Luke 16:1-13 | Parables in Practice

Listen to this week’s sermon, Parables In Practice preached by Rev. Jason Dunn (Pastor of Congregational Care & Missions) from Luke 16:1-13.

Transcript

Welcome And Service Opening

Rev. Benjamin Kandt 0:06

Hello everyone. This is Pastor Benjamin. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, Orlando. At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer. For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.

Luke 16 Read Aloud

Mendel Julien 0:20

Let us stand for the prayer of illumination. Gracious God, full of life and truth, by your word and spirit, give light to ours lies. Through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. Remain standing if you're able. Today we are going to be reading in Luke chapter 16, verse 1 through 13. 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. I am not ashamed. I am, excuse me, I am ashamed to beg. I have 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. And he said to him, Take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty. And then he said to the other, 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. I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, for sat for that when it falls, when it fails, they may receive you in the eternal dwellings. One who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much. One who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you to true riches? 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 matchers, two masters, for either 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. This is God's word.

Wealth, Fences, And False Security

Luke 15 To Luke 16 Connections

The Shrewd Steward’s Desperate Plan

Diagnostic: Who Do You Serve?

The Merciful Master And God’s Mercy

Les Mis And The Cost Of Mercy

Using Worldly Wealth For Eternal Friends

Jesus The Better Steward, Final Prayer

Pastor Jason Dunn 3:13

Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Thank you, Mandel. Well, good morning. My name is Jason, and I serve as one of the pastors here at New City. There is this well-known observation from landscape architecture that if you take a group of preschool children and you put them in a playground that's not fenced, they have a tendency to kind of huddle together and stick close actually to the teacher that's there. But if you take that same group of children and put them in a playground that has a fence around it, they go off and explore to the extent of that fence. So what is happening? Did the fence make them feel uh more secure? That's my contention. They spread out because they know that they can enjoy the playground, knowing that they are secure. And what is it with all these fences? Fences are everywhere. Now I Google these facts, so they may not be completely true, but you guys get will get the idea. Strung together, the world's fences would likely reach from here into the sun. Just taking the American West by itself, the lattice work of fences, and I've built a few myself, would be over 600,000 miles of fences. That's enough to encircle the earth more than 75 times. What is it about all these fences? One word security. We live in an insecure and a chaotic age, and we are unsure and scared about the future. We all crave security. In our parable today, Jesus ties that human desire for security. That desire, he ties that desire for security for the in the temptation of unrighteous wealth or insecure wealth. This need for security, especially financial security, it either leads to despair, where the future collapses in onto the past. And when we despair, we tend to have our heads down when our 401k is down, or our 403B, if you work in the nonprofit world, is down. Our hopes are crushed when that chunk of money that we have in our savings account is gone, and our agency is lost when we lose our job. This leads us to despair. Or the other way this need for security plays itself out is our frantic activity. We hustle, we drive to secure the future by any means, righteous or not, particularly through wealth. We build bigger fences, bigger walls, we save larger retirement funds or big builder, big, builder, uh big, we build bigger barns. There it is. Thank you. Which is uh the rich fool I talked about uh a month or two ago. We amass a net worth that is self-sustaining in itself. We wealth has a temptation to believe everything is going to be okay with enough. And I read all the stats last time about how wealth does not tell you it's it you can keep gaining more and more wealth, but you'll never have enough. Wealth is an illusion of solving our need for security. And this is the dynamic that Jesus is very concerned with. If we read the gospels regarding wealth and material things, Jesus says more about money than he does about prayer. Why? Jesus speaks often about money, not because money is an ultimate, but money exposes what we think is ultimate. In fact, we believe money will secure our future, it will secure the ultimate. And Jesus teaches us here this morning that our security is in the God who is merciful. And in this text, Jesus will show us that our wealth and earthly means should be used for eternal purposes because we have gained security. Jesus wants us to understand the importance of how we secure our own future, but also the future of those around us. It's all based on the character of God. We'll explore those ideas through our text through these points: the shrewd steward and the merciful master. If you have a Bible or device or a bulletin, and I'm sorry the bulletin doesn't have all the scripture, turn with me to Luke 16, starting in verse 1. He also said to the disciples, so he also said, This is that that word also there is a continuation of the story of Luke 15, of the lost things, and that sermon that Ben preached about the prodigal son. There are so many different parallels between Luke 15 and Luke 16. I just want to name a few. First, the son, the prodigal son, betrays the father's trust. Here, the steward, I'm calling the steward or the manager, betrays the master's trust. And the prodigal son squanders the father's wealth, and the steward or the manager wastes the master's possessions. Same Greek word there. Both stories, both parables end with a final scene missing. How will the older son respond to the father's invitation? And