The One-Talent Man
Text: Matthew 25:13-30
Series: Restoration Sermons
Date:
Speaker: Ed Rangel
Location: Waupaca Church of Christ
Bible Version: NASB 1995
Sermon Type: Expository
Learning Objectives
By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:
- Identify what made the one-talent man's situation distinct from the other two — not the amount he received but what he did with it.
- Explain the principle of moral responsibility: receiving what belongs to another creates an obligation to use it rightly.
- Articulate why "diversity of USE with equality of opportunity" is the governing principle of talent stewardship, and why depression over limitation is misplaced.
- Identify the pattern by which we attempt to shift blame for our failures onto others, and explain why the one-talent man's alibi "established his guilt" rather than excusing it.
- State the double loss of the one-talent man — his talent and his soul — and explain why useless church membership leads to the same outcome.
Thesis
The one-talent man was not lost because he had too little but because he used what he had for nothing. The loss of the talent was the emblem of the loss of the soul. There is no safety in having only a little and hiding it.
Burden
This parable is usually preached for comfort — "even one talent is enough to be faithful" — and that comfort is real. But the outcome of the parable is not comfort; it is judgment. The one-talent man is the cautionary center, not a reassuring footnote. The outline reads the parable as a warning about the specific danger of smallness: the one-talent man was not intimidated by having more than he could handle. He was tempted to hide precisely because he had only one — because the one seemed too small to matter, too little to put at risk, too insignificant for the master to notice or care about. That temptation — that the little I have is not worth offering — is the temptation this sermon addresses.
Introduction
"For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey" (Matt. 25:14-15). The amounts differ; the responsibility is equal. Each was entrusted with what belonged to the master. Each was expected to use it and return it with increase.
The parable of the talents is "similar to the parable of the minas in Luke 19:11-27," as the outline notes, but the stress is different. The minas were equal; the talents vary. The lesson of the talents is not "the same gift produces different returns" but "men with different gifts may make different use of them." What they do with what they are given — not the amount — is what is evaluated.
I. Talents Committed to Three
Each received "according to his own ability" (Matt. 25:15). The amounts are not random — they correspond to what each person could use. The master does not set his servants up for failure by entrusting more than they can manage. Each receives what fits.
Two used theirs and gained 100%. The parable does not say the two-talent man was frustrated that he received two rather than five, or that he held back because his contribution seemed smaller than the other's. He used what he had and doubled it. The five-talent man did the same. The percentage of return was equal, and the master's commendation was identical: "Well done, good and faithful slave" (Matt. 25:21, 23). The commendation was not proportional to the amount — it was proportional to the faithfulness.
The one did not use his. That is the story.
II. He Accepted His Responsibility for One
"He who had received the one talent came up" (Matt. 25:24). He received it. He took it. The receiving was the acceptance of the responsibility. A person cannot take what belongs to another and then treat it as if no obligation attended the taking.
All are entrusted with at least one talent. The parable makes no provision for the person who has received nothing — because no such person exists. Every person born into this world is endowed with something that belongs to the Creator who made them: time, capacity for relationship, intellect, influence over at least one other human being. The question is never "do I have anything" but "what am I doing with what I have."
The obligation is to increase by use. What a person does not use, they lose. The Mammoth Cave fish are the natural illustration: isolated in darkness over generations, they lost the sight they never used. What is not exercised atrophies. What is not invested depreciates. The capacity held in reserve against a future risk does not grow; it diminishes.
III. He Had All That He Could Use
"For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he has shall be taken away" (Matt. 25:29; 1 Cor. 4:7; 12:11). The distribution was personal and appropriate — each received according to his own ability (1 Cor. 12:11: "to each one individually just as He wills").
All would not remain equal; even if born so. Persons with identical starting conditions develop differently through the different uses of what they have been given. The diversity emerges from use — or from the failure to use. There is a diversity of USE with equality of opportunity: what creates the difference is not the initial amount but what is done with it.
A gift is not for personal pride but for USE. This is the corrective to the anxiety about amount. The question is not "how much do I have compared to others" but "am I using what I have." No one should be depressed by limitations (Luke 16:10: "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much"). God shows the same care in making an atom as a star — the scale of the creation does not measure the value of the creator's attention to it. The same is true of gifts: the one-talent servant received a gift the master specifically calibrated to his ability. The master cared about the one talent. He expected it to be used.
IV. Did Not Use What He Had
"But the one who had received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money" (Matt. 25:18). This is the choice. He had one thing to do: use it. He did the opposite: he hid it.
It was given him to USE — not to hide. The burial of the talent is not neutral stewardship; it is a betrayal of the purpose for which it was given. The money in the ground earns nothing, does nothing, helps no one. It waits. And while it waits, the master's business goes unserved.
It is tragic to think of the buried talent in the church. the application is direct: there are people in congregations who have received gifts — time, knowledge, capacity for service, relationship — who have buried those gifts in the ground. They attend; they occupy space; they receive. They do not use. The buried talent in the church is the one-talent man's sin repeated in countless forms: the person who could teach but doesn't, who could encourage but won't, who could serve but finds a reason not to.
V. He Blamed Others for His Failure
"Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid" (Matt. 25:24-25). He came up last, but he had his alibi ready. The failure was not his fault. The master was demanding. The risk was too high. The circumstances were unfavorable.
We try to blame others for our faults and failures. The alibi is as old as the garden: "The woman whom You gave to be with me — she gave me from the tree" (Gen. 3:12). We have always been skilled at locating the cause of our failures outside ourselves. The alibi makes failure survivable without producing repentance.
