Luke 16:1-15: “Upon Being Fired For Mismanagement A Man Ingratiates Himself To His Master’s
Debtors By Reducing Their Debts”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked
at verses 11 – 32 of chapter 15 in which Jesus taught the Parable of the Prodigal
Son.
1.1.1. We looked at the third of three parables by Jesus teaching about God’s
heart to reach out to those who are spiritually lost, and it was called the
parable of “The Prodigal Son.”
1.1.2. We saw that this parable would better be called “The Parable Of The
Loving Father,” for the emphasis in the parable was not the great sin of the
son but rather the attitude of the loving father towards each of his sons.
1.1.3. This parable illustrated the loving heart of God that desires greatly
to have errant sons and daughters restored to Himself.
1.2.
In our study today, we are
going to look at verses 1-15 of chapter 16.
1.2.1. We will read about a manager or steward over a man’s farms who was
being fired for mismanagement yet who decided before he had to leave his job to
ingratiate himself to his master’s debtors by reducing the debt of each
one.
1.2.2. Here, we will see that Jesus begins teaching principles related to
being a good steward of the wealth and possessions that the Lord has entrusted
to each of us.
1.2.3. The scripture says a lot
about how we as Christians are supposed to view money and riches, and we need
to pay close attention to what it says.
The scriptures teach that the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil,
the desire to get rich is wrong, and that riches can corrupt anyone:
1.2.3.1. Upon the statue of Joseph
Brotherton, the English church reformer and political activist of the early
1800’s, is the inscription, “A man’s riches consist not in the amount of his
wealth, but in the fewness of his wants.”
1.2.3.2. The late Robert Horton once
said the greatest lesson he learned from life was that people who set their
minds and hearts on money are equally disappointed whether they get it or
whether they don’t.
1.2.4. The emphasis in Jesus’
teaching in this study is being a good and faithful steward of the things that
the Lord has given us.
2. VS 16:1-2 - “1 Now He was also saying to the
disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was
reported to him as squandering his possessions. 2 “And he called him
and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your
management, for you can no longer be manager.’” - A manager was squandering his
masters possessions and he was informed by his master that he was going to be
fired
2.1.
As we consider this teaching
of Jesus we must first of all consider the context of the teaching. Jesus has been teaching His disciples many
principles and lessons in order to prepare them for the inauguration of the
church which will occur after His resurrection from the dead, or less than two
weeks away at this point. One of the
things that Jesus has been teaching His disciples is the importance of having
an eternal perspective as opposed to a mere temporal perspective. He has sought to impart to them the fact that
the wealth and riches of this earthly life will last a short period of time and
you will not be able to take any of them with you to heaven. Therefore, it is more important that you
store up treasures in heaven which will never be taken away from you or lose
their value.
2.2.
Jesus had also previously
been in a public place teaching and there were Pharisees who had been present
with Him. We see here in verses 13-15
that there were Pharisees on this day who along with Jesus’ disciples were
listening to these teachings of Jesus.
2.3.
In this teaching, Jesus is
using the worldly example of a man making the best of his opportunities to
amass earthly riches in order to then encourage His disciples to make the most
of their opportunities to use their earthly wealth and success in such a way
that they will have eternal consequences and so they will receive rewards in
heaven.
2.4.
The manager in our story
today is a “steward” and as such he is in charge of managing another’s money
and business. The “steward” is
able to enjoy the benefits of his master’s field and business, however what he
is being paid wages for is simply to manage his master’s affairs. In the scriptures, we see that man’s
relationship to God is described in various ways. For instance, we are called sons or
daughters, brothers, ambassadors, sinners, debtors, servants, and also, ‘stewards.’ Each of us as Christians are charged by the
Lord to be stewards of all of the things that the Lord brings into our life, or
has entrusted to us. We are to consider
ourselves stewards of our money, of our possessions, of our spiritual gifts, of
our time (which we are to redeem), etc.
As ‘stewards’ the Lord has entrusted to each of us every single
thing that we have, including our money and assets. The Lord expects us to use all that He has
entrusted to us by His leading. Paul Lee Tan has written, “A man doesn’t
decide to become a steward after he has been saved, nor after he begins to make
good money. He is a steward—good or bad—when he becomes a Christian.
