A Parable about a dishonest manager – a lesson in money management

Luke 16: 1-8

1-2 in this parable Jesus said that a rich man employed a dishonest manager to run his business

One day the rich man gets a report that the dishonest manager is wasting his money

The rich man calls in the dishonest manager and asks for a final business report and tells him he will be fired

3-4 the dishonest manager comes up with a plan to secure his future by making friends with his employer’s debtors

5-7 the dishonest manager invites his employer’s debtors to meet with him and offers them a final payment discount to settle their debts

To the debtor who owed money on his olive oil purchase – the dishonest manager offers him a 50% discount

In today’ value = $75, 000 discount

To the debtor who owed money on his wheat purchase – the dishonest manager offers him a 20% discount

In today’ value = $100, 000 discount

By doing this, the dishonest manager put his employer’s debtors into his debt!

By letting them off paying the full amount they owed to his employer, these debtors now owed him a favor!

What favor do you think the dishonest manager wanted?

4

8 Even though the dishonest manager ‘ripped off’ his employer for $175, 000, Jesus said, that the employer ‘admired’ his dishonest manager!

The employer did not admire the dishonest manager’s dishonesty – he admired his money management skills in securing his own future

In this parable Jesus is not recommending we that we ‘rip off’ other people to swindle money out of them to secure our future

Jesus is teaching us this parable so that we might learn principles of money management

9a ‘Here’s the lesson’: 9-13 Jesus gives us 3 principles of money management

1/ Money should be used to ‘benefit others and make friends’

9 Use money to benefit the people of God and when those people go before you into Heaven, when you arrive later, they will welcome you into your new eternal home

Will people be waiting to welcome you into Heaven because you gave money to benefit them in this life?

EG: Luke 16: 9-31 Do you remember (Last week) Jesus parable about the rich man in Hell?

The rich man had every opportunity to use his money to benefit the poor man who was laid at his gate every day – but he did not

Lazarus died and went to Heaven and was comforted there by Abraham – the poor man was now a rich man

The rich man died and went to Hell – the rich man was now a poor man

Dear friends, don’t be deceived, the love of money will separate you forever from the love the God – you will perish in Hell

But, if you use money to benefit the people of God, you will be welcomed into Heaven by those people – as Jesus said, ‘friends’

A Parable about Heaven and Hell – a lesson in repentance and turning to God

Luke 16: 19-31

As Christians, when we witness to people about Heaven and Hell, we often find that non-believers will mock what we say

“I don’t believe in that rubbish”

30 Jesus taught this parable to teach us about Heaven and Hell, and in the words the man suffering in Hell (in this parable), to warn all people to ‘repent of their sins and turn to God’

Let me tell you this: I believe in Heaven and Hell because Jesus said they are real places!

Jesus said that Hell will be filled with non-believers and in comparison to the huge numbers of people in Hell, only a few people will be saved and go to
Heaven

Matthew 7: 13-14

19-21 Jesus compares the life of a rich man who lived in luxury with a poor man who had nothing

22-23 finally the poor man dies and goes to Heaven and the rich man dies and is sent to Hell

23-27 Jesus describes Hell as a place of endless fire and suffering – a place of absolute torment without any possibility of escape

23-21 in desperation the man in Hell pleads with Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his family about Hell and ‘repent of their sins and turn to God’ (30)

The man in Hell believed that if his family saw Lazarus raised from the dead they would be persuaded to ‘repent of their sins and turn to God’

Q. Do you believe that non-believers would ‘repent of their sins and turn to God’ if they saw a miracle like a person being raised from the dead?

A. when Jesus raised a man from the dead some people did believe (John 11: 42) but other people did not – in fact, they planned to kill Jesus for doing that (John 11: 53)!

Q. Do you think people would ‘repent of their sins and turn to God’ if they knew that Jesus was raised from the dead?

Some people would believe (Matthew 28: 9)

Other people would not (Matthew 28: 11-14)!

