We continue in our series on Luke as we now look at Luke 16, verses 1 through 9. I remember the very first time I read this parable. You see, I began to read scripture all the way through in 2005. I determined that I was gonna use a scripture reading plan, I used the Robert Murray McShane reading plan, in order to make it all the way through. I'd never done that, I'd been converted in 2002, and I figured now was the time. I was a student at Belhaven University, then Belhaven College at the time, and so I was going through books that I had never even heard pronounced before, let alone doctrines that I hadn't run into, and praise the Lord, there was this university professor by the name of Guy Watters. Guy Watters is now professor of New Testament at Reform Seminary in Jackson. He also teaches at Westminster. But he took hours upon hours upon hours with me. I wasn't even a student in his department. I was in the psychology department. He is a model of what it looks like to be a godly professor, taking time with someone. And every time I had a question, I'd run up to his office and I'd be like, Dr. Waters, I just read this and I have no idea what it means. And he'd spend hours and he almost always had an answer. I was stupefied at how often he had an answer. So I read this parable and I can't tell you exactly what day it was but it was a weekend because I remember I couldn't go directly to him. It had to kind of sit and simmer for a few days. It might've been a Friday or a Saturday. And I went to my Monday morning and afternoon classes. I couldn't even pay attention because I was just excited to get to Dr. Waters so he could explain to me what in the world Luke 16, one through nine meant. And I finally got to him and I said, Dr. Waters, I just read this parable. I have no idea what it means. Please explain. And I sat there expectantly, and he said, yep, that's a hard one. That's all he had. That was it. Actually, he pointed me to a guy by the name of Dennis Ireland, who was also at that time professor of New Testament at RTS Jackson. His entire dissertation at Westminster is on this parable. And he has a quote inside that dissertation that says, there is no element in this parable upon which there has been consensus for a hundred years. Ouch. Well, that's the setup for the parable that you and I are about to read. So we're going to spend time together reading this parable and beginning to kind of Take it apart, look at all the threads. I can't explain all the various opinions on every single element. I'm just gonna give you a down the middle, what I think is orthodox, what you would have heard from this pulpit 100 years ago or 150 years ago. Something that I think is just real and right according to the text. But it will take us a while, so we're gonna have to dive deep, get prepared. We're gonna have to dive deep on this particular parable. And this parable then has three applications. I only get to give you one. And then you get to forget all about it because next week we've got the Messiah. And then in two weeks, David Henderson, lucky David Henderson, gets to follow this up and give you the other two applications of this thorny parable. Well, before we get there, why don't we go to the Lord in prayer and ask for his help? Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for your word. Even at times when we read it and it confuses and we're not entirely sure because it pushes us down deep into your word so that we might more and more understand it, so that it might more and more work on our hearts, so that we might see you more clearly, we might know you more dearly, that we may love you more, Lord. and that there would be more of you in us. And so we ask that as we read about this shrewd business manager, that you would help us to know how to apply it to our daily lives, that you and you alone would get the glory and the honor. We love you and pray this in your son's name. Amen. Luke 16, starting in verse one. He also said to the disciples, there was a rich man who had a manager. And charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. And he called him and said to him, what is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager. And the manager said to himself, what shall I do? Since my master is taking the management away from me, I'm not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses." So summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, how much do you owe my master? And he said, a hundred measures of oil. He said to him, take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50. Then he said to another, And how much do you owe? And he said, a hundred measures of wheat. And he said to him, take your bill and write 80. The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. Praise be to God for his holy, inspired, and inerrant word. May he write its eternal truths on all our hearts. I hear Dr. Waters' words echoing right now. Yep, that's a hard one. Okay, let's take this parable as it comes. And then, so that's verses one through the beginning of verse eight, the first half of verse eight. And then we're gonna take that first application and try to apply it to our lives. First, the parable. The setup is he's talking to the disciples. Now, we don't know if this is a continuation of what has come before. Keep in mind, we're coming off the heels of