About the need to remain
watchful for His second coming, Jesus told a parable in Matt.24: 45-51. A
master has appointed a servant as a ruler over his household to give the food
in due season. The said servant becomes
a faithful servant if he rules his household in a faithful manner. But the same servant becomes an evil servant
if he does not rule his household in a faithful manner.
The servant is expected to
give the household “meat in due season”. “Blessed is that servant, whom his
lord when he cometh shall find so doing”.
The servant is supposed to give food to the inmates in due season. The Lord has appointed you as a ruler in His
body, the Church. You are supposed to give food to the other members of His
body. Food means “material help” and
“spiritual food”. When the Lord comes again, if He finds you so doing, you will
be blessed to have dominion over the world along with Him. He will make you
ruler “over all His goods”. After His second coming, the Lord will make that
faithful servant to rule over His kingdom.
If that servant thinks that
his master is delaying his coming and begins to “smite his fellow servants, and
to eat and drink with the drunken”, the lord, when he will come “in a day when
he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of”, will cut him
asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: “there shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth”.
Nobody in the body of Christ
is supposed to harass or persecute the other members of His body, and to resort
to self-indulgence by way of lavish spending of His money for
himself/herself. These days, we find
many ministers of God indulge in lavish life-style. If Jesus comes on a day
when the evil servant is not looking for Him, and at an hour that he is not
aware of, He will not reward that evil servant. He will not be allowed to rule
with Him but will be thrown into a place where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth.
Through this message, the
Holy Spirit wants those who persecute or judge the fellow servants (the other
members of His body) and also who commit self-indulgence with His money.
In Matt.25: 14-30, Jesus
told a parable about the talents to be used in His vineyard. A man traveling to a far country called his
own servants and delivered his goods to them.
He gave five talents to one, to another two, and to another one, to each
according to his own ability, and immediately he went on a journey.
But he who had received five
talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. Similarly, he who had received two gained
two more also. But he who had received
one talent went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money.
After a long time, the lord
of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. To those who had
gained five more talents and two more talents respectively, he told them, “Well
done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I
will make thee ruler over many things:
enter thou into the joy of thy lord”
He who had received the one
talent, came and said, “Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping
where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: And I was
afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is
thine”.
His lord told him, “Thou
wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and
gather where I have not strawed: Though
oughtest, therefore, to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my
coming I should have received mine own with usury”
This parable teaches us a
very important lesson. Talent means an ancient unit of weight and of
money. The Lord has delivered His goods
to the members of His body. He then gives
“talents” to them, according to their own ability, for trading. The Lord has entrusted His goods to the
members of His body because He trusts them.
All His goods belong to them because He is the Lord of the earth
also. Secondly, He gives them, according
to their ability, His talents. He does not distribute the talents in an equitable
manner amongst His servants. He chooses to give more talents to some people,
and to give lesser talents to some other people.
Talent means “material
prosperity”. We are all His
ministers/servants. The Lord has given us His talents, according to our own
ability. He wants all of us to trade with His talents. After accepting Jesus
Christ as our Savior, all our material possessions belong to Him only, and we
are supposed to use the same for the extension of His Kingdom on earth.
Moreover, He has blessed some of us with more wealth or money after accepting
Him.
Those ministers to whom He
has given five talents are required to use the given material prosperity to
bring in equal or more material prosperity for His body, and not lesser than
the standard measurement fixed by Him.
The talents and the additional talents are for His body only, and for
us. If God has materially prospered you, you have to make use of your wealth
for His body. In case any of His
servants has misappropriated His talents, the Lord will judge them. They have to return the talents along with
the equal quantity of additional talents.
Now His sword falls on those
who are given “the one talent”. Nobody
can have any excuse that he/she does not have any talent at all. There are great
multitudes in the body of Christ who fall under this category. “The one talent”
means such amount of wealth or money, which, if compared to those with five and
two talents, would be lesser in quantity. It cannot be measured by human
standards but by divine standards.
The person who has got the
lone talent cannot tell God that God has not given him that talent. The person
who has received the lone talent cannot take the plea before the Lord that he
could not make use of it because he had received lesser than the other two
persons.
What is wrong with the
person who has received the lone talent?
Jesus calls him, “Thou wicked and slothful servant”. He/she is in fact a
shirker in the body of Christ. There are many who do not want to labor in the
vineyard of God today with the lone talent saying that they have received only
one talent. They have dug in the ground and buried the lone talent. They could have given the lone talent for
some mission field or Christian organization if they do not want to get themselves
involved in evangelical work.
