Kingdom Economics

Heavenly Father, we are being addressed by you today on an issue that touches so many aspects of our lives.

Amen.

Money can so insidiously take us as its captive, wean us away from our affections for you.

So please, as you speak to us from your word, change our hearts so that our affections are focused on you and reflect your purposes and priorities so that we might live with eternity in view in the way we steward the resources you entrust to us.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Luke 16, verses 1 to 31. Let me read it out loud for us.

Luke 16 · chapter mention

He also said to the disciples, there was a rich man who had a manager and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions.

And he called him and said to him, what is this that I hear about you?

Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.

And the manager said to himself, what shall I do since my master is taking the management away from me?

I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg.

I decided what to do so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.

So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, how much do you owe my master?

He said, a hundred measures of oil.

He said to him, take your bill, sit down quickly and write fifty.

Then he said to another, and how much do you owe?

He said, a hundred measures of wheat.

He said to him, take your bill and write eighty.

The master 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 light.

And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much.

And one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?

And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, 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.

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard of all these things and they ridiculed him.

And he said to them,

There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and who feasted sumptuously every day.

And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table.

Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.

The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.

The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment.

He lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.

And he called out,

Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.

But Abraham said,

But Abraham said,

Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things and Lazarus in like manner bad things.

But now he is comforted here and you are in anguish.

And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed,

in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.

And he said,

Then I beg you, Father, to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

But Abraham said,

They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.

And he said,

No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.

He said to him,

If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.

This is God's holy and authoritative word.

A 16th century Christian theologian, Martin Luther, once said this,

That there are three conversions necessary.

The conversion of the heart, the conversion of the mind, and the conversion of the purse, meaning the way we use our money.

Similarly, in his sermon on 2 Corinthians 9, verse 7,

2 Corinthians 9:7

The 19th century British preacher Charles Spurgeon noted that with some Christians,

The last part of their nature that ever gets sanctified is their pockets.

So this is no small matter, and it's because we spend a considerable amount of time and energy thinking about and dealing with money.

We spend many of our days working to earn money, and we spend much of our time buying stuff with money.

We budget, we buy, we sell, we lend, we borrow, we save, we invest, we donate.

So it's no wonder then that a significant portion of what Jesus is teaching throughout his life is on the topic of money.

Money is everywhere.

It affects our lives in profound ways.

And so he naturally has to deal with it because it affects how we relate to God and how we live for him as his followers.

And in Luke chapter 16, Jesus' message to us is that only those who use money to serve God on earth will be received into heaven.

Luke 16 · chapter mention

I will unpack that because it might be confusing for some of you.

It's more specifically, he teaches us first that we are managers, not owners, of God's money.

Secondly, that we are to be God lovers, not money lovers.

And lastly, that we are to focus on heavenly riches, not earthly riches.

First is the illustration, in the illustration that Jesus uses in verses 1 to 13.

He teaches us that we're managers, not owners, of God's money.

Having rebuked the Pharisees and the scribes for their callousness toward the sinners in chapter 15,

Jesus now turns to his disciples in chapter 16 and begins to tell them about how they should behave in a way that's different from the Pharisees and the scribes.

And he begins this way in verse 1.

There was a rich man who had a manager.

The word manager or management occurs a total of seven times in this first section, and it's the main topic at hand.

It's the same word that gets translated sometimes as steward or stewardship.

And a steward was usually a slave entrusted with managing a household for his master.

But he functions with delegated authority, so he has some authority in the household to manage the expenses, the finances of the master.

But he was ultimately accountable to the master.

And as we can see in this passage, this kind of household manager, even though he was a slave, is not the kind of slave that we would think of.

He was really more like a medieval indentured servant or modern-day contractual employees because he had considerable freedom with which he could even waste his master's money.

And not only that, after he wastes his master's money, the master's, master Dan doesn't begin to beat him senseless or sell him because he's not that kind of, he's not property Dan.

So this is not chattel slavery like that.

But he's more like a contractual obligation.

And so this is a servant, a household manager.

And he worked for a rich man, which is an enviable thing if you are into that kind of work.

You get better benefits.

You manage bigger sums of money.

You make more money.