a set of parables about what is valuable. Remember, lost sheep, lost coin, lost son. Things that we value and the way the things that we value reveal something about the heart of God and what he values. And all of that was set off as the Pharisees were grumbling about Jesus dining with sinners. Instead of pulling away with the righteous. So so now Jesus seems to be focusing towards his disciples Instead of the Pharisees Pharisees might be in the background. They might be listening But whereas the other parables were meant to hit them square in the face and were the listeners This is meant to hit you and I square between the eyes Because it's to his disciples and you and I are of course Jesus's disciples So we need to listen Before we read the actual parable though, we also need to remember. Remember what a parable is meant to do. Because a lot of the questions that will begin to bog you down as you read this parable are because you're not used to parables. People don't speak in parables anymore. And parables are meant to highlight one characteristic. A characteristic that you kind of want to put in neon So you cast it against a dark background so that the one characteristic really shines, and somehow that characteristic is supposed to teach us something about God, something about Christ, something about the kingdom. If you remember some of the parables that we've already gone over, for instance, when we went over the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, two things that typically are considered negative But because of their hallmark of smallness, the mustard seed with his incredible growth, and leaven with unstoppable growth, they both became heroes of a parable. It's not that every element of them was good. There was an element that was good. So Jesus is trying to do the same thing here. He's trying to highlight one characteristic with neon. And what characteristic is that? Shrewdness. He's trying to highlight the shrewdness of the business manager, especially when it's time to get himself out of trouble. Now, we'll talk about what shrewdness is. I'll give you a definition of shrewdness as we get a little further along. But just keep that in mind. That as we look at this parable, that's what Jesus is trying to do. It'll keep you from asking all the questions that make you spin off like, how in the world can he commend someone who's dishonest and all of... No, no, no. He's just trying to highlight for you shrewdness. So, how does it start? what starts with an inept or wasteful manager. There's a rich man and he has this business manager. He has a household manager. It may have been a slave, a bond servant, as we heard Derek talk about this morning. It might have been somebody who was just hired because he was known to be able to take care of a household. His job In the absence of the master, who is probably out doing other business, he is to make sure that the household runs well. And part of the household running well is that he does not waste the master's resources. But instead, this manager seems to have been very wasteful. That word, wasting, which is how the ESV translated at the end of verse one, there were charges brought that this man, that is the manager, was wasting his possessions. That word does not seem to denote intentionality. It doesn't denote something evil. This guy wasn't taking the accounts and trying to pad his own account and steal from this household manager. Instead, he seemed to be lazy. He seemed to be one who didn't care. It'd be kind of like this. If you had someone that was a household guest and they came over and they left all the lights on all the time. Now I know for some of you that is like nails on a chalkboard. You're already thinking about it, it's hard for you to focus. Don't worry, just a story. Just a story, come back to me. Or like a guest who comes over and asks for a glass of milk. And so he pours himself a glass of milk and he leaves the rest of the gallon just sitting out and thinks, eh, it's okay. They're well off, they can afford another gallon of milk. So I'll just drink the one and waste the rest. That's the sort of thing that this wasteful manager seems to be doing. No view for his master, his master's honor, his master's things, or the purpose for which the master has given these things. Instead, he's just lazy. And so he's charged with this ineptitude, of managing. Second thing to see is that he seems to know that these charges are valid. The charges come and he thinks to himself, what shall I do? There's no doubt in his mind that he is indeed guilty of being wasteful with all of the master's things." Now, here's our first application. There will be an account. Praise the Lord that justification, you and I and whether or not we are justified that we may enter into heaven, that does not rely upon our works. Praise God for that. If that were not true, I would be distraught and discouraged and honestly destroyed. My justification, and I need you to hear this, our justification, what gets us into heaven is not our works. It's the accomplished work of Christ. And that and that alone And yet, time in and time out, Christ will tell us that there will be rewards in heaven. Some will be rewarded more and others rewarded less. What exactly that means, I do not know. But that seems to be true, and that our works here, this side of glory, will receive some form of accounting. There will be a time of judgment. in which we will see all the things that we have done wrong and it will be a mountain of sin that should crush every one of us and it will say paid in full, signed by Jesus Christ. And over here will be all the things that we did in order to promote the kingdom. all the things that we did to try and get people to see Jesus. Brothers and sisters there will be a sense in which you and I will be seen as being either the wasteful manager, wasteful with our time and our talents and our resources or we will be faithful. ones who will be shrewd. So there's an accounting. The servant or the manager, he knows that's it, I'm done for. When he looks at the books, he's gonna recognize how wasteful I've been. Now, he needs some sort of solution. He says to himself, All the things that I cannot do, right? What shall I do? I'm too ashamed to beg and I'm not strong enough to dig. Still, even on the precipice of disaster, sin is still controlling him. That's what sin does. Sin will put the wool over your eyes and you cannot see the truth. Not even when you're on the brink of hell itself. And that seems to be true for this manager. He doesn't think to himself, I will do anything. I recognize my fault and my failure and I will do anything in order to get back into the good graces of my master. I will do anything to provide a living. Notice, that would be a parable about what? One of the things that we heard out that Scotty told us about in the children's sermon. That would be a parable about repentance. But you don't see repentance in this manager. So often you and I get this when we see someone who's been caught in their sin. They're not willing to repent. They're willing to be creative to get out of the consequences for their sin. to pretend to be sorry for just a little bit in order to re-ingratiate themselves back with who they've offended, in order that their sin won't be made public, in order that the consequences, whatever they may be, physical, spiritual, social, psychological, that those might not come. And that's what seems to be true of this manager. He's trying to do everything that he can in order to stave off these consequences without actually willing to do the work, without actually willing to be repentant. And so he's in this place where, what will I do? I don't know what I'm gonna do. And then Jesus, this is a parable. Jesus has this wonderful kind of literary sense to him here. I have decided what to do. The kind of literal sense of this is that this guy has a sort of aha moment. You know, like in the movies where you've got the bad guy and the bad guy is wringing his hands, what am I gonna do, what am I gonna do? I got it, I know what I'll do. That's exactly what this reads like in the Greek. I think if people understood Jesus more and his rhetorical style, Right, where we could recover some of the depth of his character and teaching, people would more and more fall in love with who he is. He's always engaging you in different ways. In the same way, like here, where he uses a parable that we don't expect. A dishonest manager, that guy, that guy, Jesus, of all the ways that you could tell a parable in a story, a dishonest manager is the hero of the story? Because if we run into parables that we expect, with characters that we expect, we kinda turn off, don't we? We kinda just like, yeah, check, check, check, exactly what I thought, and move on. And instead, here's Jesus, doing something that his disciples don't expect, that you and I don't expect, with these little dramatic flares, and it just pulls you in. Makes you stop and it makes you think and it makes you try to pull this thing apart and try to apply it in ways. Jesus, I don't understand why you're doing what you're doing. What incredible rhetorical flair on the side of Jesus Christ. He is a master. You want to study philosophy? You want to study some of the great teachers? You are seven tiers below if you're studying anyone but Christ. Christ is wisdom. And the way he brings it to his disciples is beautiful. So this manager, he has this aha sort of moment, right? Aha, I know what I'll do. I'll adjust the debt of the debtors. Now, what is he doing here? How is he adjusting this debt? There are three options as to what he might be doing. In the first one, he's just flat out stealing from his master. These debtors owe the master all of this oil and all of this wheat, and this dishonest manager is just having them straight change their bill. so that it takes money out of the master's pocket in order to ingratiate himself into these debtors' lives. That's one option. Second option is that he's somehow changing the interest on the debt. And so that maybe this master, he's not charging more interest than he should be, this is a usury issue, and he's really just adjusting the debt back down to how much they genuinely owed without interest. Or third, that there's a commission. that this dishonest manager, he got to add a commission onto the debts of the debtors to his master. And he got to put on pretty much whatever he wanted to put on. It was part of the way that he made a living. And so what he was doing was he was really erasing his own salary in order to ingratiate himself, but not really doing any harm to the master himself. Now, it's nearly impossible. You