Luke 16 Part 1

Notes
Transcript
Text - Luke 16:1-13
Subject - Stewardship
Theme - Faithful stewardship
Thesis - Faithful stewardship of earthly resources reflects spiritual priorities and reveals the heart’s allegiance to God.
Principle - Faithful stewardship means using God’s resources to see His kingdom built.
Introduction
Introduction
This morning we pick back up in the book of Luke.
Before Christmas we were in chapter 15, and we need a little review because these chapters are building one upon another.
This middle section of the book of Luke actually goes all the way back to Luke 9.
51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
Throughout the previous 5 chapters and continuing through chapter 19, Jesus is consistently assaulting the religious leaders understanding of God.
His focus is set on going about what He was sent to do.
His face is set to go to Jerusalem - not for a visit - but to give His life as a ransom.
This part of the book of Luke consists mainly of Jesus’ teaching and parables given on the road to people he encounters, mostly his growing group of disciples.
But there is often religious leaders, scribes and Pharisees listening in.
Luke portrays following Jesus as a journey in which you learn as you go along life’s path.
Which is true for each of us as well.
This section can often be difficult for us because in it Jesus talks about money, possessions, and generosity more than anywhere else.
It feels at times like an assault to our mindsets, our lifestyles, and our sensibilities because it truly was.
The Pharisees especially believed that if you had wealth and possessions that God was blessing your because you were living rightly.
Jesus in turn assaults our sensibilities, creating a freedom from possessions that allows for radical generosity.
Generosity with more than just our money, but with our things, with our time.
In truth, generosity with our lives.
In chapter 15, Jesus gave examples of God who loves to find lost things, specifically lost people.
Through the parable of the lost sheep, lost coin, and prodigal sons, Jesus showed us God’s unrelenting determination to seek His lost children, His longing for their return, and His patience with those who are close physically and yet distant relationally.
Chapter 16 now deals with those who have come to the Lord.
What are they to do with what the Lord has provided?
What are we to do with what the Lord has provided.
This is called stewardship.
the conducting, supervising, or managing of something especially: the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care
Think for a moment of all that you have.
Where has it come from?
We might say, Oh I have worked hard for all that I have!
Who gave you the ability to work?
Who gave your the mental acuity to do what you do?
God has entrusted each of us with what we have.
We are called to faithfully steward those resources.
We are called to the careful and responsible management of what God has entrusted to us, and to use them to further God’s goals and agenda.
Faithful stewardship is about about foresight, faithfulness, and loyalty to God.
Faithful stewardship means using God’s resources to see His kingdom built.
1 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. 10 “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.”
Our passage today is is a radical call to biblical stewardship in an age of worldly wealth.
At first glance this passage can we a bit confusing.
Why was this dishonest manager commended?
It appears he was caught doing wrong, didn’t he do more wrong?
Let’s dig in and we will answer these questions.
I. The Shrewdness of the Manager
I. The Shrewdness of the Manager
The Accusation Against the Manager (vv. 1–2):
There was a very wealthy man - we know this because he had a manager.
He could afford to pay someone else to look after his businesses.
This manager - the Greek word indicates for us was to look after his master’s property.
An OT example of this would be Joseph when he was with Potiphar.
1 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. 2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had.
This man Jesus describes through was caught wasting the masters possessions.
He is called to turn in an account of his management - hand over the books so to speak because you are being replaced.
Much like the younger son in the previous chapter - the difference though was this man was squandering his masters wealth.
He was being a poor steward.
Having been caught in his deception, Jesus says that this manager comes up with a scheme.
Verses 3-7 tell of his plan.
He calls the people who owe his master and reduces their bills.
In the urgency of the situation he calls them one at time while he still has management of accounts.
He wants them to owe him a favor so when He falls on hard times he can go to them.
In essence what the manager is doing is "robbing" from his master by renegotiating the terms of the debt to lower the amount the debtors owed the master.
The two examples Jesus gives are of oil and wheat.
The OT Law forbid charging interest on money lent to fellow Jews, so one way they got around that was by charging interest on goods.
Here in the case of the oil the bill was halved (sit down quickly, and write fifty).
What was the manager doing?
This is debated.
1) Did he simply lower the price?
2) Did he remove interest from the debt?
3) Did he remove his own commission?
It is hard to be sure.
No matter the reason, the goal is clear: The manager would be seen in a favorable light for bringing a deflationary trend to prices.
By reducing what they were obligated to pay his master, he put them under obligation to him.
Reciprocation was an integral part of Jewish society (ED: “I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine.”);
if someone did a person a favor, that person was obligated to do one for him...
One hundred measures of olive oil was 875 gallons, or the yield of about 150 olive trees, and was worth about one thousand denarii—
more than three years’ wages for a common laborer.
The new deal, which cut the debt in half, created a significant loss for his master and a great benefit for the debtor.
