithful where God is taking you?
That’s what we need. We desperately need that, but we have a little bit of a disease where we think now we’ve got to all have the five talent church. You’re not successful unless you have the five talent church. That’s just not right, not according to what God is teaching about faithfulness in this passage. So don’t compare. Will you be open to saying, God, I’m ready to be faithful. Wherever you will take me, wherever it is. If it’s in a remote people group on the mission field, where I where maybe I don’t see a lot of results, I’ll be faithful. If it’s a church in rural Texas somewhere that’s desperate for a pastor. They waiting for someone to submit a resume, but no one is, because it’s small little town Texas who wants to go there. Some of us need to submit to the Lord and be faithful and be willing to go wherever he’s telling us to go. His kingdom depends on that.
Well, let’s come back to this one talent servant. We’ve got to try and understand this person. Verse 24 he had received one talent came forward, and he said, Master, I knew you to be. And we read in in when public reading a harsh man, some say a hard man. Some translations say a cruel man. And verse 25 he said, I was afraid. What do we know about this person, this servant? Well, his view of God was not what a true follower of Jesus would have if you’re in God’s kingdom. This is not the view of God you would have God. You’re cruel, You’re harsh, you’re hard, and I’m afraid of you. In fact, that’s what religious people think many other religions that we teach in the fish school, that’s the view they have of God. God is this high, holy creator guy, and we are in fear of Him.
We are in fear of of just his judgment. We’re not aware that he loves us, that he has grace towards us, that we can come and ask forgiveness. You don’t find that in other. Religions. It’s religious people. It’s more Oh, this hard, cruel God. That’s the way this man saw God. Is that the way a true believer would see God? Well, not only how does he see God, but how does God see him? Look what God says about this one talent servant, verse 26 his master said, You wicked and slothful servant. Verse 30 cast the worthless servant. Some of versions say Good for nothing. Servant into outer darkness in that place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. We know that to be a description of hell. So from verse scripture, clearly, it itself tells us this is a person who might be religious, who might think they are doing the right thing, but they don’t truly know God.
They don’t belong in God’s kingdom, just like the virgins who were not prepared for His coming, just like the goats who were separated from the sheep. This too, he’s saying such a person may talk a good talk. May think they know God, but they really don’t. They really don’t belong in God’s kingdom. I believe this passage clearly shows that if you don’t have clear evidence of faithfulness in your life, like this servant, it shows you’re not in God’s kingdom. It’s it is just a clear contrast that is being drawn with those who do belong in God’s kingdom and those who don’t. So if we do, how do we wait for His return? What is Jesus teaching this Olivet discourse about waiting for his kingdom. I think all of us, according to our ability, according to the talent He’s given us, all of us, find our way to share the gospel. Are you faithful in sharing the gospel? Not like me, not like Dr Bradford, you the way God has made you. Are you faithful to share the gospel? Are you using your natural gifts and the beliefs and your spiritual gifts for God’s kingdom? Are you faithful in a community of faith? Are you faithful to your church? Are you actively faithful duty? Do you go to church?
Because church is going to blessing me. I’m going to go to the church with the best coffee and donuts and wear the worships like these guys. Or do you go to church and say this precious gift that God’s given me? I’m going to use it for His kingdom here. This church? May not be perfect, but I’m going to do all I can to be faithful at this church. Have you found that church? Are you faithful in that church? That’s what this looks like, using this, using our resources, faithfulness, even with my resources. If you’re a student, you’re saying that’s not much. I’m wearing all the resources I have.
Okay, as God gives you resources. Are you using those for His Kingdom? Are you being faithful? There was a lady in a place called Red village. So one of the cities that was in a place in the middle of Central Asia, you would never think of if World War Three broke out, you’d want to go live there. You wouldn’t even know it. Well, there was about 250,000 people lived there. When we were doing our church planting, we started to see churches pop up everywhere, and a few churches had risen in this city. So we decided, as a group of mission leaders, we needed to evaluate the health of these churches, because when we report back to our Southern Baptists, oh, we’ve got 380 churches.
Are they healthy? What do those churches even look like? So we came up, we studied various different people who analyzed churches, and we came up with 10 characteristics, not 10 marks, but 10 characteristics of healthy churches. And we said, Let’s analyze these churches. And one of the markers was called gift oriented ministry. What it meant was, Are these churches helping their members discover and use their spiritual gifts? That was one of the markers of Church Health gift oriented ministry. Well, there were 11 churches in this. City, red village, and they scored very low. So they looked at the results, and they came to me, and they said, Help Will you help us?
First of all, we don’t even know how to discover these spiritual gifts and even teach our people. So with one of the local trainers, he and I, we developed a spiritual gifts workshop, and we went and taught it to these 11 churches over two days. At the end of the two days, we asked people to come forward and give testimony of what God had taught them. So various people popped up and came and said things, and finally, at the end, this old lady came forward. She took her a while. She could hardly walk. She walked. She came to the front, and she had this book in her hand. She began to share, and she said, I’m an old lady. I can hardly walk. I can’t go out and do all this evangelism that you guys do. I can’t preach. She said, I thought I’m just a nobody.
I’m just there to sit in the back of the other church, and I have nothing to offer, she said, but today, this weekend, I’ve learned about something called intercession, about prayer, she held up her book. She said, in this book, all your names are written in this book. She said, I pray for all of you every day. She said, I can easily pray for three hours. I pray for the evangelization of our city. I pray for the leaders in our city. I know every one of your names because I pray for you and the tears we’re going to flow down her cheek. She said, God has shown me I’m not a nobody.
I’m not a nothing in his kingdom. He’s shown me that every day when I pray for all of you as you go out to share the gospel, as you preach the Word, as you teach the Word. When I pray for you, I matter for God’s kingdom, that I am using what God gave me for His Kingdom. Who? How would you like in your church, a woman who will pray three hours a day for you and your church’s ministry. Do you think that that would make a difference? And she was so rejoicing that she didn’t have to be the preacher or the evangelist or the youth worker. God had given her inability, God had taken her, in her situation, and given her something to do for His Kingdom, for this precious gospel that she could be a part of. And I was so encouraged. She illustrated so well what we were trying to help these people see. And she was a good example of this.
I believe that when she gets to heaven, which by now she may be there, that God would say to her, welcome, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with what I gave you. And that, I believe, is a really good example of what God is trying to teach us. Here, Jesus is coming. It may seem to be taking a long time, but he’s coming. Will you be faithful with this precious gospel, according to the ability that he’s given you, if we’ll do this, look out. Lost World. Look out. So I want to close by saying I am very encouraged by seeing evidence of this all across our campus. I’m so inspired by faculty members and some people who’ve been here a long time, like Dr Ross, who are so faithful, I’m inspired by you, students, stories I hear and things I see about your lives, of the way that you being faithful. Keep going, keep going, live this faithfulness for your savior until he comes, even if it seems to be taking a long time, let’s pray.
Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for Jesus and this incredible gift that we have, this talent that you’ve given us, this this gospel, to live it out in our lives. Help us, each one, to be faithful to the ability that you’ve given us. Father, help us to show through our faithfulness how we represent your kingdom and how we can draw others into it. Father, please take this for the extension of you. Kingdom, from the footsteps of our seminary to the ends of the earth, we pray in Jesus name Amen.
