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It is a rare occurrence in the life of a pastor when he gets to start off his sermon with these two words that are in his text for the morning. Very rare indeed, so I with great relish will tell you these two words.
Wake up! Let's turn our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and that's exactly what Paul tells them in light of the resurrection. When you think big picture about the New Testament, you should say to yourself, James, most likely the first book written, chapter 2, verse 1, talks about Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
And then you go to the last book of the New Testament written, the book of Revelation, we see Jesus there, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. Everything about the Bible is about God and specifically Christ Jesus the Lord.
Paul spent time with the Corinthians, some things they did well, most of the other things they didn't, and so he laboriously, painstakingly writes 29 chapters to correct their behavior so that they might reflect what God in Christ Jesus has done in fact for them.
Salvation, full and free, forgiveness granted based on the sovereign grace of God and so he wants them to live in light of that, to walk in a manner worthy like Ephesians chapter 4 talks about. Well, he's talked about unity, he's talked about sexual sin, and then he comes to chapter 15 where it's 58 verses on the resurrection.
Now verse 3 he says, yes, in fact, Jesus was raised from the dead bodily, but in verse 12 there are some people around there who are saying, you know what, I don't know if we are raised from the dead bodily.
And so he makes sure through 58 verses that people believe that there's a resurrection of their own bodies, that there'll be a day of reckoning, that one day when you die you'll stand before God and give an accounting, not for your sins, not for your transgressions, aren't you glad?
Jesus was condemned in our place, he suffered in our place, he bore our sins. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There's acceptance, there's justification by faith alone in Christ.
But there is going to be a day of accounting and so Paul is talking about that in the middle of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I also love these verses because there is a pet Bible verse in here that people usually use and they forget the context.
The context here is resurrection. Chapter 15 is about the resurrection, 58 verses on the resurrection. I thought it was just for Easter. Maybe I could put it this way. There are only two worldviews in this world.
There's a lot of worldview talk, you know, in universities. Worldview 1, live for today, no resurrection. This is it, you got one life, burn out, hedonism, go for it, go for the gusto because you were descended from monkeys and you're just going to be dead.
The other worldview is there's a resurrection. Not only Jesus' resurrection but yours. And if you are raised from the dead, if you will live on past your death, your body's death, then you should probably see everything in light of that.
Like Luther said last week, we heard from him through my quote, there's today and there's that day, that judgment day. So let's pick up in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 29. We were basically looking at some resurrection Q &A or we could say resurrection truths that help us live out our Christian life.
Remember, what you believe determines what you do. Conduct and creed are tied together. And so out of the questions that we asked last week or made statements, the first one was found in verse 29. Since the resurrection is true, don't be surprised that people baptize others on behalf of the dead, verse 29.
Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Paul says, remember, not that I agree with it, not that it's me and we and the other disciples and people that are around me, but pagans baptize with proxy baptism, vicarious baptism.
Pagans do that for what reason? They realize that I'm going to have to stand before God. I'm going to have to give an account. And so if I have to give an account, we want to make sure that I'm acceptable before God and we believe in baptismal regeneration, so we better baptize our dead relatives.
This isn't Paul's only argument, but he says, look at how the pagans live. They even demonstrate through their wrong practice that there's truth behind that wrong practice. There's a resurrection. Second question or truth, I guess I could put it that way.
Since the resurrection is true, why don't you live your life with fearless faith? Verses 30 through 32a. Why are we, verse 30, do you see now the changes to we? He's no longer associating himself with the people in verse 29.
Why are we apostles in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die every day. What do I gain if humanly speaking? I fought with beasts at Ephesus.
If the dead are not raised, let us eat, drink, and tomorrow we die. In other words, Paul is saying this, the reason why I was fearless and serving the Lord with a full-bore gusto is because I knew even if I got killed, even if I'd gotten stoned and died by getting stoned those three times, I'm going straight to heaven.