will find books upon books and articles upon articles defending all three of those positions. Part of it has to deal with how do you interpret this word that gets attached to the manager. Adiakos is the actual Greek word. Dikaio, that group of Greek words means righteousness. Right, whenever you add the letter A in front of anything, it means anti. Which is why, like, I think it's the King James that has unjust. ASV, I think, has unrighteous. Servant. There's a sense in which this word can either mean something neutral, having nothing to do with righteousness in heaven. Just a neutral, it's a worldly thing. Or there's a way in which it can mean evil. Unrighteous as in you have done something morally culpable That is against the law of God or does not live out the law of God It can go either one of those directions And so you see the esv is tipping its hand when it says dishonest manager. It's taking the first This guy just basically straight up stole from his master I would tell you I think the same thing I think that is what is going on. I don't think there's an issue of usury. I don't think there's an issue of commission. Jesus doesn't ever seem to nod that way. And Jesus seems to like it when you're caught off guard. And so for you to be caught off guard by a dishonest manager, then getting a commendation, that seems right on brand for Jesus. And I think that's exactly what he's saying. Is it this guy, he came up with a solution? I know, I will alleviate some of the debt. Now how much debt are we talking about? About a year and a half's wages for the first guy and about two years wages for the second guy. And these were just two of his many debtors. Notice he called all of his debtors and so he's probably doing this to multiple people throughout the community, ingratiating himself to all of these debtors. A year and a half's debt or a year and a half's wages in today's society, that's going to be 110, 115 grand, something like that. And two years' wages, well, that's going to be 140, 150 grand, something like that. No small chunk of change that he is then alleviating for these guys, probably by stealing it off of the books from his master. Now, how does the master respond to this? The master responds by commending him. What? He just stole more than $200,000 off of your books and you're commending him? Jesus, what in the world is going on? Well, the manager is actually showing himself to be the very thing that a manager is supposed to be, shrewd, except he's supposed to be it with the master's resources, not just his own. What does shrewdness mean? Here's the Oxford English Dictionary. Clever or keen-witted in practical affairs. That's the positive. I remember when I worked for AutoZone at their, what they called their store support center in downtown Memphis, what you and I might call a corporate headquarters. And we had a turnover of the management, of top management. And all of a sudden, it became a goal to get AutoZone stock from the $18, $15 range that it had floated in to $25. That was the big goal. We're going to get it to $25 a share. Do not look up AutoZone prices right now. It's like $2,500 a share, right? It's unbelievable. However, in order to make that change, All we heard about in every meeting from that point forward was return on invested capital, return on invested capital, ROIC. Every project had to have an ROIC bottom line. And then every department had to cut 10%. 10%. 5%? Okay, maybe that's still hard, but 10%? You saw people beginning to act in very shrewd ways, probably none shrewder than our maintenance group. They weren't exactly the most well-funded departments to begin with. They're just keeping the lights on and the building going. And so to show that they were going to save 10%, you know, all those light fixtures that have the two bulbs, the two tubes that go in them, neon or the fluorescent lights, they took one of the two out. in every single one. It was hard to read because you didn't have enough light. All the halls were dingy. They were shrewd. About a week later, upper management decided, yeah, everybody except y'all. Y'all don't have to find 10% to save. But shrewdness, it's creativity with resources unto an end. And that's what Jesus is praising here. He's praising this manager and he says, sons of this world, they are much more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. Somehow, the way they think through their worldly wealth is more creative More vision for what the future will be like than the sons of light. That, by the way, if you believe in Jesus Christ, that is you and me. Ladies, y'all are every much a son of light as I am. And the reason you are a son is because you are an inheritor. And only sons can inherit. In the same way that every single man in here is a bride. and that we are a bride of Christ, right? So you are a son of light if somehow you love the Lord. And Jesus, here's the sting in the tail, right? Like there's this weird parable, and then what Jesus says is like, y'all are terrible at this. Y'all have all this time and this talent and this money, and you're safe with it, and you don't think about the kingdom. Actually, there are ways in which our hearts tend to run after that fallen, frail, fragile, fickle stuff of worldly desire. And that's the application. Don't you know that to be true in your own heart? Like