Stewardship in the Christian life demands that a man take good care of his
financial affairs because he has been commissioned by Christ to manage those
affairs for the Lord.”
2.5.
The Lord has promised us
that one day we shall give an account of all that we have done in our
stewardship of the things He brings into our life, “We shall all stand before the judgement-seat of Christ,” Rom.
14:10. Spurgeon once preached the
following about how that each of us shall one day appear before the judgment
seat of Christ and give account of our stewardship, “Yes, but not only will
ministers, and deacons, and elders, and persons who had high standing in the
church have to appear before the judgment seat of Christ, but so will the most
obscure of the members of the church, and those secret ones who never dared to
take up membership at all. You will not be able to hide away for ever. The man
with the one talent must be summoned before his Lord as certainly as the man
with ten, and of each one a reckoning shall be taken. In our Lord’s parables it
is ever the King’s own servants that are called before him. “The lord
of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them.” Our Master will say
to each one of his servants, “Give an account of thy stewardship.”
“God shall judge the righteous and the wicked,” “for we
shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.” I have not time or
space to enter into the differences of that judgment as it regards the
righteous and the wicked, but I confine myself to the one fact that all mankind
will be judged, according to the word of the Lord in the second chapter of the
Epistle to the Romans, at the fifth verse: “The day of wrath and
revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man
according to his deeds: to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek
for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life: but unto them that are
contentions, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation
and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of
the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; but glory, honor, and peace, to every
man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: for there is
no, respect of persons with God.””
2.6.
In the teaching before us
today, we see that Jesus tells us about a worldly man who was about to be fired
from his job as a manager of his master’s farms, and knowing that he was about
to be fired he considered ways that he might be able to help himself along towards
finding another source of employment, or at least towards finding others who
might be able to help him out after he loses his job. He decides that he will take each of his
master’s debtors and reduce their debt if they are willing to pay what they owe
right now. In this way, he would be able
to ingratiate himself to these debtors in hopes that when he has no job that
they might hire him or help him out.
2.7.
The plan that this man
undertakes works very successfully, however it was also very wrong for him to
do what he did. Many people have a hard
time understanding this teaching because they become confused at how that Jesus
might use this man as an example when what the man did was wrong and amounted
to stealing. Jesus’ point however in
teaching this was simply to illustrate through a worldly example how that it is
wise to make the most of one’s opportunities, especially when it comes to
investing in things that are eternal and will receive an eternal reward.
2.8.
We see from this parable
that there is no doubt that this manager was corrupt and a very poor manager of
his master’s goods, for it says that he squandered his possessions.
2.9.
We see that when this
manager is informed that he is about to be fired that he is now also going to
have to give an account of his stewardship, or in other words perform an
audit. Having this time to perform the
audit before he has to hit the road, this manager ponders how to prepare his
parachute for landing after he has lost his job. He ponders his future until he comes up with
a plan.
3. VS 16:3-7 - “3 “The manager said to himself,
‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am
not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 ‘I know what I
shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me
into their homes.’ 5 “And he summoned each one of his master’s
debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my
master?’ 6 “And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ And he said to
him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 “Then
he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures
of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’” - The corrupt and inept manager
contemplates how he will be able to get by after he has lost his job and then
comes up with a plan to ingratiate himself to his master’s debtors
3.1.
This manager is considering
that life will be difficult after he has lost his job. He will have a hard time finding another good
management job such as he has now and he also knows that because of his health
and/or strength that he is not strong enough to get a manual labor job where he
will have to dig full time. Plus, he
despises the thought of such a menial labor.
3.1.1. I sympathize with this manager because when I was first out of high
school I tried working as a construction laborer and landed a job where I had
to dig almost full time. I too found out
that with my back and constitution that I could not perform that kind of
physical work on a full time basis and quit after four days.
3.2.
This manager is appalled at
the thought of having to beg for money in order to survive.
3.3.
I want to take a minute and
discuss the fact that I feel that it is important for Christians to make
financial plans for their lives:
3.3.1. I have always been intrigued by watching young people and how they plan
and prepare for their future. It seems
that some young people are too afraid to fail in a profession and so they
settle for far less than they are capable of.