Suppose you went to the mortgage company and they offered to reduce the amount of your mortgage by 20%.
Would you be grateful? Of course you would.
And that is exactly what this guy was counting on.
He probably did this with every customer.
The result was that all these people felt they “owed” him.
It was a very clever thing to do.
It was thoroughly dishonest, but it was also unquestionably shrewd.
This rogue of a manager uses his head to make a couple of warm friends, before he has to walk out into the cold, hard world of employment.
When he needed a job, a hand-out, or even a place to stay, they would be inclined to help the guy out.”
The managers shrewdness lies in recognizing the urgency of his situation and acting decisively.
This story was directed to the disciples, those who were committed to following Jesus.
As we read this story, we ought to be reminded of the fact that as God’s children, we are stewards of our Father’s possessions.
Do you really believe you will have to give an account to God?
We might say - now wait a minute - Jesus paid for all my sins didn’t He?
Yes, your sins are totally forgiven, but that is not what this accounting is about!
It is about how you used (or wasted) your time, talents and money in this drama called life!
You can’t take it with you, but you can send it on ahead!
Are you?
One day we will be required to give an account to Him of our handling of those possessions.
How we manage our possessions, ought to be felt and done with the urgency of this dishonest manager.
When the the owner returns in verse 8 we see an interesting response.
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.
This is the confusing part of this parable if we read it incorrectly.
The master commended the dishonest manager.
the word commend is to
to express one’s admiration for or approval of a pers., object, or event
What we need to see here is that the master did not praise the dishonesty but the shrewdness of action.
There is a legitimate moral difference between saying, “I applaud the clever steward because he acted dishonestly,”
and saying, “I applaud the dishonest steward because he acted cleverly.”
The master is not saying the manager did a great job in reducing the income the master would receive from the debtors.
But while the master did not approve of the manager’s squandering the master’s possessions, he praised for acting wisely and with insight and foresight.
Jesus clearly states that the manager is unrighteous.
So Jesus is not suggesting believers follow this man’s path of unrighteous behavior.
The story is an example of prudence and not of methods.
In essence the dishonest manager was “investing” in his future.
In other words, the unrighteous steward was showing wisdom by using present opportunities to prepare for future needs.
This begs the question, are you taking advantage of your opportunities for wise uses?
If you were told you had 6 months to live or if you discovered that today was the last day of your life, what effect would it have on your priorities?
It is taken for granted that Christians will be honest. But that is not enough–a Christian should also be smart.
It's as though Jesus was placing a want‑ad in the paper: "Wanted: Good people with this bad man's business sense."
When it comes to the use of money, we need to be shrewd.
Every Christian is ultimately going to be in the same boat as this manager.
We, too, are facing the certain end of our material resources.
Within a few years at best, each one of us will stand before God with no wealth, no money, no titles, no influence.
All that will be left behind.
We can’t take that with us, but we can take something.
Friends!
II. The Call to Kingdom-Minded Stewardship (vv. 8b–9)
II. The Call to Kingdom-Minded Stewardship (vv. 8b–9)
Jesus point to his disciples was that those who are righteous by grace through faith need to be more shrewd in thinking about the future.
That the worldly (lost) are wiser in preparing for their temporal future in this passing world than God’s people are in their spiritual pursuits focused on the eternal world to come!
Why don't we see believers doing that?
Some are of course, but most of the true church is asleep!
From this context one reason is clearly the fact that believers do not have a sense of need and urgency (like the unrighteous manager - cf the sense of urgency brought out by the phrase "do it quickly" in Lk 16:6).
Do you need to have your “vision” renewed?
Do you really believe the principle that Jesus is teaching?
If you really believe it, you will act upon it.
To hear it and remain unmoved is not acting upon it.
What can you change in your lifestyle, your goals, your dreams, etc, that focuses not on this world but the world to come?
Adrian Rogers said it this way -
Do you know what Napoleon said when he looked at China? Napoleon saw the vast teeming millions in China, and Napoleon said, “There lies a sleeping giant, and let him sleep, because if he awakens, he will shake the world.” I really believe the devil says that about the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. There lies a sleeping giant. And, I believe that this church is just that, a sleeping giant. We’re asleep, and the reason that we’re asleep is that so many of us have been chloroformed by the spirit of this age. We’re bombarded on every side by all kinds of amusement, and you know what “amuse” means. “Muse” means “to think,” the alpha prefix in front of it, “amuse,” means “not to think”. We’re a generation that is amusing ourselves into oblivion. We live in a day in which a “hero” is a sandwich, “Life” is a magazine, “Power” is a candy bar, “Joy” is a detergent, “My sin” is a perfume, a “Star” is somebody who is an actress been married three times, and “The real thing” is a soft drink. Those are the things that are in our minds, and we need to wake up.
Let us be kingdom minded in our stewardship.