And charges, however, were brought about this steward, this manager, that he was wasting his possessions.

And verse 2 makes it clear that the master believes the charges that have been brought about this steward.

So he calls the manager and says to him, what is this that I hear about you?

Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.

So we don't know exactly how this manager's been mishandling the funds of his master.

It could be that he simply was investing in a bad way.

He was not making good use of the money.

Or it could be that he was fraudulent and siphoning off his master's money into his own wallet.

We don't know what he was doing.

But he was mismanaging his master's money.

And so the master demands an accounting, a final accounting, before he is fired for good.

And this puts the manager in a bind because you can hear his inner monologue in verse 3.

It says,

So this manager has had white-collar work most of his life.

And he recognizes that if he's dismissed from this job with this kind of, it looks bad on his resume, he's fired.

And he's probably not going to get a job that's as good as the one that he had.

He's going to have to get blue-collar work, manual labor.

But he recognizes he's not strong enough to dig.

And that leaves him, the only option that leaves him is to beg for the charity of people.

And he's ashamed to beg.

He's too prideful to beg.

Too weak to dig.

Too prideful to beg.

But he has, comes up with a plan.

He has an aha moment in verse 4.

I've decided what to do so that when I'm removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.

He devises a plan to curry favor with the business associates of his master, current master, so that after he's fired, they may show him favor and receive him into their homes and be hospitable and generous toward him.

And his plan is a massive debt reduction plan.

It says in verses 5 to 7,

So summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first,

How much do you owe my master?

He said,

A hundred measures of oil, he said to him.

And he said to him,

Take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50.

Then he said to another,

And how much do you owe?

He said,

A hundred measures of wheat.

He said to him,

Take your bill and write 80.

Just to give you kind of the scale of the kind of loans that we're dealing with here.

It's a hundred measures of oil.

The unit of measurement for liquid that's in view is the Hebrew bath.

Which is, one bath is 8.75 gallons of something, 33 liters.

So a hundred measures then is 875 gallons.

Remember, 875 gallon milk jugs.

And this is not milk, which would be cheaper.

This is olive oil.

And olive oil, you know, to get that much olive oil,

you would need 150 olive trees.

All the oil from 150 olive trees,

The price for that kind of oil,

That much oil would be around 1,000 denarii.

A denarius is a day's wage for an average laborer.

That's about three years' salary.

In Cambridge, for an average sight,

That's about $242,000.

Hopefully, that's a lot more than what anybody owed in debt.

And it's not a small debt.

The rich man only dealt with people that have large wallets.

But he takes this massive sum of debt and slashes it in half.

And the next case is even more severe.

A man owes his master a hundred measures of wheat.

And this here, the measurement for wheat is core.

Hebrew core, which is one core, is 12 bushels of wheat.

And you multiply that by 100 and get 1,200 bushels of wheat.

That's the amount of wheat you get from 100 acres of land.

100 acres of farmland.

So one acre is almost the size of a football field.

So all the grain that comes from about 100 football fields,

This guy owes this master.

That's about 10 years' salary.

30 denarii.

$870,000 in Cambridge.

So the manager, this man, and he takes a 20% discount on that.

20%.

That's a large sum of money.

Can you imagine someone canceling your debt,

Giving you that kind of debt reduction?

That's amazing.

The master's response after discovering this,

But it's even more surprising than this steward's debt reduction program.

Because instead of getting even more angry at the steward,

He says in verse 8,

The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.

He just tried to fire him for mismanaging his money.

So how come now he's happy he lost him more money?

Right?

That's the surprising thing about this paragraph.

And we have to be clear on what exactly it is that the master's commending him for.

He's not commending him for his dishonesty.

He cheats his master out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And that's not commendable.

The word dishonest is not used in a good way in this passage.

It's the same word that is translated as unrighteous in the same passage.

But it's contrasted with being faithful.

Being dishonest is not a good thing.

So what is it exactly he is commending him for?

He's commending the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.

Jesus explains in verse 8,

For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.

Notice that Jesus still categorizes this dishonest manager as belonging to the sons of this world,

not the sons of light.