I know there's a resurrection, so that influenced the way I live. And then lastly, we looked at last week and we'll expand that this morning, found in verse 32b that I just read, since the resurrection is true, make sure you live in light of it knowing there's a day of judgment for your actions.
Verse 32b and following, since the resurrection is true, realize that you're going to be judged by God one day and live in light of that. See there at the end of verse 32, let me explain what I mean. What Paul means, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.
Remember the context for that? Israel is going to be judged, Isaiah chapter 22, by an army that God is bringing in as the wooden paddle of judgment and those people knew that judgment was close at hand and so what did they do?
Well, instead of praying, instead of saying, God forgive us, instead of sackcloth, ashes, please God, we beseech your mercy. I was reading Psalm 25 yesterday and I thought this is brilliant. God, remember your mercy.
God, remember not our sins. God, remember me. That's what they should have been praying. Remember how much loving kindness you have, Lord? Remember how much mercy you have? Don't remember our sins and instead what were they doing?
They were parting it up. What does the text say? This is what they said. Instead of all the godly repentance and humility and asking God for mercy, we might as well eat, we might as well drink because the hordes are coming in tomorrow and we're dead.
If there's no resurrection, then we might as well live for today only. Do these verses sound familiar to you? By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the what? Reward. By faith, he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
There's a greater king on the throne. By faith, he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. Moses not saying I'm going to live for today only because if he did, why would he suffer the reproaches of Israel?
Josephus said Moses was in line for the throne of the most advanced civilization in the world. And he said no, because he believed in the resurrection. If you believe in the resurrection, there's like a gravitational pull that will pull you into its orbit, and you will begin to change.
If you say, you know what, I don't believe there's a day of reckoning, and today I might as well go for it, and what the world says I will do, then you're going to get sucked in the vortex of that black hole.
Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, please. As we think about this a little bit more, let's talk about this day of judgment for the Christian, not for sins, not for transgressions, not for trespasses, not for missing the mark, not for sins of omission and commission.
All the sins taken care of, it is finished. But we are judged for what we do in this body. Can you imagine? Every one of you, if you're a Christian, will stand before God, and God will ask you on this day of reckoning.
He won't necessarily ask you, but it will appear manifest, what you did. He gave you gifts and talents and possessions. How did you use these things for the glory of God? And it's going to either be given, you'll be given a reward, or you'll be given nothing.
And Paul says, in light of this coming, shouldn't it change the way you live? This is called the judgment seat of Christ, or we call this what? What's the other synonym for the judgment seat of Christ?
The Bema seat. It's a raised thing. I've been there with some of you. No, it wasn't that particular trip. Some of you at Corinth I've been with. Has anybody been with me to Corinth? No, that was a different trip.
There's a place in Corinth. I was there with somebody. I don't know who it was. A bunch of Germans, that's right. And raised up, because you can imagine, if thrones are supposed to be very high, so the king seems more intimidating and in authority and has power, well, these local judgment seats, like at Corinth, are the same thing.
It's elevated, and so you stand underneath it and you receive the judgment. You receive what's happening from the judge. And the same thing is going to happen to Christians. Now, let's see this in chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians, verse 6.
Paul said to them, So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. We're at home in the body, but we're still homesick. We're not experiencing the full pleasures of God's full presence in heaven.
But we know heaven is real. Why? Verse 7. For we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. What a great way to talk about heaven.
I'm home. The college student who comes back for Christmas break, I'm home. The person who goes to Corinth with people who aren't his congregation, but the pastor thinks that they are his congregation, finally comes back home and says, I'm home.
I'm just home. We're not meant for this world, ultimately. Right? Our citizenship is in heaven. Home. While we're here, we're here. We're not at home with the Lord. We do know we have an eternal destiny.
But while we're here, verse 9. So whether we are at home, in heaven, or away, down here, we make it our aim to please Him. Why? To earn favor? No. Because we've been favored. God has saved us from our sins, and we want to respond with, God, I want to please you.
