Luke's Gospel

Luke chapter 16 starting at verse 1. Jesus told his disciples, there was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, what is this? I hear about you. Give an account of your management because you cannot be manager any longer.

The manager said to himself, what shall I do now? My master is taken away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg. I know what I'll do so that when I lose my job here, people will will will welcome me into their houses. So he called in each 1 of his master's debtors.

He asked the first, how much do you owe my master? 3000 liters of olive oil he replied. The manager told him, take your bill, sit down quickly and make it 1500. Then he asked the second, and how much do you owe? 30 tons of wheat he replied.

He told him, take your bill and make 24. The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world, are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than other people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves so that when it is gone, you'll be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.

And whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trusted worthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches. And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, he will give you property of your own. No 1 can serve 2 masters. Either you will hate the 1 and love the other or you will be devoted to the 1 and despise the other.

You cannot serve both god and money. The varices who loved money heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, you are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others. But god knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in god's sight.

The law and the prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of god is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the law. Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Thank you very much, Bernadette.

And, as usual if you could, keep that passage open, that would be very helpful. Good evening from me. My name's, Tom Sweitman. I'm on the staff team here. And, this is Luke chapter 16, and, this is part of a series that we've been working through over Sunday evenings for quite a long time now, and you can catch up with all the sermons that have been preached on our on our website.

Let's bow our heads and pray together. The lord says as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth. And making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater. So is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Father god, we thank you that whenever your word is opened and read and preached that something is always accomplished by you. That you always achieve something when your word goes out. And, we pray that you would achieve things this evening, that you would help us to hear. That you would show us where there is sin lurking in our hearts that you would give us grace that we might repent again that you would give us fresh eyes to see Jesus that we might love him more and trust him, that you would set us free again so that we might not be slaves to the things of this world but that we would be generous and free to use them for your purposes. We pray please that you would, do gracious, good things in all of our hearts this evening as your word goes out.

And we ask it because of, the lord Jesus. There's a, a famous story which I have shared before here. It's 1 of my favorites, actually. So if you've if you have heard it already, you'll have to You have to forgive me. It's about a man called Mr.

Smith, who, worked as a parking attendant at Bristol Zoo. And, for 23 years, he looked after the car park, and, he would show people where to go, and he would direct them to free spaces, and he would give out tickets and take their money. But then 1 day, and it was very out of character, mister Smith didn't show up for work. And as I say, this was a very unusual thing because he was a reliable man. He'd been working for the council for years.

But on this day without warning, he didn't come to work. Neither did he show up the next day or the day after that or for the rest of that week. And so naturally, the zoo rang up the council. Have you heard from mister Smith who manages our car park? We haven't seen him today or yesterday or all of this week.

And the man at the council said, According to our records, we've never employed a mister Smith to look after your car park. Well, I think that must be a mistake because he's been here for 23 years. Wearing 1 of your vests and taking money off our customers, Sir, he responded. I can assure you. We have never employed a mister Smith to look after your car park.

In fact, we've never employed anybody. To look after your car park, and the phone goes silent. So for 23 years, mister Smith had been collecting cash as a self appointed warden. And then 1 day with just over 2000000 pounds, that's the estimate, He walked away to start a new life. And, although that story was widely circulated in and it even made it into some of the newspapers.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a hoax, which is such a shame, I think. And I think most of us are quite disappointed that that is untrue, which is a strange response when you consider that what he has done is totally immoral. I mean, the man is a greedy liar. Why would we approve of him? Why would we'd be disappointed.

We kind of think, I wish it was true. I wish someone had done that. He kind of deserves it. Why would we be so positive about it? Well, I think the reason is because he was shrewd.

He'd seen a gap in the system He wasn't really hurting anybody. He'd been a genius in many ways, and so we we kind of think, well, however wrong that might be, When it comes to looking after his own interests, you've gotta say he's a genius. And The strange thing is it looks like Jesus is recommending that sort of shrewdness here in Luke 16. Verse 8, the master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than of the people of the light.

