A Disciple's Dollar
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Intro
Intro
Alright everyone.
Well, welcome back to another Thursday night. If I haven’t had a chance to meet you yet, my name is Cody and I’m the college and worship pastor here. And if you’re new, welcome to our Thursday night gathering. Every week, this is what we do, we gather as like minded college aged believers, we spend time in worship, the word, and community.
Tonight, in our time in the word, we are continuing in the gospel of Luke. Every week we take a small text out of the larger chapter for that week, and we look at it together. This week we are in Luke 16, so go ahead and turn in your bibles to that chapter. Luke 16, we will be right at the beginning of it.
If you’re wanting to stay in the know of where I’m going to be preaching, you can read Luke 17 for next week. And, if you want to catch up on any of our teachings in the past, you can find them where you find podcasts, just type in Coram Deo College to find our teachings channel, or you can also find them on YouTube.
So, into the scriptures.
If you were with us last week, we talked about the most famous parable in history. The prodigal son. It’s a famous parable with a pretty clear meaning nowadays. And honestly…it couldn’t be more different than the parable that we are in tonight.
You know, last week when I was researching the prodigal son, someone in the office would ask, or a friend from church…I’d tell them we were doing the prodigal son and they’d be like “ah, yeah…cool cool”. This week…that’s not the case. Most people, when I told them we were doing the parable of the dishonest manager…they were like…which one is that again?
It’s a parable that’s not well known…and honestly it’s a parable that’s a bit confusing. So here’s what I want to do tonight. I want to spend the first part of this message just going through and explaining the parable to you. And then, after we’ve gone through the parable, I want to walk through the points of application that Jesus himself gives us at the end of the passage. All right? Cool.
Here’s the first thing I want to explain to you.
Parables are an illustration, meant to teach a moral lesson or truth. Which means…not every single aspect of them can or should be evaluated for it’s spiritual implications.
For example, the parable of the man leaving the 99 sheep to find the one. It’s a parable about God’s love for sinners and the rejoicing in heaven over the sinner who repents…it is not meant to teach you, that if you’re on of the 99, God leaves you at times so he can go find and love someone else.
The parable of those knocking at the door to be let into the house is not meant to teach you that everyone in hell is going to have a door they are knocking on…but rather that there will be people who did not love christ or prepare themselves for his coming.
Or, the parable to the vineyard owner who sends his son thinking that he will be respected, just to have his son killed…that parable is not teaching us that God misunderstood how we would treat his son…but rather that he would send him and he would be mistreated.
So do you see what I mean? A parable has a truth or lesson to learn from it..but not every single aspect should be taken as descriptive about God. And that’s important as we dive into this passage, you’ll see why.
But for now…let’s see one of the important things about his passage. We see it right there in verse one, go ahead and look at it with me.
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.
First thing for us to notice tonight..
1) This Parable is for disciples (v.1a)
That means that this parable is for us. The last three weeks we have looked at parables that are being spoken mostly to the pharisees or unrepentant Jews…but now, right here, we have a parable directed towards the men and women who follow Jesus.
So as we start this parable together…first things to know…is that you need to come to the text with an attitude of learning. “This parable is for disciples....and I’m a disciple…which means this parable is for me…and this truth should apply to me directly.”
So, first point. Super simple, super short, but super important.
Second point...
2) It’s about money and stewardship (v.1b-8)
So, this parable is for disciples…and it’s about money and how we both spend it, and view it. That’s why the title of this message is called “A Disciple’s Dollar”. Because, after this passage, you should be evaluating what you do with your dollars. That is, with your money.
So, this parable is for disciples, and it’s about money and stewardship…let’s look at the rest of it so you can see what I mean. We will take it a couple verses at a time, and I’ll explain what’s going on as we read it, so we can all stay on the same page.
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.
So, so far this parable isn’t too confusing. The rich man here would represent Jesus/God, and the manager would represent the disciples. The rich man calls his manager in…that is someone who manages all his wealth and estates…he calls him in and says “I don’t like what I’m hearing. You’re not doing your job, give me a full account of everything then you’re done..you’re fired.”
And the manager’s response to this is…what am I going to do now? I don’t want to have to beg in the streets…and I don’t have the capability of doing hard labor…what shall I do?
So that’s where we are so far. Let’s continue. Look at verse 4.
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.’
So in this chunk of scripture…the manager has a lightbulb moment. An aha moment. He says, “I know what I’ll do…I’ll go to the people who owe the rich man money, I’ll edit their accounts so that they aren’t in as much debt…and they’ll be so grateful to me that they will receive me warmly and take care of me after my master has fired me.”