For, verse 10, we must all appear. He's talking to Christians. This is not the great white throne judgment. He is talking to Christians. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Take a look at that little word, we must. Those words, we must all appear. It's mandatory. You ever get the little jury things in the mail, the postcard? They have little boxes you can check. I'm out of town at Corinth with some people who aren't my congregation, but I thought they were.
You can just check off things. Can't make it. I have some kind of thing that will prevent me from doing that. And you can opt out, at least early on. Eventually, you'll probably have to serve. Here, we must all appear.
No opting out. Everybody appears. And this just isn't showing upward. I'm here. This is showing up, and the microscope is on you. Have you ever been to a place, and you think, this is kind of bad lighting, and maybe it's a department store, and you just look at yourself in the mirror, and you go, this lighting's bad.
I can't look that bad. This lighting's that bad. Other places you go to, the lighting is awesome. And every little thing can be seen on you. It's like one of those magnifying mirrors. Ladies, I think, have some of these.
It's got 10X on the front, and it's got a switch for the light that goes around. And when you see yourself on that, you're like, just turn that off. You know, pockmarks are too much. Here, the light of God's penetrating gaze is going to judge you.
Every single person here who's a Christian, you are going to be judged, not for your sins, but based on what you did. God saved you at age 29. You live to be 55. What have you done? Now, you say, well, how does this motivate?
Well, some motivation is by duty. It's not the best motivation, but, you know, it's just my duty. I don't feel like loving my wife today, but I'm going to do it anyway. Better than disobeying. Some, it's, I just can't believe that God poured out His wrath on the son when I deserved it.
I was in the slave pit of sin, and the ransom price for my sins was Jesus' life and death. And I just want to go serve. I just want to serve out of love, out of thankfulness. It's not just because it's right, but because, God, I had great guilt.
You had greater grace, and my gratitude's off the charts. But then He gives an extra incentive. He didn't have to do this, but He does. One of your incentives should be, I get a reward in heaven. You say, well, for me, the reward is enough.
The reward that's enough, rather, is I get to be with Jesus. Well, then here's what I'm going to try to do. I'm going to try to get you to put verse 10 back in your Bibles. It would be enough, but God, in His goodness, in His generosity, in His grace, says, I'm going to give you something more, a reward for what you do.
You say, well, I didn't really do it. It's the grace of God in me. I know, but still, there's a reward. Yes, God, you love me with matchless love. That's enough. But since you're offering the reward, I want to be diligent.
And if you're going to see me on that day like you look in 1 Samuel chapter 16, not at the outward appearance, but at the heart, I want to make sure my motives are good, and I do it for the right reason.
This is the real stimulus package. This works, by the way. Divine stimulus package always works. And that is, I'm free from my sins. I want to serve, but I also, there's a reward. I get a reward on that day.
And I'm going to have to appear before God, so I might as well get a move on, because I'm going to die. My body will be raised from the dead, united with my soul, and I stand before God. And then I'm going to receive a reward at the judgment seat.
Lots of times, the judgment seats were for judgments. Other times, they were to give awards, like athletic awards. Remember the Olympic awards? You usually have the guy who did the best, or the lady who did the best.
They get to stand at the highest, then second place, then third place, right? That's also a bema seat, and that's exactly what it is. God knows we're sinners, we're depraved, we're wretches. He knows that He did all the work of salvation, monergistically regenerating us.
He did everything, and yet, even though His Spirit is dwelling in us, motivating us to do these things, He still puts on the gold medal, or depending on what you've done, maybe the silver medal, or maybe a platinum medal.
And you go, what's all this medal business? What really is a reward in heaven? I have no idea, but it's going to be good. Because I know the giver, and I know Paul wouldn't say these things, inspired by the Holy Spirit, if this was a dream.
Some people think the reward is this. The more rewards you receive from the Lord by His grace, the greater you can appreciate who God is in heaven. Right? I don't know much about classical music. I went to the Hollywood Bowl in 1989 with Kim.
Scalp tickets out front to go see Pavarotti at the Hollywood Bowl. Twenty bucks a ticket. And I sat there, and I smiled. Outside, Hollywood Bowl. People have their little lunch baskets there. Pavarotti.
