Full Transcript

Thank you for joining us for this edition of Share the Word, the podcast that explains the big ideas in the New Testament chapter by chapter. Whether you’re just beginning to explore the Bible or have been a Christian for years, we believe that you’ll get some great insight from our podcast as our teachers unpack the big ideas of the New Testament in a down-to-earth language. So let’s listen in to today’s lesson and go a little deeper. When It Fails, Luke chapter 16. I used to watch this show called Strange Inheritance, which was about people who were kind of super collectors, who, when they died, often left bizarre collections, things they greatly valued, to members of their family who maybe didn’t value them as much, like the world’s collection of toy soldiers or a subterranean maze they had spent 30 years digging under the Arizona desert.

I remember Jamie Colby, who was the host of that program, always signed off with the closing line, Remember, you can’t take it with you. Luke chapter 16 is largely taken up by two parables Jesus told about what we value and its connection to the kingdom of God. Jesus talked more about money than most things. Have you noticed that? In fact, I’ve heard people say that Jesus taught more about money than any other subject. I’m not the bean-counter type who loves analysis and statistics, so I haven’t done any research on that.

But it strikes me as possible because I read a lot about it in the Gospels when I listen to his teaching. But I can assure you of this: it was not so he could buy a private jet and add to his collection of Rolexes from the donations of his followers. Like so many scam artists posing as preachers today. As we’ve already noted, Jesus himself lived an extremely simple, unmaterialistic kind of lifestyle. So, I think it was more likely that he got onto this subject as often as he did because he knew how much of a grip money can have on us. Keep in mind that when Jesus uses the term kingdom of God, as he frequently does in his teaching, he means it in the sense of the way God sees things, our world in kind of the order that God wishes it would be in.

As I’ve often mentioned before, there will be a literal kingdom of God on this planet sometime in the future after Jesus’ return, but that’s not what’s in view here. In the meantime, here and now, we should think of the kingdom of God as kind of a spiritual parallel universe that’s going on, unseen to most of the world, a dimension in which things are ordered according to God’s values. The subjects of this kingdom of God are believers, followers of Christ. So this kingdom now is the godly spiritual counterpart to the world we currently live in, which is called in Scripture other places the kingdom of this world, where Satan actually has great influence, a world system which is upside down and opposite to the way God says things should be.

Jesus often contrasted what he saw going on in this world, even in his time and place, with the way things should be to enable his followers to see the foolishness and shortsightedness of buying into the prevailing values in the world around them. Even though believers are living in this world, and we certainly are, Jesus wanted us to think like citizens of the kingdom of God and live with different ideals and different values than the average person around us. I like to call them sometimes worldlings, not in a negative sense, but by worldling I simply mean people who are thinking like the average person in this world, and they don’t think at all about the kingdom of God. This world is all that matters to them. The parable taking up the first half of this chapter is often called the parable of the unjust steward. At least that’s how it’s cataloged in my memory.

The main character in the story Jesus told was a trusted manager of a wealthy man’s estate. In the first century Roman world, wealthy people often had servants who did most everything for them. Of course, particularly gifted and intelligent servants would be given the tasks that required the most ability. And the most trusted, someone capable who also had the master’s confidence, could actually become his estate manager, running the show, taking over the day-to-day oversight of his household or business, while he did important things like, you know, go to the chariot races or grow 32 different varieties of roses. When that happened, such a person became the owner’s de facto surrogate, a trustee with near total discretion over his owner’s affairs, even over the other servants in the household and people in his employ.

In that society, this was a position of enormous responsibility and trust. And that is the type person Jesus is describing in this parable here he calls a steward, or in some translations, his manager. Notice in verse 1 that Jesus directed this parable to his own disciples, that is, people he knew were citizens of the kingdom of God, to true believers. Jesus told them, and us too if we are followers of Christ, imagine a situation where an estate manager was found to be abusing the trust that had been put in him by his master. Imagine this well-to-do man hearing from some reliable source that his manager has not been doing his job carefully, or worse, honestly. Perhaps the rich guy’s first thought was that it could be some sloppiness going on, but he soon realizes the situation was worse than he imagined and his steward actually is being completely untrustworthy.

Anyway, in Jesus’ story, he is called in to face the music. What’s going on? I’ve entrusted to you a great deal, and I’m hearing that you’re not handling my affairs in my interest. Assets are disappearing. I’m losing money. You know what?

I’ve lost all trust in you, and I’m going to have to replace you immediately. You’re fired. What? Stunned, this guy’s mind must have started spinning. What in the world am I going to do now? You realize he didn’t have anything of his own.

Everything he had was derivative, all the benefits he enjoyed of being the trusted steward of this wealthy man. This would be like someone in a similar position of trust today being let go suddenly and then realizing, no more company car, no more expense account, no more generous housing allowance, all the perks of my job, gone. Panicked, this fellow had to quickly come up with a plan to try and ensure his own survival because he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, imagine a future digging ditches, you know, manual labor, or far worse, the humiliation of having to go out onto the streets and beg to survive. Because he was crafty, this is what he decided to do. Before any of the debtors who had accounts with his master realized he’d been fired, he quickly arranged meetings with them.

