The Gospel of Luke 16-01-13 The unrighteous steward

Good morning. We're in Luke 16, 1-13 here, and it is getting closer to the time of Christ's crucifixion. We've got this passage here to work through and the rest of chapter 16, but we're getting very close to the time where it's the week of Christ's crucifixion. This is the teaching plan that we have here over the next week, just to let you know where we're going. Today, the Unrighteous Steward and a few pieces that go along with that, and then Wisdom Under the Law next week, and then we'd look at February 28th at Lazarus and the Rich Man.

We're going to begin a couple of weeks following that looking at deaths, resurrections, and judgment. What is the structure of the spiritual realm? And how does that work? So anyway, I'll be taking kind of a side trip to explain those kinds of things and then Palm Sunday and Good Friday service and Resurrection Sunday following that.

Okay, so I want to welcome you to the most challenging parable that Jesus ever told. And one of the reasons why it's challenging is because at the face of it, it looks like Jesus is condoning irresponsibility and cheating behavior. And heavens, what is Jesus?

He shouldn't have done this, right? Right. But anyway, so that's why it's challenging. It looks on the surface like he's condoning bad behavior. But we'll see here. We'll take on the challenge, and we'll see that it works out pretty well. The parable centers on the unrighteous behavior of this one steward, and he's put as an example. So, at times Jesus told striking parables and gave stunning illustrations to make them memorable. For example, the speck in your brother's eye and the log in your own, that kind of thing. That's easy to remember, right?

So we see that there are good reasons for this parable when we get through it, and valuable lessons for us in it. So he had been speaking, this was last week in the passage we were in, in chapter 15. had been speaking to the Pharisees and scribes and talking particularly to them and telling actually three parables directly to them to address their issues and questions.

Jesus turns his message now to his disciples. He's wanting to teach his disciples here and so he begins talking to them. So rather than tell corrective parables as he did with the Pharisees, he's going to give them instruction and pass on spiritual and moral wisdom. And so his disciples are gaining from this.

So here's Luke 16, 1 and 2. Now he, Jesus, was also saying to the disciples, there was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. And he called him and said to him, What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.

So now we have this situation that was fairly common in Israel, especially in Galilee, which was kind of a breadbasket of the area. Galilee produced not only things from the lake itself, but lots of crops around that area. And those crops were then exported over into Lebanon and up towards Syria and down even farther south. Having someone else do the day-to-day management of these large estates was actually equally common.

Have someone else do this and handle the management of it, and I'll just collect the money and live a life of leisure, right? And such a manager, oikonomos, would lease out portions of an estate to tenant farmers, would pay their lease in agricultural crop yield. That is, we're going to give you a percentage of our crops, whether it's, you know, here we've got olive oil or whether you've got wheat or whatever else the crop is, and we're going to give a percentage here to the manager. And we're going to see in a minute, and the manager would take his cut and then pass that along. Okay, so the amounts owed to the owner at the end of the harvest season is what the owner is requiring of this manager.

You You go and, you know, give an accounting, because I'm going to pass that along to the next guy, right? Because you're not going to manage anymore. So this information is going to be passed along to the successor. Now, it's going to be a status report, right? So putting together this final financial statement is going to be the steward's last task as manager.

He begins to wonder, what am I going to do next? So Luke 16, 3 and 4, the manager said to himself, What shall I do since my master has taken the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig. I am ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do so that when I am removed from the management, people will welcome me into their homes. So he's got a plan. He's got an idea. Having squandered the owner's flow of funds from this large estate, the steward will never be the manager anymore at that place, and likely not get the manager's job at some other place either.

He knows he's not strong enough to do manual labor. That's hard work. And I have done a lot of manual labor over time. Some of them have even been interesting, but it is tough to keep up with. He would be much too ashamed to beg for a living. And one of the things to keep in mind there, in this culture, a lot of people said, I would rather die than beg. So that was not a good option for him.