Some young people don’t seem to give any thought whatsoever to planning
for the future and they just take whatever comes their way in life. Others are driven and adventurous and have
great career aspirations.
3.3.2. I personally believe that Christian young people ought to plan for the
future and that getting a college education in a field where you can support
yourself well is a wise endeavor. With
inflation always increasing causing the price of everything to go up, it is
generally wise for most young people to attempt to get a college degree that
will help them find a successful career that pays well.
3.3.3. When I was a youngster a woman usually didn’t have to work because
money went so much farther. However, after
decades of inflation it is ever increasingly the case that one has to make more
and more money just to survive and that now most young girls ought to also plan
on the fact that they too will need a good career in order to afford to live
and raise a family.
3.3.4. If you obtain a good career for your life, you will also be in a
position where you can use your finances for the Lord and His work. I’m not saying that young people ought to be
motivated to be rich just that they ought to seek to prepare themselves for a
successful career that pays well.
3.3.5. Some young people will be called into fulltime ministry, however most
will not and will have to work a job.
Therefore, young people ought to consider also that since they are going
to work perhaps up to fifty years or more of their life that they might as well
do something for work that they enjoy and that pays well.
3.4.
The first debtor owes ‘a hundred measures of oil’
which is about 875 gallons of olive oil, or the yield of 150 olive trees. This is approximately equivalent to the
salary of one man for 3 years in Jesus’ day.
3.4.1. The manager has this debtor agree to pay ˝ the original amount or 50
measures, and the debtor signs the paid receipt.
3.5.
The second debtor owes ‘a hundred measures of wheat’ which is equivalent
to 10-12 bushels of wheat, or the yield of 100 acres of land. This is approximately equivalent to the
salary of one man for 8-10 years.
3.5.1. The manager has this debtor agree to pay 4/5 of the original amount or
80 measures, and the debtor signs the paid receipt.
3.5.2. We don’t know why this man’s bill is reduced only 20% when the previous
man’s debt was reduced 50%.
4. VS 16:8-9 - “8 “And his master praised the
unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are
more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. 9 “And
I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of
unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal
dwellings.” - The master praises the unrighteous manager
because of his shrewdness and Jesus tells His disciples to make friends by
means of the wealth of unrighteousness
4.1.
We see here that though the
master of this crooked manager despises his manager for mismanaging his money
and costing him so much money, however being a worldly man himself the master
recognizes that this manager has acted shrewdly on his own behalf and so he
praises him for the wisdom that he has shown.
The master probably thinks to himself at this point that if this manager
had just acted this shrewdly managing his farms that the man would now not be
being fired as manager.
4.2.
Again, just to reiterate,
Jesus does not use this unrighteous steward’s example because He approves of
how this man mismanaged and squandered his master’s money and stole from
him. Rather, the point here is that just
as this manager acted shrewdly in how he conducted his business, so we who are
God’s people ought also to act wisely with our own wealth and money and invest it
in those things that will have eternal value and produce an eternal reward for
us from the Lord. We should not use our
money primarily upon ourselves and building bigger barns to store our goods (as
taught a parable we considered previously) but rather see ourselves as being a
channel of God’s blessings by using our wealth and possessions so that the lost
can come to salvation and the church of Christ be built up.
4.3.
Jesus’ phrasing here of His
admonition is very interesting to me, He says, ‘make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth
of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the
eternal dwellings.’ Note a
few things here concerning this admonition:
4.3.1. Jesus calls the wealth of this world the ‘wealth of unrighteousness.”
4.3.1.1. There is a sense in which we ought to realize that the wealth of this
world is “filthy lucre” as both Paul and Peter admit in these quotes
from the American Standard Version:
4.3.1.1.1.
1
Timothy 3:8, “8 Deacons in like manner must be grave, not
double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre.”
4.3.1.1.2.
1 Peter 5:1-2, “1 The elders among you I exhort, who am a
fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker
of the glory that shall be revealed: 2 Tend the flock of God which
is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly,
according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready
mind.”
4.3.1.2. It appears also that Jesus is
saying by this that we as His people ought to always remember that “the love
of money is the root of all sorts of evil,” (1 Tim. 6-10).