here in our parable, how will the steward or the manager respond to the praise of the master? I point this out for two reasons. One, you need to realize that this story that we're in today, it's a continuation of the story from last week of the Father's heart for you. And two, I really want you guys to be good Bible readers. And noticing to be good Bible readers, you have to notice small things in the text. And that actually helps you understand the text better. Admittedly, I was talking to Stan before the service, and this parable is a difficult text to understand. But I think the context of the fact that it parallels Luke 15 is going to help us. And so now back in verse 1, what's the next context in verse 1? Who is this story aimed at? He also said to the disciples. And he wants them, particularly around, to be shrewd around the or clever, that's another way to understand that word, shrewd, around their use of money in the kingdom of God. Let's keep reading in verse one. There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. Well, what's happening here? In biblical times, the rich, probably landowners, they employed others to manage their assets, to manage their estate. And what was he required to do? To manage, to steward. In most translations, uh they use the word manager, but I'm trying to use the word steward here this morning because I think they both both basically had the same meaning. But I love how the KJV translates this in steward because there's this uh impression that when you're saying you're a steward versus a manager, you're actually stewarding somebody else's wealth that doesn't belong to you. And so what was this manager or steward supposed to do? This person was to steward the master's wealth and track with the tenants who leased the land for farming. And the steward he needed to keep an accurate account of all the details. But this steward, he is in a bind because charges were brought against him by a third party to the master or to the rich man. And these charges were about wasting the possessions, the wealth of the master. Let's keep reading in verse 2. And he that is the rich man called him the steward, the manager, and said to him, What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you no longer can be manager. And the manager said to himself, What shall I do? A little sounds like a little bit like despair, right? What's the first thing that happens? What's the first thing that happens to you when someone accuses you? Well, for me and my brothers, when we were younger, the first thing that happened when someone, one of my brothers accused me were there were lots of words that went back and forth, back and forth, lots of words. And my kids do it too. It turns out to be a genetic thing, I think. But maybe that's not true in your house. But in reading the parable, we notice something that the steward has actually no words towards his master. The only words he has are to himself. His silence, I think, tells us something. His silence is consent that what the charges are are being brought to him. He is guilty, he has no defense. He knows that the master knows the truth. The master expected obedience, and the steward's disobedience makes him unworthy to be the steward, to be the manager. So, what does the steward do? Let's keep reading. Look down with me in verse 3 and following. And the manager, the steward said to himself, What shall I do? Since my master is taking my management away from me. I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided, I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their homes. So first, the first thing I noticed is that he thinks of the future. He says, My management, my employment is being taken away. How will he be received in the future? This is him actually not looking outward, but turning inward, either to despair, what shall I do? What as I already pointed out in verse 3. But in this case, we'll see in verse 4, it turns out to be a game of hustle for him. Second, I think he realizes his limitations. And to me, as I studied the text, these limitations are actually more like sin issues than rather than limitations. He says, I am not strong enough to dig. Well, this steward is a dishonest man, and manual labor, let me tell you, is an honest man's work. And the second excuse says, I am ashamed to beg. Well, this steward is prideful and unwilling to humble himself to his master and to his community. And then the third thing he does, so first he realizes and thinks of the future. Second, he realizes his limitations that I think are influenced by his sin. And third, he comes up with a plan. Keep reading in verse five. 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 and sit down quickly and write fifty. And then he does it again for another one of the master's tenants. I don't know what you think of this plan, but my opinion is that he goes from being a bad steward, wasting the master's possessions, to even a worse steward because he's canceling the debt that is owed to the master. But the real the realization here is that he had a plan. He had a very clever plan. And this son of the world, the steward, thought of the future. He sought a clever way to secure it. And Jesus comments as much in verse 8. Look at me with verse 8. He says, For the sons of this world, which is the steward, are more shrewd or more clever in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. Now, if you look at the text, there is a chiasm here. There is this structure in the way the text is written. In verse 4 is the principle that Jesus is trying to form in his disciples, that he's training them in. So likewise, Jesus is telling his disciples that they should be concerned about the future and they should decide what to do. Verse 4. In fact, Jesus tells us to secure our future through unrighteous wealth. We'll see in verse 9, which we'll discuss further in point two. The point is this Jesus desires that our wealth and earthly means be used in a clever way for the future, but not just for a future here in the earthly, in the earth, in the temporal sense, in the worldly sense, but for a future into glory, into an eternal sense. Jesus actually assumes that we'll use what has what we have been given because it belongs to God. Psalmist says in Psalm 24, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. This is a constant refrain from Scripture that all things that we've been given don't actually belong to us. We are just called to be stewards of what God has given us. And so the sons of this world use material wealth to prepare for their earthly future. Why cannot the children of light use it to prepare for their eternal future? This means we cleverly take what has been given to us by God and we generously give it away. It's not our money, it's not our toys, these are not our lives. Remember the warning that we read in the last verse there. Turn with me to verse 13 of chapter 16. 