THE DAY OF RECKONING by Canon J. I. Amadu

THE DAY OF RECKONING

“After a long time the Lord of those servants came, and reckoned with them” Matthew 25:19

The best method Jesus used to teach his disciples and people of old was through parables. Different parables were recorded in the gospels. The fact behind this is that Jesus used earthly things or physical things to explain the heavenly things, or the unseen or the Kingdom of God. The Parable of the Talents is one of the popular among others which is found in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. Matthew Chapter 25:14 – 30. Parallel to this is the Luke account in chapter 19:12ff. This Parable is of the 10 servants rewarded with 10 cities after their vigorous toil and labour. The difference in the numbers of servants in these stories does not matter as the goal of the stories. According to Mathew, Jesus told a story of a man who was traveling to a far country and put all his Finances in the custody of his three Servants. To one he gave five talents, to another he gave two Talents and to another he gave one talent. The first servant traded with his five talents and gained five more. The second with two gained two more; but the third servant buried the only one talent that was given him. The irony of it is that the value of one talent is equivalent to $29,085; the value of the two talents is $58,170 while three talents is equivalent to $145,425. The least of the talent is a reasonable amount of money to start a small scale business in any country which of cause the Master of the Servants expected them to do. The first two servants traded with what they were given in the absence of their Master and made One Hundred percent profit while the third who thought he was given little amount buried his own! In verse 19, the Bible tells us that after a long time, the Master of the three servants returned and called them to give account of their stewardship. At the account of the stewardship of the first two servants, the Master praised them for their faithfulness, not because of the volume of profit or their turnover! (Matthew 25:21-25) “And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ 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.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ 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.” In the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians Chapter 12:8 – 10, there are 10 different gifts given by God to men. “For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues” It is pertinent to know that, if a man possesses the ten different gifts and another possesses only one out of ten, and both of them used whatever they possess judiciously as given to them by God, they will both receive the same reward for their faithfulness, loyalty, dedication and commitment to the giver! Why? Because: 1. God gives according to the ability of the receivers. 2. The receivers used their one hundred percent energy to make one hundred percent turnover! That is God in action! He does not see as human being sees! No prejudice, no favouritism and no discrimination. Heb 6:10 “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister”(KJV) Our God is a proportionate giver according to abilities and will give maximum reward of our labour. John Chapter 14:2 ‘in my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.’ This passage indicates that all righteous people will own a mansion each, and there are more than enough mansions to accommodate the number of the righteous and not different mansions to accommodate different calibers of people as some people thought of today. Unlike heaven, the world is full of hierarchy: great, greater, greatest. No wonder the disciple of Jesus asked who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven Math. 18:1. God in His miraculous way has so done it that no two people of the same degree of righteousness or talents have the same proportion of affluence, wealth, fame or position in this world. Two things will level earthly hierarchy or position one day: that is death and grave! In other words, if Jesus tarries in coming, the rich and the poor, popular and unpopular, tall or short, great or small will die and probably be buried like the rich fool and Lazarus, and then we all will stand before the judgment throne of God to receive what we have done in the flesh. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” (2Cor. 5:10-KJV) The righteous will be transformed into the life of uniformity where there is equality of Joy, Peace, and Comfort. For example, the 24 Elders enjoy uniform seats and golden crowns. Rev. 4:4 ”And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.” “And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, these are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes (See Rev. 7:13-17) KJV The heavenly hosts are indefatigably singing: “Holy, Holy, Holy…” everyday, nobody is serving siesta while others are singing, no shifting of duties and no annual leave. Therefore, I am of the opinion that there is uniformity in heaven. Where there is the spirit of God, there is no confusion. On the other hand, the attitude of the other Servant with only one Talent shows his slothfulness, indolence, fearfulness of taking risk, erroneous in thinking unjust, fault-finding, jealousy and Self –justifying. All these qualities are found in him when he says: “… 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 .” Matthew 25:24-25. Immediately, he too got his own reward, but it was a negative one! The one talent that was not useful to him was taken from him and given to the one who has more, he was cast away to outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. May this never be your lot in the name of Jesus. Remember, it was after a long time of the departure of that master that he came back for reckoning. Brethren, a day of reckoning is at hand! How are you preparing yourself for this? What talents have you? How do you use it? What is given by God is not a Gratuity and to be accounted for and to serve God. Do you know that it was not all that easy for the first two Servants to double their talents? Yes, it took a long time, as long as the period of the Master’s departure. They worked very hard, they toiled night and day, come rain come sunshine; they did not relent in their efforts in buying and selling, sowing and reaping to make turnovers They never gave up and eventually, they were archivers! I prophesy into your life, everywhere that you have laboured and toiled long time ago, your reward will locate you before the end of this month in the name of Jesus. No matter how long the time is, a day of reckoning is coming when our Lord Jesus Christ will come. A day of judgment, the Parousia, a fearful day, a day when angels will harvest the whole World as a farmer will harvest his crops on his farm, a day where deceit will not be fashionable and everything will be laid bare before you and your Creator. This day, nobody knows, not even the angels! Let me tell you, there are lot of prophets and preachers who had preached about `the coming of Christ years back, yet Christ has not come, Apostle Paul did, the disciples did, even John the forerunner of Christ did centuries ago, Christ has not come! It may be because of you that Jesus tarries! He wants you to repent of your sins so that you don’t die in sin. Let me tell you a pathetic story I read in a booklet just of recent. A couple was traveling by road. Everybody knew these couple as children of God, people of good behaviour, faithful, of good reputation. As they were traveling, their car was struck by a drunken driver and both of them died. ‘Why did this happen?’ you may ask. The day you meet with your own death you cannot amend anything again. In a moment, why don’t you think of where you are going? Heaven or hell? There is only one way to heaven. That is Jesus Christ. See John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” RSV So, what are you waiting for? Don’t delay and don’t hide yourself from Him. Simply confess your sin, make a U- Turn from your sin and confess Jesus as your only Lord and Saviour. You will be saved. God bless you!

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