Back to our parable…

29 & 31 Finally Abraham, the great Patriarch of the Faith says to the man in Hell – his family has the Word of God to warn them ‘repent of their sins and turn to God’ – and that was all they needed!

Dear Friends, this Resurrection Sunday, Let the Word of God speak to us today and let it be all we need

This is the saving Good News about Jesus Christ: 1 Corinthians 15: 1-4

Do you believe this Good News?

Man in Heaven in Jesus parable: Lazarus. His name means = ‘helped by the Lord’

Let God help you today; ‘repent of your sins and turn to God’ and in so doing God will give you eternal life

A Parable about 2 men praying in the House of God – a lesson in self righteousness

Luke 18: 9-14

Self-righteousness is the false belief that a person can make themselves ‘right with God’ through the good things they do

In this parable Jesus uses a story to teach us that God rejects self-righteous people but gives Grace to the repentant sinner

9-12 Right away Jesus introduces us to the man praying in the House of God who had great confidence in his own self-righteousness

He was a Pharisee – a Jewish religious leader who considered himself ‘right with God’ because practiced Jewish traditions

As he prays he lists his achievements 11-12

Jesus hated the sin of self-righteousness and said to self-righteous people

Matthew 23:28 ‘Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness’.

This self-righteous man went to pray in the House of God to tell God how good and how worthy he was

One of the most influential Pharisees in Jesus day was a self-righteous man called Saul

After Saul experienced the Grace of God in salvation (Acts 9) Saul’s named was changed to Paul

In Philippians 3: 3b-9 Paul says this about self-righteousness…

13 now look at the other man praying in the House of God

This man is completely different to the self-righteous man

He went to the House of God to confess his sin in prayer to God and ask God for mercy

He had absolutely no confidence in his own righteousness and worth before God

14 which one of these 2 men, praying in the House of God, do you think received God’s Grace and went home justified before God?

Mark 2:17 ‘I have come to call, not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.’

God rejects self-righteous people but gives Grace to the repentant sinner!

James 4:6 ‘He gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

A Parable about neighbors – a lesson in self righteousness

Luke 10: 25-37

In this parable Jesus uses a story about loving our neighbors to warn us about the terrible sin of self-righteousness

Q. what is self-righteousness?

A. self-righteousness is the false belief that a person can be ‘made right with God’ through their own ‘goodness’

“I am a good person and I do good things and this is what makes me ‘right with God’”

Romans 10: 3 ‘They don’t understand God’s way of making people right with Himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God’

Self-righteous people want salvation on their terms

25-29 one day a self-righteous Jewish religious leader came to Jesus and asked Him: “what should I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 Jesus replied: “What does the (Old Testament) law of Moses say?”

27 He answered: paraphrase ‘Love God, love your neighbor’

28 Jesus said to him: “Do this and you will live”

* At this point the Jewish religious leader should have fallen to his knees before Jesus and said something like this:

‘I have not loved God or my neighbor as I should – please forgive me and give me mercy’

29 But he didn’t: he falsely believed that he was already good enough for God’s acceptance and wanted an argument with Jesus about who was his neighbor

* It is at this point that Jesus teaches the parable of the neighbor as a lesson to all self-righteous people to show them how lost in sin they really are

30-35 A man is travelling along a road and is attacked by bandits and left for dead

A priest (Jewish religious leader) comes by, sees the man left for dead on the road and walks away without helping him

A levite (Jewish religious leader) comes by, sees the man left for dead on the road and walks away without helping him

A Samaritan (a mixed race person despised by many Jews) comes by and helps the man

* The despised Samaritan showed compassion to the man and unknowingly fulfils the commandment to ‘love your neighbor’

36-37 Jesus confronts the self-righteous Jewish religious leader with the question: “which one of these three would you say was the neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits”
He is forced to admit: “the one who showed him mercy”

Jesus said: “yes, now go and do the same”

* The parable had exposed the Jewish religious leader’s sense of self-righteousness

This Jewish religious leader like so many self-righteous people want salvation on their terms – not on God’s terms

Mark 2: 17 ‘I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners’