Public Reading: Luke 16:1-17:10

Sermon

•    Last week we talked about God’s unconditional love

o    Parable of the lost son
o    Both sons failed to realize that the Father’s love was not based upon what they did or did not do
o    The father loved them because they were his sons, nothing more and nothing less

•    This week we are continuing Jesus teaching

o    Chapter 15 through 17:10 is all one deal

•    After telling the Pharisees three stories – the lost sheep, coin and son
•    Jesus turns to his disciples and tells them a story of a shrewd manager (vs 16:1)

Shrewd Manger

•    A land owner fires his manager after learning that this manager was dishonest
•    The manager, instead of giving up the books and leaving at once, calls his master’s debtors and gives them a huge discounts
•    When the master finds out about this, he is shocked – and while not agreeing with the way in which things happened, he does praise the shrewdness of the manager

o    As he, the manager had figured out an ingenious plan to make friends and hopefully keep his job
o    Why? Well, the entire community in which the master lived was rejoicing over the generosity of the master – to fire the manger now would be a dishonor to the town

•    Verse 9 highlights this

“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.”

•    This is totally upside down!!!

o    Most folks in this world are concerned about money for money’s sake
o    For what they can buy or do or the honor they can get in this live
o    This is why the religious leaders made fun at Jesus when they heard these things!! (verse 14)

•    Yet, Jesus is right!

o    Let us read verse 10 through 13 again

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. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 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.”

•    In God’s kingdom, the valuable item is not money, but relationships

o    It is about serving God and being faithful to the call that He has given us
o    It is about serving God and nothing else

•    The wealth that we have here in this world is to be used for God’s kingdom

o    Nothing else really matters

Response to the Pharisees

•    Sadly the religious leaders did not understand this message
•    As mentioned before, they laughed at Jesus when he was telling his disciples to follow God and not money
•    In response to this sneering, Jesus turns to them with this message (vs 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.

•    The Law and the Prophets have been proclaimed

o    The religious leaders do not have an excuse for this behavior

•    Jesus, as he usually does, then launches into a story

o    In this story, there is a rich man and a poor man
o    The rich man gets all the nice things in this world – while ignoring the poor man sitting outside his gate
o    They both die
o    The poor man goes to Abraham’s side while the rich man went to Hades
o    The rich man sees the poor man and begs for a drink of water – but it is denied
o    He then asks Abraham to send the poor man back to his family to warn them against continuing their lifestyle
o    Abraham denies this request as the rich man’s family has the Law and the Prophets

•    This story is a warning for those who do not pick up on the lesson of the shrewd manager

o    In the story of the shrewd manager, the manager chances his way
o    In this one, the rich man focuses on his money and ends up in Hades

•    Here’s an important point:

o    It is a sin not to love people
o    Sin is not obeying God – and he told us to love people
o    We have been reading through the minor prophets in the men’s group and noticing that most of the rebukes against Judah and Israel have been centered around not loving people

The Point

•    I feel like Jesus main point really doesn’t come to light until Luke 17:1-3

Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. 2 It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. 3 So watch yourselves.

•    Things are going to come that will cause us to stumble

o    Life happens
o    Yet when they do, we need to watch ourselves to make sure they are not coming through us
o    This is a direct hit against the religious leaders of the time who were chasing money and looking after themselves

•    We, as followers of Jesus, need to do stuff differently
•    We are watch ourselves and help bring correction to each other in a loving way
•    We are to forgive our brothers and sisters –

“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. 4 Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.” –Luke 17:3b-4

•    The disciples’ response to this statement is very telling:

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

•    They didn’t think they could do it!!

o    Yet Jesus tells them that they could, if only they had faith as small as a mustard seed
o    In you have ever since a mustard seed, you will know that is very, very small
o    But it turns into a huge bush/tree

•    In other words, we CAN forgive each other

o    We can watch ourselves
o    We can live a different live
o    We can serve God and not money
o    We can be honest with ourselves

•    I think Jesus final words about servants are very powerful.

7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

•    We are to do our duty

o    Why do we go around trying to get bigger than our master?
o    We just need to do what we have been told to do
o    And Jesus will give us the power and strength to do it

•    A few weeks ago we talk about the Ten Commandments

o    This is normally what we think about when we think about sin or following God

•    While they are very powerful, and need to be followed
•    The greatest commandment from which everything flows is mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 22:36-40

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Communion

•    Today is communion Sunday

o    It is a time when we remember the price that Jesus paid for our freedom
o    It is a time when we remember that Jesus died so that we can be set free from sin, evil, death and injustice.

•    Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:27-32 tells us to examine ourselves before taking part in the Eucharist

27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. 32 Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.

•    The Message puts it this way

27-28 Anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Master irreverently is like part of the crowd that jeered and spit on him at his death. Is that the kind of “remembrance” you want to be part of? Examine your motives, test your heart, come to this meal in holy awe.

•    Let us examine our heart – test our hearts and make sure that we aren’t just taking communion because it is just something we do

o    It is a time to stop and really look into our lives
o    We aren’t talking about just making through another week with our killing someone
o    Jesus said that we aren’t supposed to hate others – or lust after them or any other their stuff
o    It is more about of the motivation of our heart than our actions for if we get our heart right, everything else will fall into place.