God or Money

Thank you for reading this sermon from Christ Fellowship. I hope and pray that this sermon will be a blessing of grace and truth to you. With that said, let me encourage you not to use this sermon as a replacement for your local church. Christ Jesus did not establish his Church simply for us to consume content. Instead, He calls us to be part of a real, covenant family. 

We’re in Luke 16. We’re going to cover the first 18 verses today and it’s a difficult text, so let’s buckle up and direct our attention to God’s Word.

1 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.

You can think of this man as a financial advisor or an accountant, responsible for handling the money of the rich man.

2 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.’

He’s being laid off. And notice that he isn’t given the opportunity to defend himself. The rich man assumes the information is true and then fires him.

3 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 love this verse. It’s kind of an honest assessment of himself, right? “I’m too lazy for this and too proud for that.” And this is in a time and a culture when it wouldn’t be easy to find another job like this, especially with a reputation for being a bad manager. His options were very limited, so he came up with a plan!

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

5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

6 He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’

7 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.’

This is why when a company fires someone, they call security to escort them out of the building!

This sounds extremely illegal, doesn’t it? It sounds like a very bad idea. And in those days, he’s not going to white collar prison for cooking the books. He’s going to a slave camp or the bone yard.

But that’s not what happens in this parable at all! There’s a surprise ending!

8 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.

This is shocking right?! The rich man congratulates him for his actions, even though he’s taking a significant financial loss.

How could that be? Well, there is an important context that I think helps explain this parable. Luke doesn’t tell us because his original audience would have known this.

Jesus is probably referring to a business practice called usury, something that was forbidden by God’s law. Jews were not allowed to charge interest on loans to the poor.

Exodus 22:25 – If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.

But the Jews in Jesus’ day completely disregarded this law. They figured out a clever way to lend money that would keep them from being brought to court on charges of usury, and the practice was so common, even the Pharisees would have accepted it.

This is how it worked: If I borrowed 50 measures of oil, the lender would write 100 measures on the promissory note. The note wouldn’t say anything about principal and interest; they just made it look as though 100 measures is what I borrowed.

If you read the parable in light of that practice, it is likely that the manager was simply eliminating the unfair interest. The owner then found himself in a hard position. He could challenge the receipts, but then he would have to explain the interest to the courts (which was technically against the law). Or he could commend the manager and make the best of the situation. And that’s what he does.

The way Jesus explains this parable in the next few verses lines up perfectly with that interpretation.

9 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 term “unrighteous wealth” is a little misleading. He’s talking about money, which is morally neutral. But Jesus wants to make a distinction here between the temporary benefits money can buy and the eternal blessings of His kingdom.
Just as the manager in the parable planned for his future, Jesus wants His disciples to live with a long-term view of this life. We might call it a kingdom perspective or an eternal perspective.

A simple way to restate this verse is to say that you can’t take money with you to heaven. The only thing you can take with you are relationships – other people. Make your investments there. Use your money for the kingdom.

I love this quote by Warren Buffet, one of the wealthiest men alive: “I’ve never met someone who felt unsuccessful when at the end of their life a lot of people loved them. I know a lot of rich people with buildings named after them and no one really cares about them.”

I think that’s what Jesus is teaching here. But now he adds a layer to it.

10 “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.

Jesus is still talking about money, and He says here that how we handle money reveals our character. If you can trust someone with little things, you can trust them with big things.

Many of Jesus’ other parables are about this type of stewardship. Our faithfulness in the little things reveals our character.

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

Notice, he’s saying that how we use our money is a litmus test for how we will serve God’s kingdom.

In 1 Timothy 3, Paul gives the qualifications for elders and deacons in the church. Elders must not be lovers of money. Deacons must not be greedy for dishonest gain. Both must be able to manage their own household well. That’s an example of what Jesus is talking about here.

12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?

Common sense, right? If you have proven yourself incompetent, then no one is going to trust you.

Jesus has been building up to this next verse, which is probably His main point.

13 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.”