I knew I'd get to tell somebody eventually that I've seen Pavarotti. Didn't know it was in 2012. And I was smiling the whole time. But I guarantee you, those people who are trained in classical music, trained in opera, could actually understand what he was saying.
They were smiling even with more satisfaction internally, because they could appreciate everything that was being done. So everybody in heaven is going to have that smile on, of God, you're awesome, worthy as the Lamb.
But some will appreciate more. That's probably what these rewards are. We know there's a reward. We know this is just extra. It's gravy. It's topping. It's creme de la creme. And this is supposed to motivate us.
And if the resurrection isn't true, then it's not going to matter. There is going to be evaluation. What does your text say in verse 10? Either for good things, that is beneficial, right motives, kingdom work, gospel work, what you think is secular work, taking care of your kids at home, but you do it for the glory of Christ Jesus, good things.
You work hard at work, even though it's not ministry, still we need good carpenters and good computer programmers, godly for the glory of God and for his kingdom. And the other one is, sometimes the text translated evil, but really is the Greek word fallen, bad.
It means worthless. Think about a construction contractor. He goes to the site and he... Now, let's not use a construction contractor. A construction inspector, is that what they have? Bob Eulow, is that what they are?
Inspectors. And he checks things out. And some he goes, yeah, good job, good things that they did. Good job nailing over there. Now, they say, it's right, it matches the specs, the architectural drawings have been represented well in the building, and he says, that's good.
Sign off on it, next step. But if things are cut, corners are cut, it doesn't look so good, it's worthless. Knock it down, rebuild it. This isn't judging for our good deeds or our sins, it's either if it's good or if it doesn't count.
I did this sermon so I would look good. Doesn't count. I served other people so I would have more power in the church. Doesn't count. I wash these dishes to the glory of Christ Jesus, nobody sees this in all the world.
But Lord, I'm happy to be serving you in any way I can by serving these dear kids you've given me. Good. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 14 says, if the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
Rewards are legitimate motivations for the Christian. Incentives for the Christian. How we live. One man said the Bible describes the judgment seat of Christ for one main purpose, to affect the way we think and live, to motivate us to anticipate with joy His return, to live our lives to please Him.
So then what does this do? It says to the college student, well yeah, I'm a sophomore in school and I'll serve the Lord once I graduate and get a wife and have kids. Really? Do you know what? I'm too busy now at work to serve the Lord and have ministries and do these other things.
The church seems to be going on just fine. I'll do that later. Really? I really am serving the Lord with sweat and toil and no one seems to notice. But God doesn't. There'll be that great day of reckoning and reward.
I'll keep going. I'll do it. One life to live. The other day I took Carl Truman to Northampton Cemetery. And we walked over and there was a little tombstone. It was about this big. And it was a guy who burnt himself out for the Lord Jesus Christ and died at 29 years old.
People just walk on top of it now. It's not big. It's not fancy. It's just a gravestone countersunk down into the ground. And it's David Brainerd. We don't even know how old, what year it was when he was born.
Served the Lord. Served the Indians. Got TB and died. He believed in the resurrection. Think about your favorite Christian saint. Paul. Lydia. Mary Slessor. William Carey. Charles Spurgeon. Your grandma.
Think about the saint that epitomizes Christian life at its apex. And I will tell you, they believe in the resurrection. Say, I need a jump start. Work is consuming me. The resurrection. I need some encouragement because nobody seems to notice what I do.
The resurrection. Rewarded by God for obedience. That's the key to ministry. John Gershner said, We have an opportunity on earth to do something that you can never do in heaven. You currently have an opportunity to lay up treasures in heaven.
Be Christian theological capitalists. In heaven, you enjoy your treasures. But you cannot add any more to what you have. Only on earth. You go for it. Church bulletin board I like. Work for the Lord. Pay is not much, but the retirement plan is out of the world.
Hebrews 6. God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. I think some of the Corinthians were like the descriptions found in this scene.