So here was a man like mister Smith who saw an opportunity to invest in his future, and he took it. And according to Jesus, the people of the light or disciples have something to learn from him. Now we'll see what that thing is in a moment, but first I want us to go back to the beginning of the story to get the whole picture. Who is this man? This shrewd dishonest manager, and why exactly does Jesus say that we ought to pay attention to him.

Well, the first thing to know about him is this. He was a dodgy dealer. Have a look at verse 1. Jesus told his disciples, there was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, what is this I hear about you?

Given account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer. Now in these days, a manager was a very senior person, So they would normally be in charge of an estate, and that meant customers to care for. It meant finances to invest. It meant debts to collect. It meant paperwork to file.

It was a position which carried no small amount of responsibility. And so in many ways, The first readers of this story would think, well, yeah, I know that sort of person. He is a very successful person, but there was a problem with him, Jesus says. Someone accused him of wasting the master's possessions. And when you turn back to Luke 15, that is the exact same word which is used of the prodigal son.

And we're told that he went away from his father, and he squandered, and he wasted, and he threw away his father's wealth. And so the implication is that this manager wasn't just careless. K? He didn't just make a few mistakes. He wasn't just clumsy with his paperwork.

He was immoral. He was he was wasting it. He was wasting his master's resources may be on himself. He was a dodgy dealer. But secondly, he was a dodgy dealer with shrewd solutions.

Verse 3, the manager said to himself, what shall I do now? My master is taking away my job I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg. I know what I'll do so that when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses. So he called in each 1 of his master's debtors, and he asked the first how much do you owe my master? 3000 liters of olive oil, he replied.

The manager told him take your bill, sit down quickly, make it 1500. Then he asked the second, and how much do you owe? 30 tons of wheat, he replied. He told him take your bill and make it 24. In other words, he he may have been dishonest but he was no fool this man was he.

I mean, look at his thought process. Sinking okay. My days are numbered, and I know it. I'm guilty. I can't make an appeal, but I need to do something.

I can't beg because look at my biceps. I'm too weak. I'm not I I I can't dig. Sorry. I can't beg because I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm too ashamed.

A manager like me would not be found begging on the street. What what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? Got it. Goes to the draw, gets out the diary, looks through the records, who owes my master picks up the phone, verse 5, How much do you owe my master?

3000 liters of oil? Make it 1500. And how much do you? 30 tons of wheat? Make it 24.

And these guys must have been thinking, Is that it? I mean, you're just gonna half my bill and that's fine. No strings attached. Yeah. It's fine.

Yeah. Yeah. No. Honestly, I'm just gonna half your bill. But as we know, there were strings attached, weren't there?

Because if they accept this generous deal, they fall into the manager's pocket for a very long time. Now they don't just owe the master They also owe him a sizeable favor. This is the IOU to end all IOUs. They owe him big time. And so verse 8, the master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.

So even though the master is sacking this man, even though the master is saying, I cannot have people like you working for me, He can't help but say, look, I don't like your wasteful management. You're not fit to work for me, but when it comes to saving your own skin, I gotta hand it to you. That was pretty clever. So, of course, the manager is not praised for cheating. And Jesus is not telling this story to encourage financial dishonesty amongst his people.

The point is Whatever else you say about him, he was shrewd. He used his financial know how, to look after his future. He was a dodgy dealer, but he had some shrewd solutions. And so thirdly, what is the lesson here? What what are we actually supposed to learn from this fun story?

Well, it seems that there are there are 2 things. There there is a lesson here. There's something about how we should use our resources. Something about our priorities. And there is a warning against religion.

And as we're gonna see, these 2 things kinda go together, and in some ways, it's impossible to separate them. But I think it is helpful to break it up that way. So the third point is this. There is a there is a word about priorities. Is a dodgy dealer with shrewd solutions, and when it comes to application, there is a word about priorities.

