Parables of Jesus Part 8: The Three Workers

This free Bible lesson, The Parable of The Three Workers, will teach preschool and elementary students about the lesson Jesus taught when He was living on Earth as a human and the greatest teacher of all time.

This lesson is part of a summer series titled "Jesus Makes a Splash: Lessons from the Parables of Jesus".

This lesson comes from the Seeds of Truth Elementary Bible Curriculum that is free to anyone looking for ideas to "plant seeds" into the hearts of children as they are learning about Jesus. Find more details HERE.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Seeds of Truth podcast, where seeds of biblical truth are planted into the hearts and minds of listeners so they can grow into a relationship with Jesus. I'm your host, Miss Dana. Thank you for joining me today. Let's get started. Hello, friends, and welcome back. This is part eight and final lesson in our series about the parables of Jesus. And this week we are talking about the parable of the three workers. Remember, a parable is a short and simple story that uses everyday situations or ideas to teach a big lesson. Jesus taught many, many parables while he was on earth teaching and serving as a human, but we have only covered just a very, very few of the parables that he taught. You can find many parables in all of the gospel books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. So today's parable called the Parable of the Three Workers, it is also sometimes called the Parable of the Talents, and it is found in the book of Matthew. So I want you to think of some words that have more than one meaning. How about the word bank? The bank has more, the word bank has more than one meaning. Or the word park. You can say, I'm going to park my car, or I'm going to the park to play on the playground. There are so many words that have more than one meaning. What about the word talent? Did you know that the word talent has more than one meaning? So the word talent does have two different meanings. The meaning of the word talent that you are probably most familiar with is a special natural skill or ability to do something very well. So, like if you have a talent in music, or if you are a talented artist or you are a talented athlete, okay, that would be the most well-known definition or meaning of the word talent. But the word talent is also a measure of money used in ancient times that usually represented a high value of precious metals like gold or silver. So the parable that we're learning about today uses the word talent as an amount of money, but it also is a symbol of special skills and gifts that are given to us by God. Now I am reading from the NIRV translation of the Bible. So we are not actually going to see the word talent in the text, but if you are reading from other versions of the Bible, you might see that word talent. So instead of talents, we're going to see bags of gold. Okay, so those are going to mean the same thing in this parable. Okay, so remember a talent is a measure of money, usually in gold or silver, but we can also think of it as a symbol here for its other meaning, which is a special skill or a special gift that we have. Okay, so I'm gonna be reading this parable from Matthew chapter 25, verses 14 through 30. And I want you to think about who is the man going away on a journey a symbol of, and who are the servants a symbol of? What are the bags of money or the talents a symbol of? And what is the message of the parable? Once I finish reading, if you want to pause and think about this parable on your own or discuss it with someone, you may do that. It says, again, here is what the kingdom of heaven will be like. A man was going on a journey. He sent for his slaves and put them in charge of his money. He gave five bags of gold to one, he gave two bags to another, and he gave one bag to the third. The man gave each slave the amount of money he knew the slave could take care of. Then he went on his journey. The slave who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work. He earned five bags more. The one with the two bags of gold earned two more, but the man who had received one bag went and dug a hole in the ground. He hid his master's money in it. After a long time, the master of those slaves returned. He wanted to collect all the money they had earned. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. Master, he said, You trusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have earned five more. His master replied, You have done well, good and faithful slave. You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness. The man with two bags of gold also came. Master, he said, You trusted me with two bags of gold. See, I have earned two more. His master replied, You have done well, good and faithful slave. You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness. Then the one who had received one bag of gold came. Master, he said, I knew that you were a hard man. You harvest where you have not planted, you gather crops where you have not scattered seed, so I was afraid. I went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you. His master replied, You evil, lazy slave, so you knew that I harvest where I have not planted. You knew that I gather crops where I have not scattered seed. Well then, you should have put my money in the bank. When I returned, I would have received it back with interest. Then his master commanded the other slaves, Take the bag of gold from him, give it to the one who has ten bags. Everyone who has will be given more. They will have more than enough. And what about anyone who doesn't have? Even what they have will be taken away from them. Throw that worthless slave outside. There in the darkness, people will weep and grind their teeth. So this is one of the parables that Jesus did not explain, or at least it is not recorded that he explained this parable to his disciples. So remember, we can ask the Holy Spirit through prayer to help us understand the lesson that Jesus was teaching. So in this parable, Jesus teaches that we should use our gifts to serve him while we faithfully wait for him to return. Jesus is teaching us that while he is away, we should be using the gifts that he has given us to serve him while we wait for him to come back. Where did Jesus go after he died on the cross and rose back to life? He went back to