He's not saying that this dishonest manager, his dishonesty is good,

that Christians should, followers of Christ should emulate that.

To follow that example, that's not what he's saying.

Don't be dishonest like this man,

but you should emulate his shrewdness.

It's the same word that occurs in Matthew 10, 16,

when Jesus says,

Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves,

so be shrewd as serpents,

and innocent as doves.

A son of light in this same situation

could have gotten fired quietly,

could have been more passive,

entrusting him or herself to God's care.

The son of light in this situation could have,

and I think it's natural actually that,

that sons of this world are better

in providing for themselves in this way,

because Christians are called

to look not only for our own interests,

but also for the interests of others.

We're supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves,

so it's natural that sons of light are less good,

they're not as good at doing this

as the sons of this world.

That's natural.

But what is it then,

what does shrewdness look like for the Christian?

Jesus is not saying that we should be just as shrewd

as non-Christians in the way we provide for ourselves

in this world.

If what we take away from this parable is,

oh man, I better re-examine my investment portfolio,

and I better jockey more aggressively

for my next promotion,

and then increase my job security,

and while I'm at it,

enlarge my network in case I get fired,

so that I have the next job to have

that I can go to.

If that's what we're taking away from this parable,

we're missing the main point by a wide margin.

Because look at verse 9,

where Jesus applies this for us,

and I tell you,

make friends for yourselves

by means of unrighteous wealth,

so that when it fails,

they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

The dishonest manager recognized

that his time was coming to an end,

that his time was coming

when his money would be useless,

his money would be gone.

And with that in mind,

he provided for his future,

and that's the shrewdness he had.

Then the day is coming

when for all of us,

all of the money that we have,

little or much,

it will fail us.

The day we die,

every single dollar we have

will have exactly zero value.

And when that time comes,

Jesus is saying,

emulate the steward,

look out for,

and prepare for that time that is coming,

when your money will have no value,

and provide for yourself

for the life after death.

Provide for yourself for eternity,

is what he's teaching us.

Use your money

to love God with your whole heart,

and to love your neighbor as yourself,

here on earth,

so that you might be received by God,

and by his people in heaven.

In the same way

that the people of this world

are shrewd

about providing for this life,

Christians are supposed to be shrewd

about preparing for the next life.

Money is called here

unrighteous wealth,

which does place a value judgment

on money itself.

Jesus is not saying thereby

that money in and of itself is evil.

In that case,

every Christian would have to take

a vow of poverty,

and we have to avert our eyes

whenever we see, you know,

bills or credit cards, right?

That's not what Jesus is saying.

He's commenting on

the enticing power of money.

Its tendency to produce unrighteousness.

So 1 Timothy 6,

9 to 10,

it says,

Those who desire to be rich

fall into temptation,

into a snare,

into many senseless

and harmful desires

that plunge people

into ruin and destruction.

For the love of money

is a root of all kinds of evils.

It's dangerous.

That's what Jesus means

when he says unrighteous wealth.

Instead of being controlled by money,

we are to use money

for God's purposes and priorities

because that's how we provide

for ourselves in the life to come.

That means the way we spend our money

is not just a mundane activity.

It's a spiritual exercise.

We should be as strategic

and shrewd

as the people of this world

who are seeking to enrich themselves

and provide for themselves are

in thinking about

providing for eternity.

So let me ask you some questions.

Do you know where your money

is going each month?

Do you think about your purchases

in light of God's priorities

and purposes?

Do you know the financial needs

of the church?

Are you aware of needy families

in the church

and what their situation looks like?

Are you giving

to various charities?

Do you know

what percentage

of their fundraising

goes into

actual programs

to help people

versus to overhead

and to more fundraising?

Are you spending

your money on things

that distract you from God

or draw you closer to God?

If you don't have answers

to these questions,

it may be that you're not

being shrewd enough

with the money

God's entrusted to you.

If we're only shrewd

with money in this life

or this life,

then we are behaving

just like the sons

of this world.

We must be shrewd

with our money

with eternity in view.

Jesus continues this lesson

in verse 10.

One who is faithful

in very little

is also faithful

in much.

And one who is dishonest

in a very little

is also dishonest

in much.