So, I say facetiously, he would be welcome at every Galilee B&B. So having crossed manual labor off in his list of options, having shivered at the idea of begging, This manager has finally come up with a plan. He'll do something that will make multiple peasant tenants most grateful to him, and they will all be hospitable to him for a long time to come. So let's take a look at what he decides to do.

So Luke 16, 5 and 7. And he summoned each one of his master's debtors, and he began saying to the first, how much do you owe my master? And he said to him, a hundred measures of oil. And he said to him, take your bill, sit down quickly and write fifty. Shocking behavior, right? Then he said to another, and how much do you owe? And he said, 100 measures of wheat. And he said to him, take your bill and write 80. And my take on this is this is probably a couple examples. There may well have been more from the list. So this is just a couple of instances. So let's take a look at 100 written down to 50.

The manager asked one tenant how much he owed the owner, and the tenant said 100 measures of oil. What's that? It's actually baths. We think of a bath and we think of getting into a tub, but it's also that term baths is used as a measure. It's about 8 gallons of oil. So it's not taking a bath in oil, right? Okay, not that. Okay. So he owed 800 gallons of oil. Can you imagine that?

One of the things that we saw over there in Nazareth village is that they would do three presses of the olive oil, right? And you'd have the first press would go to the temple to be used there. The second press used in the home for food and cosmetics and medicine, things of that sort. And the third press used for oil lamps, for lighting. So those three presses. He owed 800 gallons of oil. This was probably then the second or third press would be most likely the use there.

So the manager told him to quickly write that down to 50 baths or 400 gallons of oil. My guess is that the quickly is, let's get this over with. Let's get this done. So that's a 50% write-off. All right. Now, the manager asked the other tenant here, in this instance, how much he owed.

And he responded that he owed 100 measures, or these are actually cores, it's called. A core is about 10, there's 10 bushels in a core. So a bushel is a common measure for us. So if a bushel is 60 pounds, which it is of wheat, then that would be 600 pounds in a core. So this tenant owed about a thousand bushels of wheat to the owner then, right? So the manager, for another minute, okay, this is the guy's the short-term manager, he's about to be ended, told him to write that figure down to 80 cores or 800 bushels.

As it turns out, with the value of the oil and the wheat, each one of them wrote off about 500 denarius. This is a denarius coin there. The denarius was a day's wage for a laborer or the lowest ranking Roman soldier. They would get that denarius. So each tenant wrote off about a year and a half of laborer's wages, roughly.

So that's pretty significant. Pretty big gift he gave them. So each one of the tenants got this deal like that. And so he probably went to each one and figured out, okay, about 500 denarius and went along like that, and say, write it down so that we've got 500 denarius per tenant. And that was the manager's plan, to have him welcomed into their homes. He had given them each a nice free bonus, 500 denarius. That's a lot.

So Luke 16.8, And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the Sons of Light.

Now, at first we might think that this owner is going to be really, really mad at this reduction, and that he'd be inclined to reverse the write-downs immediately. And so this might be a surprising outcome, if that's what we're expecting. But in the culture of that day, the manager would have bought the favor of the tenants for the owner and himself. Reversing the write-off would be seen as shameful.

Isn't that interesting? There are, however, some other possibilities in this. Rather than actually cheating the owner, there are possible other explanations here as to what's going on. It may be that the manager, Stewart, deducted his own commission from the amount owed. And so then did that. That would be at his own expense then. However, it may be that the manager reduced the amount owed by the amount of illegal interest that had been charged. Maybe even by his doing.

Deuteronomy 23, 19 and 20 said that the Jews were not supposed to charge interest, not on their money, not on their food, it says. And so he may have been reducing it for that or both of these are possibilities, in which case the manager would have done something that wouldn't hurt the owner.