That’s what it means when it says in verse four that the people would “receive him into their houses.” They would take care of the manager.
So that’s the idea that the manager has…and that’s exactly what he does. He goes to the first guy and and takes his hundred measures of oil and drops it to fifty. He then goes to the second guy and takes his hundred measures of wheat and drops it to eighty.
We should know…these numbers actually represented some big money. I won’t get into all the specifics tonight…but it would essentially be like someone buying a house and getting a 30 -year loan for $300,000. And then someone that manages that loan for the bank comes to you, and changes the ledger to read $150,000 instead of 300....essentially taking off 15 years of the loan in a single swoop.
And the manger, is banking on these men being so grateful that he’s taking off years of their debt…that they will welcome in into their household.
So so far, this parable still isn’t that confusing.
And if we were to stop right here…we would probably have some assumptions about how the next part went.
Namely…many of us would think that the rich man would come to find that the manager and lied, stolen, and committed fraud…and would be angry and throw him out.
You see, our natural instinct, knowing the character of God…is that he hates evil, he hates lying, he hates theft…and so, we naturally anticipate this parable to be a moral lesson on right action and good heart…on honest living and glorifying God in all that we do…that’s our natural assumption…and that’s why the next part of the parable becomes so confusing…because this is not what we see at all. Look back at verse 8.
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.
So the master…commends the dishonest manager...
Remember, that the master/rich man is suppose to represent God…and the dishonest manager represents the disciples…so why…why does the master celebrate the cheating of the manager.
That’s why this parable can be so confusing…because what it looks like…is God is celebrating theft. God is celebrating deceit. God is celebrating lies.
But we know that not to be true…because other parts of scripture make it very clear that God is holy and against all evil. Everything from the 10 commandments in Exodus 20, to pretty much any letter that the apostle Paul ever wrote.
So if that’s the case…and God hates sin…then we need to let those really clear scriptures interpret this sort of unclear scripture…and note and say “okay…that can’t be it”.
So, what is going on here?
Well, I think the key here is in the last part of verse 8. Look back at that.
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.
So at the end of verse 8 here, Jesus goes into a very quick explanation/description of what the master is doing. He says the master commends the manager because that’s what people of the world do…they celebrate shrewdness…that is, they celebrate cunningness more often than those who are christians do. That’s what the passage means by sons of this world, and sons of light.
So, Jesus says the master commends the manager because he was cunning…and people of this world are way more cunning with their money than people of God are…and Jesus says…that needs to change.
And he says it needs to change in verse 9.
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.
So…Jesus is not celebrating sin in this parable…remember I told you that we can’t take every single aspect of a parable and assume it to be a theological nuance…Jesus isn’t celebrating the action of theft or deceit…but he is making a point that the Lord wants to celebrate the cunning of believers in money the way that the world celebrates cunningness.
I’ll say that again…in this parable…Jesus is not celebrating the sin…but rather saying that believers should possess a cunningness with their money…much like non-believers possess a cunningness with their money. Believers should possess a trait of thinking about the wealth they have and the wealth they could have…but not in a worldly , greedy, sense…but an eternal sense.
I can’ t make it more simple than this. Disciple. Be concerned with your heavenly wealth.
And Jesus is saying this in verse 9 when he says, “make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth”…meaning, use money (which is what he’s calling unrighteous wealth…meaning it’s something that is off this world, it’s not heavenly treasure but earthly treasure)…Jesus is saying “make friends”…do good to others…through earthly wealth…so that you’ll be building up heavenly wealth. Do all of your earthly money interactions with the desire and intent to glorify God in your heavenly wealth.
And that’s our first point of application tonight.
Application: 1) Turn your earthly wealth into heavenly wealth (v.9-12)
If you want to be cunning the way the Lord is saying believers should be with their money..then you need to focus on using whatever earthly wealth you’re given…to build up heavenly wealth.
And not only does Jesus tell us to do that in verse 9, but he goes on to give reasons for why in the following verses. And here’s the first one...
Because money reveals character (v.10-11)
Look at verse 10 with me.
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?
So…right here in verse 10 we see both the root, and the fruit of the situation.
You know what I mean right?
Like an apple tree…If an apple tree is producing healthy fruit, then that means that it has healthy roots. But…if you see that the apples being produced are rotten, poor in quality, it says something about what’s going on at the core…in the tree.
Same thing here.