If you use the lone talent
for His vineyard, the Lord will definitely get the return in the form of that
lone talent. In other words, your money
or wealth used for His vineyard will bring about due blessings upon His body.
As you minister to the servants of God who are directly involved in various
ministries through the one talent, the servants of God concerned will get
equipped to labor in His vineyard. The
administration of this service, not only supplies the needs of the saints but
also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God (2 Cor.9: 12).
The judgment on the person
who had received the one talent and who could not deliver the additional one
talent is very terrible. The Lord does
not expect more talents in return for the lone talent. The Lord will not only
take away the lone talent from the unprofitable servant and give the same to
another who has ten talents but will also order him to be cast into “the outer
darkness” where there will be “weeping and gnashing of teeth”. Many people, on
the second advent of Jesus, will lose their reward of ruling with Him but will
find themselves in a place called “outer darkness”.
Majority of us must have
“the one talent” given by our Lord. We are born-again Christians, filled with His
Spirit. What about the one talent given
to us by our Lord? Now the Lord Who had gone to a far country is about to come.
By not making use of the lone talent, we should not find ourselves in “outer
darkness”. This parable is a warning to
us!
When Jesus had finished all
these sayings, He said to His disciples that the Son of Man would be betrayed
to be crucified. Then the chief
priests, the scribes and the elders of the people assembled and conspired to
kill Jesus (Matt.26: 1-5).
Satan entered Judas and he
went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might
betray Jesus to them. They were glad
and agreed to give him money. When Satan entered Judas, he became greedy for
money. Jesus had chosen Judas as His
beloved disciple along with Peter, John, etc. Judas lived with Jesus and shared
His joy and sorry. Judas became the son
of perdition and was lost “that the scripture might be fulfilled” (John 17:12).
While praying for His disciples in the 17th chapter of Jesus, Jesus
agonized in His heart because He had to lose one of His beloved disciples just
to ensure that the prophecy was fulfilled. Jesus had to play his role and
became an instrument in the hands of the Devil to betray Jesus.
Are we better than Judas is?
Today we may all point our accusing finger at Judas. Judas was the treasurer for the ministry of Jesus. The weakness
of Judas was his greed for money. He
loved money more than Jesus when he handled money. Satan knew his weakness and
then entered Judas.
Similarly, these days, there
are many ministers of God. They had a
very humble beginning. As the Lord
prospered them materially, they began to amass wealth and to live lavishly. They gave the Devil a place in their life
and he entered them. They began to love
money more than Jesus.
Judas could have resisted
the Devil at that time because he had seen Jesus cast out the demons before his
very eyes. Alas! Judas could not overcome his temptation towards money.
Let us not sell Jesus just
for money or wealth. Christian
organizations in some poor nations, just to get US Dollars or foreign aid,
exaggerate their evangelical work with data and thus sell the Son of God. Are
we faithful to God in money matters?
Caiphas, one of the
conspirators, was the high priest, for that year. They deliberated the
consequences of killing Jesus. They also feared invasion by Romans. Caiphas said, “Ye know nothing at all. Nor
consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people,
and that the whole nation perish not.”
The Bible says that he spoke this not of himself but being the high
priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation, and that
not for that nation also, but also that he should gather together in one the
children of God that were scattered abroad.” Then from that day, forth they
took counsel together for to put Him to death (John 12:49-53).
A prophecy about the great
salvation for the people came not through the mouth of a prophet but through
the mouth of the high priest of Jews who was none but a conspirator. God chose
the high priest to give this prophecy, and not any of the contemporary prophets
because the unbelieving Jews had not believed the prophets of the Old Testament
who had prophesied on the ministry of Messiah.
God uses any person to
prophesy when the people have not believed His prophets. It is not the speaker but the word of his
mouth that matters here. These days, we attach importance to the speaker and
not to the message of that speaker.
When Jesus was in Bethany at
the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him, having an alabaster box of
very precious ointment, and poured it on His head as He sat at the table.
Mathew and Mark have
reported that Jesus visited the house of Simon, the leper. Jesus chose to take
supper in the house of a leper! Can you
and I visit the house of a leper just to have fellowship with him? Under the
Old Testament, lepers were social outcastes. How are we ministering to those
who have been afflicted with this dreaded disease? Are we following the
footsteps of our Master?
This Bible passage depicting
the anointing of Jesus by a woman before His crucifixion is so significant that
Jesus Himself said that wherever this gospel would be preached in the whole
world, this incident shall also be told for a memorial of her. I wonder whether
our evangelists tell about this woman, while preaching the gospel.
