In the Word

Guest (Male): Hello and welcome to In the Word with Michele Telfer. Thanks for joining us for this in-depth study of God’s Word, the Bible. For more of Michele’s free resources, visit her website at intheword.com. And now, Michele.

Michele Telfer: The parables Jesus taught will help us to understand God's will for our lives. He used them to teach those who were thirsty for God's truth, but also to speak to the hearts of his adversaries in the hope that they would choose to change their direction.

He used these stories to cover a range of topics, such as how we're to forgive and care for others, how we're to serve the Lord with no thought for ourselves, and how we're to pray with humility. Jesus also taught stories about material possessions and how God wants us to interact with what we have.

He wanted his followers to understand that everything we have comes from God and that heaven's economy works very differently from ours. You may be surprised to learn that Jesus had a lot to say about money, perhaps because he knew the deceptive hold it can have over us.

When we're controlled by an excessive or insatiable desire for wealth or gain, we find it difficult to even hear what the Lord is saying to us, and we become useless to God's kingdom. Luke confirms this very thing in his introduction to a parable that Jesus told in Luke chapter 12.

He explains that Jesus had been passionately warning a crowd of many thousands against hypocrisy. He didn't want them to make the same error the Pharisees had, for though the religious leaders served God outwardly, their hearts were far from him.

In the midst of his earnest message, Jesus was rather rudely interrupted in verse 13 by an individual who yelled out a very materialistic request. He said, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."

Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" 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."

In ancient times, the firstborn was guaranteed a double portion of the family inheritance. The brother who was addressing Jesus was very likely a younger sibling who wanted more than his due. And he wasn't asking that Jesus reconcile him and his brother; he wanted an equal share of the inheritance.

Everything Jesus had been saying had fallen on deaf ears as far as this individual was concerned, for all he cared about was getting what he wanted. Knowing what motivated the man's heart, Jesus not only refused to help, he warned them all against greed.

Greed is a very easy trap to fall into, and I am sure that all of us have at one time or another bought the lie that a good life is really only possible if you have more possessions than you know what to do with. But Jesus wants all of us to understand that everything we have comes from God.

It belongs to him, and we are merely stewards of what the Lord has given to us. True life is about far more than just the accumulation of material things. To underscore the seriousness of his warning, Jesus told the parable that has come to be known as the Parable of the Rich Fool.

That title may seem strange to some of us because we often assume that wealthy people must also be wise to have gained all that they have. But God's economy is based on God's wisdom, and his wisdom is different than the wisdom of the world.

The writer of Proverbs 9 verse 10 explains that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. A wise person knows and submits to God, and those who do not begin there, like the main character in the story, are foolish, no matter how much they have.

And as we look at the parable beginning in verse 16, we will learn that the rich man completely ignored God's blessing in his life. Jesus told them, "The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'"

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

The man in the story was already rich before his bumper crop came in. His ground, his land, produced the bountiful harvest. In other words, his abundant harvest was a gift from God. But this fellow showed no gratitude or humility.

He only thought of himself and how he could keep even more than he currently had room for. In fact, he was willing to tear down everything he already had in order to make room for more. And I realized that that is not uncommon.

Some people are willing to tear down everything that they've built just to get more. But it's not just their barns that they cast aside; they sacrifice their families, their social relationships, even their own well-being in the pursuit of success.

People often make their decisions by seeking the advice of friends or the wisdom of trusted elders, but this man did not. And that seems to confirm that his was a lonely life with money as his sole focus.

And we see that to be true even today, don't we, when some of the wealthiest people are surprisingly the loneliest people, too. Notice how self-focused he is. He talks of his crops, his barns, his surplus grain, and ultimately his celebration, his easy life.

Never once did he consider sharing what he had with others. But worst of all, never once did he consider that it all had come from God and that he was just a steward, a caretaker of it. And it turns out that that wasn't all God had given him.

Look at 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?'" He was about to discover that his soul, his very life, was on loan from God, and it was about to be demanded from him.

He would never get to enjoy everything he had so carefully stored up for himself. And then, returning to address the person whose demand had caused him to tell the story in the beginning, Jesus warned in verse 21, "This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God."

Jesus warns the selfish young man against focusing on the wrong thing in life. In the end, what we have will not matter, but how we have lived for the Lord will. I want you to know that the Bible does not say that there is anything wrong with money itself.

But Paul warns Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 10 that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil and that some people, who are eager for it, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with all kinds of griefs.

So, what causes us to focus so much of our energy on what we have? What drives us to store up things for ourselves, no matter what it costs in our relationship with God or our relationships with others? How can we use our resources to gain riches toward God that Jesus mentioned earlier?

Jesus answers all of that in his next words in verses 22 to 34. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes."

"Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?"

"Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!"

"And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well."

"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Our limitless desire to store up more for ourselves is often related to a deep-seated fear that we will not have enough, no matter how much we've saved. We worry about our future needs to the point of never being able to enjoy the present.

We spend our lives running after worldly goods instead of focusing on God's kingdom and the heavenly inheritance he has for us. In this passage, Jesus is not teaching us to give up work or just to expect others to fund our lifestyle.

But he is instructing us not to worry about things that haven't happened yet. God provides for the birds. He provides for the flowers. And we can trust him to provide for us. He knows what we need, and we shouldn't be afraid.

We can afford to be generous to others and to share what we have, and that will be easier to do if we have a heavenly focus. When we believe that our possessions are our security, we cannot rest, for we're always worried about losing them in one way or another.

Jesus declares in verse 34 that our hearts will be wherever our real treasure is stored. And it's much better for us to focus on Christ seated in heavenly places than it is to focus on our bank account or our belongings.