Verse 8, The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world, are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than other people of the light. I tell you use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. Now as we've seen over the past few weeks, in chapter 15, There are 3 stories which all make the same point that Jesus has come to rescue lost sinners and bring them home to the father. But by the end of that chapter, it it is now more than clear that pharisees and Jesus do not share the same vision for the kingdom of god.

They think sinners ought to be left out in the cold, while they get the seats of honor, But Jesus is saying, no, no, I'm I'm here for them. That's why I'm here to bring people like that home. That's my priority. And in chapter 16, he's just he's just continuing that theme. This story is here to teach us that how we use our stuff shows what we value, that how we use the resources that have been in trust did with us, particularly money, I think, reveal whether we share god's priorities or not.

There is something about how we use our things, which speaks very loudly about what we actually value. See, it's interesting, isn't it? Because often you look at the world and you you might say, well, it it's foolish in terms of what it prioritizes, but in terms of investment, there is a lot to learn, isn't there? People are cautious. They are skillful.

They invest well. They make shrewd decisions. Some people are very, very good at taking care of their own future. Now the tragedy is, it's all gonna fade with this world, but they're shrewd. And if that is true of the world, How much more should we who have been shown the riches of Jesus Christ in the gospel?

Invest in that kingdom with as much wisdom as we can manage. That is the challenge of this, isn't it? You see, the dishonest manager, he had to face reality. He had to do so. If he did not do something fast, he would be out on the street He had to take care of business somehow.

And he did. And yeah, The people of the light, you and me, we stand on the edge of eternity. We can see into the agonies of hell, into the glories of heaven. We know that the only hope for a lost world is Jesus. We know how precious he is to our own souls.

But sometimes we lack the vision to live for it to be shrewd in getting the message out We reach chapter 15 together and we know that god's priority is the salvation of sinners. But as disciples, we often we often don't share that vision, do we? And how we use our resources proves it more than what we say. Jesus says to us, people of the light use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves. So that when it is gone and it will be gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

In other words, he's saying share my priorities. Let's use what we've got, gifts, time, energy, money for the spread of the gospel. So that when we leave this world, which all of us will, we'll have friends in heaven ready to welcome us. And who are they? They are people that Jesus has saved through the generosity of his church.

And it's a wonderful thought, isn't it? To think that when we die and all that we've got left is the coffin that we're buried in, that we'll go to be with the lord, and there'll be a whole army of people ready to welcome us into eternal dwellings. A whole army of people who have been there partly because god helped us to be generous with what we've got, and so they are welcoming us with Jesus into eternal dwellings. Well, a wonderful thought that is. Praise God.

And actually, just for encouragement, in this church that there is there is loads of that kind of thing going on, and we should praise god for that. There are all kinds of people every week who are thinking up new ways to use their gifts and their time and their money and creative energy. To think shrewdly about how we can reach our culture with the gospel. What can we design? How can we use film and media and song and language and food, particularly food.

How can we use that shrewdly to invest in the future? I mean, as I was writing this, I was remembering something that Anna's brother does, this code for the kingdom thing. I don't know if you've heard about where once a year they get all these programmers and IT people together, and they have a kind of 24 hour coding marathon. And the whole object of it is to think about how can we put our brains together and use our gifts to invent something that is going to help the gospel go forward. That's shrewd.

That's shrewd thinking. How can we use what we've got while we've got it? To make friends who will welcome us into eternal dwellings. And so praise god. That's praise god.

But equally, we mustn't avoid the sharp end of this parable. If how we use our resources reflects what we're really living for, then what are we really living for? What would our internet use say about our priorities? What would our diary say about our view of eternity? And if it could speak, what would our bank balance say?

About our investment in the future. So there's a word here on priorities. But fourthly, there is a warning against hypocrisy. There's a word on priorities There's a warning against the hypocrisy verse 10. 1 who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in And 1 who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

If then you have been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, Who's gonna entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who would give you that which is your own? Now, just to kind of rule out the impossible application. Jesus is not saying, look, if you can be faithful with money, then I'm gonna give you loads more money. Okay?

He's not saying that. He's saying if we are unfaithful with the very little in verse 10, or the worldly wealth in verse 11. If we're unfaithful with the here and now stuff, I. E. We just use it for us, and we don't invest it in the kingdom.

Then we won't be given the true riches in verse 11. Basically, his point is, if money is your god, you lose out on the true riches Jesus Christ. But then on the flip side, if we do use what we've been given, to seek first the kingdom of god. If we've come to know Christ and the riches of the gospel, if we're investing in heaven, Well, then our inheritance and our treasures are there, and they will be given. So you can see it's 1 or the other, isn't it?

Jesus doesn't say you should not serve both in money, but serve god and money. He says you cannot. You cannot do that. And if you were a slave in the ancient world, you would have understood that very sim very clearly. The idea that you could belong to 2 masters at the same time would just not even have been understood.

We either worship god and our slaves to righteousness or we worship money and our slaves to things. That is it. And at this point, Jesus is really turning on the pharisees and their hypocrisy. There are applications here to the disciples, but he's really got the pharisees in view here. You can see in verse 14, The pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.

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. Now in chapter 15, again, you remember the pharisees were grumbling against Jesus. Why? Why were they grumbling against him?

Because he was eating with sinners. They grumbled because he was eating with sinners. But now they're ridiculing him. And the word actually means to raise up your nose against him, so it's the idea of looking down their nose and sneering through the nostrils at Jesus. They don't accept this either or worship.

They think it's possible to love god and money. To love power and be humble and godly. But Jesus says, no, I've put my finger on your issue, and that's why you hate me. You justify yourself before men. You pretend that you can have both.

That you can love riches, despise the poor, and then on the Sabbath love god. You pretend you can have both, but you can't, and you don't. And god hates that hypocrisy. And here's the thing, it's not just money. There are other areas where these pharisees are living a double life, such as how they treated the law.

Now we're going to see Jesus turning squarely to the pharisees. Okay? He is about to expose their hypocrisy even more. Because for them, the single biggest problem with Jesus was how he treated the law. How could he claim to uphold the law and at the same time, eat with the unclean.

How could he claim that? How could he heal somebody on the Sabbath? It's just not possible. And yet Jesus is now saying to them, and this is the big irony of this passage. No.

It's you who don't keep the law, not me. Verse 15, 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. 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.

But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for 1 dot of the law to become void. Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. Now to be honest, I'm still I'm still I'm still not a hundred percent on how this on how this all fits in together because it does feel like suddenly a bit of a weird thing to be talking about money and then going on about divorce. But I think that Jesus is using all of this to show that they are hypocrites. In other words, you claim to love the lord But what you really love is money, and therefore you've broken the law, your hypocrite.

You claim to love the word of god, but you don't listen to the Messiah who is preached among you, and therefore you break the law, your hypocrites. You claim to love the prophets of the law, but you stone the very same prophets who come to you and therefore you break the law. You claim to love the kingdom of god, but you don't help sinners come into the kingdom, and therefore you break the law. You claim that you are faithful to the lord your god, but you break your covenants that you have made to god, I e divorce. And actually, that would be a perfect example.

Because when it came to divorce and remarriage, the pharisees had added loads of extra laws to the Old Testament they had become very, very loose with it. In fact, many of them believed that you could divorce a wife for any and every reason. So according to 1 extra law, I was reading about a male pharisee, and these laws only really applied to the men, could divorce his wife if she burnt his food. That would be a legitimate reason for divorce, or if he fancied another person, he would justify it, and that would be a legitimate reason for divorce. And yet, who were the first people to pick up stones for the adulterous woman?

You claim to love the lord, Jesus says, but you love money. You claim to honor the law, but you break it in every way. Oh, you can justify it before men. You can make it look good and godly, but your hypocrisy is a disgrace. I'm the 1 who keeps the law.