Jesus teaching in verse 9 tells us that there is nothing righteous about worldly wealth, but that doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t use it for good purposes.
Jesus commands us to use worldly resources to build eternal friendships (i.e., invest in God’s work).
Giving to the church is investing in God’s work.
Every time you give during the offering, it is an investment.
It is then up to us as a church to be good stewards and to use those funds for the purpose of proclaiming and seeing God’s kingdom built.
Sending a shoebox at Christmas is investing in the Lord’s work.
Sending a kid to camp - there are so many different ways for us to do this.
Randy Alcorn offers some wise advise in this area -
When earth becomes our heaven -- when we see God's blessings as being primarily immediate and temporal -- we lose sight of who we are, why we are here, and what awaits us beyond the horizons of this world.
When we use what God has given us for God’s eternal purposes,
In other words, what Jesus is saying in verse 9 is to use your worldly wealth to make everlasting friends.
Luke, Volumes 1 & 2 Friends Forever
The dishonest manager hoped he would be welcomed into the homes of people he had helped in his line of business.
We are hoping to be welcomed into everlasting glory, and if we have used our money wisely, friends will be waiting there to receive us.
It is plain to see here that the friends Jesus has in mind here are those whom we have helped by giving in times of need.
The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 26: Luke Lasting Purchases
Money is meant to be a source of blessing. It is to be used to bless you, your neighbors, and the world.
Growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money, but we always had enough.
My parents set a wonderful example for me in how they used the gifts God had given them.
Our house was often a revolving door to those who needed a little help.
The house served the needs of our family and others.
The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 26: Luke Lasting Purchases
Money is foreign currency to the person whose citizenship is in heaven.” The real question is: do you own your money, or does it own you?
Which is where Jesus goes with our final verses for this morning.
10 “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.”
III. Faithfulness in Small Things Reveals True Character (vv. 10–12)
III. Faithfulness in Small Things Reveals True Character (vv. 10–12)
Stewardship as a Test (v. 10):
Faithfulness in small matters (earthly wealth) demonstrates readiness for greater responsibility.
Giving is a test of character - “The truth is circumstances don’t determine faithfulness, character does.
Sometimes people say that they would give more to God’s work if they had more money to give. But that is not always so.
Dr. D. James Kennedy told a story of a man who came to Peter Marshall, former chaplain of the United States Senate, with a concern about tithing. He said: “I have a problem. I have been tithing for some time. It wasn’t too bad when I was making $20,000 a year. I could afford to give the $2,000. But you see, now I am making $500,000, and there is just no way I can afford to give away $50,000 a year.”
Dr. Marshall reflected on this wealthy man’s dilemma but gave no advice. He simply said: “Yes, sir. I see that you do have a problem. I think we ought to pray about it. Is that alright?”
The man agreed, so Dr. Marshall bowed his head and prayed with boldness and authority. “Dear Lord, this man has a problem, and I pray that you will help him. Lord, reduce his salary back to the place where he can afford to tithe.”
It doesn’t matter how much you have.
The widow who had nothing gave everything.
People who have everything give nothing.
It’s never about circumstances.
It’s a view of heaven and a view of earth.
It’s a perspective that has captured your heart.”
Jesus challenge to his disciples, and his challenge to us is to evaluate ourselves.
Evaluate our hearts.
Is God your ultimate treasure?
Earthly wealth is a temporary trust, not a true possession.
Faithfulness in managing what belongs to God prepares us for eternal stewardship.
Application: How we handle money reveals our faithfulness to God’s calling.
We can only serve one master.
IV. Exclusive Loyalty to God (v. 13)
IV. Exclusive Loyalty to God (v. 13)
Money competes for the loyalty that belongs to God alone.
Serving money leads to greed, idolatry, and spiritual ruin.
Conclusion and Application
Conclusion and Application
Friends, we have been entrusted with much by God—not to hoard, waste, or even misuse in ways that seem noble but fail to meet the ultimate purpose.
Everything we have, from our wealth to our time and talents, is given to us to steward for His kingdom.
Jesus challenges us to be shrewd, forward-thinking stewards of all that God has provided.
The dishonest manager acted with urgency to secure his temporal future.
How much more should we, as children of the light, act with urgency and wisdom to invest in the eternal Kingdom of God?
The Challenge
The Challenge
Here’s the challenge: Are you using what God has entrusted to you for His purposes?
Are you investing in things that matter for eternity—souls, relationships, acts of mercy, and justice in the name of Christ?
What adjustments might you need to make in your life to align your resources with God’s mission?
Start small.
Take one step this week: reallocate time, reconsider your giving, or re-prioritize your talents.
A Final Thought
A Final Thought
Imagine standing before God and hearing, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
This isn’t about earning salvation—it’s about faithfully responding to the grace and trust He has given you.
Let the urgency of this call awaken you to steward what you have with wisdom, generosity, and a Kingdom mindset.