Wednesday, September 21, 2011

What Jesus Said about Your Money, Part 4 of 31

GUEST: Jeff Manion

TEXT: "He also said to His disciples: 'There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, "What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward." Then the steward said within himself; "What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses." So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, "How much do you owe my master?" And he said, "A hundred measures of oil." So he said to him, "Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty." Then he said to another, "And how much do you owe?" So he said, "A hundred measures of wheat." And he said to him, "Take your bill, and write eighty." So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light'” (Luke 16:1-8).

IDEA: A steward doesn’t own the assets given to him, but he manages them for the benefit of the owner.

PURPOSE: To help listeners think of themselves as stewards, and of what they possess as a trust from God.

Churches often have “Stewardship Sunday.”

What comes to your mind when you hear that phrase?

Is it negative? positive? neutral? WHY?

Jesus used the example of a steward in Luke 16:1-8a:

"There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’ Then the steward said within himself What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’ So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, 1-low much do you owe my master?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So he said to him, Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly."

I. What is a “steward”?

Where would you turn to get information about “stewards” in the first century? Commentaries? Bible Encyclopedia?

What is a “steward”?

The owner (“rich man”) evidently lived at a distance. He was something like an owner of a multinational firm today, with offices in different parts of the world.

He committed the oversight of his estate to a steward or manager. The manager had great authority over the operation. He worked the crops, bought and sold goods, made deals. He rented out property to tenant farmers, made loans against the coming harvest, kept the accounts. He did all of this with his owner’s assets and supposedly for the owner’s benefit.

Why do you think in this story Jesus took as his central character a “steward”?

What did that have to do with the disciples to whom he told it?

Look at Luke 14 and Jesus’ warning about discipleship:

The disciple, like a steward, lives for someone else. The steward isn’t a slave in the sense that he had nothing. He made a good living. His primary responsibility in life was to benefit the owner.

A disciple, like a steward, must constantly think about how what has been entrusted to him can be used for the benefit of the owner.