4.3.1.3. Warren Wiersbe writes, “Apparently
by its very nature, money defiles and debases those who love it and let it
control their lives. “We cannot safely
use mammon,” writes Richard Foster, “until we are absolutely clear that we are
dealing, not just with mammon, but with unrighteous mammon.””
4.3.2. Jesus reminds us not that money “might fail,” rather He says, “when
it fails.”
4.3.2.1. Money is going to fail us. Money
is transitory in this life and very hard to hold onto, however we know also
that we will not take a cent of money with us into eternity, so in eternity
money will absolutely fail each of us.
4.3.3. Jesus says to ‘make friends for yourselves’ and to do that with
‘the wealth of unrighteousness,’ (the wealth of this world).
4.3.3.1. Jesus is obviously referring to friendships that are eternal in nature
or that are made between those who shall spend eternity together in
heaven. Whenever we win someone to
Christ we have “made friends.”
Whenever we use our money for the reaching of others with the gospel we
have “made friends.” Whenever we
invest in the growth and discipleship of a young Christian we have “made
friends.”
4.3.4. Those whom we have made friends with in this life through the use of
our money for eternal purposes will ‘receive you into the eternal dwellings,’
and I believe that this implies:
4.3.4.1. When each of us as Christians get to heaven, those whom we have led to
Christ in this life will be waiting there to greet and thank us as we
enter.
4.3.4.2. Also, when we get to heaven those for whom our money, which was given
to missions or our local church, was used to win them to Christ will likewise
be waiting there to greet and thank us.
4.4.
This past week I was on
vacation in Arizona and spending time with family and old friends, and one
afternoon I met for coffee with an old Christian friend of mine, one who was in
my wedding. This friend had his mother
pass away just two weeks ago, and he was still grieving very deeply about his loss. His mother was a very godly and humble
Christian woman who in very simple ways touched many people’s lives. One of the things that he told me was that
really for the first time in his life he was grappling with what the scriptures
teach us about heaven and the afterlife.
It was almost like for the first time he was examining these
scriptures. I shared with him these
verses from this study and how that Jesus taught about the fact that when we
get to heaven that all of those whom we have won to Christ or discipled in this
life, and even those whom our giving has been used for their coming to
salvation in Christ, will be waiting there for us to greet and thank us for
being used in their lives. I also shared with him 1 Thess. 4:13-18 which
teaches that in heaven we will recognize those whom we knew as loved ones in
this life, “13 But we do not want you to be uninformed,
brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the
rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15
For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and
remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen
asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a
shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and
the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and
remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore
comfort one another with these words.”
5. VS 16:10-12 - “10 “He who is faithful in a very
little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very
little thing is unrighteous also in much. 11 “Therefore if you have
not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the
true riches to you? 12 “And if you have not been faithful in the
use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?” - Jesus teaches the principle
that we as His disciples and stewards of His things must be faithful with
little in order to be entrusted with more
5.1.
Jesus in these verses now
begins to speak directly about being a good and faithful steward of the things
that the Lord has given us and brought into our lives.
5.2.
In verse 10, Jesus says that
a person who is unfaithful in ‘a very little thing’ will likewise be
unfaithful ‘in much.’ This is a
reference to a person’s character and is a statement that contains what I would
call worldly wisdom. When a person is
faithful in how he handles the little things in life this reveals that he can
then be trusted with more. Every
employer understands this principle as well as those who supervise others. A person should only be given more responsibility
as they have shown themselves to be responsible with the responsibilities that
they have currently been given. The Lord
also employs this principle with His children.
5.3.
In the church, it is always
foolishness to entrust great responsibility to people who have not proven
themselves by their faithfulness in handling much smaller tasks. There have been many churches who have made a
great mistake when they recognized a man as a leader, whether a deacon or an elder,
who has not first been tested and demonstrated that he could be trusted with
that responsibility by his faithfulness in smaller tasks. Paul writes about the fact that anointing a
new believer that has not been tested is foolishness (1 Tim. 3:1-10).
5.3.1. In the Calvarys we are taught that when a man is appointed as an elder
or a deacon in the church that we are merely recognizing the fact that he is
already fulfilling that position. He is
already “elding” or “deacing.”
Appointing men in this way is to have the Lord appoint the man.
5.4.