Jesus is here

talking about

the importance

of character.

It's the businessman

that has integrity

with small matters

that will also have

integrity in bigger matters.

It's the politician

that speaks the truth

in small matters

that will also speak

the truth

in bigger matters.

It's the researcher

that performs minor tasks

with attention to detail

that will do the same

and have the same care

when it comes to tasks

that require,

that have bigger consequences.

If you cheat

and take shortcuts

with insignificant matters,

you will do the same

when the stakes

are higher.

This is an important

principle that adds

significance to

everything that we do

no matter how

small it might seem

to us.

how we treat

powerless people,

how we treat children,

how we spend

our meager income,

how we work

at our small company,

how we perform

a small side job,

attest to the character

and therefore indicate

how we'll do

when God entrusts us

with more significant things.

So don't despise

small beginnings.

Be faithful

in the little things.

But this general principle

has a more particular

application in this passage

and Jesus continues

in verses 11 to 12,

If then

you have not been faithful

in the unrighteous wealth,

who will entrust to you

the true riches?

And if you have not

been faithful

in that which is another's,

who will give you

that which is your own?

Here,

unrighteous wealth

is contrasted

contrasted with

true riches,

the heavenly blessings,

eternal riches.

It's in some way

the riches we have

here on earth

is less true,

less lasting

than the true riches

that await us

in heaven.

So this is,

sometimes I play

grocery store

with my kids at home.

They have these like

fake toy registers,

cash registers

and you have these

little coins and money

and you put the price tags

on these little

household items

and they come

and they need some money

and I give them the product

and switch roles.

It's a good way

to practice,

to learn math,

right?

Learn how to add,

subtract,

but also it's a good way

to teach them

about the concept

of commerce.

This is why you work

because you need

to earn money

and you need

to buy things.

Yeah,

you want a lot of things

and the reason why

I say no sometimes

is because I don't

have money,

right?

You have to explain

to your kids sometimes.

And so in the same way,

and in a similar way,

the kids are practicing

and when they are good

at using this fake money,

I can entrust to them

real money.

In a similar way,

what we do with money

here on earth

is a rehearsal

for the true riches

that God will entrust

to us in eternal life.

It's much more real

than what we have.

Even though money here

on earth seems so real

to us,

but it's just like

fake money

that kids play with

in light,

in comparison

with the true riches

that will be given

to us.

So are you using it well?

A financial advisor

doesn't get to do

whatever he wants

with the money

that is given to him.

He has to look out

for the interest

of the owner.

Likewise,

we are managers,

stewards,

not owners

of God's money.

Waldean Wall,

who is a Christian author,

puts it this way

in his book,

Gospel and Money.

One of the great

presumptuous sins

of humanity

is the thinking

that we create success

and influence

and wealth.

This is completely false.

The blessings we have,

even if we work

to acquire them,

are all from God's hand.

Have you ever wondered

why you were born

where you were born,

or how you came

to have the talent

you have,

or the intellect,

or the opportunities,

or the health,

or the money?

Everything comes

from the hand of God,

even if we work hard.

The money that you have

worked hard to earn,

earn is not your money.

The money that's in your wallet,

the money that's in your bank account,

it's not your money,

it's God's money.

We're managers.

And if we start spending it

like it's ours

rather than God's,

then we're buying into

a worldly delusion.

That brings us

to the second point.

We are to be God lovers,

not money lovers.

And Jesus sums it up

in verse 13 this way,

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

both God and money.

Jesus is not telling us

to emotionally detest money.

This is the same idea

that we saw earlier

in Luke 14, 26.

It's a love-hate duality.

Jesus is saying that

it's a Hebrew way

of describing

your choice over something,

priority over something.

So ancient Jews,

instead of expressing

an order of priority

in terms of lesser

and greater

kind of degrees,

different degrees,

they would express it

in terms of

categorical contrast.

So an ancient Jew

would say,

I love God

and I hate money,

when what they mean is

I choose God

over money.

He's saying

you cannot love God

more than money.

You cannot serve God

and money

at the same time.

Notice how this verse

personifies money

like it's a God

that we can worship

and serve.

We cannot pledge

allegiance to money

and at the same time

pledge allegiance

to Christ.

We can only serve

one master.

If your overriding goal

in life

is to get rich,

then you cannot

be a Christian.

It's that black and white.

if your greatest desire

in life

is for fame

and fortune,

then you cannot

desire God

by definition

as your greatest treasure

and that's what it means

to be a Christian.

If that's what you trust

most in life,

money,

it comes from

the Hebrew word

mammon,

personification

like it's an idol,

mammon,

worship of mammon.

Mammon comes from

the Hebrew word

for trust,

rely on.

if money

becomes the thing

that you rely on,

trust in,

that you put your hope in,

that you bank on,

more than God,

then we are in

the religion of money,

of mammon,

not Christianity,

not the worship

of the true God.

Sometimes obeying God

will mean

that you make less money

than you otherwise

can.

Maybe you can make

more money

if you move out of state,

leave your family,

leave your church,

but you decide to stay

because you have

a healthy local church family

and you want to serve

God with your family

together.

Maybe for the sake

of your integrity,

you refuse to partake

in certain underhanded

activities of your company

and so you lose

your promotion

or you get fired.

Maybe God will call you

to give up

a very lucrative career

to serve in an orphanage

or to be a wife

and a mother

or to be a missionary

in a poor country

or a pastor

of a small village church.

In all of these examples,

we don't know

what God

might call us to.

You cannot

follow God

if you're

a money lover,

not a God lover.

But it says

in verse 14,

the Pharisees

who are lovers

of money

heard all these things

and they ridiculed him.

The lovers of money

in Greek literally

is friends of money.

So it's a wordplay

on verse 9.

Jesus is teaching

his disciples

to make friends

for themselves

by means

of unrighteous wealth.

Use your earthly money

to make heavenly friends

is what Jesus is saying.

But instead of

making heavenly friends,

these Pharisees

are friends of money.

They'd rather have money

for his friend

and bad fellow

than heavenly friends.

And so Jesus rebukes them

in 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 Pharisees

wanted to justify

themselves before men

to show themselves

to be righteous

before other people.

And many Jews

saw wealth

and status

as signs

of divine favor.

And we know

from Luke 11,

43

that the Pharisees

in fact

sought exactly

these things.

They sought status.

They sought the best seats

in the synagogues.

They wanted to be

recognized by men.

They loved money

because it conferred

on them

power

and status

and they used it

to justify themselves

before men.

It's not very different

from our days,

isn't it?

Our society

is fascinated

with the rich

and famous.

And even though

many people

act like

they're repulsed

by tabloids

or celebrity news,

secretly they admire

the rich and famous.

As this sarcastic,

cynical,

social commentator

that I advise you

never to read

named Flan Leberwood

writes this,

says,

Oh please,

Americans do not

hate the rich.

They want to be them.

Every American believes

that they are

the impending rich

and that will never change.

In a similar way,

the Pharisees

loved money.

They wanted status

before men.

They wanted to be admired.

But even when they

justified themselves

before men,

Jesus says,

God knows

your hearts.

For what is exalted

among men

is an abomination

in the sight of God.

Abomination

is such a strong word.

It's something

that causes repulsion.

Something that has

this stench

that will repel you.

It's odious to God.

People,

men and women,

they might be infatuated

with fame and fortune.

These things

might bring exaltation

among men.

In God's sight,

these things

are an abomination.

He could not care less.

In fact,

He is repulsed by it.

Self-justifying hypocrisy,

the prideful pretensions

of fame and fortune,

they're abhorrent to God.

So why would we desire it?

You can imagine

the shock of the Pharisees.

We're the exalted ones.

We're the respected ones

in the synagogues

in the streets.

We're the pioneers

of social reform.

We're the paragons

of virtue

in this society.

But you're saying

that what is exalted

among men

is an abomination

to God?

Are you implying

something about us?

Are you suggesting

that these sinners

and tax collectors

that keep flocking to you

and thronging to you,

that they're better

than we are?

That we're abominated

by God,

but that they are loved?

Are you setting aside

all the requirements

of God's laws

that we so,

try so hard to keep?

Is that what you're doing,

Jesus?

Are you abolishing

the scriptures?

