We can draw or focus on many aspects of the parable - the nobleman going and coming back; the coming of the lord; on the rewards, and what the rewards might be. But if we just take what's written there, the focus is on the third servant, the unfaithful one, because Jesus wants to warn that this is possible for any believer.
If we don't think that the servant could be me, and that I could be the one who suffers loss, then I'm going to miss the application of this. It will just be a message; a great message, but I miss the warning that's inherent in it - that if the servant is me, then I could be the one who loses. I could be the one in outer darkness.
We automatically resist that this servant could be me. When you read the story, no one puts themselves as the third servant. They think: I won't be the five talent one; maybe I'm the two talent one? We put ourselves somewhere in the middle, mentally, because it's troubling to think we could be the third one. Yet the whole point of all this is, it's all about the third one; and here’s the point…
If we live and act like the third servant, we will experience what he experienced. If we live, and act, and treat the talents, and the things that God has given us the same way he did, we will have the same experience he did.
There's a lot of reasons why we could show that this third servant is a believer. Many Christians, when they read this, don't recognise the third servant as a believer; they'll explain: oh, he must be unsaved, he can't be a Christian. I want to show you that that third servant is a Christian. Therefore, it applies to every person, and it's the focus of Jesus' warning.
Here's a few reasons why we can say that third servant is a believer; and that he represents the majority of Christians. Most Christians are not five talent, or two talent; they're one talent people. The warning of this, to His disciples, is to not to be that person. Let me give you some reasons why the servant has to be a Christian….
1) Jesus calls them His servants. “He called His servants to Himself”, and that word servant is the word ‘delossis’ – slave; someone who's been purchased or bought for a price; devoted to someone else.
The Bible tells us, we have been bought with a price. Jesus calls the people His own servants. He gives them an entrustment - and that makes them His servant. Very clearly, we were bought with a price; we belong to God; we're His servants.
2) Every believer is called a servant of Christ, so we're all called servants of Christ.
Colossians 3:22 – “Servants or bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing God. For whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not men, knowing from the Lord you'll receive the reward of inheritance; for you serve the Lord Jesus Christ”.
He's saying that, even if you're employed in secular work, you are still the servant of the Lord, in that place. If you're a mother or father, you're the servant of the Lord, in the home. If you're a young person, you're a servant of the Lord, in a school. Every believer is the servant of the Lord.
3) Every believer has their own personal assignment or service.
Ephesians 2:10 – “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, that God prepared beforehand we should walk in them”.
Our works are things we do, and they're the basis of our service, and for developing faithfulness.
4) The third servant is entrusted, along with the other servant, with the Lord's goods. God doesn't entrust His goods to the unsaved. He doesn't give the gifts of the spirit to the unsaved. He doesn't give faith to the unsaved. So clearly, this third servant is a believer.
5) In the parables, the three servants all have to give account at the same time. The Bible tells us that the accounting for believers is all together, at the judgement seat of Christ. The accounting for the rest of the world, and unbelievers, is all at the end of the millennial reign; so, the fact they're all called to account together, points also to the fact they must be believers.