However, Jesus is speaking
specifically here of how one demonstrates “financial responsibility,”
and making the point that when a person has not first demonstrated “financial
responsibility” as a steward then he will not be given greater
responsibility, or what Jesus calls ‘the true riches.’
5.4.1. In the church, if a man does not give in tithes and offerings to the
church, then should he be trusted to rule over the church in a leadership
position? I think not, for how we handle
our money which the Lord has given us a stewardship over is an indication of
our spirituality and capacity to lead others.
5.5.
The Lord is not going to
bless a believer in a great way who refuses to be responsible with the finances
that the Lord has given him a stewardship over.
That man will not be given great spiritual gifts or ministries which are
a blessing to the church until he learns to be faithful in the small things.
6. VS 16:13-15 - “13 “No servant can serve two
masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be
devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” 14
Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these
things and were scoffing at Him. 15 And He said to them, “You are
those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts;
for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.” - Jesus teaches that a person cannot serve
two masters, you cannot serve God and mammon (or wealth)
6.1.
Jesus challenges His hearers
here about where their loyalty will lie.
He tells them that it is impossible for a person to live for the things
of this world (‘wealth’) and also live for Christ. A person must choose to either live for
Christ or live for ‘wealth.’
Whatever a person chooses to live for, it shall be the master over
him. ‘Wealth’ is fun initially to
gain, however the joy soon leaves when a person realizes that what you submit
yourself to that you are a servant to it, whether to Christ or to ‘wealth.’ ‘Wealth’ is a hard master when you are
enslaved to it. I could list here
hundreds of testimonies of men and women who became rich and yet who would
testify that though they had riches that their lives were absolutely miserable.
6.2.
In these verses, we see that
in addition to speaking to His disciples, that some Pharisees were present on
this day and listening to Jesus teach these things, for they begin to scoff at
Jesus at this point.
6.3.
The Pharisees, though they
were very strict in the way in which they attempted to keep the Law of Moses,
as well as their own manmade laws, they none the less loved the wealth and
riches of this life. Leading the people
brought great wealth to them and they did nothing without a profit motive. Great wealth was a sign to them not only of
spiritual success but also of godliness.
6.4.
Jesus teaching here about
the importance of being a good and faithful steward of the wealth that the Lord
had given you was foolish and offensive to them, and thus they began ‘scoffing
at Him.’ Even though I believe that
in their hearts they knew they must be wrong, the Pharisees none the less chose
to believe that spiritual and material wealth were intertwined.
6.5.
Jesus condemns these Pharisees as He tells
them that they were ‘those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but
God knows your hearts.’ Though these
Pharisees could rationalize their sins away and come up with all kinds of
arguments about why their lifestyles were indeed righteous, Jesus on many
occasions condemned them because their righteousness was all on the outside,
not on the inside of them.
7. CONCLUSIONS:
7.1.
As we consider this study on
stewardship, lets be committed to being good and faithful stewards of all of
the things that the Lord has brought into our lives. Lets have the wisdom to realize that it is
much better to store up treasures in heaven than upon the earth. Oh, if we do this what a joy it will be one
day when we are received into heaven by all of those who have passed on before
us whom we have had an impact in their lives for Christ.
7.2.
In America all of us are
filthy rich compared to the vast majority of people on the face of the
earth. I believe that the mainstream
church in America is heading for judgment because they are living for the things
of this world and continually compromising with sin. Unless the mainstream church begins to give
sacrificially to the Lord and His work, judgment is coming. A pastor once said of the mainstream church,
“The only thing that we know about sacrifice is what the word means!’
7.3.
Lets do what Jesus commanded
us in verse 9, “Make friends by means of the wealth of unrighteousness so
that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” Use you wealth and possession so that others
might come to know Christ as their personal Lord and Savior!
7.4.
The following poem describes
how so often it is the case for God’s people that rather than being good and
faithful stewards of all that God has given them that instead they just give to
Him the leftovers in their life, its called “Leftovers,” and the author
is unknown:
Leftovers are such humble things,
We would not serve them to a guest,
And yet we serve them to our Lord
Who deserves the very best.
We give to Him leftover time,
Stray minutes here and there,
Leftover cash we give to Him,
Such few coins as we can spare.
We give our youth unto the world,
To hatred, lust and strife;
Then in declining years we give
To Him the remnant of our life.