The master's reply unmasks the mechanism: "Your excuse establishes your guilt." The one-talent man's alibi proved the opposite of what he intended. If the master was truly hard and demanding, the appropriate response was not hiding but maximum effort. The argument from severity cut the other way: a hard master should have produced the greatest exertion, not paralysis. The alibi revealed that the slave had not been afraid of the master at all — he had simply not wanted to bother. Fear was the post-hoc justification for a decision already made for laziness.
VI. He Lost His One Talent
"Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents" (Matt. 25:28). He proved himself unworthy; he lost what little he had.
This is a law of nature — Mammoth Cave fish have lost sight they never used. The organ that is not exercised is eventually taken. The capacity unused is eventually removed. The talent buried in the ground returns not to the one who buried it but to the one who used theirs. The principle is not arbitrary: it is the structure of stewardship. What you do not multiply, someone else will.
VII. He Lost His Own Soul
"Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 25:30). The other two entered into joy. This one was cast out.
Useless church members will be lost. This is the application the draws, and it needs to be heard in its full weight. A person can be inside the church — attending, going through the motions, occupying a pew — and still be the one-talent man. The issue is not membership but use. The soul is not kept safe by association with the right community; it is kept safe by faithfulness within it. "To the one who has, more shall be given; from the one who does not have, even what he has shall be taken" (Matt. 25:29). There is no neutral position. You are either growing or diminishing; using or losing.
Application
Three direct applications:
Identify your talent and name what you are doing with it. Not in general terms — specifically. What capacity has the master entrusted to you, and where is it right now? Is it in use, or is it in the ground?
Reject the alibi before you reach the judgment. The pattern of blame-shifting is natural and deeply practiced. The moment you find yourself explaining why your situation is someone else's fault, you are repeating the one-talent man's last speech. The master will not accept the alibi. Don't rehearse it.
Don't mistake attendance for faithfulness. The one-talent man received his talent. He showed up to receive it. He showed up to return it. What he did not do is the thing that cost him everything.
Conclusion
The parable has three characters and one lesson: faithfulness is measured by use. The five-talent servant and the two-talent servant received different amounts and produced different numbers — and received the same commendation. The one-talent servant received a gift calibrated specifically to his ability, hid it rather than using it, and lost both the talent and his soul.
"Well done, good and faithful slave" (Matt. 25:21). Those words are available to the one-talent servant on exactly the same terms as they were available to the five-talent servant. The requirement is not quantity but faithfulness. Use what you have been given. Don't bury it. Don't blame the master for the burial.
Invitation
The master in the parable went on a journey (Matt. 25:14). He is coming back (Matt. 25:19). The accounting is future, but the preparation is now.
Whatever talent you have been given — and everyone has at least one — it was given for a purpose. The first purpose is the response to the gospel itself: to hear, believe, repent, and be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38). If you have not yet done that, the first use of everything you have been given is to receive the one who gave it.
Believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Repent of the life in which the talent has been buried. Confess his name. Be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38). And begin the life in which the master's words — "Well done, good and faithful slave" — are what you are moving toward.
Word Study
| English Term | Greek Term | Basic Meaning | Usage in This Sermon | Sermon Significance | Key Texts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Talent | talanton | originally a unit of weight and then of monetary value | a very large sum (one talent ≈ 20 years' wages for a laborer) | a very large sum (one talent ≈ 20 years' wages for a laborer); the outline uses it in the extended sense to mean any endowment a person receives from God; the parable itself does not specify what the talents represent, which is what makes it applicable to all gifts | Matt. 25:15 |
| Ability | dynamis | power, capacity | the master distributes according to each servant's dynamis | the master distributes according to each servant's dynamis; the distribution is not random or arbitrary; it corresponds to what each can use | Matt. 25:15 |
| Faithful | pistos | trustworthy, reliable | the commendation is "faithful," not "successful" or "productive" | the commendation is "faithful," not "successful" or "productive"; the criterion is not the amount returned but the trustworthiness demonstrated in the using | Matt. 25:21, 23 |
| Worthless | achreios | useless, unprofitable | the word describes a slave who has produced no benefit for the master | the word describes a slave who has produced no benefit for the master; it is not a description of moral evil but of functional futility; the one-talent man is not condemned for wickedness but for uselessness | Matt. 25:30 |
Scripture Interlock Table
| Theme | Boles' Outline | Supporting Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| Each received according to his own ability | I | Matt. 25:14-15 |
| "Well done, good and faithful slave" — commendation for use, not amount | I | Matt. 25:21, 23 |
| All entrusted with at least one talent | II | Matt. 25:15 |
| "Diversity of gifts, but the same Spirit" — each as God wills | III | 1 Cor. 12:11 |
| "Faithful in very little, faithful in much" — scale doesn't determine faithfulness | III | Luke 16:10 |
| He hid his talent in the ground — chose hiding over use | IV | Matt. 25:18 |
| "Your excuse establishes your guilt" — the alibi reversed | V | Matt. 25:24-26 |
| "From the one who does not have, even what he has shall be taken" | VI | Matt. 25:28-29 |
| "Throw out the worthless slave into outer darkness" | VII | Matt. 25:30 |
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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 97. Primary text: Matthew 25:13-30 (stated by Boles). OCR corrections: "0-TN" corrected to "OWN" in section VII header. Doctrinal audit: the one-talent man's loss of his soul developed as the outcome of useless church membership without hedging; "worthless slave" (achreios) retained as the text's own description; the master's reversal of the alibi retained as the argument that destroys the excuse structure; invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38).