And when they met up, he acted as though he still had the power to act on his master’s behalf and offered them deals too good to pass up. The first guy owed his master the equivalent, in our terms, of 800 gallons of olive oil. You know what? If you settle that account with us today, I’ll cut that bill in half. And to another who had big outstanding obligations to his master, a farmer who owed his master around a thousand bushels of wheat, he said, If you settle up with us today, here’s what I’m prepared to do. I will give you a 20 percent discount.

Not to worry, this guy not finding a job somewhere else after this, digging ditches or begging in the streets. He had all the makings of a great used car salesman, or maybe camel salesman. When Jesus has him imagining to himself in verse 4, When I lose my job, maybe I could be welcomed into their homes. He’s showing the man’s intentions. He is giving these generous discounts to these businessmen indebted to his master in hopes that one of them, out of gratitude or admiring his shrewdness or something, will offer him a similar job with them. The story takes a surprising turn for me when Jesus says his former master, the wealthy man who just fired him for mismanagement, learning about what he’s now done, actually commended this guy on making these fast deals.

That seems kind of strange, doesn’t it? I had a financial planner one time, a guy a long time ago, who was supposed to be looking after some of my money and, you know, I was expecting him to keep it gainfully invested for my retirement. I trusted him because he was highly recommended to me, but within a couple of years, he had lost half of my meager savings, I found out. I wanted to kill that man. But in Jesus’ story, the owner essentially said, I have to hand it to you. You outfoxed me here.

The estate owner didn’t get the bills paid in full from his debtors, but he got paid. And maybe he was okay with what he got paid. Frankly, admired the guy’s quick thinking. As dishonest as it was to misrepresent himself after he’d been let go, maybe the owner grudgingly realized the man was just desperately trying to look out for his own survival. Then the application comes. When Jesus tells a story, there’s always an application.

There’s always a point. He pressed it home to his disciples like this. You know, the sons of this world, he said, are shrewder in how they deal with their own kind than the sons of light. And he meant than the sons of light are with how they deal with things pertaining to the kingdom of God, in their realm. Jesus wasn’t commending this fellow’s dishonesty. He was making a point that the guy was thinking like a fox, looking out for his future the best he could in a bad situation.

He was hoping his fast thinking and wheeling and dealing could possibly land him a new job with one of these other businessmen he’d cut a favorable deal with. Jesus’ point to the disciples was that that man was smart enough to think ahead and to act decisively based on the realities in his dog-eat-dog world. If I can state Jesus’ point negatively, and this is clear from the following verses 9 through 13, too many of the sons of light, that is, too many Christians who are supposed to be citizens in the kingdom of God. Supposed to live and think with very different values and ideals, spiritual, eternal values and ideals. Too many of us don’t think that far ahead at all. We’re not too wise in this whole area of money and its use as it pertains to the kingdom of God.

We might be brilliant with what we’re doing with money in our world, but I’m talking about as it pertains to the kingdom of God. Really, Paul, you think that’s what he’s talking about? Yes, absolutely. By thinking ahead, Jesus had in mind way ahead, not like next month, next year, or even the rest of your life here. Listen to verse 9. I tell you, Jesus went on, you should use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

The most literal translation reads, so when it fails. Jesus was saying to his followers, use worldly wealth that you come by to influence people for the kingdom of God so that when money fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings by them. Tell me, when will worldly wealth fail? When will money and our material assets no longer have any meaning or value? Literally, just today as I was working on this lesson, a breaking local news story popped up on my phone screen. I get notifications about local news events.

Chime, chime. I look at my phone and read about a well-known local businessman who owned about half the hotels in a resort town near me and was chairman of the board of our largest local bank chain. Well, according to the notification on my screen, passed away unexpectedly this afternoon. Passed away unexpectedly this afternoon. He was one of the wealthiest men in my area this morning. But what exactly did that mean by suppertime?

I didn’t know that man except by his name and reputation. I’m not inferring anything about him. But when I saw his picture and read the headline, it just clicked with me with this verse. It just struck me as Jesus’ very point when he said, When your worldly wealth fails. He’s suggesting to his disciples that they need to think a lot further ahead with what they were doing than the unjust steward who was concerned about, What am I going to do now? Where am I going to live next week, next month?

Jesus’ point was, we need to be a lot more forward-thinking than that. We need to be thinking about how we use what God gives us now with very clear-headed reality in mind that the day is coming, sooner than we probably expect, when money and the stuff money buys will fail, when it no longer has any value. And Jesus is telling his followers that in light of that certainty, use some of that money, some of whatever resources God gives you now, to make friends for his kingdom. Use it with eternal kingdom of God purposes in view. He says that one day, just like the unjust steward expected his shrewd moves would get him welcomed into a new household or a new job, one day, if we use our worldly wealth wisely, people will actually welcome us into heaven because of that. How and why would that ever happen, you might be thinking?

