Life is Not Possessions

Well, it'd be great if you could just keep your Bible open at Luke chapter 12.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

It's lovely to be with you this morning.

Great to be back in this part of Edinburgh.

Nicky and I used to live just about half a mile from here in Marchment.

And every day I used to walk the beautiful walk to work through the meadows.

Lovely, lovely walk.

Sometimes we did come up to this leafy part of town, Brunsfield.

And if we were feeling really upmarket, we would continue on to Morningside.

I want to bring greetings as well from Greenview Church in Glasgow.

It's been good over the years to have links between Greenview and Brunsfield.

And despite the chasm between us, between Glasgow and Edinburgh,

it's good to be united in the things of the gospel.

I want to just read also a verse just before I pray from 2 Corinthians chapter 8.

2 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

And I'm just going to read this verse that's going to help us think about this passage in Luke as well.

So let me read and then I'll pray.

This is 2 Corinthians 8 and verse 9.

It says,

Our Father, we pray that as we now open your words, that you will open the eyes of our hearts to see Jesus,

to see more of your will for our lives, to grasp more of the purposes of your kingdom,

to change our desires towards the things of you, the things of God, the things of Christ.

And we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, according to Jessie J, who I don't listen to very often,

but according to Jessie J, it's not about the money, money, money.

She don't want your money, money, money.

She just wants to make the world dance.

Forget about the price tag.

It ain't about the cha-ching, cha-ching.

It ain't about the ba-bling, ba-bling.

She just wants to make the world dance.

And it's not about the price tag.

Well, the lyrics sound good, and it certainly sells well.

But is it detached from the real world that we live in?

I think it is.

Because we live in a world, don't we, where people are rather obsessed with money.

They do want the money, money, money.

Indeed, Jessie J herself has a reported worth of 17 million pounds.

This is the world in which we live.

It's a world in which the rich are envied.

It's a world in which 70% of UK adults play the national lottery regularly.

It's a world full of scrambles for promotion and higher salaries.

It's a world full of endless upgrades to our phones and our homes and our cars.

If our society has forgotten anything, it is certainly not the price tag.

Britain is dancing today to the tune of money.

But we need to understand that this is not something new.

This is not a 21st century or even Western phenomenon.

Indeed, one of the surprises, perhaps, as we study Luke chapter 12, is seeing that in Jesus' day, the world was plagued with this problem.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

Jesus, speaking in verse 30 of this chapter, speaks of the pagan world running after material things.

The first century world was chasing money like a greyhound chases the rabbit.

You know how that goes, the greyhound chasing the rabbit and never quite catching it.

That's our generation, and it was Jesus' generation.

The greed of gold is not a new problem.

It is as old as the sinful heart of man.

Then and now, we need to hear the challenging words of Jesus Christ.

We need to hear these prophetic words that will cut and will challenge us in a materialistic world.

Now, as we come towards Jesus' words, I want you to notice something that is very important.

This was very significant.

As I was studying this week, this observation that really opened up the passage to myself.

And it's this, that if you look down at verse 13, notice something important.

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus.

And then if you look down at verse 15, then he said to them, that is to the crowd.

Now, it's crucial to see that verses 15 to 21 is Jesus speaking to the crowd.

Now, who is the crowd?

The crowd are a range of people who aren't yet following Jesus.

That's who the crowd is in the Gospels.

Now, there's a great deal of variety in the crowd.

People are not all the same in the crowd.

There are those who are curious and want to learn more about Jesus.

There are others who are indifferent to Jesus and not really listening.

There are others still who are hostile towards Jesus, like the Pharisees.

So there's variety within the crowd.

But what binds the crowd together is that they are not yet followers of Christ.

In this sense, the crowd are to be distinguished from the disciples.

The crowd surrounds Jesus with interest.

But the disciples follow Jesus with intensity.

And there's still that differential today as we think about evangelism.

We've just been talking about evangelism together.

There's often a crowd.

There's often the group of people who surrounds the church and the witness of the church.

But there's that distinction, isn't there, between those who are simply there in the crowd,

whether hostile or curious or indifferent, and those who actually begin to follow the Lord Jesus.

You will notice that from verse 22, Jesus then addresses the disciples.

So it's important to see that though Jesus is speaking about money in both of these sections,

he's speaking to two different groups.

Jesus has something different to say to the crowd, the world,

than he does to then say to his followers.

For the crowd, he has a serious warning.

And for the followers, he has an encouragement, a word of encouragement to you if you are a follower of Jesus.

So let's look at two things this morning in the time remaining.

First of all, a warning to crowds who never have enough.

That's what we see in the first part of the passage.

A warning to crowds who never have enough.

Verses 13 to 21.

Jesus, as we've been saying, as you've been hearing in recent weeks, is journeying towards Jerusalem.

He's made the decisive turn towards his goal, which is the city of Jerusalem,

and which is ultimately the cross.

And as Jesus journeys towards Jerusalem, he is traveling and teaching.

He is teaching on the way.

His disciples are following him.

And as they follow him on this epic and unique journey,

Jesus is teaching.

Indeed, much of the teaching of Luke's gospel comes in the midst of this decisive journey.

Also, as he stops in various towns, people in the town come out and they crowd around Jesus.

And as the crowd comes around Jesus, he's also preaching to them.

So he's teaching his disciples on the one hand, but he's also preaching.

He's evangelizing, you might say, the crowd.

And here we see a crowd, that's the context here, is surrounding the Lord Jesus.

And what's happening here is that there's an ad hoc evangelistic sermon.

It's interesting how often in the gospels and in Acts, the sermons are ad hoc.

They're not, you know, pre-planned the way that we tend to do them.

Very often they happen in a moment.

They happen in an instant, as happens here.

Jesus doesn't raise the topic of money.

A man in the crowd does.

This unnamed man asked Jesus a question.

Verse 13, he asked if Jesus will settle a dispute about inheritance.

This man's in some kind of inheritance dispute with his brother.

And in these days, often financial disputes would be brought to the Jewish rabbis.

The Jewish rabbis were considered to be experts in the law of God.

And so they would become the judge and jury in these cases.

They would decide what money went where.

And so Jesus is being treated as a judge and as a rabbi.

And more than that, he is being pressed here to not only sit upon the case, but to make a judgment on the case.

You notice the man's not saying to Jesus, let's just have the case out.

Let's just adjudicate.

He's pressing Jesus to make a judgment in his favor.

Tell my brother to give me my inheritance.

Now, Jesus, as we might expect, has little interest in settling this case.

This is partly due to the nature of Jesus' mission.

Jesus didn't come into the world to help us save our pennies.

Jesus came into the world to save our souls.

So this is outside the orbit of Jesus' mission.

But I think even more than that, even more deeply here, the reason for Jesus' lack of interest is he sees a deeper problem.

He sees a heart problem.

It can hardly be an accident that having refused the request of this man, Jesus launches into a warning about greed.

I think reading between the lines, he is reading the heart of this man.

He is seeing something of the greedy motivations of this man.

And he is warning the man and the crowd of the dangers of greed.

He says that the people are to be on guard against greed.

It's the image of a soldier who is constantly on guard in case an enemy pounces upon him.

Jesus says that greed is like an enemy.

It's a threat.

It's a danger.

It's going to attack you.

It's going to overcome you.

Be on guard against the danger of greed.

And the sense here, it's in the continuous tense, which means that we are to go on guarding against greed.

Greediness is not something you just deal with on day one of being a disciple.

It's not like you hear a sermon on it the first time and you repent of your greediness and you become generous towards God.

And then you never need to hear another sermon on greed.

It doesn't work like that.

We are to go on guarding against the danger of greed.

And this is not something we tend to hear today, is it?

Greed in general is not condemned when it's on a personal basis.

We may condemn the greed of those bankers.

But at least in our own personal lives, we don't really censure each other for greed, do we?

You know, if someone buys a lavish car or goes on a very expensive holiday, we don't tend to frown upon it in any way, do we?

We indeed encourage indulgence in our culture.

We see it as a good thing to have as much as possible.

Good for you, well done to you, is often the attitude.

