Thursday, October 13, 2011
What Jesus Said about Your Money, Part 20 of 31
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. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home'" (Luke 16:1-9).
IDEA: We learn a great deal about what Jesus is saying in a particular passage if we remember what He was saying in the context of the passage.
PURPOSE: To help listeners consider the context of the biblical passage they are studying.
Have you ever thought of the writers of the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—and how they wrote their biographies of Jesus? How did they actually go about it?
For example, think of Dr. Luke who wrote both Luke and Acts:
What kind of man was he?
A Gentile, cultured, a physician, a loyal friend of Paul until the end of Paul’s life.
Why did he write his gospel? (Luke 1:1-4)
How do you think he actually went about the task?
- Research (Luke 1:2)
- Arrangement of his materials
- Writing the manuscript
Here is a parable Jesus spoke in Luke 16:1-9:
"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. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.'"
What does it teach?
Does it stand alone?
How do we know? (There is a connective in verse 1, “now”)
When we think about the biography written by Luke, we need to think about how he wrote it and consider the context of individual passages.
How does Luke 16:1-9 fit the context?
Jesus has talked about the possible costs of discipleship (Luke 14:25-35).
Now He talks to His disciples about what that means in money.
Salt needs to produce fruit and reduce evil. How?
Jesus has told three parables about seeking the lost. How does this parable fit that?
The younger brother and the older brother had both been given an inheritance. One “squandered” it (compare Luke 15:13 with 16:1), and the other preserved it. There is something better to do with what we have been given.
In Luke chapter 15 Jesus is accused of “welcoming sinners and eating with them.” He is a friend of sinners of all sorts. Why did He befriend them?
How does that fit with the exhortation that He gives His disciples in Luke16:9?
The parable of the prodigal son teaches us that if we sinfully waste our lives and then, at the eleventh hour, come back to the Father in repentance and faith, the fact that we have wasted our lives will make no difference at all to the pardon we shall receive or to the way the Father accepts us.
The parable in Luke 16:1-9 puts that into tension: If we do waste our lives, in another sense, it does make an eternal difference.