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. Jesus says, faithfulness in the little reveals what master you really serve. Either you serve God and steward what has been given to you generously and with mercy, or you serve money. So here's a little diagnostic question for you. There are a few questions, honestly. Does the future lead you to despair? Or does the future lead you to be driven to hustle? Are you avoiding what lies ahead, or are you trying to control what lies ahead? Are you stewarding what God has given you for others or only for yourself? Your bank statement is a discipleship document. Your calendar is a guide to what matters most to you. Are you faithful in the little? Now back to the parable. How do you think the master responded to this plan? And some of you guys here, you guys work in the business world, some of you guys are owners of businesses. How would you respond to this plan? Or how would you respond if you're a coworker and you find out that somebody is stealing money from the company? And on their way out, they they take all the cash that's in the back, and then they go to the accounts payable and they cancel all the debts. How would you respond? Well, this leads me to my second point: the merciful master. Look down with me at verse 8. The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. What the master did what? This response from the master in verse 8, and then Jesus' response or kind of in interpretation of this in verse 9, it makes it one of the most difficult passages to interpret. And trust me, almost every commentator said this disclaimer. Everyone I read was like, yep, this is a very difficult passage to understand. So I'm just admitting right now, I am going away this morning, but I believe it's a very good way. Interestingly, in the parables of Jesus have a surprising list of unsavory characters. In addition to the steward or the dishonest manager here in Luke 16, there is the unjust judge in Luke 18. There's a neighbor who does not want to be bothered in the middle of the night in Luke 11, which you heard a good great sermon on that. And then there's a man who pockets someone else's treasure by buying his field in Matthew 13. Jesus is using this rabbinic principle from the light to the heavy, which means how much more? So, for example, if my kids get a cookie for eating three bites of broccoli, how much more should I get a bowl of ice cream for surviving a manic Monday? Or we cheer, we do in our house, when a toddler throws away a piece of trash. How much more should heaven rejoice when an adult finally cleans out the garage? Or, how about this one? If we check our bank account just to feel secure for the weekend so we can go out and do the things we want to do, how much more should we entrust the future to the Father who holds holds all eternity? So, in this steward, in this story, if the dishonest steward solved his problem by relying on the mercy of the master, how much more will God help us in our crisis when we trust in his mercy? The entire scheme of the steward is built on the evaluation and the character of the master. We see that first in verses one and two, go back with me. What happened there? The master hears the charges and he brings them to the steward, but he doesn't imprison the steward, which I think would be in his right. And so the steward knows this is not just the first time that the steward and the master are working together, but he knows the character of the master. The steward has an unshakable awareness of the master's generosity, of the master's mercy. And he acted his plan, his clever plan, because of the merciful master. He is condemned for his actions, right? He loses his job in verse 2, but he's commended for his confidence in the master's gracious and merciful nature. In fact, it is the master who pays the price of the steward's salvation and commends him for his shrewdness, for his cleverness, for him depending upon his own character, the master's character. Do you know the character of the master? This reminds me of a story of Le Miz. Uh it's a story written by Victor Hugo and a story of Le Miz. And I know this is one that you guys may all recognize and know. I have never read the book because I've tried, but it's very long. But uh there are movie interpretations of this great work, and there is two characters at the very beginning of the story Jean Valjean and the Merciful Bishop, I'll call him. Don't know the story, Valjean is he's newly released convict from prison. He's hungry, he's homeless, and he's rejected everywhere he goes. But he comes to a town and someone points him to the door of the bishop. And what does the bishop do? The bishop welcomes him in, feeds him, gives him a bed. And then how does Valjean repay him? In the middle of night, he gets up and takes the silver from which they had dinner with, and he steals that and he runs out into the middle of the night. Well, the police catch Valjean the next day and they bring him back to the bishop's house. And Valjean is exposed. He's guilty, he's condemned. His security is gone. But the bishop says to the police, he says, I not only gave him the can the silver that we had, the dishes, but I also gave him the candlesticks too. Why did you not take the candlesticks? And Valjean asked the bishops, why are you doing this? Because he quite didn't understand the master's character. And the bishop says, My brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. I have purchased your soul and I have given it back to God. Valjean was saved not because he was innocent, but because someone, someone's merciful character, someone's someone in their own, uh, the bishop himself rather absorbed the