Mathew and Mark have not
mentioned the name of this woman whereas John has identified her as Mary, the
sister of Martha and Lazarus. When Mathew and Mark saw her pour out this
ointment on the head of Jesus, John saw her anoint His feet with this ointment
and then wipe His feet with her hair. All the three writers of the gospel,
though inspired by the same Holy Spirit, have reported the same incident but
from different angles. This is how the Holy Spirit functions through the
members of the Body of Christ. When one member of the same Body gets
revelations from the Word about certain truth, some other member gets
revelations from the Word about the same truth from a different angle. When we put together both their revelations,
we get at the whole truth. When we put the different accounts given by Mathew,
Mark and John together, we come to know that a woman identified as Mary poured
out the precious ointment on the Body of Christ, first on His Head and later on
His feet, and that she anointed His feet with that ointment and wiped His feet
with her hair. We can neither ignore both the two versions nor can we attach
importance to one of these two versions.
John says that in Bethany,
they made Him a supper and Martha served but Lazarus was one of those who sat
at the table with Jesus. It is thus
apparent that when Jesus visited the house of Simon, the leper, Martha was also
there to serve Jesus. When Martha chose
to serve Jesus at the table, her sister Mary chose to anoint His feet with the
precious ointment. Lazarus who had been
raised alive from the dead was there, taking supper along with Jesus. He was
there not to serve Jesus. These days, there are many people like Lazarus who,
after receiving great blessings from Jesus, do not want to serve Jesus or to
work in His vineyard.
Now the disciples,
especially Judas Iscariot, were indignant with Mary. Judas said that this fragrant ointment could have been sold for
three hundred denarii’s and this money given to the poor. It was not that he cared for the poor but
because he, a thief, used to pilfer the money put into the money box (John
12:5-6). Judas could not have
misappropriated the entire money in the moneybox meant for the ministry of
Jesus but have definitely misappropriated a part of the money in the box. Many
ministers in our midst misappropriate a part of God’s money.
Mary gave the best gift in
her possession to the Body of Jesus Christ.
This is symbolical of our sacrificial offerings to the Church, the Body
of Christ. If we love Jesus today, we
have to give the best of our worldly possessions to the Body of Christ. We may not find the resurrected physical
Body of Jesus today. However, we can
find His Body, the Church today. Christ is the Head of the Church (Gal.5: 23).
As we pour out our precious ointment on His Head, it will flow over His Body,
and will reach His feet. O dearly beloved in Christ, you have to wipe His feet
with your hair. There are precious ministers of God in our midst who work in
far-off mission fields in other nations.
They preach the gospel to those who have not heard the gospel. These ministers constitute the feet of
Christ today. We have to anoint them with our precious gift and to wipe out
their tears, fear and anxieties through our words of comfort and through our
intercessory prayers. In this regard, I mention below the testimony of the wife
of an evangelist in a mission field in India as reported by Indian Evangelical
Missions:
“I SAW DIFFICULTIES IN
EVERYTHING BUT GOD!”
I heard about Jesus Christ
when I was a child through my believing parents, relatives, church pastors, my
Sunday school teachers and many other people.
As I grew up, my desire to know Him more grew within me. When I became a college student, I committed
myself for God’s ministry. Years later
when I got married to a missionary, little did I realize that serving God as a
cross-cultural missionary was not as easy as I thought it would be. I enthusiastically went to the mission field
along with my husband. However, all my
enthusiasm and zeal died out in the very first month of my stay in the village.
Difficulties galore!
I started seeing
difficulties in every thing – financial, lack of facilities, difficulty in
moving around and even difficulty in getting water. More than anything else, I kept hearing stories of persecution
from almost everyone. I wept in my
heart, “O Lord how can I survive in this place? How can I do Your ministry here
with all these struggles and difficulties of non even being able to meet the
basic needs of our lives?”
An unknown fear gripped me
and I started thinking negatively about everything. The passion for serving the lord faded away and I became
irritable and started complaining about everything. In my heart, I struggled to cope, even though outwardly I seemed all
right and adjusting. I found it
difficult to take the first step of faith.
Eventually I realized that I was a failure. I felt angry with myself.
However, the Lord was
patient with me. He gently dealt with
me through His Word. I read in Hebrews
12:10-11, “but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His
holiness. No discipline seems pleasant
at the time but painful. Later on,
however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have
been trained by it”.
I said, “Lord, I understand
that You want me to be disciplined and You want me to produce a harvest of
righteousness. Yes, my Lord, help me to
accept Your disciplining in my life with joy.