Some folks remind me of blisters. They do not show up until the work is done. I love Whitfield's comment when he was asked, What will you do tomorrow? Excuse me. What will you do today if tomorrow Jesus returns?
If somehow you could know Jesus is coming back, what would you do today? And he took his day timer and said, This is what I would do. Because he had it all planned out. Today and that day. Living in light of the resurrection.
Robert Frost, on the other hand, said the world is full of willing people. Some willing to work. The rest willing to let them. Our Savior was a worker. Our Savior was a minister. Our Savior was a server.
Our Savior did the work that his Father gave him to please the Father. No wonder 1 Corinthians 15, the chapter ends, Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
I think above the sink, on top of the paper towel rack, there's a Bible verse. It's either that one or it's from Hebrews 6. To remind people, yes, this is all going to count in the most difficult ministry probably in all the church, the kitchen ministry.
Why? Because who wants to even clean their own kitchen, let alone a bunch of church people's kitchen stuff? The resurrection is true. And this is true as well. Revelation 22, Jesus said, Behold, I am coming soon.
My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. Don't you want to get to heaven and have God say, well done, here's this big reward for you? Isn't that going to be good?
I said the first service. I know Deb's here. I'm not adding this for her. I'm saying this because I said it the first service as well. I hope it encourages her. Without getting all psychological on you, my father, as you know, died 1989.
He really wasn't a talker. I think I said that last week. How many weeks in a row can I talk about my father? I have no idea. Let's quickly get through this. He didn't really say, I'm proud of you. So later in ministry, going through rough patches and rough spells, and Dave Jeffries with that long arm coming around me.
When Dave Jeffries comes up to you, you hope it's not face-to-face like this because he's going to confront you about something. Mike, are you sure you want to keep doing that? Dave, Dave. He was one of our old elders.
But he came up and he put his arm around me and he said, if I were your dad, I'd be proud of you. That lasted like a month in my eyes. That kept me going. And how about on judgment day? God knows how sinful we are, how foolish we are, how weak we are, how many times we've failed.
But we say, you know what, God, by your grace, I'm going to try to do gospel work for gospel kingdom purposes by the grace of the gospel of the Holy Spirit, and I'm going to do this for you. And then it's like, good job.
I don't think the Lord's going to say, I'm proud of you, Mike. If I was your dad, I'd be proud of you. But it's going to be better than that. 1 Samuel says, the Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and faithfulness.
See, this is not, you're not serving, what's going on with you? This is, you get to serve, and then there's payday. I don't know how you served Satan before you were a Christian, but I bet it was with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
I bet you it was 24 -7, with a lot of verve. How can we then serve the Lord with some foolish notion, once saved, always saved, and I got my fire insurance, my hell insurance, and now it's just time to coast?
That wouldn't be good. Then there's a little interlude. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 15, and Paul gives, in the middle of all this, some exhortations, some exhortations to think rightly. Corinth wasn't.
Maybe you are, but I'll teach you these anyway. Maybe you're thinking properly, but he gives exhortations. Don't be deceived. Wake up. Stop sinning. Far from moralism, these are in the context of a Christian service and a Christian message and a Christian book, preaching Christ Jesus and Him crucified.
And Paul says, in light of all this, don't be deceived. If anybody ever says that to you, especially Paul, do you know what's true? It's easy to be deceived. Didn't he say this once before, 1 Corinthians 6, don't be deceived?
Fornicators, homosexuals, and the list goes on, will not inherit the kingdom of God. It's easy to be deceived because maybe that's your sister, maybe that's your friend, maybe that's your kid, and you go, well, they did say Jesus was Lord when they were a kid, and now they do this.
It's easy to be deceived. And it's easy to be deceived about this. Bad company ruins good morals. I thought that was a parenting verse. It is, but it's in the context of what? Resurrection. It is by implication.
If you hang out with people who don't believe in the resurrection, they will corrupt you because they live for today, and you live for today and for tomorrow. The context here has everything to do with it.
Resurrection is the key. Bad company, people that deny the resurrection, will corrupt your good morals. Sometimes people will say, Mike, you know, I only want the Bible. Stop quoting Luther. Stop quoting John MacArthur.
Stop quoting Spurgeon. Don't quote anything but the Bible. Well, then you should probably tell Paul here not to quote a secular poet because he does it, and it's true. This is a proverb found in a poem in meander.
Maybe it's Euripides. Wrong company, that is, people that deny resurrection, will influence you. Resurrection folks, on the other hand, will influence you positively. See, if you hang out with people who swear, you're going to start swearing.
Well, I do know Proverbs 13 .20 says, He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the compassionate fools will suffer harm. That's true. But the context is, if you hang out with people, it's like the guy that says, well, I think I'm going to start, I'm a Christian, I think I'll start dating an unbeliever.
Well, you're denying the resurrection by that statement. It's one thing if you're already married to an unbeliever, then you have your own set of challenges that you can get through by the grace of God.
But now it's, well, I think I'll just date an unbeliever. Bad company corrupts good morals. This person believes that evolution is true, and that they're from, I was going to say goo, that they've come from monkeys, and nobody thinks it's a moral problem when monkeys kill other monkeys.
So they don't think it's a problem either. Just don't get caught. Deviant doctrine comes from bad theology. No resurrection. That's why Paul quoted this proverb. Eschatology matters. I think I'll push the envelope right now and say this.
If Christians would think about resurrection, eschatology, and be mesit, they'd be a lot better off than if they fight over pre-trib, pre-mill, post-trib, om-mill, pre-wrath, mid-trib, post-trib.
Which one are you? Well, I think it's fair to be something, because the Bible teaches something about a millennium. But here, this is real eschatology. You've got one life to live. And you should be ministering.
And if you're not ministering, if you're not living in light of the resurrection, then let me repeat what I said earlier. Wake up. Look at verse 34. Wake up from your drunken stupor. How many people here hit the snooze alarm this morning?
Would anybody admit it? I usually don't. I had no snooze alarm to hit because I have an iPhone, but I went and I scrolled down the Sunday morning 15 minutes later. It didn't work because five minutes after that, my wife walked in and said, Honey, aren't you going to be getting up today?
I said, I'm waiting to have a dream about what I should say in my sermon. Don't bother me. Do you know, I'll live full bore for the Lord in minutes. I'll really go all out. Snooze alarm. And here Paul is saying, Wake up.
Wake up. You don't do these things because that saves you, but you are saved and God says you've got a reward for it. Now, once I pay off all my bills, then I'll serve the Lord. Once I get all this, I'll serve the Lord.
Paul says, Snap out of it. You see on the shows, you know, some western, all the guys with the black hats, they're like, you know, they're all drunk, and what's the first thing they try to do is give them some coffee to wake up, some black coffee around the fire.
Here's some black coffee, Christians. Wake up. It's like you're drunk, Paul says. Come to your senses, man. Wake up in light of you're going to stand before God on reward day. It's like you're drunk. You can't think clearly.
I'm not for drunkenness, but when people I see are drunk, I make sure I show the kids. Look at that. Look at that. Look at these people here. You don't want to act like that. You're acting like you're drunk with evolution.
There's a danger to this. Paul says, stop sinning. Think rightly. What does the text say? For some have no knowledge of God. What a boxing jab to the chin to the Corinthians who kept saying, we have knowledge, we have knowledge, we have knowledge, we know, we know, we know.
Uppercut, roundhouse, wake up. These people are resurrection agnostics. No knowledge of God. Agnostic. Knowledge, no. Put an A in front of it, they don't know. They don't know that there's a resurrection.
And if they do, they're not acting like it. Stop it. Well, but you don't really understand my situation. Stop it. Sometime you need to pull up Bob Newhart on YouTube, and somebody's in a bad situation.
And his advice to them is, stop it. Stop it. See, people are laughing. Boy, you just love to preach a sermon like this every once in a while, right? Just wake up. The people that have no knowledge of God, 1 Thessalonians 4, are the Gentiles who do not know God.
