52L Luke 16:1-15- Serving as a Steward of God's Resources
Notes
Transcript
A Questionable Servant Deals His Hand 16:1- 9
A Questionable Servant Deals His Hand 16:1- 9
English Standard Version (Chapter 16)
He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’
5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”
This is just a portion of the parable of chapter 16 here in Luke. Simply put, it is a manager or steward who is caught in dishonesty, but quickly moves to protect him and the master from ruin. The master says his move is shrewd. We would say he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Charges were brought against the manger/steward that he had been wasteful of the possessions in his charge. He had been confronted with this accusation to his face. He did not deny the charges. Probably our modern day equivalent would be embezzlement. He is told to clean out his desk or “turn in the account of your management.”
In accounting for what he had done, we get an idea of perhaps how much he had skimmed off the top of the masters business. The steward thinks to himself, “I am nothing if I cannot manage. I can’t do shovel ready stuff nor can I beg. He then took a percentage off the top of what was owed the Master, from 100 measures of oil to 80. I’m thinking that that may have been the cut he had been taking all along. It figures out to 20 percent. That is a sizable amount and he had been getting by with those financial shenanigans. Over a period of time, that kind of graft would sink the Master, so the charges against the steward are serious.
But, the Master likes what the manager has done. The people who owed the estate money had their amount reduced so that the cash could flow with out the surcharge. Cash flow is king. The Master calls it a shrewd move to save his hide. Apparently the records in his desk are enough to make the Master smile. In fact, the word for shrewdness is like a performance or shows how he had performed previous to this point and how he had made up ground in this action. Perhaps in the 80 measures, the Master could still make a profit. There are no local gendarmes coming to put the Steward in handcuffs. The point is, the sons of light are as not as shrewd as this steward of unrighteousness. More importantly, “ make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when wealth fails, they may receive you into eternal dwellings.”
Don’t burn all of your bridges, because one day you may have to live under that bridge. Yes, there are definitely bridges and things to burn while going through life, but the kingdom of God does not flourish with a “scorched earth” policy. There are people outside of the kingdom that you do not want to cut ties with. In this case, they were going to be the bread and butter here in the near future. People on the outside can be used of God to be your supply in times of need.
The Teaching Explained 16:10- 13
The Teaching Explained 16:10- 13
English Standard Version (Chapter 16)
“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
Jesus is saying who is a little faithful has the the capacity to be very faithful! That’s encouraging. But for those who are dishonest, the same is true. They have the capacity to be very dishonest if they are a little dishonest. The truth is that you are to be faithful in unrighteous wealth or you will not be faithful in true riches. If you cannot take care of another’s goods, who will give you that which is your own? Those words are straight from the New Testament record. A modern day steward who considers himself in God’s kingdom, should take as good or better care of their bosses/owners stuff than they do their own.
Two Masters 16:13
Two Masters 16:13
It is a fact you cannot serve two masters. Everything you do comes under the heading of falling within the realm of ownership of Jesus Christ. When you serve an unjust master with class, you are serving God. If you have two dispensations of Masters, you are doomed to failure. You will love one and hate the other. It’s not always wonderful paydays in God’s kingdom but that does not negate your responsibility towards your payday in the unrighteous kingdom. Your presence alone makes it a part of God’s work, unless it happens to be an outright crime.
If God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, don’t you suppose some of those cowboys and managers of those cows, operate operate in an unrighteous realm. But it is a realm that can be profitable to God and be used to bring others to Jesus. Devotion and despising are very close in relation to what we do. What side do you land on? You cannot serve God and wealth/money/mammon.
Galatians 1:10- For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. 11
The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), Ga 1:10–11.
The Apostle Paul was telling the Galatian church about the centrality of the gospel in all that he did. If it did not align with the gospel it would disqualify him from serving Christ, even though he was in jail. While imprisoned, he was making the most of his time. In unrighteous prison, it was was in God’s kingdom and Paul used that time to write to the churches, minister to the guards, and win them to Jesus Christ. That is why you can work in a fire-breathing foundry during the week, preach on Sunday, or teach a class on Tuesday. It is all in God’s economy. How do you see it coming down. Do you visualize your life on the righteous side or the unrighteous?