And yet Jesus reminds us here that life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions.

That's an amazing little phrase, isn't it?

I was thinking memory verses, I was thinking it would be a great verse for us to memorize.

Imagine if you'd memorize this verse and then you go shopping.

It would be helpful, wouldn't it?

You're thinking, will I, won't I?

And then the verse comes into your mind.

I don't know what the actions would be, but life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.

How many purchases would we not make if we had that in mind?

But a year ago, we were moving house, Nicky and I.

And I was just astonished at how much stuff we have accumulated over just 15 years.

When we started out, we had absolutely nothing.

This time when we moved, it took an hour and a half to unpack the van.

I was embarrassed by the amount of possessions we had.

But Jesus warns us that life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions.

Life isn't about possessions.

Think about the funerals that you attend.

How many funerals have you attended where people have paid tribute to the person's stuff?

You ever been to a funeral like that?

Where they get up the front and they itemize all the possessions that the individual accumulated?

A hundred things, five hundred things, a thousand things.

Is that what we talk about?

Isn't the focus upon the person's faith?

The person's family?

The person's relationships?

What the person did?

Nobody cares how much stuff they accumulated.

If anything, the more stuff the person has, the more hassle it's going to be for the family,

who have to either distribute it or discard it.

This parable is a case study of the folly of living for the accumulation of stuff.

It's about a man who not only has a lot of possessions,

but a man who thinks life is about having lots of possessions.

The issue in this parable is not that the man is wealthy.

It is not a sin in the Bible to have money.

Men like Abraham and Job and David and Solomon, if you read the Bible,

were men of significant means.

Some people, by virtue of birth or labor, acquire greater wealth than others.

Wealth in itself is not condemned in Scripture.

Indeed, it is part of God's good creation.

That's not the issue Jesus is condemning.

Notice that the man is already rich at the start of the story.

He is called a certain rich man.

He's already relatively wealthy, but one year he enjoys an abundant harvest.

He moves, if you like, from middle income to upper level income.

He moves from millionaire to billionaire, perhaps.

And the trouble is, his immediate thought is to hoard his wealth for himself.

His current barns aren't big enough to hold all of the produce.

So he plans to tear them down and build some mega barns for his mega bucks.

It never seems to occur to him to do anything else with the bumper harvest than keep it to himself.

His first and only thought is to fill his own life with stuff and to fill his own life with comfort.

Notice the repeated use of the word my, which comes four times in this parable,

and the use of the word I, which comes eight times in the original language.

The problem with this man is that he is obsessed with his own self-indulgence.

He is storing up things for himself, verse 21, and he is not being rich towards God.

And the scary thing is that he's also deluded.

He has a baseless confidence that his self-indulgent life will last a long time.

Notice his reference to many years in verse 19.

He wrongly assumes that his life of indulgent luxury will last many years,

when in fact it won't even last the night.

That very night, God says to him, verse 20,

You fool.

Fool used in the Old Testament of the person who lives without reference to God,

who lives as if there is no God,

who lives without wisdom.

You fool.

God says this very night,

your life will be demanded from you.

And what will happen

with all of your possessions?

As we think about this,

we should be so thankful

for the Lord Jesus Christ, shouldn't we?

Jesus Christ, too, is the very opposite

of this man.

A man full of the fear of the Lord.

A man full of wisdom.

A man focused entirely upon

the will of God and the kingdom of God.

A man who didn't store up treasure for himself,

but a man who gave up

all of the treasures.

Who vested himself

of the splendor of heaven

and the glory of heaven

and came down into this world as a man.

One who was not selfish,

but selfless.

Who became

the servant.

Who not only gave up

all of his stuff,

but gave up his very self

when he died

for our sins.

How wonderful a Savior we have.

And what a warning

this is to us

who are living

for the things of this world

rather than living

for the Savior.

What a challenge

to the crowds

who are dancing

to the tune of materialism.

What a warning

to those who really do think

that life consists

in how much stuff

you acquire.

A world where people

live for luxury

and self

and for cozy retirement

and for the next holiday.

A world where people

live for the creation

rather than the creator.

That's the world we live in.