heaven. When is Jesus coming back? We don't know exactly when, but he's coming soon. The Bible tells us that Jesus is coming back to take the people who love him to live with him forever. Mark chapter 13, verses 32 through 33 says, But no one knows about that day or hour. Not even the angels in heaven know. The Son does not know, only the Father knows. Keep watch, stay awake, you do not know when that time will come. In the parable, the man going away on a journey is a symbol of Jesus. We all have God-given abilities and skills and gifts that Jesus wants us to use to serve him and to spread the good news about the free gift of salvation that he offers everyone who will believe in him and trust him. The servants in the parable that he puts in charge of his money or talents are a symbol of the people who believe in Jesus. Remember, a talent in ancient times referred to a measure of value or money. But we can think of talents in this parable as the gifts and skills that God has given to each of us. So, what kinds of gifts do we have that we can use to serve God? We have compassion, some of us may be good at teaching, some of us may be good with music and singing, speaking, some of us may have extra money, extra time, some of us may be good writers or cooks or good at building or working with our hands. All of these things are gifts and skills that God has given us that we can use to serve Him. The talents or the money in the parable are a symbol of those gifts and special skills that God has given to each of us. Jesus has given each of us special gifts so that we can use those gifts to serve him. And he wants us to put our special gifts to good use and not waste opportunities that we have to serve him and to bring other people to know him. Jesus told us about three different people in this parable. The talents or the money in the parable represent gifts and skills that God gives to each person. So one person was given five talents, one person was given two talents, and one person was given one talent. The Bible says the man gave each servant the amount of money he knew the servant could take care of. This means that God knows the gifts that he has given each of us, so he wants us to fully use the gifts that we have and not waste them. So the servant who was given five talents put his money to work and he earned five more, so he doubled his amount. The servant who was given two talents also did that. He put his money to work and he earned two more, doubling his amount. But the servant who was given one talent buried his money and didn't earn any more. And when the man came back from the journey, he found that two of the servants had put their money to work and earned more money. One of the servants had wasted the opportunity to earn more money by hiding the one talent that he was given. Jesus is in heaven, but he is coming back soon. And when he comes back, he wants to find that we have used the gifts he has given us in a way that has grown his kingdom. Growing Jesus' kingdom means sharing the good news of the free gift of salvation that Jesus offers to all who will believe in him. More and more people believe in and come to know Jesus. And growing Jesus' kingdom also means that we ourselves grow in our faith and become more like Jesus. So Jesus wants all of these things to happen by the time he comes back. God made a promise of a coming kingdom, and Jesus is the promised king that was foretold in the Old Testament. When we grow Jesus' kingdom, it means that we share the good news of Jesus with other people so that more and more people will believe in him and trust in him as their savior. The servants in the parable who put their gifts to good use were given rewards when the master returned from his journey. And the servant who did not put his gift to good use had his reward taken away from him. The Bible says that when Jesus comes to get the people who love him and take us to live with him forever, we will be judged and given rewards based on how we lived our lives on earth. We can read about this in Romans 14, 10 through 12 and in 2 Corinthians 5, 10. We don't know exactly what type of rewards will be given in heaven, but the Bible does say that rewards will be given. So will we be judged for our sins? People who believe in Jesus will not be judged for our sins because for people who believe in Jesus and trust him as their savior, Jesus took away all of their sins. People who believe in and trust Jesus will not be judged for sin. The Apostle Paul teaches in the book of Romans, those who belong to Christ Jesus are no longer under God's judgment. Because of what Christ Jesus has done, you are free. You are now controlled by the law of the Holy Spirit who gives you life. The law of the Spirit frees you from the law of sin that brings death. Because Jesus died on the cross to take our sins away. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, all of our sins are taken away and we will not be judged for sin. People who believe in Jesus will be given rewards for the good things that we do while we are living on the earth. But we cannot earn our salvation. We will only get to heaven through trusting in Jesus. Speaking about believers in Jesus who do good things for God on earth, the Apostle Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians, the Lord will give each of them a reward for their work. Our job while we wait for Jesus to return is to live for him, serve him using the gifts he has given to us, and spread the good news of the gospel to grow his kingdom. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you for your word, the Bible. Thank you for the parables that Jesus used to teach big lessons. Thank you for the gifts that you have given each of us that we can use to grow Jesus' kingdom. Please help us to know our gifts and please help us to know how you want us to use our gifts. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' sweet name. Amen. That is all the end of our series about the parables of Jesus. Again, Jesus taught in many, many, many parables, and we have just barely discussed a few of them. So you can find more parables that you can read in all of the gospel books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Until next time, God bless. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Seeds of Truth Podcast. For more free Bible resources, visit seeds of truth ministries.com.