Turn with me, if you would. We're going to wrap it up here at Luke 16. Luke 16, this is something that's tied to the resurrection. Luke 16 is a parable from Jesus, and it's about wealth and material things and money and how to be good stewards of those.
And I think this will help us in light of the resurrection. Everything you have is a gift from God, and you need to use those things like there's going to be a reward day. We cling on to things too carefully.
We need to be more like Luther, who said there are four slits in your hands for a reason, so money and people can slide through them quickly. Money, positively. The people, negatively. Think like there's a resurrection.
Maybe the wildest parable in all the Bible. Luke 16 follows what particular chapter? Luke 15. Very good. It's getting super hot in here. It follows Luke 15. What happened in Luke 15? Lost, found, rejoiced.
Lost, found, rejoiced. Lost, found, people were mad. They should have been rejoicing. Parable of the prodigal sons. And that one prodigal son, he squandered things, didn't he? He wasted them. Let's talk about waste.
Verse 1 of chapter 16. How could this even be in the Bible? This is crazy. He also said to his disciples, there was a rich man who had a manager. Of course rich people have managers because they need to go make more money.
Why manage? Because it doesn't make money. It just contains the money. You go make other money doing something else. So you hire a manager. Maybe it was a slave. Maybe it was a friend. It's a steward of what you have.
And charges were brought to him that this man, the manager, was wasting his, the rich man's, possessions. So what do you do? Today you call HR. What do you do back in those days? You are fired. And he called him and said, what is this I hear about you?
Turn in the account of your management, or lack thereof, for you can no longer be manager. We today have financial planners. They take care of those things for us. Once you find out your financial planner is putting your money in all the stocks that have a lot of charges built in that he would get instead of worrying about your money and return on investment, you fire the person.
The manager is to be fired. He had an office of trust and confidence and he has broken that. And he squandered your possessions. He wasted them. Think Luke 15. Resources are valuable. Wasted resources.
It wasn't like he was ignorant. He did it on purpose. He was a bad man. Called him and said, you're done. Give an accounting. Render the books. I want an explanation. There's a day of reckoning. Verse 3.
Manager said to himself, what shall I do? Have you ever been fired or let go or downsized? And they're saying the words, I remember being there, there's no longer a position for you. Do you know what I was thinking out loud?
I mean in my mind, but not out loud. What shall I do? What am I going to do? Actually, what I was told was, there's no longer a position for you. We need your company car and we have psychologists waiting on standby to talk to you afterwards.
Okay. I don't need psychologists until I tell stories about my dad 40 years later. What shall I do since my master is taking the management away from me? This is how I make my money, number one, by what the boss gives me and then I'm cutting stuff off the top for me.
I've got double money. Both are gone. I'm not strong enough to dig. Blue-collar workers is what they had back then. No computer programmers. No white-collar workers. And I'm ashamed to beg. You either work or beg back in those days.
That's it. I have decided what to do. And for the pop culture people, this was a grinch of an idea so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses. I'll get them indebted to me.
I'm going to decrease their debts to the boss and I'm going to increase their debt to me. I know what I'll do. I'm going to act wisely, cleverly, shrewdly, calculatingly, reduce debts by increasing the debt.
Reduce the debts of my master to increase the debts to myself. This is what the old generation called feathering your nest. So, verse 5, summoning his master's debtors one by one. How many there were, we don't know.
They're lined up, it seems. We only hear from two, or about two. He said to the first, how much do you owe my master? I'm still employed, by the way. It's my master. You know, I know I'm fired, but still, it's my master, so he's still being conniving.
A hundred measures of oil. He said to him, verse 6, take your bill, sit down quickly, before the guy shows back up again, and write 50. Now, what's happening here? The details don't really matter, but I think it's probably this.
I think this bad conniving steward charged the Jew's interest, when you're not supposed to charge the Jew interest, and now he's going to say, just take off that interest. That's one of the options. The other option is, he's just saying, you owe my master a hundred of something, I'll write down 50.