And this is a great parable

to help communicate

the gospel to them.

This is one of the most

effective ways

to share the gospel

with people today

using the stories

that Jesus told,

the parables.

Communicating a story

like this

and showing the

pointlessness

and futility

of it all.

There's a pastor

in America

named Mark Dever

and he's a very good evangelist

and he tells

a great illustration.

He says,

you need to have

the why conversation

with your non-Christian friend.

Here's how the why conversation goes.

You can practice this this week.

So it goes like this.

Your friend says to you,

good news,

I've been accepted

to university.

You say,

that's wonderful.

Why do you want to go there?

And they say,

well, you know,

I want to study

in business

and I want to get

my degree.

Great.

That's wonderful.

And why do you want

to get your degree?

Well, because

once I get my degree

at university,

I can go into business.

Brilliant.

And then what's going

to happen after that?

And they say,

well, you know,

after I do well in business,

hopefully we'll get promoted

and get to the top

of the company.

That's great.

And then what's going

to happen after that?

Why do you want to

get to the top

of the company?

Well, once I get

to the top of the company,

I might try and acquire

some other companies

and maybe run

a number of

different businesses

and get really wealthy.

Oh, that's great.

And why do you want

to do that?

Well, you know,

once I've got all

my possessions and stuff,

I guess I'll probably

want to settle down

and get married.

Maybe have a few children.

That's brilliant.

So what are you going

to do once you've got

the businesses

and the money

and the family?

You know,

what's next?

Well, I suppose

maybe I'll retire early

and, you know,

start going on

lots of cruises

every year.

And brilliant.

That's great.

And what about

after that?

And he says

every time he's had

the conversation,

people will say,

I don't know.

I guess I'll just die.

And some people,

this is in all honesty,

some people have said

to him,

when I think about it,

my life is pretty pointless.

I hadn't thought

of that before.

Jesus exposes

and we need to expose

actually the pointless lives

that most of us are living

and that we lived

before we knew Christ

if we are Christians.

By the way, too,

this is also a challenge

to Christians.

Even though Jesus

is directing this

at the unbeliever,

as we listen in,

we need to ask ourselves

the question,

could this be true of us?

Could this be true of us?

Second thing,

and more briefly

as we finish,

a comfort for disciples

who fear

they will not have enough.

So a slight change

of direction,

a comfort for disciples

who fear

they will not have enough.

Verse 23,

he begins to speak

to disciples

and Jesus has

a different message

for them.

Notice that the message

to disciples

doesn't need to be

stop living for money.

Jesus assumes

that that won't be true

of them.

Jesus is assuming

that a Christian

is someone

who is living

for another treasure.

And in the case

of these disciples,

of course,

this was true

in a very evident way.

Because remember,

to follow Jesus

in the day

in which he lived

meant that you had

to leave everything

behind

in order to follow him.

you had to physically

give up your job.

You had to physically

move around

with the Lord Jesus.

And therefore,

it brought many

of these disciples

into a place

of desperation,

of need,

and of poverty.

And in such a scenario,

Jesus needs to

reassure his followers

that God will provide

for them

the basic things

of life.

Notice that these

are basic things,

verse 22.

It's things like

food and clothes.

It's the worry

of not having

enough to eat

or not having

enough to wear.

I really don't think

that God is that

interested

if we can't buy

that 17th pair

of fancy extra shoes

that we really want

or that we can't

get the sky package

that we wish

we could afford.

I don't think

that's really

what we're praying for

when we say

in the Lord's Prayer,

Lord,

give us our daily bread.

God's not necessarily

concerned with our wants,

but he is concerned

about our needs.

And there may be

some here

even today

and you find yourself

in difficult

personal circumstances.

You're living

on a tight budget.

Maybe you're

in a situation

of unemployment.

Maybe you don't know

how all the ends

are going to meet.

And the wisdom

of Jesus here

is utterly priceless.

It boils down

to three things.

Three things to do.

If you're a disciple,

and you tend

to be a worry wart.

Number one,

go for a walk

in the park.

I'm not joking.

That's what Jesus says,

more or less.