I surrender myself to be trained by You so that I may “share in Your
holiness”. Slowly, His Word began to
work in me. All my negative attitudes
vanished. I started loving the people.
I accepted our cultural differences and tried to adapt myself to their
culture. I started even loving the
small hut in which we lived! I found myself enjoying life in spire of poor
facilities. I felt the joy of serving
my Lord with hardship. Yes, God worked
in me patiently. He taught me to serve
Him joyfully. He restored my faith and
made me strong, firm and steadfast. He
removed my fear and negative attitudes and filled me with His love and
peace. He continues to work in me and
helping me in my ministry.
Certain Greeks who had come
to worship at the feast desired to see Jesus.
Philip informed Andrew about this and Andrew and Philip then informed
Jesus. Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour is come, that the Son of man
should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it: and he that hateth his
life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve Me, let
him follow Me; and where I am, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall
also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will my Father honor….” (John
12:21-26)
When the Greeks came to see
Jesus, He gave them a message of loss and death, and not a message of joy and
prosperity. He told them about the consequences of following Him in unambiguous
terms. He did not promise a life of ease and enjoyment. He told them that a
corn of wheat had to fall into the ground and die. In this regard, I testify to a dear servant of God who had served
one of the toughest mission fields in India 15 years ago. There was a deadly
disease caused by a mosquito called “Kalahazar”. People afflicted with this disease would die in that mission
field for want of proper medical care. One Jeyaraj, a missionary of Friends
Missionary Prayer Band was serving God along with his wife and his young
son. The son was first afflicted with
this disease and died. Then Jeyaraj also fell ill and died. His wife boldly
faced all these tragedies by the divine strength. Then the bodies of the father
and the son were buried there as the same could not transported to his native
place in the South India, which was 2000 kilometers away from the mission
field. In that mission field, Jeyaraj could not win many people to Christ and
had been upset on many occasions.
The villagers, to their
great surprise, saw a man who looked like an angel, sitting by the side of the
graves and weeping. That man was restless and was moving in the graveyard here
and there. After some days, the Campus Crusade for Christ showed a film on the
life of Jesus to the villagers. When
the film was being shown, the villagers asked the missionaries to stop the
film, and informed them of their intention to become Christians. When the missionaries
wanted to know the reason for this sudden change of their mind, they informed
that the Man in the film was the same Person Whom they had seen near the graves
of the dead missionary and his son. In fact, they had seen a Man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief in the graveyard (Is.53:3). Many people accepted Christ
that day. Then a revival broke out in
the mission field. Today there are
thousands of people who have become the children of God.
There are many servants of
God like Jeyaraj who had fallen into the ground of India and died, who had not
loved their life, and who had followed Jesus and chosen to be in a place where
Jesus wanted them to serve Him.
John
writes in his gospel (12:37-41) that although Jesus had done so many signs
before them, they did not believe in Him that the word of Isaiah the prophet
might be fulfilled, which he spoke:
“Lord,
who hath believed our report? And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been
revealed?
Therefore,
they could not believe, because that Isaiah said again, ‘He hath blinded their
eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor
understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them”
The prophecy of Isaiah still holds good for the Church today. Who has believed our report? The Lord has not forsaken His chosen people but continues to talk to them in many ways. He performs signs and wonders before their eyes. Still His people do not believe the report of His servants. They could not believe because the Lord has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts lest they should see with their eyes; lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that He should heal them.
Why should the Lord blind their yes? It is because self-righteousness and pride reign over their lives. The people of God should have “a contrite and humble spirit”. God revives the spirit of the humble and the heart of the contrite ones (Is.57: 15). He does not revive the spirit of the proud.
During the initial period of my spiritual birth in the late 70s, I was in fellowship with a group of God’s people in a church where evangelism was given the first priority. However, the elders of the church thought they had the authority to judge the erring members of their church. They judged a member of their church and then excommunicated him from the church just because he was a talebearer. He did not commit any other grievous sin so as to warrant excommunication. During the testimony time on Sundays, the church members were allowed to share their testimonies or brief messages. As led by the Spirit, I went to the pulpit and shared a message from the life of the adulterous woman who was judged by the Pharisees but was forgiven by the Lord. I told them indirectly that even though the Pharisees had caught the woman in the very act of adultery with eyewitnesses, Jesus did not allow the Pharisees to stone her by way of judgment. The Lord had also given me a prophetic vision. I interpreted the vision and wrote a long letter to them. The Lord had revealed to me that they would not believe my report. Still He wanted me to give them my report. Self-righteousness and pride had blinded their eyes. That church started backsliding and believing in false doctrines.
(Job Anbalagan)