That's the objection

that Jesus anticipates

in verse 16.

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.

The law and the prophets

are two of the longest

sections of the Old Testament

and it's together,

it's shorthand

for the entire Old Testament

for scripture.

And the law and the prophets

testify to the coming

of Christ

until John,

the John the Baptist.

John the Baptist

is a transitional figure.

He's the last

in the line

of all the prophets

that prophesied

about God's salvation plan

and about the Messiah,

about Jesus' coming.

And he's the last figure

in that long line

of prophets

among the Old Testament prophets.

And after him

came Jesus

and he now preaches

the good news

of the kingdom of God,

Jesus has ushered in

the era of fulfillment.

The era of promise

is now,

has come to an end

and now the era

of fulfillment

has begun.

Jesus knows

that he will soon

die on the cross

for the sins

of his people

and that he'll be raised

from the dead

so that his perfect righteousness

can be counted

on behalf of his people

so that we

who repent of our sins

can be saved.

And after his death

and resurrection,

Jesus says

in Luke 24,

44,

these are my words

that I spoke to you

while I was still with you

that everything

written about me

in the law

of Moses

and the prophets

and the Psalms

must be fulfilled.

Because Jesus

fulfills the law

and preaches

the good news

of salvation

for sinners,

sinners are flocking

to him,

swarming to get in.

That's what he's

likely referring to

when he says

the good news

of the kingdom of God

is preached

and everyone

forces his way

into it.

It's hyperbole.

In the same way

earlier in Luke 15,

Luke 15:1

verse 1,

he said,

now the tax collectors

and sinners

were all

drawing near

to hear him.

And that's what's

causing the jealousy

of the Pharisees.

That's what's

making them begrudge

Jesus' welcoming

of sinners.

But the fact

that Jesus

fulfills the scriptures

does not mean

that Jesus

is abolishing

the scriptures

and setting aside

the requirements

of the law,

the righteous living.

So Jesus

continues

in verse 17,

but it is

easier for heaven

and earth

to pass away

than for one

dot of the law

to become void.

It's a similar

expression

like when we say

we gotta dot our

I's and cross

our T's.

You're paying

attention to the

details of the

letter.

That's what he's

saying.

Not even that

minutest detail

of the law

will be abolished.

The law is

permanent

in this sense.

More permanent

than the heavens

and the earth

are the visible

creation,

visible world.

So even though

the Pharisees

are trying to

charge Jesus

with abolishing

the law

because he's

welcoming the

prophets,

he's saying,

no, I haven't

come to abolish

the law

and the prophets.

I'm the one

who fulfills it.

And after this

teaching,

verse 18 seems

to appear kind of

out of the blue.

Everyone who

divorces his

wife and

marries another

commits adultery

and he who

marries a woman

divorced from

her husband

commits adultery.

This is not

the place for me

to preach a

preach sermon

on marriage

and divorce

because here

it's just an

illustration for

Jesus to speak

on the binding

nature of God's

law.

He's saying the

law does not

pass away.

Why is when a

man divorces his

wife and marries

another woman,

why is that

adultery?

The implication,

of course,

is that before

God's eyes,

because he made

the covenant,

before God,

the marriage is

still valid.

And because your

marriage is still

valid and you

marry another

person,

that's adultery,

that's what he's

saying.

So he's using

this as an

illustration to

prove that it's

easier for heaven

and earth to

pass away than

for one dot of

the law to

become void.

Now, I know

there are some

in our midst and

people have come

who are already

divorced and this is

no condemnation for

you.

There's repentance

and forgiveness

for every sin and

I'm a sinner who

sins every single

day.

There's grace.

Jesus welcomes the

woman at the well

who has had five

husbands.

It extends the

grace of God for

salvation.

So this is not

intended to condemn

you.

It's to show here

the fact that God's

law is abiding.

It does not pass

away.

And after that

short aside,

Jesus returns to

his main teaching

about financial

stewardship in

verses 19 to 31

where he tells a

store of heavenly

riches instead of

earthly riches.

It's really a

negative illustration

about someone who

is a friend of

money rather than

someone who makes

heavenly friends

with money.

