The Good News of the Kingdom

Luke 16:1-18

Key Verse 16:16

"The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.” 

Today we would like to think about our position as a steward of the gospel, the good news of God’s kingdom. 

First, the rich man

In verse 1 Jesus starts out with the parable by saying, "There was a rich man…” Here by “a rich man” Jesus refers to God the Father.  This tells us of our privileged status as God’s servants. God is the richest person. In fact he is the creator of everyone who is rich. The riches of the people of this world are limited, but God’s riches are without a limit. This tells us that we; children of God, are more privileged than any secular employees. 

Nowadays people want to join all the prestigious Fortune 500 companies. But no matter how solid looking a company may seem, still worldly employers are limited in resources.  On November 22, 2005, about a month before Christmas, General Motors Corp. ( HYPERLINK "javascript:stockSearch('GM');" GM) announced that it would eliminate 30,000 manufacturing jobs, close or reduce operations at 12 plants in North America, and slash its vehicle output as the automaker struggles to avoid bankruptcy. The job cuts represented 27 percent of the company's total North American manufacturing work force. According to this plan GM keeps laying off employees to this date, and it will continue to do so until the end of the year 2008. 

But God is different. His resources are without a limit. He is never in danger of going bankrupt. This indicates that the disciples are luckiest in that they have God the Father as their boss.  Knowing the riches of God, the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthian brothers and sisters in 2 Corinthians 9:8, “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” 

Second, stewardship

In verse 1 Jesus talks about the rich man’s manager who was accused of wasting his possessions. The King James Version uses the word “steward” for “manager” in the New International Version. In verse 2 KJV uses the word “stewardship” for “management”  in NIV. A manager or a steward is not an owner, but a trustee. He is managing the properties that belong to someone else. 

Growing up in a capitalist’s society we are trained to think that we own this or we own that. In the English dictionary we have vocabulary used to express individual ownership such as “my” or “mine”. So we say, “This is ‘my’ car”, This computer is ‘mine’, so don’t touch it.”  But according to the Bible no one can claim “ownership” over anything or anyone. One can identify himself only as a steward. And a steward does not have the “title” to that which has been entrusted to him; he is merely in “possession” of it; the owner is the one who has the title.  

In verse 12 Jesus mentions the property of “your own”. In my opinion this expression looks to the condition of man’s life in the perfected world to come, not in this world, for if one is to use the word “own” one must be able to enjoy it for good, not for a limited period of time. Job said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked will I depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” Job 1:21 Certainly in this world, no one can say “Oh, this is my life, and I own it.” 

Again the Bible abounds with Scriptures pointing to our position as a steward. Isaiah 43:1 says, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” Here “redeemed” means “bought for a price”. So even our life which Jesus purchased through his blood does not belong to us, but belongs to Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul explained this concept by saying, “…now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God.” Romans 6:22 In 1 Corinthians 6:19, the Apostle Paul directly says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.” If our life does not belong to us but to someone else, what then are we? We are his servants (or stewards or managers, if you will). 

Third, possessions

In verse 1 Jesus started out by saying that the rich man’s manager was accused of wasting his possessions. Jesus then described the manger as “dishonest.” The word “his” [in ‘his’ possessions] or “dishonest” [in ‘dishonest’ manager] tells us that we are to take care of God’s possessions in honesty. 

God’s possessions then consist of worldly wealth such as money, true riches such as the gospel, or the ministry. And we have our own lives which God put under our care. In the disciples case, God gave them people saying, “Take care of my sheep.” Viewed this way, material possessions such as money in one’s bank account, a car, a laptop, a Bible, one’s lifetime, the ministry, the children put under one’s care, all belong to God. And we are merely custodians of these things. 

Fourth, accountability 

Verse 2 reads, “So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.'” The question, “What is this I hear about you?” indicates that God runs a reporting system according to which reports are always being made to God. At first glance, it does not seem like God sees or hears anything about us. But the fact that God is not visible does not mean that God does not see or hear us. In fact God is a God who sees everything. As Hebrews 4:13 says, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” 

 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.'  The owner was about to fire him. In fact the decision to give him a pink slip was already made. By the same token if a manager manages the owner’s possessions wisely and effectively the owner will see the records and give him a promotion. So you are either demoted or promoted, fired or retained continually. The Lord God makes a management decision either to punish you or reward you all based on the system in which the accounts are being made.  

Fifth, the use of worldly wealth

As a manager, how are we to manage the owner’s possessions? Verses 2-8 teaches us that God wants us to manage his possessions shrewdly.  According to Miriam Webster’s dictionary, “shrewdness” means “sharp, piercing insight, marked by clever discerning, the insight resulting in wily and artful ways or dealing.” References to other dictionaries indicate that “shrewd” means “calculating, clever, cunning, crafty, wise, ingenious, and even Machiavellian.” 

