Luke 16 part 2 Biblical Stewardship: Aligning our hearts with God's priorities.
Notes
Transcript
Text - Luke 16:13-18
Subject -
Theme -
Thesis: Neglecting faithful stewardship reveals a heart misaligned with God’s priorities and leads to eternal consequences.
Principle - Faithful stewardship aligns our hearts with God's priorities and prepares us for eternity.
Introduction
Introduction
Last week we saw Jesus continuing a conversation with His disciples about stewarding physical resources.
Used the parable of the dishonest manager to show the urgent need to be thinking ahead.
The dishonest manager, obviously not a follower of God, finding himself in a bad situation due to his dishonesty, came up with a plan to support himself once he was no longer employed.
In the parable, the the rich man praised his former managers shrewdness.
That Greek word can also be translated prudently.
This word makes a little more sense - to show prudence is to be marked by wisdom or judiciousness.
Jesus used the example to show how inadequate God’s people often are at thinking ahead.
We get lost in the here and now and fail to think about what is to come - eternity.
We are so mesmerized by this spec of sand that we miss seeing the beach as a whole.
Jesus was trying to get his followers eyes to look up and look out.
To see the greater scheme of things.
To live with an eternal mindset.
To use this small amount of time that God has given us faithfully, that we might receive greater rewards and be entrusted with greater things in heaven.
God wants us to use the stuff that He gives us with eternity in mind.
One group that had not done that was the Pharisees.
Through their example we see that neglecting faithful stewardship reveals a heart misaligned with God’s priorities and leads to eternal consequences.
For us today we must see that faithful stewardship aligns our hearts with God's priorities and prepares us for eternity.
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.” 14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. 15 And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. 16 “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. 17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void. 18 “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
Introduce the warning against neglectful stewardship, illustrated through the Pharisees’ hypocrisy and the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.
I. The Pharisees’ Love of Money (vv. 14–18)
I. The Pharisees’ Love of Money (vv. 14–18)
While Jesus was having this discussion with His disciples we see in our text there were some other people listening in as well.
Jesus discussion about wealth raised some eyebrows amongst the Pharisees.
Who as Luke writes were lovers of money.
They were listening to Jesus and Luke says they ridiculed him.
refers to using the nose as a means to ridicule
They sneered at Him, turned up their nose.
The reason they did this is because of how the Pharisees viewed wealth.
Jesus is talking about money like it is not the most important thing in this life.
But the Pharisees believed very strongly that the presence of wealth was proof that you had the approval of God.
If you wore nice clothes, had money, and walked around, people would say “God approves of that man”.
Look at all the wealth that he has - God is blessing him.
The Pharisees love of money had blinded them to God’s eternal priorities.
Their primary focus was what was happening now, not what God had to come.
This is precisely what materialism does.
Materialism distorts spiritual values and it leads us to self-justification.
This is a false belief that we can still find ourselves believing today as well.
That is what is propagated by the health, wealth, and prosperity movement of some parts of the church.
The prosperity gospel movement is a distortion of biblical teaching, rooted in a faulty understanding of God’s character, the purpose of human life, and the nature of salvation.
The prosperity gospel undermines the true gospel by exchanging the glory of God for the pursuit of earthly gain.
Which is what the Pharisees were trying to do, to usher in God’s kingdom in their own way.
I don’t want to go too far down this track this morning as it is not the main point - but if you want to go a bit further yourself, watch a documentary I would highly recommend called American Gospel: Christ Alone. (Full documentary is 2 hours, shorter 1 hour version on their website for free).
Back to our text -
Jesus responds directly to the Pharisees who were listening in with the verses that follow 15-18.
15 And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
John MacArthur introduces his sermon on this section noting that “One of the real paradoxes of religion is this: that those who are the greatest enemies of God are those who are the most religious.
One would assume that the more religious you are the closer to God you are; the more religious you are the more favorable to God you are; the more religious you are the more God would approve of you. But just the opposite is true.
The archenemy of God is false religion.
The Pharisees were no different than so many people today.
Their goal was to make themselves look right before other men.