The owner would have seen this as, ah, that's a good deal. So the owner knows that this manager has been squandering the flow of funds. And by the way, this word squandering is the same word used in the prodigal son who squandered his inheritance, and for that he is an unrighteous and unjust steward, so he did something bad in the past, right? But the owner also sees that this manager has been shrewd. He's made the wisest choice possible, given his limited options. That's what he's talking about here. If you were surprised by the owner's response, you may be surprised by what Jesus says next, too.

Here's Luke 16.9, and I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings. First, let's look at the figures of speech here. You may be looking at that and saying, huh?

And that's understandable. The term the wealth of unrighteousness is a figure of speech. It has an Aramaic word in there, mammon, that refers to worldly or earthly wealth. So that's the figure of speech used there. The term, so that when it fails, is also a figure of speech. It means at the time of death, when money means nothing. So I put together a couple of figures of speech. Now, putting these together, there will come a time when earthly or worldly wealth will stop meaning anything, and that's at death.

So, what is Jesus saying here? Let's first note that this verse points not to the coming kingdom, which that's interesting because we have been looking at that, but to life after this earthly one, earthly eternal dwellings. It literally means tents. Eternal tents.

Spend earthly resources for the sake of others coming to know the Lord who will welcome you to heaven. That's what this is saying. Spend earthly resources for the sake of others coming to know the Lord who will welcome you to heaven. They'll get there before you.

This is directed to the disciples in primary application because that's exactly what they're going to do. They're going to spend their lives and give their lives and everything that they own for the sake of the gospel. So that's the primary application, but then also to us as well. How do we spend our money, our time, etc.? The parable of the unjust steward is very consistent with Colossians 3, 1 through 4.

And therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory."

So, money, it's a funny thing. You can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead, right? So there are a great many principles in scripture that relate to money and its use and management. As a matter of fact, it's very interesting, all of the parables that Jesus tells during the week before the crucifixion and many of the discussions that he had were regarding using money as the central theme. So one of those principles is that you can't take money or earthly assets with you. While you're still alive, you can send it on ahead. They've got a money gram office there, right? Okay. By making investments in things that are spiritually productive. So here's Luke 16, 10 and 12.

He was faithful in a very little thing, is faithful also in much. And he was unrighteous in a very little thing, is unrighteous also in much. Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have not been faithful in the use of what is another's, who will give you that which is your own?" One of the things to recognize here is this is all about stewardship, isn't it? We're all stewards.

The general principle of stewardship is really, really big in Scripture. You can find stewardships from the beginning to the end. You can find things addressing stewardships large and small. We don't want to lose sight of the fact that everything in life is a stewardship impacting eternity. Everything that we do, our time is one of those.

Common for Christians frequently to talk about stewardship and that automatically just connects to finances. But I think that's kind of short sighted. It is one of the things about which we have stewardship. It's important to recognize we all have many stewardships entrusted to us. And another point that those stewardships change and change in character over time. If we are married, our marriage is a stewardship. Our marriage is a stewardship, something to be cared for. It's been entrusted to us. And it does change over time. That's one of the things Nancy and I go over when we're doing pre-marriage counseling or marriage counseling. We'll go through life stages, talk about how life changes over time.

If you're a parent, your children are a stewardship, and that changes a lot over time, doesn't it? It's very different having a 2-year-old versus a 12-year-old, and then a 22-year-old, right? Those are all different kinds of stewardships that we have. We have here in the body of Christ a stewardship with one another. And so all these stewardships are really important things, critical things.

And one of the points that Jesus makes here in Luke 16.10 is stewardship is a growing issue. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians, it's required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.

So the principle here is faithfulness or unrighteousness will grow in either direction. It doesn't stay static. Someone who is faithful grows in that faithfulness. Someone who is unfaithful grows in that unfaithfulness. What's needed, however, in the life of the believer is the very life and character of Christ Himself. That's how stewardships get taken care of. Why? Because He is faithful.

In Revelation 3.14, the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God, that's Christ. He's the faithful one.