there are times When your heart desires a thing, maybe it's a new house in a new neighborhood, maybe it's a new car, maybe it's a new computer or a new phone or a new toy or something, and you've got all sorts of creative maneuvers you're doing in order to reach your heart's desire. Ooh, if I did this and I sold that and I invested here and it came back in this amount, then maybe I could endow payment and I could actually get the, and I could add the extra debt to my, my goodness. and all of that to get something that can't go with us. Currently, the human mortality rate is 100%. Don't know if you knew that. And none of the things of this world make it with us when we get to heaven. And so Jesus is saying, hey, believers in the positive, Start using some of that energy. Start using some of that creativity. Start using some of that desire for kingdom ends. Not just for worldly ends. That they might receive you. Who is the they here in verse nine for Jesus? Again, multiple options. If you want to read all the articles, feel free. It comes down to three, either the heavenly host, Jesus, or the people who will come to know Christ through your shrewd stewardship of worldly resources. I think it's the third. In other words, when we decide to use our worldly wealth for kingdom ends, it has fruit. And the greatest and highest fruit is for fellow sons of light to come to know that they are sons of light. And therefore, they will be in the eternal dwellings. And when they look at you, they will say, thank you for your shrewdness. Can I give you an example of this? In 1827, the Senate of Georgia and South Carolina, they decided that they needed to start a school, that sending all their ministers up north was not very practical. And so a school began in Lexington, Georgia. After a couple of years, they decided it needed to be more centrally located. Guess where they moved it? Columbia, South Carolina. Guess which church housed that school this one first housing it in the manse of this church, using the manse to house that theological school. And then over the next year, raising $14,000 in order to buy Ainsley Hall's old property and buildings in order to make that Columbia Seminary. Actually, it wasn't called Columbia Seminary. It was like the Theological Seminary of the Synods of South Carolina in Georgia. But that was a lot to write. So everybody just called it Columbia Seminary. So Columbia Seminary was there. $14,000 by the way in 1830, money comes out to about $450,000 now. And by the way, at that point, we had somewhere around 150 people in the congregation. How many families do you think that means? And those families came together and raised $450,000. in order to start a theological school. The moment that school came, it began to draw incredible speakers, incredible thinkers, incredible writers that this congregation benefited from, writers and thinkers and preachers like Thornwell, like Palmer, like Gerrido. And then we began to send out missionaries and ministers people who would go on to start orphanages, to preach the gospel in just about every open nation there is. Do you know that when Derek goes somewhere, and it doesn't matter if it's Singapore or San Antonio, there is always somebody who says thank you to this congregation? No matter where. And that started because this congregation decided to have the vision to act shrewdly with its money. And don't you know that there will be people, and I don't know how many, even if it's only one, it's all that matters, but I have a hunch it's gonna be hundreds and maybe thousands who say, I didn't know Jesus until one of your ministers or missionaries or writers wrote about him. Because you have the vision and the wherewithal to pull it off. That's the sort of shrewdness that Jesus is asking for us here. But it's not just about the church. It's every believer. It's not just the church stewarding our resources, though we have to. Elders and deacons and ministry staff, we know that. We think through, this is gospel money. Every time I write a check for a speaker or for an event or for our interns or whatever, it goes through my mind, this is gospel money. Use it wisely. Use it shrewdly. But it's individual believers. Remember where we started. This is about disciples. And so the sting of the tail in this first application is for you to be thinking through time, talent, and money. How are you using this shrewdly for the kingdom? So that when we get there, that place that you and all I are all aiming for, what we will hear is, well done, my good and faithful, not wasteful servant. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we ask that you would help us. Help us that we might use this scripture, that it might pierce that it would help us to see you and that it would help us to think through in a shrewd, creative, and wonderful way how we might use the talents that you have given us, not just for our own ends, not just for our own comfort, but for you. That there might be a grand day that when we enter into your courts that we would hear the praise, not only of you, but we would see the thanks of those who have benefited from our wise and shrewd management. of the worldly possessions you have given us shortly in this time. Help us to do it in a way that brings you all the glory and honor. We love you and pray this in your son's name, amen.