He says,

the worrier

is to consider

the ravens,

the flowers,

and the grass.

So wherever you can find

ravens,

flowers,

and grass,

I think ravens

might be more difficult,

but certainly you could

find some birds

and flowers

and grass.

If you go down

to the park,

go to the botanics,

God feeds

the ravens.

He feeds

the ravens.

It may be significant

that it's ravens.

Ravens were

unclean birds.

Unclean birds,

non-kosher birds.

Yet God

even feeds

the ravens.

I think that's

the point.

And he clothes

the flowers

with a greater

splendor than Solomon.

And he clothes

the grass,

which is here today

and gone tomorrow.

And the argument

is from lesser

to greater.

If God feeds

the birds,

then he's surely

going to feed you.

And if God

clothes the grass,

then he's surely

going to feed you,

one who is made

in his image.

So,

next time you're

feeling worried,

seriously,

go for a walk

in the park

and open your eyes

and consider

God's care

for his creation.

Secondly,

ask a deep question.

Are you ready

for a deep question

at half twelve

on a Sunday afternoon?

The question,

verse 25,

who of you

by worrying

can add a single

hour

to his life?

Can you add

an hour

to your life

through your worry?

Can you?

Worry is pointless.

Quite aside

from anything else,

worry achieves

nothing.

It doesn't even

add an hour

to your life.

If anything,

the medical

professionals

might tell us

it takes away

hours from our life.

So,

go for a walk

in the woods

and ask a deep

question.

And the third

thing,

third practical

thing is this.

Learn

the where

there

principle.

Learn the

where

there

principle.

Look at

verse 34.

Jesus says,

where your

treasure is,

there

your heart

will be also.

Do you see the

where and the

there?

Where

your treasure

is,

there

your heart

will be.

So,

let me ask you

this question.

Where is your

treasure this

morning?

This is the

rubber that

hits the road

bit.

Where is your

treasure?

If I ask you

that question,

is your answer,

my treasure,

is in my bank

account?

Or it's in my

investment fund?

Or it's in my

property?

If that's what

you consider to

be your real

treasure,

then what Jesus

is saying is your

heart's going to be

drawn towards that.

That means you're

going to desire that,

you're going to live

for that,

you're going to focus

your thoughts on

that.

That's going to

become your all

consuming concern

to protect and

cultivate the money

in your bank

account,

to protect and

cultivate your

investments.

That's going to be

the focus of your

heart.

if that's what

your treasure is.

But what if your

treasure is somewhere

else?

What if your

treasure and my

treasure is located

somewhere else?

What if it's

located in Christ?

What if it's

therefore located in

heaven itself where

Christ is at the

right hand of God?

If that's where my

treasure is,

then you see my

heart will be drawn

to him and drawn

to there.

How can I know if

my treasure is in

Christ?

What would be some

of the evidences?

Well, if my

treasure is in

Christ, then I

won't spend all of

my time worrying

about wealth.

I may sometimes

have concerns about

money.

We all have

concerns at times

about money.

But I won't be

plagued with worry

about wealth.

Second, if my

treasure is in

Christ, then I

won't be running

after wealth like

a pagan.

There's a

difference between

working hard and

earning a good

wage and running

after wealth like a

pagan.

And sometimes we

need to know the

difference between

those two things.

Thirdly, if my

treasure is in

Christ, I will not

be marked by greed,

by greediness, by

excess.

Are there things

in my life that I

could say, that's

excessive?

And here's a big

one.

Fourthly, if my

treasure is in

Christ, then my

life will be marked,

verse 33, by

generosity.

It talks about

giving stuff

away.

You see, the only

way you can give

stuff away is when

stuff doesn't really

matter to you.

That's when you're

free to give it

away because it's

not your real

treasure.

If my treasure is

Christ, then I

will invest in the

things of the

kingdom.

I won't build

bigger barns.

I will invest

what God has given

me in gospel work

and in gospel

ministry.

I will invest not

in building my own

barns, but in

building the church.

I will spend my

earthly resources in

order to store up

treasure in heaven.

May this be true of

all of us.

May God help us to

respond to his word

to us today.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.