It begins in

verse 19 very

similarly to the

first verse of

this chapter.

There was a rich

man who was

clothed in purple

and fine linen

and who feasted

sumptuously.

Every day.

In stark contrast,

verses 20 to 21

say that at his

gate was laid a

poor man named

Lazarus covered

with sores who

desired to be fed

with what fell

from the rich

man's table.

Moreover, even the

dogs came and

licked his sores.

Unlike the rich

man who is

reclining at

table enjoying

sumptuous feasts,

this poor man is

laid outside the

gate waiting to

be fed with

leftovers that

fall from the

rich man's

table.

And unlike the

rich man that

is clothed in

purple and fine

linen, purple is

one of the most

expensive colors in

the ancient world

because it comes

from, they

extract it from

snails.

Every purple

color that's

cooked to linen

cloth.

So it's, this is,

and instead of

that, this poor

man is covered

with sores instead

of with fine

linen.

And even the

dogs came and

licked his sores.

The fact that this

man was laid by

somebody else at

the gate, it's a

passive verb, he

was laid there by

somebody else,

meaning, and the

fact that he can't

repel the dogs that

come to lick his

wounds and try to

eat his blood, it

shows that he was

either a cripple or

so malnourished that

he can't stand and

walk.

He's immobilized.

It's a picture really

of humiliation, he's

approaching death.

All these

descriptions seem to

favor the rich man

over Lazarus, but

there is one crucial

difference that is in

the poor man's favor.

It says, unlike the

rich man, the poor

man here is named.

Even though in their

earthly life, the rich

man was acclaimed by

men and the poor man

wasted away in

obscurity, God knows

the name of this

poor man, and his

name is Lazarus, which

means God helps.

On earth, no one

helped this man, but

God knows who this

man is.

It's a child of God,

and God helps him.

And that crucial

difference is what

matters more in

eternity.

It says in verses

22 to 23, the poor

man died and was

carried by the angels

to Abraham's side.

The rich man also

died and was buried,

and in Hades, being

in torment.

He lifted up his

eyes and saw Abraham

far off and Lazarus

at his side.

In the afterlife, there's

this great reversal.

The poor man is

escorted like the

VIP by the angels

themselves to Abraham's

side, the patriarch, the

first one, father of the

faith.

The rich man, on the

other hand, instead of

being escorted by the

angels to heaven, simply

buried in Hades, being

in torment.

Hades is a reference to

the realm of the dead.

It could refer more

generically to the realm

of the dead for both the

righteous and the

unrighteous.

Sometimes it's used that way

in the Bible.

Other times it's used more

specifically to refer to

the place of torment for

the unrighteous dead, which

is the way it's being used

here.

So in that sense, it's

similar to our idea, more

similar to the idea of hell

than simply Hades.

It has the realm of the

dead in general.

So the rich man's earthly

wealth counts for nothing

in the afterlife.

His status, his power,

means nothing.

God has helped, however,

this poor man, Lazarus,

who is enjoying eternal

blessings in heaven, while

this rich man is being

tormented and held a

great reverse.

And that continues in

verse 24.

The rich man calls out,

Father Abraham, have

mercy on me, and send

Lazarus to dip the end of

his finger in water and

cool my tongue, for I am

in anguish in this flame.

During their earthly life,

Lazarus sought to be

nourished by the crumbs

that fall from this man's

table.

But in the afterlife, the

rich man who hopes for

just the droplets of water

that will fall from the

ends of Lazarus' finger.

But Abraham responds this

way, Child, remember that

you in your lifetime received

your good things, and

Lazarus and like men are

bad things.

But now he is comforted

here, and you are in

anguish.

And besides all this,

between us and you, a

great chasm has been

fixed, in order that those

who would pass from here

to you may not be able,

and none may cross from

there to us.

Health and wealth in this

life do not translate into

health and wealth in the

next life.

The rich man did not use his

wealth on earth to care for

poor Lazarus, and he will

not be comforted by Lazarus

in the afterlife.

This rich man is an example

of someone who did not make

heavenly friends with money.

Instead, he made friends

with money.

And now, God himself has

fixed a great chasm.

It's been fixed.

