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You Fool!

Luke 12:13-21

Key Verse 20

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.

Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’”

Introduction

Today Jesus encourages people to be rich towards God and to overcome their worry by placing their life priority in the Kingdom of God. Let us learn from Jesus how to become wise and rich people who use the life and the wealth God has given us for his glory.

Read verses 13-15. What did someone in the crowd ask Jesus? (13) What does it reveal about him? How did Jesus reply? (14, 15) What can we learn from what Jesus said?

1-1, Read verses 13-15.

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them,“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

1-2, What did someone in the crowd ask Jesus? (13)

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

1-3, What does it reveal about him?

This man might have been hard time because of his greedy brother.
Though we don’t know what had happened to him in detail, it sounds like the older brother took it all, leaving him empty handed.
So the younger brother asked Jesus to intervene and make his older brother share.
Though this may sound silly, we see this happening very common.
People are anxious to secure their lives by means of material possession.
They think that their lives are secure when they have sufficient financial base.
Although he brought this issue to Jesus, he had also the same dimension with his brother in terms of how to secure his life with money.
Everything seems to be money oriented.
People are ready to sue each other to get some money even inside the family, resulting in ruining their whole lives and their integrity.
Also in the book of Luke, Jesus’ nickname is the Son of Man.
Although he is the Creator God, he came down to this earth and faced with the real issues among human beings. Praise Jesus!

1-4, How did Jesus reply? (14, 15)

Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them,“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

1-5, What can we learn from what Jesus said?

First of all, Jesus clarified that he did not come to this world as the judge or arbiter in order to solve money matter.
Rather he came to this world to do the will of God.

Hebrews 10:7-10 read,

Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God.’” 8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second

Jesus rebuked him in order to help him out and awakening him spiritually to see who Jesus really is.
Perhaps this man was hurt, thinking that his request was turned down.
Jesus as the Good Shepherd wanted to serve him further.

“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

Jesus who is the Lord Almighty God saw through what is going on in his heart.
Jesus saw the deep root problem that was greed in all people when he turned and spoke to the crowd(them).
When Jesus served this man, Jesus made the most of it to enlighten the crowd in the same lesson.
Jesus gave a strong warning against greed.
Greed is desiring more than is needed.
This greedy desire leads one to strive blindly for something, such as material gain, while ignoring spiritual life.
Jesus said there are all kinds of greed. There is greed for power, knowledge, sex or food.
Yet the greed Jesus primarily refers to is the desire for more material wealth.
The Bible says that greed is idolatry. (Col 3:6)

1 Timothy 6:10a says,

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”

It is true that we can do many things with money. We can buy fancy houses, luxurious cars or electronic gadgets.
But Jesus said, “...a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Jesus here reminds us of how we were created through Him.
Man is not only flesh, but also a soul.
So we cannot live by bread alone. (John 6)
Simply we cannot enrich our soul with money. We cannot buy repentance, righteousness, or peace with money.

Read verses 16-19. What did a certain rich man in a parable think to himself? (16, 17) What was his plan? (18, 19) What did it tell about him? (1Cor. 15:32b)

2-1, Read verses 16-19.

16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

2-2, What did a certain rich man in a parable think to himself? (16, 17)

16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

Next Jesus helps his listeners by giving a visual parable to show how greed brought destruction on one rich man’s life.
This man had a common rich man’s problem.
His ground produce way more wealth than he could keep in his barns or in modern day language money he could store in his bank account.
Certainly there were many orphans and widows who could have used his extra wealth.

2-3, What was his plan? (18, 19)

18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

2-4, What did it tell about him? (1Cor. 15:32b)

This man only thought about “I” According to his own words he said: “What shall I do? I have no place. This is what I’ll do, I will tear down, I will store, I’ll say to myself…”
Six times in four short verses he used “I” as the determination what he should do with his wealth God had granted him.
This is greed. Greed is using all God has given us just for ourselves.

1 Cor. 15:32b says,

“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

When a person denies God’s existence, he can easily deny the spiritual world altogether.
This man thought that money and physical pleasure were everything. He lived to indulge his flesh.
The real value of a man is in his spiritual life. As God is Spirit, so man must worship in spirit and truth.
It is in his spirit that man can pray, listen to the word of God, find his meaning and purpose, and enjoy true life.
Man without spirit is no longer man. He is a walking zombie; he is only evil all the time.
When man loses his spirit, he comes under God’s righteous judgment, as did the people of Noah’s time.
It is no coincidence that God demanded this man’s life at the very moment he became engrossed in satisfying his flesh.

Read verses 20-21. What did God say to him? (20, 21) In what aspect was he a fool? How can we have real life security? (21) How can we become rich toward God?

3-1, Read verses 20-21.

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

3-2, What did God say to him? (20, 21)

3-3, In what aspect was he a fool?

The definition of fool is: A person who lacks judgment or sense.
This man’s greed blurred his ability to practice sound judgment. Maybe early in his life he had a good sense of judgment for what was good and what was bad.
At one time he may have been known as a man who had good common sense.
Over the years greed had deformed and perverted his good judgment and common sense.
Now we see he badly judged incorrectly how he could plan for the next many years of his life.
His poor judgment caused God to take away the next many years of his life.

Also a fool was not just a person who lacked intellectual power, but one who had a flawed value system, or one who was morally degenerate.
“Fools” deny the existence of God in their practical decision making, though they may claim to believe in God. He was an atheist in real sense.

Psalm 14:1a says,

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

The rich man’s godlessness as his true color was revealed at the time of abundant blessing.
When he experienced an unusually good harvest, he should have thanked God, and offered a tithe to God.
Then God would have blessed him with wisdom and freedom to manage it well. But he did not acknowledge God.
So he could not discover God’s purpose for his harvest and fell into statistics as a victim of greed.
Perhaps there were hungry people whom God wanted to feed through him. But he ignored the plight of the poor. He was preoccupied with enjoyment of luxury.

3-4, How can we have real life security? (21)

“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

We have real life security not by storing up things for ourselves, but by being rich toward God.
It is Bible study that gives us spiritual eyes to see that the invisible God is living. Bible study helped to keep us from being corrupted by greed.
Instead of taking our lives easy, he has given us desire to live for God.
Bible study will enable us to see who God truly is. He is the source of blessings. We will see that he judges our decisions we make in life.
Most of all bible study will help us to make life decisions soberly that please the God who holds our life and our soul in the palm on this hand.

3-5, How can we become rich toward God?

Jesus applied the parable universally. Anyone who lives without God, and only stores up treasures on earth will share the fate of the rich fool.
So Jesus urges us to be rich toward God. Then, what does it mean to be rich toward God?
It means to give generously of what we have to serve God and others. Having an abundant crop is not a problem; it is a blessing.
When we use it well, God is Pleased to Give us His Kingdom for the glory of God and the benefit of others, we can please God and gain many true friends.

Some people work hard for many years for the day they can retire and take life easy, eat drink and be merry.
In fact this is an American dream to make a lot of money by their thirties or forties, and then to retire early. Sounds cool!
But God says, “You Fool!”
Abraham in the book of Genesis showed a good example to not be a fool but be a wise man of God who believed the Almighty God.
He maintained his believing life no matter what in accordance with what God had promised. He became a victor at the end by overcoming all obstacles.
May the Lord help us to pursue God’s kingdom and His righteousness to the end.

Conclusion

God did not make us only satisfy and enjoy our selfish desires. God made each of us the steward of his world. We should be rich toward God as well as toward others. Then God makes one rich both in his physical life(longevity with meaning and purpose despite many issues in life) and in his spiritual life until he inherits the kingdom of God. Amen.

One word: Rich toward God!