How about this unrighteous wealth and true riches? Unrighteous wealth being earthly or worldly, basically money or its equivalent, can be traded for wealth that is of eternal value. The New Testament itself tells us what is true riches and with which God has in great abundance mercy and grace. Because God's character is infinite, All of who God is, all of God's character is true riches. That's true riches.

We pointed out last week in Ephesians 2, 4 through 7, but God being rich in mercy, we could substitute wealth. God being wealthy in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions and made us alive together with Christ, by grace you've been saved, and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the rolling ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." The surpassing means overthrown riches, wealths, multiple wealths of His grace.

Ephesians 1, 7 and 8 continues with that theme. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches," again, plural, multiple wealths, multiple magnitudes of wealth, of grace, which He lavished on us. Isn't that interesting? He lavished on us.

Ephesians 1, 18 and 19, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. And actually, the Greek there says, I pray that the eyes of your heart having been enlightened. so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power. And it says, toward us, it's into us who believe. Ephesians 3, 8, For me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches, wealths of Christ.

And 3.14-16, For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory. What's glory? The radiant essence of who God is. So true riches is God himself.

And here's another way that God values spiritually. 1 Peter 3, 1-4 is written to wives. It says, In the same way you wives be submissive to your own husbands, so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. Your adornment must not be merely external, braiding the hair and wearing gold jewelry, putting on dresses, but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God." God highly values that quality.

And a godly man will also highly value that in his wife. Alright, so faithful and wise stewardship is the true means to ownership. Being wise and faithful with what one has been entrusted to us is the path to true ownership. Even more will be entrusted to us when we go to be with the Lord and in the coming kingdom, and we will have ownership.

Here's 1 Corinthians 6.3, and this is something I ponder and I think, wow, I wonder if I'm getting ready for this.

1 Corinthians 6.3, do you not know that we will judge angels? You ready for that? Ready to take that on? You're going to judge angels. Here's Revelation 20, verse 6, we will reign with Him here for a thousand years. Ooh, that's kind of amazing. Are you ready for that? This is a getting ready kind of place. This is a getting ready kind of place.

Here's Luke 16, 13, No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. You can't do it. Bob Dylan, many years ago, wrote the song, You've Got to Serve Somebody, and I'm going to modify the refrain a little bit. But you're going to have to serve somebody. Yes, indeed, you're going to have to serve somebody. Well, it will be some money or it will be the Lord, but you're going to have to serve somebody.

Right? Alright. So here's the perspective on that in Hebrews 13, 5. This is literal and it's expanded and explained, okay? And I'm not expanded and explained, I'm inexplicable. Okay, here we go. So the manner of life of you all is to be without affection for silver, literally, being content and satisfied with the things you have. For He has once said with continuing and permanent validity, There is not the slightest possibility that I will ever desert you, nor is there the slightest possibility that I will ever forsake you." So, here at Holly Hills, we're not in to nickels and noses. Like many a skeptic supposes, we'll count what you give and thank God that you live, but it's by our beholding we grosses. We're stewards of all He has given, but it's by His own life that we're living. Someday we'll see Jesus, because He rose along with us, and our minds are now set on His heaven. This is a key thing. This is a key thing as we look at this.

A lot of churches these days, a number of them are going into prosperity doctrine and trying to, boy, if you give more, then you'll get back more and all that. Instead of seeing what this set of verses tells us is that we are entrusted with material wealth for spiritual purpose. That's the perspective. Not that we're going to get more money back, as is taught at some churches here. But we're stewards of all that He's given to us and not just the money, right?

Let's pray. Lord, we thank You that as we look at this passage and we ponder it and we thank You that as we consider these words here, we just... want to ask that you would help us see the things that you've entrusted into our hands and look for how those things can best be used spiritually. And we thank you that you've given us your word. We thank you for your Holy Spirit who works to teach us these things and work these truths into our hearts and lives. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.