Jesus saying that if you are faithful in the little things…than that reveals that you will faithful in the big things. The little things that we have opportunities to be faithful in are the roots…and the big things are the fruit. If someone is faithful in all the big things in life when it comes to money…then that reveals something about that character…namely, that they are faithful in the small things. Same thing with being dishonest. If one is dishonest in the big things in their life…it is safe to assume that at the root…the small things…they are also being dishonest.
We see this example all over the place. Let’s take any famous pastor that has been disqualified from ministry, you can honestly just pick one there are so many nowadays…any of them. They get found out to be committing adultery with a woman in their congregation...
Immediately…on top of the fallout, and pain, and hurt…there is an investigation into the Pastor to see what else he might have been lying about?
Why? Because he was dishonest in a big thing…and so our natural assumption is that if he was willing to lie about this huge thing…then he’s probably lying about some small things as well.
So this concept should not shock you very much…it’s where the concept of trust comes from. Except, instead of talking about whether or not we can trust someone…Jesus is talking about someone character being revealed through how they steward their money. How they handle it.
If you’re faithful in the little, good chance you’ll be faithful in the big. And vice versa.
Before we move on to the next point..one final consideration. What do we mean by big things and small things? Is it the amount of money? Could be…but a way to think about these terms with the idea of character would be the noticeable things…and the unnoticeable things.
The more one is faithful in the things no one else sees..the small things that are between him and God…the more he will be faithful in the big things that everyone around him sees.
Obviously this could apply to many many many aspects of your life. Like the more faithful I am to my wife in the small things like my thoughts, and conversations with other women…the likely hood I’ll be more faithful in the big things…the big trials of marriage that comes along. And vice versa. The more loose I am with the small things of faithfulness to my wife…the easier it is to be dishonest in the big things.
That’s an example, but this specific instance…Jesus is talking about money. Are you faithful with your money? Or are you dishonest with it? Do you seek to build up the kingdom with your money? Give to the needy? Help the poor? Save the lost? Do you seek to do all these things, big and small, empowered by the motivation that it’s for heaven....or are you dishonest in these things both big and small. You earn for only yourself…use earthly wealth for earthly gain…rather than earthly wealth for heavenly gain.
Some of you might be saying…bro…I’m a broke college student. I don’t have wealth....and to that God says…no, you may not be wealthy at the moment…but what kind of person are you if you are given wealth?
If you have a small amount of money right now? Will you be faithful with that? So that when you are given more money you’ll be faithful with more money? Or will you be dishonest with the small amount of money you have right now?
Either way…the application to this passage is to be intentional to turn earthly wealth to heavenly wealth…because it reveals your character…and.
Because money is God’s (v.12)
12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?
Jesus is intentional, in this discussion of being faithful in money, to mention that it is another’s. Meaning…that the money we are called to steward is not our own…but it’s God’s. It belongs to him. The lord gives and the Lord takes away.
Any earthly wealth you are given is just a means in which God allows you to show your character and your faithfulness to him.
Let me say that again.
Every dollar in your wallet…or on your apple wallet…or in your bank account…every single dollar…every single penny…is an opportunity to show faithfulness to God. Because it’s his money in the first place. He’s the rich man, you’re just the manager.
You’re called to like it says in this verse 12, be faithful with another cause he’s the one who will give you your own. Be faithful with the money you have on earth, because it’s God, and he’s the one who gives wealth in heaven.
So..does this mean that you need to live in a sackcloth on the street giving every single penny to the poor? Taking nothing for yourself. Providing nothing for your family that God has given you?
No. Of course not. Stewardship means you do what’s right with what you have. You handle it well. What it does mean though…is that money shouldn’t master you.
And that’s our last point..
2) Choose your master (v.13)
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 doesn’t get any clearer than that guys. That last sentence. You cannot…cannot…serve both God…and money.
So, what does this mean? It doesn’t mean that every dollar you earn needs to go to the poor, or given as a 100% tithe to the church....but it does mean…that every dollar you have, should be given to the Lord in prayer and action.
It means that every dollar you earn, should be “Lord…you’ve given me this to steward…it’s yours…you are my master, not it…what shall I do with it?”
If you want to be faithful in your money…you need to be faithful to ask God what to do with it. And to be willing to receive the answer.
A Disciple’s Dollar
A disciple’s dollar…is God’s dollar.
Obviously, so many more questions could be asked about this…so many more points in a message. This is just meant to get you thinking. You can always talk in your C Groups about it…or come talk to me for further clarification...
But this is a start.
The parable of the dishonest manger, is a parable about how we think about money.
Let’s pray.