I love my father's word. I save sinners and help them rush into the kingdom. I uphold god's word on marriage. You are a fake. You are a sham.

And god knows it. So Jesus, I think he's wanting us to see here That a love for money and breaking the law go together. If money is your god, you will break god's law in all kinds of other ways. I was listening to 1 preacher who put it very helpfully, and he compared it to the next story. If you have a look at the next story, the rich man and lazarus.

Why is it that the rich man and his brothers so despised the poor like lazarus? Why? Why did they? Why did the rich man drive past lazarus at his gate every day and despise the poor person? Why?

Verse 31, because they have not listened to Moses and the prophets. They didn't listen to the law and therefore they loved money and hated the poor. If they had listened to the law, they would have loved the poor and they would have loved god. So thirdly, loving money means wrong priorities, fourthly, loving money means religious hypocrisy. Those are the words of application, I think, from this story.

And if you're like me, you need to hear both. Because when I look in the mirror, I see someone who prioritizes this world, and I see a religious hypocrite. It is frighteningly easy for me to justify to justify myself before men. To come away from a conversation, believing that I am on the right side of god's law, to be angry and to believe that I am always justified in my anger. To love money and to excuse it because well, we all do, don't we?

But Jesus says, god knows your heart. God knows your heart. And so we need to repent for where these things have been true of us. For where truth be told, we have loved money and not god. For when we have used our resources to prioritize this world, and not to prioritize the kingdom.

And for when we have been so very good at justifying ourselves before men in a religious way, and been guilty of breaking the law ourselves. And if you're not a Christian, I hope that you can see the application of this this story for for your life. It is a tragic thing, isn't it? That so many people take great care of themselves in this world. But failed to watch over their own souls.

They prepare with great zeal for the next 10 years. But they do not prepare at all for the judgment. And if that is you, can I urge you to invest in your future? Jesus is not saying that the way to be welcomed into heaven is to be generous with your money. That is the opposite of the gospel.

The gospel is that Jesus Christ came for people like you and me. He came for religious hypocrites like me. He came for people who prioritize the wrong things like me, and he died on the cross and he shed his blood for people like me and you so that if we turn to him and trust in him, We find grace that saves us. We find freedom to use stuff for his glory, and we have this prospect that 1 day There might be loads of people saying, welcome. Welcome into your eternal dwellings.

Come on in. So pleased that god helped you to be generous because look what he did with your generosity. Look what he did with your money. Look what he did with the way you used your resources. In part, I'm here because of that.

Come in, share eternity with me. Isn't that the sort of thing? We want to hear when we leave this world. Let's bow our heads and pray together. Further, if how we, use the resources that you've given us, reveals what we really live for, then many of us would have to admit and say sorry that that we have been ruled by money.

And we have been ruled by the things of this life, and we have not prioritized The lord Jesus and his kingdom and his glory and the salvation of the lost, we have we have mainly prioritized our own comfort. We have mainly used what we've given to secure ourselves in this life and father, we are sorry for that. And we pray that you would forgive us. We pray that you would help us to be those who use the unrighteous wealth, the things of this world, the wealth of this world, to invest in your kingdom. That we would be generous when it comes to the lost and seeing them come to know you.

And all we pray that you would forgive us for being like the pharisees who, justify ourselves before men who stand up and look godly and do godly things and say godly things, but in reality, we break the law, left, right, and center all over the place. And lord, we know that we might do an excellent job of fooling men, but you see our hearts. And often it is detestable. And we pray that you would have mercy on us. We thank you that we can come back to the cross And we can see Jesus again, and we thank you that you did not spare the resources of heaven, that you gave up your precious son.

To die for us so that we might be forgiven, and we pray that as we come and shelter under the grace of the cross again. That we would find freedom to be generous, that we would find freedom to be honest, that we would not pretend and justify ourselves. But that we would be humble and teachable and keep looking to you and we ask all these things in Jesus' name. Oh, man.