Outwardly, the Pharisees could compare themselves with others and justify themselves, because they did more and went farther than the average Jew.
They were meticulous in keeping all the outward rules, but they were living before men and not before God, who examines our thoughts and motives.
They were filled with pride and hypocrisy, which God hates.
When they gave alms, they did it to be noticed by men. When they uttered long prayers, it was to impress others with how spiritual they were.
Although they may have fooled others, they could never fool God.
If we pause a moment and apply this section which was directed primarily at the Pharisees -
Is Jesus' statement not also directed at every soul that seeks to justify himself or herself by their own works?
Have you ever asked a person "Where are you going when you die?"
And if they respond, as many do, "Well, I think I'm going to heaven."
And you follow up with the question of "Why do you think you're going to heaven?"
One of the most common replies I hear is "I'm a good person and try to do more good than bad."
They may even say "I believe in Jesus," but they still place their emphasis on their good works meriting God's favor when they die, which is same approach of the self-justifying Pharisees.
Paul (a self described Pharisee of Pharisees wrote in Rom 10)
1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
We must ask ourselves what we are believing in, what we are relying upon - am I relying upon my good works to make me right with God?
Or am I leaning upon the finished work of Christ and working out of a reverence for Him.
Because God knows.
But God knows your hearts as Jesus says in the verse.
But is a strategic term of contrast.
What’s the clear contrast in this case?
The contrast is between outward or external (in the sight of men) and in inward or internal reality (in the sight of God), because God knows what is in every person’s heart.
What’s Jesus saying?
While we might see the “religious acts” of the Pharisees as having a form of righteousness (cf 2 Ti 3:5), we cannot see their hearts.
Jesus rips off their mask of righteousness and exposes them for what they were, detestable in the sight of God.
God knows your hearts” We must remember that God knows the motives of the human heart, which determine the appropriateness or inappropriateness of every action.
Oh how our lives drastically change when we grasp the truth that God knows and sees everything (and that HE OWNS EVERYTHING)!
Outward appearances may impress people, but God evaluates the heart.
God judges our hearts with a different set of values.
Men may honor someone because of their wealth or their public display of spirituality; but God sees who we really are.
Do you like what he sees?
God had given the Pharisees the Law and the Prophets, which they had distorted to serve their own purposes.
They had not faithfully stewarded God’s word.
16 “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. 17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void. 18 “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
Verse 18 seems to drop in out of nowhere.
When I first read through this chapter, my initial thought was, oh man how am I going to talk about this.
Because Jesus is making some very harsh statements here.
And the layout in our bibles prompts us to take these verses out of their context when we read them.
Jesus has selected this example for a reason though and it belongs with the previous two verses.
The verse is not meant for us to build a doctrine of divorce and remarriage from.
What it is here for is to call out the Pharisees for their unfaithful stewardship of God’s Law.
The Pharisees had monkeyed around with the rules of marriage as much or more than anything else.
Jesus selects this example specifically to call them out.
The Pharisees' teachings on divorce were not uniform, with different schools holding varying interpretations of Dt 24.
1 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house,
1. The School of Shammai (Strict Interpretation)
1. The School of Shammai (Strict Interpretation)
This group interpreted "some indecency" narrowly, restricting divorce to cases of serious sexual immorality or adultery.
They emphasized a more conservative view of marriage, arguing that divorce was only permitted for grave offenses that violated the sanctity of the marital bond.
The more popular and common thought though was the
2. The School of Hillel (Lenient Interpretation)
2. The School of Hillel (Lenient Interpretation)
This group took a much broader view of "some indecency," allowing divorce for almost any reason.
For example, a man could divorce his wife for trivial matters, such as burning his food or if he found another woman more attractive.
This interpretation made divorce relatively easy and was likely more popular among the general population.
Divorce in first-century Jewish society was predominantly male-initiated, as women typically had no legal right to initiate divorce.
A divorced woman faced significant social and economic vulnerability, as remarriage could be difficult, and she might be stigmatized.
If we want to build a biblical understanding of divorce, we need to look to Jesus teachings in Matthew 19 and Mark 10.