All of those things can be taken from us in a moment anyway, but Christ remains constant. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and there's real security, real peace in that.

On another occasion, Jesus explained to the crowd following him that how we handle worldly wealth reveals a lot about our character. He warned in Luke chapter 16 verse 13 that no one can serve two masters.

"Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." As always, there was a knot of Pharisees standing on the margins of the group.

They were not really there to learn from Jesus as much as they were there to find fault. And Luke describes their reaction in verse 14, saying the Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.

The Pharisees were angry at his suggestion that their wealth had a more powerful hold over them than it should have, and they objected to the implication that they were serving money rather than God.

But I think that they chose to mock Christ's teaching on the subject because his words convicted their own hearts. Their ridicule did not put Jesus off. Knowing how desperately they needed to understand God's perspective on wealth, he told them a parable about a rich man and a beggar as a way of illustrating the difference between those who serve money and those who serve God.

In Luke 16 verse 19, the Lord explained, "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores."

To prove his great wealth, this self-indulgent man dressed in the very best. At that time, any purple fabric was extremely expensive, and few could afford it. Like the Pharisees, he dressed the way that he did because he wanted everyone to know who he was and just how much he had.

He lived in luxury every day can also be translated as he feasted luxuriantly every day. The fact that his table was extravagantly covered with food every day would have implied to Jesus' audience that the rich man had little regard for God.

Why, he didn't even allow his servants a day off to observe the Sabbath. He cared nothing for them and made them work continually. By contrast, a man who was too sick to move by himself was laid at the rich man's gate each day in the hope that the wealthy man might help him.

It may seem strange to us that Jesus gave the beggar a name when all of the other characters in all his stories are anonymous. I'm sure there were a few furrowed brows in the crowd when he told them that the beggar's name happened to be Lazarus.

You see, in Hebrew, that name means the one whom God helps. Was this some kind of cruel joke, given the man's circumstance and condition? How could anyone think that God was helping him?

Totally ignored by the rich man, he could only look inside and long to eat what fell from the rich man's table. But that was not the end of the story. Verse 22: "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried."

"In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'"

"But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'"

Lazarus may have been too poor for a funeral, but the angels took care of him. They took him to Abraham's side, which the Jewish audience would have understood to be a place of rest and blessing at God's banqueting table in heaven.

It seems the rich man also died, and though he would have been given a fancy burial, there was no seat for him at God's table. Instead, he was sent to Hades, where he experienced torment. We're never told that Lazarus saw him from his privileged position, but the rich man was able to look up and see Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side.

I can't help but wonder if the fact the rich man could see all that he had missed out on wasn't perhaps part of his torment. He never seemed to feel any regret for the way in which he had lived his life.

Notice how he calls Abraham his father when he cries out for pity. The rich man was evidently Jewish, which would have meant that Abraham was indeed his ancestor, but in God's sight, he was no true son of Abraham.

You see, the Bible declares that Abraham is the father of all who believe. But the selfish actions of the rich man while he was alive proved that he never really believed in God. He asked that Lazarus bring him some relief, which proves that he had seen Lazarus at his gate.

He'd even known his name, and yet, the rich man had given no help and had shown him no compassion. The rich man had chosen the wrong one of those two masters to serve. God was not the rich man's master; money was, and now it was all too late.

He had ignored God and his fellow man in life, and now in death, he was separated from them by a chasm that no one could cross. How the tables had turned, for now it was the rich man who was the beggar.

Verse 27: "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'"

Abraham replied, "'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'" With no hint of repentance, this arrogant man had expected Lazarus to serve him and to meet his needs. When Abraham explained that it was not possible, the rich man cried out for Lazarus to be sent to warn his family.

That also was impossible, and so Abraham recommended that the man's brothers listen to the writings of Moses and the Prophets that were read each Sabbath down at the synagogue instead, if they wished to escape judgment.

But the rich man knew that wouldn't work. Evidently, his brothers were just like he had been—too busy feasting and flaunting their wealth to pay any attention to the Lord or the Sabbath.

And so he begged, "'No, Father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' He said to them, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

I can't help but think that there was a certain sadness in Jesus' voice as he spoke those last words of the parable. He knew that some of the very same religious leaders he was speaking to would, in fact, witness someone being raised from the dead—his friend, Lazarus of Bethany.

And even that miraculous action would not convince them to believe. Rather, it would be the very thing that would persuade them to send Jesus to the cross, as we learn in John chapter 12.

Perhaps the greatest lesson to learn from these stories is that when death comes to each of us, as it most certainly will, there is only one thing that really matters: our relationship with Jesus Christ.

In John chapter 6 verse 27, Jesus warned, "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."

And again, he asked in Matthew 16:26 and Mark 8:36, "What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?" We cannot serve both God and money. How we handle what he gives us says a lot about us.

Eternal life is only found in Christ, and in the end, all that matters is our relationship with him. Let's pray.

Father God, thank you so much for all that you've said to us through these parables today. Lord, I pray that we would never be entrapped by the love of money, for in that is the root of all evil.

Lord, help us always to hear your voice and submit to your lordship, to think less of ourselves and more of you. And Lord, help us to live lives that bring glory to your name as those who truly believe in Jesus, the Son of God. Amen.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to In the Word with Michele Telfer. Join us next week as we continue our study from God’s Word, the Bible. Michele’s teachings are available on all major podcast platforms, also on her website at intheword.com, and through the In the Word by Michele Telfer app. Please consider supporting this ministry with a donation through the app or at intheword.com, helping us reach more people with the truth of Jesus Christ.