It's my master's land, you're renting it, and what you pay my master is part of the crop. Regardless, let's cut it in half. Okay. He said to another one, verse 7, how much do you owe? He said a hundred measures of wheat.
He said to him, take your bill and write 80. It doesn't even seem like the accounting books are there, because the bad steward would probably say, you owe me 80, let's cut it to 40. You owe me a hundred, let's cut it to 50.
He, the bad steward, is now asking the debtors, take your bill and write 80. Boy, that seems like a really good deal. And if you're a debtor, you think, boy, that's nice of the manager, but especially nice of the boss.
Boy, he's a good guy. This is actually going to make people think well of the owner, and create a debt to the shrewd steward. Take your bill, write 80. Well, what do you think is going to happen next?
Let's hear from Jesus. We don't hear the people in the village praising both master and steward, although they probably did. We don't hear that this probably benefited the master, because he was so good and gracious and generous.
But what do we hear? Let's hear verse 8, criminal minds. The master commended, wait, the master commended, the master commended the dishonest manager. Not for his sin, not for his dishonesty, not for his cutting corners.
He 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 life. Sons of light, excuse me. You know, unbelievers plan ahead better than Christians do sometimes.
They plan ahead for temporal reasons, for maybe bad reasons, maybe not the best motives. Here he didn't have any of those good motives, but he planned ahead. He lived like there was going to be a later.
And Jesus is saying, Christian, if unbelieving bad stewards plan for later, ought you not to be planning for later with what you owe? No. Make good use of your opportunity now while you can. Thinking about the resurrection, live in light of the resurrection, plan ahead.
What else did Jesus say? Verse 9. Well, this person is winning people for the kingdom. Is that what he says? Are we to win people for the kingdom with money? Verse 9. I tell you, it's a good time to pay attention.
Make friends, believers, for yourselves. So far so good. Be friendly. Isn't that good advice? Be friendly to everybody. Oh, that's nice. It's nice to be nice. It's nice to make friends. Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
Take money and material things that you have and invest it in people. Use it to bring salvation to others. You can take all this and say this is theological shorthand, and it is. If I unpack it, it is.
Give your money to gospel-oriented ministries who will then preach the counsel of God, specifically the gospel of God. God saves through the preaching of God, ministered by the Holy Spirit, and you're using your money for investments that one day you'll be rewarded for in heaven.
Money isn't your owner. You're to make it your slave. Make friends for yourself by means of unrighteous wealth. So I'd really like to have those neighbors down the street who are unbelievers come to my house, but they've got like six kids that are going to eat me out of the house and home.
That's a good way to use filthy lucre. Don't you love that word? You've got a little extra filthy lucre laying around. Why don't you say no to something that you're going to do on earth that you easily could do, it's fine to do, but I'm going to go spend it on unbelievers and befriend them.
That would be a good application of this very thing. And then after you befriend them, you preach the gospel of them. I guess I'm not really for friendship evangelism unless you buy them first. Use money to get friends.
Throw your money around to get friends and then you preach the gospel of them. Or give your money to places that preach the gospel. Use your wealth because it's going to be gone. Buy earthly friends with money because it's not your money, it's the master's.
And if you don't buy earthly friends with money or invest in gospel things, you are the bad manager. You're trying to use that money to increase the debt that people have towards you instead of another.
Verse 10,. He who is faithful in a very little thing, money of all things, very little thing, money, is faithful also in much. And he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.
Verse 11,. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, all that you have including finances, who will give you that which is your own?
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. If you have a hard time with your finances and resources and your giving, the answer to your problem is the resurrection.
Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Jesus Christ. There was no teacher like Him, no preacher like Him, no Savior like Him. Father, with the psalmist, we would pray today that You would remember Your loving kindness towards us.
You would remember not our sins. You would remember us and help us to be people who live in light of the resurrection, our own resurrection, because of Christ's resurrection. In Jesus' name, Amen.