Jesus responded in those passages by pointing back to God’s original design for marriage in Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24,
Emphasizing that marriage was intended to be a lifelong covenant: “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6).
Jesus allowed for divorce in cases of sexual immorality (Matthew 19:9), a position closer to the stricter view of Shammai but rooted in God’s original intent for marriage.
The truth is that God hates divorce.
It is not part of His initial plan for men and women.
But we live in a sinful broken world.
While not God’s ideal, it does happen and at times it is necessary for safety reasons when a marriage cannot be reconciled.
Can it be forgiven?
It most certainly can, but on the same note, as Jesus said
“What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Everything possible ought to be done to work things out and to rekindled a marriage.
You got married in the first place for a reason did you not?
On that note, if your marriage is struggling, get help.
Get some counseling, get together with an older married couple and seek advice from them.
The stresses of life can feel overwhelming and overbearing, but you don’t have to bear them alone.
You are partners and friends, that God has brought together.
Make the choice to love one another each and every day.
Back to our text -
Jesus explained to them that the Law and Prophets were until John.
The Old Testament era, the era of promise, concluded with the ministry of John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets.
In addition to being the final representative of the Old Testament era of promise, John was also the first representative of the New Testament era of fulfillment; his ministry bridged the two eras.
He not only predicted Messiah’s appearance, but also witnessed it. Because of his unique position and his privilege to be Messiah’s forerunner,
Jesus declared John to have been the greatest person who had ever lived up until his day
Life Application Study Bible –
John the Baptist’s ministry was the dividing line between the Old and New Testaments (John 1:15-18).
With the arrival of Jesus came the realization of all the prophets’ hopes.
Jesus emphasized that his Kingdom fulfilled the law (the Old Testament); it did not cancel it (Matthew 5:17).
His was not a new system but the culmination of the old.
The same God who worked through Moses was working through Jesus.
There is the era of promise and the era of preaching of the good news of fulfillment.
This is such a confusing thing for us a believers today.
Do we have to keep the law?
Like Jesus says, not one dot of the law has become void.
The answer is yes, but also no.
The whole of the Law the Pharisees were referring to can be summed up in the 10 commandments.
Which Jesus actually boils down even further to two - love the Lord you God and love your neighbor as yourself.
If we love God and love our neighbor rightly, we keep the law.
So yes we are to keep the law, but also no because do any of us do that perfectly?
Certainly not.
We are born law breakers.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
The good news of the kingdom, is that even though we are law breakers.
Even though we have fallen short.
Even though we have missed the mark.
The law has been kept for us.
That Jesus came, lived a perfect life, and died to be a propitiation for our sins.
He had made the payment we never could.
He paid a debt He did not owe,
I owed a debt I could not pay,
I needed someone to wash my sins away;
And now I sing a brand new song,
“Amazing Grace,”
Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.
The Pharisees were being very poor stewards of the law that God had given them.
For you and I today, God has given us His word.
Have have the good news of Jesus.
We are in the era where the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached how are we doing as stewards?
The Pharisees focused on outward appearances—what people could see and applaud—while neglecting the heart, the foundation that God sees and judges.
Their love for money and self-justification left them spiritually bankrupt and unable to steward the things of God faithfully and misusing the word of God.
For us, the challenge is clear: are we building on the solid foundation of Christ, aligning our hearts with God’s eternal priorities, or are we distracted by worldly wealth, approval, and self-justification?
Faithful stewardship of what God has entrusted to us—our time, resources, relationships, and His Word—requires us to have an eternal mindset, focusing not on what impresses man but what pleases God.
This week, I challenge you to take inventory of your life.
What has God entrusted to you, and how are you using it?
Whether it’s your finances, your time, or the gospel message itself, ask yourself: “Am I stewarding this with eternity in mind?”
Remember, God sees the heart.
Live in such a way that, when the storms of life come, your foundation—built on Christ—is unshakable.
And when the day comes for you to give an account, you will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
May we, unlike the Pharisees, be found faithful in all that God has given us.