This is begging a question. Do I really love God above everyone and everything else? Am I motivated by service to His kingdom above all else? Where is my treasure? Because that’s where you will find my heart.

If you want to know what’s most important to a person, look at how they spend their money. It’s really that simple. The resources I have, all of them, including my money, my time, and even my abilities – all of it belongs to God. He gave it to me to steward. Am I devoted to the giver or the gifts?

Do I love the gifts more than the giver? Am I using them to serve God? Or am I a slave to those gifts? You cannot serve God and money.

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

Why did they ridicule Jesus? Because everyone in that culture believed that money was a sign of God’s blessing. Rich people deserve to be rich. Poor people deserve to be poor. That’s how they thought about money, and deep down it’s how we think about money too.

15 And he said to them, “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.

That’s a really strong response. This is not a hammer and a nail. This is a sledgehammer and a nail. Jesus tells these men, “Your love of money is an abomination in the sight of God.”

In the Old Testament, only the worst crimes against the law were called abominations. Jesus knows what He is doing… He’s telling these men that they are far worse than they think they are.

But remember, He’s saying it in love. They will not repent unless they see their sin.

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.

Jesus often says that entrance into the kingdom is not easy, particularly for those who think they are keeping God’s law.

17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.

This is a very important verse. The Pharisees believed that Jesus was soft on the law. That’s one of the main reasons they rejected His teaching.

And if we’re going to be honest, a lot of Christians today think that Jesus was soft on the law – or that the law is bad or opposed to the Gospel in some way.

That could not be farther from the truth. Jesus is not pro-Gospel and anti-Law. That’s a very simplistic misunderstanding of the Gospel.

The Law of God is perfect and permanent. It represents the character of God. It communicates God’s eternal standard of righteousness.

It’s not Jesus who minimizes the Law. It’s us. It was the Pharisees. Anyone who thinks they are keeping the standard of God’s law on their own is gravely mistaken.

This is the point Jesus intends to make. You keep the easy stuff, the external stuff, to make yourselves look good in the eyes of other people. But God sees your heart. He knows what you’re really like on the inside. God’s law exposes all of us – even the most religious among us.

And now Jesus provides one more example of how God’s law exposes the Pharisees.

18 “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

That’s another sledgehammer, right? Especially for us… divorce is extremely common today. The Bible does give legal grounds for divorce in cases of adultery and abandonment, but Jesus is referring here to situations where God does not permit divorce.

This verse is why I will not, in good conscience, perform a wedding for someone who was previously divorced without Biblical grounds. And our elders take this very seriously. We are not quick to grant people grounds for divorce. Marriage is God’s business. It’s not something we invented, and divorce is having a major impact on our society. The fabric of humanity starts to unravel when marriage is forsaken.

I know this is a tough subject. Please let me know if you have questions. You can come to me or any of the elders if you want to talk about it. But this is what Jesus teaches.

And this verse seems out of place in the chapter, but it’s not.

Usury and divorce were two areas where the “law abiding” Pharisees had become lazy. They tolerated these sins, even though God’s law forbids them, because of technicalities and loopholes.

And so, Jesus shows the Pharisees that even though they believe they have a high regard for God’s law, they have really missed some of the most important matters of God’s law.

We may look righteous before men, but God knows our hearts. Remember, this chapter follows the story of the lost son and the older brother. Jesus is still trying to love these older brother types. He’s holding up a mirror for us. Will we let the Law expose our sin? He has not come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners.

All of this is meant to humble us, not make us feel better about ourselves if we’re doing a good job with money and marriage. The Law condemns us all! You’ve failed somewhere, even if it’s not in these areas.

We don’t come to Jesus by living a perfect life. We come to Jesus by grace through faith. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God. None is righteous apart from grace. All of us equally need the grace and forgiveness of God that is only found through faith in Jesus Christ.

And as I said earlier, God’s grace does not erase the Law. Jesus kept it on our behalf, but when He makes us a part of His kingdom it becomes our delight – to serve the King. We start living with an eternal perspective. We start valuing relationships more than we did before. We start to value what God values instead of what the world values. We start to worship again.