In verses 2-8 Jesus gave us an example. On learning that his boss was going to fire him, the dishonest manager (whom I would like to call “Mr. Shrewd”) quickly called in two debtors – the one who owed the master 800 gallons of olive oil, and the one who owed him a thousand bushels of wheat. Expecting a kick-back, he falsified the document in such a way that the records would show that the first debtor owed the master only 400 gallons of olive oil (rather than 800), and the second debtor only 800 bushels of wheat (rather than 1,000). [According to statistics made available in California, the market price of olive oil produced in California fluctuated between $70 and $320 per gallon from 1999 to 2005. Assuming that the average price per gallon is $200, we can see that the dishonest manager swindled as much as $80,000 of the owner’s money. A bushel is 9.3 U.S. gallons, so he effectively swindled 930 gallons of wheat by falsifying the documents.] When the dishonest manager asked the debtors to falsify their documents, the debtors should have said, “No. That’s illegal. We won’t do it.” But being children of darkness, they all said, “Oh, thank you, Mr. Shrewd. You are so generous, Mr. Shrewd.” As you know olive oil is good for lots of different purposes – its good for cooking, good for your health, and good for massages etc. In fact through his trip to Egypt, one person I know came to visit a company which produces all kinds of beauty products based on olive oil and the products include massage oil, body lotion, kama sutra body line, bubble bath, edible massage oil, and herbal aphrodisiac. Actually the name of the debtor who owed the rich man 800 gallons of olive oil is Mr. Smooth, and Mr. Smooth is the CEO of the Caribbean Massage Oil Company Ltd. He has tons of branches located throughout the cities developed around the Mediterranean Sea and beyond. Actually a few weeks prior to him getting notified by his boss, Mr. Shrewd played golf with Mr. Smooth at the Mediterranean Country Club. Of course Mr. Shrewd did not pay the expenses. Mr. Smooth paid everything including the hefty green fee. During the golfing Mr. Shrewd learned that Mr. Smooth just opened a branch office in Paris, and is looking for a branch manager. Actually in striking a deal with Mr. Shrewd, Mr. Smooth already promised to hire Mr. Shrewd as the General Manager of the Caribbean Massage Oil Company’s Paris Branch. After all Mr. Smooth knew that it was not a bad deal, because Mr. Smooth got a huge kick back, and Mr. Smooth knew that Mr. Shrewd knows everything about olive oil. Indeed Mr. Shrewd was shrewd in making a provision for his future. The news that his master is going to fire him is terrible. But in his shrewdness he turned the bane into boon. He made lemonade out of lemons, so to speak. 

Thus the master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. Jesus then said, “For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.” The Living Bible reads in verse 8, “The rich man had to admire the rascal for being so shrewd. And it is true that the citizens of this world are more clever [in dishonesty!] than the godly are.” The question is, “Why is it that the children of light are not as shrewd as the people of this world?” We know the answer. Children of light are born of God. They are the sons of God’s truth, so they are not good in telling lies. As we saw earlier, the meaning of the word “shrewd” has the connotation of being cunning or crafty, and the word cunning or crafty is closely associated with the art of deception. Remember what Genesis 3:1 says, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" Here the serpent is the agent of the devil. Jesus says that the devil also known as Satan is the liar and the father of lies. John 8:44. According to Revelation 21:8, all liars will be thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. So God’s children are not supposed to lie; they are not to deceive anyone through deceptive means such as telling lies. So we do not need to learn from people like Mr. Shrewd in deceiving people.

With this in mind, let us think about what Jesus says again. “the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light”. Here all Jesus is saying is that we need to be as efficient as the people of the world in getting the job done. And in being efficient, we should not adopt immoral, unethical, or illegal means or ways of doing things. We must be honest in all of our dealings, for honesty is the best policy. And one can be truly efficient without using crooked means. 

Specifically then what are we to do? Look at verse 9.  “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” By definition, “worldly” means “of, relating to, or devoted to the temporal world.” It is the opposite of “other-worldly” or simply “of God.” By definition God is perfect but everything and everyone in this world is temporal. Wealth means “abundance of valuable material possessions or resources, all property that has monetary value or an exchangeable value, all material objects that have economic utility.” Specifically we can categorize worldly wealth into three categories: time, money, and talents. All of them are limited. But they are the resources the Lord God has made available for us to use while we live in this physical body. 

The word “friends” has a special meaning. Of course, we know what a friend means, for we used to say, “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” But the Bible gives us an accurate description of the word “friend”, for in John 15:14, Jesus says to his disciples, “You are my friends if you do what I command.” Abraham is called God’s friend, because he obeyed God’s commands, even the command to sacrifice his son Isaac. Jesus calls his disciples friends, for they left everything and followed Jesus, all in obedience to Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations. 

“Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves…” Here Jesus wants us to use our time, material possessions, and talents, all to gain people who obey God’s commands. This call is none other than the command described in Matthew 28:19-20, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." 

Now, I want everyone to do the following homework assignment. That is, secure a piece of blank paper. Draw a simple table with two columns and four rows. The first column is “what I have”, the second is “what I do with it I have”. The first row is to describe what I have and what I do with it, and the second to fourth rows are dedicated to describe what I do with my time, money, and talents. 