cost of the payment. Valjean didn't understand the bishop's character, but he experienced it. He experienced the character through that act of mercy. Isn't this how we all come to God? Experiencing the character of God, but not always understanding his character. And that's the unshakable confidence that the steward has in the mercy of the master. This is the unchanging character of our God. And we read it through the scripture promises when we did the baptisms. In Exodus 34, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious. Merciful. God is merciful and gracious, slowed anger and abound in steadfast love and faithfulness. This is God's own self-description of Himself. I call it His calling card throughout Scripture. It's the most quoted scripture in all of the Bible. Why? Because it reveals the true character of who our God is. And I think the only way for us to experience that character and to know that character of our God is to be united to him by Jesus by faith. And it's in daily communion with him. One of the primary ways that we do that here is through daily scripture reading. Here's something I just read last week in 2 Corinthians from our plan. You'll see that in your bulletin. From 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 3. It says, Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Our God is the Father of mercies. Just like in Luke 15, there was an invitation to come to Him, come home to Him. And this is who you get when you pick up your Bible and daily reading and you say, By faith, I want more of you. And you get to experience the mercy of our God. So the question that I have then is do you entrust your security, your future to the to that which does not fail? Turn with me to verse 9. And Jesus, he's interpreting the parable here. And he says, And I tell you, make friends for yourself by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal dwellings. If the parable was difficult to understand, which I thought it was, this verse is kind of like icing on that cake. I'm going to define a couple terms and see if I can get somewhere with it. Because this is how Jesus interprets the parable. So first, make friends. This kind of seems obvious, but we should seek those who are outside of the master's house, outside of the father's house, Luke 15. Those lost things, they need to be found and they need to be invited in. So evangelism, church planting, garden city, you know, we're doing a church plant. Talk to Kenny about it. He's not here this morning, but is a relational activity. Evangelism and church planning is making friends and finding those lost people and inviting them in. Unrighteous wealth. I quoted Timothy last time: wealth is not evil, but it should be used in a way to do right, to do right by others. Wealth has this temptation to trust in it rather than in the merciful master. Jesus contrasts unrighteous wealth with true riches in verse 11. Unrighteous wealth could be another way you could describe it, is just worldly wealth, which is wealth that is temporary, wealth that fails. Eternal dwellings. The last word I'll I'll try to narrow in on. Literally just means eternal tabernacles or tents. This phrase only appears here in the New Testament, and it points to our eternal home that never fails. So what is Jesus saying? Can you buy your way into heaven? Can you become, can people become your saviors? Is salvation this transactional reality? No. Jesus is contrasting here in verse 9. Temporary wealth will fail. Eternal dwellings will not. Verse 11. True riches is another way to say that. This truth is echoed by the psalmist in Psalm 49, verses 7 and 9. Truly, no man can ransom another or give to God the price of his life. For the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice. Will we trust wealth and abundance of riches for our lives? The biggest savings account in the world cannot stop cancer, cannot stop you losing your job, cannot stop a car accident. All of this will fail. Money fails. Our health fails. Jim Elliott, a missionary to the unreached people in Ecuador, understood what it means to make friends with temporary things, with unrighteous wealth, to be received into eternal glory. Six years before he was martyred for his faith, he wrote, He is no fool who keeps what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. Jim Elliott trusted in the mercy of the master. He knew that that mercy would not fail. And what did fail? It's his life. And in response to that mercy, he gave his life away. Jesus is also the one who trusts in the God, the Father of all mercies. God, the Father of all mercies, sends Jesus to claim, to purchase our debts, not just cancel them, but to purchase our debts. Jesus and Jesus, when he was here with his disciples elsewhere in John's Gospel, John chapter 14, he talks about preparing a way for us to eternal dwellings. He will go on ahead and prepare a place for us with his own wealth, with his own obedience. Jesus was the better steward. Jesus was the faithful steward. He trusted in the Master's mercy. He trusted in his father's mercy that he would be resurrected and raised. That mercy of God would not fail Christ. And he canceled our debts with his own body and blood on the cross. His blood, it says in 1 Peter 1, his blood ransomed us. It paid for our debt. And he prepares for our coming home to him now. And now he sends the Spirit to help us to give our worldly wealth, this temporal wealth, away, as good stewards, making friends to join us in eternal dwellings. Beloved, trust in the merciful God. His mercy will not fail. It is only his mercy that truly secures a future for yourself. Let us pray. Father, you are the Father and the good giver of all mercies. We are grateful for your love and your mercy for us in this, that you have given your son, the true servant, the true steward, to ransom a people by paying our debt, by paying our debt with your blood, Jesus. And Jesus, you are the one who not only uh pays our debt, but you welcome us into your arms, to a life, an eternal life with you, in communion with you. We are grateful for that. And Spirit, we ask now that you would fill us with peace, that you would fill us with joy, that you would fill us with security. Help us to trust in the merciful character of our great God. We give you the glory. Amen.