Wednesday, January 26, PM

Luke 16: The Unjust Steward and Eternal Priorities

Alright, let's pray, then we'll read verses 1 -18. Heavenly Father, we come before you tonight, we thank you for the meal that you have so generously provided, and we thank you for the Brown's laboring word, that it is clear, and that you tell us who you are, you reveal to us your Son, that we may have hope in Christ.

We thank you for your love for us, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, Luke chapter 16. He also said to his disciples, there was a certain rich man, who had a commission was brought to him, that this man went to him and said to him, what is this I hear about you?

Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward. Then the steward said within himself, what shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig, I am ashamed to beg.

I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and said to the first. And he said, a hundred measures of oil.

So he said to him, take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty. Then he said to another, and how much do you owe? So he said, a hundred measures of wheat. And he said to him, take your bill and write eighty.

So the master commended the unjust steward, because he had dealt shrewdly, for the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.

He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much, and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon. The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided him. And he said to them, You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.

For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time, the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.

And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail. Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.

The Lost Sheep, Lost Silver, and Lost Son

Telling a series of parables to the Pharisees and the scribes, who have complained about who he's spending time with. He's with tax collectors and various sundry lesser kinds of sinners, and he shows them how nonsensical they're being, that the Savior spends time with sinners.

And he tells them the parable of the lost sheep, the lost silver, and the lost son, demonstrating that the joy of recovering that which was lost makes perfect sense, while complaining and being grumpy about finding the lost is illogical, makes no sense, makes them look very foolish.

Joseph, Potiphar, and the Faithful Steward

And now he turns to his disciples and he tells a story about a rich man who had a steward. Now think the kind of relationship between Potiphar and Joseph. Potiphar was captain of the guard in Egypt. He had great estate and was a slave, and he saw great potential in Joseph, that he had the wisdom of God and the fear of the Lord, and Joseph succeeded greatly in managing the entire estate of Potiphar.

And it says in Genesis that Potiphar's only decisions left to him was, what do I want to eat today? Because he so trusted Joseph to take care of all of the fields, all the other servants, all of the animals, the entire economy of his household.

Here's a rich man who has a steward, and the steward is not like Joseph. This steward is not faithful at all, and he's being very wasteful with his master's possessions. And as it always happens, the truth gets out.

The truth comes to light. You can only cook the books for so long, and eventually it starts to stink. And so the word gets back to the master, and the master says to the steward, we need to settle accounts here, I need to see the receipts.

We're going to look over the books now, and based on what I've heard, you're fired. But we're going to figure out what's happened before you go. The steward knows he's in trouble, and so he devises an opportunity to get the highway crew on I -35, always patching and patching and patching, I don't want to go dig a hole for a living.

He says, I'm too proud to beg, I don't want to go sit at a city gate somewhere and pretend I'm lame, and a cardboard sign, and anything helps. So he decides, alright, here's what we're going to do, with my master, we're going to change your bill so you only owe 50 instead of 100.

I'm already in deep right now, I might as well just go deeper. And then he goes to somebody else who says that he owes 100 measures of wheat, and he says, no, no, no, you only owe 80. See, I'm taking care of him, he's going to get fired, but he'll have people who like him now.

The background to what's going on is something that the Pharisees helped devise as part of their holiness code. Do you remember the story about how you could only travel so far on the Sabbath from your home, but then they figured out you could define your home as a place of worship.

So if they needed to travel back from Jericho to Jerusalem on a Sabbath day, on the way up there, they would drop various things off from their house, you know, the rubber ducky, and then their toothbrush, and then their hair comb, and then so on.

Every Sabbath journey's distance, so that when they came back, they were never more involved. In like manner, it was against the rules, against the law of Moses, to charge interest on whatever you would lend to your fellow Jew.

You were to lend to your fellow Jew, but you weren't to charge interest. And so, they figured out that if you were ever to write that down, have your name attached to it, charging interest to your fellow Jew, you'd be guilty of violating the law of Moses.

But what if it was never written down that way? I'm just saying, right? What if somebody needed to borrow 50 measures of olive oil, you know, for whatever they were doing, for their business, for their family, so on and so forth.

And you're like, okay, that's fine, but you've got to pay me back 100 measures. That's 100 interest, right? They would just write it down. They wouldn't say that this was interest, they would just say, you know, they'd give them the 50 measures of oil, but then they'd say, you owe me 100, okay, wink, wink.

Get around, get around. And the same thing for wheat, 20 interest, but we're not going to call it interest, okay. I've given you 80 measures of wheat, you owe me 100. Okay, so this is the way they're getting around.

So what happens with the unjust steward? He's an unjust steward. I mean, he did poorly, he wasted his master's money, he got caught. So now how is he going to get out of it? Well, he goes to these Jews who owe the oil and the wheat to the master, and he says, here's what we're going to do.

You pay my master back exactly what you borrowed from him, 50 measures of oil, 80 measures of wheat. It's against the law, he'd be unholy. So the unjust steward figures out a way around the system, figures out how to put his own employer in a bind, so that if the master exposes the steward, the steward has made arrangements to expose the master.

And this is why the master commended, verse 8, commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly, shrewdly. Ah, clever one. Got out of that, didn't you? You're still fired, by the way. But basically, it was a mutual parting of ways at that point.

Now Jesus tells this story, and it's a very well-told story, fitting the situations right in front of all his audience. And then he says, the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.

And so he's saying, these unjust, wicked people know the score. They see the situation clearly. They make the calculations, and they figure out the best way to manage the money in front of them, and they're making these very shrewd decisions.

And he says, what about the sons of light? Are they as careful to understand the situation clearly? Do they really see things for the way that they are? Are they also managing their funds, their money, or their wealth?

We have a word here in the New King James, mammon, which means, you know, your wealth, your possessions, what you own. So Jesus says in verse 9, I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, this is an interesting, interesting word, they may receive you into an everlasting home.

And then he begins to talk about a few other things. I just want to take the verse 9 just for a moment. This is the point, this is the teachable punchline that Jesus has. Remember, he's talking to his disciples.

He wants them to be wise. He wants them to be good stewards of all that's going to be entrusted to them. Remember that, I mean, we're at Luke 16, we're going to be reading along, and we're going to get to Luke 24, and then we're going to go to, you know, the sequel to Luke, and spin right into Acts, and by the time we get to Acts chapter 2, what's happening?

The church is ballooning, it's growing, I mean, they're in the thousands of people, and people are bringing their money and laying it where? At the feet of the disciples, at the feet of the apostles, right?

Jesus knows what's going to go on with his disciples. They're going to need to know how to prioritize and think and see situations clearly, and how to make good, wise, financial decisions. A whole bunch of responsibility is going to be entrusted to them very soon.

So he tells them this parable. And so he says, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail they may receive you into an everlasting home. In classic parable fashion, he's not saying it straight, he's saying it slant.

Those who have ears to hear, let them hear. What's going on? This is what he's saying. Use all of this money, use all of this wealth that is going to end up in your possession, and use it in such a way that it has an everlasting impact, has an eternal impact.

So that when you fail, when you die, the Greek word has the, where we get our English word eclipse from. When it goes dark for you, when it's over for you, when you fail, you have used the funds in such a way that it has an everlasting impact, there's an eternal reward.

So we go back and we see that the steward saw things clearly. My day of accounting has come, there's no way I can avoid it. And then he starts making decisions. And so Jesus here talks about, you know, an end's going to come.

How will you have wanted to use what God has entrusted to you when it's all said and done? Envision this. Make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon that, now by the way, have you ever held in your hand any kind of wealth that has a flawless, perfect, clean, upright track record?

No. All money is dirty somehow. Okay. I think it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a interesting pun that the, the, that cocaine is on all of our dollar bills so much that dogs can smell it just because it's been trafficked everywhere.

You can't, you cannot even deal with any kind of wealth anywhere in the world that doesn't have some kind of stain on it. You know, even fans of Bitcoin, like, you know, Dylan and me, you can go back and check all the purchases that have ever been made and go back and look at the entire history of, of this on a public ledger and say, Hmm, that wasn't a very upstanding thing to do.

Okay. So Jesus is not saying, well, money is dirty. Get rid of it all. Be monks. Take a vow of poverty. The only way to be holy is to never touch money. Right. That didn't work out well for the monks.

They became really good businessmen. What he's saying is, use the unrighteous mammon in a way that has an everlasting impact. And just like this one, this steward and his story went out and made friends, okay, made, made these connections and friends, in the same way, you, Jesus is saying, use the money to go make friends.

Again, he's telling it slant in the parable. What does he mean? I think he's meaning, invest the funds to spread the gospel, invest the funds to go preach the word of God and bring, and see more and more people brought into the kingdom.

Faithfulness in Little and the Mastery of Money

Verse 11 says, therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?

There is this pattern that Jesus has, being faithful with little and then being faithful with much. Here he's talking about signs that your priorities are right. In the words of Augustine, that your affections are properly ordered.

Here's the problem, it's stated in verse 13, either you're going to love God and use money for him, either you're going to be mastered by God and be mastered by God and master the money for his glory, or you're going to be mastered by the money.

And if you have a use for God, it's going to be, I want more. Now that's the contrast that Jesus is building. No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.

He cannot serve God and mammon. Now why is he telling the story? Verse 14 tells us why, it's the Pharisees and scribes who are listening in. They had a love for money, meaning what? They were mastered by the money and they were just fine using the name of God to get more.

And boy, were they really good at that. Jesus is flipping it on its head and says, no, be mastered by God and love God, and you will be a righteous steward, a good steward of what God has entrusted to you, and use it for his glory and his fame.

Make those kinds of investments that matter forever and ever. The Pharisees didn't like the way that Jesus told the story and was exposing them. They were lovers of money. Now who here has ever heard the saying that money is the root of all evil?

Which is a misquote. The love of money is the root of all evil. That's what the scripture says. The love of money is the root of all evil. And this is where the Pharisees were lovers of money. And all kinds of evil was in their life, and Jesus said, you're like whitewashed tombs, you're nice and white on the outside, but you're full of dead men's bones on the inside.

Well, they were lovers of money. The root of all evil was in the Pharisees, and so they heard all these things and they derided him. Which means that they mocked him, they scorned him, they downplayed him, they asked him for his credentials and showed him theirs, and basically were snooty about this whole thing.

They derided him. And he said to them, you are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Now we could live there for quite a while in that passage.

So they are lovers of money, this is why they oppose Christ, and then Jesus says God knows your hearts. So he knows what's going on inside of your hearts. And then he says you're trying to justify yourselves before men, but he says what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

So if we take it, what's going on in their context, recall that it is the assumption of this culture that wealthy Jews were closer to God, right? They're forwarding the assumptions of the old covenant.

If it appears that I am full of the blessings of God, that must mean that God is very pleased with me. When Jesus deals with the rich ruler, and he goes away sorrowful because of his idolatry, Jesus turns to his disciples and says, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven, and the disciples are like, well then who can be saved?

Because they thought the rich were the ones first in line, and if the first in line can't get in, then nobody else is. And then Jesus says what's impossible with man is possible with God. So the Pharisees were lovers of money.

They were very much putting themselves on display for men's approval. That included showing how much money they had. That was part of their holiness, remember? If you don't have a lot of money, then you're not loved by God.

But if you're a Pharisee and you're more holier than anybody else, then obviously you're going to be more loved by God and you should have the money to prove it. So they're justifying themselves before men.

They did all kinds of things to justify themselves before men. Can we think of anything that the Pharisees liked to do to virtue signal? They would pray in the street corners, very long, loud prayers.

So that everybody would say, wow, listen to that guy pray. They were fighting over seats at meals, like, I was fifth from the top this week, my stock is rising, look how important I am. Obvious fasting, right?

The Pharisees fasted twice a week and complained that Jesus' disciples did not. Of course, they failed to mention that the two days that they would fast were the market days when everybody would gather and they would drag themselves beleaguered and unkempt through the marketplace just so everybody could know that they were fasting.

They would have someone blow a trumpet and everybody would look around and find the trumpet player and then, oh look, there's a Pharisee giving some money over here to the poor. Again, this is the unrighteous use of religion.

When religion is reduced to a covering to look good, that is hypocrisy. That is Phariseeism, that is false religion. If religion, meaning organizing your life to worship, is about communion to love God, that's a good thing.

It's a good thing to read your Bible every day. It's a good thing to pray without ceasing. It's a good thing to repeatedly gather together with brothers and sisters in Christ to organize your life to worship God, but when you're doing that for the sake of communion with God so that you grow in your love for Him, that's a good thing.

Religion is a very good thing. The Bible is very positive about religion, but very negative about wrong use of religion. The Bible never makes the dichotomy that religion is bad and relationship is good.

The Bible says you can use religion bad or good. So Jesus is saying here, the Pharisees are trying to justify themselves before men, but notice he says, what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

This hypocrisy of appearing righteous and good, but inside there is wickedness and evil, that's an abomination to God. Can we think of anything today that is highly esteemed among men, but is an abomination in the sight of God?

The pomp of political power, Jesus said to his disciples, this is the way the pagans operate, but not you. So there's all kinds of things that people highly esteem among men. About every single month is something awareness month, every week has a something awareness day, and some of it is biblically take it or leave it, but a lot of it is an outright abomination to God.

And if you are interested in being justified before men, you involve yourself in every kind of awareness that and awareness this, because you want to be esteemed among men. But this isn't holiness and righteousness in the sight of God, exactly.

The Law, the Prophets, and Divorce

So Jesus concludes this way, the law and the prophets were until John, and of course Jesus said that John was the greatest of all the prophets. Since that time, the kingdom of God has been preached. Since the time of John, John decreased and Christ increased, right?

John was moved out of the way and Jesus and then again, and wanting to out there, but he said, tittle the law to fail, which means the smallest Hebrew letter is something like this. If this was the normal size of a, of course that's Greek, so let's do something else.

There we go. So this is a Hebrew letter. This is the smallest Hebrew letter, which is a yod. Sometimes you say jot in the English translation, jot or yod. Now, if you had, for instance, if you had this little thing right here, this little serif at the end, this little squiggle, the little squiggle at the end is what this word tittle means.

So Jesus says the small squiggle on a letter of the law is not going to fail. The whole created order will cease to exist before that happens. Why is that? Don't forget the word of God is how everything is created.

God spoke and it was all created. The word of God is what holds everything together. And this is even more revealed personally as all things were created through him and by him and for him. And in Christ, who is the word of God, all things consist and hold together.

So Jesus is saying, here's your system, here's your system. You're justifying yourselves before men. It's all on the exterior and so on. I am preaching the kingdom. It's consistent with everything that's already been said in the, in the, in the, in the, in the word of God.

See the contrast. And then he gives a specific example that really makes the Pharisees unhappy with him. And we can see it in other parts of like Matthew or Mark and so on. So he gives an example of this law that will not fail, right?

Not even the smallest squiggle of the law will fail. And he gives an example. Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. And whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.

So at this point, Jesus is just going for the throat punch. Because if there was one aspect about the law of God that the Pharisees have made all kinds of caveats for themselves was divorcing wives and getting new ones and finding ways to call it righteous and fine.

It's kind of a serial monogamy, you know, where there's just one woman after another. A great debate between the more conservative side and the more liberal side about what reason, for what reason could you divorce your wife.

And both of them are wrong. When both sides of the debate were presented to Jesus, he said, and they wanted to know what side he would take. He just said, no. So when he, so he just, he just exposes everything just now with the Pharisees who want to justify themselves before men, okay, they're all about that appearance.

But what they can't hide is the fact that they have, they're on their fourth wife. They can't hide that, okay. And they're saying they're the ones who are upholding the law. Jesus is saying, no, my preaching of the kingdom of God is what's upholding the law, the fulfillment of the word of God.

And then he cites this very specific example that they're all failing miserably at. Now, this is an encounter here, starting off with talking about money, unrighteous mammon, eternal priorities, sliding into the love of money that the Pharisees had.

And all of this sets up for one of the more famous parables of Christ about the rich man and Lazarus. So we're, as Lord wills, we're going to look at that next time. Any questions or thoughts before we move on to our prayer time?

Who can we pray for tonight? I know that Dwight and Jill are still...