What I Have	What I Do with What I Have
Time
Money
Talents

In so doing, you may do good if you take an inventory of what you have. For example, how much time do I have? This can be done easily. Let us assume hypothetically that you can live to be 80. Then if you are 20, you have 60 more years to go. If you are 30, then you have 50 more years to go. Of course if you are sixty, you have 20 more years to go. Then, you can break it down, like you have seven days a week. What do I do on Monday? What about the weekends? What about during the early morning hours? Or what I do after dark? 

The same can go with money. By money I do not mean just the cash sitting in your bank account or the greenbacks in your wallet. By money we mean everything that has monetary value – my laptop, car, cell phone, stocks and bonds if any, etc. 

Then God gave each person talents. No one can claim, “Oh, I have no talents.” Upon each person being born again, he or she is supernaturally gifted; with himself or herself knowing in giving a new birth to every new born Christian, God supernaturally gives each child one gift or another. [Romans 12:1-8; 1Co 12:4-13:13] For example in Romans 12, the Apostle Paul lists different kinds of gifts, such as serving, teaching, encouraging, contributing, and giving. Some are good in serving, some in teaching, some in encouraging, some in making offerings. All these are supernaturally given to you. With all these talents or gifts if you will, we are to do one thing, that is, to make friends. 

Quite interestingly Jesus says that we must do it “for ourselves” not even for God! “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” Each time Jesus uses the phrase, “I tell you” Jesus has an important message for us to cherish: and the message is to use your time, money, and talents to make disciples of all nations, and do that not for someone else but for you! 

You may wish to say, “This is my life. This is my money. I live my life for me.  Don’t tell me about the world mission command.”  We can understand what you say. But the truth of the matter is that if we truly want to seek our own interests, we must first live our life for the sake of others, and it is when we live for God’s purpose that God best secures our life both in this world, and then in the world to come as well. 

This is what Jesus is talking about. And the Apostle Paul expressed the same concept by saying, “To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” Romans 2:7-9 

If you have eyes to see you can find tons of examples that prove that using worldly wealth to gain friends is conducive to serving your own interests. During the Victorian Age, the U.K. (The United Kingdom) enjoyed great prosperity because during that period of time she sent out the most number of missionaries to all nations. The same is true with S. Korea. About a hundred years ago, S. Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world. God had mercy on her. God sent missionaries from the U.S. to S. Korea. Mother Barry is one of them. Since then the gospel spread quickly. And the Lord God used S. Koreans to send out many missionaries to different nations. UBF is but one example, for during the last forty years, the Lord enabled Korea UBF to send out about 2,000 missionaries to more than 80 different nations. The result? The Lord God richly blessed S. Korea, for she has become one of the fastest growing nations in human history. 

Sixth, trustworthiness 

In verses 10-12, Jesus teaches another important quality of a fruitful manager, that is, being faithful (or trustworthy) with whatever he or she is entrusted with. “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?” 

On reading this passage a pastor I know found that this passage is too overwhelming so that he said to himself, “Oh, Lord. I am not worthy to be your servant.” He said this because he saw that his ministry did not grow as quickly as he desired. On many occasions it looked like instead of growing in quantity and in quality, his ministry seemed to just dwindle. Plus, many people especially those who were close to him said, “Oh, the ministry is too boring. Why is it that the ministry does not grow?” So in great despair the man wanted to resign from his position and disappear to a deserted island. But the problem was that in God there is no resigning. After all, the Bible says that God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. 

But as he prayed more he drew great comfort and wisdom from the first part of the passage, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much…” The word “very little” struck him. Very little… The only thing he thought about all the time was what is big. His mind was occupied with what is gigantic. But the two words, “very little” reminded him that he must be faithful first with very little, such as a personal walk with the Lord, private prayer, personal bible study, serving one sheep or one Bible study whole-heartedly, etc. Then he gained confidence about his call as a minister. 

In verses 13-14 Jesus teaches us that when we love God more than money, we can overcome the temptations to love money, and prove trustworthy with true riches as well.  

Seventh, the means 

In verses 16-18, Jesus exhorts his disciples to live as stewards of the gospel by preaching it with due diligence. Look at verse 16. “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.” When Jesus came he established this trend through his death and resurrection. Since that time a multitude of people began forcing their way into God’s kingdom. Believe it or not this is still the trend. And the means for one to overcome the power of sin and Satan is through faith in the gospel, for everyone who believes in Jesus will be saved. 

There is one caveat: that is, we should not preach “cheap grace”, for the gospel is never intended to be preached as such. Rather, the gospel teaches people to sincerely repent of their sins, and live a life in a manner worthy of the blood sacrifice of Jesus. Speaking of this truth, Jesus says, “It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” It also supports the truth that it is only through faith in the gospel that one can be empowered to obey the law of God. 

In conclusion, we learned that a believer is a steward of the gospel. Using worldly wealth, all Christians then are called to preach the good news of God’s kingdom.

One word: the good news of God’s kingdom 

    

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