It's been determined,

established, and you cannot

cross between the two.

There is no such thing as a

limbo between heaven and hell.

There's no such thing as

purgatory, where people are

punished for sins and then

purified so that they can

spring up to heaven afterward.

There are only two eternal

destinies after death.

And after death, physical death,

there is no opportunity to make

amends or to cross over to the

other side.

That's why our call to share the

gospel with those who do not

know Jesus is so urgent.

It's been fixed, the chasm.

That's why we ought to be

generous toward the poor with

our money.

We have to steward our money

for the glory of God.

The rich man, however, is not

done.

He contradicts Abraham.

In verse 30, no, Father Abraham,

if someone goes to them from the

dead, they will repent.

But Abraham corrects him.

No, if they do not hear Moses

and the prophets, neither will

they be convinced if someone

should rise from the dead.

We often hear people say things

like, I will believe God if he

proves himself with some

indubitable sign.

If he reveals himself in a

definitive manner by doing such

and such before my eyes.

I will believe in God only if you

answer this question that I have,

this objection that I have, to

my perfect satisfaction.

But God's word tells us that in

fact, that's not true.

God has already spoken to us from

the scriptures.

God has already revealed himself to

us through his word and through

his son.

And if people don't believe God's

truth from the testimony of his

word, they will not believe him

even if someone were to rise from

the dead.

The real reason for their unbelief

is not a lack of evidence, but

hardness of heart.

With that last statement about

someone rising from the dead, Luke

is foreshadowing Jesus' impending

death and resurrection.

And there's a great irony here.

The people currently listening to

Jesus' teaching, they're listening to

someone who will in fact rise from

the dead.

And we, as the listeners now, as

the readers of the Gospel of Luke,

we by extension have been warned by

someone who has risen from the

dead.

Luke 16 are the words of Jesus who

was raised from the dead.

So will you heed this warning?

Will you use your earthly money for

God's purposes and priorities so you

might make heavenly friends?

Or will we act like we're the

owners of money and use them for

our purposes and priorities and be

rejected from heaven?

Now let me be careful here in

telling you that how we use our

money is not what ultimately saves us.

It's Jesus who saves us.

But how we use our money does give

evidence of our salvation.

So we can be used as a criterion for

judging.

The dialogue between Abraham and the

rich man in verses 27 to 31 make

clear that only those who have

believed God's word and repented of

their sins will be saved.

But it's those people precisely that

give generously to serve God.

That's why Jesus can say only those

who use money to serve God on earth

will be received into heaven.

The bad news for all of us is that we

have all been greedy for gain.

We've all been selfish in our use of

money.

All of us.

We've all at some point turned our

eyes away from the needy among us.

We have failed on many occasions to

use our unrighteous wealth to make

friends in heaven.

And this dreadful fate of the rich man

awaits all of us.

And every single human being without

exception.

But there's good news as well.

We have been unfaithful managers of

God's wealth and ungenerous with the

riches he has entrusted to us.

But Jesus, on the other hand, was a

faithful manager.

He was the generous rich man that we

should have been.

That's why it says in 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 8:9

chapter 8 verse 9, for you know the

grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that

though he was rich, yet for your sake

he became poor, so that you by his

poverty might become rich.

Jesus, the Son of God, became a poor

Son of Man.

And Jesus became rejected on the cross

because he was bearing our sins and the

wrath of God the Father, so that we might

become adopted as his children and enjoy

the riches of heaven.

That's the good news of the kingdom of

God that Jesus preached to us.

That's the gospel that he fulfills, the

law and the prophets that we have broken, so

that we might be saved when we put our

faith in him.

We have an amazing privilege before us.

Father Abraham would not send Lazarus from

the dead to the rich man's brothers to

warn them, but God our Father has sent

Jesus Christ from the dead to warn us, to

save us.

Acts 2, 24 to 28 says, God has raised Jesus

up, losing the pangs of death, because he

would not abandon his soul to Hades.

Jesus was raised from the dead, and he

declares to us from his word that only those

who use money to serve God on earth will be

received into heaven.

Please take a moment to reflect on that

truth, and then we'll respond by praying

together corporately as a church.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.