Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture Reading

Introduction

As we come to this passage in Luke 16, it’s really important that we understand the context within Luke’s Gospel, and the flow and development through this section of Luke’s Gospel.

This passage from Luke 16:14-18 is not a simple one to understand.

We see statements by Jesus that on first glance appear to have no relevance to surrounding statements.

In the NIV, we find this heading above verses 16-18: “Additional Teachings…” as if these are just random teachings of Jesus that are thrown into the middle of the text, because Luke couldn’t find anywhere else to slot them in.

That is certainly not the case.

There is a flow and development in terms of the thinking and teaching of Jesus and Luke, and we do need to see that, and then interpret these verses in light of that flow.

Since the beginning of chapter 15 of Luke, we have been considering together Jesus’ confrontation with the Pharisees and teachers of the law as they grumbled against Jesus due to him associating with Tax Collectors and sinners.

In the eyes of the religious elite, Jesus was associating with the rif-raf of society.

They were considered to be unclean.

They were seen to be unworthy of God.

They were considered to be defiled because of their lifestyle.

Certainly, the religious leaders did not believe at all that God’s favor was upon them.

Jesus confronted this manner of thinking by reminding the religious leaders of the purpose for which he had come.

He had come into the world in order to save sinners.

He had come in order to save those who were lost.

He had come, not to save the healthy, but the sick.

He also used three parables to convey this truth, particularly emphasizing the fact that it was the lost that he had come to rescue.... those who knew they needed a rescuer.

Following this teaching, Jesus turned his attention to his disicples, and started teaching them important truths concerning worldly wealth, and how one ought to use that wealth in order to store up treasures in heaven.

We saw last time we were in Luke’s Gospel that Jesus emphasized to his disciples that the world was very shrewd in using their money to help themselves in life, but that very often, those who claim to be worshipping and serving God are not very shrewd in using their time / possessions etc. to provide for their future in glory, or to ensure that they receive eternal rewards.

We saw last time how important it is for a professing Christian to demonstrate their profession of faith through their stewardship of what the Lord has entrusted into their care.

In particularly, there was an emphasis on being oriented towards others.

Verse 14 of that passage then picks up at this point.

As Jesus had been conveying this teaching on worldly wealth, the Pharisees and teachers of the law were standing by next to Jesus as he was teaching, and we will find that they respond in a particular way.

And that response leads to Jesus confronting them once again.

As we approach this text, I do want to once again highlight a couple of important points, simply due to the complexity of the current verses.

Jesus Confronts these Pharisees and teachers on the fact that they love money.

That’s what the discussion is actually initiated upon.

Further to this, Jesus will confront the reliance of these religious teachers upon the law in order to win the favour of God.

They were very much dependent on the law, and what they beleived was their strong obedience to the law, in order to win the favour of God.

Jesus confronts that here.

And so, what Jesus will do through our present text is that he will confront them on their own love for money, and their reliance on the law in order to win God’s approval, and show them that they are dangerously far away from the kingdome of God.

Keep in mind, immediately after what we will look at this morning, Jesus continues to teach on riches, and on distinctions between the rich man and Lazrarus… the rich man having a comfortable life now, Lazarus a miserable one.

So the topic of riches is still very much being addressed.

Also, what we will find through the parable in the rich man and Lazarus, is that the rich man, after finding himself in a place of eternal torment, would try to warn his family of the importance of preparing appropriately for the approaching kingdom.

He wanted to send Lazarus to his fathers household in order to warn his family members about what was coming.

But he was told...

So, we have here these threads of worldly wealth and what is done with this wealth.

We also have these threads of the law, and righteousness under the law.

We also have this idea in the background of those who are deemed unworthy by the self-righteous, and how God views them.

All of these threads must be kept in mind as we come to this present text, in order that we can understand the thinking of Jesus, and why he says what he says.

1. The Gospel Confronts Worldly Standards (v.14)

In verse 14, we find the reaction of the religious leaders, particularly the Pharisees…

A couple of things to take note of.

Firstly, the Pharisees are described as “loving money.”

They had a love for money, which is precisely what Jesus had been confronting through his parable of the Shrewd Mananger.

Before we go any further, we should ask ourselves the question: would the Pharisees agree with this evaluation or not?

Would they consider themselves to be “lovers of money?”

Probably not!

But the fact is that Jesus understood that they had hearts that were drawn to the wealth of this world.

Their hearts were attached to what they could attain in this life.

The verse in our present text makes it clear that these religious leaders loved money.

In Matthew’s Gospel, we read another rebuke of Jesus:

The Pharisees were those who were greedy.

They certainly loved to keep the law, and to put on a show of obedience for people to watch, so that these people would think that they were great people.

There was another aspect playing into this to some extent, however...

As religious leaders, one of the beliefs that they held to was that when a person was wealthy, they had a the favour of God upon their lives.

In their minds, God’s financial blessing was upon those with whom He was pleased.

Within their religious worldview as Jews, this was directly linked to how God viewed that person.

In other words, they viewed a person with great personal wealth to have the favour of God upon them, while the person with little was clearly under the judgment and wrath of God.

This is very little different to the health, wealth and prosperity gospel teaching of our day.

As these Pharisees were thus listening to Jesus teach on worldly wealth, as the Pharisees looked at Jesus, they would have been of the view that God was not particularly pleased with him.

After all, he didn’t own much.

He was very poor.

He had no place to lay his head.

And here he was, teaching about the importance of giving away wealth and storing up treasures in heaven.

But here was a very serious concern for them from the side of Jesus.

Their hearts were divided.

Recall verse 13 of this chapter....

You cannot have a divided heart in serving God.

Either you serve God, and everything else of the world is a far second, and subservient to that service, or you are not truly serving God at all.

Jesus was very radical in his calls.

The Pharisees had hearts that were captivated by the things of the world.

Now, think about this for a moment.

They were extremely religious people.

They went to great lengths to try and place God.

They deemed it extremely important to live a life that please God.

But JEsus tells them that they are far removed from where they ought to be.

Just practially speaking, we need to see if we identify with these Pharisees at all, or to what extent we do.

It’s really easy to self-deceived.

And I simply want to encourage us all to consider our hearts - not just as a once off - but that we’d ask the Lord to search us in order to see if this is perhaps our approach without us realising it.

This leads us to consider our second main point…

2. The Gospel Confronts Self-Justification (v.15)

We find this point very clearly made in verse 15 of our text…

Now, keep in mind that that context of this passage and the surrounding passages is that of worldly wealth.

The Pharisees are those who are described as loving money, the worldly wealth against which Jesus is teaching.

And notice that Jesus goes straight to the heart in terms of confronting these religious leaders.

They were those who would put up a show in order to make themselves look good in the eyes of the world around them.

They would carry out as diligently as possible the Old Testament laws and commands, usually in accordance with the traditions of the rabbinical teachings, in order to gain favour in the eyes of God and man.

Part of this would have been to give their basic contributions to the Temple.

They would have paid what they needed to, but it was mostly in order to look good in the eyes of the people around them.

It was all for show.

For a show to the people, and even for a show to God...” They certainly didn’t want to neglect bringing what God had called them to bring.

But again, this was all a works-based righteousness that they were after.

They believed that by doing these good things, they could to some extent merit the favour of God.

At the same time, they wanted to enjoy the benefits of serving God, but the benefits that were limited to this world.

Let me bring this into modern contexts.

There are many people today who will emphasize the importance of going to church.

They will emphasize the importance of being a good person (and usually that’s what they determine as good).