Well, it’ll happen if we take some of what God has blessed us with financially, share it with others, invest it in missions projects that share the gospel, invest it in ministries that are truly helping the needy. Things Jesus actually cares about. Remember what he earlier taught us about storing up treasures in heaven. He’s recommending to us to take a long view and to tell his followers here, one day when this life is over, in eternity, when money will have no meaning, you’ll meet people there who will thank you for sharing some of what God gave you in this life for their benefit. Does that make sense? Can you visualize that?

Can you think that far ahead? It’s challenging, I know. Kingdom of God thinking versus kingdom of this world thinking. I recently learned that my son Sam, who’s 23 now, has studied some business and money management, and he’s a lot more insightful about this topic than I realized. He was telling me about a Christian ministry he’d run across from postings on Instagram. He’d been interacting with a young guy not much older than himself who’d started a ministry to house and feed very poor people in a large city in Pakistan.

And through that ministry of kindness, he was sharing the gospel of Christ with them. Last Sunday, Sam came into my room in the afternoon when I was resting and said, Hey, Dad, you got a moment? I want to show you something and have you meet someone and talk to someone. And he handed me his phone. And on the other end of the phone was this young Pakistani Christian he had been communicating with. And I learned, sharing some of his worldly wealth with, as Jesus might put it, his hard-earned money.

I couldn’t understand everything this brother from South Asia was telling me, but I got the drift that he was very thankful that a Christian in America was taking notice of his ministry and was investing in it. And I was proud to see that my son, who’s pretty good at making money, understands and more importantly is obeying what Jesus was teaching his disciples here about using his wealth for eternal purposes. I’m not going to get deeply into this now because other parables we’ll encounter even more explicit on this teaching. But understand this, meditate on this for a bit. God wants us to see ourselves like managers on His estate. He wants us to bear in mind that everything we have, because He entrusted it to us, and everything that we earn, our money, what passes through our accounts, the assets that we have in our name, all of this stuff is not finally ours.

He wants us to view it as though it is His because actually it all comes from Him. And He wants us to think of ourselves as His managers, His stewards. That’s reality. Everything ultimately belongs to God. We just are taking care of it for a little while for Him. And we need to clearly keep in mind, as Jesus is telling us here, that a time is coming sooner than we probably imagine when this stuff will fail, when the whole material world we’re living in now will be done.

Then what will supremely matter is how our master thinks we have handled what He’s entrusted to us now. Jesus suggested to His disciples in verses 10 and 11 that money is actually a kind of test for us here, whether we have a little bit or a lot of it. He said, If you’re faithful in this small matter, money, a small matter, well, I guess, yeah, to God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the wealth in every mine, as the songwriter put it, if we are faithful in this small matter, Jesus promised, it shows that we can be entrusted with more valuable things, more weighty things in the kingdom of God. And I take that literally. Not just here and now can God trust us if we use things that pass through our hands wisely, but in the coming kingdom of God, that era ahead of us when Jesus will rule over this planet and God’s kingdom will be established.

This, to use Jesus’ words, small matter of money management will be a big criteria that will affect how Christ evaluates us and whether he trusts us. The whole subject of the coming kingdom of God on earth, sometimes called by Christians the millennium, is a fascinating topic and we’ll explore it more down the road, I promise you. Jesus talks about it often, and he urges his followers to make decisions now, have the kind of values now, make the kinds of investments of our time and energy and resources now that he will want to reward then. When we listen to him and we do that, it may not make a lick of sense to the people who are locked into the thinking of the kingdom of this world, where amassing more and more stuff and living more and more extravagantly are the highest goals in life, but theirs is very short-range thinking.

I hate to use a cliché, but remember, you can’t take it with you. No one ever has. Jesus’ final word on this parable is at verse 13, maybe the most direct of anything he has ever said on this topic. Realize, he said, no one can serve two masters. Either you’re going to hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and money.

The old King James Version uses the phrase, You cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon meant in that time money and the things that money buys. Whatever wealth we have, whatever money we have, the opportunity to handle should be our servant during this lifetime. Because we’re ultimately citizens of the kingdom of God. For now, we are living in a world where the ruling value system is opposite of God’s. But money, for us, should be used with the Lord’s interest in view and it should never be our master.

Jesus told another story on this occasion, taking up the second half of Luke 16, about a rich man and Lazarus. I don’t have time to do it justice, and I’m not going to try. But its aim was to illustrate the foolishness of making a person’s life about serving money, because the values of the kingdom of this world will be flipped on their head when this life is over. But one thing that second parable always impresses me on is how real Jesus knew the afterlife would be. It certainly shows he understood that the reality of heaven and hell are actual destinations after this life is over. I hope for today, I’ve given us enough food for thought because, if we’re honest, for most of us, it’s a big struggle fighting the prevailing mentality that the pursuit of wealth and the accumulation of things is the point of life.

To Jesus, money was neither good nor bad. Being wealthy was not necessarily a sign of blessing any more than being poor was necessarily a sign of God’s disfavor. The crucial thing he was always teaching was that it matters how we use whatever the Master entrusts to us. Will it appear wise, or will it look very foolish on the day when money fails? Thanks for listening. We hope you found this commentary both interesting and insightful.

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